The Avery Pulse
February 13th, 2022
Upcoming Dates
- February 14th - Valentine Parties (details below)
- February 18th - No School | Professional Development Day
- February 21st - No School for President's Day
- February 22nd - Happy Two's Day! (information below)
- February 28th and March 2nd - Parent/Teacher Conferences (sign ups below)
- March 18th - No School
- March 21st-March 25th - No School Spring Break
Arrival Reminders
Bompart Avenue
- Carpool drop-off only in front of school
- Parents to remain in vehicles with staff members assisting students
- No parking during arrival
- Staff members will supervise at the curb
- PLEASE DO NOT PARK ON THE CURBS/SIDEWALKS
Marshall Avenue
- Atrium entrance will be open for arrival for students dropped off on Marshall
- Staff members will supervise at the curb
Atalanta Avenue
- We strongly encourage families to travel only from Bompart towards Glen to alleviate congestion and increase safety
- No parking on sidewalks
- Staff members will supervise at the curb
Spring Conferences-February 28th and March 2nd
Kindergarten
1st Grade
2nd Grade
3rd Grade
4th Grade
5th Grade
Spring Conference Letter for 5th Grade
Spring Conference Sign-Up for 5th Grade
Specialists
Rochelle Spencer--Project Plus
Tim Velten--PE/HEALTH
Jon Bonham--PE/HEALTH
Heather Mosley--MUSIC
Jen Pupillo--LIBRARY
Jessica Neusitz--ART
EFA NEWSLETTER
Kindergarten/First Grade students are beginning their first lesson in code.org. Now is the time to put everything they’ve learned about coding into practice. Kindergarteners are practicing dragging and dropping items to different locations on the screen. Coordinating how to press buttons and drag to specific locations on the computer screen can be a bit tricky in the beginning, but their previous practice of perseverance has paid off. First graders are also practicing the same skill along with creating basic algorithms. Pure excitement happens when they realize they just programmed a squirrel to move across the screen! Great work K-1 students!
Students in 2nd and 3rd grade have been learning about coding by playing with a Code and Go Mouse. They learn teamwork, perseverance, problem-solving, and coding skills. It has been a lot of fun!
4th and 5th grade students are continuing to learn coding skills. Students are now using Scratch (scratch.mit.edu) and programming sprites to do a variety of activities including animation, designing and programming games, and creating a story and bringing it to life.
All of the students’ projects are saved in their “My Stuff” folder in their scratch account. Check it out!
Avery Yearbooks are On Sale!
Or
Request a paper copy of the order form and return to the Avery Main Office with cash, check, or money order payable to Avery PTO
Incoming Kindergarten Information
Here is a link with Helpful Kindergarten Information!
Questions? Please contact: 314-963-6425
Information below is repeated from the previous Pulse.
A Note from Nurse Vanessa Palmer, RN BSN
We appreciate the WHOLE Avery Elementary community coming together to help keep our school a safe and healthy learning environment. A few ways that parents and caregivers can help:
- Students should stay home when they have signs of any infectious illness and be referred to their healthcare provider for testing and care. Please see the attached Student Symptom Decision Tree for more guidance.
- WGSD continues to not accept home negative tests.
- To ensure an adequate time for an immune response, a student is not considered fully vaccinated until 2 weeks after their second dose of a two-dose mRNA series.
- Fully vaccinated students do not need to quarantine after a COVID-19 exposure as long as they continue to be symptom free. Upon onset of any symptom, please keep your student home and obtain a COVID-19 test .
- If your student tests positive, please email the School Nurse to coordinate their return date and to start organizing virtual learning. They will need to stay at home for a minimum of 5 days. If they are asymptomatic or their symptoms are resolving (without fever for 24 hours) they may return to school on Day 6 or thereafter.
- If your student has had a close contact exposure to COVID-19 and is not fully vaccinated, please email the School Nurse to coordinate their return date and to start organizing their virtual learning. Close contacts who are required to quarantine will need to stay home for at minimum 5 days. If they develop symptoms, they are to get tested immediately and isolate at home until they receive their test results. If they test positive, they must follow the positive recommendations above. If they do not develop symptoms, they should return to school on Day 6.
- Allergy symptoms need to be under control (asymptomatic). This allows for proper mask wearing at school and keeps everyone safe as allergy symptoms and COVID-19 symptoms are very similar. If allergy symptoms are uncontrolled, we ask that you please work with your student’s Pediatrician on a better allergy management plan.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Vanessa Palmer RN BSN
Avery Elementary School Nurse
School 314-963-6425
Nurse 314-918-4202
Fax 314-963-6490
Covid-19 Updates
Counselor Corner
Catching Up with Mrs. Wallace….
Use that remote control to be in charge of what we can control!
We are staying positive and keeping a daily solution focused approach at Avery. If there was ever a time to teach kids about flexibility it is now. Plans change, people are absent, things get cancelled…we have to focus on what we can actually control and let go of the things we can’t control. The remote control idea about what we can control sometimes helps make this point.
Throughout the spring semester Mrs. Wallace is welcoming an intern from UMSL to shadow and learn the role of the school counselor. Mr. Brett DeHekker will join Avery and Webster Groves High School until the end of the semester.
Social Emotional Learning at Avery
During December and January we have moved forward with our habits.
Habit #4- Put First Things First teaches us about conflict resolutions and reaching compromises. During our focus on Habit #4 we practice using “I messages” and communicating what problem we have and what solutions we can think of.
Habit #5- Seek First to Understand then to be Understood is a habit all about being a good listener. This habit focuses on listening to others in an empathetic, open minded way, and putting ourselves in another person’s shoes. Habit #5 also stresses that we all have equally important ideas and things we need to talk about.
Zones of Regulation- all students continue to learn to regulate their emotions and find strategies that help them get into “the green zone” for the best learning.
Mind Up Unit -4th grade
4th grade is currently beginning a new 4 week unit with Mrs. Wallace. This unit focuses on emotions and how they actually impact the brain and our learning. The students learn all about the prefrontal cortex (PFC), hippocampus, and amygdala. We even learn where these sections of the brain are located and what their function is. Eventually, this unit expands into how our emotions can keep the brain’s parts from functioning together for optimal learning. Lastly, we will learn about how our 5 senses can be used to calm our amygdala so that our brain can decode information correctly and turn it into knowledge to be stored in the hippocampus.
If you have any questions or concerns that I could assist you with please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Anna Wallace, MA, LPC
Counselor, Avery Elementary
Inclement Weather Closing Information
Mask Reminder
Quarantine Expectations
2021-2022 Buzz Book
Title I Program Parent and Family Involvement and Engagement
Please see the link below for Parent and Family Engagement Federal Programs:
https://dese.mo.gov/quality-schools/federal-programs/parent-family-engagement
Road Work Ahead
Please see the attachment for additional details.
Canvas Information
To stay connected with the learning in our classrooms, please create a Canvas Observer Account which is our district's learning management system. You will find attached three documents.
- Canvas Informational Letter
- Creating an Observer Account, Logging into Canvas, and Setting Notifications
- Student Accessing Canvas
If you have any questions please contact Tim Brown, Director of Student Assessment, Data and Learning Technologies at brown.tim@wgmail.org
Online Community Bulletin Board
Want to make a submission to The Avery Pulse?
To qualify for direct distribution to students and families, the
information must be:
- district-sponsored information
- something from a group affiliated* with the district.
- curriculum-related, as determined by the principal, including programs, events, contests and other activities.
*Affiliated is defined as a group recognized by the Board of Education and working
group created soley to work with district staff, students and parents
to raise fund for district activities (PTOs, booster clubs, the
Foundation)
Regarding signs, only signs for school or district groups (sponsored
or affiliated) can be placed on school grounds.
You can read the board policy here
https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/Policy/ViewPolicy.aspx?S=448&revid=6VcjbAkBf4Ls3Fs6CyIxFA==&ptid=amIgTZiB9plushNjl6WXhfiOQ==&secid=1QSfUuz8WRJ5slsh0xnyVwukQ==&PG=6&IRP=0
If you are a non-profit organization that doesn't qualify for direct distribution to students and families, you can contact Cathy Vespereny (vespereny.cathy@wgmail.org) who is our Director of Communication and she will ensure that your flyer is posted on the community electronic bulletin.
If your information fits the above criteria, you can make a submission to theaverypulse@gmail.com
Submissions are due on Thursdays at 5pm.
Avery Elementary
Email: theaverypulse@gmail.com
Website: https://www.webster.k12.mo.us/Domain/89
Location: 909 North Bompart Avenue, Webster Groves, MO, USA
Phone: 314-963-6425
Twitter: @avery_allstars