Castlebay Lane Elementary PATH » School

2012 Transitional Kindergarten

jkwan — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:53:30 +0000

Supporting Students with the Gift of Time

What is a Transitional Kindergarten?
Transitional Kindergarten provides the support for children to develop socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually. The Transitional Kindergarten Program is the developmental bridge between the preschool environment and the more structured setting of Kindergarten. These students often have a fall birthday, turning 5 from November – December 2, 2012 and may not be socially and/or academically ready for a traditional Kindergarten program.

You’ve watched your child grow and develop since birth. Although child development follows a fairly predictable path, we know that each child develops at his/her own pace. Think about your child in the areas of language, social, cognitive and motor skills and consider what type of program will best meet his/her needs.

If you are interested in the program, please contact the school office: 818-360-1908.

An Ounce of Prevention – Parent/Caregiver Workshop

jkwan — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:11:22 +0000

PATH is proud to provide parent and student education by Pattie Fitzgerald, a Certified Child Predator Safety Educator and founder of Safely Ever After, Inc. She will be visiting every classroom, individually, the first week of June, to discuss safety issues with all of our students. Teachers will remain with their class and parents are welcome to attend their child’s classroom presentation.

On Thursday, May 24th at 7pm, Pattie will provide a parent workshop in the Multi Purpose Room. She will give you a preview of her presentation that she will give to the students. You will learn how to keep your family safe using effective, child-friendly language and concepts, in a non-fearful manner.

Presentation descriptions are available below:

An Ounce of Prevention - parent/caregiver safety presentation
Kidz Power - K to 3rd grade safety workshop
Play It Safe - 4th to 6th grade safety workshop
Pattie Fitzgerald’s Biography

For those parents that do not wish to have their students receive this valuable instruction, please use the form below. Your child will go to another classroom or the library during the presentation.

Opt out form - return to the office/your child’s teacher

Community Workers: CBS/KCAL Meteorologist

jkwan — Wed, 09 May 2012 02:46:04 +0000

Meteorologist Evelyn Taft from KCAL9/CBS2 visited the first grade classes to talk about her job as a primetime meteorologist. She gave the students a few pointers about how to look at clouds and the sky to get a hint of what type of weather to expect on a given day.

Principal’s Message – May 2012

jkwan — Tue, 08 May 2012 03:35:48 +0000

I was just sharing a story about a student at Castlebay who came into my office and said she cried every time she saw a commercial about ending hunger in America. Someone told her she was too young and too powerless to worry about feeding hungry kids. Over the past week, she and her friend have worked diligently creating posters to put around campus as we (finally) launch a program to donate our leftover school lunches to charitable organizations in the neighborhood. What a wonderful way for these students to feel empowered, and to understand firsthand what this month’s Pillar of Character-“caring” actually looks like in action. I am so proud of these girls. We have also made it our goal of filling 200 garbage bags with used clothing, before school gets out, to donate to Home of the Valley Rescue Mission. We hope you will do some major spring cleaning and help your kids meet this important goal of clothing the homeless. I encourage all of you to embrace your children’s ideas, no matter how grandiose they may be. Your children are our future think tanks and our future caretakers. We need to nurture their imaginations and ideas, as well as their compassion, every single opportunity we get, every day!

Testing reminders: Our students have spent the last eight months learning, absorbing, and stretching their minds. The progress I have seen in each classroom has been immense. I have told all 2-5 graders this is a bit like training for the Olympics and at last the Games have arrived! Now it is our students’ turn to show off all they have learned and do their very best. I need to make sure we are taking away any obstacles over which we have control: your children must get a great night of sleep, they must eat something every morning, they MUST arrive on time, and then they must take a big breath and relax, confident they will do their very best, as they begin the CST each day. Thank you for the important part you play in this process over the next two weeks.

Victoria Littlejohn

Community Workers: LAPD Officer

jkwan — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:19:19 +0000

Continuing with the community workers topic, the first grade classes had a visit from an LAPD Police Officer who is also a Castlebay parent. The classes were told about the work she does, the equipment they use and given a tour of her police car.

Miss Littlejohn Named Principal of the Year! (updated)

wmoore — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 19:04:36 +0000

PATH congratulates Miss Littlejohn who will be honored on April 19th as the Principal of the Year by the Chatsworth/Porter Ranch Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber annually bestows Unforgettable Educator Awards and solicits nominations by the parents and community.

This year the Porter Ranch Castlebay community energetically submitted many nominations with multiple being offered for Miss Littlejohn. This is her first year at Castlebay and her first year as a Principal. She has made a huge impact in one year on our already outstanding school (940 API).

PATH has appreciated working with her, her enthusiasm, vision and accessibility. She makes an effort to make each student feel welcome so they will want to come to school, whether she sees them on the yard or greets them through her weekly ConnectEd calls. She aspires to put a comment for each student on their report cards. She makes herself accessible to parents through her weekly ConnectEd calls, monthly website messages and monthly Coffee with the Principal meetings and tells it like it is, providing the latest updates on budgets and staffing. She reports out the impact of student absences on the budget to hold parents accountable and make them part of the solution.

She heard feedback through school reporting that Castlebay was not rated highly in physical education, so to supplement the PE program, she instituted Move It Mondays and Fitness Fridays, times when the whole school is out on the yard exercising and playing to energetic music. Students love this and teachers are getting into it! It creates a sense of school spirit.

Some of the changes she has made to the campus include securing funds for and completing playground upgrades including replacing the safety padding under the jungle gyms, Lowe’s landscaping projects, implementing recycling with LA City blue bins, and the installation of a handicap ramp at the front entrance. Future projects at parent request during PATH meetings include instituting parent-teacher conferences and the implementation of the online Accelerated Reader program.

Under Miss Littlejohn’s leadership, Mrs. Dorfman, teacher of the third grade Indefatigable Winners, has volunteered to head up a school paper, The Castlebay Connection. Fifth graders are so excited and proud to have been selected for this honor to write and publish articles about the school and community. They are rising to the challenge their new role presents. The paper too creates a sense of school spirit.

To help students and parents embrace the new lunch menus, she invited the LAUSD Chef to conduct a tasting at the school. This was covered by CBS Channel 2 News.

We encourage you to celebrate with her on Thursday, April 19, 6:30-8:30pm at the Odyssey Restaurant in Granada Hills. Tickets are $45 per person. Register online.

Spelling Bee – 2nd, 3rd and 4th Grade Finalists

jkwan — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 23:02:58 +0000

Castlebay held the local spelling bee for the second, third and fourth grades a few weeks ago. The pictures below are the finalists for each grade level. Congratulations to all these top spellers!

Second Grade Spelling Bee Finalists

Third Grade Spelling Bee Finalists

Fourth Grade Spelling Bee Finalists (crazy hair day!)

Music Enhances Language

jkwan — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 03:44:40 +0000

Mrs Kimmel’s Donor’s Choose Project is Music Enhances Language.

Mrs Kimmel: I have gathered many many years of music CDs in the classroom and have gone through multiple CD players. Fiddling with the CDs is cumbersome and sometimes my old CDs do not work properly, as they skip or do not play. It would be really great to switch over to newer technology and not have to worry about lost or scratched CDs anymore.

Having an iPod in the classroom will allow us to transfer our CD music and save time looking for specific songs. We are most excited about being able to download a variety of educational videos and apps that will allows the students to learn in a whole new way.

This stage in their lives and their parents is such a critical one in the development of language. Music enhances language and is the key to ones soul! Let them sing aloud and not skip a beat again! Thank you!

Community workers: firefighter visit

jkwan — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:10:05 +0000

The kindergarten class is learning about community workers and during a recent assembly, they had a visit from Firefighter Hale. He’s an uncle of one of the students, and works for the Beverly Hills Fire Department. He reviewed fire safety, including Stop, Drop and Roll, when and how to call 911. He showed the children the tools and equipment that firefighters use to do their jobs. Firefighter Hale put on the 60 pounds of gear a typical firefighter wears during a fire. He demonstrated what a firefighter looks like and sounds like (talking through a mask) during a fire. Following the demonstration, he had a question and answer session. One student asked “are their girl firefighters?” He told them he works with two female engineers. Another student asked if he had a fire dog (no they don’t). Asked how long he has been a firefighter, he said 15 years. They wanted to know if he uses the fire pole when there is a fire and he said they do because it saves time. He enjoyed meeting the kindergarten class and looks forward to coming again for a visit to Castlebay Lane Elementary.

Teaching More with an iPad – A Donors Choose Project

jkwan — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 04:24:19 +0000

One of Mrs Lieber’s Donors Choose Project was for an iPad for her classroom.

Mrs Lieber: As a teacher, I am constantly looking to stimulate the learning in my classroom. An iPad2 would have so many benefits for my students such as allowing them to practice and reinforce their reading and math skills through a variety of educational applications. In addition, we could video record oral presentations they do for their book reports. Then I could play back their presentations to show them how to improve next time. The iPad2 is versatile, allowing for the class to use it both in a small-group or in whole group instruction.

This important technological tool will allow differentiation of instruction on all levels of learning. Technology is a huge part of our everyday life and it’s time we integrate it into our classroom.