Lower School

 

Back to Parent Portal

Letter from the Lower School Director

 

December 8, 2023

Dear Lower School Families, 

During this busy time of year, there are intentional ways to support your child so that the holiday season is more enjoyable for all.  This week,  Responsive Classroom shared with educators a blog with helpful guidelines to support children during this time of year that can be applied to the home environment, too!

Stick to Routines as Much as Possible

• Routines comfort children who may be overstimulated or easily excitable
• Handle schedule changes with good-natured calm and flexibility, which will model healthy ways to cope with unexpected challenges for your child.

Reinforce Success

• Describe the positive behavior in detail and explain why it is helpful. “I saw you helping dad carry in the groceries. That fits our family value of looking for ways to help others. Thank you.”

Keep Expectations High but Appropriate

• Plan extra blocks of time to have downtime individually and as a family. Maintaining daily reading is an important way to integrate downtime while keeping their reading skills strong.
• Find ways for children to help around the house while they are on winter break--clearing the table, washing dishes, taking out the recycling, etc.

We are looking forward to our final week together before winter break. We wish you all a wonderful weekend!

Best regards,

Betsy Gugle
Lower School Director

 

---

Important Announcements and Reminders

2nd Semester Important Dates
Next week we will be emailing the Lower School 2nd semester Important Dates to refer to throughout the semester. There will be additional field trips and other activities added as the semester progresses. All of those will be communicated through the Parent Portal.

---

Crochet Club 2nd Semester
We are thrilled by the continued interest in Crochet Club after school on Wednesdays. Starting in January, we will have Forms I-II Crochet club on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month.  Forms III-V will be on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month. This will allow Señora Knotts a greater ability to work more closely with individual students on their projects.

---

Library Volunteers Needed
Ms. Ruefle is looking  for some additional volunteer help in the Library during the second semester; if  parents (and grandparents!) might have an hour to contribute once or twice a month to help reshelf the hundreds of books we circulate each week, that would be most helpful.   Volunteers might come right after morning drop off, or perhaps an hour before car line, or even proximate to the exciting soup duty!   If you have some time to volunteer, please email Ms Ruefle with your availability.   Please, no ‘drop in’ volunteers.  We’d love to have your help, but it’s important to schedule a time.

---

SAGE Dining Survey
At SAGE, our goal is to provide exceptional dining experiences with our fresh, delicious meals
prepared from scratch. We build a diverse menu that incorporates the latest culinary trends
and features your favorites.
We’re getting close to Winter Break, and we’d like to hear from you! We want to know what
foods you liked and disliked so this winter/spring we can adjust your menu and continue
building a program you’ll love! Please take a few minutes to complete a short survey about the
dining services this year.

Click here for the CSG Community Survey  Please complete the survey by Dec. 15, 2023.

---

Student Jubilee for Young Entrepreneurs
On the afternoon of Saturday, April 13th, the Center for Girls’ and Young Women’s Leadership will host a Student Jubilee, an opportunity for CSG students to have their own booth to sell a product or service. This will be part of the Center’s day-long celebration Investing in Women 2024.

Next week, students interested in participating in the Jubilee will receive a brainstorming packet to develop their ideas over Winter Break. Please be sure to mark these important dates on your calendar:

-January 10, 2024: Google form released to sign up for a Jubilee booth
-February 2, 2024: Student workshop on Jubilee preparation
-March 13, 2024: Google form commitment due for Student Jubilee 
-April 5, 2024: Student Meeting for Final Jubilee Preparation
-April 13, 2024: Student Jubilee

Please reach out to Emily Krichbaum, Director of the Center for Girls' and Young Women's Leadership, or Kamaya Prince Thompson, Assistant Head of School with any questions.

---

Spring Break for PYC and Lower School
Columbus School for Girls is offering a Spring Break Camp for students in the PYC-Lower School. The camp will be held Monday, March 25-Thursday, March 28 from 8:00 am-4:30 p.m.  This full day camp will be housed in the Lower School Innovation Lab and will include baking, playing outside, reading stories, taking neighborhood discovery walks, as well as daily field trips. Students will pack a lunch every day. The cost for the week is $400. Your account will be billed the camp fee.

Linda Resch, Lower SchooL After Hours Coordinator is the facilitator of the program. If you have any questions, please reach out to Linda Resch. Siblings of CSG students that are within the PYC-Lower School age range are also eligible to attend.  The camp maximum is 30 students. 

Registration Link 

---

Computer Science Gift Ideas for Forms IV and V
Form IV: You might have heard your daughter talking about using Makey Makey boards in Computer Science class. The boards need to be plugged into a USB A port on a computer or Chromebook in order to program it. 
MakeyMakey Website
Makey Makey Tutorials page
Makey Makey Classic from Amazon. 
Corrugated Cardboard Scissors are another great tool I teach the older students how to use. They are great for easily cutting cardboard boxes (to use the cardboard for projects). 

Form V: You might have heard your children talking about programming microbits in Computer Science class. We recommend the one below, which is under $30 and comes with all the basics. Microbits can be programmed in block code (MakeCode is the language) as well as JavaScript. 
Micro:bit v2 from Amazon
Micro Center also has them HERE for $23. 
Students use the older v1 at school but v2 has a great speaker. With v2, they can program sounds and music. There are lots of fun tutorials and projects at Microsoft MakeCode for Microbit HERE.
The boards need to be plugged into a USB A port on a computer or Chromebook in order to be programmed. Corrugated Cardboard Scissors are another great tool I teach the older students how to use. They are great for easily cutting cardboard boxes (to use the cardboard for projects).

---

Launching “Sisters In STEM”
The Center for Science Research and Engineering is thrilled to announce that CSG's student peer-reviewed journal, Sisters in STEM, is open for submissions! Check out the journal's website for specific information about the journal, our publication timeline, and how students in Lower, Middle, and Upper School can submit content and images for the logo contest. Students will hear more about the submission process in the coming weeks and will be able to ask questions of Ms. Jessica Fries-Gaither (Lower School) or in after-school workshops led by Upper School students and Dr. Stephanie Nelson. Our PYC students' work will also be included in each issue of Sisters in STEM in their own section curated by the PYC teachers. If you have questions about the journal, submissions, or our process that aren't answered on the website, feel free to send an email to STEMjournal@columbusschoolforgirls.org.

---

Unicorn Basketball-Space Still Available
Unicorn Basketball will be offered to students in Forms I-V beginning in January 2024.We are extremely lucky to have our Varsity Basketball coach, Becca Bailey, running the clinic for Unicorn Sports.  Registration opened on Wednesday, November 1 in the all-school Parent Portal under Athletics.
Click here to view the flier with more information
Click here to register 

---

Winter Writing Workshop
Registration is now open for our Winter Writing Workshop, hosted by the Center for Artistic & Creative Expression for Forms I-XII starting January 20.

---

Spring Break Dance Camp
We are excited to launch our Spring Break Dance Camp! The Center for Equity and Belonging is bringing together dance teachers from all over the region to share dance styles from around the world. This fun-filled camp will be available for students in Forms III-XII, and each student will have the opportunity to learn four different styles of dance.  Classes will be held from 8:30 am-4:30 pm during the second week of Spring Break, March 25-28, with no classes held on Friday, March 29, as school will be closed for Good Friday.  Space is limited, so please register now!

---

A reminder about COVID-19 protocol
Please remember to keep your daughter home if she is exhibiting signs and symptoms of illness. If your child is out with ill symptoms for more than 24 hours, please provide a doctor's note upon return and/or a negative Covid-19 test. If your child does test positive for Covid, please notify Nurse Scheiderer and keep your child home for 5 days from the start of symptoms—which is considered Day 0. Your child will need to return in a mask for days 6-10. Please reach out to Nurse Scheiderer with any health-related questions. For more details and to read more about CSG’s health policies and procedures, please visit the Health Info page found via our Parent Portal. 

---

Babysitter List
The Upper School Babysitter list is updated for 23-24. If you are looking for sitters, please contact Jane Rudicel at jrudicel@columbusschoolforgirls.org and she will share the list with you.

---

Volunteers needed for the Unicorner
We are in need of volunteers for the Unicorner, CSG’s school store open each week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 11:30am until 1:30pm. Those interested may sign up here.

---

Change in Attendance Reporting
When reporting an absence, late arrival, or early dismissal, please send an email to the following email inbox:LSAttendance@columbusschoolforgirls.org or call the LS Office at 614-252-0781 x 111.

---

Have questions?
Please reach out to me, Betsy Gugle, at 614-252-0781, ext. 110 or Jane Rudicel, Lower School Administrative Assistant at 614-252-0781, ext. 111. 

---

---