Kettering Express
Family Newsletter - Winter 2020
Thank you from the staff at Kettering
- My gratitude to the PTA for sponsoring the Multi-cultural event last Friday. It was a splendid night experiencing food tasting, learning facts about other cultures, looking at different realias and enjoying each other and Kettering families during a cold winter January night at Kettering grounds. Mrs. Del Rosario
- I have the greatest VIPs! Every day of the week parents are coming to the classroom and reading with the students in small groups for an hour. They have taken ownership of the groups and have gotten really good at asking in depth comprehension questions. Also parents are helping in the computer lab which enables the kids to get more help when needed. The result? Kids are showing tons of improvement in reading and writing. Life is good in Room 7!! Mr. Wille
- Parents, Thank you for the wonderful and yummy holiday luncheon. It was a wonderful event with great food and wonderful company. Mrs. Fillipow
- Thank you to my "Wacky Wednesday" parents that assist with small group reading and ring words. Your support provides differentiated instruction, builds academic rigor and confidence in our students. Ms. Spencer
Room 15 appreciates all the parents who volunteer their time and energy to our classroom!
Room 17 thanks parent for all their help in making our students successful!
Room 14 VIPs - The students and I thank you for all of your help with our reading and math facts! Thanks for all you do!
Principal Tea
Thursday, Feb 20, 2020, 04:30 PM
Kettering library
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
Principal's Message
Our first semester has come to a close, with our second semester beginning Monday, January 27th, 2020. There is great pride in our student achievement thus far. Students come to school on a daily basis, in uniform, ready to learn. We are deep in our curriculum, leading student learning into complex and strategic thinking.
Through this second semester Kettering teachers will continue to provide high quality differentiated instruction on a daily basis. We are dedicated to ensure that learners are provided with cognitively demanding tasks through complex text and teachers strategically use formative assessment to guide their planning and determine next steps. Teachers continue to orchestrate opportunities for student discourse. It is important to all staff and we are dedicated to ensuring that all children feel safe, welcome and respected. Because of everyone's commitment (families, staff and students) to Kettering, we are consistently recognized as the Best Little School in the District.
Announcements
CORE SURVEY - Please take a few minutes to let us know what you think. Culture and climate survey links were emailed from “Panorama Ed” to all parents on the morning of January 13th. A weekly email notification/reminder will repeat every Thursday until the survey is completed using the embedded survey link. Please check your "other" inbox if it is not found in your "focused" inbox. In addition, you can reach the survey by going through https://surveys.panoramaed.com/longbeach/6940189197/surveys?language=en or through the district website www.lbschools.net, click on the "Parent" menu and choose "CORE Parent Survey". Thank you - your input is valuable to Kettering.
Detailed instructions can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lllzpIqI7pG1B-Cki6dwYOrTvXvfbZjg/view?usp=sharing
Fit Fest - Information fliers went out in mid January for our 2020 FIT FEST. Kettering's Fit Fest is our #1 fundraiser and we need everyone's help to ensure its success! If you have not yet registered for PLEDGE-STAR please do so by going to https://pledgestar.com/kettering/ . By sending out emails to your family members and non-Kettering friends you will be supporting our school. Students who send out a minimum of 15 emails will earn prizes, more emails qualify students for more prizes. So get registered now! Also attached in the FIT FEST packet are pledge donation sheet and sponsor advertisement placement for our FIT FEST t-shirts - we would love your business' sponsorship!
Incoming kinder parent meeting. Parents, I will be holding a meeting for parents that are new to Kettering. Within this meeting I will be talking about our great school, including our academic vision, programs and community. We will tour the school and I will answer questions about kindergarten. Please join us in the auditorium on Friday, February 14th at 8:10 am. Kettering parents please help spread the word! Thank you, R. Peters
Important dates:
January 27th first day of second semester
February 3rd - Online enrollment begins at school of residency - all new students must register at their home school, even if requesting School of Choice later
February 5th - Achievement Reports available on ParentVue beginning at 5:00pm
February 11th - School of Choice window opens on Parent Vue at 9:00am
February 12th - School Site Council Meeting 2:30 in library
February 20th - Tea with Principal 4:30 pm
February 12th - CAC - Special Education Community Advisory Committee at Browning H.S. 6:00pm
February 14th - NEW Kinder Parents - Principal meeting for parents that are new to Kettering 8:15 am
March 2nd and 3rd - Parent/teacher conferences - please let your teacher know if you would like a sit down meeting.
March 5th - 8:10 am ELPAC Parent Information meeting for parents of second language learners
March 20th - School of Choice window closes
April 7th - Open House
April 10th - 17th Spring Break - school resumes April 20th
SBAC testing begins the week of April 27th
Attendance Matters
Thank you to everyone for consistently ensuring that your student is in school everyday. As we advance into the cold and flu session it is important that we share with our students strategies to keep germs at bay. If your child is sick and is missing school because of fever, we ask that you wait 24 hours after the fever has broke to return to school. Lastly, when a child is out, it is imperative that you bring in a note to the office (or to the teacher) excusing the absence.
Finally, please ensure that appointments be made later in the afternoon and travel plans follow our scheduled school breaks.
Thank you to everyone for your continuing support.
R. Peters
Principal
"Musical Musings"
February features exciting performances by the Long Beach Symphony!
The Long Beach Symphony is pleased to present Ensembles in the Elementary Schools for our 2nd and 3rd grade students. This curriculum-based program offers live, close-up encounters with professional musicians in small string, woodwind, brass or percussion groups. The ensembles blend music and audience participation to introduce the instruments and music of the symphony orchestra.
This year, the LBSO String Quartet will be visiting on February 26th. In an interactive and fun manner, the string quartet introduces the instruments of the string family. Through games, children learn how music can express emotions, how to follow a melody as it moves from instrument to instrument, and how musicians follow a conductor.
In addition, The Long Beach Symphony will present the forty-second annual Toyota Youth Concerts. The partnership between the Symphony and LBUSD provides an opportunity for fourth and fifth grade students to experience the wonders of the concert hall and great symphonic music. Kettering 4th and 5th grade students will join 12,000 other LBUSD students, teachers and parent chaperones for these exceptional concerts at the Terrace Theater in downtown Long Beach. This year’s theme is “Courage in Concert”. Under the direction of Long Beach Symphony Music Director, Eckart Preu, the musicians of the Long Beach Symphony and their guest musicians, the Long Beach Unified School District All-District High School Honor Choir, will take the audience on a journey discovering the instruments of the orchestra and music inspired by imagination, adventure, space, and stories in film and our everyday lives. Kettering 4th and 5th grade classes will attend the concert on Friday, February 7th.
Muenzer Musings~ from the Technology Lab
So many exciting things are happening in our computer lab! A couple of our parents, Tara Teves and Dante D'Ambrosio, have been active working with our Maker Space program and are in charge of Kettering’s 3-D Printer. The 4th and 5th grade students have been working in a program called Tinkercad under the direction of Mr. D’Ambrosio and myself. I first had to learn from Mr. “D” so I could then help teach our amazing students. I know that the skills they learn to create products that will be printed with the 3-D printer will enable them to take on even more difficult tasks in middle school and high school technology classes. We are so fortunate that our students have the opportunity to learn these skills now. Here is my creation:
Our 3rd graders have started using Scratch which is a coding program. They are learning how to make things move by giving directions through coding. It can be very tedious and you must have a lot of patience to do this.
Our first and second graders are using Google docs and slides to create reports about themselves and animals. I love seeing the animals they are interested in such as sloths, pangolins and racoon dogs. You can view your child’s work in Google docs or slides at home by going to www.lbschools.net and accessing G-Suite through the student portal. Your student should be able to show you the process. Our kindergartners are adapting well to using a mouse, navigating on a large screen, typing words and sentences in Word and typing and drawing in Kid Pix.
An update on the 5th graders communicating with students in other countries: The International school in Lyon, France sent us short student created videos about a day in their life. Our students really enjoyed listening to their accents and seeing that life is very similar to life in the U.S. except the students in France go to school until 4:30 p.m., or as they say, “half past 16”. A class from a school in Russia requested that we communicate with their 15 students so Mrs. Bristol’s 5th graders are e-pals with them through a safe program in which the teacher (me and the Russian teacher) approve all emails before they are sent. We found out that they celebrated Christmas on January 7th. A school in Japan also sent us a slide presentation about their school and our students were surprised to learn that the students clean the school!
If you are having any problems accessing Jiji math on your home computers, tablets, or ipads, please email me at lmuenzer@lbschools.net for help. Happy New Year!
Mrs. Muenzer
After School Programs
Kettering Elementary
Email: rpeters@lbschools.net
Website: https://kettering-lbusd-ca.schoolloop.com/
Location: 550 Silvera Avenue, Long Beach, CA, USA
Phone: 562-897-9486