Symmes Elementary School
Newsletter
April 9, 2021
Mark your Calendar
April 9 - PTO Virtual Trivia Night, 6:30 pm
April 9 - End of PTO Flower Sale
April 14 - Symmes Ambassadors Gathering, 10:00 am
April 27 - Flower Pick up day, details coming soon
Face to Face AIR Testing
4th Grade
April 13- Math, Part 1
April 15- Math, Part 2
3rd Grade
April 14- Math, Part 1
April 16- Math, Part 2
Virtual Classroom AIR Testing
(Additional Information will come from VLC)
4th Grade
April 14 or April 16- Math, Part 1
April 21 or April 23- Math, Part 2
3rd Grade
April 13- Language Arts, Part 1
April 15- Language Arts, Part 2
April 20- Math, Part 1
April 22- Math, Part 2
Announcements!
- Highlight and give a Shout out to a Virtual Classroom Grade Level
- Share highlights and or events for the upcoming week
- Share birthdays of face to face and virtual students
- Announce Bee Buck Winners for virtual and face to face
We hope that you can tune in each Friday!
Have you ordered your flowers yet?
We are in the last 24 hours of our PTO fundraiser, and we need your help to reach our goal!
ORDER NOW! www.fundraiseit.org
Symmes Family Trivia Night
Join us for a Symmes virtual family trivia night via zoom this Friday, April 9th at 6:30 pm. Grab dinner at BiBiBop (Symmes will get 20% of the proceeds of sales that night, just show the flyer or email) and join us for fun trivia.
You can sign up for a free Kahoot! account and use the zoom link below to join us for trivia. It will work best if you have Kahoot! on your phone perhaps while signing into zoom on a computer, but one device for both will also work.
Any questions, Victoria Titchenal, VP of Family Involvement in Symmes PTO, will be hosting to help you troubleshoot.
Symmes Family Trivia Night
Join Zoom Meeting via the link below:
https://zoom.us/j/5308877221
Meeting ID: 530 887 7221
Or call in:
+1 646 558 8656 US
Meeting ID: 530 887 7221
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/axw9Vmo05
Thank you!
We are thankful to these parents who have agreed to serve as members of the PTO Board for 2021-2022!
Co-Presidents - Megan Haring and Brittany Haines
Treasurer - Becky Lange
VP Student Programs - Julie McClendon
VP Family Involvement - Victoria Titchenal
Co-VP Ways and Means - Sally Allen
Recording Secretary - Jenny Krieger
Corresponding Secretary - Megan Day
Symmes Ambassadors - Jackie Ogden
Dear Symmes families,
Don’t forget that our online book fair starts Monday, April 12, 2021.
Book Fair Highlights
• Hundreds of books hand-selected by our book fair vendor Junior Library Guild for quality content and ultra-readability
• A list of my book recommendations
• Teacher wish lists for gifting books to classroom libraries
• Detailed information about each book, including synopsis, reading level, genre, reviews, awards, potentially sensitive content areas, and more.
• Hard-cover, first-edition books starting at $5—with FREE shipping for orders over $30
• Direct-to-home delivery The book fair will open first thing tomorrow.
Get ready to shop this selection of the best children’s and young adult books available!
Let me know if you have any questions!
Diverse Book Read Aloud
The Sycamore elementary administrative team is excited to share with you a collaboration on one of our favorite topics - reading! We love books and the different places they can take their readers. We also love how diverse books can help us learn more about ourselves and others, as well as the world around us. We partnered up after one of our favorite holidays - Read Across America Day on March 2 - to select and read with you some of our favorite new books brought to our Sycamore classroom libraries this past summer by the wonderful group Diverse Books for Sycamore. We hope that you enjoy hearing the books we have selected to share!
Please click HERE for our introduction video.
Please click HERE for the kindergarten book, Thank You Omu, read by Maple Dale.
Please click HERE for the first-grade book, Happy in Our Skin, read by Blue Ash.
Please click HERE for the second-grade book, We Came to America, read by the Virtual Learning Commons.
Please click HERE for the third-grade book, The Day You Begin, read by Montgomery.
Please click HERE for the fourth-grade book, We are Water Protectors, read by Symmes.
If you'd like to check out all of the readings at once, you may find them all gathered in a folder HERE.
Happy Reading!
Thanks!
Symmes Steppers is Back for the Spring with a 1,000 Mile Challenge!!
Symmes Steppers is returning this Spring and will be trying something new – a schoolwide 1,000 Mile Challenge! We are challenging all the Symmes Students, virtual & face-to-face, to Step Together Toward 1,000 Miles!
Virtual & Face-to-Face Students will take part in completing as many “laps” as they can each week. Virtual families will send their distance each week to the Symmes Steppers Coordinators while the face-to-face students will be tracked by their homeroom teacher. All miles completed by virtual & face-to-face students will be colored on a 1,000 mile Shoe Poster to be displayed at Symmes! Our goal is to fill multiple posters by the end of the school year! Updates will be shared each week via announcements and the Symmes PTO Facebook page. We will also have a fun weekly grade level competition!
Virtual Families – Please send an email to Sara & Jaime (symmessteppers@gmail.com) each week beginning March 22nd with the name of your student, grade level & total distance completed. We will track their progress and make sure their total is added to the Symmes Shoe Poster and counted toward their individual grade level’s total miles. Please be on the lookout for more information, including ideas for tracking your child’s distance, on the Symmes PTO Facebook page!
If you have any questions, please contact Sara O’Hara & Jaime Magee at symmessteppers@gmail.com
Honoring Our Past, Building Our Future Contest
Calling all creators! Help us honor our past and celebrate our future as we get ready to break ground on a new E.H. Greene Intermediate and Sycamore Junior High School.
From April 6-April 28, Sycamore Community Schools will be accepting creative entries for our Honoring Our Past, Building Our Future contest. The randomly selected winners will have the opportunity to be a part of our groundbreaking ceremonies on May 5.
Who can enter?
All Sycamore Community Schools students in Grades K-12 can enter.
How do I enter?
Draw a picture, write a poem, record yourself performing a song, take a photo, create a model... the skies the limit! We just ask that whatever you decide to create pay tribute to the Sycamore spirit, E.H. Greene Intermediate, and/or Sycamore Junior High.
Take a photo or video of your entry and upload it by clicking here by April 28 at noon.
You will receive a confirmation email once you have submitted your entry.
What can I win?
The contest will have eight winners: four in Grades K-6 and four in Grades 7-12. The winners will have their work displayed at our groundbreaking ceremonies on April 13 as well as the opportunity to “turn dirt” during the ceremonies. Four winners will be a part of the E.H. Greene Intermediate ceremony on May 5 at 10:00 a.m. The other four winners will be a part of the Sycamore Junior High ceremony on May 5 at 11:00 a.m.
Winners will be randomly selected and announced during the week of April 28. Winners will be contacted via email.
All entries will be shared on Sycamore School’s website and social media after the contest ends on April 28.
Dear Families,
Recently we shared information with you regarding an exciting grant awarded to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Sycamore Community Schools as a part of Governor Dewine’s K-12 Prevention Education Initiative. We have started the engagement process with the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital’s Adapt for Life team, we are in need of your feedback to assist our student, staff, and family planning. Completing this anonymous 5 question survey will inform our process and assist us in developing strong programming for our future.
In April, we anticipate hosting virtual parent information sessions about the Adapt for Life program and our grant partnership. We look forward to sharing more with you in the coming weeks and months.
Free Meals Extended
For all of the families that have been taking advantage of the free breakfast and lunches for ALL Sycamore schools and students this opportunity had been EXTENDED until the end of the 2020-21 school year!
All Sycamore families can enjoy free breakfast and free lunch all school year long.
Click here for more details for face to face families.
Click here for more details for virtual families.
R&J The Musical
Drop up/Pick up Reminders
If you drop off or pick up your student please remember the following:
- Use care when entering and exiting our driveway. Please don't block the driveway intersection at Enyart.
- Stay in your car.
- Pull your car up to the car in front of you.
- Turn off your car while you are waiting.
- At pick up, flip your car tag to the white side once all your students are in the car. This is an easy way for the adults helping to know that you are ready to go!
- At pick up, students will enter your car from the CENTER aisle and find their appropriate seat once in the car. Please DO NOT encourage your child to walk around the front (or back) of your car in order to get into your car.
Thank you!
Virtual Picnics
Here are the dates for upcoming lunches:
*Please only have your child attend their grade level meet so we can more easily manage our numbers.
This is optional for students and is an additional time for us to stay connected. Your child's teacher will share the link to your grade level meeting with you.
We know that there will be some months that we will not be able to get together, but we look forward to seeing you all as often as possible!
4/13/21
3rd Grade from 11:50 am -12:30 pm with Mrs.O'Connor
4/20/21
4th Grade from 11:50 am -12:15 pm with Mrs. Gausmann
4/27/21
1st Grade from 11:50 am - 12:10 pm with Mrs. Lobert
Virtual Meal Pick Up Location for Symmes Families
March 10th, 2021 was the LAST day Symmes Elementary will be a pickup location for virtual curbside meal pick up. Due to construction at Symmes Elementary, all families that currently pick up their virtual meals at Symmes Elementary will need to pick them up at a different location. You will be required to fill out THIS FORM to choose where you prefer to pick up from March 24th, 2021 until the end of the school year. You only need to fill out this form once, and the location you choose will be where you pick up until the end of the school year.
Reminders will be going out weekly to families that have registered for virtual meals at Symmes during this school year.
Need help?
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你需要帮助吗? 도움이 필요하세요? お手伝いします?
Click here to be connected with Symmes Ambassadors:
https://www.sycamoreschools.org/domain/909
Click here if you want to help other families: