I'm not sure that today's children listen to a lot of classical opera. When I was growing up, Saturday afternoons were a time when the children in my family needed to be very quiet. Texaco sponsored the Metropolitan Opera of the week and my mother was absolutely fanatical about hearing each week's performance. WETA-FM still continues the tradition today on Saturday in Washington. Ed Sullivan often had opera singers in his weekly variety show and we would imitate what we thought were pretty crazy sounds. I remember seeing a black-and-white version of Madame Butterfly when I was probably about 10 and being pretty mesmerized by the story especially the last scene where she kills herself. How cool was that. But overall I think opera is an acquired taste and it's taken me quite a few years to develop it.

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

March 12 (Wednesday)

Potomac Pizza Night, 4:00 p.m.

March 13 (Thursday)

Sports & Character Development, 5:00 p.m.

March 14 (Friday)

Music in Our Schools 3rd-5th Grades, 2:00 p.m.

March 18 (Tuesday)

Lafayette Enrichment Program Spring Enrollment Opens

March 20 (Thursday)

HSA Board Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

March 21 (Friday)

Kindergarten Plays, 1:00 p.m.

March 21 (Friday)

Music & Arts in Our Schools, 2:30 p.m.

March 22 (Saturday)

Auction Party, 7:00 p.m.

See full school calendar

From the HSA

Gayle Moseley & Hope Scheller, co-presidents

I don't know about you, but I believe that cabin fever is beginning to take its toll. The few warmer days we've been having makes me very excited for Spring! Of course, between selecting a new principal, building renovations, music & arts in the schools, kindergarten plays, and the auction, there is plenty to keep us all busy the last few weeks of winter.

The online auction begins this Friday! Check out the online catalog, and see what interests you. Remember, this is a fundraiser...don't be afraid to use the "buy now" button which means that Lafayette will get above the value and the maximum benefit. Every dollar you spend goes directly to benefitting our kids, so why not go big!

And of course, don't forget about the Havana Nights Auction Party on March 22. Invitations are in the mail and tickets are on sale now. What can you expect of your night in Havana? An amazing party with an open bar, appetizers, dinner, deserts, casino, and the Tropicana Lounge. There are a few auction categories that will be sold exclusively at the party (not online), including teacher treats, class creations, Lafayette sign-up parties, and, of course, the LIVE auction.

Have a great week!

--Hope & Gayle

See HSA board members

Briefing on Student Assignment and Boundary Review

Many people across the city are eager to learn more about the ongoing review of student assignment, school boundaries and feeder patterns. If you were not able to make it to the ANC meeting last night at the Chevy Chase Community Center to listen to Deputy Mayor for Education Abigail Smith speak about this issue, she will be at Wilson High School tomorrow evening (Wednesday, March 12). The purpose of the briefing is to answer questions and hear comments on the subject.

The briefing takes place in the Wilson Auditorium (3950 Chesapeake Street, NW) at 7 pm. Please enter through the doors to the theater wing on Chesapeake Street, NW. There is generally abundant parking on Chesapeake adjacent to the school at that hour.

In the meantime, should you wish to learn more in advance of the meeting, the DME website provides useful background information and links to the materials reviewed by the committee through January. Click for background information, along with other materials collected through January.

Havana Nights

Tickets are on sale NOW for Havana Nights, Saturday, March 22nd, 7:00 pm. Don your festive island attire and join us for a night in Havana, Cuba. Dinner, open bar, music, and of course the live auction.

Tickets are $60 pre-sale and $75 at the door. Each ticket includes your auction reservation as well as a $500 voucher to gamble in the casino. To purchase your tickets sign in to Maestro (it's easy to create a new account if you haven't signed in before), and click on the "Buy Tickets" tab. From there make a selection from the

drop down menu and follow the prompts. While buying your tickets, we hope you'll consider the option to "Sponsor a

Teacher" for $25, or "Sponsor a Teacher and Guest" for $50. We love our teachers and staff, and since they do so much for our kids, we give them complimentary tickets to the event. So, we hope you'll help us cover the cost of these tickets.

Sponsorship/Cash Donations: Although the deadline for donations has passed, we can always use cash donations/sponsors. Your donation will go a long way to helping us make this event happen. Go here for ways to donate cash. Volunteers: Want to volunteer your time? We are still looking for a few more volunteers to help decorate on Friday, March 21, in the evening, and volunteers for check-in the night of the party. Please email us at [email protected] and let us know.

Thank you!

Havana Nights Auction Team

Potomac Pizza Night!

Wednesday, March 12th! pizza
Skip cooking for a night, call your friends, and meet up at Potomac Pizza in Friendship Heights. Mention Lafayette to your server and the school gets 20% of the proceeds. Dine-in or carry-out.

4-9 p.m.

Building Resiliency and Character Development Through Sports

Come one, come all to an exciting evening program entitled, "Building Resiliency and Character Development Through Sports." On March 13 from 5 to 7 p.m., you are invited to hear Lafayette psychologist Harriet Kuhn, Kevin Jackson, Lafayette Athletic Director and P.E. teacher/DeMatha Defensive back coach, Jimmie Parker of E-Train University (ETU) and Tony Korson of KOA Sports talk about how to help your child build psychological resilience through team/individual sports. Topics will include how to use sports to help your child be more organized, resourceful and obtain the mental toughness needed to survive in today's rapidly changing world. Children are invited to work out with ETU and KOA staff in the gym while parents learn more about how to help their children cope with stress, reduce anxiety and increase self esteem. Dinner to be provided. Please RSVP to let us know that you are coming to [email protected].

Jump Rope for Heart
Donations Due

Margie McClure, Physical Education Teacher

Thank you to everyone who participated in collecting funds for our 15th annual Jump Rope for Heart. If you still need to turn them in they are due this Wednesday, March 12th. Please turn all cash into checks when possible. Checks should be made out to the "American Heart Association" Please put in an envelope with your child's name, class code and amount raised. The envelopes can be put in the JRFH box in the Great Hall or Ms. McClure's mail box. Or save your self some time and use the on-line method. Just go to www.hear.org/jump and register.

Thank you again to everyone who has helped with this commitment to the American Heart Association. It is an important community service project for our kids and your continued support is greatly appreciated.

Please Help

I am writing to ask a favor from our Lafayette community. My Mom and Dad's middle school in Racine, WI had a massive fire last Thursday. It is a combined middle and elementary school with almost 500 kids in elementary and almost 800 in the middle school. The fire started in the gym at 1:00 am, so luckily no one was in the building. But there was much damage to the entire building. The fire damage was mostly in the elementary area of the school; their gym was destroyed. The smoke and water damage has also affected the middle school. The elemenarty kids will be moving to another school for the rest of the year. The middle schoolers will move back into their part of the building in a few weeks. But all the their school supplies are ruined. I thought we could send these kids school supplies to help them get through the rest of the school year. They are asking for anything that elementary and middle schoolers need. The school is also looking for monetary donations for items that we are unable to buy, for example athletic uniforms and very heaving items.

There will be a box in the Great Hall that you can drop off your items. We will be collecting from Monday March 10 through Friday March 14.If you are going to donate money please drop it off in my class. I am in Mr. Gregal's 5th grade class. My Mom and I will take the items and ship them to either the school, or to my randmother who lives in Racine, and she will deliver it to the school.

Thank you for all you can do. I really appreciate your help!

Avery Wright, 5G

Spring Fair T-Shirt Contest

Lafayette Spring Fair

T-Shirt Contest

Theme: ABRACADABRA!

T-shirt should also say

"LAFAYETTE 2014 SPRING FAIR"

Color Designs Due March 28

Name on back ... put in Ms. McLaughin's box

New Online Programs for Lafayette Students

Nathan Weiand, Technology Coordinator

i-Ready: thanks to a grant for a technology upgrade from the HSA we have purchased a school-wide site license for the online reading program, i-Ready. All students in grades K-5 have been issued accounts and may use the program both in school and at home. If using the program at home please be aware that students should not require any assistance to complete lessons. In fact, the staff would highly prefer that parents allow their children to work through the program completely independently. This will help maintain the integrity of the data that is collected as well as ensure that students receive the best benefit from the use of the program. Please watch the video found here to find out more about how the program works. To access this site as well as other relevant school-wide sites, please bookmark our school's internal technology resources website here, or go directly to the i-Ready site by clicking here. As always if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] .

Google Apps for Education (GAfE): since our school-wide adoption of Chromebooks, we have also instituted Google Apps for Education (GAfE) accounts for all students in the school. These accounts may not be as relevant to the younger students in grades PK-1 as they are for the older students in grades 2-5, but no matter the age all students are welcome and encouraged to use them. Students do not have access to gmail through their accounts, but do have online storage via Google Drive as well as access to apps like Google Docs, Google Sites, Typing Club, Spelling City and many others. Having these accounts makes it easy for students to work on documents anywhere there is internet access and to share their work with parents or anyone with an email address. All teachers have their students' account information and students can access their accounts at our in-house technology resources website here.

Thank you for reading and I hope everyone enjoys the benefits of these awesome online resources!

From the Art Room

Laurie McLaughlin, Art Teacher, Grades 1-5

Just a reminder that the Doodle for Google contest is linked through the Lafayette art room blog at lafayetteartwithlaurie.blogspot.com and is due March 20^th! They are very strict about having the designs initialed by parents etc. so I am asking families to do their own submitting in this contest. I have extra brochures in the art room if you are interested... the scholarship prizes are significant!

In other contest news, our 5th Laurie McLaughlin grade duck drawings and paintings are heading off this week to the regional Jr. Duck Stamp Contest, and the Lafayette Spring Fair T-shirt contest is now underway... see the announcement in this week's Tuesday Bulletin!

Portfolio Update: Grade 1 is the only group to have brought home portfolios so far this year. We have been SO busy in the art room that we haven't wanted to sacrifice art time to put our portfolios together. I have decided to save artwork for just a little longer before making our final arts night selection and sending home the rest. Thanks for your patience! All artwork will come home before the end of the year!

March Madness Comes to Lafayette!

All basketball games begin at 4:00 p.m. in the Gym

March 25: Lafayette Students vs. Lafayette Staff

March 26: Lafayette Alumni vs. Lafayette Girls & Boys Teams

March 27: Lafayette Parents vs. Lafayette Staff & Friends

If you wish to play, please see Coach Hover or Coach Jackson

Arts Integration News

Jackie Snowden, Arts Integration Coordinator

Is it possible, could the last snow have fallen? Could the last cancellation of rehearsals for informances be done? Could the last rescheduled arts coaching and CETA professional development be done? Boy, do I hope so.

Snowden

In spite of the weather, we kept things moving. Pre-K celebrated their International Festival. Second and fourth grade exhibited their "wax" heroes. Fifth grade demonstrated "An American Story," with art, music, Reader's Theater, mapmaking, poetry, and dance. The CETA Documentation 2 workshop and arts coaching was rescheduled for March 10. The fourth and fifth grade were treated to an "opera look in," of Moby Dick at the Kennedy Center, and Kindergarten has started their end-of-year informance rehearsals. Many, if not all, of the above-mentioned activities involve(d) the use of CETA strategies such as; Tableau, Reader's Theater, Helping Students Develop and Tell Their Stories, The Pen, The Painting, and the Pose. These strategies are also being utilized in daily instruction in many of the classrooms.

At the end of each informance, we try to assess whether both the content standards and arts standards were visible by asking parents to complete an "exit slip" and/or leave a comment on our Comment Wall. This year, one of our teachers simply emailed their parents and asked them. The responses were very easy for me to cut and paste into one document as part of our data collection. So, if you come to an informance in the future, be on the look-out for an email asking for your feedback. Or if you've attended one and did not get a chance to complete an "exit slip," feel free to send the teacher(s) or me an email, letting us know if you were able to identify both content and art standards, and any other comments you'd like to give.

We had our annual site visit from the Director of the CETA program. She, along with our CETA Committee, looked at our Action Plan, as we do every year, and made changes/set goals and objectives, which we feel are more attainable and realistic.

Bear Facts Now Available

Kathy Echave, Reading Specialist

Dear Parents,

You don't know what you're missing if you're not reading the Bear Facts. Like study tips from the spelling bee winners or qualities that students want to see in a new principal. (Hint: continue to be nice comes up a lot!) Without the Bear Facts, you might think Zero the Hero and B.O.B. are a dynamic duo instead of important events at Lafayette. So, read this awesome, kid-written newspaper today.

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.

Community
Community Notices

Book sale Come to the Bethesda Chevy Chase High School Used Book Sale. Saturday, March 15 (10am - 5pm)

Sunday March 16th (10am - 3pm)

Bestselling Hardcover ($3.00) and Paperback ($1-$2) books

There is a HUGE selection of Children's books including board books, nonfiction books, picture books, popular hardcover and paperback children's series starting at $0.50, Wide ranging selection of classics, biographies, cook books, parenting books, and more.

DC Citywide Chess Tournament on Saturday, March 15

DC elementary and middle school students grades K-8 are encouraged to play in the 3rd annual citywide tournament at Wilson High School on Saturday, March 15. Prizes include: trophies for the top five finishers and all participants will receive a free t-shirt, lunch, wristband, prizes and raffle tickets. This four-game, swiss-style tournament is open to the first 200 participants. Sign up ASAP at: http://chesschallengeindc.org.

Lafayette Girl Scout Troop 4462 will be selling cookies outside of Broad Branch Market on Sunday, March 16, from 3-5 pm. Boxes of cookies cost $4 - cash and checks made out to "Troop 4462" accepted. Come get your Thin Mints!

Summer Babysitting: Liam Fischer, a senior at Wilson High and a graduate of Lafayette and Deal MS, is available for childcare on days, evenings and weekends throughout the summer. He has his driver's license and a car to take children to various summer programs, if needed. Liam has been working with children since his freshman year of high school and many references can be furnished upon request. He can be reached via email at [email protected] or by phone at 202-669-5007.

The Children's Art Studio, a mission-driven nonprofit located on Wisconsin Avenue in Tenleytown, invites your child to join us for After School Art Classes this Spring! Classes start next week. Offerings include a Saturday morning class and a Mixed Age Class at 4:40 on Thursdays. Please see our site for more information: http://www.childrensartstudio.org/classes.html Please also keep us in mind for Spring Break Camp. We hope your child will join us!

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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