Greetings from Phil

From guest blogger Phil Kassen:

Dear LREI Community,

Greetings. This month, four brief notes and reminders:

1. There are many special events this month, from concerts to Afterschool shares to a variety of grade and class presentations. I hope that you are able to participate in some number of these wonderful occasions. One event that will involve all LREI students is next week’s Book Week. (You will find more information about the specifics of Book Week after my letter.) A central component of Book Week is that each student will have the opportunity to spend time with an author, illustrator, editor or publisher—someone who makes her or his living in a manner that uses skills and talents that your children are asked to practice and develop on a daily basis. For LREI’s students, these visits validate the hard work put into honing their literary skills. Thank you to the Literary Committee for making these experiences possible as well as for the energy and thought that goes into the creation of the book fair and the annual Literary Evening. Tickets for this event are on sale now in the Sixth Avenue lobby. One final literary note. All four of our librarians are now members of American Library Association committees. This is quite an honor. Congratulations to these dedicated professionals.

  • Lower School Librarian Stacy Dillon is serving on the 2009 Association for Library Service to Children’s (ALSC) Maureen Hayes Author/Illustrator Award.
  • Early Childhood and Interdivisional Librarian Jesse Karp (LREI ’87) has just been invited to serve on the 2009-2010 Young Adult Library Services Association’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens selection committee.
  • High School Librarian Karyn Silverman is currently serving on the 2009 Young Adult Library Services Association’s Michael L. Printz Award. The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.
  • Middle School Librarian and Library Department Chair Jennifer Hubert Swan is currently serving on the 2009 Young Adult Library Services Association’s Alex Award. The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.

2. A reminder and an update. While I am always happy to have people stop by to see me in my office at anytime, I am not always there. In order to make it easier to find me, I will be available for drop-in conversations in my Sixth Avenue office from 8:45AM-9:30AM on December 9th (NEW DATE), December 12th and December 17th. NO drop in hours on Friday December 5th.

3. We will be distributing an updated LREI Directory after Winter Break. Please contact Mary Shea (mshea@lrei.org) if you would like to revise your family’s information. Remember that you can print individual pages from the electronic version of the directory if you wish. Also, the most up-to-date school calendar is the one of the web site. On this page you can download LREI’s calendar to you iCal. You can choose which events are displayed on your version of our calendar by clicking on the “filter events” button on the left hand side of the calendar page.

4. Important Reminders

  • December 15, 2008: Tuition Remission deadline for applying for Tuition Remission.
  • January 15, 2009: Re-enrollment contracts will be mailed to all families no later than this date.
  • February 1, 2009: Re-enrollment contracts are due.

We recognize that given current economic conditions, many families’ circumstances may have changed. If you are not currently receiving Tuition Remission and feel that changes in your family’s particular situation may now qualify you for Tuition Remission, we encourage you to apply now. Contact the Business Office to do so.

Warmly,
Phil

This Week’s Attachments
General:
Book Week Pre-Authorization Form
Eighth Grade:
DC Trip Registration Form
Seventh Grade:
Fifth and Sixth Grade:

Of General Interest . . .
1) Children of Color Book Club: Sponsored by the Lower School and Middle School Parents of Children of Color Committees (POCOCs) The POCOC Winter Book Club for Kids is here! We look forward to another fun evening of books, camaraderie, community building and of course, food!
Date: Friday December 5th, 6-8pm. Please click here for more details and click here for questions being discussed at the Book Club. A few reminders:

  • Refreshments: POTLUCK family-style dinner. POCOCs please sign up to bring something. The sign-up sheet is posted in the lobby.
  • Reading Resource Corner: Please bring in 3-5 books representing people of color for our Literature Resource Table.
  • Volunteer: Please contact Shindy by email shindy@kenduuwa.com to volunteer to make this event a success. We need help with set-up, arts and crafts, reading resource table, clean-up. Thank You!

2) Book Week is back! December 8 – 12, 2008
Children’s and Young Adult authors and illustrators will be visiting classrooms throughout the school, from the Fours through twelfth grade. The Middle School schedule of visits is as follows:

Tuesday, December 9, is this year’s Literary Evening, called “LAUGH LINES.” Five talented humor writers – David Rakoff, Patty Marx, Jenny Allen, Isabel Rose and Marisa Marchetto – will read from their work at the Charlton Street Performing Arts center from 7:00–9:00PM. We hope you’ll be there to enjoy these witty writers, whose work has produced novels, graphic memoirs, SNL skits, New Yorker stories and childrens books. Tickets are being sold in the Sixth Avenue Lobby and the Library. Childcare is available so please sign up.

The Book Fair begins on Wednesday, December 10, at 2:00PM in the Sixth Avenue Auditorium and ends on Friday, December 12, at 6:00PM. Stop by and buy! Browsers welcome too! Books for all ages, librarian recommendations, perennial favorites, adult reading, gift ideas, cookbooks and gift vouchers for teachers and specialists are available. All proceeds go towards the LREI Literary Initiative, which helps the school’s library and librarians better serve our community. Click here to download the pre-authorization form to facilitate your child’s book buying.

There are many ways to volunteer during Book Week – Book Fair set up or clean up, sell Literary Evening tickets, be an author buddy – so please check the sign-up sheet in the Sixth Avenue Lobby and help Book Week be another great success.

Please click here for more information about Book Week.

3) Toys for Tots: from Margaret, Sharyn and Sherezada’s 5th and 6th Grade Advisory
Dear LREI families, During the holiday season, it is a tradition in many cultures to give children gifts. Unfortunately, while lots of families can afford to give gifts, some families cannot. We are asking you to donate new un-wrapped toys to Toys for Tots. Toys for Tots is a non-profit organization whose mission is to distribute toys to these less fortunate families. You can drop off new toys in the Toys for Tots box located by the front desk in the Sixth Avenue lobby until December 16th. These toys must be non-violent and non-projectile, and appropriate for children ages 0-16. Some ideas for toys are: sports equipment, art supplies, books and stuffed animals. Please bear in mind that there are children who will be very glad once they receive the toy that you have donated. Thank You.

3) Red is Green Committee’s December Sneaker Recycling Drive
Starting Monday, December 1st, LREI will be recycling old tennis shoes through the Nike Re-Use A Shoe program. Shoes will be ground up and recycled into outdoor basketball courts, volleyball courts, tennis courts, soccer fields and playgrounds. You can drop off your old sneakers in the collection boxes located in the lobbies of the Sixth Avenue and Charlton Street campuses through December 19th. The criteria for donations are:

  • Any athletic shoes (running shoes, sneakers, etc.)
  • All brands of shoes are accepted
  • No shoes containing metal
  • No cleats or dress shoes
  • No wet or damp shoes
  • No sandals or flip-flops

Thanks to all the families who participated in the first LREI Recycle Month – we collected over 1000 plastic bags to be recycled! We’ll be keeping the box in the Sixth Avenue lobby for a while longer, so please continue to drop off plastic bags. Also, you can always bring your bags to Whole Foods, Staples, Barnes & Nobles and other chain stores to be recycled. Still to come… January is recycle your greeting cards month! Save all your cards this holiday season and we’ll be collecting them in January. St. Jude’s Ranch accepts recycled cards which they use to make “green” holiday cards. The proceeds go towards helping abused, abandoned and neglected children.

4) From the Big Auction Committee: Since the auction is two months earlier this year (on Thursday, March 5th), we need you to get your donation forms in earlier. We would like to have as many of the forms in by the Thanksgiving break as possible, which is just around the corner. Click here to download the donation form. The deadline for forms is Friday, December 12th. Our goal this year is to have each parent donate/solicit one item, and we’re attaching a form here for your convenience. If you would like to run your ideas by someone, please contact one of us (Jenn Esposito at jenn_espo@msn.com or Mamie at mamie.mcindoe@gmail.com) or Pippa Gerard at 212-477-5316 x236 or pgerard@lrei.org or Sandra Song at 212-477-5316 x275 or ssong@lrei.org. Thank you and we hope to hear from you soon!

5) From The LS and MS Parents of Children of Color Committees (POCOCs) Book Club: Last Spring the LS and MS POCOCs launched a very successful book club for the children of color in the lower and middle schools. We are excited to announce that we are now ready follow up with our Winter Book Club session! We would like to invite all families with children of color in the lower school to participate fully and again help us make this a wonderful, successful event. We look forward to another fun evening of books, camaraderie, community building and of course, food! Please click here for more information.

6) Click here to view the LREI Fall Newsletter, which is focused on the theme “Learning By Doing.” As part of our ongoing sustainability efforts, the newsletter is only available in PDF format at this time.

7) As a follow up to our very successful Family Book Night event Beyond Batman: Graphic Novels for Kids and Teens. Click here for a review of the event and pictures and click here to view the 2008 Family Book Night booklist.

8) From the LREI Family Handbook: Vacations: We remind families to only take vacations during LREI breaks and that your child’s time away from school does not begin before the school break does or end afterwards. Teachers use each scheduled day to support their classroom program goals and the School’s mission. Students who miss days adjacent to breaks, or who take vacations outside of our break times, miss work and can disrupt planned activities. This affects the learning of the absent students and her/his classmates. In addition, divisional or all-school assemblies often precede our longer vacations. These gatherings are essential for creating the sort of community that drew you to LREI. Students sing, listen to speakers, applaud their schoolmates, meet students in other divisions and generally strengthen community ties.

We will not honor families’ requests to receive work their children will miss due to family vacation plans. Families that are presented with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to make an extended visit to another city, country, etc. should speak to their child’s principal. In general, we are focused on making sure that we are using each moment of each school day as effectively as possible. Part of being able to do this is to have each student in school each of these days. Thank you for your support of these efforts.

9) For updates on faculty performances, openings, presentations, and publications visit the Faculty in the News page on the school web site.

10) LREI is a member of NYC-Parents in Action (NYC-PIA). NYC-PIA provides parenting education, information and a communications network to help parents prepare their children and teenagers to cope with social pressures and to make sound choices towards a future free of alcohol and drug abuse. Please read the attached flyer to view their 2008-2009 calendar. You can also access their website at http://www.parentsinaction.org/.

For Sixth through Eighth Grade Families . . .
1) Click here for information on an exciting and free summer theater and film-training program offered through Wingspan Arts. The application deadline is December 8th.

For Eighth and Seventh Grade Families . . .
1) Boys and girls practice and basketball schedules are online:

For Eighth Grade Families . . .
1) While the trip to DC is not until the spring, please use the attached form to register your child for the trip. If you have questions about payment, please do not hesitate to contact me.

For Seventh Grade Families . . .
1) Please join us as we celebrate the opening of our Seventh Grade Colonial Museum on Wednesday, December 17th, from 6PM to 8PM. As is our custom, a potluck dinner held in the cafeteria will follow the exhibition. While all varieties of victuals are welcomed, those with a colonial bent are most appreciated. A list of colonial inspired menu items appears below. Please speak to your parent rep about what to bring as they will be coordinating this part of the evening. Students have been working diligently on their Colonial Projects in core and in related studies in art, music, and science. We anticipate an exciting array of unique exhibits, each capturing some aspect of Colonial American life. Some students have expressed a desire to dress in traditional Colonial attire. This is permitted. For those students who choose not to, we ask that they come to school on Wednesday dressed nicely. Collared shirts are encouraged for the boys, skirts or pants for the girls. Please no t-shirts, jeans, or sweats. Links to some colonial inspired recipes:

  • http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/food/foodhdr.cfm
  • http://www.1771.org/cd_recipes.htm
  • http://gaspee.com/ColonialRecipes.html

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing all of you on the evening of the 17th.

For Fifth and Sixth Grade Families . . .
1) Intramural Basketball:

  • Thursday, December 11th at 7:00AM at the Thompson Street Athletic Center is the second practice for all interested players
  • The week of December 15th players will have practice either on Wednesday or Thursday depending on what team they are on. Students will be assigned to a team by Friday, December 12th.
  • Click here to view the full practice and game schedule.

For Sixth Grade Families . . .
No updates this week.

For Fifth Grade Families . . .
No updates this week.

============= For additional information, follow these links: =============

  • View important middle school dates here.
  • View all events with the LREI On-line Calendar
  • LREI Athletics. For general LREI Athletics news go to this link . This page will provide general announcements, game summaries, league standings and season recaps.
  • Click here to view the Middle School Photo Gallery.

A reminder that the individual homework blog and the “feeds” for every class can be accessed from the Digital Classroom link on the sidebar (you may want to bookmark this page for easy access). These feeds provide an easy “one-click” solution to find out what has been assigned for homework. Keep in mind that a feed will only show what has been posted as of the time you check it.

Don’t forget to check the LREI website for updates and other interesting school-related information.

Be well,
Mark

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