Dear PVES Families,
We have had another full and productive week of school, and the month of September has come to a close for this school year. There will be no school on Monday and Tuesday, September 30th and October 1st, in honor of Rosh Hashanah, and we look forward to welcoming everyone back on Wednesday, October 2nd. October certainly looks to be a busy month, so please check the calendar scroll carefully.
We celebrated the end of the first month of the school year by bringing everyone together for our opening Character Education Assembly, facilitated by our very own Character Ed & Diversity Committee. Together, we sang, recited our Character Ed Pledge, and reviewed our highlighted traits of being Kind, Safe, Respectful, and Responsible. We also reviewed the importance of the RULER Mood Meter, our Social and Emotional Wellness learning, and talked about our whole-school read, Playground Heroes, a book by visiting author, Dr. Carol Franks-Randall. Thank you to the PTA for purchasing this book for every classroom!
Congratulations also to those students who participated in the Summer Reading Challenge this year! We strongly encourage daily reading at home, as the long-term benefits of this are endless! Please have your child set up to love good books…fiction, non-fiction, biographies, science studies, and more. Many teachers distribute Scholastic Book Order forms each month, and these books are very well-priced. Our Scholastic Book Fair will also be taking place next month, and we are welcoming browsers, shoppers, and volunteers! Thank you for doing all you can do to encourage the love of reading and learning in your home. This is so very important!
On Friday, October 4th, all students will be dismissed from school 15 minutes early, as part of a mandated early dismissal plan. Please make arrangements for this day, as all elementary students must be met by a designated adult at the afternoon bus stop. All grade levels will also attend Fire Safety Assemblies on that day, and we thank our local Fire Department for their help with this important day of learning.
Within the next several weeks, our Math Challenge Mondays will take place during iBlock in grades 2-4. This will give all children the chance to get even more of an opportunity for high level math thinking, including problem-solving, strategic planning, logic problems, and developing number sense. Students will be working with teachers at their grade level during this 30-40 minute block, and they will be assigned to a math group for that day. Students who receive mandated support services during this Monday iBlock time will continue with those lessons. This will then soon be followed by our ELA Challenge iBlock on Fridays, which will provide extended opportunities in reading, writing, speaking, and listening for our students with their classroom teachers. We had great success with these enrichment opportunities last year, and we look forward to our continued student engagement and excitement!
School Picture Day will take place on Monday, October 7th. Please check the PTA website carefully, as there are many upcoming events and volunteer opportunities. Thank you to the PTA and the PVEF for all they do for our school! Please note, the PVEF Color Run will take place on Sunday, October 6th at 2:00 in the Town Park!
Enjoy the long weekend! We can’t wait to see all of our amazing students in October!
Warmly,
Ms. Podesta
Principal