A COUPLE OF CHANGES TO ANNOUNCE

Celebrate! November 25, 2009
We would like to invite parents, grandparents, or special guests to join us on Wednesday, November 25, 2009. This is the day before Thanksgiving. This year, all of our musical performances will be held in the afternoon. This is NOT an early dismissal day. This year's performance directly connects to our work with the six pillars of character: trustworthiness; respect; responsibility; fairness, caring, and citizenship. Character Counts has been an important aspect of Hanawalt's everyday life for a number of years. The students in Kindergarten through Third Grade invite you to join them in their classrooms approximately 30 minutes prior to the musical performance in the Weitz Commons. We understand that people with children in various grades will be challenged to do both sessions, so we encourage you to attend the music performance as the priority. Classroom activities will reflect Character Counts and the everyday learning that is taking place at Hanawalt. Not all families will be able to attend due to work commitments. We understand this. This will be a regular day of school with some special performances added to our normal school schedule.

Seating will begin at 1:00. Please do not come in earlier as we will be setting up and cleaning after lunch.

Parking is a perpetual challenge, so we will hope for great weather so people can walk!

We hope that you will be able to help us Celebrate Character Counts!

Performances in the Weitz Commons:
1:10-1:35 p.m. Grades K-1
1:50-2:15 p.m. Grades 2-3
2:30-2:55 p.m. Grades 4-5

In Class demonstrations:
12:40-1:00 p.m. Grades K-1
1:20-1:40 p.m. Grades 2-3
Due to space limitations, grades 4-5 will not doing in-class demonstrations.

SCHOOL START TIME ...

The second change has to do with students who are tardy. Our school day begins at 8:15 a.m. Students should be seated and getting organized for the day. Students who come in late miss initial instructions and delay the learning for other students as teachers have to review what has already been said. In order to encourage students to spend less time being social at their lockers, students will give up a minute of noon recess for every minute they are late. Obviously this does not apply to students with appointments. Students should be inside the front doors no later than 8:10 a.m. This gives them time to get to their lockers and to their classroom. We are already seeing a big difference in the number of kids who are getting to class on time. It is our goal that every child is in school and ready to learn by 8:15 a.m.