The Cove Connection 

Sunday, September 26th, 2021

Issue #7

For Previous Issues Click Here

Principal's Message

What are “just right” books?

by Kristie Martinez, District EL/Literacy Specialist

Parents often wonder why book matching is so important. Why can’t their child just read whatever they want? “Just right” books are the books that will help build your child’s reading skills and confidence. “Just right” books give your child the opportunity to be strategic. They create an opportunity for your child to practice problem solving without being overwhelmed, whether they are using all they know to solve tricky words or plotting a character’s development across the chapters of their books. “Just right” books set your children up for success to be thoughtful, persistent, and confident readers.  

Strategies to help select “just right” books for your child at home:

• Reading Level - Your child’s teacher used the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System to gather information in order to develop an overall picture of their reading ability.  Aside from highlighting your child’s strengths and identifying areas of growth, the assessment summarizes your child’s reading development along a continuum assigning a letter from A to Z.  You can use your child’s letter span to guide you towards “just right” books at home.  Sites like Scholastic Book Wizard, allow you to search for books at various reading levels.  You can take the generated list to find “just right” books for your child at our school and/or local libraries.  

• Five Finger Rule - The five finger rule is an easy check to see if a book of interest is “just right”.  To use the five finger rule, have your child select a page in the middle of the book with a fair amount of text.  Next, have your child read the page aloud while you track errors on your fingers - older students may be able to do this on their own.  Once they finish reading the text, reflect.  No fingers means the text is probably too easy and five fingers is too hard at this time.  “Just right” books tend to have two to four fingers up - enough of a challenge to provide opportunity for strategic thinking, but not too much to overwhelm and discourage. 

• I “PICK” - I “PICK” is a strategy to help your child learn to choose books with intention and mimics the process that we, as adults, use to choose books to read. When your child chooses a book to try, they first think about their Purpose for reading and consider their Interests.  If the book meets their reading needs, they continue by checking to see if they can Comprehend the text and Know most of the words during a text preview. 

No matter which strategy you use, the goal is to help your child find books that will make reading enjoyable so that they look forward to engaging in the practice. You can read the full article by Kristie Martinez, District EL/Literacy Specialist here: What are “Just Right” Books?

School & District News

Calling All 5th Graders! Announcing the 2021-2022 Cove School Yearbook Cover Design Contest! This year's theme is: "Let's Sail Together" - We cannot change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust our sails to always reach our destination. The winning entry will appear on the front of the yearbook and the winner will receive a free yearbook. All entries are due by 4pm on Tuesday, October 26th, voting will take place at lunch in early November, and the winner will be announced in June. All 5th grade students will receive official rules in their classrooms this week. For more information, please contact: coveryearbook@gmail.com.

Get ready! Kids Heart Challenge is Kicking off on October 8th.  We’re excited to learn about heart health and emotional well-being while having fun and saving lives. Sign up today so you don’t miss out!  The class that completes the most Finn’s Challenge will earn the opportunity to slime Principal Walker

International Walk n Roll to School Day is coming up on Wednesday, Oct 6! We will have walking trains from the school neighborhood and a biking train from Larkspur. Mark your calendars for Wednesday October 6th to take the green way to school.

LCMSD Dress Code Committee Parents, teachers, students of LCMSD we are engaging in an important conversation regarding the current Dress Code Board Policy within our school district. We will be holding our first Dress Code Committee meeting at Hall in Room 401 on Tuesday, September 28th at 3:30 pm. We are inviting all stakeholders, guardians, students, and teachers within our community to review our current policy, learn more about alternative dress code practices, and recent legal cases to consider as we engage in conversation and share feedback. We hope to see you there! 

PTO News

Save the Date! Our Annual Fall Family Get-together event returns! Please mark your calendars for Thursday October 14th, 4:30pm to 6:30pm at The Cove. Halloween costumes are encouraged and more information to come!

SPARK Updates

Purchase Tickets for SPARK Drive-In October 16 & 17th! Join us on October 16th for Sing! or October 17th for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle - or for both nights! Tickets are available for purchase now. If you plan to attend both nights, be sure to select both nights. To-go meals from World Wrapps are available to pre-order. For more information visit here.

Did You Know? Without SPARK our schools would look very different. Without your financial support, your kids would not have access to music, art, science. Technology, engineering/robotics, and wellness/counseling! As the primary fundraising organization for the entire LCMSD for more than 40 years, SPARK raises over $1.5M per year for Neil Cummins, Hall and The Cove through Annual Giving, business partnerships and fundraising events. Annual Giving accounts for 80% of overall SPARK revenue and we rely on your donations to maintain these programs at our schools.  Make your tax-deductible Annual Giving donation today. Learn more about what the Foundation does and how we do it here. 

Become a Biz Partner Do you own a business? Increase your exposure to our school community through event sponsorships, social media promotions and signage all while supporting our schools!  Sign up today. Check out our 2021-2022 Biz partners and don’t forget to tell them SPARK sent you!

Are you getting our emails? Stay in the know on happenings and important SPARK related announcements. If you have not been receiving any emails from SPARK via MailChimp, check your spam/junk/promotion filters and then contact us at info@SPARKschools.org if you want to be added. 

Follow SPARK on social media Follow us on instagram or like us on Facebook.

Community News

Please click link to view Community News that includes updates from:

• Corte Madera Parks and Rec 

• Applications for Christmas Holiday Gift Drive

• St. Pat's CYO Basketball

• Annual Hoop Shoot Competition

• Twin Cities Community Preschool

• Broadway Musical Training Programs

Follow Us! #CoveSchool  #WeAreLCMSD

ABOUT THE COVE CONNECTION The Cove Connection is a digital bulletin published by the CovePTO and distributed to The Cove School community each Sunday via email. To submit content to the Cove Connection, please email info@covepto.org. To receive a subscription to The Cove Connection, or to change your email address, send a note to  covesecretaries@lcmschools.org.