October 8, 2022

Dear Lower School Families,

Jackets and Gloves

All students should bring a jacket and gloves to school each day. Unless it is 15 F or colder (temperature or wind chill), students go outside for recess so please plan accordingly. Please label all clothing items with your child’s name.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Lower School Parent-Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Wednesday through Friday, October 19-21. All lower school conferences will be in person only. Wednesday, October 19, will be a regular school day with conferences beginning at 4:00 p.m. On Thursday, October 20, school will be dismissed at noon, and conferences will begin at 2:00 p.m. On Friday, October 21, there is no school for students, and conferences will take place from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. The online conference scheduler is currently open to all parents through noon on October 14 (view instructions).

Upcoming Lower School Parent Coffees

We invite parents to join us on Thursday to learn about our new math initiative in the Lower School – the use of Math Journals. Upcoming events include:

• October 13: Math Journals (initiated this year)
• November 8: Executive Functioning Skills
• December 7: Fly 5 (our new social and emotional learning program)

All Lower School Parent Coffees are from 8:30-9:30 a.m. in the dining hall (fireside). Please join us.

Halloween Details

Halloween will be celebrated  in the Lower School on Friday, October 28. With the exception of Explorers, all students who choose to dress up should come to school in costume. Explorer students will change into costumes before their parade. Please review our costume guidelines below: 

• No weapons (real or pretend) of any kind allowed
• Costumes must be respectful to other cultures and people
• No blood or gory costumes
• Students come to school in their costumes, so please plan accordingly as they will wear it all day
• Faces must be visible (cannot wear a mask that hides face completely)
• It is important to remember we have Explorers through Grade 5 students, and we want to ensure a fun and appropriate environment for all of our community

Our Halloween parades will take place on the Lazarus Courtyard. Families are welcome to observe the parade from the internal grassy part of the courtyard. Students will parade with their homeroom class. The Explorer and PreK parade will take place at 11:00 a.m. (details will be sent by classroom teachers). The parade for grades K-5 will be held at 2:30 p.m.

Before the afternoon parade, parents are welcome to join us for apple cider on the dining hall patio beginning at 1:45 p.m. This is a wonderful opportunity to gather and enjoy each other’s company before the parade. To help in our planning, kindly RSVP here.

Parent Book Club

The Parent Book Club will meet to discuss the second half of “The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed” by Jessica Lahey. We will meet on the fireside of the dining hall on Thursday, November 17, from 8:30-9:30 a.m. to discuss chapters 7-12 of the book. Please use this link to sign up. Here is the book discussion guide we will use. Warm scones and fresh coffee will greet you upon entering!

Parenting Article

This week’s article is from The Washington Post and is entitled “Five Skills Parents Can Learn So They Can Help Their Children Cope.”

Enjoy these beautiful fall days,

Mark L. Hansen

Head of Lower School