• In October, I shared that the district has partnered with the ADL on an initiative called “No Place for Hate.” Over the past week, we held a learning community assembly in order to introduce the program, focusing on the following message: Our words and actions carry power and we can impact someone else’s feelings. As a school, we reviewed our pledge (a serious promise we make) to be fair, respectful, help others feel safe and included—there is no place for hate. The initial lesson focused on celebrating what makes them special and why that’s important to celebrate; being yourself is most important. Two more lessons are scheduled for the winter/spring and I will share updates as they occur.

• School Photo Retakes-BNL Photography will return to the Primary Centers on January 7th.
  

• Dress for the Weather: Please be sure your child(ren) come(s) to school dressed appropriately for the weather. Layers are always helpful, so as to provide students the opportunity to change as necessary. We go out as much as possible. Please, please, please label all items with names!

• Sing-A-Long:

• December 16th at 2:15pm (with a snow date of December 18th).
• I will send a map so you know where your child(ren)'s class(es) will be sitting as well as a photo of the door to use to enter the buildling--we are using the Jefferson Elementary School's gym
• This is a parent/guardian only event (no siblings); no more than 2-3 adults per child
• You may wish to bring a blanket/towel to sit on

• JPC Holiday Spirit Week- Dec. 16-20

Please make sure to LABEL all clothing, coats, jackets, etc. with your child's name.

Please stop by the Main Office if your child is missing anything. We are keeping a box with collected items .

• Whooping Cough (Pertussis): Symptoms, Treatment & Prevention (Eng and Span)
• How to Buy Safe Toys (Eng and Span)

Coaches Tip #2 from Staci Kaplan, Literacy Coach:

Dear Parents,

Last month the literacy tip focused on the power of phonemic awareness. Helping our young readers identify sounds in words. This month our focus is on the power of reading books at home.

How We Read to Kindergarteners Matters

How we read to kindergarteners is just as important as how often we read to them. The Stony Brook Reading and Language Project has developed a method of reading to kindergarteners that we call dialogic reading.

When most adults share a book with a kindergartener, they read, and the child listens. In dialogic reading, the adult helps the child become the teller of the story. The adult becomes the listener, the questioner, the audience for the child. No one can learn to play the piano just by listening to someone else play. Likewise, no one can learn to read just by listening to someone else read. Children learn most from books when they are actively involved.

The fundamental reading technique in dialogic reading is the PEER sequence. This is a short interaction between a child and the adult. The adult:

• Prompts the child to say something about the book,

• Evaluates the child’s response,

• Expands the child’s response by rephrasing and adding information to it, and

• Repeats the prompt to make sure the child has learned from the expansion.

Imagine that the parent and the child are looking at the page of a book that has a picture of a flower garden on it. The parent says, “What is this?” (the prompt) while pointing to the picture. The child says, “Flowers,” and the parent follows with “That’s right (the evaluation); those are flowers in the garden (the expansion); can you say ‘flower garden’?” (the repetition).

Except for the first reading of a book to children, PEER sequences should occur on nearly every page. Sometimes you can read the written words on the page and then prompt the child to say something. For many books, you should do less and less reading of the written words in the book each time you read it. Leave more to the child.

Resource: Reading Rockets: Dialogic Reading, Dialogic Reading Tools

Happy reading,

Staci Kaplan

December 2024

December 16th: Sing-A-Long (2:15-2:45pm)--Snow date, the 18th.

December 23-31st: Schools Closed

January 2025

January 1: Schools closed

January 2: Schools reopen

January 7: School Photo Retakes (BNL Photography)

• I observed students...
• using oral language to define words (raft vs. boat)
• using letter-sound knowledge to blend and segment words
• decompose and build teen numbers (11 is 10 plus 1 more; 15 is 10 plus 5 more0
• answering WH (who/what/where/when/why) questions about a read aloud to demonstrate their comprehension skills

JES 5th Grade Minted Fundraiser

Parent/Family Handbook

Parent Portal (Genesis--Access Student attendance, report cards, etc.)

Update/Add Contact Info in Parent Portal

Primary Centers' Visitor Protocol

JPC Car Line Information