Northpoint Elementary
January 13, 2021 Newsletter
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Happy Wednesday Northpoint Families!
We are so excited to welcome students back to our building January 21. Over the next week, our team will be spending time preparing for a majority of our students to transition back to full-time learning at school.
As a part of our preparation, we will be looking at our individual learners’ profiles and maps. These will guide our work in planning and instruction. As you may recall, a learner’s profile is a personalized, living document each child has that describes their strengths, needs, interests and learning preferences. From the profile, we move into creating a learner’s map, which outlines the next steps in their learning via goals and instructional strategies.
We are also spending time with staff and teams ensuring that health and safety protocols are fully in place and implemented with fidelity.
As we work through requests from families to change learning models, we will do our absolute best to make this a smooth transition. Teachers from both settings will partner with one another to help create a common understanding of where each child is at as they change learning environments. You will likely notice schedule changes for your children. In cases where your child will be working with different service providers, we will communicate that either through grade-level updates or individual parent conversations depending on the specific scenario.
Reminder that there will be no school Monday, January 18 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and no school on Tuesday, January 19 and Wednesday, January 20 for grades K-6 as we use these days to prepare for the transition.
I am truly excited to be back at Northpoint with all of our in-person learners five days a week! Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you have or requests for clarification as our children return to Northpoint. Thank you, families, for your support of this planning time to make this a smooth transition. These past ten months have been a journey to say the least. But I couldn’t be more grateful to go through this experience with our entire Northpoint community, our students, staff and families. We’ve done our best to make lemons out of lemonade, and I think we’ve learned some good lessons that can positively impact our work with children for years to come!
Have a great week!
Judi
For Extended Flex Learning Families: Transitions
Greetings!
Our K-4 Extended Flexible Learning teachers are working closely with their colleagues at Northpoint, Centerview and Park Terrace to prepare for the transition of students who will be switching learning models beginning January 21. We appreciate your support and flexibility over the next several days as we work through the staffing and classroom implications of the transition and requests some families have made to shift their student’s learning model choice.
We are continuing to operate our Extended Flexible Learning (distance learning) model for families who chose it for their child. I will continue to provide updates through these school newsletters on the distance learning experience.
As a reminder, there will be no school on Monday, January 18 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, as well as no school – for all K-4 students – on Tuesday, January 19 and Wednesday, January 20. These days will be used to prepare for the learning model transition for many K-6 students on Thursday, January 21.
Stay healthy…
Kimberly Fehringer
Principal on Assignment
K-4 Extended Flexible Learning
Car Line Arrival/Dismissal Reminders
Please take a moment to review these important reminders about arrival and dismissal:
Arrival
- Students may be dropped off starting at 8:45 a.m.
Arrival/Dismissal
- There is no parent walk-up. If you are walking your student to/from school, please wait at the far end of the sidewalk for a staff member to assist you.
- When lining up please DO NOT BLOCK any of the entrances to our neighboring businesses.
- Follow the flow of traffic; do not pull in front of other vehicles.
- Drive as far forward as you can in the line before dropping off or picking up your student.
- Ensure your student exits and enters curbside at all times.
- Do not exit the vehicle to help your student in or out; please have student enter and exit the vehicle independently; there will be staff available to help your student if needed.
Dismissal
- Please do not line up prior to 3:35 p.m. The car line is reserved for the preschool program dismissal from 3:15 - 3:35 p.m.
- IMPORTANT- Please have a sign clearly displayed on your passenger side dash that includes student's last name, grade and teacher. An example sign is in the photo attached.
Thank you for your careful attention to these guidelines. This will greatly improve the safety and efficiency of the arrival/dismissal process and reduce wait time.
Guidelines for families on peanut/nut aware classrooms
Spring Lake Park Schools is continuing to emphasize practices that make our schools safe for all students. This work includes partnering with parents in adopting peanut and nut aware practices. Many students in our schools have severe allergies to tree nuts, peanuts, peanut butter, and/or products which contain nuts. Strict avoidance is the best way to prevent a severe allergic reaction. Accidental ingestion or even touching a tiny trace of a nut may cause a potentially fatal reaction for some students.
In an effort to ensure all students are safe throughout the school day, we are asking parents to partner with us to ensure the safety of our students. We need help in supporting the following guidelines to make our classrooms peanut/nut aware:
- All classrooms will be peanut/nut aware throughout Spring Lake Park Schools
- Please do not send any classroom snacks containing nuts, peanuts, peanut butter, or other nutproducts for daily snacks
- Students who have nut products in their lunch or snack will be removed from the classroom to eat in an alternate location.
- Please be aware of products that may be produced in a plant that contains peanuts/nuts
- Check out the Snack Safely website to reference what snacks and lunch items are safe to send.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Northpoint Health Office at 763-600-5704.
Kindergarten Lunch Bunch Adventures!
Visit the website to view full details and sign up or call Community Education at 763-600-5050.
National Flag Football MN Behinds This Spring
The National Flag Football MN program is set up in collaboration with SLP's Community Ed. Registration is open now on their website. Click the image to enlarge details.
Youth Virtual Magic Tricks Class
Amaze your family and friends with magic tricks! Students will use common household items (deck of cards, paper clips, pencils, etc.) to learn and perform magic tricks. Register for YEL Magic 1.0 Class
Join Girl Scouts for Free
2021 Baseball & T-Ball Registration
The Blaine Area Little League is inviting boys and girls to sign up for the 2021 Baseball and T-Ball season. Registration is now open. Click here to learn about the different age groups, important dates and more.
Challenge #1 - Collection 'Pennies for Packs' & Community Food Drive
Now that you've marked your calendar for the Panther for a Purpose - Virtual Giving Event to Benefit the Panther Pantryon February 27, 2021, it's time to get involved and participate in Panther Challenges! Panther Challenges are designed to bring the community together leading up to the event.
Panther Challenge #1 has begun with the 'Pennies for Packs' and Community Food Drive challenge. Gather some food and spare change and be ready for the collection days on January 26 and January 27. Collection sites include the front office at each school and the District Services Center (DSC).
We want to see photos and videos of your collection efforts. Please submit photos and/or videos to pantherfoundation@district16.org. Photos submitted will be entered for a prize drawing including Panther Branded gear and a $25 gift card to the Panther Store!
Learn more about event and future challenges on the Panthers for a Purpose event page.
January 14 - Kindergarten Connect - see more info in "In Case You Missed It" section
January 18 - No School/Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
January 19-20 - No School K-6/Staff planning for in-person transition
February 1 - NP PTO Meeting (Virtual) 6:30p.m.
February 12-15 - No School
In case you missed important information from last week's newsletter, check out the topics below and click to learn more
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