Riverdale Royal Messenger

Welcome to our parent newsletter called "Riverdale Royal Messenger." This newsletter is to keep you informed of all the exciting events happening at Riverdale. We have had a successful reopening of the school and we are excited to have our students and staff back in the building. Thank you for supporting your child at Riverdale.

Connections are key to your child's success here at Riverdale. We encourage you to become involved by joining the PTA and SAC. Also please make sure to reach out to your child's teacher to ensure that open lines of communication are established. Information will be updated on our school website - www.riverdalees.ocps.net - in addition to our social media accounts and Talking Points.

We are excited for an outstanding school year!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Tait, Assistant Principal

6th - 2nd Grade Field Trip to the Orlando Science Center

9th - 4th Grade Field Trip to the Orlando Science Center

11th - No Early Release school ends at 3

12th - Math Night at 5:30 PM

13th - Kid’s Heart Challenge

13th - End of the First Marking Period

16th - Teacher Workday/Student Holiday

17th - Second Marking Period Begins

17th - Fall Picture Day

17th - 3rd Grade Field Trip to the Orlando Science Center

19th - SAC Meeting #2 5:15 PM in the Conference Room

23rd-27th - Red Ribbon Spirit Week

25th - Report Card Conference Night

26th - PTA Chick-Fil-A Spirit Night

26th - Report Cards Go Home

27th - Student Holiday/Teacher Non-Workday

28th - Trunk or Treat at Riverdale Elementary 4-6 PM

30th - 1st Grade Orlando Art Museum Field Trip

31st - Character/ Vocabulary Dress-Up Day

Math and Science night not only gives you a chance to see what your kids are learning, but it can also help you take an active role in supporting their learning at home. Students will enjoy involving their families by showing off their work and getting to play the teacher while sharing interesting concepts. So join us for a night of family fun and interactive learning!

The Kids Heart Challenge prepares kids for success by supporting their physical and emotional well-being. This event engages elementary school students with jumping rope, while empowering them to improve their own health and help other kids with heart-health issues.

The Heart Challenge Jump Main Event will take place October 13 during physical education (P.E.) classes. All students are asked to sneakers on the day of their Heart Challenge event.

Students also have the opportunity to raise money to help others who have cardiovascular disease. Students can ask friends and family to give online. All donations will need to be received by October 13.

For information visit American.heart.org

Get ready to show off those amazing smiles because spring picture day will be October 17th! If you are absent there will be a makeup day. Order forms will be going home soon! Remember, these pictures are from the middle of the chest and up. Please avoid wearing green.

To order online go to Strawbridge.net and enter our school code FM434208

In preparation for conferences, talk with your child about how they feel the school year is going. Explain to them that conference time is when you will get to hear from the teacher about how they are doing in class and how they will be able to make the best progress.You may want to brainstorm questions beforehand. Maybe you’re curious about your child’s mood at school, if they are turning in work on time, or ways they could improve.

Following the conference, talk with your child about what was discussed during the meeting. Start with, and emphasize, the positive. Be direct about any issues. Help your student figure out the steps they may need to take to fix any problems. And maybe most important, stay in touch with the teacher throughout the year. A great way to follow up is by using Talking Points or email. Check in to make sure your student is maintaining their focus or working to get back on track.

Research has shown that parental involvement is one of the most important factors in a student’s success in school!

Come and support Riverdale and our awesome PTA by joining us for a special spirit night at Chick-fil-A!

We will be there from 6 to 8 pm. Order through the drive thru or inside the restaurant just don’t forget to mention that you supporting Riverdale Elementary!

PTA will be inside the restaurant with the Plinko style disk drop game where you can pay $1 and win a giftcard to be used at a later date!

From October 23 to 27, schools around the nation will observe Red Ribbon Week, the largest and longest-running annual campaign dedicated to drug prevention. Beyond spreading awareness on the dangers of drug and alcohol use, Red Ribbon Week also presents an excellent opportunity to teach children about the benefits of building lifelong healthy habits, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

1. Talk About What Healthy Habits Look Like

2. Model a Healthy Diet

3. Focus on Staying Active

4. Teach Strategies for Stress Management

5. Unplug and Have Fun

This year’s theme is "Be Kind To Your Mind and Live Drug Free". Visit www.redribbon.org to learn more about Red Ribbon Week and get tips for talking to your kids about drugs.

This is a free event at Riverdale is for students and their families! School- Appropriate costumes are encouraged. Don't forget your candy buckets!

CANDY DONATIONS NEEDED!

Feed the monster that arrived at our school with bags of candy. The monster collection box will be located in the front lobby.

This event is hosted by Riverdale Elementary PTA and University Presbyterian Church

We are excited for Book Character /Word dress up day! This year we will celebrate on October 31st.

Students in grades Pre-k – 2nd grade may come to school dressed up as a character from a favorite book. We will celebrate the their favorite book and the characters that brought them to life.

Students in grades 3-5 will select a character or vocabulary word with their teacher and dress in costume to represent that word or character. Get creative! Consider recycling items from around your home to make the costume.

Hello families!

First grade is having a great time learning new skills, participating in fun activities, and preparing for an October field trip ! On September 29th, we celebrated Rock Your School by participating in sports themed math and reading activities. It was a fun day for everyone!

In reading, we recently finished working with informational text, identifying topics and details, and using text features (captions, photos, titles). Currently, we are reading stories and discussing the morale of a story. We are also describing characters, settings, and events from our stories. For writing, we are forming opinions about a topic and giving support from a source.

In math, we have been working on doubles facts and addition/subtraction to 20. We are also memorizing math facts to 10. This is an important skill to practice at home. Students can use flash cards, math apps, or create their own math problems to solve. Automaticity (recalling answers from memory) is an important first grade skill and helps with the progression of other math skills.

In science, we learned about the three states of matter. Next, we will describe different ways objects can move. Our social studies focus is national holidays as a way of honoring people and important events.

The field trip to the Orlando Art Museum is scheduled for October 30th. More information will be sent home as the date approaches.

To help at home, please continue to memorize math facts to 10, review sight words, and write sentences with capitalization, spaces, and punctuation. Please sign your child’s planner every day and check take-home folders. Your help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Mrs. Kosteski

Mrs. Mauriello

Miss Osgood

Ms. Santiago

Mrs. Sullivan

What are we learning?

Reading

In October, we will have a unit that revisits Reading Prose and Poetry and a unit that revisits Reading Informational. In these units we will build upon what was learned the last two months.

In the Prose and Poetry Unit, students will include decoding regularly spelled two-syllable words with long and short vowels to our Foundations Strand and we will add lessons that will help students learn to identify rhyme schemes in poems to the Reading Strand.

In the Reading Informational Unit students will work to be able to explain an author’s purpose and also an author’s opinion(s) including supporting evidence.

Continue to practice independent reading at home. Students will read texts, questions and answers on Reading assessments independently throughout the year. Our goal is that students are able to read to understand this year.

Writing

As our daily writing instruction continues, students will continue with handwriting and creative writing. Each lesson will continue to introduce and give opportunities for practice of Standard English grammar, punctuation and capitalization.

Our two creative writing units in October will focus on Argumentative Writing and Expository Writing. Argumentative Writing instruction will encourage students to write opinion pieces. Expository Writing Instruction will encourage students to write factual pieces. Both types of writing will teach students to find information from a variety of sources, and use their research skills to support their writing. Students will spend time planning, editing, and revising. The unit will conclude with sharing final products with their classmates!

October will provide students with many opportunities to become better writers. Better writers will become better readers! Continue to encourage your child in all their writing endeavors.

Math

We will be working on subtracting 2 digit numbers. Please continue to work on addition and subtraction facts, at home. This is an important skill that will help students succeed with adding and subtracting 2 and 3 digit numbers. Once we finish with subtraction with 2 digits, we will begin adding with 3 digit numbers.

Social Studies

This month 2nd graders will learn about geography. They will learn how to use maps to locate the student’s hometown, Florida, and North America, and locate the state capital and the national capital. Students will be learning about physical features and vocabulary words such as: continent, country, desert, geography, island, lake, mountain, ocean, physical map, plain, political map, river, valley.

Science

In Science this month we will focus on changes in matter. Students will learn that some materials can be changed to create a new substance (chemical change) while other materials change their appearance (physical change). They will be engaged in hands-on investigations and activities on this topic so that they can better understand how and why these changes occur. At the end of the unit, students will be able to explain the difference between physical and chemical changes and provide examples.

Up next?

We are excited to take our students to the Science Center for our first field trip! Look for details coming about Story Book Character day happening at the end of the month. This is a great month to conference with your child’s teacher- we are here to help! Conference sign ups will be coming soon. Conference night is Oct. 25.

Thank you for sharing your children with us. We are so lucky.

-The 2nd Grade Teachers

Important Dates

• October 3rd: Science Test
• October 9th: Field Trip to Orlando Science Center
• October 13th: Reading Test (Stories and Poetry)
• October 31st: Math Test (Multiplication and Division)

Fifth Grade Parents,

Happy October! Thank you for encouraging your child to continue to do their best

daily and exhibit good behavior in all of their activities.

Here are a few reminders:

● Attendance is incredibly important. Please send notes for any absences your student

has, so they can be excused.

● Please check your child’s book bag to ensure they are not bringing items that are

inappropriate for school. Toys can be distracting to students during the school day.

Additionally, the OCPS Student Code of Conduct does not allow for chewing gum.

● Talking Points is the new application used for parent communication. If you are

interested in downloading the application, please do so! If you have not received text

messages from your child’s teacher on Talking Points, please reach out to the front

office to ensure we have the correct contact information.

Important Upcoming Dates:

● October 9- Science Test! Earth in Space and Time

● October 10- Math Test! Fluency with Multiplication and Division

● October 13- Reading Test! Informational Text

● October 20- Science PMA! Quarter 1 Review Assessment

● October 31- Math Test! Multiplying and Dividing Decimals

If you have any questions, please reach out to your student’s teacher in order to schedule a

conference. Thank you for all of your support!

Fifth Grade Team

It’s Hispanic Heritage Month and we are learning about different countries, artists, and cultures.

Kindergarten is learning about the Elements of Art: (line, shape, color), folk art, and the country of El Salvador.

First and Second grade are learning about the country of Mexico, symmetry, monarch butterfly, and folk art.

Third, fourth, and fifth grade are learning about surrealisms Spanish artist Salvador Dali and Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

Kindergarten, first and second grades will learn to play rhythm patterns, identify rhyming patterns in songs and use their singing voices. They will use drums, triangles, movement scarves and wood blocks.

Third, fourth and fifth grades will learn to play rhythm ostinatos, melodies and accompaniments. They will use drums, xylophones, boom whackers and recorders.

Fifth grade will also study music genres and music elements.

Hello from PE!

This month K-5 will continue working on locomotor skills as we move into our jump rope unit. During this unit the students will be participating in the Kids Heart Challenge. We will be raising money for the American Heart Association. We will also be working on cooperative games and discussing nutrition in the month of October.

TalkingPoints is a two-way multilingual family engagement platform that allows school administrators, instructional staff and other key staff to send messages to parents/guardians who receive them in their home languages as text messages or through the parent mobile application. Parents/guardians can reply to the message they receive in their home languages, because TalkingPoints will translate it into English for staff. TalkingPoints supports over 145 languages, including the primary languages in OCPS.

Food and Nutrition Services is excited to offer MealViewer! This online menu service provides a quick and easy way to view our school’s daily menus.

National Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the cultures, histories and contributions of Americans whose ancestors come from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. This year, it starts on Wednesday, September 15 and ends on October 15.

Who started Hispanic Heritage Month?

It was started by President Lyndon B. Johnson as National Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan extended it to a month-long celebration.

Why does it start on September 15?

That’s the date when five Latin American countries—Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua—celebrate their independence from Spain in 1821.

Mexico, Chile, and Belize celebrate their independence days on the 16th, 18th, and 21st of September.

How do people celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month?

Like the U.S. Independence Day, it is celebrated in Latin American countries and here in the United States with parades, parties, fireworks, and picnics.

Due to the coronavirus, events in your town or city may be cancelled. The good news is, you can still celebrate at home! Here are some ideas:

• Read about different Hispanic countries and cultures, and learn about the contributions of Hispanic Americans who have influenced and enriched our nation and society.

• Learn Spanish! If you don’t already speak Spanish, you can learn some common words and phrases.

• Get festive by cooking some Latin American dishes.

• Make a craft. Color or paint the Mexican flag. Make papel picado -“pecked paper” banners, or “flores de papel”- paper flowers.

We had a nice turn out of families and community members. If you couldn’t make it, you can find a recording of the opening session on our Riverdale webpage at riverdalees.ocps.net under the parents tab or by going to riverdale.family/openhouse23. In addition, your teacher can send you the powerpoint slides from their classroom presentation upon your request.

I am here to bridge and connect the parents, teachers, students and the community to Riverdale. My main goal is to help families connect to our school so they feel like they belong here and provide resources that help parents remain engaged in their student’s education.

We, at Riverdale, will create an environment where our families feel welcome, participate in their student’s day to day learning and understand that they have a voice in the decisions made to impact their students’ achievement. We will strive to engage our families in active learning with students during family events and provide the best resources for supporting students at home.

Jeanie.Lawrence@ocps.net (407) 737-1400 *3832287

A great way to improve your family’s connection with each other. And while you might not need to use a conversation calendar to get your family talking, sometimes they’re helpful in starting a new conversation. Start talking and have some family fun!

This month, we are learning about the importance of Decisions. Our in the classroom discussions will focus on both the critical thinking skills required to make good decisions and the consequences of our decisions - good or bad - for ourselves and others. Children need to learn the importance of decision making, as they will only face more and more difficult and important decisions as they grow up.

How can you help?

- Help your child develop critical thinking skills. If you catch them misbehaving or about to misbehave, turn it into a conversation exploring consequences of poor decision making.

- Example:

Parent: Were you about to practice kicking a ball in the living room?

Child: Maybe... I'm sorry.

Parent: It's great that you want to practice, but you know you need to go outside. What might happen if you kicked the ball inside?

Child: You tell me that I might knock over a lamp.

Parent: And what would happen if you did that?

Child: I would break it.

Parent: And you would have to buy a new lamp with your allowance money. And in the meantime, the living room would be too dark for us to read in. Also, I would be hurt that you had not listened to me.

Making good decisions helps us live healthy, happy lives! Making good decisions is important not just for ourselves, but for the people around us, because our choices can affect other people. For one week, try keeping a "Decision Diary" writing down how one decision you made each day affected someone else.

For example:

Today, I decided to practice soccer at home. My coach saw how well I was doing and asked me to help him demonstrate and new move.

You try!

Today, I decided to ________________________. (Other person) _____________________________

In order to participate in any school-related activity, parents, guardians, friends, etc. must be cleared through the OCPS ADDitions Volunteer program. it is important to remember that your account must be reactivated annually.

SAC is a committee made up of parents, teachers, staff members, and community members that meet on a monthly basis with a focus on student achievement. During our meetings we look at our school improvement plan and we brainstorm ways to meet the academic, as well as social emotional needs of our students. We also discuss upcoming school events and ways to celebrate the achievements of our students.

The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is the bridge between the family and school life. The collaboration of parents and teachers make it possible for every child to reach their potential. Come join our community and be a voice for the children at Riverdale. Fill out a membership form and pay $5 then join us for our next PTA meeting.

Website: https://riverdalees.ocps.net
Location: 11301 Lokanotosa Trail, Orlando, FL, USA
Phone: (407)737-1400