HAPPENING AT TAYLOR

THANK YOU!



Thank you very much to all of our wonderful volunteers who helped with the book fair and fall social! Volunteers are what make all of Taylor's fun events possible!

TAYLOR HALLOWEEN PARADE

October 31st is the annual Taylor Halloween parade.  The parade will begin at 2:30pm with students parading around the perimeter of the building.  Parents and families are welcome to watch the parade.  

Just a reminder to families coming into the school for parties, you must first sign in at the office before heading to the classrooms or trailers. 

SQUARE 1 ART FUNDRAISER – ORDER NOW!

Square 1 Art is a Taylor tradition where our students prepare unique art that can be ordered as keepsakes and gifts, while supporting PTA efforts. Order sheets are coming home with your students this week and, in order to receive before the holiday season, the online order deadline is Friday November 3. 

If you don’t receive your order forms, please follow up with your homeroom teachers. Any additional questions, please reach out to kristinaboehk@yahoo.com. Thank you for supporting this fundraiser and our young artists!

NOVEMBER KIDSGIVING EVENT – FALL CLEANUP

Thank you to everyone who donated clothing to our KidsGiving fall clothing drive to support Clothesline for Arlington Kids. We provided hundreds of warm fall and winter clothing to support families in need in Arlington!

Our Taylor KidsGiving partner for November is EcoAction Arlington, which is supporting us for a grounds clean up and invasive plant removal around the schoolyard and surrounding trails. We will meet on Sunday, November 5 from 11am-12:30pm. This event is open to all Taylor students and their families. EcoAction will talk to us a little bit about all the wonderful things they do to help our local environment and ways we can help contribute to helping the environment too. We will also learn about plant identification and the impact of invasive species in our natural environment. We will then get busy removing invasive plants all around the school and picking up litter. EcoAction will provide cloth glovesFor more information and to sign up, visit our sign up page. EcoAction will supply us with trash bags and cloth gloves, but we encourage you to bring your own garden gloves to wear to handle leaves and brush, especially children's size gloves.

NOTE:

Taylor's gardens committee is teaming up with KidsGiving for the fall grounds cleanup! We will meet at Taylor on Sunday, November 5^th from 11am - 12:30pm to clean up the schoolyard and surround trails. 

EcoAction Arlington will be there as well. Eco Action will supply us with trash bags and we will also have cloth gloves available. We encourage you to please feel free to bring your own garden gloves to wear and especially for handling leaves and brush - especially if you have children's size gloves for your child. 

Please dress appropriately for the weather and being in an outdoor forest environment - we recommend closed toe shoes and no shorts. You may want to wear sunscreen and bug spray too. The school will NOT be open for restroom use. If there is inclement weather, we will provide updates on the event taking place.

NOTE: This cleanup will take the place of the gardens committee cleanup planned for November 12. 

Please RSVP & register to attend by Nov 3: sign up at this link. 

TAYLOR STUDENT COUNCIL ELECTIONS - VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

Parents, you won't be the only ones heading to the polls this November! All Taylor students will be voting in the Student Council election Monday, November 6th and we need your help to make the election a success. Voting will take place on the stage in the Multipurpose room via computer. The picture and name of each candidate will be provided to help our younger voters. Please sign up for a shift – they are only about 30 minutes each. You must be a registered volunteer with Taylor in order to help out. If you have any questions, please contact Campbell Hutton at elections@taylorpta.org.

The annual Taylor “No Frills” Fundraiser is upon us

and we need your support!

Thank you for stopping by the No Frills Fundraiser table at Reading Under the Stars. We raised an additional $1,732, bringing our total to $4,682! Let's keep up this momentum and move us close to our $30,000 goal.

Please stop by the No Frills Fundraiser table at Reading Under the Stars this Tuesday October 24 from 5:30-7:30, make your donation in person and enjoy a little Halloween treat! 

This campaign is our major fundraising event of the year

and is designed to keep things simple for busy families.

You will not be asked to buy or sell anything.

Our goal is 100% participation from Taylor families.

No amount is too small!

100% of your donation is tax-deductible and supports programs

for all the children, such as STEAM programs, field trips, Art in the Classroom and more.  

For the 2023-2024 school year, we are focusing these funds on new and durable recess equipment, 

flexible seating for our pod classrooms, and cosmetic and acoustic updates to the cafeteria. 

If we meet or exceed our goal of raising $30,000, we will be having

a school wide ice cream social for Taylor students!!

To make a donation, we are offering three convenient options:

1. Click or Scan the QR Code below. 

2. Online via Taylor PTA Website

3. Write a check! Checks can be made payable to Taylor PTA. Please mail checks to Taylor PTA No Frills @ 2600 N. Stuart Street Arlington, VA 22207.

LET’S WALK TO SCHOOL TAYLOR COMMUNITY!

Calling Active Volunteers! Neighborhood Walk-to-School Day will kick off on Monday, November 20th (rain date of Tuesday, November 21st). What's involved? We are looking for 1-2 parents/guardians from each neighborhood served by Taylor who would be willing to walk with a group of kids to school in the morning. The purpose is to get more of our kids (and adults!) active - and to show our kids that it's possible (and fun!) to use their feet as transportation instead of cars. That next Sunday morning Dunkin Donuts visit can turn into a walking outing instead of everyone piling into the car!

If you're interested, please contact Taylor parent Kate Marden (katemarden@gmail.com). If there's enough interest in this inaugural walking day, we'll do it again in 2024!

STEAM DAY SUPPORTED NEEDED

Our first STEAM Day for the 2023-2024 school year is Tuesday, November 21st, 2023. All students will be rotating between four problem based challenges that focus on the 4 C’s (21st Century Skills). The 4 C’s are Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. You can support this event in three ways:

1.   Donate NEWSPAPER in the main lobby starting on Monday, October 30th.

2.   “At Home Volunteers” to cut materials by Monday, November 13th. 

3.   “Day Of Volunteers” to support students as they participate in challenges. Volunteers will be assigned to support one specific challenge and all students from each grade level will rotate through each challenge.

Sign Up to be a “At Home Volunteer” and/or “Day Of Volunteer” HERE

Upcoming STEAM Dates:

STEAM Day: Tuesday, November 21st

STEAM Day: Wednesday, February 7th (early release)

Career Day: Tuesday, April 9th 

STEAM Day: Wednesday, June 5th (early release)

CALLING ALL YOGIS!!!

We are looking for a yoga or pilates instructor who would be willing to provide complementary sessions to our hard working Taylor staff and teachers. Please contact Jane Wishneff at president@taylorpta.org if you would be interested in this or if you know someone. 

Taylor MS Boundaries Committee Update

As many of you are aware, the middle school boundaries proposal was paused in September until Fall 2024. Prior to the new proposal, the school board is revising their Boundaries Policy, B-2.1. The current policy weighs six considerations during a boundary change, with no specific priority: Efficiency, Proximity, Stability, Alignment, Demographics, and Contiguity. The school board is collecting comments on the current policy, prior to drafting the new policy. To comment visit the Arlington School Board's Policy Public Comment Process, the deadline is November 1st. School board office hours are another way to get your voice heard. The first in-person office hours are tonight, from 6-8pm at Central Library with Mary Kadera and Bethany Zecher Sutton. If you are interested in getting involved, please reach out to Caroline Simms, chbsimms@gmail.com.

ACTL UPDATE

What is ACTL? The Advisory Council on Teaching and Learning (ACTL) is an advisory group to the School Board. ACTL includes parent reps from each school. ACTL meets monthly with leadership from the APS Office of Academics. 

Elementary Literacy: APS is in the second year of using the Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) curriculum as part of the shift towards the “Science of Reading” approach in elementary school. This year they have added additional writing lessons for grades K, 1, 3, and 5 and have added explicit writing instruction for K-2 on mechanics, grammar, and punctuation. They've also added end of unit quick checks for grades 3-5 to give teachers immediate data that they can use to support student learning and intervention. See attached slide 3. Please provide feedback here by November 30, 2023. 

Boundaries policy revision

APS reviews its policies every five years. Policy B-2.1 Boundaries has just entered the first stage of the review process, which is the opportunity to give input on the existing policy. School Board Member Mary Kadera recently discussed these issues at the September PTA meeting. 

ACTL is considering an input statement that "supporting the Instructional Vision" or a similar phrase should be included in the policy. Please share your thoughts with Taylor’s MS Boundary Committee Chair, Caroline Simms (at chbsimms@gmail.com) and Katie Sunderland (at katherine.a.sunderland@gmail.com), Taylor’s ACTL. The presentation can be viewed here.

Calling all Student Artists - Explore the Arts, and Express Yourself!

Taylor is proud to be participating in the National PTA Reflections program this year and supports our school’s long-standing commitment to arts education. The Reflections program provides opportunities for recognition and access to the arts which boost student confidence and success in the arts and in life. Each year, over 300,000 students in Pre-K through Grade 12 create original works of art in response to a student-selected theme. This 50+ year-old program helps them explore their own thoughts, feelings and ideas, develop artistic literacy, increase confidence and find a love for learning that will help them become more successful in school and in life.

This year’s theme is I am Hopeful Because

How to Participate:

• Review the Participation Guidelines (you do not need to submit the guideline form back; just your student entry form)
• Get to creating!
• Submit your entry before 11/29/2023. Approximately 2 weeks prior to the deadline, a small bin will be located in the lobby for students to drop off their original work, and student entry form. 

All documents can be found here.

Author Visit – Ellen Oh visiting Taylor 4^th and 5^th graders on November 2

Taylor Elementary is excited to welcome Ellen Oh for a visit with our 4^th and 5^th graders on November 2, 2023!

Ms. Oh is the author of the middle grade novels Finding Junie Kim, The Dragon Egg Princess, and The Spirit Hunters trilogy (Spirit Hunters, Island of Monsters, and Something Wicked). She is the editor of the middle grade anthology Flying Lessons and Other Stories, and she is also a founding member of We Need Diverse Books (WNDB), a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing diversity in children’s literature

As part of the author visit, Ms. Oh will be signing books.  You can order books through READ for the upcoming author visit at the following site: https://www.readbooknook.org/author-visit-ellen-oh.  Please follow the ordering instructions to provide us with information required to get your books signed and delivered.

There will also be Ellen Oh books available for purchase at the Taylor Book Fair.  Students may leave books purchased at the book fair with the Taylor Library staff for signature by the author.  We will have additional details and instructions at the book fair.

Sign up for Taylor Listserv

Sign up here to connect with other parents on topics surrounding APS, Taylor curriculum, extracurriculur activities and much more!

Stay engaged with the Taylor PTA! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and remember to join the Taylor Facebook group.

COMMUNITY NEWS

INTRODUCING CUB SCOUT PACK 149

Cub Scout Pack 149, which is full of boys and girls predominantly from Arlington’s Taylor Elementary School, who are excited about outdoor adventures and community service. BSA’s Cub Scout program has awesome activities for boys and girls with different backgrounds and ages, from Kindergarten through 5th grade, who enjoy learning how to be self-sufficient via a program that focuses on camping and hiking. In addition Cub Scouts learn about engaging their communities by performing service projects. You will see many of Pack 149’s Scouts out and about on 28 October and 04 November participating in BSA’s annual Scouting for Food activity. If you see one of our Cubs please say hello. Pack 149 is chartered by the Arlington Optimist Club, is non-denominational and meets at Cherrydale United Methodist Church at the corner of Nellie Custis and Lorcom Lane. 

Come see what Pack 149 is all about at our November Pack meeting on Nov. 15 at 7 pm at Cherrydale United Methodist Church. Or join us for one of our most popular activities when we hike Great Falls National Park’s Billygoat Trail in Maryland on Nov. 18. The Pack will split into two groups which will depart from the park’s visitor center at 9 am and 1 pm. Join us! Please contact cubpack149@gmail.com if you are interested in joining us for either of these events.

Happy Holidays from Pack 149!

Stay engaged with the Taylor PTA! 

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and remember to join the Taylor Facebook group.

Please check the Taylor PTA website for more information!