December Newsletter
December 2, 2020
Word of the Month-Empathy
Mustang Families,
Happy holidays to you and your family. My hope for each and every one of you this year is good health. Thank you for all of the work that you are doing to make sure that your child attends their google meets. We have found that students are doing an amazing job at attending their meets, but not so amazing at completing their assignments outside of the meets. Students have independent work to do when they aren't meeting with their teacher that they should be working on. If they have questions during this time, please have them log in to their teacher's office hours and ask these questions. Assignments are assigned on Monday and due on the following Sunday. This allows our students adequate time to complete assignments and get help if they need it.
Thank you for taking our parent survey. Your feedback truly helps inform the decisions that we make. Please visit our website to see if you have won a prize.
Mrs. Lee
Meet Mr. McCaffery Jake McCaffrey is McClure’s new Reading Interventionist. He is married to a fellow Yakima School District teacher and they have two sons. He enjoys playing drums and guitar, watching baseball and football, and playing card and board games with friends and family. Mr. McCaffrey is excited to be a Mustang and loves having the opportunity to support our school’s emerging readers. | Meet Ms. Biever Darla Biever teaches English Language Development at McClure Elementary. She loves reading, traveling, music, dogs, and laughter. Ms. Biever enjoys hiking and loves all kinds of water activities. She especially enjoys spending time near the ocean, She's also a big fan of snow! Ms. Biever loves helping students build strong brain muscles and develop as multilingual learners. You may contact her at biever.darla@ysd7.org with any questions you may have. |
Meet Mr. McCaffery
Meet Ms. Biever
McClure PTA WANTS you!
McClure PTA WANTS you! Please join us for our first general membership meeting on Monday, December 7th at 6:30. We will be receiving a financial report, nominations for our new board and we will start making plans to support children and families. Attendees will be entered into a drawing to win a prize!
You can use this link to join us for Monday's meeting: https://meet.google.com/agj-navi-pod
Save the Date!
Virtual Question & Answer Sessions with the Superintendent Coming up in January
The Yakima School District plans to return students to the school buildings for some in-person support the week of January 25, 2021. The model and schedule for that support will be announced by December 10th.
Parents/Guardians are invited to join Superintendent Trevor Greene and Deputy Superintendent Dr. Rob Darling in a virtual question and answer session.
The virtual question and answer session will begin with a ThoughtExchange that allows parents/guardians to anonymously submit their perspectives and/or questions about the topic and then rate the thoughts from other people. Then, the superintendents will be able to share the results to see the thoughts that are most important to the audience.
Parents of Elementary (PK-5) Students
Tuesday, January 5, 2021
English - 6:00 PM - 6:50 PM
Spanish - 7:10 PM - 8:00 PM
Webinar - Link Coming Soon
Books and Brain Health
The benefits of reading for kids and teens start in the brain as early as infancy, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. In a study they conducted in 2014, it was discovered that “reading exerts a positive effect on the developing brain” of children – even for those little ones who can’t read yet. Not only do kids who are read to regularly when they’re little develop stronger relationships with their parents, they also begin learning valuable language and literacy skills earlier on in their development. Research also suggests that children who are read to when they’re small do better in school when they get older because they’re equipped with stronger comprehension and vocabulary skills. Pleasure-reading on their own benefits older kids and teenagers, too. It helps them develop stronger social skills, vocabulary and writing skills, and helps them to better understand and process more complex ideas. Reading also expands their ability to build knowledge overall – not just in subjects like English and language arts.
From:Children's Healthcare Atlanta
Highly Capable Program
The Yakima School District is accepting referrals for students in kindergarten through 11th grade for consideration into the Highly Capable Program.
If you would like to refer a child that fits this description, please complete a Referral Packet by Friday, January 29, 2021. Referrals for student selection into the program can be made by school staff, parents, students, and members of the community.
Children who demonstrate exceptional ability, exceed grade-level standards in literacy and/or math (or have the potential to do so if challenged and supported) demonstrate exceptional creativity, and possess a strong motivation to excel are good candidates for the Highly Capable Program.