Cougar Clips

Happy Friday Kipling Families,

I hope everyone had a great week!

Wednesday was a blast here at Kipling. We celebrated Unity Day together in a big way. All students learned a choreographed dance, everyone got an orange glow stick bracelet, and we all posed for a picture together out on our field. During our Wednesday SEL time students learned about acceptance, inclusion, and creating the feeling of belonging for all members of our school. A huge thank you to Ms. Allam, Ms. Brynda, and Ms. Walker who organized everything for us and made it a great success.

Here is a one-hour webinar with author Jonathan Haidt of The Anxious Generation that I watched with Superintendent Mike Simeck. It was great to hear directly from the author himself and I thought you would all enjoy it.

As another reminder, I am asking all parents who drive to and from school to please be mindful of our crossing guards. Ms. Foran, Ms. Soderlind, and Ms. Cohen are outside every morning and every afternoon ensuring the safety of our students as they cross our street. There have been several times these past two weeks where one of them has almost been hit by a car trying to enter or exit our lot. I understand your time is very important, and I know we all have places we need to get to immediately before or after drop-off/pick-up, but the safety of our students and staff is paramount, and I need all of us to be more careful. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

All my best to you and your families over the weekend.

Respectfully,

Mr. Matthew O. Lombardo, NBCT

Principal

Kipling Elementary School

Don't forget to log in/sign up at the PTO site. Visit https://kiplingpto.membershiptoolkit.com/home to get started!

Join the PTO for Lunch on Thursday, October 24th!

PURCHASE RAFFLE TICKETS HERE to win a chance to help Mr. Lombardo with morning announcements! Raffle tickets will be on sale until 4pm on October 23rd only and in-person at Shake Shack from Noon-1pm on October 24th. A winner will be announced the night of October 24th.

Wolves Tickets are now available! Click here to get your tickets!

Mark your calendars! Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held on Thursday, October 24th from 1:00-4:00 pm & 5:00-8:00 pm and on Friday, October 25th from 8:30-11:30 am. All DPS109 schools will hold in-person parent-teacher conferences this year with an option to attend virtually for parents/guardians who are not available for an in-person conference. Parents will sign up for a conference using Sign-Up Genius. I shared links for all teacher sign-up forms on Thursday, September 26th, at 12:00 pm.

It is best practice to hold one parent conference per child, to ensure that both parents receive the same information regarding their child’s strengths and needs. Therefore, I ask that parents sign up for one joint conference per student. Conferences are a discussion between parents and teachers. At this time elementary conferences do not include students and therefore we ask that children not attend the parent-teacher conference.

We look forward to seeing all of our parents during conferences.

Halloween is coming to Kipling on Thursday, October 31st! We want to remind families to be cautious when helping your child select a costume for Halloween. Using another's culture as a Halloween costume can be viewed as insensitive or offensive. In addition, we encourage students to be as inclusive as possible when dressing in group costumes so that students do not feel excluded during the Halloween festivities. P.E. classes will be run as close to normally as possible so please have your child wear gym shoes if they have P.E. on Thursdays.

Below are some additional reminders about wearing costumes at school.

-Please do not send students with accessories (e.g witch’s broom).

-Toy weapons are strictly prohibited.

-Students should either wear costumes to school all day or have the ability to change into costumes in the classroom. Students will not be permitted to change clothes in the bathrooms.

-Masks that cover the face as a costume accessory can be worn during the parade and party, not during class time as it may be a distraction during learning.

Parade

-Students will exit out the main entrance, walk around the entire school, and enter back through the main entrance

-If there is inclement weather the parade will take place inside the school. Parents and guardians will unfortunately not be allowed to enter the school if the parade is indoors.

Timeline

-2:05-2:30 - Costume Parade

-2:30-3:05 - Class Party (Party helpers and volunteers must come to the office to lobby guard before noon on 10/31 to expedite the process of entering to volunteer for the parties.)

-3:05-3:15 - Clean-up + Dismissal

Families who are not comfortable sending their child in costume, please reach out to your teacher so we can be sensitive to you or your child's feelings about dressing up for Halloween. We want everyone at Kipling to feel comfortable.