September 8, 2023
Happy Friday, Rowe Families!
What a wonderful first week back to school. Despite the heat this week, first graders and kindergarteners are already settling well into school routines, reconnecting with their friends, making new ones and establishing a strong foundation with their classmates for a great year of learning ahead. A special “Thank You” to all of the dedicated and hard-working staff at Rowe who have spent the last several weeks preparing our school for this to be such an exciting start for our young learners. I have just a few updates for you as we look ahead at the remainder of September.
Coming in With the Tide (September)
Monday, September 11th: First Day of School for Pre-K!
Thursday, September 21st: School Picture Day AND Open House (6:00-7:00)
Tuesday, September 26th & Thursday, September 28th: First Grade MAP Testing
Wednesday, September 27th: Flu Clinic at Rowe (Please look for info coming out soon from Mrs. Christensen)
Learning At Rowe
Morning Meetings: Morning Meeting is a Responsive Classroom structure used in all of our classrooms each morning to greet and welcome children to their school day and to build a sense of community in each classroom. This is a structure in which children interact with their teacher and each other, learning about and practicing the routines of our school and interactions with each other. It is one structure in which we teach into and reinforce all the ways we can demonstrate our core values: Safe, Kind, Helpful and Polite across each day. Morning Meetings consist of 4 key components: Greeting, sharing, a group activity and a morning message. This is a great time to ask your child to share with you about their day!
Community Meetings: Each month, we will be hosting Grade Level Community Meetings during which we reinforce our school’s Core Values at the school-wide level and reinforce good citizenship across our school. As the year progresses our goal is to include more student leadership opportunities as well! Stay tuned for more on that.
Safety Drills: Next week you may start hearing your child talk about practicing safety drills. For children at our level, the primary focus of these practice opportunities is to follow the teacher's directions in the event of an emergency. They learn how to safely exit the building, how to stay safe in their classrooms, and most importantly, to always follow their teacher’s directions. At our school, the language we use with children is: Stop - Look - Listen.
General Updates
Volunteering Process: Please see the attached flier from our Volunteer Coordinator, Rebecca Spear. It is important to note that ALL volunteers MUST have a completed volunteer form and have a clear background check prior to engaging in any volunteer activities in any of our schools.
Parent Teacher Organization: Please view the Welcome Letter from our amazing PTO HERE.
Arrival and Dismissal Update: Thank you all so much for working hard to ensure you either have your child’s car tag or are “announcing” your arrival at dismissal time to pick up your child. We appreciate your patience as we adjust to the school year and can ensure that our procedures will continue to get smoother. If you do not have the PikMyKid app, or car tags, please call our main office to let them know and we will send more home with your child. Please remember that if someone other than you is picking up your child, they must also have a car tag to present to staff.
Thank you for all you have done to prepare your children for such a strong start to the school year! We continue to look forward to growing our partnership with you all as the school year progresses. Please never hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!
Kelli Rogers
Principal