Jefferson ES 2018-19 School Year

The Junior Olympics are racing toward us at a record pace.  We still need a few more parent volunteers to sign up for half-day slots (here) to ensure the success of this event.  This is truly a Jefferson Community Day!

The teachers put on an amazing feast for the parent volunteers today.  Surrounded by the Spring Art Show featuring artwork from every student in every class, we all felt very appreciated.  And we discovered that every Jefferson teacher is secretly a gourmet cook!

Are you watching your kids scroll through life, with their rapid-fire thumbs and six-second attention span?  Physician and filmmaker Delaney Ruston saw this with her own kids and learned that the average kid spends 6.5 hours a day looking at screens.  She wondered about the effect of all this screen time and about the friction occurring in homes and schools around negotiating screen time.  Her film "Screenagers" will be screened in the Auditorium at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 2, 2019, followed by a Q&A.

Wednesday, April 17, is Bike & Roll to School Day, when students, parents, caregivers, and school staff get the opportunity to raise the visibility of biking while promoting outdoor fun, safety, physical activity, healthy habits, and respect for the environment. Jefferson is a proud participant in Bike & Roll to School Day 2019!

Participants may stop by the tables in the Middle Yard or the Kindergarten Yard before school on April 19 to collect a few special goodies to celebrate their participation in Bike & Roll to School Day 2019!

Now Let's Get Ready To Roll!

A group of Jefferson students participated in the 6th annual Ezra Jack Keats Bookmaking Competition, celebrating children’s literacy and the art of bookmaking.  To enter the competition, students wrote and illustrated an original story either individually, in pairs, or as a class.  This year, Room 103 (kindergarten) wrote and illustrated a book about peace, Room 213 (4th grade) made their own animal creation stories, and two students in Room 205 (4th and 5th grade) wrote variations of the Cinderella story. Fifth grader Cate Smith won second place citywide in the Elementary category for her book Cinderellie.  Congratulations to all who participated!

The awards celebration took place on Sunday, March 17, at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, where the books were on display for visitors to enjoy. The books will be displayed in the Children’s Room at the SFPL Main Library from April 1 - 26 and then at the Asian Art Museum as part of the SFUSD Youth Arts Festival from April 27 - May 5.  The competition was organized by the SFUSD Library Department, the San Francisco Public Library, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, and the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation.

The students of Room 205 created these beautiful paintings of the California Missions.  

The Jefferson Gala is coming March 2!  Don't miss the biggest party of the year!  Get your tickets here now!  Ticket prices are higher at the door.

More than 350 items are available to bid on online!  This is the only place you will find Jefferson teacher outings!  The online auction is open to everyone (although teacher outings are only open to the Jefferson Community).
Sign up if you are new to the online auction, or Log in if you've participated before.  Bidding closes on February 27 at 10 p.m.

Welcome back to school!  The students of Room 209 would like you to know that Accidents Will Happen, thanks to some cleverly illustrated onomatopoeia.  Splat!  Screech!  Crash!  Thumpa!

The Jefferson Student Council is sponsoring a sock drive!  Please bring in new socks, any size.  The goal is 1,000 pairs of socks.  All socks will be donated to St. Anthony Foundation's Free Clothing Program.  Socks rock!

We need more Mondrian on Mondays!  Thank you Room 207 for this beautiful collage of artwork.

Concerned about how technology might affect your child?  Struggling to find ways to balance family screen time and non-digital activities?  Want to know more about Jefferson's Digital Citizenship program?  Join us at our next PTA meeting on November 15 for a screening of Screenagers followed by a discussion.

At Jefferson Math Night, fourth and fifth graders and their grownups had a blast doing math puzzles and games with the intriguing names of Origami Snapping Raptor, Number Paths, Three Bean Salads, 101 to 200 Bingo, The Last Block, Close to 1000, Uncover and Cover Up, and Are You a Square? As well as estimating the number of crayons, cubes, rubber bands, and cotton balls in the ever-popular Estimation Jars!

Many thanks to Jefferson teachers Kim Probst and Laura Alonso for organizing this phenomenal event and to all of the Jefferson teachers who spent their evening overseeing so many fun and popular stations.

NOW through November 14, please bring in a donation of nonperishable food for Jefferson's Annual Food Drive.  The most needed items this year are canned fish or meat, peanut butter, soup, chili, stew, beans, low-sugar cereal, canned fruit, canned vegetables, brown rice, and whole grain pasta.  Please no glass containers, no open packages, and nothing past its "use by" date.  Food contributions go into the big barrels near the Main Office.  Everything will go to the very worthy SF-Marin Food Bank for distribution.

It's not a stretch to say that Jefferson's first community yoga class was a big success.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work we go!  Our hard-working Jefferson staff always gets into the spirit on Halloween.

The very talented Shirley Yee in the Main Office decorated these fantastic Halloween pumpkins in the Wizard of Oz theme.  Guess the pumpkin's weight, and win the pumpkin!

A generous group of children's book authors visited every Jefferson classroom for Authors Day.  Author-illustrator Julie Downing (top left) founded Authors Day 20 years ago when she was a Jefferson parent.  The authors read to or drew for the students and explained the process of writing and illustrating a book.  We are grateful to all of the authors who gave their time and shared their experiences!

Jefferson had a very successful Walk & Roll to School Day 2018, with more than 200 students participating, four Walking School Buses, and lots of parent and staff volunteers.  We ran the numbers, and it turns out that 70% of participants were walkers.  Well done everyone for Walking & Rolling to school!

Wednesday, October 10, is Walk & Roll to School Day, when students in more than 40 countries and in thousands of schools across America all walk to school, bringing attention to safer and more accessible streets and sidewalks, pedestrian safety, physical activity, and respect for the environment.

Jefferson is a proud participant in Walk & Roll to School Day 2018!

Park at Jefferson for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass!  We're one of the few parking lots close to the festival - our lot is completely fenced in - we monitor the entrance and exit all day - you park and lock your car yourself.  Won't it be nice to just drive away at the end of the day and not have to deal with the crowds!

Enter through the 18th Avenue gate between Irving and Judah.  Open Saturday and Sunday, October 7 and 8, from 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The price is $40 cash per car per day.  You don't have to pay a cent for festival admission.  Why not spend that money on some really high-quality parking!

The students of Room 205 show us exactly what it means to zip your lip, smell a rat, bring home the bacon, be under the weather, rain cats and dogs, hit the hay, and make a mountain out of a molehill.

Jefferson Family Movie Night is September 28!  We will have pizza, popcorn, and baked goods for sale, or bring your own movie snacks and drinks.  Feel free to bring a beach chair or a picnic blanket to sit on.  Do bring warm clothes or blankets in case it gets cold.  Yard opens at 6:15, food sales start at 6:30, "Coco" starts screening at 7 p.m.

Smile!  School Picture Day is just around the corner.

We meet at 6 p.m. in the Auditorium.  Later, head to your children's classrooms to meet with their teachers. Click here to see the schedule. Click here to see all of our wonderful educators.

It was a beautiful day for the Ice Cream Social.  Fueled by popsicles and ice cream sandwiches, students had a great time biking, scootering, climbing, and even hover boarding!

It's the PTA-sponsored Ice Cream Social, this Sunday, September 9, from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Upper Yard.  FREE ice cream, popsicles, and FUN!  Kids are welcome to bring scooters, bikes, skates, and siblings.  Our DJ will be spinning super cool tunes.  See you there!

Three-year-old Buttercup and three-week-old Olaf of the Mobile Dairy Classroom came to Jefferson to teach students how milk travels from cow to cafeteria, what products are made from milk and how many stomachs cows really have.

The trip I took, the jellyfish that stung me, the volcano I climbed, the stone I skimmed - Room 205 students have fond memories of summer vacation.

Principal Dr. Kim Gilmore says welcome back!