The Gayman Gazette
"What Will Your Beautiful Hands Do Today?"
October 10, 2016
Important Upcoming Dates
- October 10th-14th - Celebrate Ed Week
- October 11th - Kindergarten to None Such Farms - AM @ 8:45 and PM @ 12:45 PM
- October 12th - Yom Kippur - No School
- October 13th - Kids Care Club @ 3:30 PM
- October 14th - 6th Grade Club @ AGA Farms @ 8:30 PM
- October 20th - 3rd Grade Bug Museum @ 2:30 PM
- October 21st - Race For Education
- October 23rd - Spooktacular Family Fun Night @ DelVal Farms @ 5:30 PM
- October 24th-28th - Red Ribbon Week
- October 28th - Halloween Parade @ 9:00 AM; parties @ 2:00 PM
- November 2nd - 6th Grade Ropes Course at Gayman
- November 3rd & 4th -6th Grade Ropes Course at Elbow Lane School
Bucks County Audubon Society at Honey Hollow Haunted Trails Decorations
WHO: K-6
WHEN: Thursday, October 13, 2015
TIME: 3:30-4:30pm
WHERE: Gayman Library
WHAT: Just in time for Halloween we will help the Bucks County Audubon Society again this year prepare for The Haunted Trails event. Diane Smith from Bucks County Audubon Society will be visiting.
At Kids Care Club we will be decorating twin mini pumpkins and creating posters to display at The Nature Center for their Haunted Trails event. So come out for some nature fun and let’s show the community that Gayman kids care! Families will be encouraged to attend the event at Honey Hollow to go and see the pumpkins and posters!
To sign-up click on the Sign-Up Genius below:
Spooktacular Night at DelVal
Gayman's Family Fun Committee would like to invite all ghosts and goblins to a SPOOKTACULAR night at Delaware Valley Farms!
When: Sunday, October 23rd
Time: 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Where: Delaware Valley Farms, 2100 Lower State Road
Cost: $8.00 per person ~ option to buy s'mores (cash only)
To sign up click here.
Family Movie Night at Tohickon Middle School
On Friday, October 14th, Tohickon Middle School’s athletic teams will be hosting their fourth annual Family Movie Night. Beginning at 7PM, they will be showing the cartoon movie Hotel Transylvania 2 in the Tohickon auditorium. The cost of admission is one can of food per person. Food is being collected for the Doylestown Food Pantry. All of CB’s students and their families are invited to attend. Snacks will be sold; all money raised will also be donated. What a spooktacular way to bring in the fall!
Celebrate Education Week
We invite you to join us during Celebrate Education Week from October 10th - 14th. We ask that you remember that your presence in the classroom can change the instructional dynamic. Please try to remain as "invisible" as possible. A couple of other reminders:
- Please turn off cell phones upon entering the school.
- If at all possible we discourage bringing siblings into the classroom.
- You will need to sign-in at the office. When the visitation time is over we ask you leave the classroom quietly and sign-out before exiting the building.
For a complete list of Celebrate Education Activities please click here.
Race For Ed Update
THANK YOU!!!!! EVERY homeroom earned the RFE Recess Reward by bringing in at least 100 mailing/sponsor labels! AWESOME JOB!!! This past Friday, the students were given the opportunity to participate in an inflatable obstacle course & several other obstacle courses designed by our own amazing Mr. Foster! The weather was beautiful & there was lots of fun had by all!
The Race for Ed committee has been busy preparing for the mailing and/or hand delivery of approximately 3,250 mailers in the course of the past week using the sponsor labels brought in! Look for the RFE mailers to arrive sometime this week!
Race Day is Friday, October 21st!! We will be sending out a school wide sign-up genius to help with course coverage throughout the day, so be on the look out if you’re able to attend the event and would like to help out!
If you have any questions about the RFE, please feel free to contact us! Carol Aquilano at jeromeandcarol@verizon.net or Alison Catalano at poohbearsmom920@gmail.com.
Thank you again for supporting the Race For Education!
Next 6th Grade Club Event - October 14th
We had a great start to 6th Grade Clubs with our 1st event Kickball/Volleyball & pretzels/water ice on the playground! The kids had a great time rotating thru each event. We had a great turnout with 70 kids participating!
We are excited for our next event coming up on Friday, October 14th from 8:30-10:30 @ AGA Farms! Please sign up using this link with more details on this event: https://goo.gl/forms/GhncOdwxCS1x7r5r1
Once you have signed up, please send in your payment in an envelope marked with your child's name & 6th Grade Club to your child's teacher. Cost is $10 per child & $6 Adult/Chaperone by Oct. 11th.
Please note our next event will be #3 Bear Creek Snow Tubing on Wednesday, January 25th from 1:30-4:30(1/2 day of school). Please note the new time! This will now be a joint event with Groveland, their future classmates @ Tohickon. More details to follow in January, but save the date.
Halloween Is Coming
Halloween is right around the corner and we are looking forward to a Frightful and Delightful experience. We ask parents to exercise caution when selecting a costume for the parade. Students need to be able to have a normal field of vision, and should be able to walk freely (costumes should not be too long). Also, we ask that you please avoid costumes that include blood, gore, or weapons of any type. Items that are considered play weapons (knives, swords, guns, etc.) should remain at home.
In light of the attention regarding some of the social media posts of late, I am asking you all to avoid costumes that involve clowns. Again, the goal here is to have fun - there is still a great deal of sensitivity around this topic and so it would be respectful of all to avoid any clown costumes this year.
Just a couple of reminders:
- The Halloween parade will take place at 9:00 AM.
- Students are encouraged to arrive to school wearing his or her costume.
- Visitors will not be admitted into the building prior to and following the parade.
- Parents who plan to prepare food for the party are asked to please deliver all items no later than 12:30 PM the day of the party.
- All classroom parties will begin at 2:00 PM with the exception of 4th grade which begins at 1:30 PM.
- Halloween Party Volunteers only are invited to classrooms at 1:45 PM (4th grade @ 1:15 PM) and enter the building through the old front door entrance.
- Party helpers should proceed to the APR to sign in and obtain a visitor's badge.
- Party helpers should remain in the designated classroom until the end of the party.
- Helpers choosing to take their child home at dismissal are asked to sign their child out with their homeroom teacher. Each teacher will have a sign-out sheet available.
- Due to the fact that the parties are supervised by the homeroom teachers, there is no need to have clearances to be chosen as a party helper.
Report Card Review Committee Update
Hello Gayman Families,
In response to the feedback about the initial Progress Report format, the School District has formed a Report Card Review Committee charged with making recommendations for the 2017-2018 school year. The committee is comprised of faculty and parent representation from each of the elementary schools along with some administrators and school board members. I am excited to be serving as the Gayman parent representative on the Committee. I currently have a 9th grader, 8th grader and 6th grader, all of whom have been through Gayman since kindergarten.
With the initial meeting in June, the Committee worked in clusters to discuss and to find common themes of the “Perfect” report card. Over the summer, we were asked to complete a Quia survey on 11 sample report cards from all over the area ( i.e. Pennridge, Council Rock, New Hope, NJ area schools) about what were the positives from each of the samples.
During our first meeting of the school year, we continued to work out consensus on the “MUST HAVES” and “WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE” for the “Perfect” Report Card. The Committee Quia Survey of 11 sample documents resulted in strong data showing consensus on 8 key factors of what makes the “Perfect” Report card. These 8 key factors were: 1) Comments 2) Info on Behavior- 3) Info on Academics 4) Length <3 sides 5) Show Growth during year 6) Letter Grades 7) Clear Language 8) Strengths and Needs. The survey also produced data showing the top 6 sample documents by the number votes from the committee for which document each person liked best. We worked in clusters to discuss in more detail each of those top 6 sample documents’ rating on meeting each of the 8 key factors. The discussions within the faculty-administrators-parents- mixed clusters have been very productive and positive.
I will continue to keep you updated on the committee’s work and progress throughout the year. May you have any questions/concerns, please feel free to reach out to me for further dialogue at alicia3969@verizon.net or 732-319-0744.
Sincerely,
Alicia Mangiacapre
Veterans' Day
The staff and students of Gayman Elementary are looking forward to observing Veterans’ Day on November 11 to honor our veterans and active military personnel. In addition to classroom presentations and discussions, we will formally observe the day in several ways:
We will continue our tradition of sending postcards to our veterans and active military personnel.
We will prepare a slide show featuring our veterans and military personnel. If you would like to include someone in this slide show, please complete the brief bio and, if possible, provide a picture(s) for the slide show.
We will hold an assembly beginning at 9:30 on Friday, Nov. 11. (Please plan to arrive for coffee starting at 9:00 a.m.) We invite any veteran or active military member to attend as our guest. Following the assembly, we invite our veterans to join us for refreshments in the school library.
Please click here to complete the Veterans' Day Participation form, and return it to school by Friday, Oct. 28th.
Boomerang Awards
This year, Gayman will continue to accept nominations for the Boomerang Award, which is our way of honoring students who best demonstrate their own developmental assets. What are Developmental Assets? Students possessing a combination of “40 Assets” are typically most successful in school and in life. These assets have the power to influence choices young people make and help them become caring, responsible adults. For a complete listing of the 40 Developmental Assets visit: www. Search-institute.org.
October #30. Responsibility. Young person accepts and takes personal responsibility for his/her behavior. They take responsibility for their actions and decisions at home, and/or at school, and/or in the community.