|
 Smith
School Family Field Trip
Saturday May 17
You’re Invited!
Smith School will be hosting
its first ever family field trip to the Peabody Natural History
Museum in New Haven, CT, on Saturday, May 17. Parents and guardians
are invited to participate with their children in a special event
planned for our school by museum staff. This trip is made possible
by a grant from the Target Foundation to offer families a time to
have fun learning together.
The trip is only
open to students from Smith School. Children must be age 4 to
participate and no older than fifth grade. Space is limited.
Families will be selected by lottery and registrations are due May
1.
The trip will leave
the school at 10:30 a.m. and return by 4:30 p.m. Transportation will
be by yellow school bus. There is no charge for the trip.
The Peabody museum is
famous for its dinosaur displays as well as other natural history
exhibits. This will be a wonderful opportunity to visit a world
class museum.
SECOND STEP
Helping Children Become Successful
As parents and teachers, we want our children to become
successful, caring people who can handle life’s stresses
in positive ways. Second Step, a program being taught in
grades K through 5, teaches the skills that children
need to get along well with others.
The students at Smith School have been learning about
how to recognize feelings, manage difficult emotions,
and follow a set of problem solving steps to deal with
social situations.
Come learn more about the Second Step program and how,
as parents you can help your children at home.
2008-09 EDUCATION BUDGET
INFORMATION
Superintendent’s Budget
Available On-Line
Dr. David Sklarz, superintendent of the West
Hartford Public Schools, has presented his 2008-2009 budget to the
Board of Education. It calls for a 6.53% increase from last year,
which ranks average among the 169 towns of Connecticut (and is less
than a roll-over budget of 6.89% as cuts were made). For the first
time, the budget is available on-line at:
http://www.whps.org/whps/budget
The site offers a simplified executive
summary as well as the superintendent’s power point
presentation.
Budget Review
Sessions
Parents are encouraged to be informed
and participate in the budget process. All meetings are held at Town Hall,
room 314 at 7pm, and are broadcast on local television,
West Hartford Channel 5. For more information,
contact Minou Roufail, 236-4715. Also, board
members welcome questions and input via email. For
contact information, please visit:
www.whps.org/whps/primary-offices/boe-page
|
Magnet
School applications for the 2008-09 school year are now
available. Click here for more information.
Kindergarten Alert
If you have a child who is
eligible to enter kindergarten in the fall of 2008 (five
years of age on or before 1/1/09), please call the
school office at 236-3315, as soon as possible, to add
your child’s name to our incoming kindergarten list.
 Fidelco
Watch Me Grow Program
This year,
our second grade students have participated in the
Fidelco Watch Me Grow program. The program is a
hands-on, interactive program specifically designed for
children in grades one through twelve. It all starts
when a Fidelco representative visits the class with a
guide dog to give an informative, educational and
entertaining presentation. The class “adopts” a litter
of young Fidelco dogs that are ready to enter the
six-month guide dog training program, and the children
are then kept current on how their adopted dogs proceed
through the training program.
It has
been fantastic learning so much about service dogs and
all of the things they can do. Reflecting on service
dogs and the people they help really lead us into some
meaningful conversations about the community around us
and how we treat others. Seeing the dogs take an active
role in helping others allowed us to see how we could be
helpers as well. We saw that people who are different
have different accommodations.
Fidelco is
doing a great job training dogs to help people who need
assistance, so we wanted to do a fundraiser to help
support their efforts. We decided to bake some dog
biscuits in our classrooms and sell them during our
parent-teacher conference time. Our bake sale was a big
hit! All of the dogs loved the biscuits and many people
asked us for the recipe. We would like to thank
everyone who supported our biscuit sale. We were able
to raise $131 dollars for Fidelco.
This
money will go towards the puppies’ needs, including:
medical costs, leashes, collars, and other items. We
are thrilled to support such a great cause. G litter
will always have a special place in our hearts!
The West Hartford Summer
School Program
Looking for the best value in a summer program for your
child? Summer Options for Kids is a morning program of
academics, arts, and just plain fun classes for children
from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The program
begins on Monday, June 30 and continues for four weeks,
from 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM each day. Bus transportation
is also provided for students living the required
distances from the program schools.
Our pre-K
-1 program is located at Whiting Lane School and has
separate experiences for preschoolers aged 3-5,
pre-kindergarten, and pre-grade one. The summer program
for students in grades 2-8, located at Sedgwick Middle
School, offers a four-period day with fifty-five
different classes to choose from, ranging from academic
courses in reading, math, science and writing to music
lessons, arts and crafts, computers, world languages and
physical education. Students in grades K-5 may also
register for the Leisure Services Afternoon Adventures
and be bused to that program from ours.
For
complete information, see the Summer Options for Kids
catalogue mailed to your home or available at your
school or public library. You can also view the
catalogue on line at whlifelearn.org, or call the
Continuing Education Office at 561-6900.
|
