Sept 29-Oct 23: PTA Feed the Candy Monster
Oct 9: No School - District Professional Development Day
Oct 10: PTA Red Robin Takeover
Oct 14: Wear Orange for National Stop Bullying Day
Oct 16: Individual Picture Day
Oct 23: Popcorn Friday
Oct 26-30: Conferences & Early Release at 12:15pm / Book Fair
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Thank you for another great week at Chambers! October has arrived which means conferences will be coming up soon. Keep your eye on ParentSquare for your child's teacher to send out conference sign ups within the next week.
In this week's newsletter, you'll see a monthly update from our specialist teachers so you can capture what your child experiences in PE, music and library.
Beyond “How Was Your Day?”
Talking with your child about school helps you stay connected to their learning, friendships, successes, and challenges. As a reminder, throughout October we are sharing open ended questions that can help you move beyond one word answers and begin more meaningful conversations about your child’s school experience.
This week, try asking:
“Who did you spend time with today, and what did you enjoy doing together?”
If your child needs help getting started, follow up with: “How did you help someone feel included today?”
Gratefully serving Chambers students, staff and community,
Mrs. Gann
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Dear Chambers Primary Families,
October is officially here, and our Chambers Champs have had a fantastic week! On Friday, we had our first lunchroom pizza party to celebrate the classrooms that have been consistently showing outstanding behavior and following expectations in the cafeteria.
This month, our schoolwide CHAMPS Trait of the Month is Courteous. Courteous means being polite, using good manners, and treating others with respect in everything we do. We encourage you to ask your student how they practiced courtesy at school this week!
Thank you for your ongoing partnership, support with routines, and help in reinforcing our schoolwide expectations at home.
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As we move into October, we continue to focus on building strong, consistent attendance habits for all of our Chambers Champs. On Thursday, we had a lot of fun launching our first "Beat the Bell" during morning announcements to celebrate students who arrive on time and ready to learn, and we look forward to continuing this surprise feature on a random day next week!
We understand that some appointments are necessary and need to take place during school hours, but we strongly encourage families to bring students to school before and after their appointments so they don't miss a full day of learning. Thank you for your ongoing partnership and dedication to prioritizing school attendance each and every day!
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Tip for Families: Build a backup plan for busy mornings. Unexpected delays (like missing keys, morning traffic, or alarm hiccups) happen to all of us! Partnering with a neighbor, another Chambers family, or a relative who can step in for a ride or walk-to-school duty when your morning gets derailed helps ensure your child still gets to class on time without added stress.
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We are excited for our first Student of the Month celebration of the year this Thursday. We will celebrate students for showing all of our CHAMPS traits. During the month of October, our focus trait is courteous. Courteous is when we are polite, use our manners, and act in a respectful way.
This week our regulation skill is called Finger Tug from the "feel it" category, which uses our senses to support regulation and modulation.
What is a Finger Tug?
- Use the fingers and thumb on one hand to grab the thumb on the opposite hand.
- Gently squeeze along the thumb several times as you work toward the tip.
- Repeat this nine more times, squeezing along each finger on both hands.
In partnership,
Ms. Catie Bartley
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Conferences are around the corner! Every day on the week of October 26-30, school will release at 12:15pm. Please be sure to have arrangements for your student to be picked up on time. Buses will drop off approximately 3.5 hours earlier than the typical time. |
Students have had a wonderful start to the school year in the library! We have been getting to know one another, learning about our media center, and building important library skills. Students have become familiar with our routines and have been excited to explore books, learn new skills, and share their ideas.
Grades K-4 have learned about:
- Our librarian and media center
- Library rules, routines, and procedures
- How to keep books organized and in the correct order on the shelves
- How to use shelf markers correctly
- How to use our self-checkout system
Students have also been introduced to the Washington State Library Children’s Choice Picture Book Award. Through read-alouds, conversations, and activities, students have been discovering nominated picture books, sharing their thinking, and building their love of reading.
We have already read our first nominated book, The Day the Books Disappeared! Students enjoyed listening to the story, discussing their ideas, and thinking about what makes books special and important to us. We will continue exploring more nominated titles and participating in fun activities inspired by the books throughout the year.
Special Programs Library Learning
Our Special Programs students have been busy learning all about our school and the people who make it special! Students have been getting to know important people and places around our school, including Mrs. Gann, our principal; Mrs. Davis, our PE teacher; and Mrs. VanSoest, our music teacher.
Students have also learned about classroom and school rules, why rules are important, and what can happen when rules are not followed. Through conversations, read-alouds, and activities, students have been practicing how to be safe, respectful, and responsible members of our school community.
Of course, books have been a favorite part of our library time! Some of the students’ favorite read-alouds so far have been:
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Pete the Cat and the Surprise Teacher by James Dean
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The Pigeon Has to Go to School! by Mo Willems
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No, David! by David Shannon
It has been wonderful watching all students become more familiar and comfortable with their school, their routines, and their love of books!
Mrs. Morgan
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Students spent September learning and practicing routines for the gym and playground while building movement skills, teamwork, and sportsmanship.
Special Programs
Kindergarten and first grade students practiced entering the gym, participating in movement songs, using equipment safely, cleaning up, and lining up at the end of class. They explored stepping stones, the balance beam, scooters, and crawling through an upright hula hoop. These activities will eventually be combined into an obstacle course.
Students in second through fourth grade participated in movement songs, obstacle course activities, ball and beanbag tosses, jumping, and building with foam blocks. They are working toward completing these activities in station rotations. Classes also practiced putting away equipment and using the parachute together. A new calming routine, featuring dimmed lights and relaxing music, now helps students regulate their bodies and emotions before returning to class.
Kindergarten
Kindergarten students practiced locomotor movements, including walking, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, galloping, crawling, and sliding. They also developed spatial awareness and practiced concepts such as before, after, between, ordinal position, and alphabetical order. Scooter activities helped students strengthen their core muscles while working together to build a number line.
First and Second Grade
Students reviewed gym and playground expectations, practiced locomotor skills, and participated in games such as Jurassic Park Tag and Star Wars Hula Hoop Tag. Cooperative activities emphasized teamwork and sportsmanship.
Third and Fourth Grade
Students reviewed Chambers’ four square rules and participated in cooperative games focused on teamwork, communication, and problem solving. During a castle building game, teams used hula hoops to construct and rebuild castles while creating strategies, assigning roles, and encouraging one another.
Next month, students will begin their soccer unit!
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Kindergarten: Kindergarteners are off to a great start in music! They have learned their assigned spots, classroom expectations, and they are doing a great job following directions. Students are showing high and low with movement, echoing melody patterns, moving to the steady beat, dancing while maintaining control of their bodies, and practicing using the 5 different voices: singing, speaking, calling, whisper and inner voice. Music class also supports overall learning by practicing colors, counting, and letters. For Hispanic Latino Heritage Month, we read the book, Sing, Don’t Cry, by Angela Dominguez. It’s a story that ties in with the Mexican folk song, Cielito Lindo. Students learned to sing the main refrain of that song, “Ay, ay, ay, ay, Canta y no llores.” We used scarves to move to the triple meter song pattern. The students really liked learning this beautiful song!
1st Grade: All of last year’s hard work really shows in 1st grade. These students are already reading, writing, and composing rhythms, identifying high/low, loud/soft, and fast/slow, and learning the difference between beat and rhythm. A few favorite songs so far are Dooby Doo, Snail Snail, and Naughty Kitty Cat. The singing in 1st grade is outstanding! For Hispanic Latino Heritage Month, 1st graders read the book, Sing, Don’t Cry, by Angela Dominguez. It’s a story that ties in with the Mexican folk song, Cielito Lindo. Students learned to sing the main refrain of that song, “Ay, ay, ay, ay, Canta y no llores.” We used scarves to move to the triple meter song pattern. Students really loved this song and learned more words than I expected!
2nd Grade: 2nd grade is ready and eager to continue learning new rhythm patterns! We finished the 2nd grade rhythm writing and reading/performing pre-assessment. Students will begin learning about the half note and half rest. Singing continues to be a strong skill for these students. A new favorite song of theirs is Banana Phone by Raffi. For Hispanic Latino Heritage Month we learned the song Mi Chacra (My Farm), a folk song from Argentina. Students learned the names of baby animals in Spanish, and they accompanied their singing with a variety of classroom percussion instruments. It was a lot of fun! We also read the book, La Mariachi, by Isabel Estrada, ill. Addy Rivera Sonda. Students learned about mariachi ensembles. We learned about the guitarrón, and the vihuela and all of the instruments included in a mariachi band.
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3rd Grade: These amazing students were great singers in 2nd grade and they continue to amaze me as they prepare their songs for the Veterans’ Day Program that will be held at the school on Thursday, November 5th at 6pm. 3rd graders sure love singing Fifty Nifty United States and the Armed Forces Medley! Mark your calendars and invite family, friends, neighbors and most importantly Veterans! Students are committed to learning the songs, lyrics, and movements. They should be practicing their songs using the lyrics packets that were sent home. Speaking parts will be assigned and coming home soon.
4th Grade: 4th graders have started the year off with dancing the fun folk dance, Sasha. We reviewed the instruments of the orchestra that students learned in 3rd grade. For Hispanic Latino Heritage Month, 4th graders read Ada's Violin, The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay, by Susan Hood, ill. Sally Wern Comport. This is a true story about a town built on a landfill and children learning to play instruments from recycled trash. These students went on to perform concerts all over the world to sold-out audiences. It is an inspiring story about the importance of music and will tie in nicely to our upcoming listening unit based on The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
Special Programs: Students enjoy listening to calming music. We are singing songs that help them with core words/learning in their daily classroom. Students love to sing songs about animals, counting, and letter sounds. Freeze dance has been a hit.
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Hello, Chambers families!
Thank you to everyone who joined our first General Membership Meeting and to the volunteers who helped make our first Popcorn Friday happen! We appreciate the time, ideas, and support you bring to our school community.
The Candy Monster Is Hungry!
Our Candy Monster collection is underway and continues through October 23! Help us collect candy and treats for our October 30 Trunk or Read event. Classes will compete to collect the most donations by weight, and the winning class will earn a class party!
Drop donations in the front-office collection bin before or after school. Please label your bag with your student’s class so your donations count toward the contest!
School T-Shirt Forms Due Monday, October 12
If you have not already submitted a request form, please complete the online form below by Monday, October 12. If your student’s Chambers shirt still fits, keep wearing it! Simply indicate on the form that no shirt is needed so we know that no follow-up is needed.
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Already submitted a form, on paper or online? You’re all set—please do not submit another.
Complete the school T-shirt form here:
Have an outgrown Chambers shirt to pass along? Place it in the labeled returns and donations bin in the front office. Thank you for helping keep our Champs outfitted!
Mileage Club Starts in October!
We’re looking for volunteers to help keep our Chambers Champs moving and cheer them on! See the steps below to get started and find a time that works for you.
Want to Volunteer? Start Here!
We’d love your help! Here’s how to get started:
1. Apply with the district. New volunteers should open the link below, select Register, and follow the application steps.
2. Watch for your approval email. Wait for confirmation from the district before volunteering at school. Already approved? Go straight to step 3. If you’re unsure whether your approval is current, email volunteers@upsd83.org.
3. Choose an opportunity. Open our PTA volunteer sign-up page below, choose an activity, and follow the prompts to sign up for an available time.
Red Robin Restaurant Takeover — Saturday, October 10
Save the date for our next restaurant takeover! Enjoy a meal with family or friends while supporting Chambers Primary PTA. A portion of proceeds will benefit our PTA programs—please mention the fundraiser when ordering.
Thank you for supporting our restaurant takeovers!
Save the Date: Trunk or Read — Friday, October 30
Mark your calendars for our Chambers Trunk or Read event! More details and ways to help are coming soon. In the meantime, your Candy Monster donations will help us get ready!
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PTA Reflections: Celebrate Creativity!
Reflections is a national arts recognition program for students in pre-K through grade 12. This year’s theme is “What My Culture Means to Me.”
A Reflections information meeting will be held Thursday, October 8, from 7–7:30 p.m. (Pacific) in the Sunset Primary library, with a Zoom option.
Meeting ID: 383 864 5570
Passcode: ixq8kU
Join the PTA!
Your membership supports student activities, school events, and our Chambers community. We’re offering two individual membership options:
- $15 — Membership only
- $25 — Membership plus a T-shirt
Sign up by October 15 to take advantage of the membership-plus-T-shirt offer. PTA membership remains open throughout the school year!
Join the PTA here:
Thank you for being part of our Chambers community!
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