Lake Agassiz Elementary School

Thank you to all parents and family members who were able to attend our first RED event since the pandemic. We are excited to have families back in the school and we appreciate your ability to be here. We know that not all families can make it due to work restraints, but please know that your child will have someone to read with during these times if you are unable to make it. We love it when you can be here and hope you always can, but we make accommodations if you cannot!

It is a Lake Agassiz school-wide goal to increase student achievement in math and reading. We are working hard to provide teachers and parents with more tools to help our growing readers with their next steps in learning, If you would like assistance with ideas for home, just reach out to your child's teacher or our Literacy Specialists by calling our main office and ask for Mrs. Smith or Mrs. Pedersen.

Take a few minutes to read through our newsletter. We have some great information from our counselors, social workers, and Deans below.

Have a warm November!

Wednesday, November 1st

• Early Release - School is dismissed at 1:30 p.m.

Friday, November 10th

• No School - Veteran's Day

Wednesday, November 15th

• Early Release - School is dismissed at 1:30 p.m.

Wednesday, November 15th

• Caulfied Picture Re-Take Day at 10:00 a.m.

Thursday, November 16th

• Turkey Bingo sponsored by PTO in the school gym 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Monday, November 20th

• LA PTO meeting @ 6:30 p.m. in the school library - Enter through Door 10

Thursday, November 23rd & Friday, November 24th

• No School - Holiday Break

Why?

Within ND Century Code, school districts have the opportunity to provide instruction via remote learning during school cancellation due to inclement weather days. When surveyed, GFPS families indicated they prefer to engage in remote learning rather than make up missed days due to inclement weather.

Expectations:

Teachers are available via Google Meet from 10:00-11:00 am and 2:00-3:00 pm to answer student questions virtually. Please reach out to your child’s teacher via Seesaw or email if you would like a virtual meeting link. Teachers will be responding to email and/or Seesaw periodically throughout the day to provide support for students and families.

Teachers will discuss and send home packets during the first week of each month.

Students will complete the provided work for each day respectively and return the signed cover page and completed work within three (3) school days to be counted as ‘present’ for the remote learning day.

Considerations Made:

• Each subject area is intended to take 15-45 minutes to complete.

• Assignments included are a review of content previously taught.

Some materials that may be needed for the completion of the work include a pencil, scissors, highlighter and glue. Please reach out to your child’s classroom teacher if you would like support getting these items.

Sources of Strength lessons are on their way, we are working towards a growth mindset using a strength-based approach. This is a public health model that moves beyond crisis intervention and towards health and well-being. We encourage parents to ask their kids questions as they journey through these classroom lessons.
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Hey Families! Winter is coming!

For those families who may be new to North Dakota, or just need a friendly reminder, here's what your child needs DAILY to come to school with. Reminder, students DO go outside for recess when it is above 0 degrees.

Have you noticed your child coming home from school on edge? Extra emotional? Exhausted? If this sounds familiar to you know that you are not alone. Many students use most of their energy and self control to get through the school day, when they are finally at home with their trusted adults they just totally "lose it". There is a name for that, it's called after school restraint fatigue. "It happens", says Andrea Loewen Nair, the counselor and parenting educator who coined the term, "because kids hold it together all day and only release their true emotions when they get to a safe place. Some kids become weepy, while others scream, throw things and become generally unreasonable. Older kids might act rude and disrespectful, hurling insults at you and their siblings."

Some children are more likely to experience after-school restraint collapse than others. “More sensitive and intense kids, and kids struggling with learning and social skills, will be more likely to be affected. That's not to say even your more regulated kids won't display this after a particularly long or challenging day, when they may be getting sick or when they haven't gotten enough sleep.

While this fatigue isn't avoidable there are some ways you can help your students and themselves get through it. See the graphic below for some ways to support your kids and adjust your routines for smoother evenings. https://www.todaysparent.com/kids/school-age/after-school-restraint-collapse-is-a-real-thing-heres-how-to-deal-with-it/

In October we were able to wrap up our coupon book fundraiser, this is always such a great fundraiser for our school. This year we raised $8,695! Thank you to all the students (and their guardians) that put effort into this. We will be able to do a lot of good with this money.

We also had a Spirit Night at Chick-Fil-A this past month, and even though it was cold and rainy, we had a nice turn out from some of our Lake Agassiz families. We are still waiting to hear a final number and will share when we have it. We made $102 when we did our Deek’s Pizza Spirit Night in September and have some more things planned in the coming months.

As always, November brings Turkey Bingo! This year the event is scheduled for Thursday, November 16th. The event will be held in the Lake Agassiz gym, and we will play 9 bingo games, 3 of those games will be just for the kids and have fun kid prizes. All 9 games will also include a turkey with the prize basket. We will have pizza slices for sale for $1, candy for sale (various prices), and the bingo cards are $3 for all 6 games, and then an additional $1 for all 3 kid’s games. We will also be doing a 50/50 raffle, last year our 50/50 winner took home about $100! You can find this information and any upcoming events on our Facebook page.

Our November PTO meeting is on Monday, November 20th at 6:30 PM in the Lake Agassiz library, you can use door 10. We have seen a couple of new faces this year and would love to see more. The best part of our meetings is seeing how this money we are making can impact our school. We have been able to help get our kindergarteners to the pumpkin patch, get our teachers a nice dinner during conferences, and approve some teacher requests for extra classroom supplies or activities. If you are interested in helping, we would love to have you!

Email: cmomerak140@mygfschools.org
Website: gfschools.org/Domain/1047
Location: 605 Stanford Road, Grand Forks, ND, USA
Phone: 701-746-2275