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!!!!!!

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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".

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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)