Our Mission

At Springer Elementary School, we will provide a safe and supportive environment that engages, inspires, and nurtures all students’ emotional and academic needs in order to become empathetic, productive global citizens and lifelong learners.

In This Issue: December 15, 2017:

• Principal’s Message

• News and Announcements

• Parent Education Opportunities

Quick Dates for your Calendar:

• December 18 - January 1: Holiday Recess

• Thursday, January 4, 8:45am: PTA Meeting--Staff Room

• Monday, January 15: Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday--No School

• Tuesday, January 16: Staff Development Day--No School

• Thursday, January 18th - Parent Mindfulness Class: 6:30pm to 8:30pm in Multi

• Thursday, January 25th @ 12pm: Geo Bee in Multi

Principal’s Message

Dear Springer Families,

This past week our students, teachers and parents collected, assembled and distributed over 1,073 projects. Simply amazing!  The projects were sent to the following organizations:

• Placements to Meals on Wheels           TK and 6th grade helpers

• Fleece blankets and doggy toys for:        Kinder & 3rd grade   

  • Humane Society

  • Pound Puppy rescue  

• Craft Kits & Books- Reach Potential         1st & 4th

• Teen Kits & NICU Kits                 2nd & 5th

  • Ronald McDonald House

  • Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital               

• Sweet Cases for Kids- Local Foster Care    6th grade

At the same time our Coin Drive for Anova Center for Education collected $808.88 to help support their rebuilding process.

Our students, families and staff have done exactly what Margaret Mead stated:

“Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.”

Your children have changed the life of the one who will receive their labor of love.    We know that giving and paying forward is contagious.  Please celebrate and share in the experience by asking your child about the Springer Gives Back day.   

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Thank you Springer Community, PTA, LAEF, and all of the Springer Staff for a wonderful 2017 school year!          

Have a wonderful holiday with families and friends.  Please be safe and enjoy your time together!  

Buzz… Did you know Mrs. Boskie collects Santa Clauses.  Yes, Santa Claus figurines and books.  

Solar News

Solar Installation Project

Please refer to the Solar Project on the district website for updated communications and information.

Join us for Mindful Parent Night

Thursday. Jan 18th, 2018 from 6:30-8:00 pm.

Come and learn mindfulness practices to help you wash away your stress and learn mindful tools to teach your child.

The workshops will focus on:

• Understanding the neuroscience of mindfulness.

• Guided mindfulness and relaxation practices for you and your family.

• Mindfulness techniques which can be practiced at home or the office.

An Overview of Mission Be:

Mission Be, Mindful Education is a local non-profit in Mountain View bringing mindfulness, compassion and altruism to schools in Northern California and New York. Since 2013, Mission Be has impacted 60+ schools, trained thousands of adults and reached over 50,000 children. Here is more information about our purpose:

• An overview of our offerings, a list of impacted schools.

• Our slide deck and link to all of Mission Be’s videos

• Here is our NEW film with experts in the field from Stanford and UC Berkeley to learn more.

• Here is data that was collected by a graduate student for her honors thesis at Stanford University’s School of Education.

For more info call Carin Winter 631 513 6151 or email carin@missionbe.org. We welcome all inquiries, meetings and support to help scale our program locally!

Mission Be was awarded the “Inspire Mountain View, managed by the Los Altos Community Foundation” to bring mindfulness workshops to the Mountain View schools and community with support from Google, LinkedIn, Synopsys, and Symantec.

Thank you for your time!

With gratitude and care,

Carin Winter, CEO and Founder

Save The Date For The Springer Auction!

Save the Date for the Springer Auction!

March 17, 2018, 6:30-10:30pm

Crowne Plaza Cabana, Palo Alto

Theme: Disco Fever!

$65/person, tickets on sale in January

Springer's fabulous fundraiser and adult night out!

See this week's Friday folder for FAQ flyer

It’s a Springer Thing!

Springer students caught being kind and responsible!

Lost And Found

Lost and Found is beginning to bust!

Please stop by the Lost and Found near the multi if you are on campus or remind your children to stop by and take a look. You may find a long lost treasure.   

Is there a parent that is willing to organize the Lost & Found a couple of times a year?  This would require going through the clothing and putting it out so that the parents and students can see it and retrieve their lost items.  If you’re interested, please contact the Springer School Office at 650-943-4200.

Hot Lunch

The Hot Lunch program would not be possible without the 20+ volunteers per week that come in to serve lunch!  We have volunteer slots that have opened up for the new year on alternating Mondays and Tuesdays.   The lunch volunteer shift from 11:25-12:15.  Hot lunch volunteers receive a Choice Lunch credit for a free lunch for every volunteer shift worked.  Contact Donna Murphy (at HotLunchScheduling@springerpta.net) to join the lunch crew or if you’d like more information.

When To Keep Your Child Home From School

Sometimes it is difficult, especially early in the morning, to know whether or not to send your child to school.  The following guidelines are indications that you should keep him/her home.  In this way, you are helping to control the spread of colds, flu, and other contagious illnesses.

Keep your child at home when he/she has any of the following symptoms:

You need to keep your child home until he/she has been symptom free without medication for 24 hours.

Also, NOTIFY THE OFFICE IMMEDIATELY if your child is exposed to or contracts chicken pox, mumps or measles or whooping cough (pertussis).  These conditions can be life threatening to students who are undergoing therapies that suppress their immune systems.

The following information is only a guide to common childhood health concerns. Call our District Nurses (650-444-9702 or 650-537-8119) or personal health care provider for more information. Always bring a copy of a physician’s note to school and/or notify the school if your child will have an extended absence due to a health condition for 10 days or longer.

If you would like more information on how to spot flu symptoms, you may go to the LASD Health website by clicking here.

Looking for Noon Duty & Crossing Guard Volunteers

Noon lunch duty is still short 1-2 parent volunteers in the lower (1st-3rd) grades area one Thursday per month, 11:45 - 12:45.  If you are also volunteering for hot lunch, we could still use your help starting after hot lunch through 12:45!  Please contact Clover Huang at: cloverh[at]yahoo.com to sign up.

Crossing Guards needed for the area near the kindergarten area.  Please sign up using this link.

Synopsis Tech Challenge

Attention 6th Grade Students and Parents!

All LASD 6th Graders are invited to submit an application for the 2017 Synopsis Silicon Valley Science & Technology Challenge

What: Synopsis Silicon Valley Science & Technology Championship

Science and Engineering competition for middle school and high school students

Who: Students in Grade 6 only-no exceptions

Where: San Jose Convention Center

When: Thursday, March 15, 2018

Please click here for more information.

Join us for the Tech Challenge!

What: Tech Challenge

Team Design Challenge for students that introduces and reinforces the scientific process with a hands-on project geared to solving a real world problem.

Who: Students in Grades 4-12 only-no exceptions

Where: The Tech Museum, San Jose

When: April 28, 2018 – Please note that this is the same day as Junior Olympics.

Please click here for more information.

Junior Olympics

Junior Olympics

Every year in April our students participate in the LASD Junior Olympics.  It is a spectacular event involving all the students across the district.   This year we looking for volunteers who are interested in learning the ropes from Sharon Tan and Jen Miley. This is a perfect way to get more involved, understand all the details that go into planning and running the event, and have a direct impact on hundreds of students.

If you are interested please contact Sharon Tan sharontantan@yahoo.com or Jen Miley jenmiley@me.com .

Living Classroom

Become a LIVING CLASSROOM docent... share your love of nature with kids!

It's time to build bird nests, make yummy soup from the veggies we harvest from our school gardens, discover symmetry inside fruit, and make natural dyes from plants!  If you like all those things and more, please consider becoming a Living Classroom docent!  LIving Classroom is looking for docents to help deliver hands-on garden-based lessons to the students of the Los Altos School District.  No experience necessary as we provide all the training needed!  Our Winter Docent Training will take place at the LASD iLearn Studio on Monday mornings from 9-Noon on 12/4, 12/11, 1/8 and 1/22.  Please click HERE to view our Winter Training Flyer.  Apprentice-style training also available to those who can’t make our Monday morning trainings.

Questions? Email us atlivingclassroom@lasdschools.org or call (650) 947-1103.  For more information about Living Classroom, please visit our website at www.living-classroom.org.

LAEF

LASD Winter Music Concerts

We hope you enjoy the sounds of the season coming from our Winter Music Concerts, happening at all nine LASD schools. The schedule for all music concerts is available at LAEFonline.org.

Computer Science Ed Week

LASD joins schools around the world to celebrate Computer Science Education Week December 4-8. This annual event is dedicated to inspiring K-12 students to take an interest in computer science. Our students participate in the Hour of Code program organized by Code.org as well as continue the many amazing Computer Science programs available to them throughout the year. Visit LAEFonline.org to find out why it's important to learn computer science and what LASD students in each grade are learning this year.

Parent donations to LAEF are making Computer Science and Music possible for our students. That’s why we are requesting your support by donating at LAEFonline.org by 12/31.

Selpa Events

Selpa, an all-volunteer group of parents of children with special needs, are sponsoring several upcoming events:

Parent Chat: The Second Tuesday of every month.  Click here for flyer.

Click here for Spanish Parent Chat flyer.

Parent Education Opportunities

Through an enriching presentations from local and national experts on topics of interests 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.  

How Submit an Article to the Springer Buzz

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.