The Weekly Roar - Monday, September 9, 2024
Fairfax County Public Schools sent this bulletin at 09/09/2024 10:12 PM EDT
In This Issue
News & NotesFirst Early Release Monday Is September 16th! Please Fill Out the Child Care Form Now!The Early Release Mondays planned throughout the school year for elementary schools are essential to allow educators time for planning and professional development. Students will be dismissed three hours early seven times throughout the school year and are encouraged to return home via their normal route. However, we understand there may be a childcare hardship because of the Early Release Mondays for many of our families. To resolve these concerns, student supervision will be available for families who need it. Lane’s first Early Release Monday is September 16th. Students will be dismissed at 1:05 p.m. To help plan for our school’s childcare needs during the Early Release Mondays, please complete this form: https://forms.gle/xkaXoVgozWPkv6NX9 for each of your children who are enrolled at Lane Elementary. All families must submit form(s), even if they do not need child care. The form covers the first two Early Release Mondays, scheduled for September 16, 2024, and October 21, 2024. If you have multiple children, you will need to submit multiple forms. Staff will confirm the after-school supervision plan for each student. Thank you to all the families who have already filled out this form. If you’ve already completed it, you can disregard this reminder.
Lane PTA Read-a-thon Starts This Week – Storybook Character Day and Evening Celebration on Thursday, September 12th!The Lane PTA’s 2nd Annual Read-a-thon kicks off this week with two big events on Tuesday, September 12th – a reading-centered spirit day and a community celebration featuring food, fun, bounce houses and – of course – reading! Read on for the details. Dress Like Your Favorite Storybook Character Day! To celebrate the first day of our Read-a-thon, all students are encouraged to dress like their favorite storybook character and bring in the matching book to show their class. As an added benefit, they can read it and start collecting Read-a-thon minutes! As a reminder, Lane is an elementary school with kids ranging from age 5 to 12. It is important to be courteous, respectful, and appropriate with storybook character choices. Costume masks are not allowed. Violent characters are not appropriate, nor allowed. Our Lane Lions know how to make good choices. Please help us ensure those good choices are made.  Read-a-thon Kick-Off Event, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.You don't want to miss this event! The PTA has partnered with:
Volunteers are needed to help make this big event a success. Please sign up here if you’d like to help.
How the Read-a-thon Will WorkHere's how the Read-a-thon will work: Kids pledge to read a certain amount of minutes. The more minutes read, the more likely the reader is to win super fun prizes! Once they’ve set their minutes, students can reach out to family and friends to ask for donations as they work toward their goal. It's a fantastic way to promote reading and raise funds for our school! Check your child’s Wednesday Folder this week for the full Read-a-thon packet, and keep an eye on PTA’s Facebook page for all the latest Read-a-thon updates!
“Family Friday Breakfast Bites” Events Continue This Friday with 1st Grade Families!Thanks to all of the kindergarten families that joined us last Friday for a fun and flavorful first “Family Friday Breakfast Bites”! We had more than 25 families turn out as well as several staff members. And there was so much delicious food! It was a wonderful way to start building community with our newest families. This Friday, September 13th, we invite all 1st grade families to join us from 8:30 to 9:15 a.m. in the cafeteria. We just ask that each family bring a breakfast dish or item to share (muffins, donuts, casseroles, etc.). If you are a 1st grade family that would like to attend, please RSVP here and let us know what you’ll be bringing. Next week, we look forward to welcoming 2nd grade families (you can RSVP now here), and then will take a break until mid-October, when we’ll finish up with a gathering for 3rd and 4th grade families and one for 5th and 6th grade families. We hope to see your family at one of these events!
Patriot Day and September 11th National Day of ServiceWith the upcoming 23rd anniversary of September 11, FCPS acknowledges the loss of life, the heroism of our first responders, and the resilience of our country. The September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance, also called Patriot Day, is a chance to reflect and act in service to others to honor those who were injured or killed in the terrorist attacks. All FCPS students are encouraged to participate in service learning as it supports Portrait of a Graduate (POG) attributes and social and emotional learning (SEL) skills.
Kindergarten Color Weeks Continue through FridayThanks to all of our students and staff members who’ve been sharing the colorful fun with our kindergarten classes as each day celebrates a different stripe of the rainbow and other hues. We hope the participation will continue! Today was Yellow Day, and it was a bright one! Here’s the schedule for the remainder of the week:
Note to Kindergarten Parents: Because Kindergarten is also working on listening skills, students will be told what color to wear before the following day. Our hope is that students will listen and tell you the color at home. Please continue to keep the secret!
Fall Picture Days Start September 20th! Volunteers Needed!This year we are once again taking our student pictures for the yearbook in house rather than having a photography company come to school to take them. Surveys last spring confirmed that a majority of families who responded appreciated this new process, which is also more efficient for our school schedule. Students’ individual Picture Days will be their class library day. Most students will have their pictures taken the week of September 23rd through 27th; a few will be the week before or the week after. Here is a list of dates by grade level and class: Kindergarten
1st Grade
2nd Grade
3rd Grade
4th Grade
5th Grade
6th Grade
Self-Contained Classes
After Picture Days are complete, all families will receive a digital file of their child’s portrait for FREE! Once you receive it, you can use it to have prints made in any size or style you choose. There are many professional portrait studios in the Alexandria/Springfield area that families can visit if they wish to have a professional portrait taken. Thursday, October 10th and Friday, October 11th, will be make-up days for students who are absent on their assigned class day. We will need some volunteers to help this process run smoothly. If you are available assist on one of the days, please sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0B45A9A72CABF85-50938107-2024.
Advanced Academic Program (AAP) Parent Meeting on Thursday, September 26th, 6 p.m.Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is committed to challenging all students through talent development efforts and differentiated instruction to meet the needs of advanced learners. FCPS offers a continuum of advanced academic services for all students in Grades K-12. The continuum of services approach recognizes unique student needs and focuses on matching services, not labeling students. Teachers and staff work together to provide Advanced Academic Program (AAP) services. Through this continuum, students have:
You can learn more about AAP at Lane and in FCPS at a parent information session on Thursday, September 26th at 6 p.m. in the Lane cafeteria. At this meeting, Linda Simon, Lane’s Advanced Academic Resource Teacher, will provide information about the continuum of AAP services in Fairfax County as well as a brief overview of the AAP screening process. This meeting is open to all interested parents with students in kindergarten through 6th grade. You can also get additional information about the AAP program in the Fall 2024-2025 Advanced Academics Newsletter.
Hispanic Heritage Month: Share Your Culture with Your Lane Family!Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month by celebrating the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. The celebration starts today and runs through October 15th. We are planning to observe this special month more than ever this year. Did you know that almost 10% of our students at Lane speak Spanish at home? And we bet there are even more who come from a Hispanic heritage. We want to celebrate all of them! Watch for more visible appreciation around the school in the coming weeks (including a colorful new bulletin board and a big map where students can let us know where they are from). We are also planning a quarterly cultural celebration for later this fall, which will spotlight Hispanic Heritage Month along with other cultural observances and celebrations. Watch for more information on that event coming soon. Most of all, we want to showcase and honor our students of Hispanic heritage. We encourage all families of Hispanic heritage to send in pictures of their Lane students so we can post them alongside our new bulletin board. You can email the photos to our family liaison, Melanie Crosby Hardy, at macrosby@fcps.edu, or send it to her through TalkingPoints. Please send photos in by Friday, September 20th.
Save the Date for Blue Star Welcome Week “Muffins for Military Lions” – Monday, September 23rd!Blue Star Welcome Week is a nationwide initiative to ensure military families feel a sense of belonging to their school communities. We are honored to have many military-connected lions in our school community and look forward to celebrating them during this special week. On Monday, September 23rd, we will host a Blue Star Welcome Week “Muffins for Military Lions” reception from 8:30 to 9:15 a.m. In the past, this reception has been for military families only, but we recognize that all Lane Lions are connected to these students as classmates, friends, neighbors, and more! So this year, all Lane Lions – military and non-military – and their families are welcome! We ask that each family bring a dozen mini muffins or half a dozen full-size muffins to share with others. Muffins can be store-bought or homemade. We just ask that if you make your own you provide an ingredients list so that our families with allergies can choose safely. If you’d like join us that morning, please fill out this RSVP form and tell us what you’ll bring. We look forward to celebrating our military families together on the 23rd!
PTA News
Offerings this session include karate, science, chess, sports, Zumba, and Harry Potter. Some sessions will be taught be Lane staff. If you're interested, please register as soon as possible. A couple of offerings have low enrollment at the moment and are in danger of cancellation. Registration closes at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, September 12th.
It’s Not Too Late to Join the PTA!Please consider joining this great organization, run completely by parent volunteers, that does so much to support our school. Being a Lane PTA member has numerous benefits – it's a great way to meet new friends and become more involved in your child's school and community. Join on their website today!
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