We are so excited to have school start on Wednesday, September 2nd!

It has been too long since we have seen our students, and we want to meet all the new Friedell Falcons! Know that this first week will be some time for teachers to introduce themselves to the students in their classes. There will be no homework the first week of school, or any 'assignments' posted. Please know there may be an assignment in Google Classroom, but that is most likely for a student to fill out a survey so that the staff can get to know them!

There is a great deal of information in the Newsletter this week. Most likely, there will be quite a few details as we get started each week as we want to be responsive to the needs of the students, families, and community as we begin this journey together!

We cannot express how excited we are to see students and support them this year. Know we will work hard to provide for the social, emotional, and academic needs of all our students.

Levi Lundak

Friedell Principal

We know a number of schedules are swirling around right now! There is the schedule we sent out last week, the schedule on the district website, and those do not make sense with what you see on Skyward! We know that is confusing and frustrating!

The Skyward schedule is based on if we were here learning in person each day. That is how the system is setup. We are working to adjust that to what our current reality is, but that is not yet done. To aid in understanding all the schedules, we have created a video that explains how to blend them together! Please feel free to watch this, or share this, video with your student as well!

The video discusses a tool we will be sending out weekly to help aid students, and families, in determining their schedule as our weeks rotate a bit. Please look for that document in the grade level Google Classroom each week!

We are having 2 days of Item and Material Pick-up. They are Monday, August 31st and Tuesday, September 1st from 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. If you cannot make those times, please contact the Friedell office and we will arrange a different time to pick up needed materials. More specifics about the event are below!

As you come to pick up items, please only have one person exit the car. Cars may pull up in line along our curb. One person will get out, identify themselves or their student, and we will gather items for the student. Please wear masks and adhere to social distancing procedures. If you are experiencing COVID symptoms, please call to arrange for delivery of the items instead of participating in the pick-up.

We realize the line may be long depending on when people arrive. Please be patient as we will work through things as quickly as possible to make certain that each student has what they need.

We are using the Google Platform exclusively for our class meetings. This will be done through Google Meets. To access the Google Meet link, students will need to enroll in the correct class meeting in Google Classroom. We have found a brief video of how to use Google Classroom from any platform. This is a bit different on our iPads, but much of the class access will be similar!

Once your student has their device from school (or the one you have at home), they will want to join classes on Google Classroom. Instead of sending many emails to each student, we have created a repository of all our class codes for students to access. Your studend will want to join the Google Classroom for each period on their schedule. Simply click on the repository link, find your teacher name, then the hour your student has that teacher. That will list the code to type into Google Classroom.

If you and your student have issues joining Google Classrooms, please email the teacher directly that you are having trouble joining. If you cannot join any Google Classrooms, please contact the Friedell Office. (Also make certain your student is using their isd535.org Google Account - they must use that account to join!)

Seriously we do! Each year our PTSA welcomes our 6th grade students to Friedell with a small gift of some Spirit-wear (a T-shirt). Usually this is done in person, but know that we still want to find a way to get each new Friedell Falcon a shirt. If you could fill out this survey for us, it will help in finding the right size t-shirt, as well as assigning lockers for our 6th grade students (for when we need them later this year!). Please try to complete this 6th grade information

survey by Monday morning (August 31st!)

Each week we will send out information that directly applies to the following week of school! Since the first week is so short, you are getting the first 2 weeks today! Generally, we will also try to include any building updates and reminders that staff will be posting work on Friday or Monday for the week ahead. Right now our goal is to get to know students, so there should not be posts about upcoming work or projects that are due the first week!

The letter and number days for next week are below! If you would like to see a more comprehensive school calendar, you may do so on the district website or with this link! There are a few calendars, but you most likely want to look at the Middle School Block Schedule Calendar.

For students needing to pick up an instrument for Orchestra or Band, you should have received some communication directly from your teacher. We are including the links here in case you have misplaced that email!

- 6th Grade Orchestra Information

- 7th and 8th Grade Orchestra Information

- Band and general Music Information - see picture below!

There is no need to fill out a paper application this year. Please click below to access a digital form. If you prefer the paper application, please call the Friedell office and we can make certain you receive that form!