Bear Tracks
February 2, 2018
A Note From the Principal:
What a great week...
To see our kids cheering about books, getting fired up to read and to see the smiles on our guest readers' faces was incredible. We welcomed 20 important community members, and each of them left Bear Tavern thrilled and impressed. I thank each of you for that. And to see our self-care month get off to such a strong start is awesome.
As I wrote last week; late January and February can be tough if you let them be. But I am reminded this week that we can create our own momentum. We can change our outlook and our atmosphere. It starts with noticing what makes our kids and our colleagues special and fantastic (see this week's article). It also makes such a difference when we create opportunities for students to be successful, kind and positive. Just as we get the best out of our kids when we ourselves are upbeat, well planned, patient and kind, when we set them up to be kind and to be supportive of each other, we can change everything. We know that for us patience, consistency and warmth is going to get us further with our tough kids than sarcasm or yelling, but the same principle works with our kids. When we can give them the tools and opportunities to perform kind acts, notice positive things and help each other, they'll bring the best out of themselves and each other! Read the article this week and see where it takes you. Let's look around at our kids and each other next week and notice the good, and help others to do the same.
We really do have some amazing things happening at Bear Tavern.
Let's keep focusing on Self-Care over the next few weeks and attack every situation with a positive outlook!
Have a great weekend and enjoy the Super Bowl!
Sincerely,
Chris
Key Information:
Welcome! - This week we welcomed Melina Guarino to Carla Duncan's Class, a few weeks ago we welcomed Nancy DiGraziano to Carla/Tina C.'s class and Monday we'll welcome Jessica Mochel as a para to take Ashley Hagen's position as Ashley transitions to working 1:1 with a student. Please help me to welcome them into the BT family.
Road to the Reading Final Four - Well, we are under way!!! Thanks to everyone for a great World Read Aloud Day and Den Groups on Thursday. Our mission now is to get familiar with the 32 books. We'll start recording soon, so if you are interested in being recorded or if your read aloud guest was fantastic, let me know. Please also encourage your class to tweet out it's progress, pictures and recommendations with #BearTavernReads. We'll release the brackets in late February and our goal this year is to start voting earlier (probably March 12th, so that we can vote once per week and 'regroup.' The tentative schedule is: round 1 (32 to 16) March 12; round 2 (16 to 8) March 19; round 3 (8 to 4) March 27; then (4 to 2) March 28 and CHAMPIONSHIP March 29. For now, just have fun and encourage your students to read! We'll let you know where to find copies of all books.
Main Hallway Bulletin Board - Keep an eye on the bulletin board at the end of the lobby. Soon it will be full of 20 acts of kindness. Feel free to use it any way you can. You can encourage individuals to focus on one a day, you can set class goals, you can do anything! Just get involved.
Self-Care Month - February here! So far staff self-care month has been awesome! Let's keep the momentum going. CLICK HERE for the awesome calendar of events! CLICK HERE for the editable sign up lists. Thanks to everyone who put together the wellness breakfast and to everyone who has contributed in planning a special month at the perfect time!
Grants Update - As of earlier this week, we hadn't been awarded our pond grant from the HVEF...YET. But a group of tenacious and passionate teachers retooled and provided some additional information and we just found out that we received $4,000 more toward our project. In the coming days we'll break ground on our pond and in a month or so, we'll break ground on our Monarch Meadow in the outdoor learning space (and become a certified Monarch waystation). We are going to use the momentum to spread the word on our Outdoor Learning Space GoFundMe page and keep moving forward. This year alone, we have obtained over $15,500 in grant money with the help of Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space, the HVEF and TCNJ. When added to the $10,000 that the PTO raised last year, we are really moving toward something special. Stay tuned!
BT EPA - Have you noticed our new Tuesday Tips for sustainability? We'll keep going with them and you are going to notice some new commercials about recycling bins vs. garbage cans to go along with the two awesome new bulletin boards. The kids are excited and doing a great job!
Coming Up:
Enrichments:
Tuesdays - Art Enrichment, Electrical Engineering, Tennis Golf (YMCA)
Wednesdays - Drawing
Thursdays - Art Enrichment, Basketball Basics (YMCA)
Friday - Mad Science, Mine Craft Modding
Friday 2/2 - SPORTS JERSEY DAY
Friday 2/2 - TIP Comprehensive Meetings
Week of 2/5:
(Book Fair 2/9 - 2/16 in library)
Monday 2/5 - Early Dismissal (Staff Development)
Tuesday 2/6 - Principal's Cabinet
Tuesday 2/6 - Grandpals (Kindergarten)
Wednesday 2/7 - I&RS
Thursday 2/8 - 4STEM Zoo 9 am - 2:15 pm
Thursday 2/8 - Self Care Yoga after school
Friday 2/9 - Pre K trip to Watershed (Cartaino & Fazio)
Friday 2/9 - Book Fair Kick Off 6:30 - 9 pm
Week of 2/12:
Monday 2/12 - Grade Level Meetings
Tuesday 2/13 - Self Care Crafting after school
Wednesday 2/14 - Valentine's Day (wear Pink or Red)
Wednesday 2/14 - Self Care Massages all day & Crossfit after school
Thursday 2/15 - Self Care Yoga/Mediation w/ Honor Yoga after school
Friday 2/16 - Pre K Collab Day