Friday, February 29
Stanley Jazz Band, 5th grade Concert; MultiPurpose Room, 11:00 AM-11:30 AM
5th Grade Play Rehearsal; MultiPurpose Room, 3:00 PM-5:00 PM

Monday, March 3
READ ACROSS AMERICA WEEK: Dr. Seuss's Birthday
Guest Readers' Day: 9:50 AM
Reception in Lounge; 10:25 AM
Chess Club; Library, 2:45 PM
Cub Scout Pack 200; Library, 7:00 PM-8:00 PM 

Tuesday, March 4
4th Grade STAR Writing Test
Bargain Book Bonanza; noon
LASF Math Night; MultiPurpose Room, 6:30 PM

Wednesday, March 5
4th Grade STAR Writing Test make-up
EMERGENCY PFC General Session Mtg.; Library, 6:30 PM

Thursday, March 6
RAPPORT Mtg.; District Office, 9:00 AM
5th Grade Colonial Days; Samman Barn, all day 
LSD Board Study Session; Stanley MP Room, 7:00 PM

Friday, March 7
End 2nd Trimester
5th Grade Play Rehearsal; MP Room, 3:00 PM-5:00 PM

Saturday, March 8
RUN FOR KIERAN; Stanley Middle School, 9:00 AM 

Sunday, March 9
Daylight Savings Time begins

Monday, March 10
Student Council; Rm. 23, 12:20 PM
Chess Club; Library, 2:45 PM
LSD Board Study Session; Stanley MP Room, 7:00 PM

Tuesday, March 11
California Symphony; MultiPurpose Room
9:00 AM-9:40 AM: All 2nd Grade
9:45 AM-10:25 AM: All 3rd Grade
10:45 AM-11:25 AM: All 4th/5th Grade 
District Wellness Committee; District Office, 3:15 PM 
LSD Board Mtg.; District Office, 7:00 PM

Wednesday, March 12
LASF General Board Mtg.; Stanley Library, 7:00 PM

Thursday, March 13
REPORT CARDS GO HOME WITH STUDENTS
5th Grade Play Rehearsal; MultiPurpose Room, 3:00 PM-5:00 PM 

Friday, March 14
Staff Development Day; Student Holiday

Saturday, March 15
PFC Parent Party; Contra Costa Country Club, 6:00 PM

Sunday, March 16
Palm Sunday

Monday, March 17
St. Patrick's Day
Chess Club; Library, 2:45 PM
5th Grade Stanley Parent Orientation; Stanley School, 7:30 PM

Tuesday, March 18
5th Grade Stanley Student Orientation; MultiPurpose Room, 1:15 PM

Wednesday, March 19
District Advisory Council; District Office, 6:00 PM
PFC Executive Board Mtg.; Lounge, 5:30 PM
Cub Scout Pack 200; MP Room, 6:45 PM-8:30 PM 

Thursday, March 20
Vernal Equinox
AIM Invitee Parent Mtg.; Library, 3:15 PM

Friday, March 21
Good Friday
STUDENT COUNCIL SPIRIT DAY: Crazy Hair Day
5th Grade Play Rehearsal; MP Room, 3:00 PM-5:00 PM

Sunday, March 23
Easter

PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGES

A. DID YOU KNOW that the Lafayette School District is facing a $1.74 million budget shortfall for next year due to the the governor's declared budget emergency? DID YOU KNOW that it would have been a $3.5 million budget shortfall if the citizens of Lafayette had not passed MEASURE J last November? ONCE AGAIN, THANK YOU ALL FOR PASSING MEASURE J! More information to follow on the district's and state's current budget crisis. THANK YOU AGAIN!

B. KINDERGARTEN & NEW 1st-5th GRADE STUDENT REGISTRATION FOR 2008-2009: We are now accepting kindergarten and new 1st-5th grade registrations for the 2008-2009 school year in the Office. Please inform any new neighbors or those whose children are currently in private schools who plan to have their children attend Springhill School next year. Remind them to bring the child's birth certificate, immunization record and two proofs of address. Thank you. 

C. Join the PFC! Register for e-SCRIP!! 

DIFFERENTIATION CORNER 

*Differentiated Instruction takes place in all of our classes. Each week, we will be profiling a particular teacher's implementation of Differentiated Instruction every week in the Friday Flyer. Don't miss it!!!

Thanks again to Springhill's PFC, Mr. Begg's 4th grade has re-subscribed to the new and powerful web-based math program called ALEKS. The students in room 21 will be using this program regularly in addition to Accelerated Math and our Houghton Mifflin text. ALEKS is a prescriptive program that assesses the child's math level and then begins teaching and practice sessions at each individual's learning and ability level. ALEKS interacts with each student individually, continuously identifying knowledge gaps and adapting its explanations and practices to the student's particular needs and responses. Being a web-based program, the students can work on their math skills through ALEKS at home and at school, any time of the day. 

*Differentiated Instruction is not individualized instruction, but rather the delivery of curriculum to students in a manner that complements their learning style while always challenging them at their ability level. 

PAY IT FORWARD CORNER

Every week we will be including different aspects of our Pay It Forward theme for this year in the Friday Flyer. Character development should be a major component in any well-rounded educational program and it has been for many years at Springhill. Ask your children what their classes are doing for Pay It Forward. Come to Spirit Wednesday, 8:30 AM every Wednesday morning in the main courtyard and find out how we promote character development at Springhill School. We do have a significant change in the Pay It Forward program this year. If you are familiar with how this program was originally designed, you know that all of the "pay it forward" efforts remained anonymous in order to promote the altruistic and selfless nature of the act. Although we will acknowledge all of the acts themselves in the weekly Student Bulletin, at Spirit Wednesday and in the Friday Flyer, we will no longer identify the specific students who performed the acts. We are hopeful the enthusiasm for the program will continue to be as strong as it has been the last several years with this change. Thank you.
Keep up that PIF Spirit!!!


1. 1. THANK YOU to the 3rd grade for their annual Semi-Freddi's Crouton and Apple Juice SMILE TRAIN FUND RAISER!!! The Smile Train Organization provides cleft palate surgery for $250 per surgery for those in need across the globe. Over $2000 was raised, funding eight cleft palate surgeries somewhere in the world!!! Thank you Springhill students and community for supporting the 3rd grades' special effort for this worthy organization!

2. STUDENT COUNCIL JAMBA JUICE FUND RAISER FOR CHRISTOPHER RODRIGUEZ: Thank you to all who participated in this fund raiser for the 10 year old Oakland boy who was paralyzed by a wayward bullet while at a piano lesson. It was a great success; details to follow---thank you Student Council for your compassion and concern for this unfortunate boy.

3. MARCH FUND RAISER: Be looking for Student Council to sponsor a fund raiser to address school supplies for a classroom in the village of Sotuba, outside of Bamako, Mali, in West Africa. More information to follow!

4. PENNIES FOR PATIENTS: We will have our annual Pennies for Patients drive to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society from March 10- March 28. More information to follow!

5. RUN FOR KIERAN; Stanley Middle School, 9:00 AM, SATURDAY, MARCH 8, supporting Stanford Children's Research Center and the Lafayette School District's Special Ed Program!!

6. JUMP ROPE FOR HEART TOOK PLACE LAST WEEK, supporting the American Heart Association and the lifelong health of those who participate! Thank you, Ms. Noel, the students of Springhill School and the American Heart Association! 

This Week in the Library
A boy and his deaf father rooting for Jackie Robinson during his first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers, a young black girl who dreamed of winning tennis's most famous tournaments, an African American traditional tale involving magic, a black man growing up in the south during the Depression years. It must be time to focus on African Americans and their contributions to our country.

The kindergartners heard the moving story Mr. Williams. Using his simple words and her own evocative artwork, Karen Barbour tells Mr. Williams' story of growing up poor and black in Louisiana in the 1930s. Ask your kindergartner what sometimes happened to him on the way to school.

The first graders heard Playing To Win, the story of Althea Gibson's struggles to become the world's premier female tennis player. Althea not only had to overcome her background (she was hanging out with a bad crowd and not very interested in school) but also the prolonged slump of several years she experienced before going on to win. Ask your first grader what it might have felt like to keep losing tournament after tournament and who helped her to keep on going.

The second graders worked on a simple encyclopedia lesson where each student researched a famous African American. Ask you second grader whom she researched and what she learned about that person. 

The third graders focused on traditional literature this week. They heard The Hired Man, a tale first written down in 1871 but passed down orally for many generations by black Virginians. Old Sam takes on a hired hand at his busy sawmill. This man has special powers but when Old Sam's son tries to copy him things go sadly awry. Ask your third grader how the hired man sorted things out.

The fourth graders began a multi-part unit on art in picture books by looking at What Do Authors Do? and What Do Illustrators Do?, two books by Eileen Christelow which take an amusing look at the writing and illustrating of children's picture books. They then compared the illustrations in several versions of the old story "Jack and the Beanstalk", discussing how the various styles affected their perception of the story.

The fifth graders heard the final book nominated for the CYRM, Dad, Jackie, and Me. This story about a boy and his deaf father who share the thrills of Jackie Robinson's first major league baseball season has a very personal connection to the life of author Myron Uhlberg. His own parents are deaf and his father identified with Robinson's daily struggles to overcome the prejudice he faced for he, too, faced constant prejudice as a deaf person. Ask your fifth grader what he thinks was the hardest thing for Jackie to ignore.

New Books in the Library
Could you explain to your child what a rock formation known as a stack is and how it's formed? If not (or even if you can!) you might want to take a look at the book Rock Formations by Connor Dayton. Using simple explanations and stunning photographs, this book gives an overview of a variety of rock formations. There is a glossary and an index in the back, as well as some suggested websites that you can also explore. Happy rock gazing!

Happy Birthday to our Author of the Week!
Wilhelm Grimm was born on February 24, 1786. A literary scholar, he and his older brother Jakob collected and arranged fairy tales. Their first book of fairy tales was published in 1812 and over the years several others followed, as well as scholarly works on many other subjects. In his later years Wilhelm Grimm edited the stories to remove much of the violent content of some of the originals while still retaining their core. The Bremen Town Musicians, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are some of the stories the Grimm brothers collected. Some of the stories have been republished numerous times with new pictures by well-known illustrators. You can check out all of these and many others either here or at the public library. 

Springhill Library Website
Explore our website at http://www.lafsd.k12.ca.us/people/smattern/index.htm . You can find a full update on what's happening at the Springhill Library, find more reviews of new books and links to many helpful resources.

Sherry Mattern, Library Specialist

Calling All Parents! We have many volunteer opportunities for the 2008/2009 school year and beyond. Take a look at the list below to see if there is something that might interest you! All jobs can be shared. In fact we encourage it. Many of the jobs can be done at home, too! To get detailed descriptions of these positions, please visit the PFC website at springhillpfc.org/pfcleadership under Job Descriptions. For more information, please contact Beth Brown @ 482-7956 or pfcprez@yahoo.com.

EXECUTIVE BOARD
Vice President, Communications
Vice President, Fundraising
Treasurer, Receipts & Disbursements

COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Assemblies/ Red Ribbon Week, (Co-Chair)
Auditor
Book Faire, (Co-Chair)
Bulletin Board
Club Fit Field Day (5th Grade Parents)
Directory/Membership (Co-Chair)
Direct Solicitation, (Co-Chair)
Drama Coordinators, (Co-Chair)
Fall Fundraiser
Friday Flyer Editors, (Co-Chair)
Golf Tournament
Health & Wellness, (Co-Chair)
Lafayette Reservoir Run, (Co-Chair)
Notice Board
Old Board/New Board Dinner
Parent Party (Co-Chairs)
Scorpion Days
Year Book (Co-Chairs)
Young Authors

Thanks for your continued support of our school!
Beth Brown
VP of Communications, 2007/2008

Is your child a picky eater? Use these practical tips to avoid mealtime battles.

Your first grader has refused to eat anything other than peanut butter sandwiches for the past two days, and your toddler would rather play than eat anything at all. Sound familiar?

If children's nutrition is a sore topic in your household, you're not alone. Many parents are distressed by what their children eat - or don't eat. However, most kids get plenty of variety and nutrition in their diets over the course of a week. Until your child's food preferences mature, prevent mealtime battles one bite at a time. 

1. Respect your child's hunger - or lack thereof. Young children tend to eat only when they're hungry. If your child isn't hungry, don't force a meal or snack.
2. Stay calm. If your child senses that you're unhappy with his or her eating habits, it may become a battle of wills. Threats and punishments only reinforce the power struggle.
3. Limit liquid calories. Low-fat or fat-free dairy products and 100 percent fruit juice can be important parts of a healthy diet - but if your child fills up on milk or juice, he or she may have no room for meals or snacks.
4. Boycott the clean plate club. Don't force your child to clean his or her plate. This may only ignite - or reinforce - a power struggle over food. Instead, allow your child to stop eating when he or she is full.
5. Eat breakfast for dinner. Who says cereal or pancakes are only for breakfast? The distinction between breakfast, lunch and dinner foods may be lost on your child.

Your child's eating habits won't likely change overnight. But the small steps you take each day can help promote a lifetime of healthy eating. 

For additional wellness information, log onto lafsd.k12.ca.us/wellness.html. Also feel free to contact the Springhill Wellness Committee if you have any questions....Erin Benisek, Anne Bone, and Meagan Hagglund.