We will hand out permission slips for the following fall clubs on Monday. Below is the list of clubs for students to sign up for. Ms. Lewis will visit the students' homerooms to explain the clubs and the process. She will hand out permission slips at that time. Additional permission slips will be available in the main or Ms. Lewis's offices. Students are to hand them back to Ms. Lewis or the main office.

Fall Clubs: October 16th to December 22nd.

Student Council- Mondays (6th-8th graders)

Flag Football- Tuesdays and Wednesdays (4th-6th graders)

Passport to Adventure- Tuesdays (2nd-5th graders)

Soccer Club- Mondays and Thursdays (6th-8th graders)

Choir- Mondays and Tuesdays (3rd-8th graders)

Green Team (Recycling)- Wednesday (5th-8th graders)

Cooking Club- Thursday (6th-8th graders)

All clubs run till 4:15

The YWCA program will be starting on Monday, October 16th. Parents of students who can start next Monday will receive notification by phone, email, or DOJO this week. It is essential you are answering the calls, checking messages, etc. This program ends at 5:30 and includes dinner. If you have not heard back from the program but submitted your application, please get in touch with the Program Director, Brittney Higgs, at bhiggs@ywca-wny.org to confirm the status. Applications are still available; you can also contact Ms. Higgs if you need an application. Do not plan on your child attending on Monday the 16th without confirmation.

Oct. 11 - Picture Day, Farmers Market 9-10, Good for the Neighborhood 4:30-6:30, HS Open House 4:30-6:30

Oct. 16 - YWCA program and afterschool clubs start

Oct. 18 - Farmers Market 9-10

Oct. 25 - Farmers Market 9-10

Oct. 28 - Super Saturday - Trunk or Treat

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• Set a regular bedtime and morning routine.
• Lay out clothes and pack backpacks the night before.
• Communicate regularly with your child's teacher, to know what is happening each day.
• Develop backup plans for getting to school if something comes up. Call on a family member, a neighbor, or another parent.
• Try to schedule non-urgent related medical appointments and extended trips when school isn’t in session.
• If your child seems anxious about going to school, talk to teachers, school counselors, and other parents for advice on how to make your child feel comfortable and excited about learning.
• If your child must stay home due to illness, ask the teacher for resources and ideas to continue learning at home.
• If you are concerned that your child may have Covid-19, call your school for advice.

If you're not feeling confident about reading aloud or sharing the reading experience with your reader, don't worry—there's no right or wrong way to enjoy a story together. Consider these suggestions for supporting your reader with daily reading at home:

1. Make it appealing

Enhance the experience by discussing what's on the pages, such as the colors, letters, pictures, and what's happening in the story. Also, get creative with your voice. You can't be too silly when reading with a child; the more exaggerated the voices, the better!

2. Encourage connections

When kids connect what they already know to what they read, it helps them focus. As you read to your readers, they will associate the book's content with other things you've read together, people you know, animals you've seen, places you've been, and so on. Take time to allow children to ask questions that launch meaningful conversation within reading time.

3. Ask questions

Asking open-ended questions encourages kids to look for clues in the text about what's happening on the page or in the story. When you read together, ask questions to spark your reader's curiosity. Ask things like "What do you think will happen?" or "How is that character feeling?"

4. Create "mind movies"

Visualizing helps bring a story to life. That's where mind movies come in. When you read with your reader, describe the scene in your head. Talk about how it makes you feel. You can use other senses, too. For example, if the scene takes place outside, what does it smell like? Then, invite your reader to make a mind movie of their own. Point out how their movie is different from yours. If your reader likes to draw or color, encourage them to draw a picture of the scene.

5. Look for clues

When you combine what you already know with clues from a story, you can make guesses or predictions. These are inferences, and making them is a terrific way to build reading comprehension. For example, when we read, "Maya's eyes were red, and her nose was runny," we can conclude that Maya has a cold, allergies, or has been crying. Help your reader do this as you read. If a character is wearing athletic clothes and sweating, ask them what the character might have been doing before.

6. Figure out what's important

Some questions to ask your reader: "Who are the main characters?" "What's the most important thing that has happened in the story so far?" "What problem are the characters trying to solve?" When kids can point out what's important, they are more likely to understand what they read.

7. Check understanding

It helps to encourage kids to stop and ask themselves, "Is this making sense?" If your reader gets stuck, suggest rereading the part that didn't make sense. What about it was confusing? Were there specific words that tripped your reader up? Then, work together to resolve the confusion.

8. Try new things

The more kids know about the world, the more they can get meaning from what they read. You don't have to take an expensive trip to do this. You can expand kids' background knowledge and vocabulary in lots of ways. For example, shooting hoops or watching a baseball game can help children connect more with books about sports. Riding the subway might make children interested in books that take place in big cities. Walking in a park might get them interested in bugs or birds. The possibilities of new experiences for children are endless.

9. Build confidence

Read aloud to your reader; when it's time, have them read to you. Reading builds confidence in kids. There's nothing quite as enriching as sharing a book together, so elevate your reader's self-assurance by reading together.

Dear Parent(s)/Guardian(s),

We are thrilled to let you know that we will continue to use the DESSA SEL Assessment Program with students this year. Over two decades of research has helped us understand the important roles social and emotional skills play in each child’s success in school, in the community, and, eventually, in higher education and the workplace. Skills such as demonstrating self-control, persisting at challenging tasks, making good decisions, and working well in groups are all necessary for being successful students and adults. The process by which students learn these and other similar skills is called social and emotional learning. To support our students in developing essential social and emotional skills that will help them become successful and responsible adults, we will be implementing a social and emotional learning program throughout our school.

As part of this program, our teachers will be using a tool called the Devereux Student Strength Assexrment, or DESSA, which was developed by the Devereux Center for Resilient Child This tool asks teachers to rate how often a student has demonstrated specific social and emotional skills in the past month.

Sample DESSA questions include:

• How often did the child keep trying when unsuccessful?

• How often did the child offer to help somebody?

• How often did the child get things done in a timely fashion?

• How often did the child work well in groups?

The purpose of the DESSA is to identify which social and emotional skills your child has already learned and what skills he or she might still need to develop. Our goal is to ensure that your child is continuously developing the social and emotional skills that they need for lifelong success. While the DESSA is just one component of our social and emotional learning program, we want to make sure that you are informed of our use of this instructional tool. We believe that the information gathered from the DESSA will be beneficial to your child’s overall success both inside and outside of the classroom.

Aperture Education publishes the DESSA. To view additional information about the DESSA, visit https://apertureed.com/dessa/

Sincerely,

Joe Fabiano, Counselor K-2

Julie Schaefer, Counselor 3-5

Linda Morgan, Counselor 6-8

Brianna Pumputis, Social Worker K-8