Castlebay Lane Elementary PATH

First Grade Community Project

jkwan — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:44:29 +0000

For their Social Studies, the first graders have been learning about their community. This includes learning about interdependence and how a community operates. As part of this unit, each student was asked to visit a place in their community and write a summary about what they visited, the people that work there, the type of work they do there and if goods or services are provided.

Students also created a diorama of the place they visited. In class, they shared their project with their classmates and gave a little report of their findings. It was very interesting hearing some of the reports. Their friends asked questions after and were very supportive of the work done (“I think you did a great job on your diorama”).

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.

228 pounds of food for the homeless collected and donated!

lkalman — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:37:16 +0000

A huge Thank You to our Castlebay Kids and Parents. 228 pounds of food were donated this year to “SOVA” in Van Nuys. I know quite a few families were very generous with their donations and we appreciated it! They were overjoyed to receive our donation!

“SOVA” is a Hebrew word that means “eat and be satisfied.” Much more than a food pantry, JFS “SOVA” provides free groceries and an array of supportive services to nearly 12,000 individuals of all ages, ethnicities and religions each month. At SOVA’s three comprehensive service centers in the Los Angeles area, we offer:

Sustenance: Free nutritious food that nourishes families, helps children perform better in school, and strengthens the elderly.

Opportunity: Free on-site services including legal advocacy, job counseling, nutrition counseling, food stamp enrollment, information and referrals, case management, and counseling.

Volunteerism: Hundreds of people of all ages work together each week to support the program and the community.

Advocacy: We reach out to the community and legislators in support of vulnerable members of society in need of food, opportunity, and social services.

Main Office: 16439 Vanowen Street Van Nuys, CA 91406 818-988-7682 http://www.jfsla.org/SOVA

Big Mama’s and Papa’s Pizza Fundraiser Again!

jkwan — Sun, 13 May 2012 00:52:51 +0000

All Week Long! Monday 5/14/2012 to Sunday 5/20/2012

We will be having another cooks week off fundraiser!

Watch for the flyer and help support your child’s school. Not only will our school earn $2 from every flyer collected (minimum purchase of a salad or pizza or sandwich required), but we’ve lowered the class requirements to try to let the kids earn more pizza parties. Bring in 8, 10, or 12 flyers (multiple flyers per family allowed) and earn different sized pizza parties for the classroom. 100 flyers were turned in last event, but if we get 200 flyers turned in, our staff and teachers will win the HUGE 54″ x 54″ pizza experience! Mother’s Day doesn’t need to stop on Sunday, give her a couple of nights off from cooking and help support our school and win a pizza party for the classroom! We had 5 classrooms win last time and the other classrooms really wanted to earn the pizza experience. This will be the last chance for the school year!

Big Mama’s and Papa’s Pizzeria
Zelzah and Chatsworth
(818) 368-1111

Download: May 2012 flyer

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

2nd Grade Field Trip – Natural History Museum

jkwan — Sun, 06 May 2012 20:32:34 +0000

The second grade had their field trip to the LA Natural History Museum in Exposition Park. There were plenty of parent/grandparent volunteers available so each group had two or three kids per adult.

One of their new exhibits is the new Dinosaur Hall, which just opened last year. The hall spans two large rooms on two floors so viewing of the large dinosaur skeletons may be done from below and above. Various interactive displays and exhibits allow patrons to better understand a variety of topics. Castlebay had a 10:30am reservation for admittance to the new hall and that was the first exhibit the classes went to. After the Dino Hall, various groups broke off to visit other parts of the museum, including the mammal exhibits, rocks, minerals and gems, birds, the diorama exhibits and the Discovery Center, a hands on lab. Upstairs in another section is a Dino Lab where actual work is done by staff members which can be viewed by museum goers.

At the Curiosity Cart

One group visited a Curiosity Cart in the center lobby area. The students were able to examine some dinosar artifacts and given some dinosar lessons. Later when they met up with the teachers, they shared some of their new lessons about dinosaurs.

Some of the classes also visited the Rose Garden nearby after lunch before heading back to the buses.

Room 21 class picture at the Rose Garden fountain

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.

Community Workers: HazMat Squad

jkwan — Wed, 02 May 2012 04:08:34 +0000

The first grade is learning about community workers and has had several visits from various members from the community to talk to the classes about the work they do and the equipment they use. One student’s dad works for the LAFD Hazardous Materials Squad. He gave a little talk about the work he does and gave the classes a demonstration of the hazardous material suit he has to put on for some of his work.