The Dolphin Whistle
December 11, 2019 Issue 17
Thursday, December 12th, 2019 is a Minimum Day! Pick up your children at 12:25pm
MESSAGE FROM PRINCIPAL LAMBERT
Dear Parents,
Reading practice is one of the keys to student achievement. This year over the break we will be sending home a reading log for students to record their minutes or pages read. Students are expected to return this reading log, signed by parents, when we return to school on Tuesday, January 7th. All students who return their reading log will have an extra recess!
Have your child choose books or other reading material with content they enjoy. This makes reading at home much more fun. Remember to monitor how much is being read and complete the log with your child. Your partnership in this is much appreciated.
Best Regards,
Theresa Lambert
Principal Mariano Castro Elementary
i- Ready item
New, and important for parents to know:
In January, parents will receive four reports (two for math and two for English language arts): One report will show your student’s overall score and growth since August (take a look here), and a detailed report (look at the report here) will show how your student performed on each grade-level standard, in math and language arts. You can review this information and talk with your teacher about how to support and enrich your child’s learning.
Your child can access i-Ready instruction at home online anytime through Clever to supplement, reinforce and enrich his/her classroom learning (exception: i-Ready instruction is not available at home during diagnostic testing). These lessons supplement core instruction, and support and enrich students' learning. They are tailored to students, based on information from their i-Ready assessments. Please ask your teacher if you have trouble accessing i-Ready.
Please visit www.mvwsd.org/ireadyreport to view sample reports and frequently asked questions. Thank you for your partnership with us in your student’s success.
Calendar
Dec. 11th- Castro Kinder information night
Dec. 13th- Festival of Lights , 3:00pm- 7:00pm- MUR
Dec. 18th- Last day of morning class
Dec. 20th- First grade field trip
Dec. 23th - Jan.6th - December Break
Jan. 7 - Students Return
Jan. 8 - School Site Council Mtg. 5:00 p.m.
Jan. 14 - ELAC Mtg. and Annual Title I Parent Mtg. 6:00 p.m. MUR
FROM THE DISTRICT OFFICE
Saturday with the Superintendent:
Middle School Electives Interest Survey coming the week of 12/16
In order to gauge students’ interests, and inform the development of the elective catalog for the next school year, students in grades 5-7 will be asked to complete a survey in class the week of December 16th. This survey will list possible electives for 2020-21 and ask students to indicate the top three electives they may be interested in taking. The purpose of this survey only is to understand student interests. Students will not be committed to taking the electives they express interest in. Incoming and current middle school students will not formally request electives until the spring of 2020.
For more information on the process, and to view last year’s electives catalogs, please click on www.mvwsd.org/MSelectives.
Check your students: PowerSchool Parent Portal Access to prepare for open enrollment
Beginning January 13, parents with students in grades TK-7 will be able to log on to the PowerSchool Parent Portal to enroll their children for 2020-21. Current eighth-grade parents should check their mail for Mountain View Los Altos Union High School District registration information.
Resources for helping students with math homework
Eureka Math provides a series of free Parent Tip Sheets at the topic level that include suggested strategies and models, key vocabulary, and tips for how you can support learning at home. Available in English and Spanish for grades K-8. To view those tip sheets, click on https://www.mvwsd.org/academics/teaching_the_standards/eureka_math
To access Eureka math videos, curriculum and homework helpers through a free, sign-in parent dashboard, check out nonprofit GreatMinds at https://greatminds.org/math/parents. To access Common Core standards parent roadmaps for math and language arts by grade, click on Parent Roadmaps - ELA and Parent Roadmap - Math
School meetings coming up. Open Enrollment for new MVWSD students starts Jan. 13
School kindergarten information nights are at 6 p.m. on Dec. 11 for neighborhood elementary schools. You may click here to confirm your child’s school of residence.
If your child turns 5 years old between September 2 – December 2 of the current school year, he/she may qualify for transitional kindergarten. TK info night is December 5 at 5:00 PM at Theuerkauf Elementary.
There are a variety of school and program information nights and tours in December at the elementary schools. Please click here for a list of these events.
For NEW and CURRENT students: Open Enrollment is from January 13-February 7 online. You can register your child for the 2020-21 school year when online registration opens on January 13 here: www.mvwsd.org/register .
For more information, call 650-526-3500 or go to www.mvwsd.org/register.
Right at School: Winter Break Camp
PTA News
Festival of Lights
Please mark your calendar for Castro School’s 3rd Annual Festival of Lights! It will be held on Friday, December 13th from 3:00 pm - 7:00 pm at the MUR. Castro PTA and many Volunteers will serve delicious food and drinks that will be available for purchase at the event. There will also be arts & crafts, photos with Santa, a photo booth, letters to Santa, and piñatas for the celebration.
Come join the fun, and enjoy the beautiful lights and decorations of the holiday season with other Castro and Mistral Families! Hope to see you there!
Castro PTA needs Volunteers for the Festival of Lights
Please help us bring this event to the families!
Be a Volunteer, and your kids will brag about you to their friends!!
Thursday, 12/12 from 5:00-8:00pm Decorate for the event 20-25 people
If you have lights, outlet strips, or decorations to let Castro borrow please Sign-Up in the Office!
Friday, 12/13 from 1:00-3:00pm SET-UP for the Event
Food Set-Up, Ticket Sales, Signs, Arts & Crafts, Photo Booth 20-25 people
Friday, 12/13 from 3:00-5:00pm Food-making and serving foods/drinks, Help Arts & Crafts tables, etc.
Friday, 12/13 from 5:00-7:00pm Food-making and serving foods/drinks, Help Arts & Crafts tables, etc.
Friday, 12/13 from 7:00-8:30pm CLEAN-UP of the Event
Clean up of Food, Arts & Crafts, Photo Booth, Lights & Displays, Piñatas, Signs, etc.
Box Tops for Education
The internet is changing the way that many things work these days. Box Tops for Education is changing from clipping the top of the box to scanning your receipt after you shop! Please read the following for important new information about the future of the Box Tops for Education Program:
No more clipping. No more sending Box Tops to school. All you need is your phone. With the Box Tops for Education app, you can turn your everyday receipts into cash for your school. Here’s how:
BUY the Box Tops products you already know and love
SCAN your receipt so that your Box Tops purchases are recognized
EARN cash for your school, based on your eligible purchases
Twice a year, your school will receive a check and can use that cash to buy whatever it needs!
Super-charge your earnings with special bonus offers shown in the app. No need to pre-select or opt-in for these bonus offers and you can stack as many as you like. Just buy the eligible products, scan your receipt, and watch the earnings stack up! And, in case you didn’t already know, here are some of the many Box Tops products that are probably already in your pantry: Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Nature Valley, Totino’s, Old El Paso, Annie’s, Yoplait, Fiber One, Chex, Paper Mate, Nestle, Pure Life, Lysol, Boise, and more. Just look for the Box Tops label on the package. For a complete list of participating products, visit BTFE.com.
Psssst, just one last tip for you. Still seeing the traditional Box Tops clips on products you’ve bought? Most participating brands are allowing you to “double dip” by clipping unexpired traditional Box Tops to send to school AND scanning your receipt for double earnings!
Over the last 23 years, more than 70,000 K-8 schools across the U.S. have earned over $913 million through the Box Tops for Education Program. With the new Box Tops app, you can be a part of the next evolution of the program – strengthening our schools for generations to come.
DOWNLOAD THE APP TODAY!! Box Tops For Education in the app store!!