Red Pride Weekly - Family Edition

We have 3 days to go Gladiators! There is a lot going on this week, so be sure to check out any messages from your child's teacher and don't forget our holiday spirit week.

Important Dates

• Monday, December 16 - Kindergarten Program; 6:00 pm, Gym
• Wednesday, December 18 - End of First Semester
• Thursday, December 19 - Friday, January 3 - Winter Break
• Monday, January 6 - Start of the 2nd Semester
• Friday, January 10 - Report Cards Distributed
• Monday, January 20 - No School for Students or Staff
• Friday, January 24 - Class Pictures

Happy Holidays!

This will be the last Sunday message before we return next semester. On behalf of the staff and students of Riverheads Elementary, we hope that you have a wonderful Winter Break and that the joys of the holiday season are many for you and your family. See you next year!

Our Holiday Spirit Week continues this week and we want to encourage all of our students and staff to show their school spirit by dressing up to match each days theme...

• Monday, December 16 - Merry Monday: Wear red and green
• Tuesday, December 17 - 100% THAT Grinch: Wear green or Grinch gear
• Wednesday, December 18 - Night Before Christmas Break: Wear your coziest pajamas

Our Kindergarten students will perform Christmas Makes Me Sing! on Monday, December 16. Doors will open at 5:30 pm and the show will begin at 6:00 pm in the gym. We are excited to see what Mrs. Glenn and our Kindergarten Gladiators are preparing for us.

Kindergarten students should report to the cafeteria at 5:45 pm to lineup. If you arrive with your Kindergarten child prior to 5:45 pm, keep them with you until the teachers are available to supervise.

On Thursday, December 5, 20024, the School Board unanimously voted to approve the Personally-Owned Electronic Device (PED)-Free Education policy. This policy will go into effect at the beginning of the second semester when students return to school following the holiday break on Monday, January 6, 2025. The expectation for students will be that all personally owned electronic devices are “away for the (school) day.” Administrators and teachers will be working with their students to communicate the expectations for them when they return from break. We encourage you to take some time to familiarize yourself with the policy and have a conversation with your student(s).

In general there will not be a change for elementary aged students who have always been expected to keep personal electronic devices stored away during the school day. Our most common responses when a student is using a PED is to direct them to put the device away in their book bag or cubby, or to take the device until a parent can come pick it up.

We do want to draw your attention to the definition of "Personally-owned Electronic Device" included in the policy. While cell phones are the most common device, there are other personally-owned electronic devices that fall under this policy.

“Personally-owned Electronic Device (PED)” means any personal device capable of connecting to a smartphone, the internet, a cellular or Wi-Fi network, or another similar device. Personal electronic communication devices may include but are not limited to, some wearable devices such as smartwatches, personal headphones, earbuds, laptops, tablets, other Bluetooth-enabled devices, and other future personally-owned electronic devices with the abovementioned characteristics.

Thanks for taking time to talk over this policy with your child. If you have questions, please reach out to administration.

It is that time of year again...

We are asking our families to nominate candidates for teacher of the year and for support staff member of the year. Please nominate an RES teacher or staff member that has gone above and beyond for your child or our school and community. You can email your nominations directly to Mr. Matherly, making sure to include the staff member’s name and your reason for nominating. You can also complete the nomination using the Google Form linked here… https://forms.gle/Md7aWqgoQ34mgFf66.

We will be changing our school's master schedule starting in the 2nd semester in order to increase the time available for academic interventions and to provide additional time for English Language Arts and Mathematics instruction. For some grade levels this will result in minor tweaks, while other grade levels will see more significant changes. You child's teacher will provide you with updates especially as it affects the daily lunch and Specials schedule.

You can access our 2nd semester Specials rotation schedules here:

• Grade 5
• Grade 4
• Grade 3
• Grade 2
• Grade 1
• Kindergarten
• PreK & EL

Each morning our Gladiators are asked to live up to our Red Pride Pledge by being safe, respectful, responsible, caring learners. Students who live up to our Riverheads Expectations for Success have a chance to be nominated by their teacher or another staff member for the honor of being a Good News Gladiator. Students who earn this honor are given a shout out over the announcements and are allowed to choose a book from our book vending machine.

Please join me in celebrating these Gladiators for showing their Red Pride!

We have been busy recognizing students all year, so be on the lookout for more Good News Gladiators each week.

Sgt. Pultz, Coach Armstrong and Coach Dodson enjoyed a game of kickball with our 4th graders.

Our 1st graders have been working hard on their "doubles" math facts... 2+2=4, 3+3=6, etc. They turned their practice opportunities into holiday crafts. They look pretty good on the trees!

Some of our 8th Graders came over this week to help out with crafts in 3rd grade.

Our 3rd graders have been hard at work learning about simple machines. These students were asked to build and present a device that incorporated simple machines. Each one was holiday themed such as a marble run to get presents down the chimney, a fort defender from a snowball fight with the grinch, a mechanism to put a star on top of a 24 foot tree, and a way to get a bunch of heavy presents loaded into Santa’s sleigh!