Good Morning Memorial Families,
I hope that you had a wonderful fall weekend. We certainly started it with a bang on Friday night at the Spooktacular Trunk or Treat. Ms. Chuk and I went through about 25 pounds of candy, and estimates are that we had over 1,000 trick or treaters come through in an hour and a half. Thank you to the Memorial PTO for bringing the community together for a fun event. It was so well-organized and everyone had so much fun!
I have a few updates for families that I hope you will find helpful.
Halloween Parade: We will hold our annual Halloween parade on Monday, October 31st at 9:20am. Students will exit the building and parade around the entire exterior using the sidewalk around the school. Parents should plan to arrive after arrival time (after 9:05am), and should stand around the building in the road.
WIN (What I Need) Block: New this year, your children will be participating in a 30-40 minute WIN block each day focused on building skills that they currently are showing they need to meet or enrich grade level standards and expectations. We will pause all new instruction at a certain time each day and will be flexibly grouping students across a grade level based on what our beginning of year reading assessment data is showing they need to work on. This means your child will be working with other students in their grade level and possibly with another teacher for this time. Ask your child this afternoon who they got to work with during WIN block and what they were doing. We have up to nine different groups happening at the same time across your child’s grade level during WIN block and we hope that this time gives every child a chance to work on the skills they are currently showing they need right now in smaller groups. The first six week WIN block cycle will have a literacy and writing focus, and the next cycle in December will be dedicated to math.
Parent Teacher Conferences: Conference Days are scheduled for Wednesday, November 9th and Thursday, November 10th. They are early release days for students and teachers will be scheduling conferences in the afternoon on both days as well as the evening of November 9th.
Conferences are an excellent opportunity for you to learn more about how your child is progressing so far this year, what we are doing to support your child, and how you can help support their learning at home. Be sure to take advantage of this opportunity and schedule a time with your child’s teacher.
Family Meetings: Students will meet with their school “family” again this Friday, Be sure to ask your child how it went, what they enjoyed, and what they did during their family time. We are really focused on building a sense of belonging and community for every child at Memorial, and this is one strategy we are using to do this.
Have a wonderful week!
Warmly,
Wendy
