Sunnyside Elementary

Testing Results Coming Home

Dear Parents/Guardians,

As we come to the end of the school year, we want to provide you with your student’s standardized score reports. Standardized assessments are primarily used to help families, schools, districts, and the state understand and improve student learning and achievement. It is important to remember that standardized tests are part of several measures used to support student learning.

The Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) and the Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI) are state assessments that are part of the statewide student assessment system.

· Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT): Idaho Standards Achievement Tests (ISAT) are administered at the end of the school year for students in grades 3 – 8 and 10. ISAT Science is administered in grades 5, 8 and 11. ISAT Science scores will be available in the fall.

· Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI) / Istation Assessment: Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI) is administered in the fall and spring of each school year for students in grades K – 3. The Istation assessment serves as the state fall and spring IRI assessment.

In addition to state assessments, schools administer standardized assessments to support student learning.

· Istation reading assessments are administered in grades K-6.

· i-Ready math assessments are administered in grades K -6.

If you have any questions about the tests or test results, please check with your school.

Thank you!

D91 SUMMER SCHOOL 2022

Summer School Registration is open from now until April 29th!

Idaho Falls School District is proud to announce its Summer Learning Camps program, which will help address student learning loss, strive to bridge the achievement gaps for ALL students, and offer additional academic support. We’d like to invite your child to take part in a free learning camp this summer!

Here’s a little more information about the Summer Learning Camp:

The elementary learning camp will serve students currently in kindergarten through fifth grade
There will be two sessions of camp, and students can attend one session or both.

Session 1: June 13-July 1
Session 2: July 11-July 29

The camp will be held at Longfellow Elementary School
Students will attend camp five hours a day, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.- Mondays through Fridays.
Breakfast and lunch will be provided.
If needed, the district will provide transportation.
Students will take part in engaging camp activities and also receive research-based interventions in reading and math.

A form was sent home a few weeks ago. If you do not have this form, do not worry! Just call into the Sunnyside office and the secretaries can get your student registered!

Cell Phone and Smart Watch Policy

At Sunnyside, our desire is for students to use technology as a tool to enrich learning, not become a distraction to themselves or others. Over the past few weeks, we have seen an increase in students using technology, specifically their personal cell phones or smartwatches, during school to access non-academic or school-related material. All students are provided with a Chromebook to use for their learning, so there is no academic reason for a student to be using a cell phone or smartwatch for their learning while at school. In order to help support all our students in learning without distractions, we would like to explain Sunnyside’s cell phone and smartwatch policy.

Cell Phone Policy: Students may not use their cell phones during regular school hours. All student cell phones must be turned off and placed in their backpacks during school hours. If a student is using their device during school hours, they will be asked to take it to the office and a parent will be called to come to pick it up.

Smartwatch Policy: Smartwatches should be used to tell the time only. If a smartwatch becomes a distraction in class, the teacher will ask the student to turn their watch off and place it in their backpack or take it to the office. Parents may be called and asked to come to pick up their child’s smartwatch from the office.

Finally, as a reminder, we have amazing secretaries in the front office! If you need to reach your child during school hours, or if your child needs to reach you, please use the phones in the front office. Our staff will be more than happy to help out! Just like you, we want your child to learn and be successful at school, so we appreciate your help and support. If you have any questions or concerns regarding cell phones/smartwatches at school please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Dixon or Miss Lange.

Hello Sunnyside Families Better World Day is May 6, 2022! We are excited to partner with the Idaho Falls Area Humanitarian Center, but we need your help gathering supplies.

We need these items for hygiene kits, rattles, and other humanitarian center projects.

white crew socks.
bar of full size bath soap
gallon ziplock bags
combs (not rat-tail)
combined shampoo/conditioner 15 oz
hand towels 15x25 inches
travel size kleenex
individually wrapped toothbrushes
toothpaste 6oz
duck tape

We will need volunteers on May 6 to help students assemble and complete these projects. If you are interested in helping please contact Shelby Whiting: whitshel@sd91.org.

Looking for PTO Volunteers!

We also are looking for parent volunteers to join our PTO. Each year our PTO works endlessly to provide exciting opportunities for students and families, fundraise for identified needs as well as support our Sunnyside staff. Here are just a few of the many things they do to support Sunnyside:

Organize, Support and Volunteer for Class Parties
Organize celebrations for Teacher Appreciate Week
Fundraise for Sunnyside Students
Restaurant Nights to Support Sunnyside and Other D91 Schools
Donuts with Grownups
STEAM Nights
Support Grade-Level Celebrations of Learning
Organize and Run Field Day in May
And so much more!
Our hope is so find more Sunnyside parents that are able to get involved in our PTO at Sunnyside! There are multiple ways to get involved as well, whether you have a little time to give or a lot...we would love to have you!

If you are interested in volunteering in any way, please call the Sunnyside office or contact Jamie Braithwaite, Sunnyside PTO President at jmeleab@gmail.com.

6th Grade CHOICES Starting

Dear Parent/s Guardians,

Our goal in Idaho Falls School District 91 is to ensure students graduate with the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to be successful beyond high school. Part of this learning process involves teaching children the importance of making positive choices, and helping them understand how those choices can affect their academic success and all aspects of life.

Between the months of February through May, 6th grade students will be participating in the district wide CHOICES program. This is a time for 6th graders to learn about how drugs and alcohol affect their body and brain. Students will also learn about the impacts that social media can have on their social and emotional development. Throughout the 6 lessons students will gain insight and knowledge into the importance of making healthy choices both physically and emotionally. Parents please look at the link below presenting questions that you can discuss with your student at home. We encourage you to discuss with your student what they are learning through these 6 lessons. If you have further questions please talk to your school counselor.

https://www.d91.k12.id.us/content/2052

Sincerely,

Shelby Whiting

Elementary Counselor

D91Proud: CHOICES

A Message From The Principals!

Hi Sunnyside families! I just had a couple reminders for you all!

We are finally getting closer to spring! We are also officially full staffed, our new PE teacher begins on march 14th! WOO! Thank you to everyone who has come together to help with PE over the past couple months. We had a successful steam night and our kids loved attending! We also held our first parent focus group in February and it turned out great! We had 5 families represented and we engaged in discussion around the purpose of parent focus groups, school-wide communication and Sunnyside’s homework belief. We are hoping to have another one in March, April and May as well as starting student focus groups to discuss some of those same items. Coming up we have spring break and then after spring break we jump into the ISAT testing window in April.

Thank you to everyone who took the survey, we had a great response rate and appreciate the input, celebrations and feedback!

We hope you and your families stay warm this week! Thank you for all your continued support of Sunnyside! We are so thankful for you all. As always, reach out if you need anything!

In Crew,
Kylie Dixon and Chandra Lange

Sunnyside Homework Belief

As a staff crew, we spent some time at the beginning of the year working to create a common belief for homework at Sunnyside. We wanted to make sure that if students had homework, that it would be valuable and necessary. We also wanted to make sure that we value the time you get at home with your students. We hope to keep strengthening our understanding of appropriate homework over time to enable students to be successful. Below is our Homework Belief that was created from this process!

New to the Crew: Amber Schwedes

Amber is joining the crew as our new PE teacher and we are so excited!!!

"Hi Sunnyside! My name is Mrs. Schwedes and I'm so excited to take this new Journey with you! I am married and live in a house full of boys. I have 4 children ages 15,13,9,3. We have 3 dogs and 1 turtle. We are a family of baseball. If we are not watching our boys play we are out playing as a family or watching it on television. I cant wait to meet you all!"

New to the Crew: Claire Lightheart!

Claire is from BYU and she is joining our Sunnyside crew as our second Special Education teacher! We are so excited to have her here and learn from her!

“Hi everyone! My name is Claire Lightheart and I am from Portland, Oregon. I love to hike, go to the beach, cook and cuddle with my cat. I moved to Idaho about 4 years ago for college and have loved it ever since. I like to ski in the winters here because snow is awesome. I will be apart of the Special Education team here at Sunnyside Elementary. I’m super excited to be apart of the crew!”

Welcome to Sunnyside, Claire!

Sunnyside Communication Promise

Instead of formal Parent Teacher Conferences in December and March, D91 is hoping to build a model where the school, the teacher, the family and the students work together to communicate on a more regular basis. We recognize that with formal conferences, those set aside days can be helpful to some, but we are hoping to create a model where we have open communication more consistently throughout the entire year to address students academic and social needs on a more regular basis.

In D91's efforts to communicate more effectively, Sunnyside staff has been working on a Communication Promise. The purpose of this promise is to make our intentions clear as a staff crew on how we hope to keep families and students engaged and a part of the learning process at Sunnyside. Our promise is below:

We promise to initiate and maintain communication with parents and families regarding student behavior, progress, and instruction.
We promise to engage in two-way communication and provide support for parents in accessing communication platforms.
We promise to encourage and participate in respectful and positive two-way interactions with students and families to ensure student success.
We promise to respond in a timely manner.
We promise to get to know each child’s unique abilities and attributes in order to build on their strengths and areas of opportunities for growth.

We are working hard to be proactive in our efforts to keep you informed but if you ever need clarification, have a question or would like to meet with a teacher, you may request to do so at any time! We will be holding Parent Focus Groups starting in November in which we will ask for feedback regarding our communication efforts as well. Please keep an eye out for more information on these Focus Groups.

Thank you in advance for your support, kindness and flexibility as we work hard to improve our practice!

-Sunnyside Staff Crew

Donations!

Starting January 18th, 2021

All donations made to the building will be made to grade levels and not individual teachers.

Teachers will then choose to split the donation between the teachers on their grade-level team or they can choose to use the donation together for something.

The reason for this change is to promote equity. We have some classrooms who receive donations every year and we have some classrooms who have never received a donation. Our mission is to impact the most students as possible and this is one piece in making that happen.

You can still make school-wide donations to technology, EL materials, media center and playground as well.

All donations can be done at the Sunnyside front office with one of our wonderful secretaries.

Thank you so much for all your support of our staff and students!

Sunnyside Anonymous Safety Concern Reporting Form

This form is for parents or community members to share specific safety concerns that they may have regarding Sunnyside Elementary. Please share your concern, the location and individuals involved if known. Emails will not be gathered, so this report remains anonymous. You may choose to identify yourself, but it is not required. Kindly keep this form for SAFETY concerns only.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdC2gWk_zk-nsU7eiwTkPbuf7CacizJ7bSMWKq4uBl9rpYbzg/viewform

Sunnyside Suggestions!

We are hoping to begin gathering some data from Sunnyside families and community members regarding our school and the efforts we are putting in to make Sunnyside amazing! You can now find a series of QR codes in the newsletter, the front foyer, the front office, etc. that look like the codes below. If you come across these, we kindly ask you to take a second, scan the code and take our brief surveys. These surveys will not expire and will remain open to gather input and suggestions over time. Our hopes is that this helps further open up communication between Sunnyside and our community so that we can work together for our students!

Please remember to be kind and respectful when giving suggestions and input. We are all here for the same reason...for our students!

To scan a QR code, you can download a QR reading app or you can scan it using the camera feature on your iPhone!

Thank you!

Phone/Smart Watch Policy

Sunnyside families!

Just a quick reminder as we jump into the second half of the year. Kids are welcome to wear smart watches to school. However, once the bell rings at 8:15, the watch is to be used as a watch- not a phone. Once the bell rings at 2:25pm and students have left the building they can use their watch as a phone. Our policy is that students are not using cell phones at school, including at recess- this includes watches being used as phones. If there is an emergency and you need to contact your student or if they need to contact you during school hours, we will do this through the office. We kindly ask for your support in this moving forward!

Learning Options in D91

There are two different learning options in D91.

1. Brick and Mortar schools (Face-to Face learning)

This is when a student comes in person to the physical school building for class Monday-Thursday with remote learning on Fridays. Teachers at the brick and mortar schools provide online learning experiences for those who are missing school for COVID related absences ONLY (quarantine or confirmed cases.)

2. D91 Online Academy

Students can enroll the online academy through D91 which takes place completely online. Students would access online school from their homes with the facilitation of parents/guardians. If you would like more info on this option, please visit the D91 website or call the District Office. The deadline to enroll for the D91 Online Academy is Friday, November 6th at 5pm.

Sunnyside and it's teachers do not offer a completely online option for students. If you have further questions, please call the Sunnyside office!

THANKS!

Substitute Teaching at Sunnyside!

We are asking for anyone who is interested in subbing at Sunnyside, to please click the link below and apply! We would love to increase the number of subs we have to call this year! Please us the link below and apply under the opening of "In-House Substitute"

If you have further questions, please shoot me an email at dixokyli@d91.k12.id.us

THANK you SOO much for helping support our teachers and students!

http://www.generalasp.com/d91/onlineapp/default.aspx?Category=Substitute

Accessibility

Kylie Dixon

Sunnyside Elementary

An EL Network School

Sunnyside Elementary

An EL Network School

Testing Results Coming Home

D91 SUMMER SCHOOL 2022

Cell Phone and Smart Watch Policy

Better World Day!