Dear Families,

One aspect of our school community I value most is our diversity.  Our mixed-age, heterogeneous classes are configured so that children learn to become part of a community that cultivates visibility, understanding, and respect for all people.  This work is deliberate and never-ending, and over the last several years we have partnered with outside community-based organizations for support.  Last year, the Diversity Committee researched several different organizations that provide professional development and family workshops about gender and decided to partner with the Gender & Family Project of the Ackerman Institute.  The Gender & Family Project (GFP) empowers youth, families, and communities by providing gender affirmative services, training and research. GFP promotes gender inclusivity as a form of social justice in all the systems involved in the life of the family.  We chose to partner with the GFP because their work explicitly integrates our school’s on-going work on race, racism and racial justice. Last spring and again this fall, the staff will participate in professional development with GFP. This Thursday, from 6 - 8 PM. the Gender & Family Project of the Ackerman Institute will lead a Gender 101 Workshop for TNS families.  I strongly encourage you to attend if you can.  Childcare and pizza will be provided for TNS children.

Once again this year, I am hosting a series of informal gatherings for families each month to discuss topics of interest to our community - so please email your suggestions!  The first “Morning Hour” is Wednesday, October 23rd in the PTA Room right after drop off.  We will discuss progressive education and in preparation, I encourage you to read Alfie Kohn’s article, Progressive Education: Why It’s Hard to Beat, But Also Hard to Find.  We begin each year with this article; I think it is a good starting point for future conversations. 

This Week at TNS...

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

• Used and Vintage Cookbook Sale: There is a cookbook sale on Wednesday from 2 - 6 PM in the courtyard (weather permitting).  All proceeds go to the library and UNICEF’s Nutrition Fund.  

• The PTA meets Thursday at 8:30 AM in the PTA room. Voting to approve this year’s draft budget will take place during the meeting.  PTA members can walk in anytime between 8 and 9:30 AM to cast their ballot. 

• Sing is Friday at 8:45 AM in the recess yard, weather permitting.  There will also be a bake sale. 

Looking Ahead...

• My Morning Hour is Wednesday, October 23 at 8:30 AM in the PTA Room.

• Friday, October 25 is Fall Family Celebration!  Fall Family Celebration is one of my favorite TNS traditions because it always reminds me how warm and caring our community is, and the importance of food in bringing people together.  Please check with your child’s teacher about the time and sign-up.

Have a good week,

Dyanthe

Dear Families,

Have you ever wondered, if butterflies remember being caterpillars?  Probably not recently, if at all.  As adults, there’s lots of information that we know and therefore don’t think more deeply about.  We know that caterpillars turn into butterflies or moths, most likely because we were told it or read about it.  

Last week, this question was offered up and considered by our students as they observed the Swallowtail caterpillars they discovered in our school garden.  2nd and 3rd graders brought them to the science room to protect them from birds and then all our students watched as they changed from caterpillars to pupae.  

The beauty of science is in the mystery, the unknowing, the unseen, and the fantasy.   A child’s natural inclination for play and pretend and imagination feeds right into science work and it’s our job to ask children open-ended questions about the world and listen to them as they come up with their own theory.  Before giving your child any information, ask them more clarifying questions that help further their thinking on his/her own. Then you might want to spend time together researching answers to the question and talking more. 

This Week at TNS

• Hip Hop begins for our ⅔ and ⅘ grade classes this week.  Students will build a Hip Hop Dance foundation learning hip hop dance moves and dance terminology. They will be challenged to both explore their freestyle and learn choreography that will be shared in an open house with parents at the culmination of the residency.  Children should wear sneakers and comfortable clothes on days they have Hip Hop.

• Third Street Music classes begin for Pre-K and K/1 this week.  Children work with Monika once a week, exploring music through voice, movement, and instruments.  All TNS Students are eligible to participate in Partners@3rd, a program that provides free and low-cost group classes held after school and on weekends at Third Street’s home on East 11th Street. These classes are offered across a variety of instruments and dance styles.  For more information, click here.

• The Diversity Committee meets on Tuesday after drop-off.

• The PTA Executive Committee meets on Tuesday after drop-off.

• There is no school on Wednesday, October 9 in observance of Yom Kippur.

• On Thursday, from 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM, Benito “Ifayemisi” Marquez will lead a drumming performance in the auditorium.   Benito is graciously coming to visit us while he is in town for the screening of his film Mama Africa (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cccadi-presents-mama-africa-an-afro-venezuelan-cultural-session-tickets-75048428871).  This event is hosted by the Diversity Committee.

Looking Ahead

• There is no school on Monday, October 14 in observance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Have a good week,

Dyanthe

Dear Families,

All NYC public schools are required to practice the protocols they will follow for different kinds of emergencies throughout the school year.  The first is a building evacuation, or “fire drill”. We practice this drill several times throughout the year; it’s the one your children will be most familiar with. There are different scenarios that would call for building evacuation, but the most common would be a danger within the building such as a fire. The second type of safety protocol we prepare for is a lockdown. During a lockdown an announcement is made over the PA and children and staff respond by turning off the lights in classrooms, locking classroom doors, moving out of the sightline of the windows or classroom doors, and maintaining silence until the lockdown has been lifted. This drill is to prepare for the very unlikely event of imminent danger inside the building.  Neighborhood School teachers discuss different drill practices with children well ahead of time so that they feel safe. They communicate that this is our school and we want to make sure that only people who belong here are here. We will have our first evacuation drill this week. Please contact me if you have any questions about any of our school safety drills. 

Studio in a School begins this week!  Our K/1, ⅔, and ⅘ classes begin art this week.  Over the course of the year, children will explore a full range of 2- and 3-D media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, collage, printmaking, 2-D design, and media technology.  Valerie Hammond will work with our K - 3rd grades and Leigh Ruple will work with our 4/5s.  

This Week at TNS

• The School Leadership Team will meet on Thursday from 8 - 9:30 AM in Room 314.  All are welcome.

• The ECO Committee will meet on Friday morning after drop-off in the small cafeteria.

Looking Ahead

• There is no school on Wednesday, October 9 in observance of Yom Kippur.

School Lunch Options for October 

Week of October 2:  Alternative Lunch Menu Entrees

Week of October 7:  Classic Lunch Menu Entrees

• 10/7 - both hot entrées will be available (veggie tacos, Mac & Cheese)

Week of October 14:  Classic Lunch Menu Entrees

• 10/17 - both hot entrées will be available (vegetarian chili, Jamaican Beef Patty)

Week of October 21:  Alternative Lunch Menu Entrees

Week of October 28: Classic Lunch Menu Entrees

• 10/28 - both hot entrées will be available (veggie tacos, Mac & Cheese)

Have a good week,

Dyanthe

Dear Families,

I am sharing a few pics of the signs and tee-shirts ⅘ students made for the climate protest to Tompkins Square Park on Friday morning.  In addition to cries like, “What do we want? Climate change! When do we want it? NOW,” the students thought up their own chants like, “Save the turtles!”  Once we got to the park and met up with the Earth School, our students led the entire community in several rounds of “This Pretty Planet.” The experience was exhilarating and inspiring for students, staff and the parents who joined us.

Our younger students were also spurred to action last week.  At Wednesday morning arrival, two students approached me in the lobby explaining that they needed to wash their hands before going to class because on their way to school they had been picking up garbage to “you know, help save our planet!” 

Sing is Friday at 8:45 AM in the recess yard, weather permitting.  Classes sit in concentric circles with the innermost circle reserved for our youngest students.  We ask that parents and younger siblings not join the classes seated in the circle. Instead, they are asked to remain on the outer barrier of the gathering.  Pre-K classes do not participate in September sing. 

Once everyone is there, ⅔ teacher, Chelsea will use a rain stick to signal for quiet, followed by a few repetitions of the call and response - -  leader:  HEY!, group:  HO!  Then we will begin singing the songs in the order as outlined in the Sing sheet.

In order to ensure Sing goes smoothly, we ask families to:

• Sing during the songs and wait until the whole Sing is finished to talk to your friend or neighbor.

• Stay quiet between songs so we can transition smoothly into the next song and start singing in unison.

• Save your applause.

• Wave goodbye to your child at the end of Sing and exit quickly so that classes can also exit quickly.  The last two songs, the two goodbye songs, are part of the Sing and we ask everyone to Sing along as a way of saying goodbye.

We will also have a bake sale in the lobby on Friday morning.

This Week at TNS:

• We will have a Middle School informational meeting for our 5th-grade families on Tuesday morning in Room 314.   Come learn more about the process of applying to middle school and hear from other families who have been through it.

• Curriculum Night is Thursday, September 26.  Childcare will be provided for TNS students (not siblings).

• Pre-K and K/1st-grade families will meet in the classrooms from 5 - 6 PM and then will meet with out-of-classroom teachers and support staff in the Library from 6 - 6:30 PM.  

• 2nd through 5th-grade families will meet in the Library from 5:30 - 6 PM and will meet in classrooms from 6 - 7 PM.  

• The PTA will host a “Mix and Mingle” for families in the front courtyard garden from 5:30 - 7:30 PM.  

• Friday is a half-day.  Dismissal is at 11:45 AM.

Looking Ahead:

• There is no school on Monday, September 30 and Tuesday, October 1 in observance of Rosh Hashanah.

Have a good week,

Dyanthe

Dear Families,

Young people are calling on millions of us across the planet to disrupt” business as usual” by joining the global climate strikes this Friday, September 20 (https://globalclimatestrike.net/).  Our 4th/5th grades will march to Tompkins Square Park Friday morning to join other schools marching for climate change.  The idea was inspired by the “Hopes and Dreams” of the children in Alexis and Corinthia’s class who said they wanted to “protest for something that matters” and teachers thought this would be a good way to respond.  The 4/5s will also make climate strike signs in classes this week.

All of our 4th/5th-grade classes are participating in a series of Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy lessons with our librarian, Cheryl this fall.  “Media Literacy” is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create and act using all forms of communication. In its simplest terms, media literacy builds upon the foundation of traditional literacy and offers new forms of reading and writing.  We believe this work will better prepare our students to be critical thinkers and makers, effective communicators and active citizens. 

This week at TNS:

• Lunch Menu Update:  On days when the kitchen offers an entree from the “Classic Menu” they will also prepare a plant-based option is from the alternative menu.  We have also implemented a system of serving the salad in the classrooms.  Yum!

• Our first PTA meeting is on Thursday morning at 8:35 AM in the PTA Room.

• The Climate March, September 20:  Schools will excuse students who miss school and attend the march with their families.  Please send in a letter/email to me explaining that your child will be absent Friday because they are attending the march.  

• Families are organizing a TNS contingent to the march.  There will be a sign-making event organized by parents after school on Thursday.  The march starts at 1 PM so parents will need to sign-out kids around noon and head to Foley Square.

Looking Ahead:

• Curriculum Night is Thursday, September 26.  Pre-k and K/1st-grade families will meet in the classrooms from 5 - 6 PM and then will meet with out-of-classroom teachers and support staff in the Library from 6 - 6:30 PM.  2nd through 5th-grade families will meet in the Library from 5:30 - 6 PM and will meet in classrooms from 6 - 7 PM. The PTA will host a “Mix and Mingle” for families in the front courtyard garden from 5:30 - 7:30 PM.  Childcare will be provided for TNS students (sorry, no siblings).

Finally, a gentle reminder:  please follow the Up and Down directions posted on staircase doors to ensure safe flow in the building during drop-off and pick-up.  Thank you!

Have a good week,

Dyanthe