Hello Families!

I want to introduce our new class IA (Instructional Assistant) that was hired last week, Mrs. Ryan Willard. She will be going by Mrs. Ryan in class. So if you hear your kiddos talking about a new person you know who that is. We are so excited to have her join us for the rest of this school year! Below is a message from Mrs. Ryan

"I’m so excited to be joining Ms. Sapata’s kindergarten class as an Instructional Assistant. I already feel at home in the beehive—my daughter is a proud first grader in Ms. Joens’s class!

I’m originally from Sylva, NC, but my career and passions have taken me all over North America before bringing me back here. Outside of school, I love reading, watching movies, and enjoying beautiful art whenever I can.

I’m truly looking forward to supporting our youngest learners as they start their school journey, and I can’t wait to work with your children this year!"

Ryan Willard

I also wanted to let you know that I will be out of town this week on Thursday, Sep. 25th and Friday, Sep. 26th. There will be a substitute in my class for those two days. If you have any dismissal changes for your kids on those days please make sure to let the office know at claxton.office@acsgmail.net and include Mrs. Ryan in your email communications. Her email can be found at the bottom of our web page. 

Snack Calendar

This year our lunch is very early in the day (10:30am) so we will be having an afternoon snack every day. We ask that families help us by donating a week of snacks. We currently have 17 students in class and need snacks for each child for each day for the week. 

If you are able to donate snacks please CLICK HERE to sign up. Thank you!

Please let me know if you have any questions! The easiest and fastest way to reach me is through email. 

Miss Sapata

Snack Calendar

Snack Guidance:

We have 17 total students in our classroom. It is preferable that snacks are individually prepackaged. Examples of snacks include individual bags of goldfish/veggie straws/popcorn, squeezable yogurt/applesauce, fruit snacks, granola bars, cheese sticks, crackers, or fruit like apples and oranges, etc. 

NOTE: If your child has a particular diet or is particularly picky when it comes to food, you are more than welcome to pack them a small snack from home. We base what we eat for snack on what our families graciously donate to our classroom. If you choose to pack a snack for your child, please follow the same snack guidance provided below. If this choice works better for you, we would love to still encourage you to sign-up for a snack week to help support our classroom. Thank you!

Allergies:

We are aiming to be a nut-free classroom! Please respect this for our friends who may have a nut allergy. 

Our grade level loves to share resources with families if they would like to utilize them. I understand that every family's situation and experiences are vastly different, and there is NO pressure to utilize these resources: 

• Learning for Justice: Race and Ethnicity Resources

Formerly "Teaching Tolerance", Learning for Justice has valuable resources, including articles and discussion points for leading your kiddos in a discussion about hard topics such as racial injustice. 

• Anti-Racism Tools for Adults and Caregivers

This link has SO many valuable resources geared towards parents, families, kids, and teachers. 

• Something Happened In Our Town: A Child's Story about Racial Injustice

This is an incredibly powerful book. I recommend that parents listen through it before reading it to their kids. It is the story of a police shooting of a Black man, and it is gives the perspective of a white family explaining it to their children, and a Black family. It is written for children, and is very child accessible and well written. I highly recommend sharing it with your kids when you feel ready. 

• A Kids Book About Racism

A read aloud read by the author of the book, A Kids Book About Racism, talks about racism in kid friendly terms, in an easy to understand way.