Summer Registration
We will be having summer registration at our school on Tuesday, September 7th from 9 to 12 for new students grades pre-K through 2 and grade 6.
You should bring
- proof of your child's age (birth certificate or passport)
- your child's immunization records
- 3 proofs of address (lease or mortgage statement; cable, phone or credit card bill; change of address from the post office; bank statement)
- If your child was referred by the district placement office, you should bring the referral letter that they gave you.
Sneak Peaks!
Unfortunately, I can't give tours until school opens as the building is still technically a construction site. I have been getting inside the building for short periods of time, however, and have managed to take some pictures. Families who live in the Millennium have also sent me some pictures. Here is a link to a flickr page with some photos to tantalize you. As I get more pictures next week, I will be updating this site.
Updating Parent Contact Information
Parents old and new are asked to click on this link to provide updated contact information to the school. We will use this information to make sure we have accurate home and email addresses to contact families over the summer.
Back to School Emails
I have started to send out emails about class placements, school supplies (which are also posted under the Parents tab on this website), and information about the beginning days of school. Typos and other glitches resulted in a bunch of returned mail that I will work on this week. If you don't receive an email from me about the beginning of the school year by Sunday, you should email me. I am working on cleaning the lists up today and tomorrow.
In other news, progress is being made on our building: Windows are being washed, the play yard is receiving finishing touches, furniture is being delivered, and I hope to get a sneak peak (and some photos to post) on Friday when I go inside to prepare the library for delivery of our 17,000+ volumes in late August. We will be in our building for the first day of school on September 8th.
The 2010-2011 school year calendar and daily schedule has been posted under the Resources tab.
Summer Reading
The dog days of summer seem to have come a bit early this year! This is perfect weather for visiting the library or staying home in the air conditioning to read a new or favorite book! Recently published research shows that the best way to foster a love of reading is to provide children with opportunities to select their own reading materials. Let your child's interests guide their selections (but if you need a little guidance, talk to your local librarian or visit the links provided below.)
The New York Public Library offers lists of reading for different age groups. The elementary grade lists can be found here and the middle school list here.
Sixth graders are expected to read over the summer. Their assignment can be found under the Resources link on this website and on our blog at http://is276.blogspot.com.
MetamorphosisToday (June 16), young scientists in Katie's class discovered that there were two painted lady butterflies in the butterfly garden. Before they were tiny caterpillars about the size of inchworms. The children reported that the caterpillars ate a lot of food and then "they got really fat!" The butterflies formed chrysalides and they turned into butterflies inside. As the children watched the two butterflies, they saw another butterfly's wings coming out of a chrysalis. "This is so, so awesome," exclaimed Isabelle. Tomas and the other children explained that the red stuff on the floor of the garden is called
meconium. (The children told me that this scientific word means
butterfly pee and poop.) Liz put some sugar water in the garden and we are eagerly looking forward to the rest of the butterflies emerging. Once they are all well fed and rested, we will release our butterflies in the park.
Gardening at Liberty Community Garden
The PTA has funded our community garden plot and the students began planting a pizza garden on Monday. We are growing tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and zucchini, onions, garlic, and other yummy toppings for pizza. We are also going to plant some wheat to see what happens. We are going to harvest our produce in the fall and bake a pizza or two in our new school building!
Each week, one class will go down to the garden to work the soil, plant some additional plants, and tend the garden. Katie's class went this past Monday, Lucas's class will go on June 14th, and Maddy's class will go on June 21.
It was a specially lovely trip because parents in the neighborhood were able to stop by and join us in our activities. Carlos's family sent water and snacks and Giselle's mom and dad brought us some delicious lemonade and Alex Hon and Boris Gendelman (Giselle's dad) took lots of photos! Login and go to "My Groups, School Events, 2010-06-07 Community Gardens" to see the pictures.
A School Photo on the Beach at Coney Island Outside the Aquarium
Integrated Curriculum
Integrated curriculum is a fancy way of saying that students study a topic from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. In elementary school, this usually looks like children applying the skills they have learned in literacy, math and art towards an in-depth study of a science or social studies topic. Our kindergarteners have been engaged in an integrated study that came from a field trip. At the beginning of May, our school went on a field trip to the Aquarium in Coney Island. The students came back thrilled with having seen penguins, rays, dolphins and seals, sea horses and hermit crabs and many other creatures who live in the ocean. Since then, they have been reading books about sea creatures, writing about them, acting out stories about sea creatures in dramatic play, building aquaria in the block center, and creating murals in their classrooms that use a variety of media and offers them the opportunity to communicate what they have learned, individually and as a group, about sealife. I am looking forward to seeing what arises from their most recent trip to the zoo!
Fund Raising
Raising money is not what our school is about. However, the funds that the parents and community raise for our school are put to good use. We have purchased some outstanding science equipment for our science room (models of various animal skeletons, aquaria, balances and magnifying glasses), a music program and instruments, books and field trips.
The PTA is sponsoring our first annual auction on May 18 at Cinque in Tribeca. Childcare has been arranged at Playgarden for families who need a babysitter. Contact Anu at anu.garg@bpcschool.org for information. Invitations are going home by mail to current and new families. We hope to see many of our families at this event.
You can also help out our school in smaller ways. We just received a small, but much appreciated, check from BoxTops for Education. We are collecting boxtops at school. There is a box at the front desk. We are also participating in Coke Rewards for those of you who purchase Coca-cola products. We have received some great PE equipment from this program.
We appreciate your support to our school community in whatever ways you choose to contribute -- from field trip chaperoning to attending Family Fridays (our next is on May 14) to participation in fund raising projects.
From the PTA Archival Committee
Dear PS276 Community,
Photos from the February 2010 Family Friday and the Tweed Ice Capades have been uploaded to our site! Please check them out at NEWS AND ARCHIVES | SCHOOL EVENTS.
If you have photos from either event, or from past events, and would like to contribute them to PS276’s archives, please
contact Alex at alex.k.hon@bpcschool.org.
Best regards,
PTA Archival Committee
From the PTA Website Committee
Dear Parents,
The recent PTA Newsletter stated that eChalk IDs and Passwords were given out to all the parents. This is incorrect. In order for parent to obtain an account on our school site, parents will have to self register.
Go to the homepage, mouse over "Parents", and click on "Self Registration". Fill out the form. You will then get an email with your username (which will be your preferred email address) and a temporary password. The first time that you log in, you will be prompted to change your password.
To associate your login to your child's login: click on "My Account" | "Profile" | "Edit Email Alerts" Button. You will need your child's OSIS number.
All students have eChalk accounts, but not all classes have been created yet. We are in the process of helping the teachers create their eChalk classes.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at alex.k.hon@bpcschool.org.
Best regards to all and happy holidays,
PTA Website Committee
From the PTA
Dear Parents,
A great big THANK YOU to all the families who donated to our first City Harvest "Kids CAN Help" Food Drive. Our collection boxes are overflowing!
If you forgot to bring in your cans or would still like to add to the collection you can bring in your donation on Monday, December 14. Remember: NO glass jars and NO perishable food please! There is a collection box by the security desk at the school's entrance as well as in your child's classroom.
And now for the fun part. We need 3-4 volunteers to help count and pack up the donations for collection on Wednesday morning. If you can come in for a few hours on Monday or Tuesday, please contact me at gabriela.newman@bpcschool.org and let me know which days and times you are available. With enough volunteers we should be able to complete this in one 3-hour period.
- Monday 8:45 AM-11:45 AM
- Monday 11:45 AM-2:45 PM
- Tuesday 8:45 AM-11:45 AM
- Tuesday 1:45 AM-2:45 PM
Thanks,
Gabriela Newman
From the PTA
Dear Parents,
Support our school by buying some official PS•IS 276 Logo Merchandise from Zazzle! (10% of the proceeds will be donated to our school)
Click HERE
to check out what's available.
PS•IS 276 PTA
From the PTA
Dear Parents,
PTA draft by-laws are available for downloading (click here ). The by-laws have been amended and will be presented for approval at our next general meeting.
Thanks,
PS 276 PTA Executive Board
Afterschool
Our children are enjoying the afterschool program offered through Manhattan Youth. You can still sign your child up for this program through the Manhattan Youth website.
Manhattan Youth also provides winter break care at the Downtown Community Center for those families who need child care during winter holidays. You should contact them for information.
Welcome to the new Battery Park City School website. Our first year has successfully launched and we have many exciting events and projects in process. Our PTA has been established and they are busy building community and fundraising. Teachers and students are hard at work using literacy, mathematics and art to learn about science, our local community, and our school buildings (present and future). We are also conducting tours and information sessions to inform future students and their families about our rich academic program. And steady progress is being made on our new, green school building on Battery Place.
We will be updating this site frequently, so please check back for new postings!