October Parent Newsletter 2023

This month we have a lot of fun and exciting activities and events scheduled for our students. October is National Bullying Prevention Awareness and Kindness month and during the week of October 9-13 we have different activities each day to show our support of Bullying Prevention. Later in the month we also have our Red Ribbon Week, our Fall Festival and our Halloween Trunk or Treat. Please join us in supporting each of our school activities.

Also, on Friday October 6th, we are holding another Parent Volunteer informational Meeting. If you plan to volunteer to support our school during an event or a field trip, please make sure to attend this meeting as we will review protocols and requirements for volunteering. Procotols have changed and you need to attend this meeting in order to be on campus.

Lastly, our October Student of the Month assembly is happening on Monday, October 23rd. Like last month's Student of the Month Assembly, we will continue to hold them in person and parents will be invited to attend.

As always, thank you all for your continued support and GOOOOOO TIGERS!!!!!

At Joseph Gascon Elementary, we teach the AVID strategies in all of our third, fourth and fifth grade classes. By teaching academic language, responsible behavior and higher-level thinking at a young age, we are helping our students develop and solidify the academic habits they will need to be successful in middle school, high school, college and beyond. On Mondays we hang our college flags outside every classroom and throuhout the year, students create projects around different college campuses. Our goal is to provide an academic foundation the students will need to be on a path for college and career success.

District Wide Strategy for the Month of October is Focused Note-Taking: The five phases of Focused Note-Taking helps students to start thinking about the format of the notes they are taking, processing the information by using a variety of annotations, connecting their thinking by using leveled questions, summarizing and reflecting and applying what they have taken to the work being completed.

W - when you

E - enter this

L - loving school

C - consider yourself

O - one of the special

M - members of an

E - extraordinary family

Dear Family Members/Caregivers,

We understand that building a welcoming environment and starting with positive energy is essential to making sure our students feel the care and love necessary for them to thrive in school. As a school we are focusing on being deliberate that all of our students, staff, and caregivers are greeted with a warm welcome as they enter our campus. To support this initiative, have a conversation with your student on the importance of greetings. What is the family value on how you greet other family members? Neighbors? Friends? Talk to your student on how he or she feels when they are greeted warmly and if that is something they want others to feel as well. End with how your student can respond to a greeting.

October is National Bullying Prevention Month, a time to focus and raise awareness on bullying. During this month, many groups across the country will release new resources, campaigns, and efforts aimed at bringing awareness to the issue of bullying. We will show our support of this month during the week of October 9-13 by celebrating each day with different activities.

Red Ribbon Week, which is celebrated annually October 23 - 31st is the nation's oldest and largest drug prevention awareness program. Red Ribbon Week started after the death of Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, who in 1985 was brutally murdered by drug traffickers he was investigating in Mexico. After his death, people wanted to honor his sacrifice. Local celebrations began in California – where Camarena grew up – in 1985, and in 1988 the National Family Partnership started the first National Red Ribbon Week. During the week of October 23-31, we promote a safe and healthy learning environment by taking the opportunity to talk to our students about the dangers of drug use.

This year we are bringing the Halloween fun to Joseph A. Gascón Elementary School. Watch as your kids have a bewitching good time dodging and screaming through monster infested darkness and fog. This year we’re releasing all sorts of terrors that are ready to scare, terrify, and bemuse. Our Halloween maze is not for the faint of heart!!!! We will also have 7 fun filled booths for you and your families to enjoy. Our booths will include face painting, dessert spin, Tic Tac Toe ball throw, (golf) pumpkin putting, a fun Tiger Holding Cage, and a football tire toss. Don’t get left out of the fun!! Tickets are required for this event. Each ticket will cost $1. Remember that all money raised goes back into Joseph Gascón Elementary School. Please come and support us. Purchase advance tickets at our School Office.

CALLING ALL TIGER FAMILIES... We need your help in making our Trunk or Treat a big success and super fun time for our children. We are asking each JGE Family to PLEASE donate 1 large bag of candy (or more). You can send the candy to school with your child. Please make sure the candy you donate is individually wrapped. We would love to have 100% family participation. Your donations will be a big help in making this event successful! We are anticipating a large number of children and we want to make sure we have enough candy to share with our Trunk-or-Treaters!!

Also, we need one parent per class to volunteer to decorate their car and give out candy during our Trunk or Treat. If you are interested, please speak to your child's teacher and sign up. Thank you again help us make this event a ‘fun’tastic Halloween celebration for our children.

On Tuesday, October 31, 2023, we will have a Halloween parade and students will be able to wear their costume to school. Costume should be school age appropriate. No blood, face painting, or other “scary” items will be allowed. No accessories such as plastic swords, guns, or knives are allowed. Students may wear their masks during the student parade only but not during school hours. Again, face painting is not allowed.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated in making this a fun activity for all our students at Gascón Elementary School. Thank you!

The Water Replenishment District (WRD) is accepting submissions for the 9th Annual Student Art Contest! The contest encourages students to create artwork that reflects the significance of water in our lives and the importance of conserving this precious resource.

• K-5th grade students can submit their water-related artwork by November 5th
• 23 winners will receive cash prizes, and their artwork will be published in the 2024 WRD Water Awareness Calendar.
• ALL participating students receive awards, certificates of recognition, and a calendar copy.
• Teachers with the most student participation can win a Water Education Mini-Grant for their classrooms.
• Please review the complete contest rules at www.wrd.org/StudentArtContest.

English and Spanish flyers are available for download.

Together, we can inspire students to positively impact our environment while fostering their creativity.

Families and community members are invited to attend these ESL conversation classes called Cafécito and Conversations. The classes are being held at the City of Commerce Public Library in the READs Center. In these classes, there are discussions over coffee after reading articles from easy-reader newspapers. The purpose of this is to encourage the participants to talk about current events but most importantly to help attendees build confidence in practicing their English in a safe setting. These classes will be held for 5 weeks, and families can attend the class times that best fits their schedule.

Joseph A. Gascón Elementary is honored to celebrate students who were nominated for either the PBIS Award or the Tiger PAW Award.

Students who received the PBIS award were nominated because they displayed excellent citizenship and followed our ROAR initiatives.

Students who were nominated for the Tiger PAW award demonstrated high academic achievements and are our Students of the Month. This does not happen without the support and guidance of excellent parents, teachers, and friends!

Thank you everyone!

As you are already aware, the Montebello Unified School District adopted the iReady Diagnostic & Instruction again this school year in grades K-5. iReady is an adaptive assessment that district students will take three times (beginning, middle and end) per year in reading and math. All students completed their first diagnostic and now we are able to utilize the results to differentiate, individualized online and classroom instruction based on the skills that each student needs.

We are happy to share that over 80 students already scored at or above grade level in either reading or math on their first diagnostic. We recognized these students last month and they are pictured below. Congratulations to these students again and we hope to have more students listed as the year progreses.

I wanted to bring to your attention an announcement that was shared by the Montebello Unified School District to the MUSD community. The extremely dangerous drug Fentanyl is wreaking havoc on communities and causing devastation to families. As you may have seen in recent news reports, some of our neighboring school Districts have experienced the tragic loss of students due to Fentanyl overdoses. While we are not aware of any Fentanyl overdoses in our District, we would like to partner with you and make you aware of the dangers of this deadly drug.

Fentanyl is a very strong opioid. Although Fentanyl is made and used pharmaceutically, it is also

produced illegally and trafficked into the United States, typically as powder and pills. A very small

amount of this substance can cause someone to overdose and die.

Working together, we can raise awareness in our community. As parents and guardians, we

encourage you to communicate the dangers of Fentanyl to your children. Please remind and encourage your students to report or notify school officials of incidents or actions that may pose a danger to individuals or the school.

We want to keep our students and school communities safe from any danger they may face. Thank

you for your continued partnership in protecting every student in MUSD. Let’s work together to keep

this dangerous threat from causing more tragedy.

Action Youth America (AYA), formerly known as ICES Education has been serving California families for over 30 years, providing top quality service in academics, sports, and other areas of education. Our programs are built upon the foundation of excellence and time-tested methods that have allowed us to be one of the leading providers of before and after-school programs in the United States.

The AYA program is academically driven as we understand the need for providing complementary academic support to the instructional day in order for students to meet their full potential. Our academic coordinator Stefanie is responsible for assuring optimal academic alignment to school and district needs. The AYA staff is formally trained on Common Core learning expectations and write, or can assist in writing a curriculum around the principles of Common Core. Additionally, the AYA staff works with interventions, state testing prep camps, and modeling/training.

ELO Link: https://sites.google.com/montebello.k12.ca.us/eloafterschool/home

ELO Application Link: rb.gy/g4h8n

The Montebello Unified School District is providing advanced technology and increased access to learning opportunities for the District’s learning community. The District has installed an intra-net “MUSD-Net” providing networked computing with an Internet gateway.

MUSD Vision Statement

Empowering Students to Achieve Academic Excellence as Model Citizens.

Joseph A. Gascon Mission Statement

The learning community of Joseph A. Gascon Elementary is committed to cultivate excellence in Language Arts, Mathematics, English Language Development, Science and Physical Education. We emphasize on opportunities for all stakeholders to be critical thinkers, communicators, creators, and technology integrators. We are committed to providing a safe, stimulating and caring learning environment. Our goal is produce self-motivated, ethical, and successful individuals that can compete and succeed in a global setting.

Address: 630 South Leonard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90022

Office: (323 )721-2025 Fax: (323) 887-3034

Office Hours: 7:00am - 3:00pm