Happy Friday!
This week was the first early release day of the year. Thank you all so much for your flexibility to make it possible for our team to engage in monthly professional development. This week was also picture day for students- I love to see students dressed up! If your student was absent, don't stress. Retakes will be available on November 7th.
On Thursday, we also received our first day of support from the district in the lunchroom for pizza day, a fan favorite! For those who don't know, Erick is the only member of our nutrition services team, and it's hard being a one-person show. He does it with so much grace! Our cafeteria has been seeing record high participation in school breakfast and lunch, so the district is looking to continue to help us out with staffing on the popular days. As much as I've enjoyed helping serve (Ms. Boyeas and Mrs. Hunt, too!), it's nice to know Erick doesn't have to rely on us for help back there.
Today, our school had the pleasure of welcoming Laurelhurst's principal and several other district directors. The goal of the visit was to see the curriculum in action since many new curriculums have been adopted over the past few years. A special shout out to Mr. Sherwood, Mr. Sundberg, Ms. Walters, Ms. Best, Ms. Barry, and Ms. Hjorth for creating such inviting spaces. The team had so many positive things to share (and they do these types of visits all the time). Some major highlights included kids carrying the cognitive load in classrooms, high student engagement, the new curriculum being used in all classrooms, tight routines and expectations, writing quality for September, and student comfort with sharing what they are learning with adults. It was a perfect way to end the week, and I can't put into words how fortunate I feel to work alongside such amazing humans!
Next week, we will have our first lockdown drill of the year. We complete these drills twice a year for preparedness. Our district has adopted Sammy and Friends for grade K-2, a curriculum to support carrying out drills like these in a developmentally appropriate and trauma informed way. The focus is on practicing safety and preparedness.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Last weekend, I had the joy of watching our students play volleyball- they crushed it. Tomorrow, I'm looking to watch some students play soccer in the morning! It's always fun to watch our students shine outside of school! Enjoy what looks to be a mild weekend!
