Tiger Tales
December 2021
Principal's Message
Stevenson Families,
Thank you for your continued partnership and support with our COVID mitigation strategies with masking and quarantines. This has kept our cases down and our school open. Thank you! We want students in school and enjoy seeing them grow both academically and as individuals.
Our school needs your help! Throughout the pandemic, our district has implemented and maintained several mitigation strategies to ensure the health and safety of students and staff in our buildings. Fridley is seeking federal grant funding that has been made available to states to help public schools' recovery during the pandemic. To accomplish this, the district has developed an ARP Plan that include additional resources that will benefit students in our school and across the district. We are asking parents/guardians to take a few minutes and give us feedback on our ARP plan through a short survey. The survey is anonymous and will only take a few minutes to complete. Please click on the links below to review the district’s ARP plan, and to give us feedback on our plan.
Past Fridley allocations to pandemic relief dollars included:
1. Sanitizing and Mitigation Strategies (Safe Environment)
2. Technology devices allowing the ratio of one device to one
3. Academic Resources
4. Transportation such as delivering school supplies and meals
5. Personnel for taking care of children of essential workers
6. Nutritional Services such as meal pickup
Ideas for future dollars (including input from our parent session) include:
- Enrichment opportunities
- After-school learning
- Field trips
- Hands-on learning
- Social emotional supports
- Keep class sizes small
Please provide input on what YOU believe we should apply for using one of the forms:
ENGLISH: Review the ARP Plan and give Feedback here
ARABIC: Review the ARP Plan and give Feedback here
HMONG: Review the ARP Plan and give Feedback here
SOMALI: Review the ARP Plan and give Feedback here
SPANISH: Review the ARP Plan and give Feedback here
Thank you for your input and your partnership.
Kindly,
Veronica Mathison
Stevenson Elementary Principal
763-502-5301
It's cold out there!
Important Dates
Picture Retake Day-December 9th
Book Fair-December 6-10 (see below)
Winter Break-December 23-30
Book Fair
District Treat Policy
Please see policy below-
Fridley Public School District Policy 533 Student Wellness prohibits parents and families from bringing birthday or celebratory treats such as cupcakes, cookies, cake, chips, and juice into the school. Instead, to celebrate special events, parents often send non-food items, such as stickers, pencils and erasers that their child can share with his or her classmates.
Attendance
Excused Absences (common examples)
- Illness
- Serious illness in the student's immediate family
- Death/Funeral in immediate family/friend/relative
- Medical/dental/orthodontic/counseling appointments
- Family emergencies
- Family Vacations
Unexcused Absences (common examples)
- Oversleeping
- Traffic
- Forgetting we have school today
- Missing the school bus
Picture Retakes
Early Pickups/Change of Transporation
Grade Level Updates!
Kindergarten!
The kindergarten scholars have had a fun and busy month. They are working hard to learn all of our letter sounds and started studying sight words. They have been exploring what services community helpers provide, as well, as the goods they need to provide it. Mr. Josh’s and Ms. Jenaya’s classes had a great time in the STEAM lab! They engineered balloons for the “Balloons Over Broadway” theme. The other classes are looking forward to this experience in December.
First Grade!
Last week all of 1st grade participated in Friendsgiving. This is a part of our Who We Are Unit, exploring friendship and valuing others. We were able to set a table, prepare the food, and eat together. It was a great time by all!
Second Grade!
Second graders have been learning all about systems this month. We explored systems in our classroom, school, and world, along with people who have taken action to create or change systems. We have also been learning about balance and motion through various investigation and how they are part of systems.
Third Grade!
Mittens Handmade from Upcycled Materials
Proudly made in Maple Grove MN, USA, Warm Hands Green Heart specializes in using upcycled materials to create quality mittens.
I first started making mittens from my grandfather's old green cardigan. He had passed away and I would wear it occasionally, but I found by making mittens, I could wear them more often than the sweater and feel close to him whenever I wore them. I made some for friends and family after that and then tried a small craft sale. People seemed to like them, and I've been making mittens ever since-10 years now! I expanded my sweater idea to other upcycled materials like flannel shirts, wool blankets, and winter coats. However, one of my favorite materials is hockey socks. I make mittens out of hockey socks for numerous high schools, and teams throughout MN, and look forward to expanding that part of the business! In the past few years, my family and I have taken our business to select elementary schools to talk to 3rd graders about starting a small business and how we make mittens. Every student makes their own pair of mittens--picking out a sweater outer, a colorful fleece liner, and decorative buttons. Last year we donated over 300 pair of mittens to 3rd graders and hope to expand this program in the years to come!
We at Stevenson have received over 400 pairs of mittens over the years!
Fourth Grade!
The Fourth grade classes have been working extremely hard on multi-digit multiplication, learning all about the water cycle, writing personal narratives and realistic fiction, and continuing to develop their inferencing and sequencing skills while reading.
We also had an awesome opportunity to work with the kindergarteners on their thankful trees. The fourth graders did an awesome job of being role models and helping out our youngest students.
Therapy Dogs!
We are thrilled to share Stevenson will be partnering with Therapy Dogs International and will be inviting therapy dog, Sugar, to visit our classrooms! Sugar has been trained to provide social emotional support to people. Our scholars have shown a strong interest in animals and specifically in dogs. The students will be so excited.
We believe inviting a therapy dog into our school will highly benefit our learning community. The mission of Therapy Dogs International aligns completely with our work and we believe Sugar’s presence will bring happiness, and calm to the students and staff the dog visits. We would love to have Sugar, along with her trained owner, visit classrooms and/or small groups beginning next week.
If you have any concerns or if your child has a strong allergy to dogs, please contact our office at 763-502-5304 and we will ensure we have a plan parents and students are comfortable with.
Butterbraid Kickoff!
Delivery Date is December 21! Just in time for Winter Break!
Remember, we fundraise for field trips! Without PTO fundraisers each family would have to make a contribution for their children for each field trip.
Masks will Keep Students at School!
School Hours for 2021-2022
Student arrival begins 8:55 a.m.
Free breakfast will be served in classrooms 8:55 a.m. - 9:10 a.m.
School day starts at 9:10 a.m.
(Students entering after 9:10 will be marked tardy.)
Dismissal is 3:45 p.m.
Transportation
Students will receive a bus referral if they do not-
- Stay in assigned seat during bus ride
- Use kind words
- Keep their hands to themselves and body safe
- Listen to instructions from the driver
- If a student receives 3 referrals, the 4th referral results in a 3-day bus suspension and additional suspensions if needed.
We would greatly appreciate your support in talking with your children about how we can make the bus a safe and enjoyable place for all of the riders and the driver. Please help us get your students home safely by reviewing these expectations. It takes all of us working together to maximize safety for all our students.
IB Parent Survey
Please help us continue to improve our Fridley Schools by filing out a short parent survey.
EnglishWinter Weather Reminders from Transportation
Winter brings an expectation of extreme cold temperatures and/or heavy snow. The Fridley Transportation Department would like to share a few winter-weather transportation reminders with you that will help keep our students safe.
- Please ensure that your child is dressed appropriately for the winter weather.
- Your child is required to be at the scheduled stop 5 minutes prior to bus pick-up time. We do not expect the student to stay at the stop any longer than 10 minutes after the scheduled time. Should the bus be late by more than 10 minutes, the student should go home and call the assigned bus company (see below).
- Information and updates on late busses are communicate through our messenger program, so please make sure that your contact information is accurate.
- You may log in to your Parent Portal parent account and update your email or phone number.
- If school buildings are closed due to severe weather, the district will communicate with families ahead of time through email, phone call, and will also post the announcement on the district website, local news channels and district social media.
- For more information on school closures, click here.
Our Bus Companies:
- Voigt’s – 763-571-1241 #2 (Route #’s 1- 19)
- 1st Student – Champlin 763-421-5785 (Route #'s 20-32)
- R & D Transportation – 763-767-1804 press #2 (Van)
Nutritional Services Updates and Changes
Hello Families-
If you have not completed the annual Application for Educational Benefits, please complete as soon as possible. You must complete a 2021-22 application to potentially be eligible for P-EBT benefits. The application can be found on the Nutritional Services webpage at https://www.fridleyschools.org/about-us/departments/nutritional-services/meal-applications A paper application can be obtained from the school office and if you have questions please contact Kathy Backstrom at 763-502-5021
Reminder breakfast and lunch is free to all students this year. We encourage all students to come and eat breakfast and lunch with us so your student can be their best in class. If your child wants a milk with their lunch from home, there is a $0.55 charge for the milk, it is NOT FREE. Money can be added online, given to your child’s teacher or in the office. Please include your child’s name, teacher and lunch pin on the envelope. Menus are posted on the Nutritional Services webpage and are subject to change. We are having issues purchasing food from our distributor, we apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience. If you have questions, please contact Renee Arbogast at 763-502-5022.
R.L. Stevenson Elementary
Email: Veronica.mathison@fridley.k12.mn.us
Website: https://sites.google.com/isd14.org/stevensone-learning/home
Location: 6080 East River Road, Fridley, MN, USA
Phone: 7635025300