Weekly Update

Dear Families:

A reminder that Family Conferences are scheduled for Friday, November 4th (full day) and Friday, November 11th (half day). Sign-up sheets for conferences with core teachers are posted outside of their classrooms and sign-up sheets for conferences with specialist teachers are posted on the bulletin board outside of my office.

This Week’s Attachments
(Click on the links below to open the attachments. If you are having trouble opening the links, go to http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/ to access the files.)

General:
Hurricane Relief Concert
Literary Event
Eighth Grade:
Seventh Grade:
Williamsburg Trip
Sixth Grade:
Fifth Grade:

Of General Interest . . .
1) Save the Date and note the new start time: A Benefit Concert to Aid the Victims of Hurricane Katrina will be held on Monday evening, October 17, 2005, at 6:15 PM in the High School Performing Arts Center on Charlton Street. Broadway performers and LREI students (including the Middle School band and chorus) will perform for this worthy cause. Minimum donation – $20.00; Suggested donation -$50.00 per ticket. Click here to view the event poster. For information about LREI’s other efforts to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina please go to http://www.lrei.org/whoweare/katrina.html

For an additional service opportunity join us in front of the school on the morning of Saturday, October 15th for “It’s My Park Day.” In collaboration with the New York City Parks Department, we’ll plant new bulds and clean up the tree beds. Studnets and parents are invited to join us. We’ll start work at 10:00AM. Interested students should let Dean of Students Gabrielle Keller know that they plan to attend.

2) Save the date: A literary event for Middle School students and their parents – Wednesday, October 19th at 7:00PM in the Charlton Street PAC. See the attached flyer for additional information. Preceeding this event, on Monday morning, from 8:30AM to 9:30AM, “Love Your Library!” in the Sixth Ave. library, an informal, instructional gathering – with coffee – to learn how the library works and how the librarians work with the children.

3) The PA is looking for Middle School volunteers to help with this year’s Halloween Fair. A sign-up sheet is posted on the Middle School Community Service Bulletin Board. Save the Date: Sunday, October 30th from 1:30 Till 4:30 at St. Anthony’s Gym (enter on Thompson Street). The Zombie-Committee would love your undying help and support…..
Please volunteer to help on the 30th or contribute to the pre-production of this event. Sign-Up Sheets and Supply Wish-Lists are in the Sixth Avenue Lobby Right Now! The Toy-Prize Donation Box Is Also in the Lobby…. BOO There, or be square……Enjoy a spook-alicious fun time featuring: Scary Stage Show, Maskerade Parade,Fearful-Photo Opportunities, T-Shirt Boo-tique, Witchy Crafts, Gruesome Bake Sale, Decorate Deadly Cupcakes and Great Pumpkins of your very own, Face-Painting and Masquerading, Plenty of Ghoulish Games and Skullduggery Stories.

4) Just a reminder that Picture Day has been rescheduled for Monday, October 24th.

5) 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. You can access their on-line calendar of events at www.parentsinaction.org. Two upcoming seminars that may be of interest to Middle School families are: Wednesday, November 16th – Independence: Holding On and Letting Go; and Wednesday, December 7th – Independence in Middle School: Safety, Self Reliance and Risk Taking.

For 8th Grade Families . . .
1) Please don’t forget to attend one of the High School Open Houses. The last Open House is scheduled for Tuesday, October 25th from 6:30-8:ooPM at Charlton Street. Please email (scaruth@lrei.org) or call (ext. 305) Director of Admissions Samantha Caruth to RSVP.

2) On Wednesday, October 19th through Friday, October 21st, Eighth Graders will be participating in Minimester at the High School. Minimester is a three-day immersion term of mini-courses designed to engage students in a stimulating range of subjects. Students experience extraordinary opportunities to learn and experience a subject on multiple levels — immersion in one topic, an interdisciplinary approach and freedom from the constraints of the regular schedule. Minimester is a laboratory of progressive education. It inspires teachers, allowing them to create experimental, experiential learning activities, bring in outside experts and resources and develop material that reflects their passions and experiences. Recent Minimester courses included: Vietnam and America, Exploring Foreign Cultures Through Cinema, Mural Painting for Community Service, Music Production: Songwriting/ Composing for Film, Tibet: Culture/Art, Religion, New York Harbor and the Hudson River Estuary and Watershed, Introduction to India, Food, Nutrition, Diet & Cuisine, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones – An Overview of Asian Art and Culture, Robotic Toys, Filming Poetry in Motion, Pinhole Photography, Hip-Hop: Making the Beat, Finding the Self on the Page and Stage.

For 7th Grade Families . . .
1) The deadline for submitting payment for the Williamsburg Trip, which is scheduled for the week of November 14th, is October 15th. Please read the attached letter for more information.

2) Next Thursday, October 20th, the seventh grade will journey to Bear Mountain as part of our outdoor/expereintial education program. Specific details about the trip will be forthcoming. It looks to be a great day.

2) Please don’t forget to attend one of the High School Open Houses. The last Open House is scheduled for Tuesday, October 25th from 6:30-8:ooPM at Charlton Street. Please email (scaruth@lrei.org) or call (ext. 305) Director of Admissions Samantha Caruth to RSVP.

For 6th Grade Families . . .
1) Next Thursday, October 20th, the sixth grade will be taking a trip to the uptown branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters. While there, students will work with a museum educator and explore the richness of their collection of medieval art and architecture. We will be leaving right after homeroom to meet our 10:00 appointment. Be sure your child brings a bag lunch (no nuts, seeds or glass bottles) to school and that they dress appropriately for the weather.

2) A reminder about dismissal: All Middle School students are dismissed from their homerooms. Fifth and Sixth grade students who are waiting to be picked up must wait in front of the school building. Students who have not been picked up by 3:30PM must come back into the building and wait in the lobby. If you have given your child permission to walk home on his/her own, please send me a note indicating so. We will review these procedures with students and ask that you also review them at home. Thank you.

For 5th Grade Families . . .
1) Fifth Grade Chorus – Helen will have two extra chorus rehearsals to make up for those missed due to holidays. These will be after school on Monday, October 24th and Monday, November 21st and end at 4:00PM.

2) A reminder about dismissal: All Middle School students are dismissed from their homerooms. Fifth and Sixth grade students who are waiting to be picked up must wait in front of the school building. Students who have not been picked up by 3:30PM must come back into the building and wait in the lobby. If you have given your child permission to walk home on his/her own, please send me a note indicating so. We will review these procedures with students and ask that you also review them at home. Thank you.

Middle School Sports
Schedules and general information about Middle School sports programs can be found at http://lrei.org/athletics/at_4b.html. Information is also available through the LREI Sports Hotline at 212.477.5316 x 494.

Looking Ahead . . .
On the LREI web site additional information about upcoming events can be found at http://www.lrei.org/caleven/index.html (the middle school events page can be found at http://www.lrei.org/midschool/Events.html)

  • Monday, October 17, 8:30 am — Library Open House at drop-off. Ever wonder where the easy readers are, or how to check out a book when a librarian isn’t around? Please come and visit Jennifer in the Sixth Avenue library, have a cup of coffee and find out how the library works!”
  • Tuesday, October 18th, 8:15AM — Parent Rep Meeting
  • Wednesday, October 19th – Friday, October 21st — 8th grade participates in EI Minimester
  • Wednesday, October 19th, 7PM – Literary Event: “Tweens Going on Twenty”
  • Thursday, October 20th, 10:00AM – Sixth Grade to the Cloisters
  • Thursday, October 20th – Seventh Grade to Bear Mountain
  • Thursday, October 20th, 6:00PM — MS Parents of Children of Color Meeting
  • Monday, October 24th — Raindate for Class Photos

Don’t forget to check the LREI website for updates and interesting information – http://www.lrei.org.

Be well,
Mark

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