Sunday, November 8, 2020

The Week of November 8, 2020

 The Weekly Newsletter





Amira Placement Assessment 

Students will be taking the Amira assessment this week. It is important that they receive no help from family during this assessment because it will be used for placement on the Amira Learning tool. Your child needs a quiet environment in which to work. If there are technical glitches during the test, your child will need to take the assessment again.

Monday, students will need to login to Amira, as they normally do, and complete the assessment by the end of the day. 





Opinion Writing

Since there is no school Wednesday, students will be assigned the next step in opinion writing Tuesday. There will be no journaling assigned for Tuesday and instead the children will be expected to work on their opinion writing pieces.


Angel Tree


This year's Angel Tree is a little different, but we can still help Ellis families this holiday season. Donations of $25 gift cards to Walmart and Target will be collected this month and distributed in December by our school counselors. Please see the details and sign up located here.


Read-A-Thon!


The 9th Annual PTA Read-A-Thon will run November 1-30th. This year, we are raising money for school-wide digital subscriptions to platforms such as BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr., Transparent Classroom, etc. ​Not only will the funds benefit our school, but students will also enjoy time reading and this is something that can be done as a family. We hope the time your family spends participating in this Read-A-Thon encourages a love of reading and time spent together supporting a good cause.​


Register each of your students at this we​bsit​e. You will be provided with a personal link that you can share with family and friends to ask for their pledge of support. You can view more information and keep track of your student's reading at this 2020 Read-A-Thon Flyer​.  Thank you for your support!

If you have any questions, contact Ms. Lisa (lisa.odonnell@sccpss.com).






Science Club

Science Club  meets every Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. via a link posted in the "Announcements" section in The Learning Community course on the itsLearning platform. There will be a virtual field trip on November 18 at 9am. Our class will see RUCK the sea turtle! Our entire community should plan to join. The link to our virtual field trip will be posted on ItsLearning on the 18th.


Open Meetings

All students are required to attend Open Meetings after the Morning Meetings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Open Meeting Schedule

8:45-9:05 First Year Students

9:05-9:25 Second Year students

9:25-9:45 Third Year Students 






Dates to Remember

11/11/2020-------Veteran's Day (No School!)

11/18/2020-------Virtual Field Trip 9am

11/23-11/27-----Thanksgiving Break

Sunday, November 1, 2020

The Week of November 1st

 The Weekly Newsletter


Read-A-Thon Starts Today!

The 9th Annual PTA Read-A-Thon will run November 1-30th. This year, we are raising money for school-wide digital subscriptions to platforms such as BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr., Transparent Classroom, etc. ​Not only will the funds benefit our school, but students will also enjoy time reading and this is something that can be done as a family. We hope the time your family spends participating in this Read-A-Thon encourages a love of reading and time spent together supporting a good cause.​

Register each of your students at this we​bsit​e. You will be provided with a personal link that you can share with family and friends to ask for their pledge of support. You can view more information and keep track of your student's reading at this 2020 Read-A-Thon Flyer​.  Thank you for your support!

If you have any questions, contact Ms. Lisa (lisa.odonnell@sccpss.com).



PTA Wreath Sale

Give your support and spread some much needed holiday cheer with beautiful holiday evergreens from the Pacific Northwest! Proceeds go to support and improve the Ellis pond and gardens. Deadline to order at the website below is TODAY

PTA Wreath Sales Flyer

Wreath Sales Website





Science Club

Science Club  meets every Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. via a link posted in the "Announcements" section in The Learning Community course on the itsLearning platform. We have a virtual field trip planned for November 18 at 9am, so keep an eye out for more information about that!






Open Meetings

All students are required to attend Open Meetings after the Morning Meetings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Open Meeting Schedule

8:45-9:05 First Year Students

9:05-9:25 Second Year students

9:25-9:45 Third Year Students 



Dates to Remember

11/11/2020-------Veteran's Day (No School!)

11/18/2020-------Virtual Field Trip 9am

11/23-11/27-----Thanksgiving Break

Sunday, October 25, 2020

The Week of October 25th


 The Weekly Newsletter

Open Meetings!

We are so pleased that we are able to spend more time with our students each day! All students are required to attend Open Meetings after the Morning Meetings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Below is a reminder of the meeting schedule:

8:45-9:05 First Year Students

9:05-9:25 Second Year students

9:25-9:45 Third Year Students


Writing Assignments

We had our introduction to opinion writing last week. This Wednesday, we will have our first formal opinion writing lesson. Don't forget to checkout the writing lesson in "plans" on Wednesday!




Conferences

We are looking forward to meeting with families on Monday, October 26 and Wednesday, October 28. If you have not yet scheduled your conference, please click the link below and choose a time that works for you.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4faaaa23a0f58-fall4


Medical Questionnaire

If you have not already done so, please fill out this medical questionnaire so that Nurse Chris can have it on file for your child.  It is important that the school has up to date records for each child. 

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=jNoJQArTmE-lvXimwKJaUyv_NIHtuPpPsWJZcUsPa8tUN1pPVE5QWDM2OUQ2REozSEY1ODc0VVFJOC4u


Science Club

Science Club  meets every Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. via a link posted in the "Announcements" section in The Learning Community course on the itsLearning platform. We have a virtual field trip planned for November 18 at 9am, so keep an eye out for more information about that!



PTA Wreath Sales

​​Give your support and spread some much needed holiday cheer with beautiful holiday evergreens from the Pacific Northwest! Proceeds go to support and improve the Ellis pond and gardens. Deadline to order at the website below is November 1st.

PTA Wreath Sales Flyer

Wreath Sales Website




​​​​​The Society of Women Engineers is hosting their annual Girls Engineer It Day on Saturday, November 7th. 

This year, the event will be completely virtual. Boys are allowed to participate if they would like to sign-up. Email Ms. Olivia (olivia.lorenzo@sccpss.com) if your student is interested in participating. While this is a virtual, individual event, Ms. Olivia would like to create a small community of participants to collaborate with after the event to brainstorm ideas and to share experiences. Ms. Olivia has a small budget to help sponsor students in need. She is looking for 15 elementary and middle school students to participate, but she will not be able to accept any names after October 30th. 




Book Character Pumpkin Patch



Book It!






Dates to Remember

10/26/2020------Fall Conferences

10/28/2020------Fall Conferences

10/28/2020------Science Club 9am

11/11/2020-------Veteran's Day (No School!)

11/18/2020-------Virtual Field Trip 9am

11/23-11/27-----Thanksgiving Break 


Friday, October 16, 2020

Week of October 18

 The Weekly Newsletter

Community Changes

Now that we have completed the first nine weeks of school, we have decided to make a small change in how often we interact with students.  About halfway through the first nine weeks, we felt that we were not seeing students enough, so we added the mandatory Tuesday meeting.  After further discussion we have decided to make all of the open meetings mandatory.  We will be giving lessons during that time and the schedule will remain the same, with the exception of when we have other things scheduled such as MAP testing, conferences, etc. Therefore, this week we will have mandatory open meetings on Thursday and Friday due to MAP testing for first and second year students which is discussed below. Below is a reminder of the meeting schedule:

8:45-9:05 First Year Students

9:05-9:25 Second Year students

9:25-9:45 Third Year Students


Writing Assignments

There will be no writing assigned this Wednesday. Please take this week to finish up any of your past due assignments for informative/explanatory writing. Next week we begin opinion writing!


MAP Testing

1st and 2nd year students will begin taking MAP reading and math assessments from home on Monday and Tuesday, unless your child is participating in the hybrid school option. Students who are attending school in person are testing at school. In order to ensure that you and your child are ready, please read the following information and links below to ensure that you have a successful testing experience. Please see the schedule below. **No journal writing on Monday and Tuesday for students who are taking MAP assessments!


**Use this link to test your child’s device to see if it is compatible with the test**

https://teach.mapnwea.org/impl/maptraining/DeviceReadiness/story_html5.html


**Use this link to practice the MAP test and learn about the tools**

https://studentresources.nwea.org/app/gradetwoplus/gradeTwoPlus.html

On the day your student tests, have them log into itsLearning and log into the Morning Meeting Zoom.

Next, they will click on MAP Test in the black toolbar at the top of itsLearning. 

We will supply the Session Name and Session login via the chat in the Zoom meeting.  We ask that you write it down in case you need it again during the test session. 

During testing you child will need to have their camera on, but they will remain muted, unless we ask them to mute.  If they have any issues with the test, such as the wheel is turning, or if they need to use the restroom, etc. they will need to raise their hand and we will ask them to unmute so that we can assist them. 

Please have an adult with the student or nearby, during the test session in case of tech issues.

MAP Testing Schedule

Monday 10/19 

Reading

Tuesday 10/20

Math

8:45

8:45

Zah’Ki

Zah’Ki

Dimitri 

Dimitri 

Grace

Grace

Herbert

Herbert

Koby

Georgia

Georgia

Koby



9:30

9:30

Delilah

Delilah

Ellana

Ellana

London 

London 

Sky

Sky

Aisia

Aisia

Dorian

Dorian



12:15

12:15

Gray 

Gray 

Amelia

Amelia

Londyn

Londyn

Grayson 

Grayson 

McKenzie

McKenzie

Joy

Joy

Maziya

Maziya


Opinion Writing Pre-Assessment-3rd Year Students

3rd year students will be taking the opinion writing pre-test from home on Wednesday at 10 am on our Morning Meeting Zoom. Families of the students who are testing have received an email with instructions on how to access our Writing Scrimmage Google Classroom. 3rd year students should have paper and a pencil to write a rough draft of their opinion writing piece before typing it up on the document. 



Conferences

Can you believe it’s conference time?!  We have set aside two days, Monday, October 26 and Wednesday, October 28, to meet with families via the Morning Meeting  Zoom.  We will be sharing your student’s conference report via Transparent Classroom before the conference and we ask that you review the conference carefully, and come to our meeting with any questions or comments that you may have.  Please sign up for a slot via this Signup Genius that we have created.  You may enter the Zoom a few minutes early and we will let you in as soon as we can. The Zoom link is in the sign up as well, for your convenience. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4faaaa23a0f58-fall4


Medical Questionnaire

If you have not already done so, please fill out this medical questionnaire so that Nurse Chris can have it on file for your child.  It is important that the school has up to date records for each child. 

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=jNoJQArTmE-lvXimwKJaUyv_NIHtuPpPsWJZcUsPa8tUN1pPVE5QWDM2OUQ2REozSEY1ODc0VVFJOC4u


Science Club

A parent has so graciously offered to host an OPTIONAL weekly science club which will be focused on a turtle that has been adopted for our class!  The club will  meet every Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. via a link posted in the "Announcements" section in The Learning Community course on the itsLearning platform. It's name is Ruck and here is some information about it!

The club was so much fun last week and the children seemed to love it!  We have a virtual field trip in the works, so keep an eye out for that information!

About Ruck

Species: Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii)

Age: Juvenile

Sex: Unknown

Arrival: May 27, 2020

Weight:  2.05 kg / 4.52 lbs 

Found: Cumberland Island, GA 

Rescued by: Georgia Department of Natural Resources

Why Ruck is here: Ruck arrived to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center after being attacked by a predator. The predator took a large chunk out of Ruck's neck; we estimated that about 30% of the neck was missing upon arrival. Ruck had lost a lot of blood and needed a transfusion. A healthier patient was used as Ruck's donor. Ruck still has a long way to go before recovering, but we are hopeful he/she will be released back to the wild someday.


Book Character Pumpkin Patch



Book It!



Fall Festival Parade Of Art and Fun!





Dates to Remember

10/19/2020-----MAP Testing (1st and 2nd Year Students)

10/20/2020----- MAP Testing (1st and 2nd Year Students)

10/21/2020----Opinion Writing Pre-Assessment (3rd Year Students)

10/22/2020------Fall Festival Parade 5-6:30pm

11/11/2020-------Veteran's Day (No School!)

11/23-11/27-----Thanksgiving Break 


Saturday, October 10, 2020

Week of October 11

The Weekly Newsletter


Medical Questionnaire

If you have not already done so, please fill out this medical questionnaire so that Nurse Chris can have it on file for your child.  It is important that the school has up to date records for each child. 

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=jNoJQArTmE-lvXimwKJaUyv_NIHtuPpPsWJZcUsPa8tUN1pPVE5QWDM2OUQ2REozSEY1ODc0VVFJOC4u


Science Club

A parent has so graciously offered to host an OPTIONAL weekly science club which will be focused on a turtle that has been adopted for our class!  The club will  meet every Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. via a link posted in the "Announcements" section in The Learning Community course on the itsLearning platform. It's name is Rutt and here is some information about it!

About Ruck

Species: Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii)

Age: Juvenile

Sex: Unknown

Arrival: May 27, 2020

Weight:  2.05 kg / 4.52 lbs 

Found: Cumberland Island, GA 

Rescued by: Georgia Department of Natural Resources

Why Ruck is here: Ruck arrived to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center after being attacked by a predator. The predator took a large chunk out of Ruck's neck; we estimated that about 30% of the neck was missing upon arrival. Ruck had lost a lot of blood and needed a transfusion. A healthier patient was used as Ruck's donor. Ruck still has a long way to go before recovering, but we are hopeful he/she will be released back to the wild someday.


Projects and Activities

If you wish for your child to work collaboratively with another student on an activity/project that is listed in itsLearning, please fell free to do so!  We encourage collaboration in the classroom when we are face-to-face, and would love to see it in the virtual arena as well! We have had some students collaborate over Zoom on some activites and it turned out great!  They recorded the Zoom meeting and uploaded the recording to their assignment.  You may also upload images of your results! 


Book Character Pumpkin Patch



Book It!





PTA Reflections 

Please check out the link below for more information about the PTA Reflections contest. This year’s theme is “I Matter Because...”

Submissions are due by October 14.




https://www.ellismontessoripta.org/post/enter-the-pta-reflections-competition


Amira

Students should be able to log in to Amira through ItsLearning. They are expected to read with Amira three times per week. Please let us know if you are having difficulty using the Amira reading tutor so that we can convey your issues to the district in the hopes of resolving them. 


Fall Festival Parade Of Art and Fun!





Dates to Remember

10/9/2020--------Fall Break (No School!)

10/12/2020-------Fall Break (No School!)

10/13/2020------Mandatory Open Meeting (attend at your time)

10/14/2020--------PTA Reflections Due

10/22/2020------Fall Festival Parade 5-6:30pm

11/11/2020-------Veteran's Day (No School!)


Sunday, October 4, 2020

The Week of October 4

  The Weekly Newsletter


Book It!





PTA Reflections 

Please check out the link below for more information about the PTA Reflections contest. This year’s theme is “I Matter Because...”

Submissions are due by October 14.




https://www.ellismontessoripta.org/post/enter-the-pta-reflections-competition



Required Open Meetings On Tuesdays

All students should plan to attend our required open meeting on Tuesday at the appropriate time for their grade level. Students should bring their first informational piece (linked below), and yellow, green and red crayons or colored pencils, so that we can work on them together. 


3rd Years Write your Informative Paragraph!

1st and 2nd Years Write Your Informative Paragraph!


Open Meeting Schedule M, Tu, Th, F

1st years 8:45-9:05 

2nd years 9:05-9:25

3rd years 9:25-9:45


Amira

Students should be able to log in to Amira through ItsLearning. They are expected to read with Amira three times per week. Please let us know if you are having difficulty using the Amira reading tutor so that we can convey your issues to the district in the hopes of resolving them . 

Fall Festival Parade Of Art and Fun!







Dates to Remember

10/6/2020-------Mandatory Grade Level Open Meeting

10/9/2020--------Fall Break (No School!)

10/12/2020-------Fall Break (No School!)

10/14/2020--------PTA Reflections Due

10/22/2020------Fall Festival Parade 5-6:30pm

11/11/2020-------Veteran's Day (No School!)


Friday, September 25, 2020

The Week of September 27

 The Weekly Newsletter

Catch Up on Work Week

We will not be assigning new arithmetic, cultural, geometry, language, and daily journaling work this week. The only new assignment will be writing on Wednesday, but you still do have assignments with extended due dates. Please use your time wisely to catch up and submit assignments! We are excited to give you the gift of time this week!


PTA Reflections

Please check out the link below for more information about the PTA Reflections contest. This year’s theme is “I Matter Because...” Submissions are due by October 14.

https://www.ellismontessoripta.org/post/enter-the-pta-reflections-competition


Student Medical Questionnaire

Please use the following link to complete the questionnaire sent out by Nurse Chris.

Medical Questionnaire Link


Free/Reduced Lunch Application

Deadline: September 30, 2020 During virtual learning, breakfast and lunch will be available to SCCPSS students at designated bus stops at designated times. Breakfast is free, but lunch must be paid for online. If you receive free/reduced lunch, your meal status remains the same until September 30, 2020 and you must fill out another application by that time. Please use the following link to apply.

https://www.myschoolapps.com/


MAP TESTING Third year students have been logging into the MAP tests with such ease that we have decided to combine test sessions in order to accommodate more students at one time. Please see the schedule below for the new test session roster.


Monday 9-28-2020

Math

8:45 AM

Ken 

Jasper

Amicus

Aidan

Osa 

Titus

Stefan

Keith

Riley




Open Meetings On Tuesdays

Students will not be able to join our open meetings on Monday or Tuesday of this week due to MAP testing. We hope that we will be able to resume our open meeting schedule on Thursday, but will need to confirm this with students during our Morning Meeting on Thursday. We will miss meeting with the younger students at this time, but if there are any questions or concerns that need to be addressed, please email us or send a message on ItsLearning and we will get in touch.


Monday Open Meeting Schedule


1st years 8:45-9:05 


2nd years 9:05-9:25


3rd years 9:25-9:45




Amira

*Unless you have received different information from the teachers, your student is expected to work on Amira 3 times a week.*

Amira is accessible from the ItsLearning platform. Students should log in. Go to the black toolbar at the top of the page and click "groups". Then click "Savannah Chatham County Schools" on the dropdown menu. They will then see Amira's face and should click that box. When the screen says "Hi ______", your child should click the "Launch Amira" box. The tutoring is prefaced with an assessment to gauge your child's reading level. It is so important that you do not help your young reader in any way. If your child receives help Amira will not place them where they need to be!


https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1U7I8Z1UlmOlZb2AmwoV5zEvbko7fEv9ReS0lU2OBYuQ/edit?usp=sharing


Turning In Assignments

Students should find their assignments under the "plans" tab on Itslearning. When turning in assignments, students should use the "plans" tab, find the assignment, click "answer assignment" tab at the bottom of the assignment, then click on the "more options" tab in the toolbox and choose the square icon with mountains to add a picture of their work. If your student is sharing pictures that we cannot see and is asked to resubmit, we suggest you download the ItsLearning app onto your phone and take pictures with that and then submit them to assignments.








Dates to Remember

10/9/2020--------Fall Break (No School!)

10/12/2020-------Fall Break (No School!)

The Week of April 26

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