Welcome Back Neighborhood School Families!

I hope you and your children have had a good vacation and are eager to begin the school year.  I can’t quite believe today is Labor Day and the children arrive Wednesday. Last week, I participated in a principals’ meeting and spent the morning studying yet another system used to evaluate principals... this in addition to all the different rubrics used to measure us, students and schools.  The experience left me feeling disconnected and deflated. It was coming back to school, watching and helping teachers set-up classrooms, listening to them talking together, laughing, and sharing ideas later that day that reminded me of what I love about school and specifically our community, and excited me for the year.  As I walk around the building, I see how thoughtful teachers are being in creating spaces for their students. As I move from room to room, I think how lucky our children and families are… to have such caring and dedicated teachers.

I hope you will be able come to the PTA sponsored Welcome (back) Picnic Tuesday, September 4th in the recess yard from 4 - 6 PM.  Please bring a dish to share! No worries if you can’t make it; we will see you bright and early Wednesday morning.

Wednesday, September 5th is the first day of school for students!  We start each day at 8:25 AM  Please remember that children and families must wait until 8:23 AM to go upstairs to classroom.  Yes, even on the first day.  Breakfast is served each morning beginning at 7:45 AM.  The school day ends at 2:45 PM. Late pick-up is in Room 306 (across from the boys bathroom on the 3rd floor).

Unsure about your child’s after school plans this year?  Please come to our after After School Program Fair Friday at 8 AM in the Lobby.  All after school programs begin the week of September 12th.

Please also remember there is no school next Monday and Tuesday in observance of Rosh Hashanah.

I am eager to see you and your children soon!

Warmly,

Dyanthe

Dear Neighborhood School Families,

On my way home today, I bumped into a soon-to-be TNS 3rd grader playing at the park.  We exchanged summer stories. He asked about his new teacher (“Is he strict?”)  On parting, he excitedly exclaimed, “15 more days until school!”  

It has been yet another busy summer at TNS.  Custodial staff have been working hard readying classrooms for September.  We’ve ordered new furniture and materials, including cubbies and lofts for our Kindergarten/1st grades and blocks for 2nd/3rd.  Several very dedicated parents have watered our beautiful garden regularly. Teachers have been planning and even today, several teachers were at school, setting up for the start of another year.

Changing grade configurations to Kindergarten/1st, 2nd/3rd and 4th/5th has given us the opportunity to revisit our progressive values and rethink some practices; one of these is recess.  Recess is a time when children play: they develop their imaginations, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. Undirected play allows them to learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, and learn self-advocacy skills.  All of our children will have more time to play this year.  As in the past, our Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten and 1st graders will have recess 50 minutes-a-day, from 10:40 - 11:30 AM.  Our 2nd and 3rd graders will also have 50 minutes of recess a day, from 12:40 - 1:30 PM. All of our Pre-Kindergarten through 3rd graders will eat lunch in the classrooms with their teachers.  While our 4th and 5th graders will still have 20ish minutes of recess from 12:20 - 12:40 and eat lunch in the cafeteria, classes will have the opportunity to sign-up for additional outdoor time during the school day.

I hope you will be able come to the PTA sponsored Welcome (back) Picnic on Tuesday, September 4th in the recess yard from 4 - 6 PM.  Please bring a dish to share!

But if not, we’ll see you in 16 days… : )

Love,

Dyanthe

CONGRATULATIONS!  THE TNS COMMUNITY HAS RAISED A TOTAL OF $3,276 THIS SCHOOL YEAR TO SUPPORT OUR PARTNER-SCHOOL COMMUNITY IN PUERTO RICO!  THE MOST URGENT REQUEST WAS FOR CLOTHING SO WE SENT 80 LBS OF CLOTHES DONATED BY YOU!  WE HAVE ALSO SENT 45 LANTERNS/SOLAR CHARGERS AND 30 WATER FILTRATION SYSTEMS!

WE LOOK FORWARD TO EVEN MORE EXCITING FUNDRAISING EVENTS NEXT YEAR!  PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING US!  TNS2PR@GMAIL.COM

Dear Neighborhood School Families,

It is a tradition at TNS to have “Camp Days” on the last two full days of school; this year they will be this Friday and Monday, June 25.  Lower grades will go to the park at 1st and 1st and upper grades will go to Tompkins Square Park (the north side, near 10th Street, between Avenue A & B).  Our younger students will be there in the morning and our 3rd, 4th and 5th graders will go in the afternoon.  Students will get wet if the sprinklers are on (and we hope they are), so please send a change of clothes to school for your child.  If you do not want your child to go into the sprinklers, please let your teacher know. Please note, students must come to school to participate in Camp Days and may not be picked up from the park.

It is time to say “goodbye” to a very special member of our teaching community.  Longtime Kindergarten teacher, Judy has taken a job closer to home.  Although we will miss her, we are happy she has found a school aligned to our progressive pedagogy.

Mark Your Calendars:

• The Diversity Committee meets Tuesday at drop-off in the small cafeteria.

• Third Street Music School is hosting its spring open house Tuesday from 3 - 6PM.  The open house is free and will take place at its building on 235 East 11th Street near 2nd Avenue. TNS students ages 6 (by December 31, 2018) to 14 will be able to meet teachers, try out different dance styles, chorus, instruments, and apply for free and reduced-rate group classes with openings in the fall.  Children interested in attending the event must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Placement is not guaranteed; every effort will be made to place each child in one of their activity choices. Partners@3rd classes are tuition-free for students during the first year of instruction at Third Street. Second year instruction is discounted, and financial aid is available for years three and beyond.  For more information, contact Third Street’s Student Services office at 212-777-3240 ext. 17.

• The Grants Committee meets Wednesday at drop-off in the small cafeteria.

• Our Read-A-Thon Kick-off is Wednesday at 3PM!  Encourage your child to continue the daily habit of reading over the summer, while raising funds for our school.  Join us after school for the launch!

• The PTA General Meeting is Thursday at 8:40AM in the PTA Room; we will vote to approve the budget for 2018-19.

• 5th Grade graduation is Thursday, June 22 at 1:15PM in the auditorium.

• Narrative Reports go home Thursday.

• Tuesday, June 26 is the last day of school.   Dismissal is at 11:45AM.  It is also the last SING of the year.   We will meet in the big yard at 8:45AM. Please note, we do not have a bake sale.  

• Class placement letters and class lists for next year go home the last day of school.  If your child is not here that day, you can email me or Noemi and we will send the information to you.  Supply lists and letters from your child’s teacher will be sent home in August.

This is my last letter of the 2017-18 school year.  I hope you have a wonderful summer with your children, full of adventure and play and have lots of stories to share when we see each other again in September.  

Much Love,

Dyanthe

Our annual Summer Read-a-thon is here! The Read-a-thon is a great way for students to continue the daily habit of reading and learning over the summer, while raising funds for our school.  

Official kick-off event:  Wednesday, June 20th from 3:00-3:45pm

What is the event?  A chance to sign-up and learn more about the Read-a-thon AND to hear TNS teachers and staff read from their favorite books.

This year, in addition to being a great way for students to maintain the learning and literacy they’ve achieved during the school year and help raise money for our school, we are starting Reading Clubs. Reading Clubs are a way to build school community over the summer and to inspire and motivate kids to read, read, read!  We have a school-wide goal of reading at least 2,000 books this summer! 

Here are the 3 things you need to do to participate:

1.     Just sign up!  Each student who is interested in participating fills out a form online. It is important that you do this first step, so we can get an estimate of how many students we should plan to give a prize to and to send you info on the Reading Clubs (see #2!).

2.   Join a Reading Club! We’re organizing two to three reading clubs - one or two in Manhattan (Ottendorfer Library is one confirmed venue) and one in Brooklyn (meeting at the PLG Greenlight Bookstore). Join one or both! Each kid participating in the reading club would just need to come to a meeting with one book recommendation from the books they’ve read and then explain why they’re recommending the book. Then other kids can chime in or ask questions. After all of the kids get a chance to share a book, then the coordinator of the club will make their own recommendations, and then select one book to read together as a group. Yes, it’s summer and schedules can be crazy. Kids can come to any and all meetings that they are able to...or even just one. Dates to be confirmed!

3.     Gather pledges during the summer, and read, read, read!  At the beginning of summer vacation, students should send or give the pledge sheet to family and friends. All of the docs you will need will be sent in backpack mail on Monday and are linked below. Your child should keep track of both the books they read themselves and the books that were read to them. Yes, include Reading Club books! Yes, include bedtime stories! Yes, adults reading to their child (especially if the child cannot yet read) counts! Students of all ages can participate. Pledges can be made on a per book basis, or as a lump sum. 

• Click here for a letter to send to Friends and Family.
• Click here for the Readathon Pledge Sheet.
• Click here for the Reading Log.
• Click here for the Readathon Letter to Collect Pledges. 

4.     During the summer, track your reading and collect your $. Kids can take ownership writing down each book they have read, but parents, please help your child write the titles if necessary. If you lose your reading log, or need extra pages, feel free to use any type of paper to write down the titles. Visit your local library for more fun books. (The New York Public Library has its own summer reading program, and you can participate in both TNS’s and the NYPL’s program, counting the same books for each!)

At the end of the summer vacation, please collect the pledge money from family and friends to bring in to school in September. The official end of the Read-a-thon will correlate to the official end of summer--around September 20th. Pledges may be paid in cash or check, made out to The Neighborhood School P.T.A., or pay via PayPal by going to this web page: http://tnsny.org/readathon.  

Also, each participant will have the chance to win some gift certificates and other prizes from the Read-a-thon Raffle. 

Finally, we will be setting up a table in the lobby all next week (June 18th - 22nd) at drop-off, so if you have any questions, or ideas, or would like to get more involved, please stop by! 

HAPPY READING!

Amy and Jill