Sandia Vista Elementary
Principal Monthly Newsletter - November
Note from Mr. DeSoto
Hello Sandia Vista Families,
We are delighted to extend a warm welcome as we prepare to host our Thanksgiving Lunch tomorrow. Upon your arrival, we kindly request that you proceed to the lunch payment table to purchase your tickets. Following this, please make your way to our Security Officer to complete the check-in process and receive a visitor sticker. We are confident that you'll enjoy a eventful time with your children during this special occasion.
In the month of November, we have a multitude of upcoming events and activities. To stay well-informed, please review the information below. Of particular note, there are several days designated as non-student days. We kindly ask that you take note of these dates.
Furthermore, our teachers will be reaching out to schedule parent/teacher conferences during the week of November 13th. Please keep an eye out for any information sent home regarding this. We are asking that all parents attend conferences in-person if possible this year.
Mrs. Watson and I have recently engaged in meaningful conversations with our students, addressing topics such as bus safety, the sharing of food items, and, more broadly, the promotion of respectful treatment within our school community. Unfortunately, there has been a noticeable increase in misbehavior, not only on our campus but also on our school buses. It is imperative that you impress upon your child the importance of their behavior, both on and off campus, as it is being monitored and reported. If a student is found in violation of the established rules of RRPS / SVE, there will be consequences for their actions.
Thank you for your cooperation and ongoing support.
Reminders from the Front Office:
- If you're picking your student up prior to dismissal, please be sure to pick students up before 3:00, we cannot release students after 3:00
- Please review the Student Handbook, especially the attendance procedures. We have a month-wide class attendance competition as well as other activities to support our Districtwide Attendance Initiative.
- We cannot accept balloons for student birthdays or special occasions
Instruction
Traditional
The teachers have set a school-wide goal of fluency for their students to reach by the end of the year. We would appreciate your help in meeting our goal. It is crucial that parents support school-wide initiatives in order for all our students to be successful. Please support your student in reaching their fluency goal by practicing the following skills every night. You can do so in the car to and from practice or while dinner is cooking. Easy two or three simple problems a night can help your students excel.
Kinder- Letter names & Letter Sounds / Number recognition 1 to 20
1st- sounding out and spelling words like shape and car/ Adding and subtracting numbers to 10.
2nd- sounding out and spelling words like goat and light/ Adding and subtracting numbers to 20.
3rd - Reading 5 to 8 sentences smoothly/ multiplying numbers up to 10.
4th- Reading 2 to 3 paragraphs smoothly/ adding and subtracting 3 digit numbers
5th - Reading 4 to 5 paragraphs smoothly/ multiplying 2 to 3-digit numbers
Supporting your student at home makes a huge difference in school. We appreciate you and know parenting is hard work. We can all do this together, we are the village.
Montessori
The Montessori program had a busy fall! All the teachers and students have been involved with awesome learning experiences!
Together, the teachers took a deep dive into the Montessori Math materials during the most recent inservice on October 16th.
The Prek and K/1 classrooms took a fabulous fall field trip to the Galloping Goat Pumpkin Patch where we fed the animals, played games, and picked a pumpkin!
The 2/3 classrooms enjoyed exploring the indigenous people of New Mexico.
The 4/5 classrooms attended the Children's Water Festival and loved it! They learned the many reasons why water conservation is important and what to do here in our desert community.
Nursing Updates
We are currently in need of donations of small water bottles. If you can donate we would appreciate the support.
Hello Sandia Vista Families,
I just wanted to send out a couple of reminders
Please ensure you send your children to school dressed in the proper attire. It is starting to get cold out and we want to ensure children are dressed appropriately for the weather. If you need assistance getting your child cold weather clothing please let us know!
Also, please send your child to school with a reusable water bottle. We are seeing a lot of headaches and sore throats due to the cold weather.
If you have any clothing that your children have outgrown we are taking donations for colder weather attire.
Thank you!
Warm regards,
Caroline Jimenez
BSN, RN
Related Arts
Music
The Kindergarten & Kinder/1st Montessori performance of "The Sounds of Moo-sic" was a success! Congratulations students on a job well done! If you have any pictures of the evening, please send them to Natalie.Cundiff@rrps.net. I would love to see them!
Upcoming Music Events:
Choir Concert: Tuesday, November 14th 6:30pm - SVE Gym
Choir Winter Tour: Wednesday, December 13th
Band, Choir & Orchestra Winter Concert Assembly: Friday, December 15th
Specific information about these dates will be sent out via Remind.
ART
Square 1 Art order forms will be headed home the week of November 13 th . Online ordering will be available through November 29 th and delivered to your home in time for the Holidays. Be on the lookout for the order brochure and if you have any questions, please contact me at Heather.armstrong@rrps.net
In the meantime, we are busy working on clay projects. We will work with Micaceous Clay which is a regional clay and a White Low-fire Clay. We will be working in a 3-Dimensional format and a 2- Dimensional format for these projects and learning all about clay building techniques, firing & glazing.
This is my favorite learning unit and usually the students favorite as well!
STEAM
During the month of October in the STEAM Lab students learned about Digital Citizenship. Fourth and fifth graders learned the difference between bullying and cyberbullying and created stickers with messages about being kind online and thinking before we type. Second and third graders learned about being safe online by building internet traffic lights and sorting cards into red, yellow and green cups to help remind them about staying alert online. Kindergarten and first grade students learned about media balance. They built balances with hangers, cups and pipe cleaners and used blocks to sort media balance. DIgital Citizenship culminated with a poster contest for third through fifth grade while kindergarten through fifth grade worked on a challenge in which they built gates for pumpkins with a partner. Posters will be hung up in the hallways around the school. Starting in November, students will begin working on unplugged coding projects that will lead into directional coding using the code.org platform, Indi Sphero cars and Botley Robots.
Counseling
Character Strong: Gratitude
We are looking forward to focusing on Gratitude for 4 weeks! All classes Pre-K through 5th grade will complete activities focusing on the character trait of Gratitude. One way to think about Gratitude is “choosing to appreciate the people and things in our lives.” Practicing Gratitude can increase our well-being and our happiness. Gratitude is 1 of 3 traits we will focus on throughout the year that helps students Be Well. Throughout the school, students will be developing skills like emotion regulation, positive self-talk, and stress management.
Ed Tech News
Students learned so much about digital citizenship in October! Thank you, families, for reviewing the Digital Citizenship Pledge with your children and committing to helping your children to be cyber-safe!
Tech Resources for Families:
Family Engagement Toolkit from commonsense.org
Attendance, Absences and Tardiness
1. Attendance: After 3 excused or 3 unexcused, consecutive absences, we require a doctor’s note or a conversation with the administration about the absences. *4th "Ill" absence will be marked Unexcused.
2. Vacation: Upon parent/guardian's request, the student's absence record will be reviewed. If a student(s) has less than 5% accumulated absences, up to 3 days can be excused. If the student has 6% or higher accumulated absences, all requested days will be unexcused.
3. Funeral Leave: For immediate family only. 3 days can be excused. If travel out of state is necessary,
up to 5 may be excused.
Definitions:
1. ABSENT means not in attendance for a class or school day for any reason, whether
excused or not; provided that "absent" does not apply to participation in interscholastic
extracurricular activities;
2. EXCUSED ABSENCE means absence from a class or school day for a death in
the family, medical absence, religious instruction or tribal obligations or any other
allowable excuse pursuant to the policies of the local school board;
3. MEDICAL ABSENCE means that a student is not in attendance for a class or a
school day for a parent- or doctor-authorized medical reason or the student is a
pregnant or parenting student;
4. UNEXCUSED ABSENCE means an absence from a class or school day for which
the student does not have an allowable excuse pursuant to the Attendance for
Success Act or policies of the local school board.
Early pick-up: Students will not be released during the last 50 minutes of the day (3:00pm) without permission from the school administration.
A valid ID must be shown before a child will be dismissed.