November Newsletter

Dear Fairview Families,

It’s hard to believe we’re already nearing the end of the first trimester — this fall has truly flown by!

In the coming days, teachers will be reaching out to share your Parent-Teacher Conference date and time. These meetings are such an important opportunity for us to celebrate your child’s progress, share learning updates, and partner with you to support continued growth. Our goal is always to meet with 100% of families, so if a conflict arises, please contact your child’s teacher to find a new time that works.

While you’re here for conferences, don’t forget to stop by the Book Fair! It’s a great way to support our school and build your child’s love of reading!

And finally, we’re proud to share that several Fairview teachers were awarded grants this month. More on their exciting projects below!

I’m so proud of the incredible learning happening across our school and can’t wait to see everyone soon.

Sincerely ,
Dr. Simmons
Principal

If your child missed Picture Day or you didn’t get a chance to place an order, you can still do so by clicking here and using Fairview’s school code: 0085FGF.

If you’d like your child’s picture retaken because you weren’t satisfied with the original, please send the original picture packet back to school with your student — we’ll replace it at no cost.

Thank you for helping us make sure everyone’s smiling face is captured for the yearbook!

Our classroom Fall Parties will take place on Friday, October 31st, from 2:00–2:50 PM! 🍂 Many teachers are still looking for donations and volunteers to help make these celebrations a success.

If you’re interested in contributing treats, supplies, or your time, please reach out directly to your child’s teacher for more details on what’s needed. Thank you for helping us make this a fun and festive afternoon for our students!

Our Vocabulary Costume Parade will take place on Friday, October 31st in the morning, so please be sure your child arrives on time! Students may wear or bring a school-appropriate costume and will also carry a sign featuring a Tier 2 vocabulary word that describes or relates to their costume (e.g., a princess could be royal or noble).

Costume reminders:

• No scary costumes (we have preschoolers in the building!)

• No fake weapons of any kind

• Masks may be worn only during the parade

• Costumes should allow students to move, learn, and use the restroom independently

• Inflatables are OK as long as students can put them on unassisted. They may wear the inflatable for the parade, but students will not be permitted to wear the inflatable all day.

Families are invited to join classroom Fall Parties at 2:00 PM. If you’ve signed up to donate items or help in your child’s class, please arrive at the time your teacher has shared.

Our next PTA meeting is on Monday, November 11th at 4:30 PM in the Media Center. Please join us, if you're able!

Ways to be involved:

• Click here for "Ways to be involved"
• We are still looking for a fundraising coordinator!
• Teacher Appreciation: We're all about supporting our teachers! Every Fairview teacher received a $150 Amazon gift card during their first week back, and they shared their heartfelt thanks.
• Falcon Spirit: Get that Fairview sportswear to show some. The gold tie-dye shirts are a hit! We've already placed another order, so grab one when you can!

Parent-Teacher Conferences will take place November 11–13.

• November 11: Reserved for families who require an English interpreter.

• November 13: Prioritizing in-person conferences for families with multiple Fairview students.

• Conferences (both Zoom and in-person) will be scheduled between November 11–13.

All teachers will confirm appointments with families by October 31st. If your assigned date or time doesn’t work, please contact your child’s teacher to reschedule.

We look forward to connecting with you soon!

Please help us avoid unnecessary congestion on Fairview Road during morning drop-off. Your cooperation keeps everyone safe and on time!

✅ Do:

• Continue straight to the roundabout at Fairview & Rollins if the circle is full.

• Re-enter the circle by heading south on Fairview to pull in safely.

• Unload quickly and carefully to keep cars moving.

❌ Don’t:

• Stop northbound traffic by waiting to turn left into the circle when it’s full.

• Block the flow of cars already unloading in the front circle.

Thank you for helping us make morning drop-off safe, smooth, and efficient for all Fairview families!

Please consider making a donation to our Fairview Food Pantry, which serves many students and their families. Thank you!

We’ve officially started our Response to Intervention (RTI) time at Fairview! Now that our fall assessments are complete, we’ve carefully reviewed the data to identify students who may benefit from additional academic support or enrichment opportunities.

Each year, our RTI model leads to tremendous growth and progress for students, and we’re excited to continue this important work again this year. Thank you for supporting your child’s learning at home — we can’t wait to see the growth that lies ahead!

• 1st grade RTI is 9:00-9:30, Monday-Thursday
• 2nd grade RTI is 9:55-10:20, Monday-Thursday
• Kindergarten RTI will start in mid November. Time- TBD
• 3rd-5th grade RTI is 2:25-2:50, Monday-Thursday.

Fairview Elementary is a Box Tops school! That means that families in our community earn cash to give back to our school when they purchase Box Tops products. Download the Box Tops app on your phone, sign up to support Fairview Elementary and start earning for our school today. You can even connect your Walmart account to Box Tops and earn every time you purchase participating products at Walmart without scanning a receipt!

You can preorder your child's yearbook for the 2025-2026 school year now. Click here and use order code: 0288DQ. The deadline to place your order is January 9th.

Note: 5th grade families, please do NOT purchase a yearbook for your 5th grader. Each year, our PTA buys a yearbook for each 5th grader as a Fairview farewell gift.

You are invited to our Scholastic Book Fair! Please come to the Media Center:

Tuesday, November 11, 3:30-7:00 pm

Thursday, November 13, 3:30-7:00 pm

If you cannot stop by, Online shopping will also be available November 7-14.

If you are available to volunteer (and receive $10 off your purchase), please sign up!

Congratulations to the following Assistance League award-winning grant recipients:

• Lillian Hoell- Indoor Recess Games to Promote Social Skills $575
• Deanna Bickel- Learning Through Literacy Centers $1,000
• Kaley Keith- Flexible Seating for Learning $550
• Nichole Salas- Calm Down Tools for Emotional Regulation $265
• Sara Dexheimer- Xylophones for the Music Room $2,000
• Kelly Hays- Literacy Centers for Kindergarten $1000

■ Grand Total: 5,400= Way to go, Fairview!

There will be no school on the following teacher work days in November:

• Tuesday , November 4th
• Friday, November 14th

Wednesday, November 26th- Friday, November 28th. Classes will resume on Monday, December 1st.

Please call the Fairview Office, 573-214-3590, before 2:00 PM if your child has any changes to their transportation. This guarantees that we will have enough time to communicate with their teacher. Thank you!

Columbia Public Schools will not be holding a flu vaccination clinic this year. Individuals who wish to receive a flu shot should contact their primary care provider or the local health department for vaccination options.

As cooler weather approaches, please dress your children accordingly. At this time of the year it is hard to predict the weather, so dressing in layers is always a great idea.

Winter will be upon us soon. In the event that school is cancelled or we have a 2 hour late start due to inclement weather, that communication will come from the district-level. They typically send out emails and texts, so be sure that you're registered so that you don't miss any special announcements.

In art class students have been busy photographing their artwork for their digital portfolio in Artsonia. Students did an amazing job learning and creating Non-Objective art and are now moving into learning about Landscapes. A Landscape is an artwork of outside, each grade level has a different learning objective in this unit. I am excited to see their finished artworks! If you would like to get connected to their Artsonia page, please email lrobb@cpsk12.org and I can set that up!

In October all classes learned about personal safety. During those lessons, students will frequently ask me “what if” questions about specific situations they might encounter. I tell them to ask their adults at home. Hopefully many of you have had the opportunity to review safety expectations with your kiddos and talk about ways they can stay safe in the places they go.

In counselor class in November, students are learning about:

Kindergarten: Identifying basic feelings and coping strategies

1st grade: STAR Problem Solving, Coping strategies for big emotions

2nd grade: Coping strategies for big emotions

3rd grade: Problem solving/Conflict resolution, Coping strategies

4th grade: Point of View (especially in conflict resolution), Positive self talk

5th grade: Reputation

One of the coping strategies I focus on in second grade is gratitude. Studies have shown that gratitude can reduce stress and anxiety, improve mental and physical health, increase happiness, optimism, and resilience, and strengthen social bonds and relationships. I am including information below that you can use at home to increase gratitude in your kiddo(s)!

3rd-5th grade students recently took the Mental Health Checklist. Mrs. Ridgeway and I will be using information from that tool to check in with students and start skill building groups very soon.

I will also be around during Parent Teacher conferences if you would like to say hi or talk about your kiddo(s)!

With gratitude,

Lillian Hoell

lhoell@cpsk12.org

In technology, 2nd through 5th graders have been working in google docs reviewing/learning how to use text, change the font, size, color and add photos. Google Docs is an app the upper grades used quite often. Kindergarten and 1st graders worked more in the Draw and Tell app to create pictures and tell a story to go with it. Kindergarten and 1st graders have also learned the Freeform app, which is another app where the drawing tools are used as well as text and adding pictures from whatever topic they are learning about. All grades used their camera skills to take pictures, crop and use the markup tools. As always, we continue to learn about being a good digital citizen and doing the right thing when using devices and the internet. Enjoy your fall and the cooler weather!

Annette Kemble

Media Instructional Aide

Hello Fairview Families!

We’re plugging right along in the gym! The older grades have completed most of their Fitness Measurements. We’ll be working to get the mile exercise knocked out in the next week or so.

All grade levels have been working on tossing, throwing and catching ball skills. We’ve done some simple self-toss/catch activities and some more involved tossing/catching and throwing/catching with partners. Games have ranged from “3/5 Catch Capture”, “10/100 Catches” with a partner, “Touchdowns” with a partner, “Recycle the Trash” and “Asteroids and Spaceships.” Ask your child what we’ve been up to!

Please check their A,B,C,D schedule and get those tennis shoes on. If they don’t have them, they may not get to participate in all of the day’s activities. There have been some situations where kids have had to sit out. Please help them be successful. It’s a real bummer if your child has to sit and watch because they forgot tennis shoes.

Finally, if you’ve been in the gym lately you might have noticed the pictures on the bulletin boards. They are of our kiddos in action!! If you wish, send me a photo of your child doing something active or being outside and I’ll get it up on the board. You’re welcome to send in a hard copy pic or email me one and I’ll get it up! Thank you to those of you who have sent in pics!

As always, thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Mr. Wright

anwright@cpsk12.org

In music, we have been moving and singing to fall themed music. Younger grades sang about spiders, pumpkins, bats, and much more. In older grades, we sang several spooky songs and got creative with some bucket drumming. Grades 2-5 just wrapped up learning about Hispanic music. We learned the dances La Raspa and Los Machetes as well as a passing game called Al Citrón. Thanksgiving is right around the corner which can only mean one thing…. Suuuuuper Turkey will be making an appearance in all grade levels very soon.

The Media Center is a great place to be! In younger grades, we continue to practice library procedures as the students learn to find books their own books. Classes usually listen to a read aloud library book and then hear book talks about similar books. We highlight some book topics or authors by having them in special bins for the students to browse. Bins with books about dogs, unicorns, (friendly) monsters, and fall books have been favorites. Students always have a new book section to look through also! Middle grades have been talking about reading stamina and what they can do to build their own stamina. We have highlighted some entertaining though slightly creepy books and watched a BookBreak video with author Stacy McAnulty, who has written a variety of non-fiction and fiction titles. In the upper grades, we discussed the pros and cons of scary books (some love them, some don’t!). I continue to highlight Mark Twain Readers Award titles and students who choose to read 4, 6, 8 and all 12 of this year’s titles can earn recognitions. We have three copies of each title in the Fairview library, and the public library has lots of copies also, including print copies, eBooks and audiobooks. Hope you all can “fall” into some good books!

Valerie Harre

• Wednesday, October 29th/ Picture Re-Take Day
• Friday, October 31st/ Parade and Fall Parties
• Tuesday, November 4th/ Techer Work Day, NO SCHOOL

• Friday, November 7th/ Grade cards sent home in Friday Folders
• Week of November 10th/ Parent Techer Conferences
• Monday, November 10th/ PTA Meeting, 4:30 PM
• Friday, November 14th/ Techer Work Day, NO SCHOOL
• November 26th-28th/ Thanksgiving Break, NO SCHOOL
• December 22-January 2nd/ Winter Break, NO SCHOOL

If your child will be absent for the day, please call or email to report the absence. Please email jhouston@cpsk12.org and your student's teacher on the same e-mail . If we do not hear from you, we will call to check on their well-being.

This year, all CPS schools will be using a few different attendance codes to help track absences:

• PN (Parent Notified): This code will be used when a parent contacts us to let us know their child will be absent or when Mrs. Houston reaches out and the parent confirms they were aware of the absence. Please note: PN is considered an Unexcused absence, even if we’ve been notified.

• Truancy: If we are not contacted by a parent about an absence, it will be marked as Truancy. This will also trigger an automated robocall.

• M (Medical): This code is used when a student is sent home by the school nurse or misses school for a doctor’s appointment. Please make sure to send a doctor’s note so we can mark the absence correctly.

Keeping open communication about absences helps us support your child’s success in school. Thank you!

Specials Calendar

Email: jhouston@cpsk12.org
Website: https://www.cpsk12.org/Domain/16
Location: 909 South Fairview Road, Columbia, MO, USA
Phone: 573-214-3590
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Twitter: @FVEFalcons