THOUGHTS FROM THE PRINCIPAL
To ignite a passion for life long learning and service by developing caring, curious and confident children. - KPS Mission StatementHow does a school know it's fulfilling its mission? How do we know if our KPS students are caring, curious or confident? What are the kids working on? What relevant and engaging tasks are teachers asking them to do? How are they doing on the tasks? How do we know? One way is to look at samples of student work!
Earlier this week, our fifth and sixth grade teacher Christine sent shared some excerpts from essays that her students have recently completed. The project was a biography project. We were so impressed with what the students had to say about the people that inspire them, that we had to share some selected quotes from the essays with everyone! As you read the quotes, take a minute to think about who inspires you. Who do you inspire?
Kyle Barnett:
"A life lesson my grandma Joanne has learned is to live life to its
fullest. I think that what she is saying is that to try to always have
fun and be happy. I should make good choices for myself and others
since we are not sure what happens after life."
Leaf Lieber: "My dad is a very important person in my life. I think my dad is the best dad in the world."
Keoni Downer:
" My Grandma (Nancy) is an inspiration to me and I love her so much.
She is a fantastic artist. A quote she says is, "swallow your spit".
She would say it whenever someone whined about being thirsty. She is
a fantastic grandma."
Sam Goldberg:
" My dad is a very important person in my life, and I hope that when I
am an adult I will have adventures, be playful and interact with people
like he does. I think that I am the luckiest boy in the world because
of my dad."
Bodhi Stergion: "I
think if was really fun doing a biography on my grandpa. I really love
my grandpa and he is always there when I need him. He has a saying,
"an honest man needs no memory". Meaning if you tell a lie (let's say
to get out of trouble) and then needed to tell it again you might not
remember it exactly right. Whereas if you told the truth it would be
easy to remember it exactly right because you can always remember the
truth."
Way to go 5th and 6th
- how lucky you all are to have such amazing people to inspire you and teach you very important life lessons!
One gentle reminder - please try to get your students to school on time and pick them up on time. We have had many stragglers lately and several students are here way past 3:00 p.m. - School officially starts at 8:15 a.m. and ends at 2:45 p.m. Thanks for your kokua in advance!
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SPECIAL THANKS TO......
- Christine for organizing the ordering of the Winter Festival T-shirts
- Michael Locey for helping us out with recycling
- David Mireles for volunteering to write our scholarship grants
- Kumu Mauli Ola for the beautiful lei
- Denise Dion-Scoyni and Lyle Robinson for their hard work on the Ohana Family Annual Giving Campaign
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 WEEKLY MARKET aka FRIDAY FESTIVAL - Hosted by Prek - Grade 2
2:45 - 3:30, December 4th
Front Parking Lot
Please remember to drop off any excess produce/baked goods and to stop by our Market on Friday afternoons. All proceeds go directly towards sustainability related class projects.
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WINTER FESTIVAL
DECEMBER 16, 2009
CHURCH OF THE PACIFIC
1:00 P.M.YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO OUR ANNUAL WINTER FESTIVAL. JOIN US FOR A CELEBRATION OF SONG AND DANCE CELEBRATING STORIES OF THE SEASON FROM AROUND THE WORLD. THERE WILL BE A BAKE SALE HOSTED BY THE 5TH AND 6TH GRADERS IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE PERFORMANCE. CHILDREN SHOULD REPORT TO SCHOOL THAT DAY AS USUAL. WE WILL NEED DRIVERS TO HELP US TAKE THE STUDENTS TO THE CHURCH AROUND 12:00 P.M. THAT DAY. CHECK WITH YOUR CLASS TEACHER IF YOU CAN HELP US WITH THIS.
FOR THE PERFORMANCE, CHILDREN SHOULD WEAR NICE, NEAT BLUE JEANS. WE WILL BE DECORATING THEIR SHIRTS AT SCHOOL
WE ALSO NEED A FEW PARENT VOLUNTEERS TO HELP US DECORATE THE CHURCH WITH SOME GREENS AND SOMEONE TO DONATE LEI FOR THE TEACHERS AND BAND MEMBERS.
SEE LISA IF YOU CAN HELP WITH THIS. |
FREE LIGHT BULB EXCHANGE
December 16th, 2009
After the Winter Festival
On the day
noted above, the 5th/6th grade will have a table set up at the Winter Festival. Please bring up to ten of
your old-style, incandescent light bulbs from your home. You can also bring your light bulbs to the 5th and 6th grade class anytime between now and the 16th. We will exchange them for brand-new,
efficient, 60-watt equivalent CFL bulbs that use less than ¼ of the
electricity. We need the old bulbs to
turn in for $1.00 each which will be a fundraiser for the 5th/6th class.
At
NO COST to you.
These bulbs
will save you money and reduce your electric bill. It's our way of helping
Hawaii become energy independent. Today,
our islands are about 93% dependent on oil and coal for our electricity. We need to get our energy from clean, local
and renewable sources. Making more efficient
use of the electricity we consume is a great way to start on the path to energy
independence.
Please sign
the Declaration
of Energy Independence as you exchange your old bulbs! We will have this on the table where you get
your new bulbs and our class will receive $.25 per signature. |
 HI-5 RECYCLING REMINDERS
The Hi-5 program is going great so far! You can drop off your Hi-5 anytime school is in session. The drop off location is to the left of the main building behind the gate. Just come in and ask for the key! We just have a few reminders for you from Michael Locey who is serving as our superstar Hi-5 parent volunteer this year.
- Please make sure that these items have
the HI-5 stamp and are properly cleaned and prepared (no caps).
- Please use separate bags for glass, aluminum, and plastic.
- Plastic bottles no larger than 1 liter or qt.
- No wine or liquor bottles
- No milk product bottles (plastic)
Coco water cans separate
The goal is to
reduce our trash in our homes and our school through recycling. The money
raised will be used to further our eco-friendly programs. Thank you for bringing us your Hi-5 products.
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ANNUAL GIVING OHANA DRIVE IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER
Be on the lookout for communication regarding this important fundraising drive. Our goal is $55,000 with 100% participation from each family.
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AVOID THE CROWDS!
HELP KPS WHILE YOU SHOP
ONLINE FOR THE HOLIDAYS!
As you begin thinking about holiday shopping, we just wanted to remind you that if you will be purchasing anything from Amazon.com, you can help our school raise funds! Simply click on the Amazon link on the school's web-site before you start shopping. You can even let your friends and families know and we can earn a percentage from their shopping too! Here's the direct link:
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SCHOOL-WIDE FOOD DRIVE HOSTED BY
PREK AND K CLASSES
The Pre-K and Kindergarten classes are preparing to start their next unit "From Field to Table." We would like to sponsor a food drive as a service project for this unit. We are asking all students from our school to bring in canned and boxed food items from now until December 18th. We would love to be able to collect 300 food items to donate to our local food bank. If each child brings in 5 items we will easily meet our goal. Of course more is welcome! Thank you for helping spread our Aloha and abundance with families that are in need this holiday season!
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 IMPORTANT DATES
Wednesday, December 2nd
Trimester 2 Electives Start
Grade 5/6 Presentations of Learning
Block A - 9:15 - 9:45 a.m.
Block B - 10:15 - 11:00 a.m.
Friday, December 4th
First Garden Field Trip - Grades PK-2 Departure at 12 noon!
Friday Festival, Grades PK-2 host
Wednesday, December 16th
Winter Festival 1:00 p.m. Church of the Pacific
Thursday, December 17th
Regular School Day
Friday, December 18th
Half Day of School
Monday, December 21st - Friday, January 1st
Winter Break
Monday, January 4th
Back to School!
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