Dear families,

We had another great week here at Harbordale! It was great to see so many families at open house on Wednesday. On Friday, we celebrated making our "dot" on the world with Dot Day. We loved seeing all the creative Dot Day shirts our students created.

This week we have open house for parents of students in grades 3-5 on Wednesday at 6:00 PM. As a reminder, this is an adults-only event. On Tuesday, we have a special social for our new kindergarten parents. Come join us at 8:00 AM to meet other kindergarten parents and network!

This week we announced our 2024-2025 Teacher of the Year and School Related Employee of the year.... congratulations to 5th Grade Teacher, Mrs. Chee and Registrar, Ms. Landers! We thank them for their hard work and dedication to our school.

Elementary Peace Week begins next week. Please see e-mail updates from Ms. Bureau, our school counselor, with some fun ideas you can do at home to celebrate.

If you have not filled out your child's back to school forms on Focus yet, please do as soon as possible. Thank you!

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Kashdin & Ms. Gordon

Dear Parents and Guardians of students,

Our District is committed to sharpening reading and writing skills across all grade levels, and we are asking parents to join in the effort! On September 19, at 6:30 p.m., join the BCPS Innovative Learning Department and the Parent and Community Involvement Task Force for the webinar Parent University: Literacy Engagement Through Parental Involvement.

District staff will equip parents with tools and resources to help them become partners on enhancing their student’s literacy. Topics include:

· Fun and engaging ways to improve your student’s reading and writing skills

· Accessing textbooks and the District’s media library

· Tips and tricks that lead to improvement

· New programs available to all students

· The District’s new reading initiative

· Instructional Materials Adoption and Review process, and much more.

On Thursday, September 19, access the webinar, Parent University: Literacy Engagement Through Parental Involvement, through this link or at browardschools.com/parentuniversity.

Throughout the presentation, questions will be answered through a chat feature. Closed captioning will be available in Spanish and Portuguese.

To learn more about resources available to help enhance literacy at home, visit www.browardschools.com/innovative-learning.

⏰Tardies

Students must be in their seats at 8:00 AM and ready to learn. Starting 8/26/2024, students not in their seats at 8:00 AM will receive a tardy. An accumulation of tardy minutes may lead to full day absences. It is Florida State Law that all students must be in school every day.

🍎Snack

Snack time is a daily part of our schedules. A snack is a small amount of food eaten between meals. Students may bring in a hand-held item like crackers, a bag of chips, string cheese or a piece of fruit. Items that require a utensil or dipping will be saved for lunch. We strongly encourage healthy snacks for our students.

😷Absences

If a student is absent due to a vacation, a special event, etc., assignments will not be available in advance. All missed worked will be provided upon returning to class. Students will be given 2 days for every day absent to complete the assignments. Please notify the front office via our online form, written note, or phone. DOJO notifications to classroom teacher will not excuse any absences.

🎈Birthdays

A child’s birthday is a very special time. We afford parents the option to provide a treat such as store-bought cupcakes or an individually wrapped snack for the class to celebrate this special day. However, we do not accept goody bags or balloons in the classroom.

🪀Toys

With the generation donation of recess equipment from HSA, students have everything they could want or need for recess. Please do not allow children to bring in any outside toys, cards, or items from home that can distract from their learning.

All changes of dismissal must be made in CurbSmart by 1:00 PM that day. You can access CurbSmart online or via an App on your phone.