 Dear AmPark Community, February may be short on days, but it is certainly not short on happenings! I am frequently struck by the vibrancy of our school community. For a comparatively small school, we have such a number of events taking place and opportunities to come together. Thank you for your participation and commitment to making these memories happen. Last month, teachers Andrea and Casey opened up the PA meeting with the Wildly Important Goals (WIGs) initiative with families that we begun with staff and students. WIGs are an important piece of Year 2 Leader in Me work. Have you been able to make progress so far? Let us know how it is going! Leadership notebooks launched for students and we cannot wait to share them with you as they grow.  Along the social and emotional lines, February’s Book of the Month, Have You Filled a Bucket Today? aligns with our Leader in Me endeavors by supporting the creation of tangible school wide “Emotional Bank Accounts.” In the text, students learn about how words and actions can fill someone’s metaphorical bucket or take from it. Classrooms have created interactive displays where students can leave positive notes for one another and make deposits into the Emotional Bank Accounts of their classmates. Our staff has also followed suit. We know that all people are far more likely to do better when they are part of a high-trust community in which they feel valued and cared for. We are excited to use this practice as another way to contribute to these feelings. Our Chipotle fundraiser raised $118 towards the 4th grade partnership with the New York Historical Society and our Parents Association generously offered to sponsor the balance. We are very grateful to all of of families for the willingness to support this type of hands-on social studies enrichment for our students. Celebrations of the program will be shared when the partnership begins! We have had a number of volunteers for our National African American Read-In (with an Alvin Ailey theme this year!). While each class does have a reader at this time (or even two!) you are still welcome to reach out to me or Tahese if you would like to take part. This community building serves as an annual nod to the work of the civil rights activists. The Read-In is symbolic of the sit-ins used as a means to work for positive change in building equality for the black and brown people of our country. It is foundational to our beliefs in this community school that activism is taught into from an early age and our Read-In is a true orchestration of these efforts as families, students, and community members taking part.
 A Message from the Wellness Committee: Our next Wellness Committee Meeting will be held on February 7th at 1:30 in the K Cafe. Coming for the Read In? Consider staying for Wellness! : ) Of course that evening will be our Family Fun Fitness Night at 6pm. This month, Chef Ricardo supported Zoe's PreK class in planting leafy greens in the hydroponic tower garden! We are so excited that our youngest Wellness students will get a chance to grow greens and then make a salad with them. Farm to table? We've got classroom to table here at AmPark. Please check out this month's Alternative Lunch Menu here to see what is upcoming, healthy, and delicious in the cafeteria. Be well! A Message from our PA President: Hello Families, Please help us extend a warm welcome to Anna Goldman our new PA Secretary for the remainder of the 2018-2019 school year. Thank you so much for stepping up Anna! We sent out a super detailed email regarding the Spring Auction and are hoping for more volunteers and attendees. Please reach out if you have any additional questions or need documentation to solicit donations. Join us this Thursday for Family Fitness Night hosted by the School and our amazing Admin and WITS Chefs. This week is also our Family Sweetheart Dance on Friday Feb. 8th from 7pm - 9pm. Here is the link for the sign up genius: AmPark Family Sweetheart Dance 2019. Be on the lookout for the AmPark's Got Talent Flyer that Dean created. As always we hope to see you at the next general PA meeting (Invite link: http://evite.me/Cr8cxdXam2). Thank you, Odaliz PA President  Comments are closed.
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