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LAGUNITAS SCHOOL DISTRICT
WEEKLY NOTICE
Lagunitas and San Geronimo Schools ~ March 22, 2015
Serving Forest Knolls, Lagunitas, San Geronimo, and Woodacre, California
Quote of the Week: “Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’ (Robin Williams, 1951-2014)
Important Dates
March 25
March 26
March 28
March 30
March 31
April 2
April 6
April 8
April 9
April 13 – 17
April 22 – 29
April 23
April 27
April 29
May 2
May 28 – 29
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Facilities Committee meeting 2:30 pm
School Site Council meeting 3:30 pm
McQuilkin Family Music Hour 7 pm
Middle School Emotional Literacy daylong event
Finance Committee meeting 3:30 pm
Public Forum on Immunizations MCOE 6 pm (see flyer below)
Open Classroom Interview Committee meeting 3:30 pm
Readathon Month ends
LEAP meeting 7 pm
Montessori PTO meeting 3:15 pm
SGVCC Youth Job Fair 2:15 pm
Wellness Committee 2:30 pm
Open Classroom parent meeting 7 pm
Open Classroom Interview Committee meeting 1 pm
Spring Break – no school
Early dismissal for parent conferences
School Board meeting 6 pm
Middle School Ace of Cakes 12:15 pm
Facilities Committee meeting 2:30 pm
Save the Date: Valley Visions 25th Anniversary Party
Save the Date: Montessori play: The Lion King
News and Information
Thank you to the parents who helped with the annual Book Fair, with special thanks to Marlene
Lindner for coordinating this year’s event. The Book Fair is labor intensive and the volunteer
efforts are truly appreciated. It is so affirming to see the students’ excitement when surrounded
by enticing books.
Learning to read is a unique skill that depends on immersion in language, and then a combination
of decoding and word recognition. Reading at home with children is an expected practice that
begins at the latest, during infancy. Babies are welcomed with board books and beautiful picture
books to start stocking wonderful home libraries. Bookshelves are filled with well-worn books
within children’s reach. Favorites are read over and over. Reading together is associated with
closeness, shared delight, and the start of lifelong learning. This approach usually works.
This isn’t news to anyone. Classrooms pick up at age five by continuing to teach students to
read and love books. From here it is a shared endeavor. Reading at home and at school is
always an excellent use of time. Finding the right book on a topic of interest at an independent
reading level can be a challenge. I encourage parents to help in this search. Include graphic
novels, magazines, biographies, adventure stories, fantasy, humor, non-fiction, fiction – any
book that will compel a child to read. The search can be frustrating, but don’t give up. There’s
something for everyone!
The more opportunities children have to read engaging books at a level they can read
independently, the stronger the likelihood they will become capable readers. Some children
struggle with this skill more than others and will need added support. They will need patience,
books on tape, continued read alouds, books that spark their interest, instruction on specific
skills, regular practice, encouragement, and role models who love reading.
When I see students having difficulty working with mathematics at school, it makes me think
about how successful we are when home and school share the responsibility for children’s
reading. We can do this with mathematics too.
During the early years, we do. Children learn to count, they learn to compare, they identify
numbers by interacting with their environment and through authentic need and curiosity.
I have two recommendations for families. If your child does not have their addition and
multiplication facts memorized, spend time each day working on these skills. Use the following
approaches until the facts are easily recalled. Then, continue practice to reinforce. Quick recall
of multiplication facts will help when learning division, fractions, decimals, percentages,
geometry, algebra… It allows the student to focus on the new concepts.
Suggested ways to learn the multiplication facts include:


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Pick a number each week to repeatedly skip count (2,4,6,8,10…) (3,6,9,12,15,18…) etc.
Fill out a blank multiplication chart and see what’s already memorized. Most likely you
will notice that the 0, 1, 2, 5, and 10 columns and rows are the first to be learned. Focus
on those first.
Learn the tricks to multiplying by 9.
 Sum of product, or answer, equals 9… for instance, 6 x 9 = 54 and 5 + 4 = 9.
 First digit of product is one less than the factor being multiplied by 9… for
instance, 7 x 9 will start with a 6, because it’s one less than 7, and the other digit
will be a 2 because of the first trick – the two digits when added must equal 9.
 Use your fingers. Watch this video for a multiplication trick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVbcra3rCqc&noredirect=1

Look online for videos that will appeal to young learners.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh7xapVB-Wk
There are many games that are fun for the family that help students develop math skills. I
recommend: SET (visual perception), Rat-a-Tat-Cat (strategy, memory, addition), Mancala
(counting, strategy), Dominoes (counting, strategy), many other card games and board games!
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As part of the Middle School Emotional Literacy program’s annual daylong retreat, this year
the topic is Social Media: Its Use and Abuse.
The day will start with keynote speaker Dr. Joanie Gillispie, PhD, author, educator and expert on
this topic. Dr. Gillispie’s presentation will include an interactive presentation she has put
together especially for our middle school, as well as some take-home tips, tools and exercises
that will be able to be shared within each student’s family.
Following Dr. Gillispie’s presentation will be a panel of Peer Educators from the Drake High
Peer Resource class. Each student on the panel will contribute their own stories of social media
use and abuse in their lives. The Drake Peer Resource students will stay with us throughout the
day.
After a short break, the middle school students will go into their homerooms along with their
homeroom teacher, one of two Drake students, and their Emotional Literacy facilitators. Small
group discussion will take place where we all will explore our real-life traction with the material
we’ve heard so far.
After lunch, we will gather back into one large group for an outdoor activity related to our topic.
From there, we will gather back into the multi-purpose room and have an “open mike” where
students get a chance to speak to what they have learned.
There will be a parent-education presentation in the weeks that follow to address our topic of
Social Media-Use and Abuse from a parent’s perspective.
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March is Lagunitas School District’s annual Read-a-thon.
It is time once again for this fantastic fundraiser. The Read-a-thon generates a significant
amount of funding for our school with relatively little work on the part of the adults—the kids
gather sponsors, read, collect money, bring it to the office and collect a prize. Not only is
the Read-a-thon a wonderful way to raise money, but it gets the students excited about reading
and proud of their achievement. Parents can help by becoming sponsors and/or suggesting
friends and family that can be sponsors. ALL READING COUNTS, so keep track of any
reading you do aloud with your children as well. Some teachers may also be keeping track of
reading done during school and that can also be tallied up and added to the reading log at the end
of the month. Please be on the look-out for the packet with a white envelope coming home on
Friday and help your student find a safe place at home to keep it for the month to log their
reading. Thank you so much for your help and participation—let’s make this the best Read-athon ever! Huda Al-Jamal [email protected] 488-1099
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The Montessori Program as come together to develop a student play based on The Lion King.
Names were drawn for certain parts, and all students will be involved in acting, set design,
music, or lighting. The play will be performed during the afternoon and evening of May 28 and
29. Details to follow.
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Our Middle School teachers have created a calendar so parents and students can access
homework assignments online at home.
Students will be taught how to join this calendar at school through their google accounts. At
home, just follow the link at the bottom of this email for the daily homework.
Please understand that there will be days when teachers won't be able to post the
homework. There may be technical glitches, or other reasons a teacher can't get online. Students
will still be required to write homework in their daily planners in class for now. We also
recommend that students call a classmate if there are questions in the evening about the
homework. This online posting should help when students are absent, and when students or
parents are unsure of the assignments. I'm sure you will join me in appreciating the extra effort
from the teachers to reach out to families through this technology!
Copy and paste, or follow, this link to access the calendar. Bookmark it for future reference.
https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=lagunitas.org_nibp9gsqhr9thc19rs3vjq6osk%40gr
oup.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Los_Angeles
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Read our Superintendent John Carroll’s blog for interesting insights and commentary on
education: http://bo-stin-lag-supe.tumblr.com/
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Regarding
We would like to bring together the community
and a panel of experts to address the issues
around immunizations.
Expert panelists include:
Danielle Hiser, Senior Public Health Nurse, Marin County
Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County Public Health Officer
Dr. David Witt, Infectious Diseases, Kaiser Permanente
RSVP to Tina Galbreath 415-499-5891n
March 30, 2015
6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
1111 Las Gallinas Avenue
San Rafael, CA 94903
View the forum online live at:
http://tinyurl.com/MarinForum
Following the event, a
recording will be posted on the
Marin County Office of Education
website.
Send in any questios you would like answered to
[email protected].
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The San Geronimo Valley Community Center screens Good Morning Mission Hill, with a postscreening discussion with our local filmmakers, Amy and Tom Valens. Event is free and open to
the public. April 1, 7 – 9 pm.
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