Hello River Bend Families!

Happy Friday! Truly, this was one of the best first weeks of school we have had! Thank you so much to all of you for your patience, understanding, and support through a few typical first week hiccups. Arrival and dismissal routines have been going extremely well. Teachers are working hard on creating classroom communities and establishing routines and procedures. Students are happy and smiling and being recognized for demonstrating our core values. Way to go!

Thank you to the parents who came up on Sunday night to do some cleaning up of our landscaping, chalking the sidewalks, and putting up signage for an amazing welcome back. We also had the Monarch Fire District here to high five kids walking in and our Chesterfield Police Officers have been walking through the halls and popping into classrooms. We may have even caught them dancing in one classroom and participating in some activities with students.

We are really making progress with construction and they were able to give us a temporary track. A half of a track is better than no track!

Next week is a BIG week! We are kicking off our new Reading and Writing resource called Benchmark Advance and we will begin our Social Emotional unit on Growth Mindset & Goal Setting. I have designated a section below that digs into Benchmark Advance.

Lastly, we have our Curriculum Nights coming up in September. We have split them into two evenings. Our curriculum night has evolved over the years and gone from being a primarily parent/guardian informational night to a more student-led open house. We feel the need this year to take it back to providing parents with more information because of our new essential standards for learning and new resources we will be using in Parkway. If you are able to secure childcare for those evenings that will allow you to focus on the content and learning intentions for the evening. With that being said, please do not let childcare be a barrier. Students are more than welcome to attend. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Each child as my own,

Jaime

It's going to be a hot one this week! Please send a water bottle with your child.

• Monday, August 26th

  • A Day

  Tuesday, August 27th

  • B Day

  • Choir Practice- 4:00 PM

  Wednesday, August 28th

  • C Day

  • Honors Choir Rehearsal- 8:00 AM

  Thursday, August 29th

  • D Day

  • Choir Practice- 8:00 AM

  • Fire Drill

  Friday, August 30th

  • E Day

What is Benchmark Advance?

It is our new ELA (English Language Arts) resource. These materials help students learn reading, writing, and word work. They are heavily embedded with science and social studies content and provide a balance of fiction and nonfiction text.

Unit 1 is focused on Life Science and all grade levels, K-5, are studying a continuum of content around Plants and Animals. The unit will last 3 weeks.

Each time we launch a new unit, your child will bring home a BLUE paper that serves as a Home Connection letting you know what your child will be learning and there are activities provided on the back you may want to do with your child at home. If there are ever resources you need to conduct/complete these activities at home, please let us know. For example, one of the activities for a few grade levels is to plant seeds at home and make observations over the course of a week. If you need a seed packet, we've got you! Just let us know.

We are very excited to kick this off Monday! We have a photo booth and the Parkway food truck coming Monday afternoon to provide samples of corn salsa as corn is a natural resource we can cultivate.

To show the alignment and progression, here's what's up for each grade level over the next three weeks:

Kindergarten- Plants and Animals Have Needs

1st Grade- Plants and Animals Grow and Change

2nd Grade- Plants and Animals in Their Habitats

3rd Grade- Animal Adaptations

4th Grade- Observing Nature

5th Grade- Cultivating Natural Resources

Monday, September 2nd (No School) - Labor Day

Friday, September 6th (6:15 PM) - River Bend Night at the Cardinals Game

Monday, September 9th (6:30 PM) - PTO Meeting

Wednesday, September 11th (2:00 PM) - Early Release Day

Wednesday, September 11th (7:00 PM) - Parkway Board of Education Meeting

Thursday, September 12th (6:00 PM) - Curriculum Night for K-2nd

Thursday, September 19th (6:00 PM) - Curriculum Night for 3rd-5th

To ensure each student a safe and rigorous learning environment where they feel a sense of belonging, and can grow and lead with a global lens of kindness, responsibility, integrity, and empathy.

Website: https://www.parkwayschools.net/riverbend
Location: 224 River Valley Drive, Chesterfield, MO, USA
Phone: (314)-415-6650
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RiverBendParkway