Hello Everyone!

We hope all of you are doing well! We miss our River Bend students very much! Please let them know that!

There is a lot of information in this email. Please take just a moment to read through it and call the school if you have any questions!

School Hours: The front office is open Monday-Friday from 8 am-4 pm. If you need anything, please feel free to call. We do ask that if you feel you need to come to school, to please call and arrange a time first. We are trying to limit people coming into the school for safety reasons.

Joe Corbi Pickup: Our Joe Corbi fundraiser pick up is next Wednesday, April 1. Unless Ms. Ruhlman has contacted you, pick up time is 11:30-1:00 on the bus canopy side of the building. If you cannot pick up your order during this time, please call the office 298-5301. Drive to the bus canopy side of the school next Wednesday, and we will give you directions to safely pick up your order.

Food For Kids: Please note the changes in the Food for Kids bagged meals program at RBES! This starts Monday, March 30, 2020! Meals will be available Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-6 pm. There will no longer be curb side service. Parents will walk to the tables and take the food they need for their children. Staff will be standing by to keep tables stocked. Please bring your own grocery bags or boxes to collect the food. This is to protect the safety of families and staff/volunteers. Thank you for your understanding! Here is a flyer with details: Food for Kids.pdf

PLEASE READ-WORK FOR STUDENTS: Starting Monday, March 30, teachers will start providing weekly work for students. This work will be available online and in paper packets. The work in the paper packets will be in alignment with the work online. At this time, students may choose to do only the online work, only the packet work, or they may choose to do both. Teachers have been or will be in touch with each family electronically and by phone to touch base. So, our first paper packets will be available Monday, March 30 at 9:00 am. Keep in mind, these packets are the packets of work teachers created Friday, March 13. Some teachers may add some additional items, but they are the work from the last two weeks. There will NOT be any new work or packets for the week of April 6-10 which is spring break week. Then, starting Monday, April 13, new online work and new packets will be available each week. Please note that starting with the work going out April 13 new material will be addressed in the lessons and activities as well as review work. This work will be linked on our River Bend web page to "Learning Activities for Home," teachers will share the online work with you, and the packets will be available for pick up. Teachers will provide weekly lessons to students through videos shared in Seesaw, Dojo, google classroom, etc. Teachers will also touch base weekly by phone with families who do not have access to online videos to see if you or your child(ren) have any questions. They can even give help to students over the phone if needed. Teachers are working hard to ensure ALL RBES students have the resources they need to continue learning. They are an amazing group :)

Packet pick up will work like this: Each Monday morning by 9:00 am packets will be placed in boxes or tubs and set outside on the side of the school with the bus canopy. Parents simply drive to the side of the school with the bus canopy, park, and take the packets of work needed for your children. The boxes/tubs will be left out side and available to all 24/7. At this time we are unsure of exactly how many copies are needed. The boxes will be checked each morning to see if additional copies need to be made. So, if you come by and there are no packets left, check the next day as we will keep the boxes stocked each day. Eventually we will also have tubs with packets of books and packets of school supplies for students to have at home. We do respectfully ask that you please take only what you need as we do have limited supplies of books and school supplies.

I think that is all for now. Again, call the school with any questions, and please know we are thinking of our families every day. If your family or if you know of any family that may be in need of any kind of assistance, please let us know. We are to help in any way we can.

Stay safe and stay well.

Sincerely,

Ms. Martz

Hello everyone,

We hope you are safe and well. I know many of our teachers are staying in touch with you through emails, Seesaw, Class Dojo, etc. We also know that not every family has access to the internet. I am trying to share parent updates through email and on Facebook. If you know of any parent who may not be receiving our school email, please have them either email Billi Jo Morris (bjmorris@rockingham.k12.va.us) or call the school to give us their email address.

Here is some additional information for you:

RCPS has established a Smore page to share information with the community about our response to COVID-19. It includes an FAQ and an archive of our communications with the community: https://www.smore.com/6vzq9

A parent shared this site with me. It is a list of providers who are offering free internet during this time.

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/att-t-mobile-comcast-cox-verizon-and-more-take-fccs-pledge-to-maintain-customer-service-during-coronavirus-pandemic/

RBES is one of the schools selected to offer bagged meals for families. Here is our plan. "RBES Food Pick Up" will be a drive-through, grab and go process. Families will drive up to the front of the school (just like drop off in the morning), and school staff will walk to the vehicle and hand the bagged meals to the families. The families will then drive on. Each child may get two bagged meals-one breakfast meal and one lunch meal-each day. Please remember children need to be present to receive the bagged meals. Please see this reminder about the meals: 4 Important Messages to Post.pdf

Just a reminder that the learning activities shared with you yesterday are just ideas for students. They are not required. Some parents had asked for us to share some ideas, so we went ahead and shared what we had so far. We, as a staff, are working on additional ways we can stay in touch with parents and with our students! We will continue to share with you ways to connect.

That is all for today!

Have a good evening,

Ms. Martz

Hello RBES Families,

I sincerely hope each one of you is doing well. This past Friday, RBES teachers worked together in their grade level teams and with resource teachers to provide some learning activities for their students. Below is a link to what they developed on Friday. The teachers tried to create a combination of activities on paper and on electronics as we realize not all families have access to the internet, and not all families have a device that is user friendly for some of the electronic work.

Not only did teachers create the activities linked below, but many of them made baggies for each student. Some included crayons, paper, etc., and we had also planned on sending each student home with lots of books to read as well. If and when we are able to offer pick-up times for those materials, we will certainly let you know. These activities are not required but will help your child stay engaged in learning and maintain skills by some repetition and practice each day. We will update this site and listing of activities as needed to help parents. Also, once information is available on meals for children, we will be sure to share that information with you as well.

Throughout the time schools are closed, we encourage you to use this time to spend quality time with your children, read with them, let them play outside, and enjoy themselves! Please let your children know that the staff at River Bend misses them very much!

Stay safe and well,

Ms. Martz

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