Dear Sierra Nevada Parents:
I hope that you all had a lovely, relaxing Spring Break. Mine was filled with travels and family visits. I can’t believe that we only have six more weeks left in the school year. As always, time just flies! We have a lot to accomplish in these last six weeks, so I thought I’d send a little update outlining everything so that nothing comes as a surprise.
First of all, I’d like to thank you all for coming to our April Social right before the break. The children were very excited to see you! Their enthusiasm to show you what they had learned so far on the recorder, as well as their ability to play so well, inspired me to continue to try and teach them more. I’m still not sure where that will lead before year’s end, but I’m shooting for some kind of very mini-concert at the Open House on May 16th.
Here is a run-down of the next six weeks:
Parent Book Club
My Setting Limits book arrived over the break and I have started reading it. I sure wish I’d had this book when I was raising my child! It also reminds me a lot of techniques that I use in the classroom. I really enjoyed our casual, open conversation at the last Book Club meeting. Even if you aren’t able to read all of the book, the information is so useful, I think that it would be worth your time to come and be part of the group. The Book Club starts at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 1st. I look forward to seeing you there!
New Student Visits
The Primary students who are moving up from both Bergamo and Montessori Country Day will visit our classroom on Tuesday, May 7th. As you may remember from your child’s visit, the Primary children spend the entire day with the class to get a feel for their Elementary experience to come next year. Both the Primary and Elementary students love this day of visiting and look forward to it every year! The third year students will start their Upper Elementary visits sometime in the coming month. These visits will be scheduled by Wendy, and generally are staggered over a few days time.
Bergamo School Open House
Our Open House will be on Thursday, May 16th, from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. Each of the classrooms will prepare a fun goodie to eat and the classrooms will be open for all levels to visit. We will also (hopefully) put together our very-mini recorder concert before the evening’s entertainment by Musical Robot. This is always a fun social event that is enjoyed by the whole school!
Stone Soup Musical
We will be working very hard in the coming weeks to prepare for the Stone Soup Musical to be presented at the Sierra 2 Theatre on Thursday, May 30th. The actual performance will begin at 6:30 p.m. All of the children will need to be at the theatre at 5:00 p.m. for rehearsal. It is extremely important that everyone is there at 5:00 p.m. for this rehearsal as it is the only time we will be rehearsing on the stage. My hope is that we can rehearse from 5:00 – 6:00 and let the children get a little dinner/hearty snack break from 6:00 – 6:30. There will be plenty of seats, so feel free to invite family and friends!
Ideally, the children will arrive at the theatre, in their costumes, by 5:00 p.m. I recognize that because of work schedules, this will not be possible for everyone. If you are unable to make this work for your family, please let me know and we will work to find a ride to the theatre for your child. Just make sure to send your child’s costume and extra food for before rehearsal to school on the 30th so that he/she will be prepared. If you can help to drive other children to the theatre that evening, please let me know how many children (including your child) that you can take in your car. Robyn will check in with you as we get closer to the performance date to make sure that everyone has adequate arrangements and to remind you about logistics.
Transition Ceremony
The Transition Ceremony will take place on Friday morning, May 31st. All of the Elementary students will be involved by singing at the ceremony. Parents of third year students are invited to attend the ceremony to watch their child’s transition to the Upper Elementary classroom. More details about times, etc., will come in the next few weeks, but I wanted to make sure that third year parents had this on their calendar.
Hopefully, I haven’t missed anything. If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to ask!
Patty