The Week of January 17, 2021

 The Weekly Newsletter

3rd Grade Narrative Writing Pre-Assessment

We have scheduled the Narrative Writing Pre-Assessment on Tuesday from 9:25-10:30. Third year students will need to be logged in to Google Classroom Writing Scrimmage before joining the third year open meeting on Zoom. This pre-assessment should take about an hour to complete. 

i-Ready!

SCCPSS is implementing an online instructional program called i-Ready to support students in the acquisition and enhancement of Math and Reading skills. i-Ready Instruction provides students with lessons based on their individual strengths and areas for growth. These lessons are interactive and provide strategic support, to keep your child engaged as they learn. We will be administering diagnostic assessments 1/25-2/5. More information and a schedule will provided to you in an email. 

Boosterthon Dance Fit

Register your student at www.funrun.com and share your page link with family and friends.

Boosterthon has partnered with Just Dance to bring a Dance Fit event which will take place on January 20, 2021. Students will meet virtually with their favorite Booster teammates, earn prizes for pledges, and have lots of fun dancing! We have met 32% of the PTA's goal of $18,000 to help fund teacher grants, student experiences, and school materials that enhance the Montessori learning environment at Ellis.

Our entire community will be rewarded with the prizes below for receiving pledges! The Blue Jays and Cardinals are tied at $24 per minute of dancing during the Dance Fit Event on Wednesday. That means they have already won the first 3 prizes on our community pledge-o-meter!

$5 Cool pencils and erasers!

$10 Wear a hat to class!

$20 Wear a costume to class!

$30 Crazy Hair Day!

$40 Unmuted Morning Meeting!

$50 Lunch with the teachers!

$60 Teachers Dress up- Your choice!

$70 Teachers get pied in the face!

$80 Skip any assignment but writing!

Thank you for your support!

Open Meetings

As usual, all students are required to attend Open Meetings after the Morning Meetings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday for lessons and community building. We love having this time to work with students in small groups!

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

January 18- MLK Jr. Day- No School!

January 19- 3rd Year Narrative Writing Assessment

January 20- Virtual Boosterthon Event

Jan 25-Feb 5- i-Ready Diagnostic Assessments

January 26- PTA Meeting 6:30 pm

The Week of January 10th

 The Weekly Newsletter

Although we were saddened to hear that we will not be able to see students in person, we are committed to making sure that our community stays safe. SCCPSS Schools to continue with Virtual Learning January 11th due to community spread of COVID-19.

SCCPSS students will continue Virtual Learning on January 11th and remain in that Learning Mode until at least one of three COVID-19 community spread indicators moves out of the red zone for 14 days.

Boosterthon Dance Fit

The Boosterthon, the PTA's largest fundraiser of the year, has begun!

Register your student at www.funrun.com and share your page link with family and friends.

The program is virtual this year. Boosterthon has partnered with Just Dance to bring a Dance Fit event which will take place on January 20, 2021. Students will meet virtually with their favorite Booster teammates, earn prizes (check them out below!) for pledges, and have lots of fun dancing! The PTA's goal is $18,000 to help fund teacher grants, student experiences, and school materials to enhance the Montessori learning environment at Ellis.

www.funrun.com

Thank you for your support!

Open Meetings

As usual, all students are required to attend Open Meetings after the Morning Meetings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday for lessons and community building. We love having this time to work with students in small groups!

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

January 18- MLK Jr. Day- No School!

January 20- Virtual Boosterthon Event

January 26- PTA Meeting 6:30pm

The Week of January 3

 The Weekly Newsletter

Welcome Back!

We hope you and your family had a restful break.  The first week back will be virtual for all children. We look forward to seeing many students back inside Ellis on January 11th.  We will be staying on our current schedule in January.  Those children that are in the building will receive grade level lessons live with social distance.  We are certain that the new hybrid model will take time to adjust to.  Some changes to the schedule might need to be made as we progress. We will keep you updated.

*This Friday, 1/8/2020 we will not have our regularly scheduled meetings due a mandatory district training for teachers. Students will need to get on ItsLearning for the morning announcement and read-aloud.

Science Club 

Science Club is moving to a monthly schedule. More information on this to come.

This Week

There will be journaling and math assignments posted this week. When these are completed, students can catch up on any past due assignments.

Next Week

On Monday, January 11 students in cohort A will return to the school building for in-person learning. Thursday, January 14 students in cohort B will return to the building for in-person learning. All students are required to have their own water bottle upon return. Please send an extra mask in your child's bookbag. Only students with district devices will need to bring them to the building, fully charged, when they return. Please send in all necessary school supplies in your child's bookbag. Thank you!

Boosterthon Dance Fit

PTA distributed FREE t-shirts to students and teachers for our upcoming Boosterthon Dance Fit fundraiser. This year will be a virtual event, but students will have a daily Zoom call with their favorite Booster-teammates, earn prizes for gathering pledges, and have a rocking good time as they dance, dance, dance (a partnership with Just Dance). Please register your child and share the link with friends and family. Registration is open now! We’ll have the official Kick-off on January 8, and Dance Fit will be held January 20. This is our largest fundraiser and helps fund teacher and student grants!

www.funrun.com

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

January 4- Staff Planning Day- No School for Students!

January 5-8- e-Learning Days

January 8- PTA Boosterthon Kick-Off

January 11- Cohort A returns in-person to school

January 14- Cohort B returns in-person to school

January 18- MLK Jr. Day- No School!

January 20- Virtual Boosterthon Event

The Week of December 13th

  The Weekly Newsletter

This Week

We will have a daily journal assignment with a chapter of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory read aloud attached each day. It is important that students complete their journal writing daily and in order, so that they are ready for the read alouds during morning meetings.

We will also have OPTIONAL cultural craft assignments posted. The crafts are based on different holidays around the world. Students can choose to do these or not.

Students can also use this week as a catch-up week to complete past assignments. 

The children are invited to wear pajamas to our meetings ALL WEEK LONG! Students can wear their PJs both in the virtual environment and to the school building for this week only!!

Boosterthon!

The PTA Boosterthon will open up for pledging beginning December 17th. This year, the Boosterthon will be a virtual, Dance Fit event. Stay tuned for more details!

On Saturday, December 12th, and Sunday, December 13th from 12-2pm, the PTA will be on the Ellis sidewalk distributing Boosterthon t-shirts, information about the virtual Festival of Lights event on December 17th, and free ice pops to all students for meeting last year's Boosterthon pledge goal!

Virtual Festival of Lights and Sing-Along

The annual PTA Festival of Lights will be a virtual event on Thursday, December 17th at 6:30pm.The Zoom link will be sent out next week and posted on the PTA website: https://www.ellismontessoripta.org/blog-1

We'll watch recorded performances from Erdkinder and Upper Elementary chorus members, plus sing along to our Ellis favorites! Lyrics will be on screen and are attached below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UI5lUYwGtJiHc3RBEFJLFfSuyT4j3w73/view?usp=sharing

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

December 12-13- Boosterthon T-Shirt Pick-Up

December 17- PTA Virtual Festival of Lights

December 21-January 1- Winter Break

January 4- Staff Planning Day- No School for Students!

January 5-8- e-Learning Days

January 8- PTA Boosterthon Kick-Off

January 11- Cohort A returns in-person to school

January 14- Cohort B returns in-person to school

January 18- MLK Jr. Day- No School!

January 20- Virtual Boosterthon Event

The week of December 6, 2020

 The Weekly Newsletter

Opinion Writing Post-Assessment

3rd year students will take their opinion writing post-assessment on Tuesday 9:25-10:25. All 3rd grade students will need to login to Google Classroom in order to complete the assessment while on our Zoom meeting. 

Boosterthon!

The PTA Boosterthon will open up for pledging beginning December 17th. This year, the Boosterthon will be a virtual, Dance Fit event. Stay tuned for more details!

On Saturday, December 12th, and Sunday, December 13th from 12-2pm, the PTA will be on the Ellis sidewalk distributing Boosterthon t-shirts, information about the virtual Festival of Lights event on December 17th, and free ice pops to all students for meeting last year's Boosterthon pledge goal!

Epic! 

If your child is not already using this fabulous reading resource, please have them login, by following the instructions below, and start reading!

Amira Reading

Your child should be reading with Amira 2-3 times a week. Please let us know if you have technology issues while using Amira.

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

12/8- 3rd Grade Opinion Writing Post-Assessment

12/12-12/13 Boosterthon T-shirt Pickup!

12/17 PTA Festival of Lights 6pm

12/21-1/4 Winter Break

The week of November 29th

Welcome Back! 

We hope you and your families had a fun and restful break. We are looking forward to getting back into the swing of things and seeing everyone tomorrow morning!

Book Fair

If you are looking to purchase books for the kiddos in your life this week, please click here to support our school and get fabulous finds for the ones you love!

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

11/21-12/4 Book Fair

11/30 Return To School

11/30 Read-A-Thon ends

12/17 PTA Festival of Lights 6pm

12/21-1/4 Winter Break

  The Weekly Newsletter

Science Club-Field Trip!

Please plan to join us Wednesday at 9am to visit Ruck, the sea turtle who has been adopted for our class!  It is the expectation that everyone attends this Wednesday via the Zoom link that will be posted in the announcements section in The Learning Community course in itsLearning. 

Opinion Writing

Students will be working on their last two steps in the writing process this week. They will edit and publish their Turkey Opinion writing piece!

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).

Running Club

Coach Lesley is coordinating an at-home running club through Marathon Kids. This will be open to all students at all grade levels. If you are interested in your student participating, please fill out this form​​.

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

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

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