Good evening, Caleb families!

I hope you are all in the midst of enjoying this long weekend. Remember that tomorrow (Monday) is a holiday, so there is no school, not even on Zoom!  

Our virtual MOVE-A-THON is just one week away! All Caleb Cougars will be challenged to move for at least 15 minutes a day and collect pledges to support the Caleb Greenwood PTSO.  Check your inboxes for an email 99 Pledges, which is an easy way to reach family and friends near and far to help your child get pledges. Beginning this week, our Caleb PE Fun Google Classroom (code: bqs5z27) has a dedicated space for all things Move-A-Thon, including a bingo card to guide our kids through the Move-A-Thon goals and several short work-out videos for them to choose from provided by local fitness and dance studios. 

The PTSO encourages all families to participate, not only because it will be a fun way for our kids to move their bodies and stay connected to our community, but also because the PTSO needs your help. Since we began distance learning, fundraisers have been more difficult to organize. These fundraisers are what support the programs that make Caleb so special, like music, Spanish, IB enrichment and the library. 

There will be exciting prizes for top earners, including a NEW BIKE and a $175 gift card to Fleet Feet.  There will also be raffle drawings so all kids who participate will have a chance to earn prizes.  And if 75% of our Cougars return completed bingo cards to the Caleb PE Fun Google Classroom by the end of January, the school will earn a virtual DANCE PARTY with DJ Char and me! 

Please be sure to check out this week’s Cougar Video Message and IB PYP Newsletter, both of which are available on our website. Of particular note in our IB PYP Google Classroom is the Virtual Bulletin Board where you’ll find this unit’s theme and central idea, virtual libraries with fun read alouds, and videos of Rube Goldberg machines made by our very own Caleb Cougars. 

This month we are focusing on the Learner Profile attribute Knowledgeable and exploring taking action through Advocacy. As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his civil rights work this holiday weekend, please think and talk about how Dr. King exemplified this attribute and how through advocacy, he has impacted our country and communities and shaped the ongoing work we must all do around equity, inclusion and anti-racism. 

In this vein, I’d like to share with you that our Caleb staff has recently begun working with Epoch Education, a national leader in diversity, equity and inclusion training. Over the next five months, we will take online courses together and work with the trainers at Epoch to reflect on, practice and grow our equity and anti-racists practices. Our work this month is centered around engaging in compassionate dialogue around race, equity and inclusion with each other and our students and learning community. Our entire staff — teachers and support, clerical and custodial staff — are participating and are excited to be learning and growing together and look forward to sharing this important work with you all in the coming months.

Enjoy your day off tomorrow, we’ll see you on Zoom on Tuesday! 

Principal Erin Hanson