Lafayette Tuesday Bulletin

conversations called "Coffee Talks". Parents are cordially invited to have a cup of coffee, learn more about how we are moving forward at Lafayette, and share conversations with other parents. These will be informal gatherings where I share information with parents, as well as have a Q and A session.

Topics for the chats will reflect pertinent issues as they arise within the school or within our parent population. Parents are also invited to suggest topics/ideas for future sessions.

Coffee Talks are scheduled on Friday mornings from 8:45 - 9:25 am. Please save the following dates: 12/12, 1/16, 2/6, 3/6, 4/24, 5/8, 6/5.

Our first Coffee Talk will be "Testing vs. Assessment - A Delicate Balance", Friday, 12/12 from 8:45 - 9:25 am in the Upper Library Room.

From the HSA

Hope Scheller and Laura Lindsley, co-presidents

Of all the holidays we celebrate throughout the year, Thanksgiving is one of my most beloved. I treasure the long weekend of eating and relaxing with my family and friends. Whether it is watching or playing football, cooking with my mom or being dragged to outlet malls with my sister, Thanksgiving always reminds me of how wonderful it is to have family around. It truly is the start of the holiday season of giving. In tradition of our Lafayette spirit, our Student Council has put together their Thanksgiving Dinner fundraiser. I commend our Student Council for thinking of others during this time of year. Please, show your support and offer a gift of giving by making a donation to the Central Union Mission. There will also be a box located in the Great Hall for donating non-perishable food items to the Thanksgiving Basket drive. Your generosity will not go unnoticed.

Last Wednesday, the HSA held our second General Meeting. A lot of topics and great conversation took place. Unfortunately, we did not have enough people attending the meeting to put forth a vote to make a change to our by-laws and budget. Hope and I will be sending out information in the near future on how you can vote via proxy on these important issues.

Also attending the meeting was our long-time crossing guard, Eddie Hall. He expressed concern for the safety of our children at morning drop off. He noted that parents continue to ignore his directions, violate traffic laws and drive in ways that are disrespectful and dangerous to others. These actions put the lives of our children at risk. He let us know that the Metropolitan Police Department is aware of these events and will be issuing moving violation tickets in the future. Under no circumstances are parents allowed to drop off children in front of the school. We have set out obvious blue cones with NO PARKING signs on them.

Again, Broad Branch Road is a bus route, not a drop off lane. If you would like to drop your children off at school please use the Northampton Avenue drop off route. For further information on Lafayette's morning drop off procedures, please reference our Safe Route Report which is located on Lafayette's website under the For Parents tab and click on Health and Safety. Thank you for taking this issue seriously and putting our children's safety first.

There are several performances taking place this week. Congratulations to all the second graders with their Native American museum and the fourth graders Pow Wow. Tonight, Notebusters will be celebrating "50 years of The Beatles" at 6:30pm at Wilson High School. Admission is free.

Hope and I wish you all a safe and happy Thanksgiving weekend.

All the best,
Hope and Laurie

See HSA board members

Join the HSA

Mr. Jewett

Our longtime staff member Brad Jewett recently shared that he has been diagnosed with both Parkinson's disease and Multiple Myeloma (a type of blood cancer). He also gave us consent to share that information with the community in general. As a staff we are working to help meet his needs, which include grocery shopping, meals, and transportation to and from doctor appointments. As a neighborhood resident and staff member within the Lafayette community, we know many of you would want to assist Brad at this challenging time. This link to Meal Train will give anyone interested an opportunity to sign up for assistance: https://mealtrain.com/kog2z

Brad is very grateful for all our help!

From the Math Center

Math Club is starting! Math club is a place to investigate a variety of math ideas, games and challenges. We meet on Wednesday mornings at 8 a.m. in the upper library and we welcome any student in 3rd, 4th or 5th grade. Our first session will be on Wednesday, December 3rd. We will meet in the Great Hall at 8:00. Bring a pencil, a folder and a hunger for learning!

Math Team continues to explore different topics and share problem-solving strategies. Last week we participated in the AMC-8 math competition. This nationwide contest features 25 challenging non-traditional math problems and is administered to students up to 8th grade. One student commented, "It was hard, but fun!" Math Team meets Friday mornings at 8 a.m. in the upper library and is open to 4th and 5th grade students.

Even though the AMC-8 contest is over, we have a lot more math to discuss and explore. Can you solve problem 4 from the 2014 contest? The sum of two prime numbers is 85. What is the product of these two prime numbers?

Happy Thinking!

Erin Betz and Edith Stanton

Spelling Bee Practice

Spelling Bee

This year's quest to make it to the National Spelling Bee gets underway on Nov. 26-27 as all interested 4th and 5th graders sign up in reading classes for the school's bee on Thursday, January 22. (Snow date: Tuesday, January 27). Two third graders and an alternate from each class will be selected by their teachers to participate.

In-school spelling bee practice begins Monday, December 1 from 12-12:30 in the upper library and continues until bee day. Students are given two sets of words to study. The beginning words and the Spell It! Don't let your child underestimate the importance of knowing the beginning words; last year they comprised quite a few rounds of our school bee!

Here is the two-month schedule of the in-school spelling bee practices, so even if the paper schedules don't make it home to your refrigerators, you can still see what word lists will be covered each day. Spelling bee practice is optional, but students are strongly encouraged to attend two to three practices weekly. Most students who want to do well will also study A LOT at home.

Students can study advanced words on line at myspellit.com Another useful study link is http://www.merriam-webster.com. The National Spelling Bee is offering a new way to study at home this year. It costs $19.99 and has interactive online quizzes and audio pronunciation of words. New Word Club includes vocabulary study, as well. Spelling bee committee members are not yet familiar with the product, so we're not endorsing it, just letting interested parents know about it.

So, on behalf of all the hard-working teachers of the spelling bee committee, good luck to all spellers and get busy!

Kathy Echave, Spelling Bee Coordinator

Student Council News: Thanksgiving Drive Report

Harper Dunn, Secretary

pie This year's Thanksgiving Drive fundraiser was a huge success! Kids from every class participated in raising almost $3000 for Central Union Mission. That is enough money to buy over 1,500 Thanksgiving meals! Think about it. We've made it possible for hundreds of needy families to have a tasty Thanksgiving dinner.

We want to thank everybody who took part in this fundraiser for their extreme generosity. And lastly, we wish everybody a happy, yummy Thanksgiving!

From the Library

Judith Perlin, Librarian

The Scholastic book fair will begin in two weeks. The Fair will run December 8-12, Monday through Friday. Last December we sold over $12,000 in books and earned $6700 in Scholastic dollars. Students visit the book fair with their classes. The recommended amount of money is $10-20 in a baggie or envelope with student's first and last name on it. The book fair is also open before school and after school. I will have a schedule of class visits coming out next week.

If you would like to volunteer to work before or after school that week, please send me an email at [email protected]. The schedule will be 8:15-45 and 3:15-4:00 and volunteers for pack up on Friday.

Lastly, I am so grateful to have a job that is a joy to come to every day. We have three book clubs going here at Lafayette library and a new one for 3rd grade boys starting on Monday. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Winter Concert

instruments

Celebrate winter, celebrate music! Our Winter Concert will be held in the auditorium on Wednesday, December 17. There will be a morning performance at 9:30 and an evening performance at 6 pm. Performing ensembles include the Advanced and Beginner Bands, both Guitar Ensembles, both Percussion Ensembles, the Lafayette Rhythm Combo, and our Lafayette Drum Line.The morning performance is open to parents and classes, but will operate on a first come first served basis for classes. The evening concert is open to the Lafayette community at large. We look forward to warming your hearts with music and celebrating the season with you!

Contact Joel Holmes with questions or concerns at [email protected]

Community Notices

Fencing Lessons. Looking for a great, winter indoor sport for your child? Try fencing! Capital Fencing Academy offers an excellent fencing program, led by World Champion Dariusz Gilman at its state-of-the art facility in close-by North Bethesda. Join the fencing fun and register your child in our New Musketeer class today. For more information and to start your child in this awesome Olympic sport, please see our web site, www.capfencing.com or email us: [email protected].

Holiday Power Walk. Join Fit to Inspire for Holiday Power Walk on Saturday, December 6th at 9:30 am. Fit to Inspire, the women's wellness community, is holding a "Holiday Waddle" (power walk) here in Chevy Chase (meeting point is Lafayette School). The walk is FREE, but any optional donations raised will go to Operation Smile, the medical charity that repairs facial deformities in needy children around the world. Sponsored by Athleta and Somersault Snacks, participants will be in the drawing for many great prizes. Join Lafayette mom, Rebeca Plantier, for this simple and fun event! Register at www.fittoinspire.com or contact Rebeca at [email protected].

HoopEd Camp. Thanksgiving Customer Appreciation Camp is only $45.00! HoopEd Hoops Basketball Camp will take place at Blessed Sacrament School on Friday, November 28. FREE Early drop off starts at 7:30am for Black Friday Shoppers! Camp runs from 9:00 to 3:00pm with AfterCare Available($15) until 5:30 pm. Visit www.hoopeducation.com to register.

Thank You Lafayette Sponsors!

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our very generous Annual Sponsors for 2014-2015, your continued support is amazing!

Learn more about becoming a Lafayette sponsor.

Make a Submission

Submissions for next week's issue should be emailed to [email protected]. Submissions are due by 3:15 p.m. on Friday. Submissions received after this time will be included in the following issue, unless instructed otherwise. Please keep submissions brief. Longer articles may be truncated at the editor's discretion, with a link to the full text.