January Newsletter 2021
Valley View Elementary School
From Principal Kuhlman
Dear Families,
Hope is the emotion that gives us the strength to persevere and keep going when times are tough.
My hope for Valley View is to create a community that is focused on love, learning, and support. We are a community that rallies around each other in times of joy and need. The need is great right now. I would like to ask the staff, families, friends, and community members to donate non-perishables, as well as cold weather gear. During our quarter 3 materials distribution in January, we will offer these supplies to families. Your donations will be greatly appreciated. Please bring any donations to the front office.
Last month we began implementing small group virtual tutoring sessions. We have prioritized students who could benefit from these opportunities, but are open to requests from parents. If your child needs additional social-emotional support, or academic support, please reach out to your child’s teacher. We will do our best to get them into one of our groups. We are in this together!
We will be handing out quarter 3 materials January 27th-29th. The distribution times on January 27th and 29th will be from 8:30-3:00, and January 28th from 8:30-7:00. All schools will be distributing supplies during these times to make it easier on families with students at different schools. If you are experiencing COVID at this time, please reach out to the front office and special accommodations can be arranged.
In partnership,
Mr. Kuhlman
3rd Grade
3rd grade has truly become a wonderfully caring, hard-working, and positive learning community. Our world’s future is bright if it’s in the hands of these kids!
This fall we focused on what we’re thankful for. As a group, we realized that there’s so much to be grateful for, even in the midst of a pandemic. We wrote strong paragraphs and made creative banners to express our gratitude.
During math, 3rd graders have been hard at work learning to multiply. We have practiced strategies to represent and solve equations. We’ve even learned about multi-digit multiplication with regrouping—WOW! By the end of the school year, the goal is to memorize the following facts: x0, x1, x2, x5 and x10. We can do it!
Let’s keep up the amazing work as we move into winter.
4th Grade
This quarter has brought the world of poetry to fourth grade. Students have learned about many types, including classics like acrostic, shape, and bio poems. We also dabbled in some challenging forms like haiku and cinquain. Our student poets completed the writing process, shared their poetry books with their classmates, and practiced giving positive feedback to each other! In January, students will be researchers and complete a country research project.
Enjoy the poems below written by our student authors and keep writing!
5th Grade
Happy New Year! 5th grade has been working hard this year and has just finished up units on long division and asking questions. We will be finishing out the quarter by starting some algebra in math, determining importance in reading, finishing book clubs, and continuing to analyze mentor sentences in writing. Students have been doing a wonderful job of navigating and troubleshooting with their technology, we are so proud of how committed they are to come to class each day! We have found a new favorite game online called Blooket! The students are loving it and asking to play almost every day! We use this online tool to help test the speed and fluency for both math facts and reading skills, all while creating a little competition. We are looking forward to see how much more our students grow the rest of the year!
Just a reminder that there will be some FAST testing coming up this month. Please make sure your student is in a quiet place, alone, with no distractions. This will help them concentrate on the test and do their very best! It also ensures that they are taking the test on their own! This is very important in order for us to adjust our teaching to best fit your students’ needs. Thank you to all our families for their continued support! Keep working hard!
LEAP
This year Valley View has added a new class for 3rd-5th grade gifted and talented students called LEAP. This multi-age class has been a success at Highland for the past few years. LEAP stands for Learning, Enlightenment, Acceleration, and Progress. These two classes have joined together for Leaping into Heights at Home with Mrs. Nelson (Valley View Elementary) and Ms. Noll (Highland Elementary).
A few of the class highlights so far have been the research based projects including, “Know Their Names”, Interviews with Costa’s levels of questioning, and Winter celebrations. Students have shared their work on their e-portfolios. Novel studies have been a big hit, especially reading “The Jacket” and making connections to racial injustices. Students also love working on Breakout Edu weekly challenges. Math grade level groups shared across buildings have been a benefit for all. The LEAP classes are excited to begin new learning challenges in 2021!
I Spy a Hylander!
Starting on Monday, January 4th- Sunday, January 10th, five flat paper Hylanders will be in the windows of five stores, restaurants, or community buildings in Columbia Heights. Your family will be able to find the Hylanders from the safety and comfort of your car. We will give clues to students on Monday, January 4th to help guide in the search. We will share about where they are located at our class morning meeting on Monday, January 11th. Again, on Monday, January 11th, clues will be given to students about five more Hylanders being in the windows of five different stores, restaurants, or community buildings in Columbia Heights.
More information will be on Seesaw on Monday, January 4th! We look forward to this safe, family friendly event to build community!
PTO Information
Happy winter break from the Valley View Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO)! It's been a very challenging year, and we are so appreciative of everyone in the Valley View community. If you'd like to connect with PTO in the new year, please join our mailing list, follow us on Facebook, or attend an upcoming meeting. Our next meeting is Thursday, January 14th at 6:00 p.m. via Zoom. Also, don't forget to participate in the I Spy a Hylander event, happening around town January 4th-10th and again January 11th-19th. We wish you a happy and healthy 2021!
About Us
All Belong, All Succeed
Email: KuhlmanJ@colheights.k12.mn.us
Website: https://www.colheights.k12.mn.us/VVES
Location: 800 49th Avenue Northeast, Columbia Heights, MN, USA
Phone: 763-528-4200
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VVisd13