The Portola Valley Schools Foundation is proud to announce a new partnership with minted.com, the online design store specializing in holiday photo cards.  This is an easy way to do great things for our schools!

Where do you come in?

When you're getting ready to order your next batch of beautiful paper goods start at our storefront, www.pvschoolsfoundation.minted.com. With each sale from our storefront, the PVSF earns 10% cashback.

What about after the Holidays?

We know the holidays are going to rush by us all again, so Minted will be keeping the storefront open year-round. Use this offer for anything: Birthday Cards, Barbecue Invites, and you'll also be donating to our schools.

We're excited, and we hope you are too.  Check out our Minted Storefront here www.pvschoolsfoundation.minted.com to see all the possibilities!

Patronize Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry and support our schools!

The PVSF has partnered with Special Patron to the District, Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry, to benefit our schools. There are two ways you can participate:

• Make your jewelry purchases at Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry and 10% of the purchase price will be donated back to the Foundation.
• Sell your precious metals, diamonds, colored gemstones and watches to Stephen Silver and 10% of the total sale will be donated back to the Foundation.

You private appointment will be at the Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry Salon: 2055 Woodside Road, Suite 200, Redwood City, CA 94061   650-325-9500

For additional information, please contact Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry at 650-325-9500 or [email protected].

Dear Families,

At Ormondale we focus on one life skill each month. A few ways that we teach to the life skills are through teacher led lessons, counselor led lessons, appropriate literature and PRIDE assemblies. Thank you to Mr. Patterson for providing some valuable information on our life skill for November, gratitude.

As the holiday season quickly approaches, we at Ormondale are focusing on the life skill gratitude. Being thankful and appreciative towards people and things can have a positive impact on our children. Scientific research has shown that when we have a gracious and thankful attitude our overall sense of wellbeing increases. A UC Davis study revealed that participants who kept a weekly gratitude journal felt better about their lives, were more optimistic about the future, and had reported fewer health problems. Here are some suggestions that you can use to help foster a gracious attitude in your child.  

1. Keep a gratitude journal-Encourage your child to take note of the things they should be thankful for. Give them the option to either draw a picture or write a few sentences about things they appreciate in their life.  

2. Visual reminders (post-it's) It takes practice to keep thinking about all that we have. Hang up post-its around the house on refrigerators and mirrors or put them in lunches. Let your child know that you love them and are proud of them. Reminders will help us focus on what's important.

3. Encourage your child to write thank you notes. A handwritten thank you note allows your child to reflect on what they have and why they have it. It only takes a few minutes but makes a big difference.  

A wise person once said, "Feeling gratitude and not expressing is like wrapping a present and not giving it." Show your child the impact that having gratitude can have on their life. Below is a list of books that highlight gratitude:

The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving

By Ann McGovern

Thanks a Million

By Nikki Grimes

The Giving Tree

By Shel Silverstein

Whatever Wanda Wanted

By Jude Wisdom

The Secret of Saying Thanks

By Douglas Wood

Mr. Patterson

 [email protected] 

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please contact me at [email protected] or 650-851-1777.

Sincerely,

Kevin F. Keegan

Conference Week Follow Up and....

Thank you to all of our staff, parents and students for their participation in our conference weeks. School-home partnership is critical for the success of our students so please let your student's teachers know if you have any questions or concerns about growth and progress during the remainder of the school year.

Also, just a quick bit of information for 4th and 5th grade parents. We have a new common core standards based report card that will be rolled out in January. Teachers and administration spent about one year creating this new report card that will communicate student progress in relation to the common core standards. I look forward to sharing more specific information with you later in the fall.

Reminder: 8th Grade Trip to Washington, DC from June 1st - 6th, 2014 is a Go!

Specific information about the 8th grade field trip to Washington, DC was sent home with students and emailed to parents a couple of weeks ago. Payment forms are past due so please make sure to return your student's interest form to the front office (even if they are not going on the trip) so we can have accurate numbers for planning. Feel free to contact Mr. Corritone, Susan Strehlow, Angie Schillace or Dave Kastanis with any questions.

Michael Corritone

Principal

Dear Parents:

The CMS Math Department wanted to let you know about some of the upcoming opportunities available for your students inside and outside of the classroom.

Math Competitions:

All middle school students will be participating in either the American Mathematics Competition 8 (November 19th) or the Continental Math League Competition (5 days between November and March). This will be part of their regular math class. 

Julia Robinson Math Festival

November 23, 2013

9:00 am- Noon

San Mateo County Office of Education

CMS students have participated in this math festival over the last four or five years and have really enjoyed themselves! The festival introduces children to the beauty of mathematics by providing interesting, inspiring, engaging, and though provoking problems. The festival is named after the late Julia Robinson, a Math Professor from UC Berkeley who is best known for her solution to Hilbert's 10th problem.

To Register: http://juliarobinsonmathfestival.org/register.php.  This program is not part of the regular math class, so students interested should register themselves. 

Hour of Code

Some of our students will be participating in an hour of code campaign next month. The initiative is to introduce children of all ages to computer programing during Computer Science education week, 9 - 15 December. For more information: http://code.org/hourofcode  This will be part of their regular math class. 

From

The CMS Math Dept.