All-Star Announcements
What's Happening at Venable, November 2019
A Few Highlights from October
Venable teachers find many ways to make learning fun and to help students bring their natural curiosities and talents into their classrooms. Here are just a very few snapshots of what happens in addition to lots of reading, writing, and mathematical problem solving every day.
Playing with Pumpkins
Apples up on Top, Pumpkins up on Top. Wildrock helps bring the joy of play in and with nature to our preschool classrooms.
Counting by 10s
Team Hamilton-Johnson removed the seeds from one pumpkin, sorted them into groups of 10, and counted 766 all together!
Creating Sound
First graders learned all about sound this month and then created their own instruments with found objects. Each class formed a marching band and paraded through one another's classrooms.
Spooky Movement Break
Students in Ms. Kirkland's class used spooky voices to count out their "shake downs" on Halloween after working with amazing focus and joy for almost an hour on their on-demand writing.
Buddy Teaching
3rd graders from Team McLellan traveled to Ms. Payne's Kindergarten classroom to help teach her students how to log onto their Chromebooks and use Dreambox.
Dancing on the Big Stage
4th graders danced their hearts out at their Minds in Motion performance. Their production about the life cycle of a butterfly was informative and entertaining. Kudos!
What Kind of Math is My Kid Learning?
At the PTO meeting on Monday, Nov. 11, Ms. McLellan will take parents on a journey through a slice of our mathematics program, Investigations. We are seeing great results with our students' ability to do mental math, and solve problems flexibly and accurately since we adopted the Investigations curriculum for the whole school last year. Come and see what we're so excited about.
3rd and 4th Grade Visit Writer's Eye
Our 3rd and 4th grade students every year go to UVA's Fralin Art Museum for a tour and discussion of selected pieces of art in the collection. Students are then invited to write a poem or short story in response to one of the works of art. This poem was written by Hazel, one of our third graders:
Morning's Aroma
A little peaceful nook
a small untouched snowy cliff
an overhead mountain like a ribcage
a trickling little waterfall
a little abandoned shack crumbling down to the ground
trees whispering secrets into one another's leaves
twisty turny trees reaching up to the sky
peaceful as though everything is waking up
magical, beautiful morning
a scholar meditating
the morning's aroma reaching gently to the sun
What's Happening in November
Monday/Tuesday, Nov. 4-5
- Parent-Teacher Conferences
- Read for the Record
- PTO Meeting, 6pm in the library. Topic: Math Instruction at Venable
- 2nd grade to Monticello
- World Kindness Day - spread kind messages to one another
- RSVP deadline for Thanksgiving luncheon
- Picture Make-Up Day
- Report Cards go home
- Calvin Earl workshops with 3rd/4th grade chorus
Thursday, Nov. 21
- Thanksgiving luncheon (see below for details)
- School-wide morning meeting, 8:05am
- PTO Movie Night, 5:30pm
- International Education Week celebrations in Encore classes
- Thanksgiving Vacation--school closed
Venable Thanksgiving Luncheon
Please join us for Thanksgiving lunch in our cafeteria on Thursday, Nov. 21. See the flyer below for more details RSVP by Nov. 13 to help us know how many meals to prepare. We look forward to seeing you! Times for lunch will be as follows that day:
PreK: 11:30am in classrooms
K: 10:55am in classrooms
1st: 12:15pm in both cafeterias
2nd: 10:25am in both cafeterias, north lobby
3rd: 11:45am in both cafeterias
4th: 11:20 in north cafeteria & north lobby
Calvin Earl Residency
Last year, we were lucky to meet Calvin Earl, the US Spokesman For The African American Spirituals As A National Treasure. He introduced our Kindergartners and 2nd graders to spirituals and civil rights songs, and taught us about the history of song as both protest and protection. This year, we are very lucky to welcome Mr. Earl back for a longer residency with us. He is starting in November, working with Mr. Salvatierra to introduce some spirituals to the chorus repertoire. He will teach students about the history behind the songs and then help workshop them with the students. In December, he will do a workshop for our staff about his research and how to incorporate it into our classrooms. In February, he will join us for a full week and work with all our grade levels to develop a student presentation for Black History Month. We are grateful for the ongoing partnership with the Virginia Folklife Program, which is partially funding Mr. Earl's residency.
Gift Cards Donated from New Dominion Bookshop
A huge thanks goes to Julia Kudravetz, the owner of New Dominion Bookshop. She joined our school-wide morning meeting in October and surprised our students with $10 gift certificates for the store. Every student came home on October 31 with a certificate. All paperback children's books in the store on the downtown mall are under $10. We hope your child enjoys a new, free book!
UVA's Saturday Enrichment Program Information
UVA offers Saturday enrichment classes for local students. Please download the program information below if you are interested in pursuing this opportunity for your child.
Ms. Redden's November Newsletter & World Kindness Day Flyer
On-Time Attendance for Quarter 1
This year, we started strong with on-time attendance. We've even had a day when only 6 students came to school late! We average 23 students per day who arrive late to school. Let's see if we can get it back down to August levels for the months of November and December! The graph below shows the number of students tardy each day during the first quarter of the school year. Being late even by a few minutes means that students are missing valuable time to get settled and organized for the day, greet one another, and hear important news about what they're learning that day.