HAPPENING AT TAYLOR

READING UNDER THE STARS – WE NEED YOU!



The Reading Under the Stars Fall Social Committee is looking for volunteers to help make the annual event a fun night for kids and families! There will be teachers reading favorite books, pizza for sale, and other yummy treats. It's all happening on Tuesday October 24, from 5:30-7:30pm. We look forward to bringing the Taylor community together for a great evening! Please sign up to help here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050B4EA8AB23A13-44855956-taylor

Thank you!

Thank you to all who attended the PTA Meeting on October 10th. The meeting minutes can be reviewed here.

Restaurant Night Thank You

Thank you to all the Taylor families who ordered Old Dominion Pizza last Tuesday evening. Thanks to your support, we raised over $200 for the Taylor PTA!  

We are looking forward to our next Restaurant event on Sunday, October 29th from 11 am - 10 pm at Cowboy Cafe (dine in and take out orders).

The annual Taylor “No Frills” Fundraiser is upon us

and we need your support!

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.

PTA Taylor Facilities Advocacy Group

There are several news items for our community regarding Taylor Facilities this week:

•  Advocacy Group Update: A kick-off meeting between Katie Madigan, Principal, Jane Wishneff, PTA President, and Erin Parker, Chair of the Taylor Facilities Advocacy Group was held on October 12th. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss strategic planning and critical priorities to improve Taylor's facilities. Key topics included overall building safety and security, immediate facilities improvement needs, and next steps for advocacy at the County level.
• How to Get Involved: Interested in helping advocate for Taylor's needs? There are several ways to make an impact:
• Contact Erin Parker at erinmccantsparker@gmail.com or at 703-989-6708 to share specific items or areas of concern. Please also contact Erin if you are interesting in joining the Advocacy Group.
• Participate in upcoming meetings of Arlington County's Joint Facilities Advisory Commission (JFAC), an advisory body jointly appointed by the County Board and the School Board. The mission of the JFAC is to provide input to the Boards on capital facilities needs assessment, capital improvement plans and long range facility planning for both the Arlington County Government and Arlington Public Schools. The next JFAC meeting is being held virtually on October 25th from 7-9p via Microsoft Teams or Phone:
• Join the meeting via Teams
• To join by phone, dial +1 347-973-6905
• Phone conference ID: 652 350 793#
• Friendly Reminder About Furry Family Members: In the spirit of both hospitality and clean facilities, please kindly clean up your furry family member's mess on school sidewalks and areas leading to the Taylor facilities. Please respect school property and policy where no dogs allowed signs are posted. While many love our furry family members, we as a community must remember that we need to provide the opportunity for students to avoid them for a variety of reasons. If you spot a neighbor or passerby not cleaning up after their pet, gently say something or contact the Facilities Advocacy Group. 

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.

Hospitality Committee

Being able to engage fully in the Taylor community experience makes a wonderful difference for your child and for your family. If you are new to the Taylor community this year, particularly 1st - 5th grade families, please reach out to Erin Parker, Hospitality Chair at erinmccantsparker@gmail.com. The Hospitality Committee values building relationships and engagement in the Taylor Community and will assist in acclimating to our wonderful school. 

Teacher Appreciation Lunch

We are organizing a Fall Teacher and Staff Appreciation Lunch on October 19th. Please consider contributing to show gratitude to our wonderful teachers and staff at Taylor. They really enjoy this occasion and always appreciate the school community's generosity in putting together this lunch. To volunteer, please sign up through this link. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Carina Nachnani at teacherlunchfall@taylorpta.org.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F044FACA82BA2FE3-44736002-fall

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.

Taylor Book Fair

The Book Fair committee is looking for volunteers to help students navigate the book fair during the school day and cashiers outside of school hours. Helping with the fair is a great opportunity to interact with many students and teachers while also helping get books into the hands of kids in our school and throughout our community!

https://bit.ly/TaylorVol2023

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.

Kidgiving

Taylor KidsGiving is supporting Clothesline for Arlington Kids in October! We are hosting a clothing drive to collect fall and winter clothing for low-income school age children in Arlington. Donation bins will be available in the Taylor lobby beginning Tuesday, October 10th through Tuesday, October 17th.

All donations should be appropriate for fall and winter, in new or clean, EXCELLENT condition in sizes 4T to adult (teen styles only). Please ensure all clothes are sorted by size and gender and labeled in bags. Click here to see Clothesline's flyer with specific clothing donation details. This is the perfect time to donate those new or excellent condition warm clothes, pajamas, snow boots, coats and winter gear as we start to change out our kids' wardrobe for cooler temperatures! Clothesline will also gladly accept new in package socks and underwear, which you can drop off in the donation bins as well. 

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

Halloween Hustle

Come out and celebrate Halloween with Flash Running Wild's inaugural Halloween Hustle 5k, 1 mile run, and 200m dash! There will be small prizes and medals. 

The Halloween Hustle is meant to be fun, not super competitive. But hey, if you can set a PR in your Harry Potter costume, have at it :). Race will be timed manually, and results will be announced a day or two after the race.

• Race date: Sunday, October 29th
• 9:00am - 200m dash start
• 9:10am - 5k & 1 mile run start
• Bon Air Park & Rose Garden in Arlington, VA 

Finally, costumes are highly encouraged - for both the younger and the older runners alike! 

Your copy should address 3 key questions: Who am I writing for? (Audience) Why should they care? (Benefit) What do I want them to do here? (Call-to-Action)

Create a great offer by adding words like "free" "personalized" "complimentary" or "customized." A sense of urgency often helps readers take an action, so think about inserting phrases like "for a limited time only" or "only 7 remaining"!

Marine Corps Marathon

Taylor Tigers you are invited to participate in the Marine Corps Marathon Kids Run on October 28th, 2023. Taylor has a Group Registration for Wave 6-Orange that will Run at 11 AM on Saturday October 28th.

Registration is $15 per participant.

Taylor Group Registration closes on October 12th.

Please use QR Code to register

Seeking Community Partners

Is your business or organization looking for ways to volunteer in your local community? Are you looking for service opportunities for your staff or retirees? If so, Taylor would like to hear from you if you are interested in providing:

·        Mentors, tutors, or guest speakers

·        Gift certificates, incentive prizes or financial in-kind donations

For more information about the APS Community Partners program, visit the APS website. To connect with someone directly at Taylor about opportunities for involvement, contact Janis Johnston, Taylor’s volunteer liaison, at janis.johnston@apsva.us.

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!