Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year
from Chaparral.

We'll see you in 2012!

December 2011

Dear Chaparral Families,

The “feeling” at Chaparral recently has been that of gratitude and caring. With all of our November school activities behind us, such as parent/teacher conferences, food donations, book donations, the book fair, and community involvement (Calabasas Classic), we have focused on taking care of each other at school and developing these same skills outside of school with others. What a great time of year to apply our focus character trait of Caring in so many of our activities!

As we continue to focus on developing students’ academic progress here at Chaparral, there are some strategies parents can apply at home to support and nurture students learning, regardless of where your child is academically. Some examples are asking your child open-ended questions in order to elicit higher-level thinking and also applying this same strategy to tasks. Children develop different ways of completing tasks that help promote critical thinking, problem solving and creativity.

During the month of November, we emphasized Caring as one of the "Six Pillars of Character" and we will continue with the same characteristic this month.  Students will be hearing age appropriate examples of caring behavior everyday during the morning P.A. announcements.  I have also used this month's trait as a springboard to discuss the topic of bullying.  I have met with most grade levels to talk about what bullying looks like and how to prevent bullying from taking place.  Some of the first suggetions that I give students who are feeling bullied is to tell that person to stop the behavior.  Many times I ask students if they have informed "the bully" how his/her behavior makes them feel, only to find out that students stay quiet.  Students who participate in bullying behavior need to hear how what they say, or what they do, makes others feel.  The next step is to tell the closest adult to where the bullying is taking place.  If it occurs on the yard, tell a playground aide.  If it happens in the classroom, tell the teacher.  I also recommend that the student always tell their teacher and parents about the situation.  That way, those adults who are in constant contact with the students are aware.  Lastly, we have discussed, as a school, how watching someone get bullied is also a form of participating in bullying.  Silence can be interpreted as condoning the behavior, good or bad.  The big message here is that if we care about each other, we are not bullying one another.

Taking a glimpse ahead, we are looking forward to the month of December and all the school and holiday activities it brings.  We will be on Winter Break from Dec. 19 - Jan. 2.  School will resume on January 3, 2011.  Happy Holidays to all!
 

-Leo F. Buscaglia

Warm regards,

Rosemarie Hibler

Principal