the Orca Splash

Hello Viewlands Families!

We are looking forward to our Bring Your Family to School Night event next week on Wednesday evening from 5:30-7. We hope every family will attend. This is a great opportunity to see the spaces your child is learning in and to meet the adults that are part of your child’s education. This can also be a great way to connect with other families! Our goal is always for 100% of our families to attend. This is an open house format, so you can plan typically 30-60 minutes of time during the 5:30-7PM window. Please arrive before 6:30 so you have time to participate.

This week on Monday, we had our first safety drill of the school year. We had a fire drill. The fire department was here for this first drill. We have a safety drill every month. These are practice. We coach into this with students. It can still make some students feel worried. When we do a fire drill the alarm system and lights are triggered, which can feel noisy and overstimulating for some students. The practice is important. Overall, the first drill went well. During our drills the expectations that we coach into for all students is listening to the adult directions and staying calm and quiet so they can hear the directions and we can keep every safe. The drills we practice are fire drills with evacuation, earthquake drills with and without evacuation, shelter in place drills, and lock down drills.

A few highlights from my visits in classrooms and with students this first full week include: 1st graders engaging in handwriting, spelling, and other writing tasks during the Emerge curriculum; listening to 3rd graders explain the relationship of multiplication and division and engage in multiplication arrays; 4th and 5th graders discussing in partnerships different texts (stories and poems) they had read and the different ways to express themselves; and talking about preferred interests with students, dinosaurs and trains with a few kindergarteners and Greek mythology and bee keeping with a 2nd grader.

Your children are bright, inquisitive, and creative thinkers. We will continue to seek ways to make every student feel known, valued, and empowered through the year.

In Partnership,

Carrie Wheeler | Viewlands Principal

• Viewlands will host a Bring Your Family to School Open house on Wednesday, September 30th in the evening. This is for all current Viewlands K-5 families.
• Every Viewlands student will be given a Viewlands Passport. The passport will have places to visit that are the spaces your child goes to during the school day, including your child’s classroom, the art room, the gym for PE, the library, and the lunchroom. You will have the chance to see the spaces and meet the educators that are part of your child’s elementary experience this year. There will be other optional places to visit, including the multilingual team, special education team, and school counselor. VEPTSA will have information to share with all families in the lunchroom.
• The event is an open house style. Typically, families are here at the school for 40-60 minutes to visit the different spaces. The event will start at 5:30PM and end at 7:00pm. Please plan to arrive no later than 6:30pm so you have time to visit the spaces. Families will need to exit the school building/campus by 7:05pm.
• This is not a drop off event, students attend with their families. All students need to be with an adult at Bring Your Family to School Night.
• We encourage walking or biking for the event if possible. If your family will need to drive, please park in approved areas. There is parking available on the west side of 3rd in front of the school, on the north side of the school on 107th, and limited parking in the parking lot with spaces not used by staff. Please do not park on 105th west of 3rd Ave, and avoid parking in non-parking areas on the east side of 3rd Ave.
• The playground will also close at 7PM. If you go outside to the playground with your child, please be prepared to exit by 7PM.

The lost and found is already full! Sweatshirts, sweaters, coats, hats, water bottles, lunch boxes, and more! Weekly we collect items that are left on the playground and in other spaces around the building to bring them to our lost and found area in the main hallway.

It is really helpful when items are labeled with your child's name. Then when we go through it, we can return them to your child. Please label everything, clothing, coats, water bottles, and lunchboxes. This will help us return items to your child. Otherwise items just accumulate in the lost and found. It is already full!

We are seeking a community member that has knowledge, work experience, or a community connection with someone in the field of biodiversity.

Specifically a small group of students will be working to identify a problem that puts biodiversity at risk and then working together to design an innovative solution that can help that problem. Ideally we would love to connect with any of our families that have a connection to biodiversity that can support some foundational learning for the students before they think through this question.

If you or a connection you have might be interested in sharing with students, please reach out to Mr. Thorpe or Ms. Wheeler.

cawheeler@seattleschools.org

shthorpe@seattleschools.org

We love our volunteers! Volunteers support fieldtrips, classroom needs, the library program, school and VEPTSA events, the art program, and more! Every volunteer has to be approved. This is required and can take time. Once approved, your approved volunteer status last two years. Every two years you need to renew your volunteer status.

Please be patient. The school only has control of certain parts of the volunteer application and approval process. Seattle Public Schools has a centralized process with one volunteer coordinator. At Viewlands, Ms. Leandra, our office assistant, is the volunteer coordinator. She has to work with the centralized system. She can't speed up the process. Please be patient. At the beginning of the school year when Seattle Public Schools is processing large volumes of new families that are applying for the first time to be an approved volunteer, it can take longer.

• We encourage new to Viewlands families that want to become an approved volunteer to start the first step soon.
• If you are a previously approved returning volunteer at Viewlands or another SPS school, please log into the Volunteer Portal using your user name (e-mail) and password to check the date when you are required to renew. If you need to renew this fall, please start that process now.

1. Complete this link if you are interesting in being an approved volunteer:

https://good.samaritan.com/custom/521/organization_details/1819

• You will then click the Supervised School Volunteer (Tier 1) link (we do not have any tier 2 volunteers at Viewlands)
• At the bottom of this page, you will see a blue "Sign Up" button
• A pop up will show with either Login or New Volunteer. If you are new to volunteering you will click "New Volunteer"
• Add your User Information (your email will be your user ID and you will create a password. Please keep this information so you have it for later steps in the process.
• Add your Personal Information.
• Add your Contact Information.
• Add SPS Staff Member: This would be your child's classroom teacher name and e-mail address. If you are a new to Viewlands kindergarten parent you can enter Leandra Davidson and lddavidson@seattleschools.org
• Add the Emergency Contact Information.
• Click Submit

Fall Enrichment registration is open! Register HERE - until Oct 2. We're looking forward to some new offerings such as: Where Creatives Gather: Fairies & Dragons and a longer version of ECCA: Mini Movers Hip Hop. As well as Bricks 4 Kidz : Jurassic Land, Let’s Play Pickleball & Chess Club! Classes run after school on Tuesdays, 10/13/26-12/8/26. Scholarships are available - contact president@viewlandsptsa.org.

Want to volunteer at Viewlands? Please start the process with SPS to be a volunteer now.

• We have opportunities coming up soon, including Walk, Bike, Roll Day, Move-a-thon and the all-school Zoo field trip.
• Your volunteer approval is good for two years but the process can take 4-6 weeks so please start this right away!
• Walk, Bike Roll Day needs walking group volunteers, crossing guard volunteers and celebration table support. These can be great options for neighbors, grandparents or friends if you have someone who appreciates active transportation or community service.
• You can use this link to sign up for volunteering: https://www.konstella.com/cd/5RO43f
  

• The Family Ambassador program is still looking for parents/volunteers especially for fourth grade. Family Ambassadors spend 2-4 hours per month supporting classroom teachers. This is a great way to dip your toe into the PTA and get involved in the Viewlands community. If you are interested to learn more contact - face@viewlandsptsa.org.

All School Playground Meetup

• - Saturday, October 3rd -10am-12pm, Viewlands Playground - Let’s get together, play some games and chat-it-up. Snacks provided! No drop-offs please :)

Move-A-Thon -

• Tuesday, October 6th
• The countdown to Move-A-Thon is on! This student-led fundraiser on October 6th helps provide essentials such as playground and lunch supervision, classroom supply grants, field trip opportunities, assemblies, guest artists, and more. Start collecting pledges today by finding your student's fundraising page in the Student Center HERE.
• Move-A-Thon also needs volunteer support- sign up HERE. You have to be an approved volunteer to support move-a-thon.

Walk, Bike, & Roll to School Day

• - Wednesday, October 7th - This is a bi-annual event where we enjoy active transportation and build a stronger community spirit as we make our way to school together. All students, parents, and family members are welcome to participate. Join a bike or walk/roll group around 7:15-7:20am and visit the celebration table at school between 7:30-7:55am.
• We also welcome students who carpool with their family or take the bus to stop by the table as well to celebrate with us as you also reduce your environmental footprint. For more details please visit Konstella event. Reach out to bikebus@viewlandsptsa.org with questions. Volunteers are needed, signup HERE.

Each year talented Viewlands parents design custom Spiritwear for our school. This year Maddy Porter put together a vintage inspired design honoring Viewlands Elementary 1954 roots while embracing its exciting future. 10% of every order goes to support Viewlands Elementary!

Other ways to stay connected:

Signing up for email newsletters: https://viewlandsptsa.org/about/#email-signup

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ViewlandsPTSA

Instagram: @viewlandsptsa

• September 30 -Bring Your Family to School Night, 5:30-7 p.m.
• October 6 -Move-a-thon (during the school day, volunteers needed)
• October 7 -Fall Walk, Bike, and Roll to School Day (a.m. before school)
• October 8- Multilingual Family Night 5:30-7 p.m.
• October 22 -School Picture Day (retakes for students absent on Dec 2)
• October 30 -All School Zoo Field Trip (Many volunteers needed
• December 2 -Picture Retake/Make Up Day