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: January 12, 2018:

• Principal’s Message

• News and Announcements

• Parent Education Opportunities

Quick Dates for your Calendar:

• 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

• Friday, January 19th:Principal Coffee; 8:45, Staff Room

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

• Tuesday, January 30, 9:30-10:30: Author’s Visit

• Thursday, February 1, 7:00pm: PTA Meeting, Staff Room

• Saturday, February 10: Father Daughter Dance

• February 19-23: Winter Break, No School

• Thursday, March 15: Minimum Day; 12:15 Dismissal

• Saturday, March 17, 6:30-10:30pm: Springer Auction

• Thursday, April 5: Open House

• Friday, April 6: Minimum Day, Dismissal 12:15pm

• April 9 - 13: Spring Break, No School

Principal’s Message

Dear Springer Families,

As I walked through the classrooms this week… I chatted with the students about what famous American they were researching.  It brought me back to a report I did in grade school… Frederick Douglass, author, orator and adviser to many presidents who stood up for what was right.   He understood the importance of reading, because through reading, his life changed and so too did the course of history.  

On January 15th, we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., to remember the accomplishments that one person can make.  Enjoy your time as a family and celebrate how you and your family have made a difference in each others lives.

Buzz… did you know that Mrs. Boskie did a report on Frederick Douglass when she was in elementary school?  

LAEF Informational Coffee

LAEF

Informational Coffee: January 23rd, 8:45 am, Los Altos School District Office Board Room (Covington Campus)

Call for volunteers! The Los Altos Educational Foundation (LAEF) plays a vital role in funding programs that provide our students with a world class, future-oriented, personalized education. From our STEM teacher, librarian, music and PE teachers, to our Art Docent Program, our children benefit from these LAEF sponsored resources.

Come to the informational coffee to learn more about LAEF and how volunteering your talents a few hours a month will have a positive impact on your child’s education.

Listen to our Superintendent, Jeff Baier, share about the partnership between LASD and LAEF and district leaders highlight the terrific curricula our children are being taught. Consider volunteering for a project or on an ongoing basis, at school with your friends, or at your home. LAEF is looking for help with social media, marketing, videos, events, office support, school site representation, and identifying board members from each school.

As an LAEF volunteer, you can provide the vital connection to your school community to ensure ongoing financial support, and help LASD strengthen so many of the exceptional programs which make our schools unique.

RSVP at laefonline.org and bring your friends! Thank you for your support.

Readers’ Corner

Throughout the year, your child will alternate between learning fiction and nonfiction reading strategies. Some classrooms are now focused on nonfiction text. Students learn that they can “read to learn” from nonfiction texts. They are asked to focus on what is most important to know about a topic so that they can teach others.

One key skill for students to  the main topic or idea.

• In kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades, students will practice naming the main topic and key details of a text.

• Third and 4th graders move on to finding a main idea--a full statement rather than a general topic--and giving details or examples to support that idea.

• Meanwhile, 5th and 6th graders are asked to find more than one main idea in their increasingly complex texts.

• Nonfiction texts often are full of fun facts and photos; it’s tempting to race from one cool detail to the next, but this can make it hard to focus on what’s really important! If students pause after reading a chunk of text to think, it can help them identify and remember the big ideas they learned.

As your child is reading nonfiction, you might ask for a quick lesson on what he or she has learned. What would the author want you to know? You never know what you might learn!

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.

• Click here for the flyer.

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!

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

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

Crowne Plaza Cabana, Palo Alto

Theme: Disco Fever!

$65/person, buy your ticket online or by check

Reserve babysitting at Abra

The auction team is still looking for tech

gear donations and sports tickets. Let us know if you can help!!!

springerauction@gmail.com

Springer’s Father Daughter Dance February 10

Springer's Father Daughter Dance is happening on February 10th in the Multi!

Your daughter will remember this special night dancing with her dad while the DJ was spinning tunes and there will be a photographer on hand to capture it.

Reserve your space now! email jennifer@jwangmd.com

Father/Daughter $100  additional daughter $30 make check out to "Springer PTA" memo father/daughter dance please place checks in front office cubby labelled Auction.

All proceeds benefit Springer School.

Check Out Our After School Programs!

Springer is bringing back many of our popular after school programs:  Art, Chess, Spanish, Soccer, Legos, Basketball, Tennis, Springer Singers and Speak Debate.  We are also offering some new programs:  Minecraft Rally, Intro to Coding and a Science Made Fun class. Please click here to go to Springer’s Website and check out all of our after school programs.

STEM Career Day

STEM Career Day Events at Egan and Blach

LASD & LAEF are excited to kick off the 2nd STEM Career Day Events at Egan and Blach Jr. High Schools this spring. STEM pervades every part of our life and STEM education creates critical thinkers, increases science literacy, and enables the next generation of innovators. We believe that exposing our students to different aspects and careers in the STEM fields inspire and spark a passion for learning.

We are looking for parents, grandparents or anyone in our community who would like to share their knowledge. If you are interested in presenting at Egan on March 19 and/or Blach on March 20, please contact Karen Wilson, STEM Coordinator at kwilson@lasdschools.org or Anjana Nagarajan-Butaney, LAEF Board member at anjana.nagarajan1@gmail.com

A Note From The District Nurse

Pertussis Booster for Students in 6th grade:

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 2018. 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

Kepler’s Author Showcase

Meet Authors Ken and Sarah Wright

January 30th

9:30-10:30am

Grades K-3

Click here for the flyer and book order form.

String Fling

6th Grade Orchestra Students from Loyola, Oak, and Springer will be featured in a performance with Blach Middle School and Mountain View High School Orchestras. Come to see the progression of string students from elementary to high school. It is a free concert, everyone is invited!

String Fling Concert

Wednesday, January 17th

7:00 PM

Mountain View High School Spartan Theatre

Springer Singers Spring Session

Does your child love to sing? Then Springer Singers is where you want them to be.

Springer Singers is a fantastic way to get your kids singing and dancing with their Springer friends.

The Springer Singers are open to all Springer students.

New singers welcome!

If you participated in the winter session you are still enrolled. Next session begins January 22 & 23

New to Springer Singers in Grades 1 & 2: Mondays 2:45-3:30

Returning Singers in Grades 2 - 6: Tuesdays 3:00-3:45

Springer Multi

Applications available in the office. Please complete form and return with payment (scholarships available) to participate.

Questions? Contact Heidi Rockett at rockettland@comcast.net

Cornerstone Corner

Cornerstone Corner

The book for the months of December and January “When Sophie Gets Angry: Really, Really Angry” by Molly Bang tells the story of a young girl who is searching for ways to cope with "big feelings" like anger.

Goals of lesson:

·  To identify, acknowledge and express feelings in safe, positive, healthy ways.

·  Stop and think and choose how to react when our emotions feel out of control.

·  Be able to switch directions and make positive choices.

·  Use peaceful conflict resolution to resolve conflict and the steps to a genuine apology.

To reinforce this lesson at home:

·  Help your child identify and acknowledge how they are feeling with words. “You are frowning, is that puzzle frustrating? Can I help?” “You are using a loud, angry voice. Are you mad? Tell me about it.”

·  As a caring adult, notice and acknowledge your own feelings. Role model the techniques you use to stay calm and in control. Share your successful strategies with youth.

· Remember and connect with the feelings you had when something similar happened to you.  Talk with your child about remembering a time when s/he was experiencing really strong emotions and how it felt.  Use that to help them understand other people’s behaviors, emotions, and feelings.

When you “catch” kids modeling positive behaviors... Notice it, Name it, and Celebrate it!

Parent Ed Talks/Reading Workshops

DESCRIPTION:

In this one-hour parent information session, literacy experts from

LASD will share how students are developing and practicing skills

and dispositions to become lifelong readers of relevant and

complex texts. Learn how students engage in the Reading

Workshop and how the structure and curriculum support rigorous

learning for all students.

DATE AND TIME:

Friday, January 19, 2018

9:30am - 10:30am

LOCATION:

Los Altos School District Offices

iLearn Studio

201 Covington Road

Los Altos, CA 94024

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 .

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.

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.

LAEF

Happy New Year from LAEF!  We hope you had a wonderful break and are looking forward to a great second half of the school year. The end of 2017 brought in many contributions and we met our $30K matching gift! Special thanks to those families who made a tax-deductible gift or requested a match from their company. Stay tuned for an exciting update on our fundraising progress. In the meantime...for more information about LAEF or to donate, please go to www.LAEFonline.org.

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.

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 presentation 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 to 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.