The Dragon Times
May 2021 Edition
Put Students First * Seek Growth * Be Open to Change * Do Great Work Together * Value Differences
Jordan's Jots
It is so hard to believe that it is May already. This roller coaster ride we have been on at times has seemed never ending, and now we want it to slow down just a bit so we can have a little bit more time with our kiddos before we close out the school year!
Thank you for your continued support of our school and for supporting our teachers and staff with the monumental work that has occurred throughout this year. We have navigated things we never thought we could; and we have come out on the other side with knowledge and experiences that will never leave us.
We will begin the month of May with Teacher Appreciation Week. Please take some time to read the entire newsletter for important information as well as the graphic with a schedule for things that students can do to show appreciation for their teachers next week. Please join me in thanking our teachers and showing your appreciation for the extraordinary work they put in this year!
As always, I hope all of our Luxford families are healthy, happy, and safe. I look forward to continued progress as we move into next school year and can re calibrate and set our students on a course for learning leaps!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Jordan
Important Dates and Reminders
May is:
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
Better Hearing and Speech Month
National Physical Fitness and Sports Month
Special Weeks in May:
1 – 7- National Physical Education and Sports Awareness Week
2 – 9- National Music Week
3 – 7- Teacher Appreciation Week
3 – 9- National Children's Book Week
10 – 16- Food Allergy Awareness Week
Special Days in May:
4- National Teacher Appreciation Day
6- National School Nurse Day
7- School Lunch Super Hero Day
31- Love For VB Day
Teacher Appreciation Week
We will be celebrating our amazing teachers and staff during teacher appreciation week next week, May 3-7, 2021. Please see the picture below with activities your students can do next week to show their appreciation for how hard their teacher has worked this school year. If you are sending in a gift for your child’s teacher, thank you very much! Our teachers know it is the sentiment that counts; so, any acknowledgement of appreciation would be wonderful as our teachers pulled off nothing short of a miracle this year!
Two Pathways for Current Students to Participate in Learning in SY 2021-22
The purpose of this memo is to provide you with information related to the two pathways for current students to participate in learning in SY 2021-22.
Families will have two options: fully in-person or fully virtual.
To assist with our planning efforts, it is necessary to survey our current families in grades Pre-K-11 now, so school staff can make any necessary adjustments to course registration prior to the end of the school year.
On Thursday, April 29, you should have received a link within your existing ParentVue accounts to access the survey. Parents that have not set up their ParentVue account yet will need to do so using the information that can be found here to access the survey. The embedded link will provide information related to our fully virtual option and one question asking them to declare their choice for next school year.
The survey will remain open through Sunday, May 16.
To further assist families in making this decision, we are offering the following services:
- Information Call Center - May 3-14, Mon. - Fri., from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (757) 337-1641
- Chatbot on vbschools.com will provide answers to FAQs
- Virtual Virginia information sessions - May 3, 6 and 13 (See timeline below for details)
- April 22- Email to families and Frequently Asked Questions document shared
- April 29- Information shared as part of Thursday Family Communication
- April 29-May 16- Pre-enrollment survey released
- May 3-May 14- Automated Information Chat available
- May 3-May 14- Information Call Center opens 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday - Friday (757) 337-1641
- May 3- 6-7 p.m. Information session hosted by VIRTUAL VIRGINIA and includes elementary information from 6-6:30 p.m. and secondary information from 6:30-7 p.m.
- May 6- 6-7 p.m. Information session hosted by VIRTUAL VIRGINIA and include elementary information from 6-6:30 p.m. and secondary information from 6:30-7 p.m.
- May 6 7:30-8:30 p.m. (SPANISH Session) This hourlong session will be hosted by VIRTUAL VIRGINIA and include elementary information from 7:30-8 p.m. and secondary information from 8-8:30 p.m.
- May 13- 6-7 p.m. Information session hosted by Virginia Beach City Public Schools and will include both elementary and secondary information.
- May 17-June 17- School counselors will begin contacting each student and family who selected the fully virtual option to (1) discuss current course selections against available course offerings in Virtual Virginia, (2) remove the student from course registration in the home school, and (3) assist student with registering and course selection in Virtual Virginia.
Kindergarten Registration 2020-2021
Please see our Luxford Website for a fun and engaging Bitmoji Classroom with important Kindergarten information as well as fun activities for the students. the welcome sign in the classroom is also a link to the Vbschools website to register online.
Once you have completed your online registration, please contact the school you make an appointment to complete the registration process.
You must bring in (or download) the following documentation to complete registration:
- two proofs of residence/address (current lease agreement/mortgage statement and current gas, electric, or water bills)
- certified birth certificate
- physical examination report (Virginia Form MCH-213Gdated within 12 months prior to starting kindergarten)
- current immunization records (verified on Virginia Form MCH-213G, public health department form or an immunization document from a qualified physician or licensed nurse practioner)
- two current emergency contact phone numbers
If your student is currently enrolled in a Virginia Beach School Pre-K Program, you will not be able register online. You will need to call your zoned school and make an appointment to register. You will also need to provide the documents above and complete other required paperwork. If you experience any difficulties registering or have questions regarding registration please call the school at 757-648-2960.
Did Someone Say Field Day?
We know there have been a lot of things we have not been allowed to do in order to maintain the health and safety of students and staff. So, Mrs. Hale, our awesome P.E. Teacher, and her amazing team worked hard to develop a modified P.E. schedule, so that students can extend their P.E. time to participate in some field day activities in a safe way.
There will be a day for K-2 students and a day for 3-5 students.
The dates are as follows:
- May 13- K-2 (May 14- Rain Date)
- May 18- 3-5 (May 19 Rain Date)
Notes:
Students will have a space to take a break and socially distance to relax their mask as needed.
Please be sure to have your child bring their water bottle to school.
Extra water will be available for students.
Students may bring a snack for field day.
Luxford Scrapbook
With the craziness of this past year and half of our students being virtual, we are sad to say a yearbook is not able to happen for the 20-21 school year; however, we still want to give our students a “Luxford 20-21 Scrapbook” to be able to look back on for memories! Teachers have been providing pictures of students and there will be a collage page per grade level.
If you have any pictures of your student(s) participating in learning this year (with Luxford School activities only) while they were at home, please share them with your child's teacher by May 17. An announcement will be made when the link to the scrapbook is ready.
Please Join Us for Our ABC Count Down!
5th Grade Moving On Celebration
We have great plans in the works to celebrate our fifth graders who are moving on to middle school next year. Although we cannot celebrate in a traditional manner, we want our fifth graders to feel special and be able to have a memory of being recognized for completing elementary school! We will be having a drive-thru celebration for our fifth graders as well as some quick stopping points to be able to take photos. Some other recognition activities will occur as well. More information will be coming to 5th grade parents soon!
Current 4th Grader Interested in a Foreign Language?
The World Languages program of Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) has been selected to receive funding from the National Security Agency for the 2021 STARTALK Elementary Chinese and Russian Summer Academies.
This is a free, four-week, immersive experience for students which runs from June 28 to July 22 at Kempsville Meadows Elementary School. All current fourth-grade students are eligible. Students who have attended the academy in prior years (2009-2019) have received national recognition for their proficiency levels after 16 days or less of instruction. With your support and assistance, VBCPS anticipates another successful summer preparing students to become globally competent citizens and critical language learners.
The flyer includes a QR code and link to the online application. The application is also available on the program website: www.virginiabeachstartalk.org.
From Your Reading Specialists:
Grades K-2
Unit 8 will focus on fiction text. This unit will incorporate all of the fiction comprehension skills introduced throughout the school year. Explicit lessons on each skill will be included as well as open days to reread texts and reinforce teacher selected skills based on student data. Students will explore descriptive writing, poetry and opinion writing
Unit 9 will focus on (K) fiction (1) nonfiction (2) fiction & nonfiction text. This unit will incorporate all of the comprehension skills introduced throughout the school year.
Unit 10 offers students the opportunity to reflect upon the relationships built within the classroom reading and writing community through the use of nonfiction texts
Grades 3-5
Unit 8: Reading Specialists support teachers in responding to formative, summative and quarterly data to design whole group and small group instruction based on student needs.
In writing, Teachers will consider introducing students to a genre of writing they have not deeply explored throughout the year (such as fantasy, functional writing, various types of poetry or letter writing).
Unit 9 will close the year with an opportunity for students to revisit the reading strategies learned throughout the year. Reciprocal teaching routines will be used to assist students in synthesizing knowledge of multiple comprehension strategies to think about and discuss texts.
In writing, students will be given opportunities to conduct independent research projects and to create and present multimodal presentations to demonstrate their learning. Students will also spend time reflecting on literacy goals and setting new goals for summer reading and writing.
From Your Math Specialist
As students finish out the year, here’s what they will be working on in math:
K: Kindergartners will begin quarter 4 investigating fractions. Students will also finalize counting forward by ones and by tens during this unit, and work on composing and decomposing teen numbers. The final unit of this school year will focus on computation. Students will identify one more and one less than a number, investigate part-whole relationships for numbers to 10, and model and solve single-step story and picture problems for sums and differences.
1st: First grade mathematicians will revisit computation by creating and solving story and picture problems. Computational fluency will focus on part-whole relationships with numbers and basic facts within 10. Students will explore equality as well. Following computation, students will revisit numeration where they will finalize skip counting by twos and study the magnitude of one, two- and three-digit numbers. The final unit for first grade will cover measuring in nonstandard units and comparing length, weight and volume.
2nd: To close out the Measurement unit, second grade students will learn how to count and compare coin collections up to $2.00. The final two units of study will cover fractions and probability and statistics. During fractions, students will grow their fractional understanding by naming, modeling and representing fractions and comparing unit fractions. In the probability and statistics unit, students will collect, organize and represent data using pictographs and bar graphs. Finally, students will use data to predict probable outcomes.
3rd: Measurement comes back into focus in Quarter 4 for third grade students. Students will estimate and measure length, volume, weight/mass, perimeter and area in U.S. Customary and metric units. Students will then move into probability and statistics. During this unit, students will collect, organize and represent data in a variety of ways as well as explore the concept of probability as a measurement of chance and investigate possible outcomes for a single event.
4th: Fourth grade mathematicians are continuing to study measurement. During this unit, students will estimate, measure and solve practical problems in U.S. Customary and metric units. Students will also find equivalent measures between units. Fourth grade students will close out the school year with data investigations using bar and line graphs and representing probability with number lines, models and practical problems.
5th: Fifth grade students will finish the year investigating probability and statistics. Students will study line plots and stem-and-leaf plots. Students will also explore measures of center through practical contexts of mean, median and mode. The final unit of fifth grade will involve a study of sample spaces and using the Fundamental Counting Principle.
Allison Jordan, Principal
Email: allison.jordan@vbschools.com
Website: https://luxfordes.vbschools.com/
Location: Virginia Beach, VA, USA
Phone: 757-648-2960
Twitter: @nprj2010