This Little Light of Mine…
Dear Families,
A new calendar year is upon us! We welcome you to 2023, and together, we remember that every milestone such as the start of a new year gives us all a chance to reflect, plan forward and start fresh. We welcome new families who have recently joined our school community and hope that they and their children are having experiences of joy during this transitional period.
It is a beautiful thing to have Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday shortly after the start of the new year. It is important to acknowledge the path he and so many others have blazed. His work influenced change nationwide and we take the time to reflect on how far we have come while acknowledging how far we have to go. In Jennifer and Khalisha’s Pre-K class, children celebrated Dr. King’s birthday with a community gathering in the cafeteria last week, alive with food, music, and families. They thought about two big questions: How do we share our light and love with others? Who do we share it with? They sang “This Little Light of Mine” in their small but mighty voices, and presented lanterns they decorated as thank yous to many members of our community, including our kitchen team. In the coming weeks, we will have our third annual Black Lives Matter in Schools Week celebration throughout the building. More information is forthcoming.
Our school-wide Race & Equity work is focused on adult capacity and building the muscles for having conversations with children about race. We’ve talked through the essential reasons for pushing ourselves as a community toward planned racial identity and oppression-focused conversations that move us closer to “true education.” We are cultivating citizens of the world, and we know we all need practice with the language to use, and the commitment to have challenging conversations, through which we all grow towards being the best versions of ourselves. We do this to bring into reality the future we want for our children.
This week, we celebrate the Year of the Rabbit! On Friday morning, we prepared for the Lunar New Year, which begins on Sunday January 22. Our Pre-K classes delighted our whole school with a Lion Dancer parade, full of bold colors (lots of red for good luck!), songs and sounds of cheer. They also spent some time preparing egg custard tarts and noodles with peanut sauce to celebrate the day.
The upcoming winter months at BNS will be exciting and busy times for your children, and for your families as well. We often see children start to really find their footing as learners as we make our way towards March, with things clicking into place and “lightbulbs” of understanding shining in the air above their heads. Too, we are all watching children carefully as we progress towards the spring, thinking carefully about supports and services that might be shifted within a child’s program to ensure they are getting all that they need to feel steady each day.
The months of January and February at BNS are spent in deep reflection and writing within our teaching teams, as they are preparing written narrative progress reports about each of your children. These pieces of writing strive to capture a portrait of your child as a learner in our school building, zooming in on strengths, goals, and areas for support as we crest the hill of this school year. You will receive these narratives before February break, giving you plenty of time to read and digest what is shared before our next cycle of Parent-Teacher Conferences in March. Our educators spent some time this winter sharing some structures and models of report writing with each other, surfacing valuable new approaches. We also put together a collaborative explanation of our progress reports - what are they, and why is this our way of capturing and sharing progress at BNS?
At that same moment, our upper grade classes are immersed in Project Time in these winter months, using three-dimensional materials and the written word to showcase their learning within the smaller details of their broad social studies and science topics. This immersion is essential to coming away with a deeper understanding of the culture and lived experiences of the peoples they are studying. Walking in the proverbial footsteps of these peoples is at the heart of having a deeper appreciation and respect for the way ancient civilizations lived their lives and seeing the current impacts and imprints of their technologies, inventions, and society structures. It is an awesome undertaking that is made possible with intensive collaboration through the family-school connection.
One thing that we know is also a huge support of the family-school connection are our extensive busing routes. This form of transportation really allows us to accommodate travel to and from school for so many. We also know that the bus can be a complicated experience mainly because it is an experience free of adult-management. Just like all things that have an ebb and flow throughout the school year, the bus also has its times when it is a more calm place and others when it is a lawless land. The start of a new year and coming back from a break is representative of one of these times. For that reason, we will be having our first mid-year bus meeting check-in to support ridership experiences and hopefully improve bus culture. Students will meet in grade-band partnerships K/1, 2/3, and 4/5 in the auditorium to sort out some of the issues that have arisen over the last couple of months. While the bus will always have its difficulties, the focus is to minimize unsafe and unkind behaviors that contribute to children and families feeling stressed and uneasy about the daily in-transit experience. Please keep the conversation going with your children about bus safety and expectations - it truly does help.
With so many things happening within our walls, let us close with some words from Sandra, our school nurse. Please make sure your child’s health forms are up to date throughout the year, and make sure your child has an up-to-date health form on file. If your child has asthma or any allergies, please be sure that a 504 form is on file as well. Reach out to Sandra directly with any questions about this - 718 923 4750 x 2091. Remember the importance of hand washing, getting a good night’s rest, and listening to our bodies, with this weather that cannot seem to make up its mind!
Until next time,
Diane and Malika
Please check the website calendar and the Konstella calendar for updates.
