Trick or Read is Coming Soon!
October 26, 5:30-7:00pm Please join us for an evening of celebrating reading! You will have a blast listening to stories read by some of your favorite Venable staff members! Pizza dinner for the whole family from 5:30-5:55pm Reading activities from 6:00-7:00pm Door prizes, treats and tricks--but no costumes, please! Upcoming Dates
October 13 Picture Day School-Wide Morning Meeting, 8:05am October 16 Put Name Calling to Sleep Day--wear your PJs to school (no slippers, please) October 17 Mix it Up Day--wear mis-matched and colorful clothes October 18 Be a Good Sport Day--wear your favorite sports team gear October 19 Hats Off to Upstanders Day--wear the coolest hat you can find October 20 School Spirit Day--wear your Venable t-shirt School-wide Morning Meeting, 8:05am Richmond Ballet Performance of Sleeping Beauty, 9:30am (all grades, auditorium) October 26 Trick or Read, 5:30pm Last day of Q1 October 27 Teacher Workday. No School For Students October 30 PreK to the Fire Station, 9:45am-11:45am November 3 School-Wide Morning Meeting, 8:05am November 6-7 Teacher Workdays. No School for Students Want More Dates? Access the Venable Parent Calendar at the Charlottesvilleschools.org website with the most up-to-date information about what's going on. Buttons Celebrating Walking to School
Kyle Rodland of Safe Routes to School has provided each school with buttons that can be distributed to students who walk or ride bikes to school. Be on the lookout for a red acorn button. These will be handed out in the mornings at arrival time periodically. Students may collect buttons all year long! If you haven't tried walking to school yet this year, give it a try while the weather is still nice. It's a great way to start the day! |
Maker Space Starting for Grades 2-3 2nd Quarter
Starting Monday, October 30, students in Ms. Mimms and Ms. Bradley's classes will have Maker Space included in their Encore (specials) rotation. They will be working with Ms. Combs and Ms. Schrank on a variety of different student-directed projects. Second graders will have a chance to choose from one of six different activities from cooking to sewing. Third graders will be working on a sewing project related to research on animal adaptations. The remaining classes will cycle through maker space third and fourth quarters. This will necessitate schedule changes for all the classes starting third quarter. Your child's teacher will communicate when these changes occur. If you have some time to help with our Maker Space activities, Ms. Combs and Ms. Schrank would love to have some extra hands at specific times. Please see this SignUp Genius for times they could use the support. October is Bully Prevention Month
The focus of Mr. U's classroom lessons this month is on empathy and being bully-free. He will be talking to the students about what bullying is, how we can avoid it, and what to do if we see or experience it. When we talk about bullying, we are guided by a specific definition: "Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time." For more information, visit www.stopbullying.gov (where this definition was taken). Kindness Spirit Week has been renamed Empathy Spirit Week this year in order to align with the words we're using for our school-wide PBIS expectations. Spirit week is next week! Please check the calendar to the left for details on what to wear each day to school. Q1 Report Cards and Parent-Teacher Conferences
Believe it or not, parent teacher conferences are right around the corner. Our first quarter ends on October 26 and it is our goal to have an in-person conference with each family during or at the end of the quarter. This conference is a chance for you to provide us with your expert insight into your child and to learn about the progress that he or she is making thus far. Your child's teacher will have student work and assessment information from the quarter to share with you. Because there are many things that can be reviewed in a conference, it is often helpful to come with some specific questions that you know you want to discuss with your child's teacher. Don't be afraid to be direct! We want you to leave having a clear impression of what is happening in your child's classroom and how you and your child's teacher can partner together in support of an exciting year of deep learning. We do not have an official conference day on the calendar this year, so your child's teacher will be contacting you with times and dates. Because we will be meeting with each family in person, comments on the first quarter report card will be minimal. Report cards will be sent home November 9 to families who have their conferences prior to that date. Families who come in after November 9 will receive the report card at the conference. |