Welcome Back to the Creek!
Dear Old Mill Community,
There is so much happening at Old Mill, I hardly know where to begin. We are in exciting times and you can feel the Busy Bee Buzz of education everywhere! You can feel the synergy of staff and parents and students working.
Science Fair As I writie this blog, we have a roomful of science fair projects in the "Judged" category sitting in room 8. Thanks go to the 36 scientists who used the scientific method for their entries and their parents who supported their efforts. Thanks also go to David Weinfeld, science fair coordinator and Chris Hill, who assisted students and took on the logistics of the "Judged" category. Ms. Gamel's class was certainly encouraged to participate! The projects will be judged by three science teachers from Tamalpais High School; Mary Wuerth, Jon Black and Ben Matzen. We thank them for their time and energy. The projects are wonderful and I am sure they will be looking forward to teaching our students in the very near future. Think of it 5th grade parents; in 4 years your children will be walking the halls at Tam. Tomorrow night ALL of the student projects will be on display in the multi-use room, judged and nonjudged. Please come!
Immigration Day Tomorrow morning our second graders will immigrate to America. The students and their teachers have been working on this important unit of study since October. The Family History and Immigration Unit incorporates social studies, math skills, letter and report writing, personal history research, culture, time lines, music, art and a bit of drama. It just gets better every year and I thank their teachers, Graham Davis, Sara Fortine and Laura Shearer, as well as music teacher Lori Adessa and accompaniest, Ricca Wolf.
Site Council Site Council has begun meeting and we have some very exciting news to share.
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Math Club Next week interested students in grades 3-5 will be invited to participate in Math Club. Jeff Leane and Tim Staples have volunteered to lead students in developing their problem solving skills at lunch on Thursdays. In addition, students may also participate in a subset of the Math Club, Math Olympiad, which will be held on Wednesday afternoons from 2:00-3:00 in Room 8.
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Geography Bee Plans are underway to have a Geography Bee next school year. Mrs. Spangler has volunteered to supervise the preparation for students in grades 4 and 5.
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Spelling Bee We will continue to have a Spelling Bee in the fall. Rachael Collins has stepped forward to coordinate the prepatation for students in grades 4 and 5.
Welcome Erin Lyons has stepped in to serve as our new 4th grade teacher in Room 10, taking the place of Dee Treshnell, who recently retired. Erin grew up in Mill Valley. She taught 5th grade at Old Mill for 9 years before taking time off to raise her 2 children., Nicholas and Molly Claire (who are students at Old Mill). You may have seen Erin around the halls of our school as she has been substitute teaching for the last 5 years. She is extremely excited to be back in the classroom full time and we wish her all the best!
Welcome Regis Verdin has been hired to be the new first grade instructional assistant, replacing Barb Freeman who retired in January. Regis is adding on to his yard duty hours and will continue to teach a couple of PE classes daily!
Welcome Sawsen Abuhalawa has been hired to do noontime supervision. She is the mother of Sammy and Rami.
Backpack Challenge! Did you know that a child's backpack should not weigh more that 10-20 percent of his or her wieght? OK, here's the challenge...weigh your child. Weigh the backpack. Do the math with your child. Remove extra weight, if the backpack is too heavy.
Yard Beginning next Monday, we will reinstate football on the Lower yard at the lunch recess only. Mrs. Van Royen will oversee the game. We will be looking out for safe play and good sportsmanship. In addition, we would like to expand the options for students who prefer quiet play at lunch recess. We would like to get some gently used toys to leave in a container for the students. These might include little cars and trucks, plastic tea sets, dolls, etc. If you would like to donate items, please bring them to the office and we will give it a go! Likewise, our sand toys are a bit tired, so if ou have some at home that would work at school, we would love to have them.
IPads The 30 IPads we bought through the fundraising efforts of PTA have arrived. Right now the teachers are checking them out to get familiar with their operation. Chris Coffelt, MVSD Director of Technology, will be in charge of training staff. Thank you so much!
Have a terrific week.
Kandee
