The Power of Language

Message from Luise & Julia's Kindergarten on 11/22/05: http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Kindergarten%20update.pdf

Dear Lower School Parents,

Those of us in the Lower School recognize the joys and struggles of participating in a diverse community; we cherish the privilege to make this environment the very best it can be for every child, every family. Among other things, the bettering of our community hinges on how we speak to each other, on our sensitivity in choice of language.

As I did last year, I’d like to offer some thoughts on discussing adoption with your children. I hope this is helpful:

This passage from the Donaldson Adoption Institute (www.adoptioninstitute.org) highlights the difficulty parents may encounter when speaking with their children about adoption:

"The concept of birthparents can be confusing for kids, but it can be explained simply and ‘normally.’ That is, babies all arrive in the same way: a woman gives birth to them. After an adoption, the woman is called the biological or birthmother (and the man the biological or birthfather); the people raising adopted children are their mothers and fathers or, in rare cases where a further description is relevant, adoptive mother or father. The words ‘real’ or ‘natural’ should not be used to refer to any of the parents (none of whom are surreal or unnatural)."

Here is a reminder list of respectful and accurate vocabulary you may use with your children when discussing classmates or other friends who were adopted.

- Birth parent (or biological) -- not: real or natural parent
- Making an adoption plan -- not: giving away or putting up for adoption
- Parent -- not: adoptive parent
- Chose to parent the child -- not: "kept" the child
- International adoption -- not: foreign adoption
- Was adopted -- not: is adopted
- Sponsor-a-highway -- not: adopt-a-highway

A perfect reminder of the power of language.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Elaine

This Week's Attachments:

Lower School Apple Cookbook - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Apple%20Cookbook.pdf

Brooke and Charles' Kindergarten - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Brooke.pdf

Brooke and Charles' Kindergarten #2 - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Brooke%202.pdf

First Grade Math - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Grade%201%20Math.pdf

Second Grade Math - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Grade%202%20Math.pdf

First and Second Grade Spanish - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Julie.pdf

Third and Fourth Grade Chorus - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Chorus.pdf

From the Afterschool Office - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Catherine.pdf

School Night at the Apple Store - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/soho_Elisabethirwin.pdf

School Spirit Game - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Spirit%20Game.pdf

Thanksgiving Drives and Activities - Please notice this Saturday's activity at the Hudson Guild -http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Drives%20and%20Activities.pdf

Coat Drive - runs through the end of this week! - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/coat%20drive.pdf


Mark Your Calendars!

• 11/21 - 8:30AM - Third Grade Math Breakfast with Margaret
• 11/21 - extra chorus rehearsal with Helen after school
• 11/22 - 6:00PM - First and Second Grade Family Math and Science Night
• 11/23 - Half-day for Thanksgiving Break (School ends at 11:45 for Early Childhood, 12:00 for Elementary students)

Announcements:

Spanish Resource List - As part of our mission to expand our Spanish program and enrich Spanish learning in the Lower School, we are pleased to offer our first list of Spanish resources on our weekly blog. Compiled by Marguerite Lukes, this resource list will be updated frequently and will include book titles, museum exhibits, interesting places to visit and fun things to do in the city. Please contact Marguerite with any resources or Spanish-related events that may be of interest to our families. http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Spanish%20resources.pdf

First and Second Grade Family Math and Science Night - Scheduled for Tuesday, November 22nd at 6:00PM, this promises to be a fun-filled evening of hands-on math and science activities for parents and kids to do together - don't miss it! No advance sign-up is necessary. We ask that only First and Second Graders attend the evening's activities, but childcare is available for siblings - please sign up at the front desk.

UNICEF - LREI collected a total of $1376.61 for UNICEF this Halloween. Excellent work!

Photo Retake Day - If your child was absent on photo day, she/he will have an individual portrait taken on December 1st for free. If your child was here on photo day, but you would like to have his/her individual portrait re-taken, this will also happen on December 1st. Please know that there is a fee for electing to re-do a portrait that has already been taken. Detailed information on this is available in your Coffee Pond Photography proof package, which you should have received in the mail by now. Please be aware that all pictures should be available in time for the December holidays if you are careful to follow the deadlines included in your proof package.

Message to Fourth Grade Families from Elaine - Some of you have asked me about an additional opportunity to tour the Middle School. If you missed the first tour but are interested in visiting, please contact Mark Silberberg, Middle School Principal, at ext. 221.

In the Next Few Weeks...

11/18 - Diane & Molly's EK Field Trip to a Pediatrician's Office

11/21-11/23 - Food Drive for Classrooms on the Third Floor (Jamie and Dorothy's First Grades and Fours)

11/21 - 8:30AM - Third Grade Math Breakfast

11/21 - 3:30PM - LREI Spirit Basketball Game

11/22 - 8:45AM - Erin & Carin's Farm Publishing Party

11/22 - 6:00PM - First & Second Grade Family Math and Science Night

11/23 - School Closes at noon (11:45 - Fours-First Grades)

11/23 - High School films and photography on display

11/28 - 8:45AM - Third Grade Math Meeting

11/29 - 8:30AM - Chap and Michael's Third Grade Farm Breakfast

11/30 - 8:45AM - Fours & EK Assembly

12/1 - Photo Retake Day

12/1 - 6:00PM - Fourth Grade Parent Meeting with Heidi

12/7 - Book Fair through 12/9

12/8 - 8:45AM - Multicultural Committee Meeting

Dear Families,

IN BRIEF:

• THANKSGIVING ASSEMBLY: Just a reminder that the day before Thanksgiving is a half-day – and an especially important one for the children. On the Wednesday morning of November 23rd, the entire Lower School will gather in the auditorium around a rug covered with spectacular vegetables and assorted greenery from the Farmers’ Market. The assembly begins as two students from each class present their group’s beautifully wrapped baked goods for donation to St. John’s Pantry. Led by Sue and Helen, students sing together - some traditional songs that honor Native American nations, as well as more playful tunes that honor the feast to come. Phil and I speak. Some classes will recite poetry. Children then return to their classrooms to share a trayful of mixed baked goods from each of the thirteen classes. It is one of the warmest events of the school year, and my personal favorite.

• CONFERENCES: Thanks to all of you for your thoughtful sharing and participation in Parent Teacher Conferences. These will continue for some of you tomorrow afternoon after 12:00PM noon. (School closes at 11:45 for early childhood and noon for elementary students. Please be prompt in picking up your child.) Kelly and Meredith’s conferences will resume a week from this Friday on the afternoon of 11/18.
  

• http://www.lrei.org/: We’ve been adding new photos and articles to our site. You may want to take a look.

• GRANDPARENTS and SPECIAL FRIENDS DAY: We are looking forward to this day set for early spring (May 19, 2006), and in preparation, are contacting Lower School families for the names and addresses of children’s grandparent/s or special adult friends. If you have not done so already, please send the name and address of your grandparent/special friend(s) to Rowena Penaranda, Assistant to the Director, at rpenaranda@lrei.org so that an invitation may be mailed to them. This is a day beloved by many – student hosts as well as their visitors, and our goal is to make it as happy and as inclusive as we can. Each family has three comfortable "guest" options: You may invite your child’s grandparent/s or other relative, you may invite a caregiver or other adult family friend, or as we near the date, you may ask your child’s teacher to arrange for a special "teacher friend", someone your child feels close to. The latter might be Kitty, Julie, Peggy, Margaret…. all of our specialist teachers and support personnel are happy to participate.

• UNICEF: Thanks to parent Jennifer Edson and Middle School faculty member Gabrielle Keller for coordinating our Trick-or-Treat collection. Results coming soon.

• NYC MARATHON: Even here, LREI was well represented as Fours teacher Laura Araman completed the entire race. Since then, Laura has generously shared her experience with different groups of students, describing how persistent practice allowed her to reach a personal goal. The Fours were appropriately awed.

Elaine

This Week's Attachments:

Early Kindergarten - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Diane%20Molly.pdf

Early Childhood Music - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Sue%20music.pdf

Tasha and Caroline's Second Grade - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Tasha%20Caroline.pdf

Third Grade Math -http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Third%20Grade%20Math%20Meeting.pdf

Food Drive - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Kelly%20food.pdf

Coat Drive - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/laura%20coat.pdf

Visibility - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/visibility.pdf

Announcements:

Parent-Teacher Conference Childcare for November 11th - Drop-in care for the time of your conference only is available tomorrow afternoon until 3:00PM. If you would like your child to go directly from the half-day of school to childcare for either part of or the whole afternoon, you must make Bonnie aware of this in advance (bmaloney@lrei.org, x215). The cost of tomorrow's care is $10 and lunch is included.

Photo Retake Day - If your child was absent on photo day, she/he will have an individual portrait taken on December 1st for free. If your child was here on photo day, but you would like to have his/her individual portrait re-taken, this will also happen on December 1st. Please know that there is a fee for electing to re-do a portrait that has already been taken. Detailed information on this is available in your Coffee Pond Photography proof package. Please also be aware that all pictures should be available in time for the December holidays if you are careful to follow the deadlines included in your proof package.

Message to Fourth Grade Families from Elaine - Some of you have asked me about an additional opportunity to tour the Middle School. If you missed the first tour but are interested in visiting, please contact Mark Silberberg, Middle School Principal, at ext. 221.

Third and Fourth Grade Chorus - Helen will have an extra chorus rehearsal after school on November 21st until 4:00PM.

Mark Your Calendars!

--There is a half-day tomorrow for Parent-Teacher Conferences. (School dismisses at 12:00, 11:45 - Fours-Fourth Grades)

--Heidi's Fourth Grade Parent Meeting has been rescheduled for December 1st.

--The Third and Fourth Grade Assembly Schedule has changed slightly to make our auditorium more comfortable:

• January 18th will be a Third Grade Assembly only.
• March 15th will be a Fourth Grade Assembly only.
• April 26th will be a Third and Fourth Grade Assembly.

In the Next Few Weeks...

11/11 - Parent-Teacher Conferences - school closes at 12:00PM (11:45 - Fours-First Grades)

11/11 - Kelly, Meredith and Third Graders return from the farm

11/14 - Food Drive for classrooms on the Fourth Floor (Second & Third Grades)

11/14 - Diane and Molly's EK Apple Tree Trip

11/16 - 8:45AM - Kindergarten Assembly

11/16 - Gina/Elizabeth and Jamie/Dave's field trip to Associated Supermarket

11/17 - 8:45AM - Parent Rep Meeting

11/18 - Diane and Molly's EK field trip to a Pediatrician's Office

11/22 - 8:45AM - Erin and Carin's Farm Publishing Party

11/22 - 6:00PM - First and Second Grade Math and Science Night

11/23 - School Closes at noon (11:45 - Fours-First Grades)

11/28 - 8:45AM - Third Grade Math Meeting

11/29 - 8:30AM - Chap and Michael's Third Grade Farm Breakfast

11/30 - 8:45AM - Fours & EK Assembly

12/1 - Photo Retake Day

12/1 - 6:00PM - Fourth Grade Parent Meeting with Heidi

Dear Families,

As I write this, I’m taking a short break from the Third and Fourth Grade Math and Science Evening: Sixteen activity stations are set up in the Big Room. Parents and children are playing games, solving puzzles, creating instruments, categorizing leaves and dinosaur pictures; they’re sending messages in Morse Code (forget email!), using water droplets as magnifying lenses, constructing pentominoes and estimating the number of candies in a bucket. Children and parents are working together – equal partners. The tone is serious and fun at the same time, explorative and thoroughly engaging. Participants bring to bear strategies learned in related contexts as they hypothesize, collaborate, experiment, grapple and dabble. Our founder would have been proud! Thank you, Megan and Margaret!!!!!!

***

Every Friday morning Second through Fourth Graders share in Morning Meeting conversations – also in the Big Room. Last week I asked if they could recall the ceramic tiles in the Reading Room …those portraits of people who have "stood up" for their and others’ rights. I said that this week two women were in the news who had stood up for their rights. Could they name them? Fourth Graders opened with a discussion of Rosa Parks. They explained how she had resisted relinquishing her seat on the bus and offered reasons why. Nick O’Han asked what we would have done had we been at LREI in 1955 and heard about the bus boycott. Children suggested we might have marched or boycotted ourselves. "What might we have sent?" asked Nick. "Food?" "Taxis?" "Bicycles?" suggested the students. And Nick then told the story of the Little Red Third Grade class (with Grace Cohen) that did just that – raised money, purchased bicycles and shipped them to Montgomery, Alabama so people could ride to work and school during the boycott.

I fished for the name of the second woman in the news, a few hands shot up and students identified Sheryl Swoopes, the WNBA star. When I asked what she had done to place her in the news, a student replied that she had "admitted she is a lesbian". We spent a few moments on the term "admitted", eventually changing it to "announced". Why had she kept this a secret? "Because her coach might not let her play." "Because her fans might not like her any more." A Fourth Grader said, " A lot of celebrities might be afraid to say they are gay or lesbian. She did this so they could feel safer, too." Younger students asked what it meant to be lesbian or gay. "To love someone of the same gender", I said, "Just like in this school some of us have lesbian parents." A Second Grader sighed, "I don’t get it…why would people be teased for that? It doesn’t make any difference".

***

I feel privileged to work with this extraordinary faculty and with your questioning, thoughtful and adventurous children!

This Week's Attachments:

Fours, Early Kindergarten and Kindergarten Spanish - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/ECspanish.pdf

Kelly and Meredith's Third Grade - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/kelly-heidi.pdf

Reading - http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Reading%20all.pdf

Announcements:

Brooke and Charles' Kindergarten - Click here to view a piece on the Queen of Uganda visit, complete with a photo gallery - http://www.lrei.org/news/oct2005_U.html

Parent-Teacher Conference Childcare for November 4th - Drop-in care for the time of your conference only is available tomorrow from 8:00am-3:00pm. The whole-day childcare program, which required sign-up in advance, is also running from 8:00am-3:00pm. If your child is signed up, please remember to pack her/him a bagged lunch!

Parent-Teacher Conference Childcare for November 11th - Childcare will be offered from 11:45am-3:00pm for a small fee. Children who come directly from dismissal will eat lunch from the cafeteria. If you are interested in signing your child up for this program, please call or email Bonnie, 212-477-5316, x215, bmaloney@lrei.org.

The Food Committee will meet on Monday, 11/7 in the cafeteria. Please attend to contribute to a discussion about our food program.

Third and Fourth Grade Chorus - Helen will have an extra chorus rehearsal after school on November 21st until 4:00PM.

Community Service Committee Event - This Saturday, LREI Community Service Committee (including students from the HS Roundtable) are going to East New York Farms! in Brooklyn to experience a community agriculture project by working in a garden, touring several of the local gardens and visiting the farmers' market where the gardeners sell their own produce. Please see the attached flyer: http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ls/Satevent.pdf

Mark Your Calendars!

-- School is closed tomorrow for Parent-Teacher Conferences.

-- There is a half-day on 11/11 for Parent-Teacher Conferences. (School dismisses at 12:00, 11:45-Fours-Fourth Grades)

-- Heidi's Fourth Grade Parent Meeting has been rescheduled for December 1st.

-- The Third and Fourth Grade Assembly Schedule has changed slightly to make our auditorium more comfortable:

• January 13th will be a Third Grade Assembly only.
• March 15th will be a Fourth Grade Assembly only.
• April 26th will be a Third and Fourth Grade Assembly.

In the Next Few Weeks...

11/4 - School Closed for Parent-Teacher Conferences

11/7 - 8:45AM - Food Committee Meets, Cafeteria

11/8 - 8:45AM - POCOC Meeting

11/8 - Kelly, Meredith, Stacey and Third Graders leave for the farm

11/9 - 8:45AM - First Grade Assembly

11/10 - 8:45AM - Multicultural Committee Meeting

11/11 - Parent-Teacher Conferences - school closes at 12:00PM (11:45 - Fours-First Grades)

11/11 - Kelly, Meredith, Stacey and Third Graders return from the farm

11/16 - 8:45AM - Kindergarten Assembly

11/17 - 8:45AM - Parent Rep Meeting

11/22 - 6:00PM - First & Second Grade Math and Science Night

11/23 - School Closes at noon (11:45 - Fours-First Grades)