October 25, 2028

Hello Timber Wolves

Another great week at Cedar Park!  The Bike unit in PE has seemed to spark a higher interest in biking to school.  Our bike racks in the courtyard have never been so full!  Biking is a fun and healthy way to start your day.  Please remember that when you arrive at Cedar Park, we ask that you get off and walk your bike through our campus to the bike racks.  We had another near miss today as a student rode their bike around the corner of the portables and almost crashed into a classroom line on their way up.

It is the time of year for cold, flu, and COVID season.  Order free COVID test kits.

If your student is going to be absent or late to school, please email cedarpark.attendance@seattleschools.org.  It is a great idea to cc your classroom teacher too but when the email only goes to the teacher it creates work for our office that involves interrupting the classroom learning day to verify attendance and/or generates a call home about your missing student.  Thank you.

We are now halfway through our first IDEA Time session.  Students will be asked to provide feedback about this session and the classes and experiences they would like to see in our program.  We use this information to build new classes and adjust favorite past classes to align with student interests.  Info will come out soon about signing up for a class in our next IDEA Time session.

Are you a Spanish speaking family?  We are hosting a gathering for our Spanish speaking families on Tuesday, October 29th at 8am.  We will have an interpreter there to help provide more information about our school and how we can support you.  Also, you can enjoy a cup of coffee while you make connections with other Spanish speaking families at Cedar Park.  I hope to see you there.

Another reminder to the many families who will be celebrating Halloween next week, we ask that you do not send students to school in costumes on October 31st.  We will hold our Fall Family Traditions Class Celebrations on Friday, November 8th.  This will be a time to have students talk about and share some of their fall family traditions, which may very well include religious or secular holidays but could also include trips to see relatives or less festive celebrations like the start of cooking soups and chili or getting out that bin of sweaters to wear in the cooler weather.  Watch for more information to come from your classroom teachers.

Last week I let you know of our conference schedule next month.  There is no school for students the week of November 25th.  However, during the week of conferences KidsCo is running all-day childcare.  Registration opens on Monday.  Learn more about Kids Company.

Here is a bit of joy from the week: I walk through classrooms to see students engaged in learning and ask them about what they are working on.  After several minutes in a class working on games to build math fact fluency, I headed out the door to visit another class when I heard an excited voice call out behind me, “Principal Z!  Come here, come here.”  The students showed me the game they were playing on their iPad, how it’s played, how they used math to make all their moves, how many points and rewards they were earning in the game, and then asked me if I understood the game.  I explained everything back to them that they taught me, ending with “that is pretty cool.”  They replied, “Yeah, it is really cool!”  That excitement and joy for learning has lasting and meaningful effects for students.  I love this school.  I hope you are enjoying your school year so far!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Principal Z