Dear Almond Families:

We had a welcoming and fun first day at Almond! To start, every member of our Almond Ohana was greeted by their school teacher and given a colorful lei to gently welcome them into the start of a new school year. During mid-morning, students attended a First-day assembly with me to talk about the meaning of ohana and our own Almond family, to set expectations for the year and hear about our first school-wide project together (more to come on that soon!). Interspersed throughout the day, teachers were beginning to form a picture of your child’s unique personality and sense of curiosity through conversations, games and other “getting-to-know-you” activities. Thank you to our teachers, staff and parents for all of your effort and care. It was an amazing start to what will be an incredible school year! You can see highlights from the day captured in the pictures below. 

Here's to our Almond Ohana!

Raquel

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Please send your best First Day photos!

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to school! We are seeking your help for group photos on the First Day of School for our yearbook. Please feel free to upload images to this link from the Almond website: https://www.almondschool.org/Almondes/6662-Year-Book.html . It would be greatly appreciated if you can only upload the best image, not a series of the same image. We welcome all photos, the more variety, the better your yearbook content will be. We are additionally looking for parent photographers that might have photography experience to help capture photos, and also need a 6th-grade parent to help us create and manage the 6th-grade supplement this year. If you need more information, feel free to email me or Shikha. We are looking forward to a great new school year!

Best wishes,

Chi + Shikha

chi.buckley@gmail.com

shikha128@gmail.com

Photo Day - Volunteers Needed August 28 & 29

School photos will be taken on August 28 and 29. We need a few parent volunteers to ensure photo sessions run smoothly and help keep our kids looking their best! Check out the schedule and sign up here. 

Join Us At The Ice Cream Social Friday @7pm!

The Almond PTA invites students and their families to join us for our annual ice cream social on Friday, August 23 at 7pm. Enjoy free ice cream while connecting with old and new friends. See you on the blacktop!

IMPORTANT DATES

• Wed, Aug. 21, First Day of School--SUCCESS!
• Thu, Aug. 22, First Early Dismissal (every Thursday!)
• Fri, Aug. 23, Ice Cream Social, 7:00 pm on the Almond blacktop
• Tues, Aug. 27, Back to School Night, 6:00-8:00, details to follow
• Wed & Thu, Aug. 28 and 29, Photo Days
• Mon, Sept. 2, HOLIDAY, No School
• Mon, Sept. 16, TK and Kindergarten begin full-day schedule

LAEF welcomes you to the 2019-20 School Year!

We are proud to support the Los Altos School District (LASD) to provide a well-rounded education for your student this school year. Visit LAEFonline.org and watch our new 2-minute video, “Funding an Excellent Public Education”. Learn why our local public schools need your financial support, and how LAEF and your school’s PTA work together to support your student.

This school year, with your support, LAEF will fund teachers and staff for STEM, Wellness, Literacy, and Arts for every LASD student in grades TK-8. LAEF is also a co-sponsor of the MVLA Parent Education Speaker Series, which had over 1,100 LASD attendees in the past school year. Whether your student’s favorite part of the day is PE, art, music, STEM, computer science, library, or a junior high elective, your donations to LAEF help make that possible.

Parents are encouraged to donate $1,200 per student to LAEF this school year. We welcome and encourage donations of any amount. Our goal is to raise $3.4 million for LASD, and 100% participation from our parent community.

Visit LAEFonline.org to learn more about LAEF and Donate Today!

Living Classroom

Living Classroom is seeking volunteers! With more teachers than ever before signing up for our fun and engaging lessons, we need your help to meet our lesson demand! Come to our Informational Meeting and Garden Tour to learn how you can get involved! Feel free to invite a friend, neighbor or grandparent to attend with you! Also, please mark your calendar for our upcoming Fall Docent Training on Monday mornings from 9-Noon September 9th through October 14th at the Los Altos School District iLearn Studio.

Living Classroom Info Meeting & Garden Tour

Monday, August 26th, 2019 10-11:30 am

Los Altos School District – iLearn Studio

201 Covington Road, Los Altos

Living Classroom Fall Docent Training

Mondays 9-Noon September 9th – October 14th

Los Altos School District – iLearn Studio

201 Covington Road, Los Altos

*Can’t make Mondays? Ask us about our apprentice-style training!

Click here to view and/or print out the flyer!

RSVP/Questions? Email livingclassroom@lasdschools.org or call (650) 947-1103.

Check us out at www.living-classroom.org!

Who we are:

We are a dedicated group of trained volunteers who teach hands-on garden-based lessons to students in grades K-8.

Why volunteer?

Living Classroom is about more than just teaching students how to plant in the garden. It’s about using the edible and native plant gardens at each school as living laboratories and engaging student learning in fun and relevant ways. Most of our standard-aligned lessons are interdisciplinary and tie into science, social studies and math curriculum. Our hands-on lessons also get kids outside (green time vs. screen time), encourage healthy eating habits, and promote environmental literacy and stewardship.

Volunteering with Living Classroom offers a way for docents to act locally to help protect our environment and nurture our future environmental stewards!

You don’t have to have a green thumb to be an amazing Living Classroom docent. In fact, our program is a great way to learn how to turn that black thumb into a green one!

Living Classroom docents enjoy ongoing educational programs, hikes, field trips, social activities and a wonderful sense of community. Just seeing the students smile and get excited when a docent arrives to give a lesson is rewarding and priceless!

The commitment is only 6 hours (3 lessons) a month and you can tailor the program to fit your interests and availability.

Thanks, and we hope to see you in the gardens soon!

From the Office

Interested in submitting a blurb for the Thursday Word? Please send an email to almondthursdayword@lasdschools.org for consideration. The deadline is Tuesday by 4:00 for that week's newsletter.