A Note from Principal Tony Byers
November is parent-teacher conference month at Graham and Parks. If you haven’t heard from your child’s teacher about scheduling a conference, you should be hearing from them soon. For many of you, this conference will be the longest conversation you’ve had with your child’s teacher to date, but it’s actually not a long conversation. Conferences are usually 20 minutes long; any longer and they displace teaching as the primary responsibility of teachers. But don’t worry, a lot can be done in 20 minutes if you stay focused on the primary purpose of the conference: building a shared understanding of your child in the interest of supporting their education. To do this, it’s important to come in with a clear understanding of who has what expertise. You are the expert in your child. Your child’s teacher is an expert in 4th graders, kindergartners, or whatever grade level they happen to teach. Building an accurate picture of your child’s skills, abilities, and needs is a collaborative process which only works when everybody at the table listens to and respects the others expertise and perspective. Your child’s conference is as much about listening as it is speaking. Read more >>

Update from the Friends of G&P! 
Thanks to everyone who took part in our Bertucci’s Dining for Dollars fundraiser. G&P families, teachers, and staff came together to event raise $911.72 towards next year’s field trips.

In October, Friends of G&P gave $2,740 to the school to lower the per-family cost of the 5th Grade Thompson Island Overnight Trip which happened on Oct 10-11. We also contributed $236 to the 1st graders trip to George Hill Orchard on October 19th and approved a $500 grant put forward by a K teacher to purchase leveled-reading, age-appropriate books on race, racism, and racial inequality.

Please take a look at the Friends of Graham & Parks Annual Appeal letter, which went home in your child’s backpack last week. We cannot pay for field trips and in-class activities without your help!

Please stop by the Friends of G&P Pop-Up Shop and Craft Fair in the Main Lobby between December 4th through 8th for great G&P Merchandise - perfect for the holidays!

Friends of G&P is always looking for new members, new ideas, and helpful feedback. You can reach us by email at [email protected]. We also welcome any and all of the above at our monthly meeting on the first Friday of the month in the school lobby. The next one will be 8:30AM on Friday, Dec 1st. For more information on Friends of G&P, please visit our website (www.friendsofgrahamandparks.com).

                                      
The Anatomy of an Expedition | Part 1 
If you are new to G&P, you might have heard people talking about “expeditions.” But what is an expedition? Are kids going exploring somewhere? While an expedition does involve exploration, there is a lot more to them than that. Read on >>



What's Up in the Art Room? 
–Jr. K and Kindergarteners are finishing line and shape drawings and beginning collages.
–First grade is working on inventing their own castles using drawing and collage skills.
–Second graders are learning about hieroglyphics and creating drawings that show surface texture.
–Third grade is learning about the history of mosaic art and designing their own mosaics.
–Fourth graders are making contour drawings of their role models and learning about typography.
–Fifth grade is learning about African mask making traditions and creating masks to represent a personal event.

Kids Can(s) 
A couple of our students started a program called Kids Can(s). They are raising money by collecting cans and then donating it to the Weekend Backpack Program. They would love if instead of recycling your cans at home, you bring them to school and drop them in the recycling bin in the back left corner of the front lobby. Learn more >>



Library News 
The beginning of the year is so much fun in the library. JK/K students are exploring the space, learning library routines and book care; everyone is browsing the book displays by our amazing library assistant, Carmen Marroquin; and 4th and 5th graders are diving into the Massachusetts Children's Book Award (MCBA) program. This year's list of MCBA books is really great, so if you have 4th or 5th graders, ask them about it. We will be starting Chat & Chew MCBA book discussions in mid-November. They're popular with students who want to talk about their reading in a relaxed setting - and there are cookies!

The school library is the place to find great books, and we encourage families to come in before or after school to choose books together. But did you know that we also have ebooks, audiobooks, and online encyclopedias and databases to use for both pleasure reading and to support classroom projects? We will be introducing students to these resources throughout the fall, but we want parents to know about them too, because they are accessible from any device with an internet connection. From the CPSD or Graham & Parks home pages, type "Online Library Resources" in the search box. This page has links to Worldbook Encyclopedia, Culturegrams, Teachingbooks.net, PebbleGo, PebbleGo Next and TumbleBooks. BUT... you do need passwords to use these resources at home, so if you are interested, please stop by the library or email me at [email protected]. Happy reading! 


Staff Spotlight:
Whitney Christie and Shira Katlin 
Get to know Whitney and Shira a bit more with this Q&A! Read more >>



In Our Classrooms 
Hear about what our students have been learning in the classroom recently. Learn more >>



Mix It Up Day 
For the 3rd year in a row, G&P participated in Mix It Up Day. Mix It Up Day is a campaign that encourages students to sit together at lunch or work together with someone who they have never had the opportunity to connect with before. G&P teachers planned activities for students during the day or arranged students as lunch to facilitate new connections and new friendships between students.

According to the Teaching Tolerance website:
Mix It Up at Lunch Day is an international campaign that encourages students to identify, question and cross social boundaries. While schools can register to host a Mix It Up event on any day of the year, millions of students around the world participate on the official Mix It Up at Lunch Day, held on the last Tuesday of each October. It was on October 31st this year!

Students consistently identify the cafeteria as a place in their school where divisions are clearly—and harshly—drawn. So we ask students to move out of their comfort zones and connect with someone new over lunch. It’s a simple act with profound implications that we encourage educators to include in year-round efforts to promote healthy, welcoming school environments. Studies have shown that interactions across group lines can help reduce prejudice. When students interact with those who are different from them, biases and misperceptions can fall away.

Photos: 3rd graders mixed it up while making structures out of candy corn and tooth picks.

Our New Field is Gorgeous!
Students are THRILLED to play on the brand new turf field. Classrooms have been exploring the new field by going outside to check it out, playing soccer on it and even rolling around and laying on it - it’s so soft!

In Our Community 
See what's going on across our Cambridge community.
Learn more >>
See online list of opportunities >>