The Tiger Stripes

Dear Families and Community,

It’s hard to believe we’ve been in school for three weeks! Your children amaze me each and every day with their thoughtfulness, resilience and brilliance. I also continue to be impressed by the passion and commitment of our staff. They are working so hard to help students develop independence with school routines and in taking ownership of their learning. We are already seeing an increase in student agency, and I feel really excited about the possibilities for the year ahead.

We are fortunate to have already begun our partnership with Sunset High School. Sunset tutors are supporting students and teachers at the classroom level, helping Ms. Angela with shelving books in the library and enjoying fun times at recess and lunch. Our Kindergarten friends also get to have Apollo visitors read to them on Fridays - see below for pictures. I think you’ll agree that is a very special experience indeed!

We had our first assembly to kick off the annual Tiger Trot, which is our only fundraising event of the year. Huge thanks to our PTC parents who helped us kick off this project! I know many more of you will be supporting this work moving forward, and we are so grateful. (Please see Tiger Trot section below for lots of information.)

Did you know we have a Head Start class at Terra Linda this year? They started about a week ago, and we are pleased to welcome them to our community. Later this year, they will be opening a second classroom. If you know anyone who is interested in attending or working for Head Start, please read the informational section below!

Thank you for all of the many ways you are supporting your students, our staff and Terra Linda as a whole. This is truly an incredible community.

Warmly,

Wendy

Please do not drop students off on the park side of the school. Our parent drop off area is directly in front of the office. Thank you for observing a slow, safe speed as you maneuver this area.

September 21st this week is WORLD GRATITUDE DAY!

https://nationaltoday.com/world-gratitude-day/

Benefits of Gratitude

• It makes us happier.
  By simply journaling for five minutes a day about what we are grateful for, we can increase our overall happiness by 10%.
  

• It enhances our positive emotions.
  When we feel grateful, we are less likely to feel envious of others — grateful people experience a wider variety of emotions, and they are more likely to bounce back from difficult experiences.
  

• It makes people like us.
  More grateful people have access to a broader social network, more friends and better relationships.
  

• It reduces impatience.
  People who are more appreciative of what they have tend to be less dissatisfied and more aware of opportunities during economic decisions, leading to better decisions and less pressure to seek immediate gratification.

Community Action Head Start now has some classrooms here at Terra Linda. We are currently still enrolling children into our program. If you have children or know of some in your neighborhood ages 3-5 and would like to apply for Head Start, you can do this online at https://caowash.org/programs/early-childhood-development/head-start/.

Head Start and Early Head Start programs offer high-quality early childhood education for children prenatal to age 5 who live in Washington County. These programs provide comprehensive services to enrolled children and their families. These services include health screenings, nutrition, social services, and other family resources based on your family's individual situation. Families whose income is less than 100 percent of the current federal poverty guidelines are prioritized, though all families regardless of income are welcome to apply.

We welcome children with special needs and children who are learning English.

Community Action is also currently recruiting to fill all open Positions. Please check out our openings at https://caowash.org/about_us/careers/working.html.

For safety and success in PE, please have your child wear rubber-soled athletic shoes (i.e. tennis shoes) on days they have PE.

In October, all 3rd grade students in Beaverton will be administered the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) Screener. This 30-minute test measures students’ learned reasoning abilities through verbal/picture analogies, number analogies and figure matrices.

Currently the main purpose for administering the CogAT is to identify students for TAG in the area of intellectual ability. Students who score at the 97th percentile or above on the CogAT screener will be invited to test with the full version of the CogAT that is used for potential TAG identification. The full version of the CogAT will be given in November. For more information about testing, please contact our new TAG facilitator, Zhalih Taefy-Cross.

5th grade families can ask that their student take the CogAT Screener by completing this link.

We kicked off the Tiger Trot last week in our first all school assembly! The students were so excited to see Stripes and learn about the prizes they can earn for their classes - including an extra recess, an ice cream party and a pizza party! Please look for the packets that came home with your students last week for more information and keep those pledges coming.

The Tiger Trot is the primary fundraiser for the Terra Linda PTC. Money raised through the Tiger Trot funds the school’s enrichment programs. These programs include the Art Literacy program, One School One Book, STEAM night, author visits, student field trips and so much more! All students, Kindergarten through Fifth grade, can earn money for our school by collecting donations for their participation in the school-wide Tiger Trot on October 6th. The run takes place on the Terra Linda track during specials and lasts 20 minutes. Students can choose to run, jog or walk. Jamba Juice will provide smoothies for all students after they participate! Additionally, all students receive a Terra Linda shirt for their participation in the event!

Families are welcome to attend this event. Be on the lookout for volunteer opportunities (you must be an approved BSD volunteer) or come as a visitor to cheer on your student! Following is the schedule of when each class has specials. The running time will be 20 minutes sometime during the time indicated below. More specific details to follow, but we wanted you to have this information for future planning:

Kindergarten 1:30-2:10

1st Grade 12:45-1:25

2nd Grade 2:25-3:05

3rd Grade 9:25-10:05

4th Grade 11:25-12:05

5th Grade 8:40-9:20

SRC 10:35-11:15

International Walk + Roll to School Day is October 4th this year. This is a fantastic time for our community to walk + roll to school to encourage healthy habits, build community and increase safety along routes to school.

To celebrate, we will be polling kids on how they get to school on October 4th. We are also given some raffle items from our friends at BSD Safe Routes to School, and we will have a raffle for each grade level. (All students, regardless of travel mode, are eligible to enter the raffle.)

The Beaverton School District is hosting a job fair at the District Administrative Office (1260 NW Waterhouse Ave.) on Wednesday, October 11 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Specifically, we are hiring Paraeducator II positions; these are aides who support our special education classrooms. Salaries range from $20.61 to $26.40 and include benefits. To learn more about the position, please visit our Careers website.

We are on Instagram @terralindatigers and on Facebook at Terra Linda Elementary!

Please label your child's water bottle, lunch box and outerwear before sending them to school! It makes it so much easier for us to return them.

Here's how you can find out more about BSD's meal charging policy.

You are welcome to use the SchoolCafe account to make online payments to your student’s meal account. There is a SchoolCafe app for phones too!

To apply for meal benefits, please start with a SchoolCafe account. (Local public libraries have free computers for online applications.) Or come to our office for support!

September

20 PTC Meeting, 6:30-8:00 Zoom

All families are welcome to attend.

Zoom Link Here

Meeting ID: 929 416 9707

Passcode: GoTigers!

October

6 Tiger Trot

12 Picture Day

13 NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS - Staff Development Day

16-20 Scholastic Book Fair

18 PTC Meeting, 6:30-8:00 Zoom

20 PTC Evening Event (More info coming!)

23 Vision Screening

27 NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS - Grading Day

Please note a change to the date for STEAM NIGHT in the spring: This event is now on April 26!

As we kick off the new school year, we will be spending time digging into to the District's new Strategic Plan to align our school improvement efforts accordingly. A lot of thought, effort and intention went into crafting this plan, and it is exciting to have a roadmap we can use to align our individual and collective work this year. Thanks to those of you who provided valuable input during this process!

BSD Strategic Plan