Dear Almond Families:

Happy New Year! I hope you had a restful and relaxing Winter break.  I always find the time away to be a great opportunity to reflect on the work that has been done and what is yet to be accomplished. The turn of the year always brings with it renewed energy for new and on-going projects. Looking at the calendar from January to June, there are many exciting events coming up from the STEM Expo to the Junior Olympics to Family Science Night, and more! I look forward to our continued partnership together in the months to come.

Parent Education Event

LASD is excited to invite you to an excellent parent education event geared towards 6th grade and junior high parents. LASD is partnering with MVLA, Mountain View Whisman and CHAC to host a special event screening of the documentary Angst followed by a panel discussion with local mental health and medical experts.

When: January 15 (Tuesday) 6:30-8:30 P.M.

Where: Los Altos High School, Eagle Theater

          201 Almond Ave, Los Altos, CA

How do I register: https://mvla2018-19-angstfilm.eventbrite.com

Space is limited, so please register early!

The event flyer with more information is included here!   You are welcome to bring your 6th, 7th or 8th grade students.

Angst is an IndieFlix Original, documentary designed to raise awareness around anxiety. The film includes interviews with kids, teens, educators, experts, parents and a very special interview with Michael Phelps.  The goal specifically is to help people identify and understand the symptoms of anxiety and encourage them to reach out for help. Angst screens in schools, communities and theaters around the world. The film and corresponding materials provide tools, resources and above all, hope.

More information on this documentary can be found on their website:

https://angstmovie.com/

Anxiety is the precursor to so many mental health challenges. By opening a dialogue and normalizing (not trivializing) anxiety we can help our youth, each other and ourselves.

Spread the word. Believe change is possible. The purpose of this screening is to talk about this universal issue, share personal stories, and provide resources and tools.

I sincerely hope that you will join us at this timely and informative event on an issue that impacts our youth.

Let us join together as a community to build a network of support around our children and help them thrive.

Traffic Information

We’ve recently had some close calls in the parking lot, so I’d like to take this opportunity to share the protocol for parking, pick-up and drop-off.       

• When driving through the pick up lane, pull as far forward as possible and please stay in your car (please do not leave your car unattended to drop off or pick up your child).

• You are welcome to park your car in a space and walk with your children in the morning or to meet your children after school.

• Once you drop off your children, please proceed out of the parking lot. Traffic needs to continue to flow to avoid back-ups on neighboring streets.

• If children need assistance getting out of the car, it is best to park in a parking space and then walk them over.  In the drop off lane, parents should not get out of their cars to assist children as it clogs the lane.

• Thank you so much for helping to keep all of our students safe!

The safety of our students, staff and families is of utmost importance. Please slow down, leave yourself ample time to get where you are going, and be super cautious in our parking lot. We are thankful for your diligence!

Here’s to a fabulous 2019!

Raquel

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Family Science Night is on Wednesday, March 6th from 6:30-8pm. Volunteers arrive around 5:30pm. We will provide pizza and cookies!

My name is Dharti Dhami. Melissa Bryant is leading the Family Science night event and I am the Volunteer Coordinator for the event this year. Thanks for signing up to volunteer during Back to School Registration, at the Back to School Coffee, or for helping us last year!

For those of you who are new to Almond/Family Science night:

What is Family Science Night?

An amazing night of science exploration at Almond School! 25+ stations for children TK-6th grade to interact with everything from robotics to anatomy!

• Navigate through a laser maze
• Create amazing lego structures with Kidizens
• Program a robot
• Make slime that glows and your own flavored lip balm
• Observe bats, bees, anatomy of various body parts and much more !

More details on the final selection of science stations, signups for the stations and other volunteering opportunities on the day of the event to come in February.

Also, we would GREATLY appreciate help with Supplies Coordination for the event. You would help us catalog the supply needs for the different science stations (we will help with the details), order it and get reimbursed.

If you can help or have ideas for hands on stations, please contact Melissa or me at dharti@gmail.com and mbryantneal@yahoo.com. Looking forward to working with you!

Thanks in advance and Happy New Year!

Dharti Dhami & Melissa Bryant

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Almond Community Services: New and Gently Used Book Drive Benefitting Paradise Elementary School Classroom Libraries

Happy New Year! Almond Community Services Group is starting off the year with a short (1 week only) but well deserving and much needed Book Drive.  As Paradise Unified School District is working hard to find classroom spaces for its students and teachers who were displaced by the Camp Fire, we are hoping to help Paradise Elementary School teachers who lost classroom libraries of hundreds of grade-level appropriate books during that fire.  We are looking for book donations that are appropriate for kinder through 6th grade! These can be early readers, chapter books, non-fiction books or favorite read-aloud children's books. We all have books our kids have outgrown or won't read again (think of the space you can create in those shelves!). :-)

A fellow parent, Luisa Smith, flagged this amazing opportunity for Almond School to help another elementary school in a very simple but impactful way.  Almond Community Services will be collecting books in the front office starting Thursday January 10th through Wednesday January 16th. The books will be delivered to Paradise on the 17th.  Please consider donating NEW OR GENTLY USED books - your donations will be provided to Paradise teachers to choose from for their in class libraries - to help these new classrooms feel familiar and safe to its students.  If you have any questions please contact Seema Chavan (bhimsee@yahoo.com).

Thank you,

Polly Liu and Seema Chavan

Almond Community Services Committee

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Author Event

Our collaboration with Kepler's Books in Menlo Park brings us opportunities to host children's authors from time to time. Next Thursday, 1/17, we will have Yoon Ha Lee visit our school. He will be talking to our 4th through 6th grade students about his new book Dragon Pearl and the writing process. This book is a sci-fi adventure with some Korean mythology in the mix. For a review of the book, click here.

If you are interested in ordering this book and having it autographed by the author, please stop by the office for an order form, which is due TOMORROW, 1/11/19. Thank you to Ms. Carla, our wonderful librarian, for coordinating this visit!

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LAEF

We've cleared $3 million! ... well on our way to raising $3.5 million for this school year! Thank you to everyone who has donated to help us reach this milestone!