Free Orchards Parent Update
September 30, 2020
Principal Message
Welcome to the close of our first, unusual, exciting, and unprecedented first month of the school year!
The engagement, and social/emotional support I'm seeing of kids during morning meeting is fabulous. Thank you for your patience through the technology kinks and your continued support of our teachers. We will spend the next few weeks conducting assessments of our students to get to know their academic needs so we can better provide instruction. We need to know what they don't know! Please do not "help" students with these important assessments, as the information they provide will give us a good starting place to tailor their instruction for the year.
Please communicate directly with your child's teacher regarding workload, and any needs you may have. What else might you need? School supplies? Mice for your Chromebook?Headphones? Help with where to find free lunches for ALL HSD students? Please let us know how we can help. Distance learning is a challenge, and we want to support you!
For those of you wondering about picture day, this has been rescheduled for Spring 2021. Our hope is that we will be able to create a safe environment for our students to participate in the annual picture taking process. More information will be available as we get closer to spring.
As always, thank you for your support. Please reach out with your questions.
Kind regards,
Principal Murphy
Dates to Note
10/8 - NO SCHOOL - Staff Development & Work Day
10/9 - NO SCHOOL - Licensed Non-Contract Day
10/26 - Free Orchards Spirit Day/Rainbow Day = Rainbow Themed Attire OR K-Red, 1-Orange, 2-Yellow, 3-Green, 4 - Blue, 5 - Indigo, 6 - Violet
Parent Support of CDL
We are very appreciative of all the parent and caregiver support being provided to especially our youngest students during Comprehensive Distance Learning (CDL). Please remember, however, that adults should not ask questions or otherwise participate during students’ synchronous classes. It is our expectation that office hours, e-mail, and Remind are the ways parents can interface with the teachers. Keeping the learning time focused on teacher and student interactions will be extremely helpful. Thank you so much for understanding and assisting us in making CDL a positive and productive experience for our students and staff.
This Family Caregier Guide was emailed out to families. Please take a moment to review this information and reach out if you need anything.
Social Skills Focus of the Month: Empathy
The Social Skills focus for the month of October is Empathy.
Empathy is being able to know how someone else is feeling, even when you aren't in the same situation. Sometimes we call empathy being able to "put yourself in someone's shoes" and see things from their view. Why is empathy important? Empathy is the first step in having positive relationships because it helps us understand and relate to others.
Empathy has two parts, shared emotion and seeing other perspectives. Both parts of empathy are ways in which we make the effort to understand other people and share an emotion with them.
Empathy is being able to understand how someone else feels.
- It is when you feel an emotion with someone, even if you're not in the same situation.
- It is when you can see things from someone else's perspective.
We will recognize students for demonstrating EMPATHY at our Monday Morning virtual assembly on October 26
October is National Bullying Awareness Month
10/5 - World Day of Bullying Prevention - Wear Blue!
10/15 - SPIRIT Day - Wear purple as a sign of support for LGBT youth and to speak out against bullying.
10/21 - Pacer "Unity Day" - Kindness, Acceptance, Inclusion - wear Orange to show we are united against bullying!
Wonders/Maravillas Language Arts Program Support Videos
Grados K-1: Ayuda para los padres en Wonders/Maravillas
Grados 2-6: Ayuda para los padres en Wonders/Maravillas
Grades K-2: Parent Support - Wonders / Maravillas
WEdnesday Clarification
However, this is not a "day off" for our students. This is a day in which students will still need to access their Google classroom or Google Site to engage in asynchronous assignments. In addition, we understand the need to have flexibility for families who are unable to provide assignment support throughout the week due to work demands. Wednesday is a day the students can catch up on assignments for the week, access the optional assignments, or engage in PE and Music lessons from the week.
School Grounds Closed
As a reminder, even though local city parks are reopening, HSD school grounds are still closed, including playgrounds. I understand we have community members who may not be aware of this restriction. Washington County has not reached phase II yet, but once it does, we can open our grounds back up. Notification from the Hillsboro School District will come once they are open to the public.
Free Meals Provided for All Students!
During Comprehensive Distance Learning, all meals will be delivered via bus routes. Deliveries will take place Monday through Friday on school days, starting Tuesday, Sept. 8, and will include both breakfast and lunch.
Through December 2020, meals will be available at no charge. Meals will be delivered and available on expanded bus routes or may be picked up between 11:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. at the following sites:
- Brown Middle School, 1505 SE Cornelius Pass Rd.
- Century High School, 2000 SE Century Blvd.
- Evergreen Middle School, 456 NW Evergreen Rd.
- Lincoln Street Elementary School, 801 NE Lincoln St.
- Poynter Middle School, 1535 NE Grant St.
- South Meadows Middle School, 4690 SE Davis Rd
To find out the location and time of the meal delivery for a specific student, visit the MyBus Student Route Look-up tool and enter the student’s ID number and birth date.
If you need help locating your bus stop and time, please contact our office team. More information about school meals during CDL can be found on the Nutrition Services page of our district website.
Goodbye ClassDojo - Hello Remind!
In order to promote consistent communication throughout the district K-12, we will no longer be using ClassDojo as our communication tool; HSD is excited to announce the addition of the Remind communications platform district-wide in the 2020-21 school year!
Remind is a district, school, and classroom communication tool that makes it easy to stay involved with your child's learning. Remind is free to use, and you'll be able to get and send messages on any device—even a simple text message from your phone!
As part of this rollout, official accounts will be created for all HSD educators, parents, and students. Soon, you will receive an email or text message from Remind. All you need to do is follow the steps in the message to finish setting up your account. You will be automatically connected to your student’s classes once scheduling is finalized (no need to text the codes as the video indicates - that action will be for joining other types of groups like athletics and activities, parent groups, etc.). Here is a video demo to see how Remind works: English video, Spanish video.
We're excited to make connecting with our families more engaging!