Important Events @ NPE
December 9th- 4th grade chorus and band concert 7pm
December 10th- NPE participates in an Hour of Code 1:30-2:30
December 12th- 1/2day focused on Mindfully Green- Reuse and SWAP 11:20 dismissal
December 16th- 3rd and 4th grade attend Synergy performance@ Liverpool High School
                           5th and 6th grade Chorus and Orchestra Concert 7pm
December 17th- PAC performance for K-2 Dickens Christmas Carol
December 19th- School-wide Rock around the Clock Assembly

Dear Families,
Together as an entire community, this week we will participate in two big events that we are very excited about. On Wednesday, the entire school will take an hour to partake in The Hour of Code. This will give all students an opportunity to learn, and participate in coding. If you would like to read more about this event, or volunteer feel free to contact me! hourofcode.com
On Friday we will spend our 2nd 1/2 day focused on being Mindfully Green. Reuse will be our focus with our activities, SWAP and marker drive. Volunteers are needed to help run our SWAP tables so if you are able to help out from 9:00-11:00 please contact me.

This time of year is extremely busy, and jam packed with special events and excitement. We use our mindfulness technique more frequently to assure we stop, focus and are in the moment with all we are doing. We look forward to seeing you at the many events in the next few week.

Warm regards,
Dana Ziegler
Principal

November 18th

A big thank you to all of our families for the food donations that will help so many right in the NPE community. We are grateful to Lockheed Martin who also donated many turkeys and other fixings to assure all of our families have a happy and healthy holiday.

Throughout the classrooms at NPE we continue to develop our literacy, math, science and social studies skills but you will also see a great focus on the 21st century skills needed for our kids to be successful in their future. Collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking are a focus in addition to the content in all we are working towards. Many new technological tools and skills are being developed within these skills as well.

 

Many Important Dates to Remember:

November 26-30- Thanksgiving Recess
December 2 and 4th- 1/2 Day Parent Teacher Conferences 11:20 Dismissal
December 5th Craft and Game Night
December 9th- Band/Chorus Concert 7pm
December 10th-NPE participates in an Hour of Code 1:30-2:30 Schoolwide coding
December 12th- 1/2 Day focused on Mindfully Green- Reuse 11:20 Dismissal

November 11, 2014

As I sit here on this beautiful fall day, I cannot help but reflect on the many many things we are thankful for each day. Happy Veteran's day to all of our Veteran's and much gratitude to you and your families for all you have scarified for all of us. At NPE, we call that Kinder than Necessary. In the past few days we have had many special events at NPE and many of the members of our community and our families have gone above and beyond for the kids of NPE.

 On Sunday, the 6th grade class hosted a pancake breakfast to raise money for their 6th grade filed trip. This was a huge success and I need to extend a thank you to many local companies who donated items for raffle baskets, the 6th grade parents, the 6th grade teachers and Applebee's for supporting our kids.

Last night, the NPE Playground Committee, held our first fundraiser at Tully's and again, many families, students and the staff at Tully's deserve much thanks. We are a child-centered and kind community and that is an amazing blessing.  Busch Products also donated $2000 to kick off our fundraising efforts. Many blessing and thanksgiving to go around.

But, along with the big events and big donations, kinder than necessary actions are experienced each day at NPE. We work with wonderful children, families and staff that together continue to take risks, support each other through difficult times, reach out to those in need all to better each experience for each child. Our food pantry, backpack program and holiday food drive is just another example of this.

Thank you for continuing on with us on our journey.
Warm regards,
Dana Ziegler
Principal

 
 

 

November is upon us and it is hard to believe. This week we have many events at school!

Tomorrow, November 4th is picture retake day. We also have our 2nd Playground Committee Meeting @ 5:30 in the NPE library and our PTO meeting at 6:30pm. 

 On Thursday, November 6th we invite all of the young readers to our Reader's From Birth Event at 6pm in the Library. Sunday, November 9th, from 8-10am our 6th graders will host an Applebee's Pancake Breakfast as a fundraiser. Bring your whole family for this fun filled morning. 

This is an exciting and busy week at NPE and I hope I have the pleasure of seeing many of you. 

Warm regards,

Dana Ziegler

Principal

October 27th,
Collaboration continues to be at the heart of the work we are doing to develop each student to his/her fullest potential. We have had another productive week, and are geared up for new learning this coming week. Please feel free to attend our Halloween Parade on Friday the 31st at 10:30am. Find a good viewing spot around our circle. Dismissal will be at 11:20 on Friday so we can enjoy time collaborating with families at our parent teacher conferences. Thank you for all you continue to do to partner with NPE, we are lucky to live in such a wonderful community.

October 7th, 2014

NPE is hustling and bustling just like the fall leaves.  I have heard from so many of our families about the positive things they are proud of at NPE and I wanted make sure how much we appreciate positive feedback from our families. I spent a bit of time in kindergarten this morning and was utterly impressed with the independence our littlest ones are already demonstrating. Each day I feel blessed to work with such wonderful children, staff and families that are all truly working in the best interest of kids. We are all pushing our selves to try new things to give the kids of NPE the best we can. Tonight, the NPE Playground Committee and I are meeting at 5pm in the library to jump start the year long plan. Look for a new tab on our website soon!

Thanks again for all you do, and the partnership you provide to make each child reach his/her fullest potential.

September 29th, 2014

Today has been such a powerful day at NPE I am not even sure where to start with this week's reflection and blog. We kicked off the first of our four 1/2 days focused on being Mindfully Green. We started with a beautiful slide show of some magnificent  parts of the USA and ended sending kids forth with mounds of garbage on their Earth to react, respond and think about what they will do to help be Mindfully Green.

More exciting events and plans will come from this first day, but it was none the less- POWERFUL!

Dear Families,
Tomorrow evening is Curriculum Night at NPE. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about all the wonderful things your child does when he/she is in school. It is also the first step in building a positive relationship with the adults in your child's life. My welcome message will stream to your child’s classroom at 6pm. Session 1 will run from 6:10-6:30 and session 2 from 6:40-7:00 pm. This year we are having parent teacher conferences centrally located in the NPE Café. The courtyard doors will be open at 5:30 for conference sign-up. The Café will have a sheet for each teacher and will be available until 7:15. We look forward to sharing in the excitement of the year ahead, together we will help each child succeed.

We also look forward to our new adventures with the NAO Robot. I am sure the kids of NPE will be supporting our learning journey.

Monday September 29th is the first 1/2 day with an 11:20am dismissal. We will kick off our Mindfully Green school-wide project days with an exciting opening. Staff will spend the afternoon studying and learning new technology and instructional methods that new tools will support.

Thank you for all you do, and for sharing your child with us.

Warm regards,

Dana Ziegler

Principal

The NPE Back to School Picnic is one of my favorite events. The turn out is overwhelming and excited students, families and staff members fill the NPE grounds, even when the weather is less than ideal. The extra twist with the ice bucket challenge this year, allowed Superintendent Potter to see the wonderful, child-centered community we have at NPE. I couldn’t have been more proud to show off NPE and I appreciate Mr. Potter’s support for all we do for our kids.

We started our week, early Monday morning, with our first official Safety Committee meeting. The NPE Safety Committee meets monthly to address health and safety concerns, and to go through tabletop drills for all types of safety situations. Practice, and thoughtful discussion is the cornerstone of the safety practices we employ at NPE. We have also begun our first type of drill we will focus on this year, fire drills. Ask your child to tell you what this looks like at NPE.

This week, we have our first PTO Meeting at 6:30 in the NPE library. I will share with our families, how we met our learning goals for the 2013-2014 school year and all the exciting plans and goals we have for the 2014-2015 school year.

Mindfulness is going very well throughout NPE. Ask your child to share with you what they know about Belly-Breathing!

Another great week is well underway!

Thank you for sharing your children with us, together we can support each child!

Warm regards,

Dana Ziegler

Principal

NPE Families,

A few days have come and gone for the 2014-2015 school year at NPE and the enthusiasm and excitement felt by all is overwhelming. The staff is ready to challenge students and explore with new tools, and methods of instruction. Mindfulness is a big focus for us this year connecting our hearts and minds to help each of us thrive. We are gathering all types of information and data with your child, to best serve him/her this year. Our PTO have many exciting events planned starting with this week's back to school picnic. To say we are more than ready, is an understatement.  Hope to see you all at the Back to School Picnic! Together, we will all learn and grow to provide the best for each child at Nate Perry!

Dear NPE Families,
The entire learning community is growing each day with excitement for the return of our kids. We have planned many wonderful events, set up activities to build classroom communities and collaborated on ways to connect families to NPE and learning throughout the school year.

You will receive an email requesting your input for Curriculum Night. Please take a moment to click the link and provide us with your opinions.

Our website has a new look, which will allow you to have up-to-date information via the Twitter Feed, Nate Perry News(blog), the news alerts and more. We continue to grow in ways to utilize this tool, but I look forward to providing our families more up-to-date information via this resource rather than utilizing a newsletter.

With the increasing demands of the Food Regulations, as well as allergies, birthday celebration at NPE will continue to take place, but will utilize non food methods for celebration. Your child's classroom teacher will explain the classroom procedures for birthdays in more detail in the weeks to come.

Our building will be studying the most current research on homework practices throughout this school year. With the current research we will only be providing students with homework in reading or writing and math with developmentally appropriate expectations at each grade level. Homework is to serve as routine and practice not a frustration for a child or parent. We are all committed to working together and  assuring our homework practices are in line with our vision and hopes for what is best for the whole child. We will include you in these discussions and our research through the year.

Important Events
Sept 3rd- K-Orientation 11am
                 Find Your Classroom- 2-3pm
Sept 4th-  First Day of School
Sept 9th- Picture Day
Sept 11th- Back to School Picnic 5-7
Sept 23rd- Curriculum Night 6-7
Sept 29th- 1/2 day Professional Development Day 11:20 dismissal

Warm regards,
Mrs. Dana Ziegler
Principal

School is just around the corner and my excitement for the return of students and staff continues to grow. Kindergarten Orientation will take place on September 3rd from 11-12 beginning in the NPE Cafe. Find your Classroom for 1-6 graders will take place from 2-3pm on September 3rd as well. September 4th is the first day of school and our day begins at 8:20am. 

Get your smiles ready for September 9th is Picture Day

Our annual Back to School Picnic will be held on September 11th from 5-7 in the back playground. Families can come and building positive relationships with the entire NPE learning community.

As welcome back letters arrive this week, remember that at NPE we pride ourselves on everyone supporting every child for him/her to reach his/her fullest potential in a collaborative learning community.

Mark your calendars for Curriculum Night on Sept. 23rd from 6-7:30pm.

Thank you for sharing your children with us on our journey this year!

Summer time at NPE brings a variety of activity, and people always ask me, "What do you do all summer?"So I thought I would share as we are a few weeks into the summer what I am actually doing when I am at school.  I continue to reflect and take the feedback from this past school year and plan out many details of the upcoming school year.  My excitement for the 2014-2015 school year continues to grow. I had the pleasure of meeting and planning with our PTO Officers this week and I am excited about the collaboration, support and events for the upcoming school year. Summer is a funny time for me as it is drastically different than the school year, without kids and many adults there is time to slow down think and plan, but I do miss the kids, adults and all the action quite a bit! Our custodial staff is amazing and they continue to work to clean and set up all of our learning spaces. In the office, we too are busy ordering, organizing mailings and welcoming new students as they arrive to us. We have a good amount of trainings too in the summer for teachers but also for the administrative group to continue to focus and plan for the vision in Liverpool.
My goal this year is to blog weekly to give an honest, open reflection and update to the NPE Community. I hope everyone is reading and enjoying some summertime fun!

Dear Nate Perry Families,

As the school year comes to a close, our minds and hearts are filled to the brim. It’s been a great year! What a school! Together we’ve learned much and shared experiences that will long remain with us in the years to come. The strength of our community and wholehearted passion to make our school a wonderful place of learning for our children primarily, but for all of us, makes Nate Perry a truly a special place.

I want to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful PTO for all the time and attention they give to our children. We have many families who give of their time to our classrooms and our school in so many different ways. Even the smallest donation, and support goes a long way for our kids. I look forward, and thank our newest officers for volunteering their time for the 2014-2015 school year. At NPE, we strive to have our families connected and a part of our school, and next year we will continue to work towards this goal.

Please remember summer time is a time for children to learn, grow and play outdoors with less structure. Reading and maintaining fact fluency are easy ways to keep our brains connected to our learning. The summer months at NPE are quieter, but very busy with the exciting plans for the year ahead. I always welcome feedback.

If you are looking for a good summer read, The Mindful Child, by Susan Greenland is a book many of the staff will be reading to gear up our teaching of the whole child and Mindfulness next school year. I wish everyone a joy filled summer, and hope our 6^th graders leave Nate Perry with pride for the accomplishments and a taste for the opportunities and learnings ahead.

This will be the last post related to How Children Succeed. I would love you to consider strategies that we  could implement to help develop persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit and self-confidence in our students? The will help inform our plan for next year's work!

Tough writes, "It is a central paradox of contemporary parenting (and at times instructional scaffolding)... we have an acute biological impulse to protect our children, to give them everything they want and need, to protect them from dangers and discomforts both large and small. And yet we know.. that what kids need more than anything is a little hardship: some challenge, some deprivation they can overcome, even if to prove themselves that they can."(84) How can we work together as a learning community to develop adult strategies that allow children to experience adversity and even failure if it is beneficial to a child' character development?

Tough reports that a national evaluation of the character education programs by the U.S. Department of Education found that seven popular elementary school programs "had no significant impact at all from the programs-not on student behavior, not on academic achievement, not on school culture"(60) How would you rate our character education program.

Tough writes, "Children who grow up in stressful environments generally find it harder to sit still, harder to rebound from disappointment, and harder to follow directions."(17). What can the community and school do to mitigate the stress students bring with them to the classroom?

On page 33, Tough refers to "Blair and Evan's research, suggesting that regular good parenting-being helpful and attentive during a game of Jenga-can make a profound difference for a child's future prospects."

This made me wonder how our 24/7 connection to technology, social media, emails and the Internet will affect our ability to truly be in the moment with our children as parents.

 As educators, I wonder, how addressing so many needs and demands at once in a classroom, will impact our ability to be in the moment with our students, which proves to make the difference. How do we continue to balance connectivity, ever increasing demands and yet be in the moment with  face to face interactions and connections with our students?

In his introduction, Tough discusses the cognitive hypothesis-the commonly held assumption that success depends primarily on cognitive skills. How is the cognitive hypothesis reflected in the curriculum? What are your experiences and thoughts?

Welcome to the Nate Perry Blog

Please consider joining with the NPE Community for an online book study of How Children Succeed. Staff and families together are encouraged to read this book to learn and grow. As we begin next month, I will post thought provoking questions to guide our reading and thinking. As with things that are new, I am sure I will encounter some bumps along the way, but I appreciate you coming along for the ride. Join us at the PTO meeting on February 4th at 6pm to learn more.
Also, watch this video to see why this book and why now!

http://video.ted.com/talk/podcast/2013S/None/AngelaDuckworth_2013S.mp4