Grandparents' Newsletter
February 2012
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Dear Grandparents,
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We hope your New Year is off to a fantastic start!
2012 promises to be another exciting year for us at Las Lomitas and La Entrada. We kicked off our first ever Grandparent Challenge Grant, the School Board has adopted an inspiring Strategic Plan that will set the direction for the District, and we are all looking forward to hosting Grandparents' Day on June 1st at Las Lomitas Elementary School.
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Grandparent Challenge Grant
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 We are a little over half way there!
Hopefully, you received our mailer in December announcing the Grandparent Challenge Grant!!
A few district Grandparents have come together with a $60,000 challenge for all Grandparents. Every dollar a Grandparent donates before June 10, 2012 will be matched dollar-for-dollar - up to a total of $60,000! That means, we can raise $120,000 for both Las Lomitas and La Entrada Schools.
We hope this inspires you to make a tax-deductible contribution of any amount. Every dollar matters! Our shared, enduring commitment makes the difference between an ordinary education and the exceptional one your grandchild deserves. If you would like to make a contribution, please click on this link.
Parents, teachers and your grandchildren all appreciate your generosity and dedication to providing the highest quality education possible for our children and grandchildren. |
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Grandparents' Day at Las Lomitas Elementary School
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 For those of you with grandchildren at Las Lomitas Elementary School (Kindergarten - 3rd grades), we are happy to announce that we will be hosting Grandparents' Day on June 1, 2012. This day is an opportunity for you to visit your grandchildren at school and see what they have learned during the year. We know it will be a fun, interesting and activity packed morning. Please save the date and look for your invitation in the mail in the coming months. This promises to be an event you won't want to miss.
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Calendar of Events
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We are very excited to tell you about some upcoming events at Las Lomitas and La Entrada. For a calendar of the entire year's school events, please click here. Las Lomitas (Grades K-3) Science Wonders*, Wednesday, March 21, 2012 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Dance Festival, Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 9:30 a.m.Grandparents' Day, Friday, June 1, 2012 from 9:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
La Entrada (Grades 4-8) Spring Musical, "Annie, Jr."*, Thursday, May 17 and Friday, May 18, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. Concert in the Park*, Wednesday, May 30, 2012 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. *Student participation is optional. Not all students participate.
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Grade Level News
|  Kindergarten Kindergartners just celebrated the 100th day of School on February 2nd with a big celebration focused on learning the number 100. They visited 14 different stations with creative number games. They also learned about the number 100 by singing "The Piggy Bank Song" which groups 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 and finally 100 pennies and their matching coins and bills. Kindergartners have also been "Investigating Water" in their Water and Literacy work by exploring such properties as cohesion, adhesion and absorption through simple experiments and observation. In math, Kindergarteners are finishing up their unit on patterns looking at how patterns grow and repeat. Finally, no February would be complete without the Valentine's Day post office where students enjoyed stamping, sorting, and delivering their classroom mail. 1st Grade First graders went on a field trip in December to visit Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, whose mission is "to contribute to the understanding of the Earth's natural systems through research, education, and protection of the Preserve's resources." Students enjoyed a 2-3 hour docent-led walking tour learning about local flora, fauna, and Native American life in the area. They also began the Fantastic Facts math program, designed to help students begin to memorize basic addition and subtraction facts through the use of flashcards and math games they bring home. To help children begin to regulate their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, all first grade students have embarked on a program called Second Step. In this school program, children are learning how to focus their attention, listen effectively, use self-talk, and be assertive. Soon they will start learning about empathy. 2nd Grade Some of the 2nd grade classes have been busy focusing on a variety of winter learning activities including a Polar Express Project and writing winter haikus. In math, they are starting to work on multiplication and division with an emphasis on the numbers 2 and 3. Writing is a very important part of second grade. As a result, they have been writing fantasy stories, memorable moment stories and one class even has pen pals in Los Angeles that they write to each month. Exploring rocks and minerals is the focus in science. The kids really enjoy bringing in their own rock collections as well as cracking open geodes to see what is inside. In art, they have made animal clay sculptures, worked on Paul Klee landscapes and painted Tibetan doors. 3rd Grade Third graders are about to begin Junior Great Books, a series of great stories paired with small in-class discussion groups led by parents. The stories are quite thought-provoking and provide opportunities for interesting conversations. We've also completed rolling out our new Primary Math program. As the oldest kids at Las Lomitas this year, the third graders have opportunities to mentor the younger kids. They have a weekly reading program with their Kindergarten Buddies, they help resolve conflicts on the playground, and each week, two children assist in first grade physical education. The kids will learn about local life in the 1880s with a trip to the Woodside Store (a museum) and about science with trips to the planetarium and the Marine Science Institute. And they're working hard on their Powerpoint presentations that they'll share during the Open House. Finally, they will start preparing for the transition to 4th grade at La Entrada. As a result, they will each receive a La Entrada pen pal and, in April, will take a trip to La Entrada for the 4th Grade orientation. Music At Las Lomitas, students have been working on singing songs with two and sometimes even three parts under Ms. Lampert's direction. They have been balancing the sound, making sure they can hear every part so they can enjoy the harmonies blending. Students have also been working on solo singing, reading melodies from the staff, conducting, and playing our amazing collection of drums, xylophones and metalophones. In May, students will be presenting the annual Las Lomitas Spring Sing, and in June, please come watch your grandchild sing and perform on Grandparents' Day.  4th Grade
Next time you talk to your 4th grade grandchild, ask them about their mission. They have been studying the California missions and each student was assigned their own mission to research, write a report and depict it as creatively as possibly. Some students drew pictures of their missions, some created models of a particular aspect and one even baked a cake in the shape of their mission. 4th graders then took a field trip to Mission San Juan Bautista to explore one of the California Missions. The 4th graders are also reading the book, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. They have been drawing illustrations of the book as they read along. In Science, classes have either studied or will start soon on the environments unit. This unit focuses on plants and animals. Kids will interact with fish, isopods, and beetles. They will also build their own terrarium and plant seeds.
5th Grade
The 5th grade math teachers are guiding the students through the complexities of fractions and decimals, and are now heading into negative numbers. They finished reading Esperanza Rising, and all presented reports on the themes the award winning novel covered...besides projects about migrant workers' rights and Cesar Chavez. Having tackled a historical fiction novel, the 5th graders are now getting started with their Literary Circles. Small groups of students read a book and take on different jobs to help discuss and understand the book. You may want to ask your grandchild about the Literature Circle jobs like discussion leader, connector, and literary luminary. In social studies, they have been learning about the early explorers to America and the original 13 colonies. All are looking forward to dressing up and presenting their history reports on Colonial Day! Science has covered all aspects of photosynthesis, preparing the students for what is on ALL of their minds - OUTDOOR EDUCATION! The 5th graders went to Jones Gulch for 5 days to learn about nature from an amazing team of naturalists. What an adventure!
6th Grade
During the month of November, all 6th graders participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which is a project run by a non-profit organization meant to promote narrative writing. The goal was for each student in the sixth grade to have a shared experience of developing their own novel - including writing, revising, editing, and publishing. Each student set an individual word count goal for the month, with targets ranging from 4,000 - 10,000 words. Students already submitted an excerpt of the novel for grading, and later will turn in the entire novel to be published in a class anthology.
7th Grade
In 7th grade language arts, students have been doing a lot of writing since winter break. First, they wrote an autobiographical incident, then a persuasive essay (including a persuasive speech in front of the class), and now a response to literature essay on the last novel (The Outsiders). They are also doing a unit on propaganda, which culminates in a group project whose goal is to create a product and market it using the various types of advertising. In Social Studies, some classes are finishing up a unit on medieval China, and will be moving on to feudal Japan. Other classes will be studying the Aztec, Incan, and Mayan civilizations. Students will study each group separately, then compare and contrast their civilizations through projects such as timelines and the "Newscast From the Past" report. In algebra, students have just completed a study of direct and inverse
variation. As a culmination, they used graphing calculators to enter equations and view the various graphs of these special equations. Next in store for these students will be systems of linear equations. In 7th grade Latin, students are finishing a chapter on ancient Alexandria. This chapter focuses on some new grammar and the character and architecture of the ancient city including the Museum and the famous Lighthouse.
8th Grade
In English, students are wrapping up Part 1 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. In class, the students are engaged in discussions about sexism, racism, and classism during the Great Depression era. In social studies, students have just finished a unit on the Age of Andrew Jackson. The unit highlighted the expansion of voting rights, sectional economic/political differences and the controversial removal of Native American tribes that characterized his two terms as president. Emphasis was placed on making historical connections to events today. Next up is Westward Movement and America's "Manifest Destiny." In science, they are well into their unit on Chemistry. They started out looking at what density is and how and why matter can change its state. From there, they studied the structure of the atom (including a bit of research into the scientists who contributed to atomic theory) and how the periodic table can provide a wealth of information about the individual elements. Coming soon will be a study of pH and carbon polymer chemistry. Underlying all of these topics is an independent project in which the students are researching an individual element and then presenting it to the rest of their classmates in a choice of formats. In geometry, students are studying similarity and proportion. To enhance their understanding of the concept, they used geometry software in the computer lab to study the famous ratio of The Golden Rectangle. In the days following, the students will be doing formal proofs involving similarity of triangles and other polygons.
Music
At La Entrada under Mr. Cooper, the 4th and 5th graders joined forces and wowed us with many songs during their winter choir concert in December, paying tribute to historic African-American men and women from Jessie Owens to Etta James. The school wide band concert was a real treat as students from 4th to 8th grades performed many memorable pieces from the classical to contemporary, from Jazz to Rock.
School Musical
We are very pleased to announce that "Annie, Jr." will be the 4th-8th grade Musical for 2012! We will have two evening performances: Thursday, May 17, and Friday, May 18. We are so blessed to have a completely experience staff that will be working with our students. Our own Mr. Cooper will be the musical director; 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Montalvo will be the producer; and director Kris Andrews and choreographer Caity Andrews are also returning for this production.
Art
In 5th grade under Ms. Ostrom, Art students are finishing up their tiles. They will be installed by the eating area as part of a continuing project to beautify the school. In 7th and 8th grade Drama Production, the students have chosen their play, The Poisoned Apple. It is the story of Snow White, complete with dwarves! They will be performing in May. Coming up, the 4th and 5th grade students will be creating ceramic fish for an art installation in the Multi Use room.
Last semester, Ms Gregori's art students learned about artists such as Rene Magritte, Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Roy Lichtenstein, George Rodrigue and Wayne Theibaud. This semester's classes are already hard at work studying Peter Max, Pablo Picasso and the art of cartooning. A special project that was begun last semester is a clay sculpture that will be between the art and science wings. A project that is in the planning stage is a mural that is going to be co-organized by Ms. Ostrom and Ms. Gregori. We will once again be working with muralist, Ellen Silva, for this project. Students from all grade levels will be encouraged to apply for a position on to work on the mural, which will be completed in April.
Technology
Under Mr. Park Kelly, technology at La Entrada keeps evolving as new innovations occur. Here are some highlights so far in 2011-2012:
- In KPAW, 7th and 8th graders run a real-life broadcast. Not only do we share a weekly broadcast of school events with the entire La Entrada student body, we also entertain viewers in the mid-peninsula through local channel Comcast Xfinity 28 and AT&T U-verse 99. Catch us every Monday @ 9:30!
- 4th graders fly all over our planet using Google Earth to find California landmarks.
- 5th graders integrate spreadsheet skills with information about their trip to Outdoor Ed.
- 7th and 8th in our 1 semester Computer Power elective class create "dream family vacations" brochures while using online travel agent tools.
And in another 1 semester elective for 7th and 8th graders, Digital Media Magic, students explore who they really are by creating descriptive word clouds and manipulating their photos in Photoshop to create their own avatar.
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Online Shopping = Donations
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 You can support the Foundation throughout the year by starting your online shopping at www.llefshopping.com. A percentage of your purchases will be donated to the Foundation by the merchants. The prices are the same - it doesn't cost you anything extra. Choose from merchants on our web page such as Amazon.com, Tiny Prints, Expedia and Best Buy. Alternatively, find over 800 online merchants by choosing the link for the eScrip Online Mall. If every grandparent were to do even just their Amazon.com shopping through our web site, it would bring in quite a few additional dollars for Las Lomitas and La Entrada each year. Remember, start your online shopping at www.llefshopping.com. Your support is appreciated! |
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Thank you for helping us to go "green"!
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 We are excited about our move to electronic delivery of our Grandparents' Newsletter to as many grandparents as possible. Thank you for helping us to save paper and mailing costs. |
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