Dear Estabrook Families,

This Sunday's Principal Roundtable presents us a great opportunity to discuss the pressures facing our students, what we are doing to support them, and what more we need to do. Our aim is to further the conversation around our students' social/emotional needs. I'll share some of the work Estabrook School and the Lexington Public Schools have been doing to meet the social/emotional needs of our students, mitigate student stress and respond to our students' needs. Parents will have the opportunity to discuss these issues and voice their concerns about student well-being, and share what was discussed with the larger group. Topics of discussion will include homework, academic pressure, social media, peer relationships and resilience.

WHO: Estabrook Parents & Administrators
WHAT: Estabrook Fall Principal Roundtable
WHEN: Sunday, November 6, 2:00 p.m.
WHERE: Estabrook Cafeteria

I hope you'll be able to join us!

Best,

Jeff LaBroad

Principal

To celebrate our two Trivia Bee teams, Wednesday, November 9 will be Estabrook Spirit Day. Students are encouraged to wear Estabrook spiritwear or yellow and black "Bee-Wear."

The LEF Trivia Bee team is looking for a student volunteer from each of Lexington's six elementary schools to read a warm-up question about LEF at the beginning of each “swarm” in the competition. If your child is interested, please send an e-mail to bee@lexedfoundation.org with your child’s name, gender, grade, and school.

Join us on Wednesday, November 9 for our next Principal Coffee. Our Math Specialists and teachers will join Mr. LaBroad for a conversation about how parents can support math learning at home. Come for a powerful discussion on math learning, and walk away with some tools to help support this learning at home.

Speaking of Math, this week Estabrook Math Specialist Amy Burk and Lexington Math Department Chair Linda Menkis co-presented two workshops at the Annual National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference in Philadelphia. There they shared some of the work taking place with our students here with teachers from across the country.

from Mark Taggart, Grade 4 Teacher & Maker Space Coordinator

Estabrook will soon offer a Maker Space for our students. Maker Spaces (sometimes referred to as “Hackerspaces” or “Fablabs”) are well-stocked, creative, do-it-yourself spaces where students can gather to explore, invent, and learn. Some teachers may bring their classes to the space for structured activities related to established classroom curricula. Others may use it as more of unstructured, open-ended venue for kids to work together to solve a problem or invent from scratch. It's this very undefined nature of a Maker Space that makes it both exciting with boundless potential and also extraordinarily difficult to define or describe. Some Maker Spaces focus on electronics, others computer coding, and still others building with recycled materials.

To help outfit our space initially, we are seeking donations from families of a large range of items. Please click here to see the list of suggested items that would help launch our space. If you have any questions about the usefulness or appropriateness of a donation, please contact me at mtaggart@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us. Donations can be sent in with the children and given to their classroom teacher who will make sure they get to the Maker Space. For larger donations, please contact me directly to arrange drop-off.

Thank you so much for support in providing this exciting opportunity for our kids!

This fall, classroom teachers, librarians and counselors across Lexington's elementary schools are rolling out digital citizenship lessons at all grade levels. Responding to the increasing presence of and access to networked devices for use in both learning and play in school and at home, Lexington designed these lessons, aimed at better equipping students to appropriately navigate media and online tools in our digital age. Lessons range from learning about a digital footprint to how to avoid virtual bullying. Some of these lessons were piloted right here at Estabrook last year. We'll be sharing more about these lessons in the coming weeks.

Social media platforms have age restrictions that limit use by children under a certain age. These restrictions mean that NO STUDENT at Estabrook School is allowed on any social medial platform.

Students in grades 3, 4 and 5 will again this spring participate in the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) testing. Tests consist of three days each of English Language Arts, two days of Math and two days of Science/Technology/Engineering for grade 5 only.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

Grade 5: April 3, 4 and 5

Grade 4: April 7, 10 and 13

Grade 3: April 25, 26 and 27

MATH

Grade 5: May 1 and 3

Grade 4: May 5 and 8

Grade 3: May 9 and 10

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING

Grade 5: May 12 and 15

More information on MCAS testing will be shared at a later date.

Estabrook faculty and staff thank our thoughtful families for the generous snacks and treats provided during Parent Conference days this week and last. We are grateful!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR THESE UPCOMING EVENTS.

Click here for the complete Estabrook School Calendar

Click here for the complete 2016-2017 Academic Calendar

PARENT CONFERENCES | Wednesday & Thursday, November 2 & 3

Early dismissal at 12:15 p.m. each day.

PTO GAME NIGHT | Friday, November 4, 6:30 p.m.

Bring the whole family to try out some new games, and maybe even take one home.

PRINCIPAL ROUNDTABLE | Sunday, November 6, 2 p.m.

Join Estabrook administrators and parents for an important conversation about our children and how we can best support them.

NO SCHOOL | Tuesday, November 8

Professional Development Day for Teachers

SPIRIT DAY | Wednesday, November 9

Wear your black and yellow from head to toe!

SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL DAY | Wednesday, November 9

Which class will walk away with the coveted Golden Sneaker Award this month?

PRINCIPAL COFFEE | Wednesday, November 9

Join us for a conversation about supporting math learning at home.

LEF TRIVIA BEE | Wednesday, November 9, 7pm, Lexington High School Auditorium

Join the Estabrook community in cheering on The New-BEES and The Estabees.

NO SCHOOL | Friday, November 11

Veteran's Day

JAM THE VAN | Thursday, November 17

Help us fill a van with non-perishable food items for the Merrimack Valley Food Pantry.