Dear La Entrada Community,

There is a lot going on at this time of year! I apologize for the length of this article, but please read through the whole thing.

Quarters/Trimesters/and Conferences

Our fourth and fifth graders' school year is divided into three, 12-week trimesters. Our sixth through eighth graders' school year is divided into four, 9-week quarters. Because both the first quarter and first trimester are getting close to ending, it is time to start thinking about teacher/parent conferences.

Conferences are during the week of November 13-16. The teachers are excited and looking forward to spending time with you discussing your child's progress in class. Students will be released from school at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of that week, November 12, is a holiday.

4th and 5th Grade Conferences

These conferences are scheduled through the individual teacher. If you have not already had communication regarding conferences, it will be coming out shortly.

6th - 8th Grade Conferences are scheduled Online!

Parent/Teacher conferences will be held on November 13, 14, 15, and 16. As you can imagine, with each student having up to 8 different teachers, and the teachers only having four half days for conferencing, it would be impossible to have enough time slots for every teacher to meet with every parent of the students s/he teaches. Please keep this in mind as you are scheduling your conferences. Scheduling of conferences opens on Tuesday October 30 (2nd day of 2nd Quarter) While formal grades won't come home until that next weekend, you can review the grades in Schoolloop. This may help you decide if you need to schedule with a particular teacher or not.

Please know that all of our teachers will make sure to meet with any parent who would like to schedule a meeting at any point during the school year. All you need to do is email or call and set up a time.

PTC Wizard is a web based parent/teacher conference scheduling system. Parents can create and manage their conference schedules in an easy and time efficient manner.

Here is what you need to do to schedule a parent/teacher conference:

• Registration opens at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, October 30.
• Login to https://llesdms.ptcwizard.com 
• You will first need to register and enter the names of your 6th-8th grade children.
• Follow the steps and the program will instruct you on how to choose a child, choose a teacher and set a time for the conference.
• When you have finished scheduling, a confirmation email will be sent to you.
• Conference availability closes at 2pm on the school day prior to the conference. Registration for conferences on Tuesday, November 13 closes at 2pm on Monday, November 12. Registration for conferences on Wednesday, November 14 closes at 2pm on Tuesday, November 12, etc.
• If a teacher's time slots are full, please call the office. We will keep a wait list.
• If for any reason the online system does not seem to be working for you, please call the office and Mrs. Rudge or Mrs. Stosz will assist you.
• Because space is limited, please login and cancel any conference that you will not be able to attend. If you need to cancel after registration has closed for that day, you will need to call the school office.
• The school office number is 650-854-3962.

Project Cornerstone Survey

In spring 2012, the students participated in a Project Cornerstone survey.  The survey measures developmental asset levels, risk behaviors, and thriving indicators in youth. The results will help our community understand the ways that we are successful at raising healthy, responsible young people and where we must improve.  We are looking for a few volunteers to serve as a focus group on October 30 at 6:00pm.  The group will review the data and develop a plan for the larger presentation on November 19 at 7:00pm.  If you are interested in the focus group work, please contact me spotts@llesd.org or please contact the office 650-854-3962.

Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year

Many students are excited about the prospect of dressing up in their costume while at school so we have outlined our school's costume rules and descriptions of our Halloween Holiday Traditions at La Entrada.

• Halloween Costumes:  Students may come dressed in their costumes to school for the day.  Rules for costumes include: No masks allowed, no gory and bloody costumes (our older students need to remember that we have 9 year olds on campus), no fake weapons and costumes must follow our dress code (no mini-skirts/spaghetti straps and/or low cut tops).
• 5th Grade Halloween Parade:  Our 5th graders will be modeling their homemade costumes that they have been designing in this project-based math lesson. The students are challenged to design and create a costume that costs them no more than $10.00.  Parents, as well as other classes on campus, come out to our blacktop to view the parade.  The 5th grade parade will begin at 8:30am.  Again, only 5th graders march in the parade.  We do not have a school wide Halloween Parade where all grades participate.
• Haunted House:  Our Student Leaders plan and create a Haunted House where all students are welcome to visit during their lunch recess.  The Haunted House is set up in Jensen Hall and is run completely by student leaders.  Talk about collaboration and creative problem solving in action!
• PTA Halloween Carnival:  Every year PTA volunteers work to create a fun lunch recess carnival on our blacktop and field.  A photo booth, hula hoops games, pumpkin seed relays and more are planned for this year's carnival.
• 7th Grade Scary Stories:  7th grade core teachers instruct a scary story writing unit during October and their culminating event is truly amazing!  Classrooms are transformed overnight into dens where students recite their scary stories to visiting classes using their best storytelling skills. 7th graders will have the opportunity to entertain younger students with their original scary stories and enthrall them with their presentation skills.
• Classroom Halloween Celebrations:  Some classrooms will coordinate with parents to plan classroom celebrations, usually involving thematic treats.  We continue to request that parents keep healthy snacks in mind when creating those "ghostly nibbles" or "spidery snacks".  All the staff thank you, in advance, for this!

We wish all students a safe and happy Halloween and once again would like to remind students to only trick-or-treat with family or friends, bring flashlights when walking around neighborhoods and always look over any candy and goodies for opened or torn bags. Students are not allowed to bring candy caches to school following Halloween, so please talk with your child about how best to ration their lunch treats following this sugar-laden holiday!

Coffee with the Principal

"Coffee with the Principal" is an informal gathering where we can discuss educational issues or just things happening at school. Our first coffee for the year is scheduled for, November 5 at 1:30 pm. While we can discuss any number of things, I would like to start by talking about the work around Common Core Standards. We will meet in the MUR.  If you can't make this one, we will have more throughout the year.

Regards,

Shannon Potts

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW!!!  WE WANT YOUR USED BOOKS!!! 

Donate books now at La Entrada or at Las Lomitas!

  

Bins are available in front of both schools now through Monday, November 5th.  We are accepting books in all genres ranging from children's books to adult and everything in between.  They must be in good condition, and we welcome them in all languages!  If you have a large amount of books to donate, please contact Stacey Alexander at staceyalexander2@gmail.com and we can arrange special delivery for you.

  

The La Entrada Used Book Fair opens in the MUR (located directly across the LE office) on November 13th  and goes through November 16th where the books are affordable and fun to read! Store hours are 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.. 

  

100% of the sales will go directly to the La Entrada PTA. This is an eco-friendly way to share books, and with most at prices ranging from $1 - $5, there will be something for everyone. 

  

If you would like to volunteer, please send an email to stacymay246@gmail.com with the word "volunteer" in the subject line.  There are plenty of jobs for everyone and we appreciate your help!  We also encourage help from responsible students.  Students who volunteer will receive a free book. You can use your email to sign up your student, just specify who is working in the email.

  

"The More that you Read, The more things you will know, The More that you learn, the more places you'll go!" - Dr. Seuss

 

 

DADS AT LUNCH this Friday, November 2nd!! Come and join the kids at recess and have some fun.  This program is growing and we'd love for you to join us on the first Friday of the month.    

4th and 5th graders eat from 11:36-12:13  

6th - 8th graders eat  from 12:15 - 12:45   

 

If you have questions contact Katie Boland kboland@gmail.com.

  

 

SCIENCE FAIR SEASON IS UPON US!

Last year the science fair was a blast with with over 80 projects and 140 students involved.  Many of the winners went on to the County Fair, the Bay Area Fair, and some to the State Fair.  The presentations will be on Wednesday January 16th, but the kids should register by November 20th, have a topic by December 6th, and submit an abstract by January 10th.  The sooner they start thinking about what they want to do the better!

We need more volunteers to coach the kids, set up for the event, and help judge the event. Please contact Bardia Pezeshki (bardia@pezeshki.org) or Ann Crady (acrady@gmail.com) to help out.  

 

Please encourage your children to get involved!  Go to (www.laentradasciencefair.org) for all the details.

  

 

Here's how it works:  All students are given a spelling test in class, on a date of their teacher's choosing between Oct 29 and Nov 9. (In the event of absence, make-up testing should be coordinated directly with the teacher.) Qualifying students are identified based on the test scores, invited to the Bee, and provided a study packet. The Bee champion advances to the San Francisco Chronicle Spelling Bee. The Bee follows the rules of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Ways to prepare:

1.      Watch the movie Akeelah and the Bee to get inspired.

2.      Check out the spelling words at http://myspellit.com/.

3.      Quiz your family and friends on tricky words, and have them quiz you.

4.      Keep on reading!

NOTE: A few spots are still available for the event of the year: Spelling Test Grading Party: Thursday, Nov 15, from 9:00am to 11:00am.  Snacks! Camaraderie! Learning! Laughs galore!

Questions? Contact Kari Mueller (Kari.rae@gmail.com) or Janelle London (jlondon@stanfordalumni.org).

LA ENTRADA GEO BEE CALLING...

A.L.E.K.S. PARENT EDUCATION NIGHT

Thursday, November 15th, La Entrada Middle School at 7:00pm

The A.L.E.K.S. program, Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces, is a web-based, artificially intelligent learning and assessment system that can be used at school and at home.  Its goal is to increase student performance and retention with individualized assessment and learning.  Students obtain individually targeted instruction correlated to the California Common Core Standards.  By using A.L.E.K.S. at home and at school, students learn at their own pace with A.L.E.K.S. as their personal tutor.  Many of our students at La Entrada have been given the opportunity to take part in the on-line A.L.E.K.S. math program during the first couple of months at school and we want to share our goals with the La Entrada community.    

In order to provide information and access to all parents participating in our new math support program, we are holding our first A.L.E.K.S. Parent Education Night, Thursday, November 15th in the La Entrada Library from 7:00 - 8:00 PM.  All 4th- 8th Grade Parents are invited to attend.  Please RSVP to your student's math teacher by November 9th.

Robert Olds

La Entrada Middle School

4th/5th Grade Reading and Math Support Teacher

FROM THE YEARBOOK TEAM

Summer Vacations

A week at horse camp? Crossing the Great Wall of China? The yearbook is looking for great pictures of activities, vacations, events that your La Entrada student did over the summer. Please submit a picture and brief description to Mrs. Rianda either via email or hard copy so that she can scan in your photo by Friday, November 2nd.

Dear 8th Grade Parents, 
This year we have a unique opportunity to include 8th grade baby pictures in our yearbook.  Please either email Mrs. Rianda (trianda@llesd.org) an attachment of your child's baby picture OR send in a labeled hard copy in an envelope with your child's name on it. Mrs. Rianda will scan your child's baby picture and return it to your child to bring back home. Please email or send your child's baby picture by Friday, November 2nd.
Thank you, 
Harper Wood, Commissioner of Publicity

The English Language Advisory Committee (ELAC) was established to advise the Governing Board on programs and services for English Learners.  A majority of the Committee must be parents of English Learners. This committee meets five times a year to review and monitor programs that affect our English Language Learners.  Committee members'  responsibilities include:

• also serving as a member on the District English Language Advisory Committee (DELAC)
• assisting in developing school plans for English Learners
• conducting an annual needs assessment
• preparing an annual language census
• advising the District regarding redesignation procedures

If you are interested in serving on this committee, please call Mimi Sabo, ELD Teacher at La Entrada (854-3962, x151).