Ansel Adams Email Template

I can’t believe our first quarter is coming to an end! Our Cubs have been learning, growing, and making so much progress. Although it has only been 9 weeks, they have grown so much already, and we are incredibly proud of all their hard work!

🎉Celebrating Our Cubs!

We were honored to be recognized at the Board Meeting last Tuesday for exceeding the state percentage for reclassifying our Multilingual Cubs. This year, we proudly reclassified 28% of our Cubs as English proficient.

This achievement reflects the hard work, dedication, and commitment of our teachers, staff, students, and families. We are incredibly proud of the progress our Cubs are making and the continued growth we are seeing across our school community.

We will offically recogniz the following cubs duing our ELAC meeting on October 23 at 9:00 a.m: Ximena Ferreyra Santoyo, Anne Huang, Kenji Pen, Parneet Sharma, Hayden Nguyen, Kaylen Som, Ahmad Ibrahim, and Alan Ledesma.

👩‍🏫 Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parent-Teacher Conference Week will take place Tuesday, September 22–Friday, September 25. Please see the minimum-day dismissal times below:

• TK & Kindergarten: 11:55 AM
• Grades 1–3: 12:21 PM
• Grades 4–6: 12:30 PM

Thank you for your continued support in ensuring that our Cubs are picked up safely and on time.

🍂 Fall Intersession: September 28–October 2

Ansel Adams Elementary is excited to host Fall Intersession for students from both Ansel Adams and Mosher Elementary.

If your child has been selected to participate, please look out for a letter fron Ms. Phan with additional information and details about the program. At this time, Fall Intersession is full, and we will not be accepting any additional students. We look forward to a fun and engaging week of learning and activities with students.

Student Transitions, Instructional Time, and Safety

We want to share that we will be making a schoolwide effort to limit students leaving the classroom or playground during the last five minutes before the transition bell.

This will help us maximize instructional time, minimize interruptions, and maintain a safe and focused environment for all of our Cubs during recess and throughout the school day.

We also kindly ask that, whenever possible, appointments be scheduled after regular dismissal. This helps minimize disruptions to instructional time and allows our students and staff to remain focused on learning.

We understand that appointments and unexpected circumstances may arise, and we truly appreciate your understanding and flexibility. Your partnership is an important part of helping us provide a safe, focused, and productive learning environment for all of our Cubs.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me or stop by the office. I am always happy to talk with you.

🚗2nd Annual Trunk-or-Treat – Family Sign-Up

Last year, we had 10 amazing cars, and this year, our goal is to DOUBLE IT to at least 20 cars!

Families who sign up will decorate their vehicle trunks and pass out treats to our Cubs. Please complete the information below if you would like to participate.

Thank you for helping us create a fun, safe, and memorable experience for our 600 Cubs!

Together, let’s make our 2nd Annual Trunk-or-Treat the best one yet!

Sign Up for Trunk-or-Treat

Ways we recognize our cubs' perfect attendance:

Every day counts! Students who come to school every day build strong learning habits, make friends, and grow as Learners, Leaders, and Champions.

🌟 Monthly Attendance Rewards

🍕 Class Pizza Party - Two classes with 95% or higher attendance will earn a pizza party.

📚 Book Vending Machine - Students with perfect attendance will receive a Book Coin to choose a free book.

💵 50 Cub Cash - Students with perfect attendance will earn 50 Cub Cash.

🐻 Perfect Attendance Cub Tag - Students with perfect attendance will receive a Cub Tag and be recognized at the monthly assembly.

🎁 Quarterly Raffle

Students with perfect attendance each month will be entered into a $50 gift card drawing. One winner will be selected each quarter.

• Quarter 1: September 25, 2026

• Quarter 2: December 18, 2026

• Quarter 3: March 12, 2027

• Quarter 4: May 21, 2027

Every Day Counts. Every Cub Matters!

Celebrate Life Skills

This year, we are teaching and celebrating a different Life Skill each month. During August, our focus is on patience.

Throughout the month, students will learn what patience looks like, sounds like, and feels like, as well as how to demonstrate it at school, at home, and in our community.

At the end of the month, students who consistently demonstrate Patience will be recognized with a special Cub Tag during our school assemblies.

Families can help by talking about and modeling patience at home. Together, we can help our Cubs develop skills that will support them in school and throughout their lives.

🐾 Our Life Skills for the Year

August: Patience
September: Perseverance
October: Friendship
November: Gratitude
December: Safe
January: Best Effort
February: Kindness & Caring
March: Leadership
April: Courageous
May: Responsibility

Thank you for your continued partnership and support as we work together growing Cubs into Learners, Leaders, and Champions!

🍂 Fall Break Reading Challenge

I can't believe the first quarter is almost coming to an end! We only have 10 more days until Fall Break. Fall Break will be from September 28–October 12.

Reading for 20–30 minutes each night is a great way for our Cubs to build their reading fluency and become confident, fluent readers. It is also a wonderful opportunity for families to cuddle up with their children and enjoy a great book together.

Remember: You can read to your child in your home/native language. The literacy skills children develop in their home language can carry over and support their reading development in English.

For our Fall Reading Challenge, we are asking our Cubs to:

Read with their family or independently for 30 minutes each night.
Complete the Fall Reading Challenge form.
Turn in the completed form to their teacher or the school office.

Any Cub who completes the challenge and turns in their form will earn:

A Reading Certificate
A Coin for the Book Vending Machine
$10 Cub Cash

Let's make reading a fun part of Fall Break! Happy Reading, Cubs! 🐾

✨ Imagine This... Story Writing Contest

The Imagine This... Story Writing Contest is now open! Students in grades 3–8 are invited to write and submit original stories—real or imagined—based on accurate information about California agriculture.

This one-of-a-kind contest combines agriculture, creativity, and literacy. Each year, one state winner from each grade level is selected, and their story is illustrated by talented high school art students before being published in a beautifully bound book!

Important Dates:

Story Submission Deadline: Please confirm—October 30 or November 1, 2026

Regional Winners Announced: December 1

State Winners Announced: December 1

Winners Will: Become a published author

Travel to Sacramento to be recognized at the State Capitol, with travel expenses covered

Have their story professionally illustrated by high school art students

Receive a giant poster featuring their story’s illustrated book cover

🐾Perfect Attendance Recognition

On Monday and Friday, we recognized students who maintained perfect attendance in August. Each student received a Cub Tag, $25 in Cub Cash, and a coin for our book vending machine. We are excited to celebrate 206 students who earned this recognition!

Next week, we will recognize our Kindergarten Cubs and share photos in our next newsletter.

We will recognize students with perfect attendance for the month of September during our morning assemblies:

• October 12: Grades 4-6 at 8:20 a.m.
• October 13: We will visit each Kindergarten classroom to recognize our Kindergarten Cubs.
• October 16: Grades 1-3 at 8:20 a.m.

Congratulations to Mr. Vann’s 6th-grade class and Ms. Vang’s 1st-grade class for having the highest attendance rates! Both classes earned a pizza party for their outstanding attendance.

A special thank-you to Nutrition Services for providing Domino’s pizzas for our Cubs. We truly appreciate your support in celebrating our students!

September Character Trait: Perseverance

Throughout September, our teachers and staff will review, model, and practice this important life skill with our Cubs. Perseverance means continuing to work toward a goal even when it is difficult.

Families, we encourage you to talk with your child about perseverance. Ask them what it means to keep trying when things get tough and share examples of times when perseverance helped you accomplish something.

Together, we can help our Cubs understand that challenges are opportunities to learn, grow, and become stronger!

More i-Ready Recognition in January!

After our Middle-of-the-Year i-Ready Reading and Math Diagnostics, we will recognize students who:

• 📈 Achieve 50% or more of their Typical Growth
• 🎯 Score on or above grade level

We will also hold three student award assemblies throughout the school year, following each break. Dates, award criteria, and invitations will be shared with families as we get closer to each celebration.

There Are Many Ways for Our Cubs to Shine!

At Ansel Adams, we believe student success is about more than a test score. Throughout the year, we will recognize and celebrate our Cubs for:

📚 Academic Achievement
📈 Academic Growth & Effort
🏫 Attendance
💙 Life Skills & Character

We want every Cub to know: We see your effort. We see your growth. We believe in you, and we are proud of you!

How Families Can Support Reading at Home

One of the best ways to support your Cub at home is to have them read for 20–30 minutes every night. After reading, take a few minutes to ask questions about the book to help strengthen their understanding.

Remember: Reading does not have to be in English! We encourage our Cubs to read and enjoy books in the language they are most comfortable with at home.

📖After your child finishes a book, they can take an Accelerated Reader (AR) quiz at school and earn points for the books they read. We will celebrate and recognize our Accelerated Readers at our student award assemblies throughout the year!

Every book read, every AR point earned, and every minute spent reading helps our Cubs become stronger and more confident readers.

Thank you, families, for continuing to encourage, read with, and support our Cubs at home. Your partnership makes a difference!

Together, we are Growing Cubs into Learners, Leaders, and Champions!

Families Resources

Community Partnership for Families

E-Bike and Scooter Safety

If your child is riding an E-Bike or scooter to school, please review the following information provided to Lodi USD by law enforcement to ensure that your child is following regulations and is riding safely.

• E-Bikes - There are three classifications of e-bikes. All e-bikes must have an electric motor of less than 750 watts.

• Class 1 and 2: These e-bikes are similar to regular bicycles. They can be identified as pedal-assisted with an electric motor that reaches a maximum speed of 20mph. Class 1 and 2 riders must wear a helmet while riding and adhere to the same regulations as regular bicycles.

• Class 3: These e-bikes are pedal assisted with an electric motor that ceases to provide power at 28mph. These e-bikes have age restrictions, riders must be 16 years or older, and must be wearing a helmet at all times when riding.

• Motorized Scooters - Motorized scooters are two-wheeled devices with a floorboard or seat, and are powered by an electric motor.

• Riders of motorized scooters must be 16 years of age or older, and must have a valid driver's license or learner's permit to legally ride. Riders must also wear a helmet.

Please help us keep students safe by ensuring these regulations are followed. Thank you!

🚗 Dismissal Procedures & Safety

The school staff is working hard each day to make dismissal as safe, organized, and efficient as possible. Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we continue to improve our dismissal procedures.

To help keep everyone safe, please remember:

• Families may park in the first two lanes during dismissal.
• Please do not pick up your child from the third lane, as this is our moving traffic lane.
• If you are waiting in your vehicle alongside parked cars, please remain in your vehicle. This allows staff members to safely leave when needed for meetings or emergencies and helps keep traffic moving.
• Please follow the directions of staff members assisting with dismissal.

Our number one priority is the safety of our Cubs. We know everyone is eager to get home at the end of the day, but a few extra minutes of patience can make a big difference in keeping everyone safe. Our parking lot is typically quite empty by 2:25 p.m., so families who can wait a few extra minutes may find dismissal much easier and less congested.

5 Days to Fall Break!

I can’t believe our first quarter is coming to an end! Our Cubs have been learning, growing, and making so much progress. Although it has only been 9 weeks, they have grown so much already, and we are incredibly proud of all their hard work!

🎉Celebrating Our Cubs!

We were honored to be recognized at the Board Meeting last Tuesday for exceeding the state percentage for reclassifying our Multilingual Cubs. This year, we proudly reclassified 28% of our Cubs as English proficient.

This achievement reflects the hard work, dedication, and commitment of our teachers, staff, students, and families. We are incredibly proud of the progress our Cubs are making and the continued growth we are seeing across our school community.

We will offically recogniz the following cubs duing our ELAC meeting on October 23 at 9:00 a.m: Ximena Ferreyra Santoyo, Anne Huang, Kenji Pen, Parneet Sharma, Hayden Nguyen, Kaylen Som, Ahmad Ibrahim, and Alan Ledesma.

👩‍🏫 Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parent-Teacher Conference Week will take place Tuesday, September 22–Friday, September 25. Please see the minimum-day dismissal times below:

• TK & Kindergarten: 11:55 AM
• Grades 1–3: 12:21 PM
• Grades 4–6: 12:30 PM

Thank you for your continued support in ensuring that our Cubs are picked up safely and on time.

🍂 Fall Intersession: September 28–October 2

Ansel Adams Elementary is excited to host Fall Intersession for students from both Ansel Adams and Mosher Elementary.

If your child has been selected to participate, please look out for a letter fron Ms. Phan with additional information and details about the program. At this time, Fall Intersession is full, and we will not be accepting any additional students. We look forward to a fun and engaging week of learning and activities with students.

Student Transitions, Instructional Time, and Safety

We want to share that we will be making a schoolwide effort to limit students leaving the classroom or playground during the last five minutes before the transition bell.

This will help us maximize instructional time, minimize interruptions, and maintain a safe and focused environment for all of our Cubs during recess and throughout the school day.

We also kindly ask that, whenever possible, appointments be scheduled after regular dismissal. This helps minimize disruptions to instructional time and allows our students and staff to remain focused on learning.

We understand that appointments and unexpected circumstances may arise, and we truly appreciate your understanding and flexibility. Your partnership is an important part of helping us provide a safe, focused, and productive learning environment for all of our Cubs.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me or stop by the office. I am always happy to talk with you.

🚗2nd Annual Trunk-or-Treat – Family Sign-Up

Last year, we had 10 amazing cars, and this year, our goal is to DOUBLE IT to at least 20 cars!

Families who sign up will decorate their vehicle trunks and pass out treats to our Cubs. Please complete the information below if you would like to participate.

Thank you for helping us create a fun, safe, and memorable experience for our 600 Cubs!

Together, let’s make our 2nd Annual Trunk-or-Treat the best one yet!

Sign Up for Trunk-or-Treat

Arrival

• Campus opens at 7:45 a.m.

• Breakfast begins at 7:45 a.m.

• Students may enter the courtyard at 8:00 a.m.

• School begins promptly at 8:15 a.m.

Dismissal

• Please follow staff directions during pickup.

• Remain in your vehicle during curbside pickup.

• Avoid double parking and blocking traffic.

• Be patient—traffic usually clears within 10–15 minutes.

Thank you for helping us keep all students safe.

Our Parent Handbook contains important information about school procedures, attendance, behavior expectations, safety, communication, and student support services.

Topics include:

• Attendance

• Arrival & Dismissal

• Behavior Expectations

• PBIS

• Parent Involvement

• Student Services

• School Policies

📌 Download the 2026–2027 Parent Handbook (PDF)

We're excited to launch the Ansel Adams Parent Club, and we can't do it without you!

Parent Club members help make our school an even better place by:

• 🎉 Planning fun family events

• 🍎 Supporting our teachers and students

• 🧪 Helping raise funds for 6th Grade Science Camp and other enriching opportunities

• 💡 Sharing ideas that strengthen our school community

• 🤝Volunteer the classrooms

Whether you have a little time or a lot, your involvement can make a meaningful difference. Together, we can create memorable experiences for our students and build an even stronger community for our Cubs!

📅 Parent Club Meeting Dates

Location: Ansel Adams Library

• August 18, 2026 | 2:30–3:00 p.m.

• October 13, 2026 | 2:30–3:00 p.m.

• January 12, 2027 | 2:30–3:00 p.m.

• February 9, 2027 | 2:30–3:00 p.m.

We hope you'll join us and become a part of something special. We look forward to partnering with you to make this a fantastic year for all of our Cubs!