Kimmy's Classroom

Our trip to the LA County Museum of Art was a HUGE success! The 7th grade did a wonderful job, and I can’t wait to see how their PowerPoint presentations turn out! The amazing parents who chaperoned and drove saved the day! Thank you!

Student Led Conferences are this week!! These are MANDATORY for all students and have been on the school calendar since the beginning of the year. It is not a day off, and is considered an official school day. If you’re unable to attend any of the scheduled conference times, your student may be assigned make-up work to account for their time that day, and will still need to schedule a conference for a different day. If your student turned in their form today (the day it was due) you will get a note home tonight with your assigned time marked. If we did not receive a returned form, we will accept them tomorrow morning and have your student call you with your assigned time, or we will assign you a time. If you have not signed a form, PLEASE ask your child for it tonight, or print out this form and return it in the morning.

CST Testing starts next week. It is vital that all students are here every day for testing. Please, make sure your student gets 9-10 hours of sleep a night, eats breakfast each morning, brings a snack to school, and isn’t absent or tardy. These scores are very important to the middle school students, because they are one of the things that high schools consider when assigning classes.

ATTENTION FAMILIES!!!

Our LA County Museum of Arts trip is next week! We STILL do not have enough parent drivers to get all of the seventh grade to the museum, and are dangerously close to cancelling the trip. This is an amazing opportunity for our students, and it would be a real loss for the students if we were not able to go.

Please, consider driving for our trip. It’s on May 3rd, and we will be leaving around 9:30am and arriving back at school around 3:30pm. The museum is located at 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles CA, 90036. If you are worried about aftercare for your other children, please let me know and I’ll see what I can work out!

If you would like to drive, email me at Kimmy.H@Ourcommunityschool.org !

Hello families!

I hope that you had an enjoyable and restful Spring Break. Welcome back! We’ve hit the ground running and the summer is fast-approaching!

Our trip to the LA County Museum of Art is on May 3rd! That is in less than 3 weeks!! It will be leaving at about 9am and returning a bit after school is over. I will be announcing finalized times soon. If you’d be interested in driving please email or call me! Be sure to include how many students you can fit into your car, not including yourself.  We need to start finalizing this wonderful trip.

Spring break is from April 2nd – April 9th. Students should return to school on TUESDAY APRIL 10th!

During Spring Break your 7th grade student should be studying for their test on the Mayan civilizations of the Americas. They have everything they need to study for this test. They should also finish their narrative story second draft if they haven’t already finished it. These things should be ready when they get back to school! Our test on the Mayans will be Wednesday, April 11th.

We sent progress reports and benchmark results home with the 7th grade students today. Please sign and return the enclosed yellow paper to confirm that you received this information. This signed paper is due by April 12th. If you have any questions about your student’s scores or grades, Sarah and I are happy to meet with you after Spring Break.

On May 3rd we are taking a 7th grade trip to the LA County Museum of Art. It will be an all day trip that ties in with multiple units in our Humanities curriculum. If you are interested in driving, please let me know after spring break.

Have a wonderful week off!

Hello families!

Big Night Out is approaching quickly! This is a wonderful night to raise money for the school. There are silent auctions and a Wishing Tree where the teachers can request specific items be donated for their class. The Wishing Tree is also online, so you can donate even without attending Big Night Out.

Visit my Wishing Tree pages HERE. (They spelled my name Kimi, but it’s me!)

I tried to ask for low cost items in these difficult times. Each item would directly benefit the students, even the humidifier to help keep our classroom comfortable on dry windy days! Please consider making a small donation to help strengthen our middle school program. Share this link with your family and friends so that they can support OCS!

Thank you,

Kimmy

Hello parents! I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Let me start with the bad news. We are having serious problems with student behavior after school. It is mostly the 6th and 7th grade who are not staying in their designated areas. Your students MUST wait next to the fence on Mayall or sit on the benches in front of the main school gate on Jumilla. They may not wander to different corners or meet you farther up the street. Students who have signed releases to walk home/off campus must leave immediately. They cannot hang-out on campus after the bell rings. Students should be picked up by 3:15pm!

If the situation after school does not improve, we will lose the privilege for middle schools to leave their classrooms independently. All middle school students will have to be picked up from their classroom or through the use of the valet line. Please, help encourage your students to follow the rules. Make arrangements for picking up your student before school. A lot of confusion is caused by students on their cell phones trying to arrange rides when they are waiting. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

We are starting a Middle School Soccer League which will be coached by Jenna, our fabulous 4th grade teacher. The cost will be $150 for the season, which will last from March- June. There will be scholarships for students who need financial assistance. A meeting will be held tomorrow at 3:30 in room 8 if you’d like to sign up or get more information. Both middle school students and parents are welcome to attend the meeting.

Hello families!

Please be aware that our first 7th grade fieldtrip is happening on February 24th and WE NEED DRIVERS! The entire 7th grade is going together, so we will need enough spots for 51 students. We are going to the Arboretum in Arcadia as part of the 7th grade science curriculum and will be leaving from school at 9:30am. Look for the bright orange chaperon information sheet that was sent home with your student on Thursday of this week. Our first Humanities fieldtrip will take place near the end of April.

Also, there is Humanities homework this weekend for the students who did not finish in class. We have started out research reports on China and the students have done their research in class. A few students will need to do additional research at home and every student needs to bring one printed resource (book, magazine, encyclopedia, newspaper article) to school on Monday. They have been informed of this for over two weeks, but I suspect many of them have not taken action on this part of their project.

Thursday we started our graphic organizers and first drafts. Students who did not complete these items will need to work on them over the weekend. They need their graphic organizer and their first draft done by Monday. This is the first step of the writing process, so their writing does not need to be perfect!! They will go through many revisions with peers and myself before they do their final draft later next week.

Thank you! Have a great weekend!

-Kimmy

Hello families!

Please, try to pick up your students’ progress reports from the office this afternoon (Friday 2/3/2012). It will save the school hundreds of dollars in postage and you get the information sooner! Everybody wins!

Thank you,
Kimmy

The OCS Lost and Found is full! Please come check the fence by the 3rd grade classrooms tomorrow to pick up any items your student has lost. Seventh graders are also allowed to quietly check the fence at break and lunch time.

All items not picked up by 3:00pm tomorrow will be donated to charity! Remind your 7th grader in the morning!

Welcome back! I hope that everyone enjoyed their Winter break! Here is a list of updates and reminders:

Jan 12: Semester ends! Report cards sent home & New electives start on Jan 17
Jan 13 and 16th: No School
March 14th: 3rd Book Report Due – THIS DATE HAS CHANGED! Please update your inf0!
March 15th: Open House
April 2 – 9: Spring Break – No School
May 9: Student Conferences – No School
May 14-25: CST Testing
June 1: Final Book Report Due
June 13: Last day of school – Normal Schedule

Please contact me if you have any questions!