Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Skyping in the South Pacific

This past Monday, the entire sixth grade participated in a Skype lesson with the JOIDES Resolution, a ship conducting scientific exploration in the South Pacific. JOIDES stands for Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling. The ship's crew is drilling into the ocean floor to uncover evidence learned from studying the fossils and sediment beneath the ocean.
Dr. Arthur Spivak gave us a tour of the ship and facilitated discussion between the other scientists and our students. This was a great opportunity for our students that paired the science and guidance curricula. Students are being introduced to careers in science as part of the guidance curriculum while learning about weather, earthquakes, plate tectonics and other parts of the science curriculum. A special thank you goes to Mrs. Lane and Mr. O'Boyle for organizing the event.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Honoring Our Veterans

On Veterans' Day last Thursday, LIS students and staff had the privilege of speaking with and listening to Mr. Pete Radice, a Lawrence resident who served in the Korean War almost sixty years ago.

Mr. Radice was quite the celebrity at LIS and had a very busy itinerary to follow that morning. He participated in a flag raising ceremony with several students and Mr. Adam before school began. Then he spoke to all of our Lower School students at a Thursday morning meeting in the cafeteria. Here he talked with children about Veterans' Day and why it is important to recognize those who have served their country. After that, Mr. Radice moved over to the "LIS Morning Show" television studio, where he addressed the entire school, speaking about Veterans' Day. He also led LIS students and teachers in the Pledge of Allegiance as it was broadcast on classroom television sets. Mr. Radice was then joined by our madrigal vocal group "Pitch Black" who performed a very moving version of the Star Spangled Banner.

It was quite a display that had the entire building looking at televisions sets and listening to every word that was word spoken and lyric that was sung. We truly enjoyed and appreciated Mr. Radice's visit to our school. We understand the importance of veterans' service and as much as we thank them on Veterans' Day, we need to thank these men and women every day for all of their efforts.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Help Us Keep You Informed

In an effort to communicate as effectively as possible with families of our students, we are asking for some information related to email addresses and cellphone numbers. If you haven't provided these already or would like to update information please click on the link below. We are looking to secure as many email addresses and cellphone numbers (for phone calls and text messages) of parents so information can be sent quickly and efficiently in the event that something needs to be passed along (i.e. winter weather announcements, etc.). These would be used in a similar fashion to how we currently use the autodialer system.
https://secure.schoolworld.com/forms/forms.cfm?myform=15793&DSID=63&myschoolid=118

Parent Conferences

This is just a reminder that parent conferences will be held at LIS on November 18, 22 and 23. If for some reason you have not received the appropriate paperwork to schedule a conference, please reach out to your child's teacher.

American Education Week

American Education Week will take place next week and as part of the celebration, LIS will be holding an open house for parents to visit their child's classroom during the day. The fourth grade open house will take place on Monday, November 15th. Fifth and sixth grade classrooms will be open for parents on Wednesday, November 17th. Please look for information to come home with students in the next day or so that will provide more details.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Hats Off to Our PTO!!

As many of you know, we have a great PTO at LIS. Over the past few weeks they have put on not one, but two fantastic events for our students. On October 22th the Lower School held its annual "Family Fall Fest" where 4th graders and their families came together to eat, play games and spend time with each other. Students guessed the weight of "the great pumpkin" as well as how many candy corns were in the big jar. Our new vice principal, Mr. Adam was on hand and although he was way off on both the weight of the great pumpkin and the correct number of candy corns, he couldn't stop talking about how much fun it was for everyone.

The following Friday, October 29th, Upper School students got together for a night of frightful fun at the LIS "Halloween Bash." Students dressed in costumes, played games, ate lots of food and danced to Halloween music, provided by a DJ, all night long. Those who dared to enter the "Haunted House" risked being scared by any number of frightening characters. I dared, and yes I was quite frightened, thank you.

Almost 500 students attended the Halloween Bash, but it wouldn't have been anywhere near the success it was without the help of our parent volunteers. Over 80 parents volunteered their time and efforts to help with some aspect of the evening's event.

We thank all of our parent volunteers for their help, not just with these two events, but all the events that take place at LIS. We couldn't do it without you.