Larchmont Fairfax Weekly Update | 9.19.20
Updated: Sep 19, 2020
IMPORTANT DATES
September 21 - Monday Morning Video Message from Andi
September 21 - Community Group Activity | Peace Day | 9 am
September 23 - School Sing | 8:30 am | Instagram Live
September 23 - Grab n Go Lunches |12-3 pm
September 25 - Larchmont FFX Parent Coffee | 9 am
September 28 - NO SCHOOL (Yom Kippur)
September 29 - Finance Committee Meeting | 7 - 9 pm
October 2 - Fairfax LOOP (Larchmont Org of Parents) Meeting | 9 am
October 6 - LCS Board Meeting | 6:30 pm
November 4 - NO SCHOOL (Staff Dvpt. Day)
November 11 - NO SCHOOL (Veteran's Day)
You can also subscribe to iCal HERE and have dates imported to your iCal. ALL DATES are available on LARCHMONT SCHOOL ONLINE CALENDAR
FROM YOUR SCHOOL LEADER
Dear Larchmont Fairfax Families:
I hope the past few days of school have gone well as we officially embark upon the fall season this upcoming week.
We have many new developments to highlight this week.
First, we want to begin by thanking parent and martial arts guru, Steven Ho, for the wonderful PE class this past Wednesday! I hope you were able to catch a glimpse if you were home. Students learned bear crawls, crab walks, cartwheels and switches, not to mention many of our ESLRs about sportsmanship and perseverance. It was a real treat! We have good news that we've hired a substitute teacher for our PE classes. Cynthia Lay is a longtime credentialed teacher and has been a substitute at both our Hollygrove and Selma campuses. Cynthia is excited to take over for Alan and we look forward to welcoming her to Fairfax! Cynthia will not start until Thursday, Sept 24th so for next week Steven Ho will reprise his role once more and offer PE for all classes on Wednesday! If your child wants to join on Wednesday (even if they have PE on Thursday or Friday with Cynthia) they are more than welcome to join and enjoy PE twice next week. Once Cynthia begins on Sept 24th, all classes will go back to their REGULAR PE times.
Second, we are going to hold our first ever Zoom Community Group this Monday morning! For our new families, a community group is a group of mixed age students who meet once per month to do a special themed activity together. The purpose of community groups is to help students get to know a broader range of students, and to take time to address important topics or social justice themes. On Monday, Jamia has prepared an activity to celebrate the International Day of Peace. All 244 students will log on to my Zoom at 9 am after their usual Morning Meeting with their class. Parents may need to assist our younger students with this transition.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6440852148?pwd=WUNOYmpFQjBqTUhvUnlMSFF6dGwrZz09
Meeting ID: 644 085 2148, Passcode: 858782.
After Jamia's whole group activity on my Zoom, we will put all students into their randomly assigned breakout rooms for a special art activity with their new Zoom Community Group. All students will need is paper and something to draw with. Special note: This will be our first time using this method with the WHOLE SCHOOL on Zoom. While we're doing our best to avoid any issues, if there is a glitch of any kind, we will end the breakout rooms and come back together whole group. We appreciate your patience while we try this out. Our hope is to be able to use this system for future school activities if it's successful!
Third, we wanted to reiterate once more how impressed all of our administration, faculty and staff is with the perseverance and effort we're seeing from our Larchmont scholars. While we know the circumstances of school on a computer are truly challenging, the children are really giving it their all and treating the experience like typical school. If we didn't know any better, we would think that we've been going to school this way for years (though thankfully, we haven't)! The children have not missed a beat and we truly commend them for their resilience and tenacity with online learning. Despite this, as you might imagine, we yearn for our time back on campus and can't wait to be back in person.
Finally, a reminder that our Annual Giving Drive is in full swing. This is the biggest (AND ONLY) fundraiser this year – it helps to fund 10-15% of our annual budget! It's through the support of our parent community that we're able to maintain low class size, vast enrichment offerings, experienced faculty and staff, technology, new curricular materials, our state of the art kitchen, great professional development for our staff, and our fabulous Fairfax campus itself in the heart of WeHo. Please help us keep all of these essential elements. For the past several years, 100% of our families have donated and we don't want to miss that mark this year! If you haven't yet had a chance, please do so by going to our website to donate. We thank you all!
I wish you all a wonderful weekend, and to our families celebrating Rosh Hashanah, a very happy and healthy new year.
Our very best,
Mersedeh, Andi & The Larchmont FFX Team
PE UPDATE
As mentioned above, we have hired a new PE teacher! Cynthia Lay will begin on Thursday, Sept 24th.
Until Cynthia begins on Thursday, we will offer one more PE class with Steven Ho on Wednesday. If your child has PE on Thursday or Friday, they are still welcome to join us for an extra PE class with Steven on Wednesday!
All students will log on at 1 pm on Wednesday. TK/K will stay on for 20 min; grades 1-2 will stay on longer until 1:30 pm, and grades 3-4 will stay on the full time until 1:40 pm. If any of our younger students wish to stay on longer, they are welcome to do so!
TK/K: Wednesday 1-1:20 pm | Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6440852148?pwd=WUNOYmpFQjBqTUhvUnlMSFF6dGwrZz09
Grades 1-2: Wednesday 1-1:30 pm | Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6440852148?pwd=WUNOYmpFQjBqTUhvUnlMSFF6dGwrZz09
Grades 3-4: Wednesday 1-1:40 pm | Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6440852148?pwd=WUNOYmpFQjBqTUhvUnlMSFF6dGwrZz09
COMMUNITY GROUPS (PEACE DAY)
We'll have our first community group activity of the year on September 21st at 9 am! Our wonderful Community Group Coordinator, Jamia, has planned a great event. A community group is a group of about 15 students from various grade levels and a teacher other than the student's own teacher. The purpose is to help students get to know a broad range of adults and children in our school community so they always have someone to go to.
This will be our first time trying community groups on Zoom so it'll be a little different than our standard community group protocol during brick and mortar schooling.
All 244 students will log on to Zoom at 9 am on Sept 21 (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6440852148?pwd=WUNOYmpFQjBqTUhvUnlMSFF6dGwrZz09). We'll all share in a special Peace Day discussion and then we'll divide up into breakout community groups for a special peace activity. We're really excited to celebrate Peace Day with the whole school!
PARENT COFFEE WITH MAJA WATKINS THIS FRIDAY!
Please join Maja Watkins and Mersedeh and Andi this coming Friday, September 25, 9 - 10 am for our next Fairfax Parent Coffee. Maja will focus on teaching parents about ways to engage with the kids at home using play. Maja Watkins works at Larchmont Charter School as the Social and Emotional Learning Specialist. Maja uses improv games to teach social skills and connections! Her ebook just came out "10 Minutes of Play for 10 Days!" that is geared towards parents looking for some ideas on playing at home with their kiddos. Maja is the author of the textbook, The Brain's Playground: Using Improv Games To Teach Social and Emotional Learning, as well as the Co-Founder of Zip Zap Zop Enrichment (www.zipzapzopenrichment.org) that uses improv for social skills in therapy centers, homes, and schools.
Maja's Parent Ebook:
Zoom Link for the Parent Coffee: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82468957169?pwd=a21UT0JUeDZDd2FIUW9oYVFNZ2FNZz09
Bring your coffee and join us for this parent meeting this Friday. We hope to see you there!
SITE COUNCIL
A reminder to please submit your Site Council form to us by Monday! We already have several submissions, but would love to augment our group even more.
Site Council reps meet with Andi and I once per month and they help give input on a whole range of school issues (i.e. budget, facilities, school performance, etc). They also reach out to share information with their respective classes or grade levels. Please consider this great opportunity to lend your voice to some really important topics!
ATTENDANCE REMINDERS
Teachers will be taking attendance every day in their live Zoom classes, including each Wednesday. If your child is going to be absent (both synchronously and asynchronously) for any reason, please email the teacher and ffxattendance@larchmontcharter.org. To receive credit for attending asynchronously (not live/zoom) students/parents must both:
Log into Seesaw or view the teacher's assignments via their websites to access and complete assignments AND
Complete the Distance Learning Attendance Certification Form.
Notify your teacher & email ffxattendance@larchmontcharter.org as you normally would via email by 8:15am if your student cannot attend synchronously or asynchronously.
Questions about attendance? Email our office manager, Tess Trillo, at maritess.trillo@larchmontcharter.org.