Mack Memo ~ Parent Newsletter |
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Hi Mack Parents!
It’s a pleasure to be teaching your child music! My name is Mrs. Salzman, and I hope you will take a few minutes to watch a quick video (see below) that gives you my personal welcome, my deep hope for your child in learning music, as well as some background information about me. I look forward to getting to know your child and sharing the joy of worshiping God through music!
Our music curriculum is built around the philosophy and methodology of Zoltan Kodaly, a Hungarian composer and teacher of young children during the early 20th century. He believed that music literacy is essential to creating life-long music makers. He used beautiful folk music- that is, music of a child’s heritage- to uncover specific pitches and rhythms students would need to know. Kodaly also used those well-written, simple songs as a means to teach expressiveness and technique in singing. His main methodological tools included solfege, hand signs, and rhythm syllables based on a French counting system. Our goal at Mack is to use Kodaly’s approach to teaching so that our students will become skillful, beautiful music makers for the glory of God!
To see what your child is going to be learning this year with respect to these rhythms and solfege as well as other skills, feel free to quickly skim to your child’s appropriate grade below:
Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten:
Seeing your child once a week, we will work on in-tune singing, beat awareness, moving to music, learning a body of simple songs that teach beginning solfege (music education method used to teach aural skills, pitch and sight-reading) and rhythmic concepts.
Grades 1-3:
We will work on in-tune singing, intro to beat, building upon a set of simple folk songs that teach beginning solfege and rhythmic concepts starting with sol, mi, la, the quarter note, eighth note pair, and quarter rest, and culminating with the set of four 16th notes, half notes, and do, re, low sol and low la.
Grades 4-6:
We will work on in-tune singing, expansion of body of folk song repertoire, introduction of how to read an octavo, musical term grammar, development of listening and ensemble skills as well as vocal technique, and introduction to instrumental music through learning how to play simple instruments such as the xylophone and auxiliary percussion instruments. When it is safe, we will return to learning the recorder. Fifth and 6th graders will finishing the solfege ladder with ti and rhythm ladder with dotted eighth sixteenth notes.
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New PE Teacher
Hello Mack families.
I would like to introduce myself to you as Mack's new P.E. teacher. I am a mom of four kids who all attend BCS ranging in grades from 1st to 8th. My family and I came to Washington from Indiana about 3 1/2 years ago to plant Redemption Hill Bible Church in Bellevue. My husband and I have spent 28 years in church ministry between Indiana and Southern California. While my husband attended seminary in California, I taught kindergarten and grades 1st & 4th. I stopped teaching professionally when my first son was born but I continued teaching Sunday school and college age discipleship groups.
I taught PE (K-12) for two years in Indiana. In college, I played basketball and volleyball, spent time overseas working in orphanages and teaching ESL. My favorite thing to do now is watching and supporting my children in their passions. Teaching kids how to learn to use their gifts and grow through a biblical world view and impact their families and communities for Christ is also one of my passions.
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Grace (1st), Drew (8th), Drake, (6th) & Jaxon (4th) |
I love traveling and exploring with my family. I enjoy cooking and baking, reading and writing and have a heart for the local church. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to pour into the children at BCS and be a support to our incredible staff and teachers. |
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Be Excited About Reading!
B.E.A.R. Week this year is Oct. 26-Oct. 30 for grades K-6. Special activities are being planned throughout the week to help foster a love for reading. Book alerts in which announcements are made to 'Stop, Drop and Read' will occur at various times during the week. You can start preparing your child by helping him/her pick several books to bring to school.
The week culminates on Friday, Oct. 30 for Character Day. Students are invited to dress up to represent an appropriate character from their favorite book. No Halloween costumes please. It's a week sure to be filled with fun learning activities.
Let's Be. Excited. About. Reading!
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Kindergarten students' book character pumpkins |
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Parent Teacher Fellowship (PTF)
Please join us for this year's first PTF Meeting on Friday, 10/23 at 9am. You will hear from PTF President Amanda Swann and Principal Jennifer Smith, who will share her deep hope for Mack students and families.
Look for an invitation in your inbox as well as in next week's Mack Memo for complete WebEx information to connect to the virtual meeting. We hope to 'see' you there.
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Box Tops for Education
This long-running program is now digital. Download the app from your app store and upload your receipt when you purchase eligible items. Eligible purchases support Mack Elementary with additional funds that benefit student activities.
Deadline to benefit Mack Elementary this calendar year is October 30 so be sure to drop off your Box Tops or upload your receipt by then.
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Class Composites Now Available
If you already placed an order for your student's individual portrait but would like to purchase a class composite, please log back into your Vakker account and place a separate order. If you have questions, contact Vakker Photography.
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EARLY DISMISSAL
Mark your calendar for the next early dismissal on Tuesday, 10/20. School dismisses at 12:55pm. There is no PM preschool on early release days.
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Chapel
Click HERE to watch the Mack Preschool & Elementary Chapel, new this week from Rev. Daniel Rogers, our Director of Discipleship. Students will watch Chapel on Tuesday.
As a reminder, students are encouraged to bring a food item to tithe each Tuesday. These donations are delivered to Maltby Food Bank each week. Here are some suggested items that are currently in short supply:
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- Toilet paper
- Paper towels
- Lotion
- Chap Stick
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- Oil
- Olives
- Jelly/jam
- Egg noodles
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- Granola bars
- Canned diced green chilis
- Clam chowder & soups
- Taco shells
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Thank you for helping us continue this tradition of giving. |
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In preparation for your child's daily temperature check, please be aware that your car heater, extra layers or a hat can increase the body temperature of your student. To prevent your child from getting to class on time, we ask that you make any necessary adjustments prior to your arrival at school. A child whose temperature registers higher than 100.4 may be asked to wait in the parking lot for 15 minutes before getting rechecked.
Thank you for completing your daily screening in the Magnus Health app. If you have questions about the app, please connect with Kevin Thomas.
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Lost and Found
Our lost and found is already filling up! With all the precautions we have in place this year, we know it is harder to retrieve lost items.
- We encourage you to put your child’s name on clothing items. That way, we can return it to them right away.
- We will put the Lost and Found items out in a common area for students to see the articles of clothing and allow them to pick them up themselves.
- If your child has lost something, please reach out to the classroom teacher or front office and we will be happy to check for you.
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Nut-Free School
Be sure your child's snack and lunch do not contain nuts or peanut butter.
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Absences, Arrivals & Departures
If your student arrives LATE to school, please walk them to the office to have their temperature check.
If your student is ABSENT for the day, please call or email the office ( mackoffice@bellevuechristian.org). Please include the reason for the absence. For illness, please refer to the flow chart provided here for guidance as to when your child can return to school.
If your student will MISS 2 DAYS OR MORE IN A ROW (other than illness), a Planned Absence Form must be completed two (2) weeks prior to your departure. If your student is in Advance Math, please complete a separate Planned Absence Form for Mrs. Cobbley.
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You're invited! Bible Study |
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All parents and guardians are invited to join our Parent Bible Study starting Thursday, 10/22, 9-11:30am. We will be meeting at a parent home (3.5 miles from the Mack campus in Woodinville), with a Zoom option for those not comfortable with in-person meetings. Parents from all campuses are welcome!
Our fall study will be covered in approximately 20 weeks, and is entitled, “Better: A Study of Hebrews” by Jen Wilkin, “explor[ing] how God “provided something better for us” in the person of Jesus Christ (Heb. 11:40).”
The workbooks are $13.99 plus shipping & tax, and can be purchased directly from a few different sources. You may preview the study by clicking on the book cover to the right. Please contact Theresa Peterhans (tpeterhans@gmail.com) if interested, or for more information.
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Preschool Reminders & Week in Review |
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School Pictures
Online proofs of your preschooler will be available for viewing and editing on 10/16. Be sure to place your order no later than 10/25 to ensure delivery by 11/17.
How to view and order:
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Go to Vakker.com
- Click on "your images" and click on your school.
- Enter password (first parent phone number listed on Ren Web)
- View your images, select your favorite and place your order.
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Mrs. Underhill’s AM Class
We started our week learning about spiders. We created spiders and webs. We color sorted spiders, used geoboards, looked at spiders under the microscope.
This month as we focus on farms, farm animals, fall and pumpkin I will be talking more about how we can be Creation Enjoyers and growing in Jesus’ love for us.
Mrs. Wasson’s AM Class
This week we have been learning about trees and how they have leaves, branches, a trunk, and roots. We talked a lot about one tree, the apple tree, and had a lot of fun exploring with apples and learning about the letter A too. Our special highlight was to make our very own applesauce. We did so many fun things with apples.
Mrs. Kaskes’ Class
We’ve been having a lot of fun in our room with spiders, dots and color mixing!
We also practiced our Zoophonics, learned the nursery rhyme, Little Miss Muffet, sang songs, built with flexiblocks and unifix cubes, played with the trains, practiced our cutting skills and so much more!
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Sept.
10/20 - Early Release, 2 hrs early, No PM Preschool
10/26 - 10/30- B.E.A.R. Week (Be Excited About Reading Week)
Nov.
11/1 - Daylight Saving Ends
11/2 - No School, Professional Day
11/3 - General Election
11/11 - No School, Veterans Day
11/17 - Early Release, 2 hrs early, No PM Preschool
11/23 & 11/24 - Parent/Teacher Conferences
11/23-11/25 - No School, Thanksgiving Break
Dec.
12/8 - Early Release, 2 hrs early, No PM Preschool
12/21-1/1 - No School, Christmas Break
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18250 168th Pl. NE, Woodinville, WA 98072
(425) 485-1824
Admissions: (425) 460-3300
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