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5-20-16 Buzz Newsletter
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The Springer Buzz May 20, 2016 |
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In This Issue:
Quick Dates for your Calendar:
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Principal’s Message |
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Another Springer Retirement It is with sadness for Springer but happiness for her that I announce that another Kathy is retiring at the end of this school year. Kathy Hartley, Springer’s school psychologist is riding off into the sunset after a stellar career in education. Kathy Hartley first started teaching in 1970! She became a school psychologist in 1990. She was hired by Los Altos School district in 1991. During her career, she has worked in almost all of the LASD schools. She also did stints in Granite Bay (near Folsom Lake) and in London. We have all, over time, come in contact with people who have helped us develop into the people we are today. For me, Kathy is one of the individuals who has made an enormous impact on my own development as a principal. Her wisdom and knowledge helped sculpt me as a new principal. Kathy is someone who I learn from on almost a daily basis, not just on educational matters. When I reach retirement age, I will look back on all the people who helped shape my career. Kathy surely will be one of the key players in my development as an educator and as a person. Her keen experience has been a great source of help and support for all staff. Please join me in wishing her well as she embarks on the next phase of her life. A True Performance Task In education, a performance task is an opportunity for students to utilize various skills they’ve learned and apply them in a situation that allows them to produce a product. A good example of this is today’s music concert. This afternoon, in front of a captive audience of parents, our 4th, 5th, and 6th graders applied all of their skills learned over the course of the year during music instruction and produced beautiful music. Performance tasks come in different flavors however. Take the 2nd graders field trip to In-N-Out this week, for example. This field trip is part of their Consumers and Producers unit. Prior to their visit to In-N-Out, 2nd graders learned vocabulary and concepts about consumption and production. They researched the company in order to be knowledgeable about what they were going to experience. They prepared questions for their tour guide. Then, on the field trip, they practiced the steps of production and customer service. Their teacher advised the restaurant manager that, since these kids really knew their stuff, don’t be shy in grilling (excuse the pun but I had to) the students with questions. The restaurant manager did just that; he quizzed them on aspects of the company’s history, franchising, production, and consumption. The 2nd graders answered the questions without hesitation. The manager commented to the teacher how impressed he was with the students. He was amazed at how much they knew, how prepared they were, their knowledge of the company, and their speaking skills. They clearly mastered their performance task! Wade Spenader Principal |
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Volunteers Needed For Field Day |
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Friday, June 3 is Field Day. We are looking for volunteers to help out that morning. Click here to sign up. Questions? Contact Donna Murphy at jcdrm[at]yahoo[dot]com. |
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Please Check Lost and Found |
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Springer’s Lost and Found is overflowing with items and one of them may belong to your child! Please come by and check the Lost and Found cabinet and claim your stuff. All unclaimed items will be donated to charity at the end of the school year. |
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Springer’s Lunchtime Composting Program |
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In honor of International Compost Awareness week, I'd like to acknowledge the students and Springer's custodian Geb Fessaha for all their efforts to separate food scraps and compostable paper products at lunchtime in all three lunch areas at school: Kinder, Lower grade and Upper grade. Springer School generates three 90-gallon sized carts of compostables each week from lunch areas and an additional gets filled on Fridays with greasy pizza boxes. Uneaten food is a portion of what is dumped each day. It's great to compost, but it's even better to actually salvage the food. Please consider having your kids bring home the food they don't want to eat and ask them about the lunchtime composting collection. Students who order hot lunch can consider bringing a lunchbox to school in order to bring home excess water, chips, carrots, cheese stick or whatever might be salvageable. If you want to know more about food scrap composting, please visit your city's website. Mountain View and Los Altos programs are slightly different. Compostables are collected from the school through the city's program and turned into compost for use as a soil amendment. Contact heidimel2@yahoo.com with any questions about school recycling and composting.-- Heidi Melander (parent volunteer) |
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Attention 6th Grade Parents: Hot Lunch Volunteers at Blach |
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Congratulations to all your graduating 6th graders. For those of you with children entering Blach next year that would like to help out at the school, please consider volunteering to serve lunch. This is a fun way to see the kids in action and one of the very few opportunities for volunteering at Blach. In the past, sign ups happen at the back to school coffee, but now we start serving lunch on the first day of school. Because of this, crews are being set up now. It is a great way to stay connected to other parents from your elementary school and also to meet new parents. There is plenty of room to organize a small group that wants to work together. Please contact me at srkhuntia@yahoo.com if you'd like to volunteer or if you have any questions. Please let me know what days work for you and if you would like to volunteer every week or every other week or would like to be put on the substitute list. Please also let me know if you want to be scheduled with specific people. |
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Discover Cub Scouts! |
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Bring Your Bike and Learn About Cub Scouts! Springer's Cub Scout pack invites all boys in grades K-4 and their parents to a bike rodeo and pizza party on Wed., June 1, from 6:30-8:00 p.m. on the Springer blacktop. Get a taste of Scouting and consider joining this fall! Kindergartners are especially welcome. For more information, please contact cubmaster[at]springerpack36.org. |
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Hats Off To Our Wonderful Art Docents! |
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The Los Altos Art Docents are 90 dedicated volunteers who have taught more than 815 art lessons to the elementary school children in the Los Altos School District. This year at Springer, the docents taught 140 art lessons. Thank you to Springer parents Katie Cowley, Hansook Lee and Lara Rahn who contributed to the success of the Art Docent program this year. Congratulations to our newest docent, Setareh Aslani for completing our training, look for her in the class next year! New docents are taught the LAAD lessons by experienced docents on Wednesday mornings from September through March. The Los Altos Art Docents welcome new members to join the next docent-in-training class in the fall. To learn more, you are welcome to come to our informational coffee on August 24th at 10:00 in the boardroom of the district office. For more information, check us out at www.losaltosartdocents.org.
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LAEF |
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Fulfill your pledge to LAEF or donate before June 8th With a month left of school, now is the time to donate to LAEF. There are 100 families who pledged a total of $92,467 during our annual phonathon, and we’re counting on you to fulfill your pledge by June 8th to meet our $3.5M goal. All new and additional donations will also be much appreciated…every dollar makes a big difference! Please give at LAEFOnline.org or drop a check in our school’s office this week. Thank you. |
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Springer Scribes Literary Journal is Coming Soon |
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Many of your children have participated in the lunchtime Funvisors Springer Scribes program this year. They have met once a month at lunch to write poems and short stories, and now it is time for them to share their writing with the world. The journal is open to every child at Springer. If your child would like to have a story or poem included, please send a copy to SpringerScribes@gmail.com by MONDAY MAY 23rd. |
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Auction Parties Are Still Available! |
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Awesome Community Parties see our online party list. Please contact the host listed to sign-up. Upcoming Open Parties:
And more, for details go to party list. Questions? Contact springerauction@gmail.com |
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Sixth Grade Basketball Tournament |
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The 20th annual Sixth Grade Bob Celeste "Everyone plays" Basketball Tournament will be played on the following dates: Boys Tournament: Friday, May 20, 3:30pm at Blach Middle School Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to the date! |
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TDAP Requirement for Sixth Grade |
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Pertussis Booster for Students in grade 6: Students currently in 6th grade must have proof of a Tdap or Dtap (Pertussis or Whooping Cough) booster given after their 7th birthday (after 10th birthday is recommended) in order to begin 7th grade in August of 2016. Please provide a copy of your child’s immunization record to your school office as soon as possible! Please refer any questions regarding this requirement to our District Health Assistants: Suzy Gough 302-1448 and Sandy Anderson 302-1449. Thank you for your cooperation! Health Services Staff |
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Parent Education Opportunities |
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Through enriching presentations from local and national experts on topics of interest to parents, faculty and staff, the MVLA Parent Education Speaker Series seeks to contribute to the academic, physical, and emotional health of our students. All events are free of charge and are for parents, faculty and staff in Los Altos and Mountain View public schools. For a schedule of upcoming presentations, please click here. |
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How to Submit an Article to the Springer Buzz |
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If you have an article to submit to the Springer Buzz, please send it to the editor at springer.buzz@gmail.com by noon on Monday for inclusion in the next edition. Late arrivals will be included if possible but can’t be guaranteed! All flyers must be in either WORD or PDF format, accompanied by a brief summary of the activity in the email. |
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5/24/25 3:18 AM