Celebrating Family Diversity – featuring an audio clip this week!

How do we celebrate family diversity at LREI’s Lower School? Let me count the ways. Teachers read books in class and lead discussions; led by Sue and Ledell, we sing about families together; teachers acknowledge and value each wonderful family in our community, and students collaborate to create projects that increase understanding of different family types. Through it all, students hear teachers modeling comfort with family diversity-related vocabulary (gay, lesbian, two moms, two dads, divorced, single-parent, blended, and/or built through adoption, etc). They get a clear message that reinforces LREI’s historical and mission-motivated inclusiveness. The assembly and the discussions are a long-standing tradition and part of the curriculum at LREI – yet another of the many reasons I feel happy to have joined this school community!

A high degree of student participation really made yesterday’s Families Assembly engaging, even for our youngest students! Below is a poem that a first grade class wrote and recited to us. Below click to hear us singing together at the assembly. Please play it for your kids – I think they’ll like that (and you may be treated to a sing-along)!

The Family Recipe
by Jamie and Lindsay’s First Grade

This is how you make a family.
Gather all the things you need. You can add
A mom, a dad, or both
A family can have two moms, two dads,
An aunt, an uncle and grandparents.
A stepmother or a stepfather, or both
A godfather or a godmother, or both.
You can add kids‚ like brothers and sisters and babies and twins and triplets!
Or, just one kid, or no kids.
Mix in pets.
Dogs, fish, guinea pigs, bunnies, cats, hamsters, hedgehogs, a frog, a parrot, or a lizard
Any people can be in a family. There can be only one person or up to 100!
The most important ingredient in a family is love!
Give lots of kisses and hugs, make your family feel good, and show them how much you love them and you will have a great and growing family!

Click the play button to listen to the song, We’re All a Family (Under One Sun):

[display_podcast]

Warmly,
Namita

 

LOWER SCHOOL NOTES & ATTACHMENTS
(click on the links below to view and print information from teachers and specialists.)

UPCOMING PARENT MEETINGS & EVENTS

  • Friday, 2/27, 8:15am – Kate’s 4th Grade Publishing Party
  • Friday, 2/27, 8:30am – 2nd Grade Parent Meeting with Roberta
  • Monday, 3/2, 8:45am – Multi Cultural Comm. Mtg.
  • Thursday, 3/5, 8:00am – Lesbian-Gay-Straight Alliance (LGSA) Meeting
  • Thurday, 3/5, 8:45am – Adoption Committee Meeting
  • Friday, 3/6, 3:30pm – School Spirit Game (flyer)
  • Tuesday, 3/10, 8:45am – LS POCOC meeting
  • Thursday, 3/12, 8:45 am – LS Parent Rep meeting. Click here for notes from the last Parent Rep meeting.
  • Friday, 3/13 – School Closes Early at 12noon (Fours -First grade at 11:45am) Afterschool closed
  • Monday, 3/16 through 3/27 – School Closed for Spring Break
  • Monday, 3/30 – School Reopens
  • For the most up-to-date, searchable all school calendar, please visit www.lrei.org/calendar. Click here for the 2009-10 school calendar.

 

 

WEEKLY ANNOUNCEMENTS

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Spirit Game: Our Annual School Spirit Game, in which our Middle School and High School basketball teams play against the faculty is scheduled for Friday, March 6th at 3:30PM in the Thompson Street Athletic Center at 145 Thompson Street. This is a fun event for young and old. You are all invited to attend (flyer). See you at the gym!

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MS Robotics: On Saturday, March 7th you can cheer for our Middle School Robotics Teams as they take their First Place finish in the Manhattan championships to the 2009 New York City FIRST LEGO League Championship. For more information, click here.

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Project Cicero, March 2-5: Project Cicero Book Drive is an annual non-profit book drive designed to create — or supplement — school and classroom libraries for children in under-resourced New York City public schools. Now in its eighth year, Project Cicero has distributed nearly 1,000,000 new and gently used books to 5,500 New York City classrooms and libraries, reaching 180,000 students.They solicit donations from individuals and families from over 90 independent, public, and parochial schools each year, and have received generous contributions from many book publishers. Please bring in your unwanted books for school-age children—in good condition only please!—and drop them in the box in the Sixth Ave. lobby.

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February Food Drive: Please remember to bring some items in for this month’s food drive for St. John’s Food Pantry. A front page article in last week’s New York Times stated that “demand at food banks across the country increased by 30 percent from the previous year.” Several pantries are extending their hours to accommodate increasing crowds and find that many visitors have jobs but still need the free groceries to help make ends meet. Bins have been placed on each floor of the lower school and will be there until Friday afternoon, when second graders will pack items up to be delivered to the pantry next week. Click here for a list of needed items.

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Big Auction Update:
The Big Auction is just one week away! If you haven’t done so already, you can buy your ticket(s) by emailing or calling Sandra Song at ssong-at-lrei.org or 212-477-5316 x275. Please have your credit card information ready with the expiration date and three digit security code–we only accept MasterCard and Visa. This year, we’re featuring select items online–please visit lreibigauction.cmarket.com and start bidding today! Click here for a look at the Arts & Entertainment Auction items.

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Director’s Drop-In: Phil will be available for drop-in conversations in his Sixth Avenue office from 8:45 am – 9:30 am on Friday, March 6th. Drop in, ask a question, and hear about what is going on at LREI. Can’t make these times? Give a call or send an email, 212-477-5316.

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Updates from the Red is Green Committee: LREI went Green to School on Wednesday, February 25th. What an amazing turnout and response! Thank you to all who made the effort to go ‘green’. It was impressive to hear how everyone got to school from carpooling to walking to taking the ferry. The next LREI Goes Green to School is on Earth Day – Wednesday, April 22nd.

 

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