This Week

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
Eighth Grade:
Seventh Grade:
Williamsburg Trip
Sixth Grade:
Fifth Grade:

Of General Interest . . .
1) The Middle School is sponsoring a bake sale and Mardi Gras bead sale tomorrow at the end of the day to benefit the Humane Society and their animal rescue effort on the gulf coast. All Middle School students are invited to bring in baked goods. Items for the bale sale can be stored in teh Foreign Language room.

2) From Middle School art teacher Melissa Rubin: Last year, the Middle School art program donated gently used art materials to an orphanage in Madagscar. The art materials were hand delivered by 5th grade teacher Heather Brandstetter’s sister Laurel. The children at the orphanage were very excited to receive these art materials. This year we are expanding this effort to include all fifth grade students. They are taking part in an “Art Exchange” with the children who live in Madagascar at the orphanage. Currently, they are working on small picture books, which tell about who they are and a little bit about life in New York City. In exchange, the children in Madagascar will create artwork to send to the 5th grade that tells about who they are. Our hope is to have an ongoing exchange of art and friendship with these children. All Middle School families are encouraged to help us as we gather gently used art materials. If you have any non-toxic art materials at home you would like to donate, such as markers, colored pencils, crayons, pencils, water color paint trays and paint brushes, please send them in with your child by next Tuesday, October 11th as Laurel will be heading to Madagascar on October 12th.

3) Save the Date: A Benefit Concert to Aid the Victims of Hurricane Katrina will be held on Monday evening, October 17, 2005, at 6:30 PM in the High School Performing Arts Center on Charlton Street. Broadway performers and LREI students 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

4) Asian-American Families Breakfast — Please bring your whole family for this group’s first get-together of the year. Friday, Oct. 7th, 7:45 a.m.-9:00 a.m., 6th-Avenue Cafeteria. If you have to come late or leave early, that’s fine, it’s very informal. It’s also potluck, so please let Ruth Yang (ryang@walzyanglaw.com) know what food you will bring. And if you forget to sign up or can’t bring anything, please still come!

5) No Body is a nobody when the HALLOWEEN FAIR Rises Again . . .
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.

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

7) The CUNY/Creative Arts Team has an exciting after-school youth theatre program for middle school and junior high students. The CAT JUNIOR Youth Theatre is a FREE program for young people in 6th, 7th and 8th grades. They admit members on a first-come, first-served basis and there is NO AUDITION for membership. The CAT JUNIOR Youth Theatre meets on Wednesdays from 4:00 to 6:30 at 101. W. 31st Street (6th &7th Ave.), 6th floor. There are a few spots left for this semester, if you are interested in learning more about the program call the CAT Youth Theatre at 212/652-2828 or email the Junior Youth Theatre Leader at maura.griffin@mail.cuny.edu

8) 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. Open Houses are scheduled for Thursday, October 6th and 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) Please don’t forget to attend one of the High School Open Houses. Open Houses are scheduled for Thursday, October 6th and 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) 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) 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)

  • Thursday, October 6th, 8:00AM — Lesbian/Gay/ Straight Alliance Meeting in the Sixth Avenue cafeteria.
  • Thursday, Oct. 6th, 8:45AM — Multicultural Committee Meeting 6th Ave. Cafeteria
  • Thursday, October 6th, 11:00 AM-2:30 PM — Downtown Independent Schools Committee (DISC) Field Day: Sixth graders from LREI will lunch and participate in a variety of games and athletic events with students from Village Community School, Grace Church School, Friends, City and Country, and St. Luke’s School. (Raindate is October 12th.)
  • Friday, Oct. 7th, 7:45AM — Asian-American Families Breakfast 6th Ave. Cafeteria
  • 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, 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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