FES Points of P.R.I.D.E. Newsletter

FES students have enjoyed a wonderful first week back from the holiday vacation! As I greeted children back to school in the morning that first day, they all expressed how hard it was to return to our usual routines and put forth energy! Staff were feeling the same energy draw, which tells me every one of our staff and students had a wonderful time visiting family and friends over the break. We can't ask for more than that! As we rounded the corner on Wednesday afternoon, these amazing groups of students were back at it, working and putting forth the needed effort to see themselves shine! It was a wonderful gift to see their smiles back at school. The photo enclosed shows students using their engineering skills to place a very heavy snowball on top of their snowman. Science kids at their finest moment! Go team!

This week marked the final week of our after-school basketball camp. Groups in grades K-2 and 3-4 enjoyed a final farewell celebration for the season, which included a pizza party with each student receiving a participation trophy. Congratulations to all who attended the camp sessions, with a BIG thank you to the coaches, Mr. Hardwick and Mr. Bitterli, who gave their time and energy to make sure every student learned something new and practiced important teamwork skills. Thank you for bringing this engaging and fun camp to our after-school offerings. Your time is very much appreciated!

Families, please take a moment to review the activities for this coming month. Due to conflicts with some of the schedules of community resource staff, we will need to postpone our next Outdoor Lions Learning (O.L.L.) until March. With that, please stay tuned as we plan for a late winter/early spring set of engaging activities that deepen students' interactions with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as they enjoy outdoor learning experiences with our community partners. If you would like to join in the fun, please reach out to the school to let us know. We would be happy to have you join us and appreciate the support!

Happy New Year!

Kathie

All students across the ConVal School District will take their winter assessments beginning next week. These assessments include the NWEA/MAP Reading and Math assessments (Grades 1-4), as well as the Dyslexia Screener (Grades K-3). Additional screening will be conducted with students who score below the 40th percentile in these assessments. This additional diagnostic screening will help us determine the specific instruction needed to target your child's individual needs. If you have questions, please reach out to your child's teacher.

• Next Week's Special: Wellness with Mr. LeGraw
• 1/14 Last Cooking Class for 3rd&4th Grade
• 1/16 Family Roller Skating Night at GBS
• No School 1/19 MLK Jr. / Civil Rights Day
• 1/20-1/23 Special of the week is Music with Mrs. Neilsson
• 1/30 P.R.I.D.E. Meeting / Community Lunch starting at 11:30am

It's been a great but busy week back. Ms. Flanagans K/1 class has been working very hard on letter formation as well as placement of letters. The improvement has been incredible. We are also discovering that there can be more than one sentence on a line. In reading, we are working on retelling a story that is read to them and one they've read themselves. In math, both grades are working on adding and subtracting numbers.

Your children have been absolute rock stars this first week back at school! They have been learning new routines, which include math rotations and center work (to individualize math skill learning), literacy rotations, graphing their reading fluency, including accuracy and rate, and practicing social skills as a team. These students are problem solvers! We have already earned 22 P.R.I.D.E. Paws (for solving problems and supporting one another) as well as for adopting a growth mindset. Students are actually looking forward to seeing how they've grown on the winter benchmark assessments, although recess is still the favorite time of the day!

This week 3rd and 4th graders got back into their routines. 3rd graders have been learning how to divide and how it relates to multiplication. 4th graders have been working on place value and rounding to the nearest hundred thousand. In our poetry unit, they have been reading and writing poems with alliteration and similes.

This week in the Library, we've been learning about stories, looking at the parts of a story, as well as different kinds and special awards for books. Grade K/1 have heard old and new versions of The Three Little Pigs, and have made a story map showing characters, setting, and beginning/middle/end. Grade 1/2 has learned about character types in stories, and looked at lots of different books together. Our favorites have been the trickster tales of Anansi the Spider, and Borreguita and the Coyote. Grade 3/4 has learned more about genres, or categories, of books, and done some book-matching and clue-matching to genre posters. They also learned about book awards, and designed their own.

As the winter months approach, we anticipate an increase in seasonal illnesses, including colds, flu and stomach viruses. By working together, we can minimize the spread of illness and help all of our students, staff, and community thrive this winter.

Stay home if: Your child has a fever of 100.0°F (37.8°C) or higher. Return to school when: Your child has been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use

of fever-reducing medication (e.g., Tylenol or Motrin). Please do not administer fever-reducing medication before school and send your child in. As soon as the medicine wears off, the fever will likely return, and your child will have exposed others to their illness.

Other reasons to keep your child home: In addition to a fever, please keep your child home for at least 24 hours after these symptoms have resolved: Vomiting or diarrhea

Thank you for your partnership in keeping our school healthy.

Lindsay Pino, R.N. (School Nurse)

For medical diagnosis, consult your child’s primary care provider.