Conferences / Veterans' Day Holiday

Hello All!

Parents / Guardians: We hope that you are enjoying the opportunity today as well as yesterday to conference with your child's teacher(s) and learn more about your child's progress. It certainly is an important role in supporting the education process here at ISM.

We also wanted to take a moment to remind all of you that we will be closed for the Veteran's Day holiday on Monday, November 10th. As a result, school will NOT be in session that day.

However, we invite you to join us on Tuesday, November 11th as we celebrate this national holiday with an official Flag-Raising Ceremony in front of the school at 9:00 a.m. All ISM students and staff will be participating in this event! [Please note: School will begin at the regular time of 8:20 a.m.]

Both the Honorable Congressman Sam Farr, Representative of California's 17th District. as well as members of the Seaside High School ROTC Color Guard, will be joining us on Tuesday to honor all veterans and members of the active duty military. The event will also feature presentations by two ISM fifth graders, Kasey Barker and Emma Satchell, who will be providing a personal perspective on the day by sharing a few words about two WWII veterans important to them.

Following these presentations, Associate Head of School Eric Pearlstein, will officially unveil ISM students' "Dream Flags" upon which their respective dreams and aspirations were illustrated earlier this year.

Once again, please join us for this poignant event Tuesday, November 11th at 9:00 a.m.

Meanwhile, enjoy your three day holiday!

Regards,

Lisa Griffin Burns
ISM Operations / HR Manager
Tel: 831-583-2165
Cell: 831-521-4900
Email: lburns@ismonterey.org

Early Dismissal and Non-School Days Schedule

Please remember that today, Thursday 11/6 is an early dismissal day, your child should be picked up by 11:30am between 2:15-2:30pm after the field trip. Please pick them up promptly as the teachers have a full day of conferences. Tomorrow, Friday 11/7 is a full day off for your child as it is also a conference day.

Monday, Nov. 10th is our observance of Veteran's day, there will be no school that day. However, Tuesday, Nov. 11th is a normal school day, we will be having special Veteran's Day celebrations.

Thank you,
ISM staff

Conference List and Field Trip Reminder

I have sent the latest conference times Master List via email. Please check your time and let me know if just if it is a problem for you. I look forward to meeting with all of you.

Tomorrow (Thursday, Nov 6) is our field trip to the Monterey State Parks. Students need to wear their uniforms, bring a lunch, (low-zero waste please), water and a hat. We will return to school sometime between 2:15-2:30pm. Please be on time to pick your student up as conferences will be starting soon after our arrival. Lisa Wichel-Loomis has set up after-school care if you need it. Please contact her.

The Big Sur "Just Run" event for kids is this Saturday (Nov 8) starting near the Monterey Custom House Plaza. Please see the flyer sent home with your child. It's a fun event and kids can participate for $5. (Adults $10.) Mr. Robby will be there to run with as many students as possible. I will be there to either run or cheer you on.

Thanks everyone!
Mary Welsh

Logo Clothing Order Form

Place your order for ISM logo wear!

We are now accepting orders for ISM logo wear. Use the order form (PDF) to order ISM shirts, sweatshirts, jackets and vests. Checks should be made payable to "ISM" and brought in with the order form. The form can be put in Nikki Madden's mailbox or given to your child's homeroom teacher.

If you have any questions regarding the ordering process, please contact Nikki Madden at nmadden@ismonterey.org.

Yearbook Dedications (Message from Camilla Mann)

Dear ISM families,

With the school year in full swing and the abundance of photos that I'm sure we all be took at the Halloween Festival, I thought this a good time to send out the first of many yearbook related documents.

Use the order form (PDF) to include a dedication/note to your student in this year's publication. Think of this dedication as a "love note" to your student - a way to tell him/her how proud you are.

In an effort to be more friendly to the environment, I am resisting the urge to print out copies of this for everyone. If you cannot open this file and/or would like a hard copy sent to you, I'm happy to do it.

If you have any questions or need any more information, feel free to contact me.

Warmly,
Camilla M. Mann
Mom to Riley (Ms. Z's class) and 2008-09 Yearbook Editor
Direct 831.760.2809
CamillaMMann@sbcglobal.net

Chinese Class Beginning 11/4/2008

We've finally found new Chinese Instructors to take over the Mandarin Chinese after school instruction at ISM. Please download the flyer (PDF), if you'd like to sign up you can either print out the form or pick one up at the school office.

Class meets twice a week: Tuesday and Thursday 3:45 pm - 4:45 pm

Class is designed for the students of 2nd - 8th grades

Please note that the first session of class is tomorrow, but you can join at any time and your fee will be pro-rated.

Any questions at all, please call Jun Meng at 831-998-0689 or e-mail: jun_meng_62@yahoo.com

Afterschool Art Classes - New Session Start Postponed

Due to the minimum day on Thursday, 11/6/2008 and the full day off on Friday 11/7, the new session of the afterschool art classes given by Olia Polovneff will begin a week later than originally scheduled. 4th & 5th graders will start on Thursday 11/13. 6th - 8th graders will be on Friday 11/14.

If you have any questions at all, please email Olia Polovneff at polovneff@comcast.net or phone her at 261-9282.

Parent Update 11/3/2008

Dear Grade Four Parents,

I hope you all had a nice weekend and enjoyed celebrating Halloween with your family. Thank you to all of you who helped with the Halloween celebration here at ISM. There was plenty of water brought in. Thank you for generosity. If you did volunteer your time, please remember to log in your hours on the PTO.

We're off to another busy week. We've been talking about tomorrow's elections and the history that has already been made at this point in the election process. We are looking forward to seeing how the election plays out tomorrow. This is also a great topic of conversation at the dinner or breakfast table.

Thursday Field Trip: We have our field trip to the Monterey State Parks for the "Mexican-California Program" this Thursday. We will depart school just before 9:00am and return around 2:30pm. Remember this is an early dismissal day for the rest of the school for conferences. Please pick up your child promptly by 2:30pm as the teachers need to get to conferences. Thank you for your help with this.

****I still need field trip forms for Ariana, Cameron, Kareem and Kevin. Please send these in tomorrow.

Conferences begin on Thursday afternoon. If you haven't signed up, please do so ASAP. Hopefully, everyone has the conference times. I will send out an updated master list on Tuesday or Wednesday to include the latest sign-ups.

Please arrive about 5 minutes early for your conference to avoid a late start and delaying others' conference times. Conferences will be about 15 minutes with a 5 minute lead time for the next conference. Students will be leading the first 10 minutes of the conference followed by 5 minutes of parent/teacher discussion.

Friday is a conference day. Monday is a holiday for Veteran's Day. Next Thursday, the school will be celebrating Grandparent's Day. Hopefully, everyone has received the invitation for grandparents to come to school that morning. If not, please see the office.

Pictures are here! I will send them home today.

Thank you for all your support and care of this great group of 4th graders.

Sincerely,
Mary Welsh

Halloween Festival "Thank You" to Volunteers

Lisa and I would like to express our most sincere thank you for all of your help in communication, donations and of course your time. Without all of you we would not have had a successful Festival. This year was a tremendous exercise in patience and flexibility of which we are deeply appreciative of your parent volunteers and the staff.

As the day progressed, I was unable to capture everyone's name that assisted. Please remind your parent volunteers to log-in their time on the PTO. Finally, we would love to hear your feedback. Please email your thoughts, observations and suggestions on making next year better and more fun for all to swanstom@gmail.com. With this review from you, we will be able to improve and grow next year.

Once we have pictures available from our fabulous photographers, we will let you know.

Thank you again,
Michele Swanston & Lisa Moberg

Health Note

This is just a courtesy note to let you know one of our students had a case of head lice over the break. The lice were discovered in the beginning of the second week of vacation, were completely treated along with all the linens and other household items. The student and all of the other members of the family have not shown any signs of the lice since then. The parents are fairly certain the source came from a place outside of ISM during the break. To be cautious, please go ahead and check your children's heads for lice. Also, here is a very helpful website to help with questions: http://www.headlice.org/

Though contracting lice is a hassle. Lice are not disease carriers. They are just looking for food and they have developed a great system for hanging on and getting what they need. It has nothing to do with hygiene. In fact, cleaner hair is easier for lice to attach to. It really comes down to luck and avoidance (ie. not sharing hats or hairbrushes) most of the time with lice. If you check out this above website, you'll see that the some of the treatments for head lice are far worse than the lice themselves. So, having said that, I will do my best to keep students heads and hats away from each other and let you know if I notice extra itching going on in class.

Best wishes always,
Mary Welsh