topTuesday Bulletin
Lafayette Elementary Home & School Association 
Zelda Caldwell, editor
March 27, 2012
In This Issue
Spring Fair News
From the Art Room
Arts Integration
Online Math
Mad Science
Deal Moms' Night
Community Notices
Lafayette Sponsors
Submissions

From Principal
Lynn Main

 

 

It's hard to believe that this Friday is the last day of the third quarter of this school year. Maybe it's because we had no real winter and spring is here with all the trees in bloom or just because time seems to be moving a lot faster as I get older. Most years March seems like it goes on forever with cold, rainy days. This year we are already wearing shorts to school and the raindrops have been few and far between.  

>>Read more 


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Mark Your Calendar 

 

March 27 (Tuesday)
Deal Moms' Night, 7-9 p.m. (see below)

March 30 (Friday) 

Half day, 12:15 p.m. dismissal

 

April 2 - April 9

Spring Break, No school

 

April 12 (Thursday)
HSA Board Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

April 16 (Monday)
No school, Emancipation Day
 
May 5 (Saturday)
Spring Fair, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

 

 

See full school calendar

school sign  

From the HSA 

Dan Aladjem & Jenny Murray, co-presidents

 

Only 2 1/2 more days until Spring Break! I'm sure everyone is looking forward to a break from homework, sports practice, packing lunch, and all the other routine tasks that make the school day happen. For those of you going out of town, safe travels. If you'll be in town (like me), hopefully the great weather will continue and I'll see you up at the park. Have a great break everyone! 
- Jenny

 

Want to Join the LSAT?

 

The Local School Advisory Team (LSAT) is a group of about 15 elected and appointed members that exists for every DCPS school. The team includes a mixture of school administration, staff, teachers, parents and a community representative to advise the principal on matters that promote high expectations and high achievement for all students. These teams were initially established to serve in an advisory capacity to the principal for the purpose of improving student outcomes. The LSAT meets one Monday per month, at 7:45 a.m.

 

Local School Advisory Teams are tasked with advising the principal on matters such as: allocation of school resources; organization of the school; curriculum options, including special or supplementary course offerings and specialized research-based instructional strategies; budget decisions; priorities and considerations for staffing patterns and the selection of personnel; monitoring overall student progress; school culture, and family engagement.

 

Elections for both the LSAT and the open HSA board positions will be on May 10. All candidates must be posted in the Tuesday Bulletin about four weeks ahead of the election. If you are interested in running for a parent rep position on the LSAT, please email your name and a brief bio to Jenny Murray  by Wednesday, April 4, and your name will be included on the ballot. Thanks! 

 

See HSA board members 

Join the HSA

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Spring Fair News: Luau on May 5! 

  

luauLess than six weeks to go until the train is on our track, the moon bounces and slides and other rides cover Lafayette Park.  Excitement is building for our Spring Fair on

May 5 (from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.).

 

Other things you can do NOW to help support the Fair:

  • Donate an hour or two to staff an activity, please contact your room parent or a co-chair to sign up
  • Start gathering books, video games, CDs and DVDs to donate to the sale. 
  • Bake for the bake sale
  • Donate a salad
  • Mark your calendar, bring the family, enjoy the Fair! 

 

As in past years, class assignments have been made to help make sure each activity has the volunteer help it needs to run successfully. 

 

From the Art Room
Laurie McLaughlin, Art teacher Grades 1-5

 

Laurie McLaughlinCongratulations to our fifth-graders for a job well done last Thursday evening as we celebrated The early 20th-century American experience in a multimedia informance! Parents, please send me photos! I had misplaced my camera and really want to have a record of the fabulous apparel your children were sporting to show to next year's fifth-graders. I also would love a few photos of the Informance itself. Send to [email protected]. 

 

The art room still needs boxes, tubes, packing material but not "peanuts", yogurt cups and old sheets and towels. Please save and send in.

Arts Integration at Lafayette 
Jackie Snowden, Arts Integration Coordinator

 


SnowdenSpring is in the air and that signals the beginning of us thinking about plans for next year. As a staff we have some say in what CETA (Changing Education Through the Arts) course Lafayette will host next year and individuals can begin to think about the arts integration strategy they'd like to master. Some of the things we consider when submitting our top three choices are: the appropriateness of the strategy for all grade levels, which course will fit best with current curriculum, which and how many teachers in the building have already taken the course, and do we want to build expertise in a particular strategy and thereby be able to coach others in the building? It is not a random selection.

>>Read more 

Online Math Program 

Nathan Wieand, Lafayette Technology Coordinator  

 

sumdog

Greetings Lafayette! I want to tell everyone a bit more about

www.sumdog.com, the math gaming site that many of your children have been using. Sumdog is a free online math program designed to help students practice their numeracy (addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc.).  Through the site, we have created a school account, as well as teacher accounts, from which we supply students with their own individual user names and passwords. After logging on, the students are able to play games, challenging their fellow classmates at Lafayette as well as students from around the world. Students are also able to monitor their progress to see which skills they have mastered. Currently, many of the students are participating in grade-level competitions through Sumdog.   

 

The value of this program is that it allows teachers to tailor specific skills and goals for their students to work on, while avoiding placing students in situations that are above or below their ability level. Students are not required to play or compete at home. That said, the program does offer educational benefits far above ordinary online games. 

 

Sumdog is an excellent free math resource and I hope that your child(ren) is learning from it, and having a bit of fun along the way. Additional, helpful information about the program can be found on the Sumdog website.  One final note: if your child is in grades 2-5 and has not yet received a username and password, they will be getting them soon. Thank you so much for reading!

  

Mad Science at Lafayette

mad scienceMad Science of Washington is offering two after-school programs this spring, Funky Forces and More!  Classes will be held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 3:30 until 4:30 p.m. The Tuesday class will begin on April 10 and runs through May 29.  The Wednesday class begins on April 11 and ends on May 30. Both classes are open for K-5th graders.  Please register online before the March 28 deadline. The program cost is $104. Registration is first come, first served, so register early to secure your spot. Questions?  Email  Mad Science or call 301-593-4777. Lafayette's coordinator is Laura Lindsley.  

 

Deal Moms' Night 
 

DEALJoin us for the Deal Moms' night at the house of Camille Martone, on Tuesday, March 27, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 4629 Asbury Pl. NW, Washington, DC., 20016! This is an evening of food and drinks to be shared by moms of elementary school kids and moms of Deal kids, and any Deal teachers who may be interested. It is an opportunity for the moms of elementary school kids to find out more about Deal and about middle school life, particularly if they don't know where they will send their kids to middle school. It is being hosted by eight parents who have children at both Janney and Deal. We hope to help answer questions about Deal and its academic and extra-curricular events, and its role in the community. Cost is $25, payable at the door. RSVP to Camille at 362-7555.

 

 

Community

Community Notices 

 

 

Speaker on child development. Hear Dr. Michael Thompson discuss his new book, Homesick and Happy: How Time Away from Parents Can Help a Child Grow, at this free presentation at Sheridan School on April 24 at 7:30 p.m. See attached flier.

 

Nanny wanted. Looking for a daytime nanny or sitter for my two-year-old son Mon.-Fri., 9-5 p.m., starting next week until the beginning of June. Please email me at

nancetiffany@gmail 

 

Art classes and camps. CREATE Arts Center in downtown Silver Spring offers one-day art camps on DCPS no school days. The next no school day camps will be April 9 and 16 and May 21. Spring break camps will be March 26-30, April 2-6 and April 9-13. The spring session of afterschool and weekend art classes starts the week of April 15. For more information and to register, go to

www.createartscenter.org or call 301-588-2787.

 

sponsor banner with kids

Thank You Lafayette Sponsors!

 

These organizations support Lafayette through a generous annual donation- please support them!

 

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Submissions for next week's issue should be emailed to [email protected]. Submissions are due by 3:15 p.m. on Friday. Submissions received after this time will be included in the following issue, unless instructed otherwise. Please keep submissions brief. Longer articles may be truncated at the editor's discretion, with a link to the full text.