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How can I help Beach School?
Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities
There are several upcoming opprotunities to support our school community. If you plan to attend any of these events, please consider signing up to help!
Pottery Night: Volunteers Needed - We could certainly use some helping hands! Interested? Check out this sign up and pick a slot. Spread the word! This is sure to be a fun evening! We're looking for helping hands the night of the event and the first week of December
Beach Bash Student Art Coordinator Needed
Our student art coordinators for the annual Beach Bash Fundraiser are stepping down, and the auction committee is in need of enthusiastic volunteer(s) to orgranize and develop art projects for each class! This is a fun & creative volunteer opportunity that helps raise funds to support Beach. Please contact Amber Elf Wagner if you're interested in helping out!

Donate K-2nd Boy's Pants or Shorts
Accidents happen. We are in the season of puddles and there is a need for pants and shorts for the K-2 boys. If you can contribute, please drop off in the front office or with Megan O'Leary.

Community Event Planner Wanted!
If you are interested in helping plan fun & inclusive community events at Beach, we are looking for someone to join our awesome PTA team! Please email PTA VP Melinda Mechling if interested.
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Get to Know your Community
We have the BEST Librarian

Ayn Reyes Frazee takes seriously her responsibility to our Beach School 452 students. Please download and read her latest article, "Notes From an Equity Fellow: Casual Diversity and ALA Conferences Spark Enthusiasm," here: https://commons.pacificu.edu/olaq/vol25/iss2/6/
From Ayn's article: "When I stepped into the role of librarian at my elementary school five years ago, I noticed that books on the shelves representing black and brown characters seem to stick to a narrow range of topics and skew toward the stereotypical—books featuring African American kids frequently have Civil Rights and basketball themes and books featuring Latino children portray characters struggling with immigration issues. While these topics are important and do represent the interests and experiences of some of my students, I found myself searching for books featuring main characters who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in the ways that white characters have been represented for years: solving mysteries, creating art, navigating friend drama and more. Finding high-quality books featuring this type of casual diversity—meaningful diversity that is incorporated into a book but isn’t the focus of the story—became my new crusade."
In addition to her work in the school library, she serves on the board of the Oregon Association of School Libraries and as a reviewer for Kirkus. Ayn is a 2019 ALSC Equity Fellow.
Go give her a high 5 or a giant hug when you are at school.
4th Annual Milk and Bookies a Success!
The annual Milk and Bookies author visit and book giveaway wasa a great success! The kids loved listening Chillin' the Poet, and all students went home with 2 brand new books. Thank you to Ms. Frazee for putting on this wonderful school event.


Adults Pick Up Basketball Games

- Beach Gym
- Tuesdays 7pm-9pm
- All are welcome!
Topic Talks with Principal Lisa Hawking
Topic Talks are a continuation of “Coffee with the Principal”. The title “Topic Talk” better describes what we’ll do and why (described below). We will also have Cafe en Espanol, scheduled for adjacent Fridays, along with Black Affinity Brunch starting in December
Dates and times for Topic Talks are:
- December 13th 9-10am
- January 24, 9-10 a.m.
- February 14, 9-10 a.m.
- March 20, 9-10 a.m.
- April 17, 9-10 a.m.
- May 22, 9-10 a.m.
Dates for Cafe en Espanol are:
- December 6
- January 31
- February 28
- April 3
- May 29
Black Affinity Brunch
All Cafe en Espanol are facilitated by our wonderful Esther Romero, from 9-10 a.m. in the auditorium.
The goals for Topic Talks and Cafe en Espanol are communication and community building. We want to create a space for parents to receive some information about important school-related topics, and a space to hear from, learn from, and better know those of you who are able to attend. (We regret this is not a time that works for many parents’ work schedules and hope that we’ll get to connect with you at evening events, around school such as at arrival or dismissal or in other ways-- please reach out if we can answer any questions or support you or your child.)
We would love to learn topics of interest from you. Topic Talk topics I’m planning so far include school survey and assessment data, student assessments overviews (MAP, Smarter Balanced, etc.), Social Emotional Learning, Restorative Justice & Collaborative Problem Solving. This Friday’s topic is our 2019-20 School Goals including school data and team processes that led to their formation.
At Topic Talks we’ll meet in Circle. Circle work increases the generativity of a group of individuals, helping us find common knowledge and interests, and productive differences, to accomplish shared purposes. We’ll structure the ability for each person to have a turn to speak or listen, and also a structure at closing for collecting additional questions from you that I’ll either be able to answer quickly, or connect with you about later, depending on time.
I hope all parents will feel welcome to join us!
Sincerely, Lisa Hawking
Beach Garden Corner

Since the start of the 2019-2020 school year to November 14, 2019, the Garden Team has provided 58.75 hours of environmental education to Beach Elementary School students. Between August 2019 to November 14, 2019 the garden has yielded 53 lbs. of food, the vast majority of which has gone to the Beach Food Pantry. Ongoing and upcoming education projects include:
-Practicing classroom-based skills with Katrina de Boer (School Counseling)
-Building a sense of community and encouraging prosocial behavior with Ali Piff (5th grade)
-Lunch and Story in the Garden with Anna Marquez (grades 1/2 and 4/5)
-Garden extension during recess for Cameron Shaw (3rd grade)
-Weekly garden maintenance assistance with Mika Hilbers and Molly Sheehan (4th grade)
-Tracking weather observations, collecting data, and presentation practice with Julianne Stevens and Laurel Hazzards (2nd grade, Weather Science Unit and Graphing math support)
-Seasonal observations and haiku-writing with Ali Piff and Oscar Almazan (5th grade, writing/literacy comprehension support)
-Flower Parts dissection with Ani Ponz, Cameron Shaw, and Rodrigo Augierre (3rd grade, Growing Things Science Unit)
-Guided rock-finding, making rock paint, and making seed balls with AnneMarie Juarez and possibly others (1st grade, Sand, Rocks, and Pebbles Science Unit support)
-Rice Rock Museum field trip assistance (1st grade, also part of Sand, Rocks, and Pebbles)
If anyone is interested in assisting with garden work, please meet at the Garden on Mondays from 3:15-4:15. If anyone is interested in volunteering education hours or helping make teaching materials, please email the Garden Coordinator, Mckenzie McCann at mckenzie.mccann@student.prescott.edu.

English Classes at Beach


You can find more infohere.
TAG Nomination Window
The TAG nomination window is open now until November 26th. Students who are already identified as TAG do not need to be re-nominated, though you may wish to nominate your student in an additional area if they aren’t identified yet. Students at any grade level can be nominated by parents or teachers to be considered for the Talented and Gifted program. Nomination forms in multiple languages are here: https://www.pps.net/Page/1546 . Please return them to your classroom teacher to fill out the teacher portion.
All second grade students in PPS will be screened for TAG eligibility in the area of Intellectual Giftedness in October using a universal non-verbal test – this will not impact students who already have an Intellectual TAG designation.
Questions? Email Beach TAG Coordinator Ayn Frazee afrazee@pps.net