June gloom. This is how I feel every June knowing the school year has ended. I will miss the students over the summer and mourn the fifth graders moving on to middle school!
This has been an amazing first year for me as principal of Yerba Buena. The staff, students and parents are a true testament to our community school. I am thankful for each and every one of you and look forward to an even better year in 2010-2011.
As we say goodbye for the summer, here are few fun activities I found on line from “Frugal Dad”. Enjoy your time with your family. See you all on September 1!
14 Fun, Frugal Summer Activities for Kids
Day 1. See a “one dollar” movie at the theater. Many theater chains around the country offer summer movie programs for kids where they feature an inexpensive movie every day for a week, or on a particular day of the week all summer.
Day 2. Sprinkler day. Delay your sprinklers for one day so they come on a little later in the morning. This way everyone can get on their bathing suits and have fun jumping through the sprinklers on a hot day. But not for too long! This is a good time to teach your children about conserving water, reducing utility costs, etc.
Day 3. Attend “story time” at your local library. Many libraries have a story time to encourage a summer reading program. Stories are read out loud and the kids have a chance to interact with the storyteller and answer questions about the book.
Day 4. Set up a lemonade stand. This is a lesson in entrepreneurship. Loan your kids $10 as “seed money” for supplies, or better yet, let them use their own money from savings. This way they don’t get used to the idea that borrowing leads to prosperity. Take the kids along to the grocery store one morning and let them pick up the lemons, sugar, cups, and a couple bags of ice to keep in a cooler. Yes, Crystal Light lemonade works, too, but is less authentic and more expensive. This is a great way for neighborhood kids to work together, as they can divide into teams to man the lemonade stand, make the lemonade, handle the money, etc. Please remember that an adult needs to be with the kids at all times, both inside and outside the house, so have a neighbor help.
Day 5. Teach your kids to fly a kite. Check your 10-day forecast and look for a windy day in the coming week. Pick up an expensive kite for the kids and an extra spool of kite string on a roller because the string and handles that come with the kites are usually weak.
Day 6. Make play-do. This is a lot of fun!
Day 7. Bake a cake. Let your kids help bake a cake, and surprise mom or dad when they arrive home that afternoon. Plenty of teachable moments here with opportunities to teach fractions (four 1/4 cups equals one cup, etc.).
Day 8. Build a “fort” in the living room. You can use a giant cardboard box, color it, and cut “windows” out to look through. A living room “fort” could be as simple as a few kitchen chairs gathered in a circle with a large bed sheet thrown across them and draped to the floor. The kids can hide from mom and dad, read books, or pretends they are camping out in the living room.
Day 9. Go bowling. These days, bowling can be an expensive activity. Call the lanes ahead of time and ask if they have any summer specials (certain days may be cheaper). Also check those coupon mailer packs for coupons for free games. To keep costs down, just let the kids bowl – you can work on your game another time.
Day 10. Declare a “bored” game day. Few kids today don’t realize you can play games without a computer. Most of these old board games are inexpensive in their basic form – skip the “deluxe” edition to save even more.
Day 11. Have a water balloon fight. When kids participate in games like a water balloon toss, they start close together, but take a step back with each toss to increase the distance. The last one to break the balloon is out.
Day 12. Create a “mini-me.” Find a piece of large poster board, or large heavy-duty paper (such as butcher paper) wide enough for your kids to lie down on. Use a dull pencil (less chance for boo-boos) to trace their entire body to the paper from head to toe. Now let the kids decorate the silhouette to look like themselves in the same clothes they are wearing, same color eyes, hair, etc. When they are finished, help them cut out their mini-me for proud display.
Day 13. Pajama day. Stay in your pajamas all day long. Make pancakes in the morning, bake a pizza for lunch, and lounge around watching movies. Use your Netflix subscription to have a couple kid-friendly movies on hand.
Day 14. Spend a day volunteering your time. A good way to wrap up your two-week blitz of summertime fun is to volunteer your time to a worthy cause. Contact a few local charities and find out which ones will allow kids to volunteer some time over the summer (under your supervision). Project Linus is an organization that makes blankets for children who’ve suffered a traumatic experience.
Bonus tip: Get your kids to come up with their own shirt designs, and then have a custom t-shirt printing service bring them to life. It’ll be a thrill for your kids to see their ideas put on clothing they can enjoy throughout the summer.
Christina Desiderio
Principal
Yerba Buena Elementary School, located in Agoura Hills, California, is one of sixteen schools in the Las Virgenes Unified School District. The district, located in the western end of Los Angeles County, serves approximately 11,600 students. At Yerba Buena, we provide students opportunities to develop their potential intellectually, socially and emotionally. We believe that our public school exists to provide an effective educational program and to offer all students opportunities to develop their capabilities to the maximum of their potential so that they may act constructively as contributing citizens in our changing society. Yerba Buena Elementary School has a strong academic foundation, a parent community that is interested and is actively involved, a faculty professionally skilled and personally committed to meeting the needs of students and a student body motivated to perform well.
Through our RtI model (Response to Intervention) we are implementing a new character development program called
This program teaches that the character and conduct of our youth reflects the character and conduct of society; therefore, every adult has the responsibility to teach and model the core ethical values (trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship), and every social institution has the responsibility to promote the develop of good character.
We have also implemented a new system of discipline procedures from the curriculum of
This includes a stronger dress code and behavior referral form which includes parent notification of any incident that may have happened on the playground and a student action plan to help students with a plan on how to avoid future breaking of school rules.
At Yerba Buena, the elementary school day begins at 8:05 a.m. with students lined up on the school playground (basketball area) with their class. The playground is supervised from 7:50 a.m. - 8:05 a.m. so plan ahead to avoid traffic. Please follow the drop-off and pick-up procedures of following the road slowly around the center circle and pull all the way up to the top of the driveway. Students need to be ready to exit the car as soon as you stop. Drivers are asked to NOT leave their car at any time and to proceed carefully around the circle and out the drive through. IF YOU NEED TO OPEN YOUR CAR TRUNK or you need more time to say good-bye to your child, please turn to the right of the upper drive area and pull behind the staff parking spaces along the side of the YB Multi-purpose Room. This will assist us in keeping the drive-through moving without any stoppage. Remember, start out earlier, carpool, walk to school, and make sure that you make plans with your kids prior to coming through the carpool line. Please be patient and courteous to each other and always watch out for children!
As you browse our web site, you will find links to pages that will provide you with information about our school, the calendar and school hours, our Parent Faculty Association (PFA), School Accountability Report Card and specific classroom activities and lessons.
Visit all of the schools at the award winning Las Virgenes Unified School District.
