 Thank you for all the Freaky Friday photos for our spirit day! Seeing them in my inbox and twitter feed truly made my day. A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for Back to School Night. Mr. Birge and I were able to stop into most classrooms and were highly impressed with the content delivered by the teachers and the engagement of our families! Monday was our distribution day for yearbooks, student supplies, and the welcome bag with some learning tools and art supplies for all Lemon Road students. If you have not picked up your child’s belongings, please plan to stop by during school hours Monday – Friday. Call the office in advance so they can have your child’s materials ready for you. Yearbooks are available for purchase by $20 check made out to Lifetouch.
As many know, Lemon Road shares a campus with the Falls Church McLean Children’s Center. Several of our lions are even currently participating in distance learning from the center. The center takes cleaning protocols for COVID very seriously when they use the Lemon Road playground. The equipment is cleaned before and after the school-aged classroom uses the equipment. In order to protect our full community, they ask that families in the community not use the playground until it has been sanitized following their use. The school-aged class will use the playgrounds on Monday – Friday from 11:45 – 12:10. This leaves the playground accessible to our families who choose to visit during the first half of our school-wide lunch and activity break (beginning at 11:05).
I hope to see many parents and caregivers at our Principals’ Coffee this Friday. We welcome Avery Straw, our Advanced Academics Resource Teacher who will share the Levels of Advanced Academics Service available to all Lemon Road students (Kindergarten – Sixth Grade). We will begin at 9 AM in BBCU linked here. There will be Spanish interpretation available – we recommend those needing Spanish interpretation log in 10 minutes early so we can help get the interpretation set up.
Thank you for your partnership and support! ~ Mrs. Castillo
  Exciting News! The Lemon Road Library Curbside Pickup Program will begin on Monday, October 5! Please see the flyers above for details. Information includes the links to the Destiny Discover search system, a how-to hold books video, calendar of pickup dates, and a survey to choose your pickup location. Students in grades 4-6 should have experience putting books on “Hold” using their library accounts, but grades PreK-3 will need home help with the process. If you need any assistance, please contact Ms. Burke, goburke@fcps.edu or 703-714-6447.
Lemon Road has a Family Engagement and Equity team that meetings each month to continue our school’s focus on these important parts of our mission. We would like to expand our team this year to include a parent (or community member) and upper grade student that is passionate about equity to join our monthly meetings. We are beginning by discussing the book, So you want to talk about race by Ijeoma Oluo. These meetings typically take place 1 - 2 Wednesday mornings per month from 8:00 - 8:30. Complete the application here if you are interested in serving on our team!
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Did you know a FCPS bus delivers free grab & go breakfast and lunch to our community Monday – Friday from 6:45 – 6:55? Come by before school starts each morning to pick up food for you and your child’s day! All FCPS students (regardless of age) are eligible for free grab and go breakfast and lunch, as well as other county children, under the age of 18. Adults may pay $2 for the meals as well.
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I hope your family had fun exploring curiosity! On Monday, we'll begin learning about teamwork. For a 1-page character card overview, click here. And, for P2 for Families (password: P2), click here.
Teamwork is the ability and willingness to place overall group success as a higher priority than individual achievement. Citizenship is a willingness to work towards the common good as opposed to one’s own self-interest. Those with strengths in teamwork and citizenship often work to help all group members find success. These individuals are willing to commit time and resources to further group goals and help move toward the greater good. This strength is associated with naturally positive feelings that accompany being a member of a family, team, school, political party, ethnic group, or country. However, those positive feelings can come at a cost with negative behavior towards the “out-group” in the form of blind obedience, disparaging words, or prejudice. This is important to guard against by leveraging a person’s other positive character strengths.
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Growth mindset recognizes that we all have the capacity to change, grow, and develop. A key belief in growth mindset is that our abilities are not fixed – that is, they can improve with effort, practice, use of strategies, and seeking help from others. Challenges, failure, and setbacks are seen as opportunities for learning. Having a growth mindset creates a passion for “stretching” ourselves, increases perseverance, and helps us to thrive in challenging times.
A part of our school community is to support and develop our students’ growth mindset. This is also a part of our School Improvement and Innovation Plan! To learn more about a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset, please check out the article here! Our school counselors (Ms. McKinney and Ms. Butts) will be focusing on growth mindset in grade level sessions this fall.
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The “Go Paperless” option is now available to all elementary parents to allow them to only receive online progress reports starting the first quarter of this school year. This will not impact any other mailings from FCPS other than the progress reports for ES students and report cards for secondary students. To take advantage of the paperless options, parents and/or guardians will need to log into ParentVUE, then go to “My Account” and select "Go Paperless" All parents and/or guardians who live with the student and share the same address must have a SIS ParentVUE account and must select the paperless option to prevent mailing of the printed progress reports. The “Go Paperless” option will apply to all their associated students, no matter what school level. If the associated parent and/or guardian has already selected “Go Paperless” for their secondary student, the option will now apply to any ES siblings as well.
Please make sure you have completed and submitted these forms as soon as possible.
Required Forms
Optional Forms (Return ONLY if applicable):
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September 30: Room Parent Info Session (9 AM)
October 2: October Principals’ Coffee (9 AM); Band and Strings Instrument Distribution (5 PM)
October 5: Band and Strings Instrument Distribution (9 – 10:30 AM)
October 9: Polo and School Spirit Day
October 12: Indigenous Peoples’ Day (Student Holiday)
October 21: Lemon Road PTA Monthly Meeting
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