Dear YES Families,
This is my last email home to you for the 2019-20 school year. This has certainly been a year that we will never forget. As challenging as these last few months have been for everyone there continues to be so much to celebrate for us as a school community. Thank you all for your support, flexibility, and collaboration as we worked together to provide the best learning experience possible for your children under these unique circumstances.
Initial planning for the opening of the 2020-21 school year has already begun and will be the major focus on our work throughout the summer months. An important part of this planning is hearing from you. Dr. Dolloff will be reaching out to you shortly with a parent survey to gather your input on the opening of school in the fall. I encourage you to take this opportunity to share with us your thoughts and feelings on our transition back. Your lens is very important to us and the results of the survey will help inform and guide our summer work.
Historically our last week of school has been one of celebration, closure, and supporting students with their transition to summer and the school year ahead. The upcoming last week of school will be no different! Our staff has done a remarkable job in developing a plan to address these different activities for our students.
Monday, June 8: K-4 Virtual Field Day!
The Unified Arts SHARE Team has created a day for students to participate in virtual activities tomorrow. It will certainly look different than our traditional field day events but the same spirit of fun is prevailing! To help your planning we have put together a list of the items that students can use for the activities.
Field Day Activities
Monday is Field Day for Rowe and YES families! Your child will receive a link to the Field Day Activity in Seesaw early Monday morning. There are LOTS of events to choose from and no expectation that your child completes all of them. Listed below are some items that will be needed to complete the events. Your child can gather items as needed, but we wanted you to have a heads up of what he/she might be asking for. If you do not have access to an item required for a certain event, feel free to be creative and find a substitution or to skip that event and choose another. We hope you have so much fun and can't wait to see pictures and videos of students (and families!!) in action.
Field Day Equipment List
Something to wear that is too big (i.e., shirt, shorts, jacket, socks)
Something to cover your eyes with (i.e., bandana, scarf)
Something to flip and catch (i.e., coins, shoe, towel)
Something unbreakable to put items in (i.e., bucket, bowl, basket, bag)
Something to show start, finish, and divider lines (i.e., tape, post-it notes, socks, sneakers, pencils)
Something that rolls (i.e., orange, potato, onion, ball)
Something to nudge (i.e., straw, spaghetti noodle, popcorn kernel)
Something to pour (i.e., water)
Something to soak (i.e., washcloth, sponge, rag)
Something that is light (i.e., balloon, tissue, feather, ping pong ball)
Something to blow down (i.e., paper or plastic cups)
Something to use as a fan (i.e., paper plate, school take-home folder, piece of cardboard, your breath)
Something to use as a timer (i.e., watch, stopwatch, timer, someone at home counting)
Something to use to create art (i.e., markers, crayons, paints, paper)
Something lightweight to use for exercise (i.e., pool noodle, paper towel tube)
Tuesday, June 9: Step-Up Day- 8:30 a.m. The excitement continues this week with our virtual "Step Up Day" for all students entering the second, third, fourth, and fifth grades for 2020-21. For each grade level entering Gr. 2-4 students should log in to Seesaw at 8:30 a.m. There they will see a short video from their teacher introducing themselves along with an attached class list that includes pictures of the other students in their class. Additionally, there will be a Seesaw "Get To Know You" activity that will allow students to engage with their new teacher!
For our students headed up to HMS and Gr. 5 next year, you will receive an email with the links to a presentation from your child's teaching team.
Wednesday, June 10: SHARE Team Wrap-Up Day, 4th Grade T-Shirts Delivery & Report Cards Mailed Home
On this day the SHARE team will be pushing out wrap up activities with students to bring some closure to their time with them this year. Additionally, our 4th-grade teachers are going to be on the road delivering the "4th Grade Class T-Shirts" to students at their homes. A huge shout out to our 4th-grade teachers for making sure this well-loved tradition continues for our students! For those families who preferred to have shirts mailed home, they will be sent out on this day along with the completed end of year report cards for all Gr. 2-4 students.
Please remember that the end of year report cards will look different this year as they will be delivered in narrative form for the areas of reading, writing, math, and Yarmouth Core Values.
Thursday, June 11: LAST DAY OF SCHOOL Teacher Wrap-Up Day & "Surprise from YES Staff"
On this final day of school teachers will be wrapping up with their classrooms and students. Look for one more "surprise" from our YES staff to put an exclamation point on a wonderful year of learning, fun, and resiliency!
OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION
YES Staff Changes
As we close out this school year we want to take a moment to recognize two staff members who are moving on from YES next year.
John Curry has worked at YES as a Special Education Education Technician and most recently a long-term substitute in grade four for Mrs. Bullard. John will be moving forward to pursue a full-time teaching position and we thank him for all his hard work supporting our students in both of those roles. We wish him the best of luck as he pursues this next step in his career.
I am pleased to share with you that we have hired Mr. Steve Abeles to replace John on the Special Education team. Steve has filled in at all Yarmouth schools as both a daily substitute and most recently as a long term sub at Rowe School. We are excited to welcome Steve aboard and are confident that he will be a positive addition to our staff.
Aimee Davis is also stepping down from her position of grade two teacher. Aimee is moving out west to pursue new life adventures and we cannot thank her enough for sharing her wonderful gifts with our students and school these past four years. Again, this is a bittersweet moment for us as we are so happy for Aimee but sad to see her go. We also wish Aimee nothing but the best of luck as she moves on to a new chapter of her life.
The hiring and interview process for her Gr. 2 replacement is well underway and I am hopeful to share news of this with you very soon.
June 15 & 16- iPad, Library Book and Classroom Book Dropoff Days
Just a reminder that we will have a curbside drop off in the parent drop off loop (old bus loop) near the cafeteria on Monday, June 15, and Tuesday, June 16 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day. You should drop off those items (including iPad chargers if you borrowed one) from 9 to 11 if your child's last name falls in the A-M category and from 11-1 if your child's last name is N-Z. As you arrive you can park in any open spot along the bus loop. You may also park across the street if the circle is full.
When arriving please get out of your car and drop the item off in the designated spot. There will be signage for each of these areas along with staff to help direct you. Please follow all social distancing best practices. Masks should be worn as you drop these items off. As much as we would love to talk and catch up with everyone the goal is to make this process run quickly and smoothly so please drop off your items and immediately return to your vehicle. Thank you for your help with all this!
ESY Students keep your iPads
Please remember that any students who are enrolled in Extended School Year can keep their iPads and chargers for the summer, but please make sure to return your library and school classroom books on the drop off days.
Seesaw Summer Parent Access Only
The last day for teachers and students on Seesaw is June 11, our last day of school. After that teachers will be archiving their class and students will not be able to log in as they have done during remote learning. However, as parents, you can access the archived class through your Seesaw log in account if you want to review past assignments with your child or just take a trip down memory lane. Teachers will not be active on Seesaw during the summer months.
August Pick-up of Student Items at School (To Be Announced)
As I shared in my last email home, we will coordinate a time for a curbside pick up of all student items as soon as we are able to. Please know all items are safely stored and we will get them back to you with a goal of an early August date for pick-up.
August Drop-In Day (To Be Announced) Historically we have held a time before school that is a "drop-in" time that families and students can visit their classrooms before the first day of school. We are going to leave that as TBA at this point and time but have every intention to hold something if we can. We could have many different scenarios in the fall and it makes sense to hold off on any planning for that until we have a better sense of what the opening of school will look like.
Open House 2020- Tentative Dates We have set some tentative Open House 2020 dates depending on what things look like at that time related to Covid-19: Gr. 2- Tuesday, Sept. 15, and Gr. 3/4, Wednesday, Sept 16. Both events begin at 6:00 p.m.
I hope that you and your family are able to enjoy the summer and take advantage of all the outside opportunities that our great state of Maine provides during this time. As always, if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me directly. Have a wonderful summer- and thank you!
Best, Ryan Gleason, Principal Yarmouth Elementary School