On Friday we will be distributing the first report cards of this school year. We were surprised to learn that DCPS was changing the format of its report cards on October 20th. Most teachers set up their evaluation system using the report card as a guide.

Please Read:

DCPS Attendance Protocol

1) The Office of Youth Engagement now identifies students who accrue 10 unexcused absences as "chronically truant."

2) Students must be referred to court once they have reached 15 unexcused absences.

3) Students must be at school 80% of the entire school day in order to be considered "present".

Reminder

The only excusable reasons for a student's late arrival and/or absence from school are:

Illness or medical cause (a doctor's note is needed for 5 or more absences)
Medical or dental appointment
Death in the student's immediate family
Summoned to attend in judicial proceeding
Religious holiday
Lawful exclusion or expulsion from school
Failure of DC to provide transportation
Emergency or circumstances approved by LEA

In order to be acknowledged as "excused" the student must provide a note to the attendance counselor (written or electronically) from the parent and/or guardian citing at least one of the reasons listed above.

If you have any questions please contact the office and ask to speak to Ms. Bright, or email her.

Mark Your Calendar

November 14 (Thursday)

HSA Board Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

November 19 (Tuesday)

Dialogue with Council Member David Catania

Chevy Chase Community Center, 7:30 p.m.

November 21 (Thursday)

HSA General Meeting 6:30 p.m.

Pre-Meeting Dinner, 6:00 p.m

November 25 (Monday)

2nd Grade American Indian Museum, 9:00 a.m.

November 26 (Tuesday)

Lafayette Tour (9:00 a.m.)

November 28-29 (Thursday-Friday)

No School -- Thanksgiving Break

See full school calendar

From the HSA

Gayle Moseley & Hope Scheller, co-presidents

With Veterans Day and Thanksgiving this month, November reminds us to be thankful. The front page article in Sunday's Washington Post reported that 20015 is a "Super Zip" code, one of the country's most affluent and educated zip codes. We are surrounded daily by so much affluence and success that it's hard not to get caught up in "keeping up with the Joneses." We should remind ourselves and our children, especially with the holiday season approaching, to be thankful for what we have and not worry about what we wish we had. Try and make it part of your family's daily routine to mention one thing you are thankful for as you sit down to dinner. Children learn by watching you. Teach them gratitude by saying thank you, whether it's to the cashier at the store, the school crossing guard or to your spouse for washing the dishes. If your child sees you showing a grateful attitude as you go about your day, you set an example that being thankful is a year-round kind of thing, not just for November.

-- Hope & Gayle

See HSA board members

Join the HSA

School Picture Proofs Ready!

You should have received an email last week with instructions for accessing your child's school picture proofs. Once in the photo gallery, when you click on a specific photo, purchase options will appear. You may purchase whole photo packages or individual photos a la carte.

If you are not satisfied with your child's photos and would like to have your child photographed again, a re-take day has been scheduled for the morning of Friday, November 15th. That's this Friday. Please contact Gayle Moseley and let her know you would like your child included in the re-takes.

If you did not receive the email last week or need help accessing your proofs, you can contact Gayle Moseley. Specific concerns regarding your photographs may be directed to Carla Freed at (301) 652-5452.

HSA Nominating Committee

This is a great way to get involved in the future of the HSA. We are in need of three or more parents who would like to be on the HSA Nominating Committee. These individuals help find nominees for the HSA Board positions for next school year. They let interested people know what the responsibilities of the positions are and what they need to do in order to be a candidate (we'll give you all the information you'll need). Time commitment for this job is really only a couple of hours a week and your responsibilities are over once candidates are finalized in early April. If interested, please contact Gayle Moseley or Hope Scheller.

Coats and Cocktails

Thanks to so many of you for the overwhelming response. The event is sold out. We are still gratefully accepting coats and outerwear in the Great Hall through December 6th.

Dialogue with Councilmember Catania

Tuesday, November 19 at 7:30 p.m.

Chevy Chase Community Center

5601 Connecticut Avenue, NW

The Chevy Chase Citizens Association and the Lafayette HSA are co-sponsoring a meeting featuring a discussion about Education in DC with At-large DC Councilmember David Catania, chair of the council's Education Committee. Community members will have the opportunity to hear from and ask questions of Councilmember Catania about education issues that impact the Chevy Chase community, such as the Deputy Mayor of Education Abigail Smith's initiative to review and recommend any changes to DC Public Schools' student assignment and school boundary policies and practices, including the feeder relationships between schools, such as Lafayette's with Deal Middle School, student and school achievement measurements, a unified lottery for enrollment at traditional and charter schools, and college tuition assistance. All are welcome to attend. Light refreshments will be served. Attendees are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to contribute to the Community Center's food drive to benefit the Capital Area Food Bank. We hope you can join us for this important event to learn about and share your views on education issues in DC.

Arts Integration Update

~Jackie Snowden, Arts Integration Coordinator

Welcome to the second quarter of the school year. We are deep enough into the year now that our informances are taking shape and some ha Snowden ve already occurred.

The first graders performed their annual "Patriotic Celebration" just in time for Veteran's Day. Watching them perform the "service" songs, and seeing the audience show their appreciation for our service men and women by applauding them when they stood, is always a highlight for me, aside from being amazed at how much they've learned. The first grade teachers concentrated on "documenting the power of learning through the arts," the title of the CETA workshop most of us took at the beginning of the year, taught by Melanie Layne. They illustrated this in a slide presentation prior to the informance.

Second grade is busy learning all they can about American Indians, which they will demonstrate in their American Indian Museum later this month. Their teachers, too, will be documenting the process, as will every grade throughout the year.

So what is and why are we so talking so much about documentation? According to Melanie Layne, "Documentation is...

The capturing and sharing of the process (how) and the product (what) of the thinking and learning that occurred during a lesson or unit
Communicating how students have engaged in a creative process to construct and demonstrate their understandings.
Visual and narrative
Presented in various formats depending on the intended audience.
Reflective
Should inform instruction
Complex because the arts are often multimodal."

We are an Arts Integration School. We know that you enjoy and appreciate coming to see your little ones on the stage, looking as cute as ever, showing you what they've learned. However, we really want you to know that a lot of instruction and learning occurred before they took the stage, and we hope you enjoy and appreciate that as well.

Why Some of Lafayette's Men are Growing Mustaches

You may or may not have noticed, but some of the male staff members at Lafayette are growing mustaches. The reason for this is because we are participating in something called Movember. In the month of November men all over the world grow mustaches to raise awareness about men's health issues and most importantly prostate and testicular cancer. You can donate to the cause and our Movember team by clicking on the link below. To learn more about Movember and what it's all about please click the other link.

To Donate to Our Movember Team Click Here:

To Learn More About Movember Click Here

Thank you for your support and a Happy Movember to all!

Lost and Found

Please check the lost & found back by the music room to see if anything belongs to you! All clothes will be removed and donated on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving break! Thank you.

Buy a WLES Shout Out

Have a custom message read to your child during the morning announcements. It is a great way to say "Happy Birthday," "Good Luck" or just send a fun message to your child at the beginning of the school day. Print and fill out this form, place it and a payment of $15 (checks made out to Lafayette HSA) in the WLES Shout Out box in the Great Hall. Announcements and payment must be received at least seven days prior to the announcement date. Please contact Eden Burgess for more information.

Sports Xtreme

This is the sixth year for Lafayette's own sports newspaper the Sports X-Treme and the staff just published its second edition. Many past editions of SXT are online at Lafayette's own web site, lafayettehsa.org

Interested fourth and fifth graders write for the publication that comes out at least five times a year and learn a myriad of valuable skills. Work on the next edition begins today with a coverage meeting during DEAR time. Fourth graders are invited to write for this edition.There will be a protocol meeting tomorrow for new and beginning reporters. Both meetings are in the computer lab.

Student reporters do their research and write at home, but usually have use of the computer lab during DEAR time when Kathy Echave and Nathan Wieand are there to help. Afsheen Benab also assists with coverage, ideas, and good advice. The deadline for the Nov. 18 print edition is Monday, Nov. 18. So, if your child is in fourth or fifth grades and interested in writing for the SXT, this is a great time to begin!

Library News

This has been an extraordinarily busy autumn at Lafayette Library. I have been working hard and I have added over four hundred books to the collection. Most of these books were purchased (thanks HSA), but a number of them were donated by students and their families. I want to thank all of the parents who bring in books that their children have outgrown. I catalog them quickly and students here are reading and enjoying them. Your donations help grow the library. Our collection is now approaching 37,000. This is the largest collection in the DC School System. We also circulate more books than any other school. For the month of October, there were 3,786 books checked out. The closest school to us didn't break a thousand. This is a well loved library.

In the month of November 2nd and 4th graders are working on Native American projects. We still have many books he in the library on Native American tribes. Also, 3rd graders book report this month is on a fantasy book. I pull many of these books off the shelves and place them on the books shelf facing the stairs inside the library. On November 20, Andrea Beaty is coming in the afternoon for a presentation on her new book Rosie Revere, Engineer. She will be speaking to Kindergarten through 2nd grade.

Lastly, the Scholastic book fair will run from December 2-6, Monday-Friday. Students here are very excited about it. Our book fair is so successful. Last year we sold just over $12,000 in books. From this sale we had $7,600 to buy more books for our library. I will be sending more information about this in another week and I will be sending out flyers as well. I would like to say that these flyers contain only a smattering of the books that will be here at the fair. As always, I will pull books that contain trinkets or toys. If you would like to help with the book fair, you can reach me at [email protected]. or come by and see me.

We are always open for parents and students in the morning before school and after school. This really is a great collection and everyone should check out more books. If you would like to look at our collection online, this is how you get there. Type destiny.dcps.K12.dc.us in the browser window. This will bring you to DC School library page. Scroll down to Lafayette, click on Lafayette Library and you are in our collection.

Have a great week reading!

Judith Perlin

Nurse Cockrell on CPR

As the Lafayette Elementary School Nurse, I organized training for all school staff interested in becoming certified. The Red Cross has done 2 classes for us this year, totaling 23 teachers and other staff, all now trained to respond with immediate CPR in an emergency.

Read more about CPR at Lafayette

Community
Community Notices

Order Potomac Pizza Delivery on Wednesday 11/20 between 4 and 9pm and help support our LAFAYETTE HSA! Order $15 minimum and MENTION LAFAYETTE and our HSA will receive 20% of the sales proceeds. Potomac Pizza-Chevy Chase,19 Wisconsin Cir., Chevy Chase, MD 20815 Phone: 301.951.1127

Lafayette is collecting books to put into the hands of DC students who do not have books at their homes. We are collecting for Cardozo High School and Nalle Elementary. Please bring your donations to Lafayette Library.

Girl Scout Troop 6113 is collecting items from the following list for the The Red Cross at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. There will be a box in the Great Hall to collect donations. If you would like to donate a high value item please contact Laura Scalzo. [email protected]

Please note, for patient safety, all items must be NEW & UNUSED.

ELECTRONICS: IPad,IPod Touch, Kindle Fire, XBOX w/ Kinect Playstation 3 (PS3)

NEW RELEASE DVD Movies NEW RELEASE games for the Xbox 360, Wii, PS3 XBOX 360 Controllers PS3 Controllers

CLOTHING ITEMS S-XL sizes, black, grey, navy blue only:

Sweatshirts (zip-up "Hoodies"); Open bottom sweatpants (non-cinch bottoms); Men's running/trail/walking shoes (Sizes 9-12 including half sizes); Plain cotton t-shirts (not white) Plain Athletic Shorts (nylon workout shorts, black only); White socks; Boxers/Boxer Briefs (various colors); Windbreakers/Coats; Flip-Flops/Shower Shoes; Cotton Beanies (hats) Gloves

CANTEEN/WELCOME ITEMS:

Bottled Water, Individually packaged chips, cookies, crackers, granola bars, fruit cups etc

GIFT CARDS:

Visa MasterCard iTunes Giant/Safeway Target International Phone Cards. Recommend major brand (AT&T/Sprint/Verizon) of 300+ min.

TOILETRIES (for men & women) NO HOTEL ITEMS please! :

Deodorant Men's Shaving Cream/Gel Chap Stick, nail clippers (big and small) Full sized body wash, shampoo, conditioner, unscented lotion Toothbrushes Toothpaste Travel Size: Mouthwash, Baby Power, Q-Tips, Kleenex

OTHER:

Pillows (Travel Size), Pillow Cases, Rolling Duffel bags, Plain black backpacks Word Search and Crossword Puzzle books, Pens/Pencils;Coloring Books/Crayons Puzzles (500 pieces or more, unopened) Models (all levels: cars, planes, military vehicles, etc)

Wilson Theater Arts is proud to present this year's Wilson musical, WEST SIDE STORY. The world's greatest love story takes to the streets in this landmark Broadway musical that is one of the theater's finest accomplishments. Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is transported to modern-day New York City, as two young idealistic lovers find themselves caught between warring street gangs. Their struggle to survive in a world of hate, violence and prejudice is one of the most innovative, heart-wrenching and relevant musical dramas of our time.

WEST SIDE STORY will feature an 18 piece Wilson/Community Orchestra along with almost 100 Wilson students participating in the production.

Performances :

November 15 at 7:30

November 16 at 7:30

November 22 at 7:30

November 23 at 2:30 ( Special Matinee Performance)

November 23 at 7:30

Wilson Auditorium

3950 Chesapeake Street NW

Washington DC

Tickets are $15.00 for adults and $5.00 for students/children.

Advance ticket reservations and information: [email protected]

Tickets will also be available at the door.

Thank You Lafayette Sponsors!

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

Learn more about becoming a Lafayette sponsor.

Make a Submission

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