#AESStayingConnected
May 18-22
Hello Alward Families!
It is hard to think that we only have three weeks left of school until summer vacation. With that being said, we have a few things coming up for the end of the school year to help with closure for our students and families! Please mark your calendars and check out these important updates.
Library Books, Classroom Library Books, and Technology Return Plan:
- Library books: Many of our students have multiple books checked out of our library. We will have a bin placed outside the front doors of Alward on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:00-12:30 starting Monday, May 18. Please drop off these books as soon as possible so that Mrs. Fellows can start closing out the school year in our library. You may also drop the books off on the Family Pick-up of Students' Items dates listed below.
- Classroom Library Books: If your child has books from his/her classroom teacher, please put the books in a bag labeled with the teacher's name. You can return the books when you come to pick up your students' items.
- Technology Device Return: If your family was given a device to borrow during virtual learning, drop off times will be the week of June 8-12. More information on specific dates, times and location will be coming soon.
Memorial Day Weekend: No school on Friday, May 22 and Monday, May 25. Happy Memorial Day! I wish everyone a safe and relaxing weekend!
Lunch Update: We will be serving lunches this week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11:00-12:30 at Hudsonville High School. Lunches will not be served on Monday, May 25th due to the holiday weekend and observance of Memorial Day!
Celebrating Our Retirees: Please help me congratulate Ms. Jamie Baker and Ms. Shelly Stokes on their recently announced retirement. Check out this cute video that they have made for our students and families as their way of letting everyone know what they will remember most about Alward. We are making Memory Boxes for Ms. Baker and Ms. Stokes. Please help us with celebrating these two phenomenal educators and their combined 55 years of service to the students and families of Hudsonville. You can help by making cards, writing letters, or sending in pictures of your child's or family's favorite memories of both of these two educators. We will have one box for Ms. Baker and one box for Ms. Stokes. Please mail cards or memory box items to Alward 3811 Port Sheldon~Hudsonville, MI 49426 or you can drop them off during one of the times listed below for students' items pick-up. We need all items by Thursday, June 4th.
Family Pick-up of Students' Items: Teachers will be organizing and bagging up the remainder of students' items in a safe and organized manner. We will have pick-up times on the following dates and times. If you would like to pick up all of your children's items at one time, please fill out this Google Form by Friday, May 29. If you would like to come to all pick-up times, you are welcome to do that as well.
- Monday, June 1: PK from 9-11 a.m. and KDG from 1-3 p.m.
- Tuesday, June 2: 1st from 9-11 a.m., 2nd from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. and 3rd from 1-3 p.m.
- Wednesday June 3: 4th from 9-11 a.m. and 5th from 1-3 p.m.
- Last call will be June 3 from 5-7 p.m.
When picking up your child's items, please pull all the way up to the orange cones in the right pick-up lane and remain in your vehicle. Staff will ask for students' names and we will have a runner bring out the items to your car. Let staff know to either open your back passenger door or pop open your trunk for them to place the items in your vehicle.
Student Celebration Parade: We will be celebrating all of our students with a reverse student parade on Friday, June 5th from 12:00-12:45 p.m. For the parade, please preview the attached map. Cars will enter our main drive-way (car drop-off/pick-up line) following our dismissal procedures. Please remain in the right lane and follow the curve around the lot. Once you are to the end of the u, you may get in the left lane if you need to turn left out onto Port Sheldon. Please drive slowly through the lot and do not stop! Students are welcome to cheer, sing, say goodbye, wave, make signs, and/or decorate their cars to celebrate their teachers and the 2019-202 school year! The Alward staff is excited to celebrate the accomplishments of our students this school year!
Report Cards: We have received some questions regarding grading practices. As you know, we are not assigning any grades to student work during this remote learning period. Due to this reality, we will not be sending home the end of year report cards at the elementary level (PK-5). A general comment stating your child’s progress in the current grade level’s standards allowing for promotion to the next grade level will be entered on each child’s report card that will be filed for documentation purposes.
Registration for 2020-2021 School Year: Enrollment information can be found on our district website.
Class Placements for the 2020-2021 School Year: As students and families bring closure to one school year, we know that much anticipation also centers around teacher assignments for next school year. For many reasons, including potential staffing changes for the 2020-2021 school year due to current retirements, we will not be providing class placement information in June. Additionally, as we work to effectively place pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students into classrooms, we will conduct remote kindergarten screening in the coming weeks. We know how important this information can be for calming nerves and adjusting to what comes next for many of our students. Please know that as soon as we are able, we plan to communicate class placements for the 2020-2021 school year.
Stay safe and healthy and find something to smile about each day!
Take great care,
Mrs. McClure
This Update Includes...
- Family Check-in
- #staying connected
- Something to Smile About-Making Smiles Challenge
- Social, Emotional and Mental Health Support for ALL HPS families
- Navigating Virtual Learning
- Breakfast and Lunch Information-Location changing to Hudsonville High School starting on Monday, May 4th! Time will continue to be from 11:00-12:30.
- Lending Library
How are you doing? What supports do you need? AES Family Check-in
#StayingConnected
May 18-22
Let's stay connected virtually! Join Mrs. McClure on Facebook daily Monday-Friday for read alouds, science experiments, work outs and more!
- Monday-Facebook Live Bedtime Story @ 7 PM
- Tuesday-Facebook Live Read Aloud @ 10 AM
- Wednesday-Facebook Live Wacky Science Wednesday @ 10 AM
- Thursday-Facebook Live Music/Movement Challenge @ 10 AM
- Friday-Facebook Live SOAR Champions for the Week @ 10 AM
Alward Champions SOAR During COVID-19
Let's SOAR Together: Alward Champions in Our School Community and Beyond
- Please help us recognize students, staff, families, and community members that are Championing for our students, schools, and community! There are so many going above and beyond in creative ways that we would like to recognize them for their efforts. Please fill out the attached google form. We will recognize them on Fridays at 10 am during our Facebook Live event and in the next weeks school update. I will also send them a card of thanks from our school community!
Updates from Dr. VanderJagt
- Check out the HPS page for COVID-19 updates and steps that our district is taking to help support our families, staff, and school community.
- SOAR Survey: This is an essential element in our Strategic Objectives to Achieve Results (SOAR) 3-year strategic planning process. Your responses guide the decisions that will be made to improve the education programs, community programs, and related services we deliver to our community’s children. If you have time, please fill this out for us!
- COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan
Something to Smile About
#AESMakingSmilesChallenge Week of May18-22 #memoryboxes
We would love to celebrate Ms. Baker and Ms. Stokes for their years of service and make their retirement special. Please help us let them know how much they meant to our students and school community. Let's give both Ms. Baker and Ms. Stokes something to smile about as they begin their next journey into retirement.
We are in the process of making memory boxes for each of them. Feel free to have your child or family make them a card, picture, or letter that shares with them a favorite memory or something that you will never forget. We will be giving them the memory boxes on Friday, June 5th. Feel free to mail cards, letters, or pictures to Alward at 3811 Port Sheldon~Hudsonville, MI 49426 or you can drop them off to our staff during pick-up for students' items on June 1, 2, or 3. Thank you so much for your help with this project!
Upcoming Events
Online Registration Open for New Students for 2020-2021 School Year
No School! Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
Friday, May 22, 2020, 08:45 AM
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Family Pick-up of Students' Items
- Monday, June 1: PK from 9-11 a.m. and KDG from 1-3 p.m.
- Tuesday, June 2: 1st from 9-11 a.m., 2nd from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. and 3rd from 1-3 p.m.
- Wednesday June 3: 4th from 9-11 a.m. and 5th from 1-3 p.m.
- Last call will be June 3 from 5-7 p.m.
Please fill out this Google Form if you cannot come during your child's assigned time or if you would like to pick up all of your students' items at the same time.
Monday, Jun 1, 2020, 09:00 AM
Alward Elementary School, Port Sheldon Street, Hudsonville, MI, USA
Alward Student Celebration Parade
Student Celebration Parade: We will be celebrating all of our students with a reverse student parade on Friday, June 5th from 12:00-12:45 p.m. For the parade, please preview the attached map. Cars will enter our main drive-way (car drop-off/pick-up line) following our dismissal procedures. Please remain in the right lane and follow the curve around the lot. Once you are to the end of the u, you may get in the left lane if you need to turn left out onto Port Sheldon. Please drive slowly through the lot and do not stop! Students are welcome to cheer, sing, say goodbye, wave, make signs, and/or decorate their cars to celebrate their teachers and the 2019-202 school year! The Alward staff is excited to celebrate the accomplishments of our students this school year!
Friday, Jun 5, 2020, 12:00 PM
Alward Elementary School, Port Sheldon Street, Hudsonville, MI, USA
Last Day of School! Let summer begin! We will miss you!
Friday, Jun 5, 2020, 04:00 PM
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Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Support for ALL
"Why am I so tired?"
Linked HERE is a great resource that talks about, "Why am I so tired?" The article does an excellent job of explaining how traumatic stress impacts our minds and bodies. With all of the news and uncertainty around COVID, our bodies/minds struggle to turn off the fight/flight response; therefore, even though we may be sitting more frequently/working differently than normal, our stress response is in overdrive.
AES Google Classroom for Social-Emotional Support for Families and Students
The SOARce Newsletter
Navigating Virtual Learning
Overview of Current Learning Opportunities
- Specials: Specials' classes will post their learning activities by Monday for that week. This will allow our families some options for when to complete the activities. Specials' Google Classroom Codes are listed below under "Navigating Virtual Learning" if you haven't added their classrooms yet.
- PK-2 Updates: These grades will be covering some new content along with review of essential skills that will help prepare students for the next grade level. There will not be an increase in academic time per day. (See picture below.)
- Grades 3-5 Updates: These grades will have approximately 30 minutes of math and 30 minutes of ELA per day Mondays-Thursdays. On Fridays, they will have 60 mins of science and/or social studies. (See picture below.)
- No Grades: We will not be grading assignments.
- Monitoring Participation: Teachers will be monitoring students' participation in learning opportunities as this follows expectations set by Governor Whitmer. Please do what you can to stay connected to your child's teacher.
- Retentions and Grade Promotion: If the possibility of retention was not discussed at our Spring Parent Teacher Conferences, then students will be promoted to the following grade for the 20-21 school year.
- What about my child's academic, social, or emotional needs in the fall? When we return to school in the fall, we will be ready to support ALL of our students where they are at academically, socially, and emotionally and fill in any gaps that may be present due to this altered state of learning.
Currently, we are all in survival mode. This pandemic is not fun some days and brings with it a lot of emotions that can change for you and your children by the hour or even the minute! Please remember that your mental health is the number one priority right now as is your child/drens. Somedays may go smoothly with virtual learning, and other days, you may be ready to throw in the towel before the day even begins. This is okay! If things are not going smoothly, disconnect from the technology and support one another's needs. The activities will still be there tomorrow for you to try again. Any learning opportunity that your child participates in is a win! Let them explore their interest areas, play games, and read for fun! Enjoy this time with them as much as you can. Continue to find some joy in each day or something to smile about!
Connecting to Google Classrooms
How to Log into Gmail and Google Classroom
On Friday, your teacher sent you an email with your child’s email address and password information. Here is a video that you can watch to help you log into your child’s gmail account. This video also explains how they will join their teacher’s Google Classroom.
How to Connect to Learning Opportunities for Specials’ Classes
Here is a video that will show you how to join our specials’ Google Classrooms. To join their classes, you will need the following codes:
PK-2nd Grade Specials' Codes
Art: 3ppimuw
Music: akv3wr3
PE: ve7uwwz
STEAM: 5mx3urt
3rd-5th Grade Specials' Codes:
Art: 47g3l47
Music: mf7jvye
PE: yjw2ucw
STEAM: All 3-5 students already are in Google Classroom. Please email Mrs. McClure if your child is not in a STEAM class.
PTC Updates
- Thank you to all of the parents and teachers that attended our first virtual PTC meeting! View meeting minutes here.
- We would like to officially welcome our new and returning board members for the 20-21 school year! Co-Presidents-Melissa Hodge and Andi Butler, Vice President-Stephanie Rowe, Secretary-Michelle Nienhuis, Co-Treasurer-Kelly Clough and Tim Smit, and Teacher Representative-Heather LaLonde.
- Thank you to Jenn Johnson and Taryn Nance for their years of service to our PTC and to supporting our students and staff at Alward!
- We can still earn money for our school by collecting: receipts for Family Fare, paper for the Paper Gator, and Box Tops (you can get the Box Tops app to enter Box Tops for our school).
Breakfast and Lunch is Served!
Lending Library is Stocked!
#stayingconnected
Email: mmcclure@hpseagles.net
Website: https://alward.edublogs.org/
Location: 3381 Port Sheldon Street, Hudsonville, MI, USA
Phone: 616-669-6700
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AESEaglePride/
Twitter: @AlwardElem