Each year, our goal is to make our vision statement come alive.

Our vision is to create an inclusive, collaborative, and welcoming community of learners who experience a kind, responsible, and safe environment and a sense of belonging. We believe in creating joyful and meaningful academic, social, and emotional learning opportunities, building a foundation for independence and lifelong learning.

As we begin the new school year, we look forward to getting to know our students and learning and growing together!

October

Tuesday, October 1: Hispanic Heritage Assembly for our K-5 students (Thank you PTO)

Thursday, October 3 and Friday, October 4: Schools closed for Rosh Hashanah

Tuesday, October 8: Grade 5 Trip

Week of October 7: School Bus Safety Lessons K-5

Thursday, October 10: Fire Prevention Day! Goldens Bridge Fire Department visiting

Friday, October 11: Reminder: Annual Test of our Early Dismissal Plan: Dismissal 15 min. earlier

Monday, October 14: Schools Closed for Columbus Day/Indigenous People's Day

Wednesday, October 16: District Learning Cafe Meet at 7 pm JJMS Dining Hall

Friday, October 18: IMpact Meeting at 8:15 am (formerly known as Compact Team)

Friday, October 18: Grade 5 Pasta Night

Wednesday, October 23 & Thursday, October 24: School Garden Harvest Days

Friday, October 25: School-wide Soup Day!

Friday, October 25: Kindergarten Family Math Workshop at 8:30 am cafeteria

Saturday, October 26: PTO Spooktacular 1 pm - 4 pm

Wednesday, October 30: Grade 2 Pumpkin Math

Wednesday, October 30: District ERJ Meeting at JJMS 6 pm - 7:30 pm

Thursday, October 31: Wear orange, purple, and black!

November

Tues. November 5: Schools Closed/ Election Day/ Superintendent's Conference Day

Wed, November 6: Interim Reports/Parent Portal Opens

Thurs. November 7: Early Dismissal: 12:15 pm/ No lunch served/Evening Parent-Teacher Conferences

Fri. November 8: Grade 1 Math Family Workshop 8:30 am - 9:30 am

Mon. November 11: Schools Closed: Veteran's Day

Thurs. November 14: Early Dismissal: 12:15 pm/No lunch served/Afternoon Parent-Teacher Conferences

Fri. November 15: IMpact Committee Meeting at 8:15 am

Mon. November 18: Early Dismissal: 12:15 pl/No lunch served/Evening Parent-Teacher Conferences

Fri. November 22: Grade 2 Math Family Workshop 8:30 am - 9:30 am

Tues. November 26: Grade 1 Gratitude Concert

Thursday, November 28 Schools Closed/Thanksgiving

Friday, November 29 Schools Closed

On Friday, October 11, as per our District Calendar, all KLSD schools will dismiss 15 minutes earlier than their normally scheduled time in order to test the early dismissal response of the Emergency Management Plan.

All students will be transported in accordance with their current dismissal information provided by parents/guardians. If this were an actual emergency, all students would follow their unscheduled early closing plan.

Kindergarten students only: If an adult is not at the bus stop to receive the Kindergarten student, the child(ren) will not be left at the stop. The Kindergarten student(s) will be returned to Increase Miller to await pick up by a parent or guardian.

Please make appropriate arrangements for the early arrival of your child(ren) as a result of this drill.

For Elementary School students only: If you plan to pick up your child(ren) on this day, please arrange to pick them up between 2:55 PM and 3:10 PM in the gym. Please complete the Dismissal Change Form (link at the bottom of this newsletter).

All Elementary students who attend the afterschool program through Country Children’s Center (CCC) will be transported to their appropriate CCC program.

All other regularly scheduled after school, extracurricular and athletics activities will be held as scheduled. Students who are scheduled to attend the PTO's Eddie's Extras after school programs will be brought to the cafeteria. After the early dismissal drill, they will be permitted to attend their after school activities.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Kindergarten: Students are drawing upon their growing knowledge of letter-sound correspondence to add letters and words to their writing pieces. In reading, students will begin working with reading partners and story-tell familiar Star Storybooks such as A Big Mooncake for Little Star, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and Harry the Dirty Dog. In word work, students will be repeating rhyming words, catching first sounds in words, blending two words together to make a compound word, and segmenting compound words into parts. In math, students will compare numbers to 5 and then begin to explore numbers to 10. In science, our budding scientists are exploring nature using their 5 senses and distinguishing between living and nonliving things.

Grade 1: As we establish important rules in our first-grade classrooms, students are beginning to make connections between what it means to be a good citizen in our school, as well as in our community. During reading, students are working on building good habits to increase their stamina, solve tricky words, and work together with a partner. During word work, first graders are segmenting, blending and spelling words with digraphs. Even though they are made up of two letters, digraphs stick together to make one sound. Our writers are generating ideas for their small moment stories. As they begin to write about things that have happened to them or things that they do, students are planning their stories through oral storytelling, touching and telling across the pages, and sketching. In math, students have been learning important vocabulary when solving addition and subtraction facts to 10. Students will work on counting on to solve addition problems and count back to solve subtractions problems. They will also learn about the important relationship between addition and subtraction.

Grade 2: Students in 2nd grade are working on reading and writing glued sounds in Fundations. They are reviewing how to write complete sentences and are using this skill while writing personal narratives. Building stamina and fluency while reading continues to be a focus among second graders. Understanding story elements and getting to know characters is also important work happening. In math, students are working on solidifying math facts through 20, even and odd numbers, and building arrays. Pumpkin Math is on the horizon and is a beloved 2nd grade tradition at IMES! Second grade scientists will be using what they know about properties of matter to design ‘sticky glue’. As always, being a kind, responsible, and safe citizen remains a topic of discussion in all the classrooms.

Grade 3: In third grade, nonfiction becomes our focus in ELA. In writing, students will teach others by creating expert-based books. Third graders will learn to write introductions, organize information, and include text features that help their readers. In reading, students will learn essential skills for reading nonfiction. They will learn to read expository texts with fluency, determine what is important, and ascertain main ideas. Additionally, students are reviewing suffixes and learning rules for adding suffixes to words. In math, students are using patterns and properties to build fluency with multiplication facts. Also, this month, 3rd graders will learn about forces in science. They will create physical and diagram models and write scientific explanations detailing how the Maglev (magnetic levitation) train appears to defy gravity by floating.

Grade 4: Fourth graders are continuing to work on building and strengthening their classroom learning communities. In ELA, students are selecting their own texts with a stretch, flex, and rest mindset. They are practicing their fluency while thinking deeply about complex characters, their traits, motivations, and struggles. They are working to interpret story elements, analyze author's craft, and practice word attack skills through interactive read alouds and independent reading experiences. In addition, students are applying newly learned spelling patterns, deciphering vocabulary meanings, and developing their grammar skills, which are crucial for clear and effective communication. As they continue learning, they are encouraged to apply these skills daily, whether in classwork, homework, or personal writing. In math, students are using strategies and properties to estimate sums and differences, fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers, as well as multiply by 1-digit and 2-digit numbers. Finally, students are beginning to bridge the connections between New York’s geography and the historic process of land formation. As geologists, they will be making inferences about the past using data from the present and begin to conceptualize the small changes occurring in an environment that lead to dramatic changes to its landscape over time.

Grade 5: Fifth graders will begin October by celebrating their growth and accomplishments in writing personal narratives. They will also launch their reading unit focused on exploring theme and analyzing story elements. The important work done in September to create a supportive learning environment will continue to be reinforced as students embark on realistic fiction book groups. Interactive read alouds will help students to continue to build their word attack, reading comprehension, and vocabulary acquisition strategies. Place value to the right of the decimal point will be further explored as students add and subtract decimals in math. Multi-digit multiplication will also be an instructional focus in October. Finally, as November approaches, our social studies unit on governments of the Western Hemisphere, will zero in on the election process here in the United States.

It was wonderful seeing our families at our Curriculum Nights! If you want to read more about our curriculum and instruction and/or if you were not able to attend, please click on the link below for our K-5 Curriculum Guides

As per our District’s Response to Intervention Plan, students will be assessed in both reading and mathematics.

· Interventionists and teachers will be administering the fall benchmarks to all students.

· These short screenings are administered both whole class and/or individually.

· The results of the screenings, along with other relevant school data, is reviewed by the IMES RtI Team (principal, interventionists, and classroom teachers).

· If your child meets KLSD eligibility criteria and qualifies for RtI services, you will receive a communication from your child’s teacher and/or Interventionist in late October/early November

Mrs. Burroughs, Kindergarten Teacher and Elementary Math Leader for K,1, and 2 along with Ms. Silverman, one of our District's Instructional Coaches, will be hosting three Family Math Workshops this fall. Please see flyers below for the date, time, and format. We hope you can make it!

During October, K-5 classrooms will also be reading the common read, The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld. The picture book explores emotions, empathy, and the power of listening.

We are also focusing on understanding our emotions and emotion management. We use tools and visual from the Zones of Regulation Program to teach students about feelings and coping strategies.

Please see the visual tool below along with book recommendations that connect to the colors/feelings chart.

Students have been working hard to build Kind, Responsible, and Safe (K,R,S) classroom communities since the start of the school year. We have reestablished classroom and school routines, and we met as a school during our sharing assembly to review K,R,S expectations. During October's Sharing Assemblies, we will continue our work on voice levels, used in our classrooms and school-wide. Please ask your children about “voice level 0” and ask them to identify places in the school where “voice level 0” is K, R, S. Additionally, we will introduce our “speak up” commitment at IMES, focused on teaching students to speak up when they observe words or actions that may be hurtful to others. Speaking up reinforces our K,R,S values, and empowers students to play an active role through their daily interactions. This powerful approach, adapted from Learning for Justice: Speak Up at School, was presented to the KLSD administrative team this summer. We will focus on the first step this month by teaching students to “interrupt” when they witness words or actions that are hurtful to others. This helps to support and validate the student on the receiving end of the hurtful words or actions. It also communicates that the actions observed are not welcome. We are looking forward to building on our commitment to speak up in the months to come.

As a school community, we continue to promote kindness, acceptance, and inclusivity, and raise awareness about bullying.

Beginning in October, all K-5 classrooms will learn about bullying. Lessons will define what bullying is and explain what it means to be a bystander and an upstander. Students will also learn what to do if they are being bullied and how to help others.

Students in grades k-2 will also learn concepts while reading “ One”, by Kathryn Otoshi. The story uses colors and numbers to learn about accepting each other’s differences and how it sometimes just takes one voice to make everyone count. Students grades 3-5 will take part in an activity called “crumpled heart” which helps children to understand the lasting impact that bullying can have and how important it is to be kind.

We continue to use the resource Second Step, specifically the Child Protection Unit, to support our health curriculum in your child’s classroom. This curriculum is written for elementary school age children and is organized into three class sessions. Students will learn three types of skills:

Personal Safety: Students will learn important safety rules, such as safety with guns, sharp tools, and fire, and when riding on wheels or in cars. They will also learn ways to help them decide if something is safe or not.

Touching Safety: Students will learn about safe, unsafe, and unwanted touches, and to tell an adult if someone breaks rules about touching private body parts.

Assertiveness: These lessons will also give students a chance to practice asking an adult for help, telling an adult about an unsafe situation, and being assertive to get out of unsafe situations.

If you have any questions or concerns about the Child Protection Unit, please contact Mrs. Kiri Ryan @ kryan@klschools.org. The lessons will be implemented by Ms. Ryan in the classrooms in October and November.

KLSD will be celebrating Red Ribbon Week throughout the district October 23-31, 2024.

Red Ribbon Week (RRW) has grown into the most far-reaching and well-known drug prevention event in America. Schools across the nation continue the tradition of wearing red ribbons to promote making healthy and responsible choices.

At the elementary level, we will continue our tradition of connecting IMES’s mantra of KIND RESPONSIBLE AND SAFE to the RRW message of making healthy choices.

Students will participate in a classroom activity asking them to draw or write an example of themselves making a positive healthy choice. These will be displayed either in the classroom building.

We hope this information is helpful to you in understanding RRW and how the concepts may apply to young children. Here is a link for more information: Red Riboon Week

Please feel free to ask your child about the activity and what they think RRW means. Prevention starts early!

Today we enjoyed a wonderful dance performance today for Hispanic Heritage Month! Thank you to the PTO for organizing this event! See one of the pictures of the performance!

Each day, all our K-5 students watch our Morning Announcements hosted by our fifth grade students. These daily videos include a good day greeting, pledge of allegiance, birthdays, word of the day, heritage month information, and holidays. This month, our Morning Announcements will include information about Filipino Heritage Month, Italian Heritage Month, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, National Indigenous People's Day, and Diwali.

Our October Sharing Assemblies on Friday, October 11 will also highlight our heritage months too!

You may have seen our DEIB learning board which featured Diwali and Filipino Heritage Month for the month of October and our calendar board will include other holidays throughout the year.

Italian Heritage Month is also in October and our and PTO/Grade 5 Committee will be hosting the Grade 5 Pasta Night on October 18 with our grade 5 students. One of our other learning boards will feature our Grade 5 students for this special event.

While we work hard to develop a sense of belonging here at IMES, the district also strives to make sure that all students feel seen, heard and accepted. For the fifth consecutive year, the district is reaching out to invite all interested middle and high school students, colleagues, community members, and parents to join the district-wide Equity and Racial Justice Committee (ERJC). Whether you’re someone who has attended ERJC meetings in the past, or someone who would like to join for the first time, please complete this linked form, RSVP using this link. so that they know you will be in attendance. Full team meetings will take place in-person again this year from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm in the JJMS dining room on the following dates: October 30, December 10, March 10, May 6, and June

Finally, thank you to all our families who completed the brief family survey at our Curriculum Nights. This information continues to help us create a mirror or window for our students.

During the week of October 7, our transportation department will also run bus safety drills and present bus safety lessons to our K-5 classes. Bus Safety Week is a public education initiative across the country to address the importance of school bus safety.

On Thursday 10/10, the Goldens Bridge Fire Department will teach our students about fire safety. All classes K-5 will hear a presentation from the firefighters and have the opportunity to see two fire trucks and the equipment used. Thank you to our Goldens Bridge Fire Department for their commitment to providing these fun and informative experiences for our students.

Please note safety drills will take place in our school during the week of October 7.

Any change of your typical dismissal plan (either bus or pick-up) requires a written communication from a parent or guardian via our daily Dismissal Change Form.

Please click on the button below to preview this form. A link to this form is posted on the IMES website, and will be included in each of our family communications.

Please note that the Dismissal Change Form must be completed by 12 PM on the day of the dismissal change to ensure the information is relayed and followed.

In school, on Thursday, October 31, your child may wear orange, purple, and/or black to recognize the day. Kindergarten students will have an opportunity to parade around the school outside (weather pending) in their costumes and grade levels will be planning learning activities in the classrooms. Kindergarten classroom teachers will communicate more details in the near future.

A written excuse is required by New York State Law each time a child is absent or late. The excuse should be sent with the child when he/she returns to school or on the day of lateness. In addition to the specific dates, the reason for the absence or lateness should be stated in the note and signed by a parent or guardian.

Parents are requested to call the school attendance line (763-7150) on the first day of each absence. If a child is absent and no call is made, the school will attempt to contact the parent. This is done for the safety and protection of the child.

Thank you to all our educators for making the first month of school welcoming and joyful for all our students.

Thank you to all our families for coming to Curriculum Night to learn about your child's day and learning.

Thank you to our IMES PTO and Mrs Zaremba and Ms. Desrosiers for the beautiful bulletin boards.

Thank you to the PTO for the Hispanic Heritage Assemblies today!

Students may enter the building at 9:10 a.m. School begins at 9:15 a.m. and buses depart Increase Miller at 3:40 p.m. Any student arriving after 9:15 a.m. is marked late. Please make every opportunity to arrive on time.

Our Main Office is here to support you and answer your questions. You can reach the main office at 763-7155 or 763-7117.. Our office staff members include Ms. Eden Ladd, Office Assistant and Mrs. Jennifer Ferentini, Secretary to the Principal