Si tiene alguna duda sobre esta nota debido a la traduccion,
por favor comuniquese con Rafael Friedmann via email: rfriedmann@aol.com

MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Emerson Families,

We wish you a safe and happy spring break. We will return to school on Monday, April 10 for the last two months of school. Weather permitting, we are planning to hold the April All School Meeting outside on the blacktop on Friday, April 14th. We hope you can join us for the student performance, shout outs and a fun time. Prior to your return after spring break, we are encouraging that you administer a COVID test to your child - we are sending tests home with your students this week.

The Family Art Night was a huge success. Special thanks to Lucy Ames, Ariel Clute and Michelle Falise for all their hard work to plan such a creative and inspiring hands-on event for our community. We also appreciate the many families and school staff who came early to set up and stayed late to clean up afterward. It was great to see all the families and the smiling faces.

This week students have been learning about the activities and social justice work of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Each class had an opportunity to plan a service learning project. The first grade classes walked over to Willard Park to clean up. The third grade classes raised money for the Winter 2023 flood victims in the central valley town of Pajaro, California. The fourth grade classes volunteered to tidy up the Emerson campus. We are proud that Emerson students had an opportunity to do something to serve in our local community.

It is time to register for Summer School. The elementary age summer program is offered from June 5- August 11. You can see the attached link for information regarding the Summer LEARNS program here: Oxford Summer Learns Program.

To register click here: https://berkeleylearns.asapconnected.com/#ProgramID=7488.

We are recruiting for the 2023- 2024 PTA Board. The PTA provides the behind the scenes work that takes our school to the next level of amazing! Would you consider joining us for the next school year? For more information about the positions and what they do, see this document and then fill out the Board Interest Form HERE! We hope to elect the new board at the April Association meeting.

Thank you for your support,

Jana Holmes

UPCOMING EVENTS AND KEY DATES

Thursday, March 30: Equity Circle, 6-8:15pm, at Emerson

Thursday, March 30: BUSD Middle School Open House (times may vary by site)

Monday, April 3 - Friday, April 7: Spring Recess (No School)

Thursday, April 13: Equity Circle, 6-8:15pm, at Emerson

Wednesday, April 26: PTA Association Meeting #3 evening - Board Election (Zoom, in-person TBD)

Add the Emerson Google Calendar to yours!

Note to Readers: BearFacts articles and calendar items are based on submissions from the community and reviewed and edited under the PTA communication policy. Inclusion of an item in BearFacts by itself does not indicate sponsorship or endorsement by the PTA, Emerson school staff, or BUSD.

PTA UPDATE

Thank you everyone who came out Friday and participated in Family Art Night! We’re thrilled to resume this evening of celebrating art at Emerson supported by the PTA. Thank you to all the families who volunteered to make this night happen. We could not have done it without you: Bruk Abebe, Terry Albury, Somala Albury, Emma Cott, Jocelyn Cooper, Will Caygil- Knapp, Rana Cho, Amy Fire, Eleanor Hollander, Elise Kneram, Meg Kunchai, David Lehrer, Rachel Manadhar, Dimpal Pariyar, Ginny Prince, Matt Small, Anne-Sophie Seret, Gaganpreet Thind, and Lauren Zeller all helped throughout the night. A special thank you to Lucy Ames, Ariel Clute, and Michelle Falise for sharing your amazing creativity with our community. Thank you to Jana Holmes and all Emerson staff for helping support and set up the evening, and to the PTA and Emerson parents who worked hard to fundraise and support the Heart of Emerson allowing for events like Art Night. Below are photos from the event and here is a link to a Time-lapse video of our own “Dots Obsession” à la Yayoi Kusama.

JOIN THE PTA

The Emerson PTA Board is a group of volunteers who meet monthly to support the Emerson community through fundraising, events, and programs. Consider joining us to collaborate on building an inclusive culture and modeling service for our Emerson students. Fill out the Board Interest Form HERE!

SPRING VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

We also need volunteers for three upcoming events. Please reach out to the committee chair if you are able to help!

Spring Service Day - a day of community service (TBD- possibly Earth Day April 22)

Contact: Ariel Clute, cluteariel@gmail.com

Moveathon - May 6

Contact: Elise Kneram, kneram.elise@gmail.com

Tech Talk Series - Digital citizenship, games, online best practices with kids!

Contact: Matt Small, smaulio@gmail.com

PTA Association Meeting

PTA Association Meeting #3 - 6p Wednesday April 26 via Zoom (in-person TBD). This is our Election Meeting, with a presentation by the Nominating Committee.

BUSD Reparations Task Force

BUSD has just announced the creation of a Reparations Task Force to establish a program of true reparations for BUSD students with ancestors who were enslaved in the US; to do this, two key questions of implementation need to be answered: how to pay for such a program and how to structure and implement it. BUSD is seeking 15-20 members of our community to serve and fully participate in this important work and is holding an informational webinar on Thursday, March 30th from 6-7pm. To join, please follow this link and read more about this important work being led by our School Board President, Laura Babitt and Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel here.

Another Fun FAMILY ART NIGHT

It was so great to be making art together as families once again! To those of you who were able to come, thank you for sharing your Friday night with us. And a HUGE thank you to Michelle Falise and Ariel Clute who were with me every step of the way with planning and prepping for the big night. Thank you, too, to all of the volunteers and the PTA who so generously funds this event. I had a great time and I hope many of you did too!

Ms. Ames

ART CORNER

2nd Grade Quilted Artworks inspired by Lorenzo Pace

As part of their unit on the Underground Railroad, 2nd Graders read a book called Harriet Tubman and My Grandmother's Quilts. Written and illustrated by Lorenzo Pace, the book included old drawings and photographs of Pace's ancestors and of Harriet Tubman. He also used his grandmother's quilts in the illustrations, digitally overlapping the colors of the quilts over the black and white images. For our project, second graders chose images of Harriet Tubman and various fabric pieces to combine. They added areas of color over the black and white images with markers and watercolor pencils. We were so inspired by Harriet Tubman's life and Lorenzo Pace's art.

BAMPFA Second Saturday

Second Saturday is coming up right after Spring Break on Saturday, April 8.

Gallery+Studio: Torn Paper Portraits with artist Raphael Noz | 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM

Gallery+Studio integrates art on view at BAMPFA with a related art project. Sign up at the Art Lab 10 minutes ahead of the session. For ages 6 - 12 and their grown-ups

Frank Moore’s exuberant paintings were part of the late artist’s wide-ranging practice exploring our capacity to connect with one another as people. Even his landscape paintings feel like portraits. Taking his soft-edged paintings as inspiration, use torn tissue paper to “paint” a portrait or another scene. Use your drawing made on acetate as a base, then add layers of colored tissue paper, using the pigment that bleeds from the dampened paper to complete your image.

Roundtable Reading: Clean Getaway by Nic Stone | 2:00 PM

At Roundtable Reading, young readers read aloud to one another from the opening pages of a good book for about an hour. Children who participate at the event will receive a copy of the book to continue reading at home. No advance sign-up needed; just show up promptly at 2 o’clock, ready to read. For ages 8 and up (younger kids welcome as listeners)

Reading led by Adoria Williams, librarian, formerly a Berkeley Unified School District librarian.

How to go on an unplanned road trip with Grandma, a.k.a. G’ma: Grab your suitcase. Fasten your seatbelt! Bring the Green Book–G’mas’s most treasured possession. It holds history, memories, and most importantly, the way home. Don’t bring your cell phone. Avoid contact with Dad, even if G’ma acts stranger than usual. G’ma’s never been conventional, so this trip won’t be either! Scoob escapes tensions at home and school as he learns more about the world on an unforgettable RV road trip with his beloved G’ma.

Eggspedition Around the World - Come explore culture and diversity with UC Berkeley students!

Every year, Eggster holds the largest annual egg hunt and learning festival in the Bay Area. It is a fun, free educational event that consists of activities booths, performances, and egg hunts to inspire the young children to the benefits of pursuing higher education.

This year, the event is called “Eggspedition Around the World”, and the theme is dedicated to develop the idea of strengthening one’s own community and the exploration of new ones. The event will be held on April 15th from 10 am to 5pm on the UC Berkeley campus.

More information is available here: https://eggster.org

Find Emerson Online

Website: https://emersonelementary.org/

Remind: Text @7f6hb to 81010; or go to www.remind.com/join/7f6hb

Facebook: www.facebook.com/emersonpta (or follow @emersonPTA)

About BearFacts News:
BearFacts News is a weekly publication created by parent volunteers and posted online at emersonelementary.org.

BearFacts articles and calendar items are based on submissions from the community and reviewed and edited under the PTA communication policy. Inclusion of an item in BearFacts by itself does not indicate sponsorship or endorsement by the PTA, Emerson school staff, or BUSD.

If you have a news item or announcement to include in the BearFacts News, please send an email to bearfacts@emersonelementary.org. Please keep your message brief and include all the pertinent details including dates, times, locations and contact information. Send images as an e-mail attachment and include alt-text. The deadline is each Monday at 6 p.m.