Dear Parents,

It was wonderful to have all our students back at school this week. Students settled in well to daily attendance and there was a great deal of excitement about coming to school every day. Students in Group A and B came together in person for the first time this year. The focus this week was on developing class communities by familiarizing students with each other and assisting them to develop relationships as a class community of learners.

Another highlight of this week was the Elementary Book Fair. Our Lower Elementary students and teachers enjoyed book shopping and choosing from hundreds of books that were available for purchase at the fair. Thank you to the PTA and all the volunteer parents who organized this event and assisted our students while visiting the book fair.

Thank you to the parents that joined our Virtual Parent Session today. Mrs. Carol Little, our Math Coach and Coordinator, shared information about the development of problem solving skills and math fact fluency from Pre-K 3 to Grade 2. Parents were introduced to questions they can ask their children to reinforce and extend math learning at home. This in addition to sharing games that can be played at home so the entire family can enjoy math together. A recording of this Zoom meeting is accessed on our LES Teneen page.

October Heath Learning Focus

During the month of October, our Health focus is on wellbeing. Learning during this month is aligned to ASD’s four domains of wellbeing:

• Physical Wellbeing: the physical body, its growth, development, ability to move, and ways for caring for it.

• Social Wellbeing: family relationships, friendships and other interpersonal relationships; feelings of belonging, compassion, caring, and social support.

• Mental/Emotional Wellbeing: coherent thinking processes, acknowledging and expressing thoughts and feelings, and responding constructively.

• Spiritual Wellbeing: the values and beliefs that determine the way people live, the search for meaning and purpose in life, and personal identity and self-awareness.

The highlight of the month is our annual Wellbeing Awareness Week, which this year will be held during the week of October 17-21. Throughout the week, students will be participating in a variety of wellbeing related learning experiences and gaining a better understanding of the importance of maintaining healthy habits and being responsible for their personal wellbeing. More information about grade level specific wellbeing related activities will be shared in our next Sahifa.

KG Learning Highlights

Prepared by Mrs. Jennifer Bendriss - KG Team Leader

Our incredible Kindergarten learners explored exciting and challenging topics in our first weeks of school. One such topic was "What Makes Me Unique?" The heart of this inquiry is students identifying what makes them unique by recognizing that people have both unique and different characteristics. Students explored the diversity of families within their class and focused on different celebrations in the class community. Students learned to identify characteristics of themselves, explored their own and different family groups, as well as recognized the similarities and differences between themselves and others.

In Language Arts, students were introduced to the writing workshop. Students continue to learn and practice the daily routines of the writing workshop so they can manage their writing behavior independently. The initial goal was for students to view themselves as authors and members of a diverse community of writers. Students will continue to get to know themselves and each other as writers and begin to set writing goals for the coming months. Students have also tapped into the power of their names to enhance their word study and handwriting skills. Learners were immersed in letters, sounds, songs, chants, rhymes and more! In reading, students explored books of all genres such as concept books, alphabet books, picture books, high interest nonfiction, and even copies of books that the class has written together during shared writing. While exploring books, students have learned routines to foster a positive learning community in which we all take responsibility for our special 'book friends'.

In math, students are beginning to recognize the relationship between numbers and quantity. Students are exploring numbers 0-10 and learning through activities such as our daily calendar, centers, number talks, and exploring numbers using math manipulatives. Students have been working with numbers to 10 in different configurations, learning to problem solve using math drawings and expressions and understanding the terms “one more” and “one less” with numbers 0–10.