Benninghoven Family Newsletter
October 25, 2020
Vision: A place where everyone pursues their greatness.
Mission: A community coming together for our kids.
Dates to Remember:
October:
26-30 all students on site full time (except remote only students)
Bully Prevention Week:
27- In Person Classes with take MAP Math assessment
28- In Person Classes with take MAP Reading assessment
30- The Night Before Halloween- wear PJs to school!
November
6- No School Teacher Work Day, End of Quarter 1
9- 2nd Quarter Begins
11- Fall Picture Day, Butter Braids Pick up 3:15- 5:45
12- Fall Parent Teacher Conference Night
13- No School- Parent Teacher Conferences
23-27- No School Thanksgiving Break
Quick Links
Follow us on Twitter @BHknights512
Find us using #uKnighted512 & #BHSticksTogether
From the Principal
It's finally here..... our first week of full in person learning in nearly 8 months! I know I speak for many when I say just how excited I am for Monday! Our Knights staff cannot wait to welcome all of our students back to school together. Thank you all for your patience throughout this journey. For the time being, we will remain in a full in person learning model. (Except for families who chose remote learning all semester.) In the event of any changes in the future, you will receive notice from me and from our district leaders. Let's hope our community can stay healthy and our schools can remain open.
This week we have lots of fun things happening at school! Of course Halloween is this upcoming Saturday. Our Halloween celebrations will look different this year due to COVID guidelines. Please read the information below on this topic. Notice that we will not have guests in the building for Halloween celebrations, and students will wear pajamas to school instead of costumes.
It is also Bully Prevention Week at Benninghoven! We are celebrating with spirit days throughout the week. See the calendar for spirit days and the section below for more details. Additionally, all in person learners will complete MAP testing this week in class. These assessments will be especially critical for teachers as we work to design individualized learning plans for every child. We take these assessments every year, and there is nothing you need to do to prepare your child for the assessments. A little extra encouragement is all they might need!
Finally, we have a few tips and tricks to share for arrival and dismissal this week. Our new routines for the year have proven to be very successful, however this will be the first week we have all students every day. Please make sure you have reviewed arrival and dismissal procedures, and review the tips and tricks we have learned the first few weeks. A little extra patience might be necessary this week, but with your help we will have things running smoothly in no time.
It's going to be a busy and exciting first week all back together!
Take care,
Dr. Gonser
Specials This Month
On Site Learning Procedures- Please View Videos Before 1st Day On Site
Bully Prevention Week
Arrival and Dismissal Tips & Tricks
- All students walking or riding bikes to school should cross the street at 68th and Caenen. (Where Ms. Kemp stands.) This is the safest location and helps us promote social distancing along the car loop. Tell students to look for Ms. Kemp if they don't know where to cross.
- Students should not be dropped off in the parking lot or any other location. Please use the car loop if your student is getting out of a car in the morning.
- Be sure to pull up as far as you can to help the line move quickly.
- Staying in your vehicle also helps the line move quickly. There is no need to get out of your car. Our arrival attendants are happy to helps students get out of the vehicle.
- The safest practice is to have students exit on the passenger side of your vehicle. This eliminates the need to step into the car loop. If possible, please have students exit on this side of the car.
- If there is a delay, we ask that you be patient and neighborly. Do not speed through the car loop or use language or gestures that are inappropriate for school. We are setting an example for our kids.
- All students can have breakfast for free everyday. If students need breakfast, they still arrive between 7:50 and 8:10.
Dismissal
- Remember that all students will dismiss with the youngest family member. This is so parents only need to pick up in one location. If you aren't sure where to pick up, please call the office or your child's teacher so we can let you know ahead of time.
- If you are picking up in the 2/6 car loop around back, consider approaching the entrance from the South. If 2/6 families approach from the South and PreK/K families approach from the North on Caenen, it will eliminate the need to merge and wait at the entrance.
- If you are picking up in the front loop (grades 1, 3, 4, &5), fill all 3 lanes. When you reach the merge point, a staff member will help you merge. Please note that we will always merge all 3 lanes. Your neighbors are not cutting in front of you when we ask them to merge.
- If you are picking up a student(s) in a car, please use the appropriate car loop. The parking lot is not a pick up location, and the nearby streets should not be used as pick up points.
- All walkers will exit at the intersection of 68th & Caenen. If you are meeting a student who is walking home, please meet at the stop sign to promote social distancing.
- Please practice patience and kindness in our dismissal line. We all have the same goal: get kids home as efficiently and safely as possible. We appreciate your help with this.
Halloween @ School
Even though we can't celebrate as we normally would, it's still Halloween and we know how exciting this day is for kids. This year, Halloween just happens to be on a Saturday. So we are going to celebrate "The Night Before Halloween" on Friday 10/30. Dr. Gonser will do a read aloud of the book The Night Before Halloween for the whole school, and we will have a school-wide PJ day! Classrooms will also have some fun activities for students. Although it's not our typical Halloween celebration, we know it will still be a fun day together.
Office Availability
As we shift to in-person learning, we want to let you know that the office will be closed from 7:45-8:10AM and 3:00- 3:30PM each day unless you have an appointment. This is to help eliminate crowding and ensure social distancing during arrival and dismissal. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope that you understand we are taking this precaution to keep all kids and staff safe.
COVID 19 Updates
Important Health Info for Back to School
Fall Picture Day
- Only one class at a time will have their pictures taken to prevent cross grouping.
- Students will wait in a socially distanced waiting area until it is their turn.
- Students will wear masks until they are seated for their picture. The photographer will tell them when it is safe to remove their mask, snap a quick picture, and ask the student to put their mask back on.
- The photographer will always stay at least 6ft apart from all students.
- Photos will take place in the gym with the doors open. This provides a much bigger, open air space.
Remote Knights, you will have a picture day too! All remote students will have picture day on January 14th. A Sign Up Genius will be sent out closer to that time. Families will have the opportunity to sign up for a picture time that is convenient for them. We will take remote pictures in a similar fashion, and in a location that is easy to drive up to. More details to come.
Tech Tips
- If you're having slow internet or connectivity issues at home, consider putting devices that are not currently in active internet usage into Airplane Mode. When you do that, think of it like that device 'taking off' from your 'internet runway' which makes more room for other devices to land safely and move smoothly from place to place. When you need that device again, simply turn off Airplane Mode and bring that device back in for a landing on your internet air strip. There you are! Yet another job title for you this year....Internet Air Traffic Controller.
- Also...if your child is having difficulty opening, saving or sharing items in Canvas or other platforms, they may need to re-enter their password stored in the device.
- As always, clearing the cards (double click on the home button and swipe up on each card) or Powering Off and Restarting the device are a great place to begin when troubleshooting your own tech issues.
- Last, WebEx takes a lot of processing power; therefore, if you are charging the device with WebEx running you will not see an increase in battery life as WebEx is taking all the charge that the device is gaining (net zero).
Panorama Survey
This school year (2020-2021) the Shawnee Mission School District is once again utilizing the Panorama Social-Emotional Learning survey to assess student’s perseverance, grit, determination, school culture and student-teacher relationships. The Panorama Social-Emotional survey takes approximately 30 to 45 minutes to complete and will be administered once each semester. The first survey window is scheduled for November 2 through November 9, 2020. The Panorama Survey can be completed by students in the remote, hybrid or in-building learning environment. Parents/Guardians would have opted their student(s) in or out of the survey during the 20-21 registration process. Survey data will be reviewed at the district and classroom level to determine areas of strength, as well as areas where more instruction and/or support is needed. Once survey results are returned, parents/guardians are welcome to see and discuss the results with their students’ teachers, social workers, and counselors. Sample survey questions can be found here and here.
We encourage you to visit the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) website to learn more about how Social Emotional Learning benefits your child and their environment. All data is maintained by SMSD and will remain confidential. Please visit this site for more information about the Panorama SEL survey.
Información para padres/tutores - Español:
Este año escolar (2020-2021) el Distrito Escolar de Shawnee Mission está utilizando la Encuesta Panorama de Aprendizaje Social y Emocional para evaluar la perseverancia, la determinación, la cultura escolar y las relaciones entre estudiantes y maestros. La encuesta Panorama Social-Emocional tarda aproximadamente 30 a 45 minutos en completarse y se administrará una vez cada semestre. Los padres deben optar por sus estudiantes iniciando sesión en Skyward y completando un formulario de aprobación. Los datos de la encuesta se revisarán a nivel de distrito y salón de clases para determinar las áreas de fortaleza, así como las áreas donde se necesita más instrucción y / o apoyo. Una vez que se devuelven los resultados de la encuesta, los padres / tutores pueden ver y discutir los resultados con los maestros, trabajadores sociales y consejeros de sus estudiantes. Se pueden encontrar ejemplos de preguntas de la encuesta aquí: here y aquí: here.
Le recomendamos que visite el sitio web del Departamento de Educación del Estado de Kansas (KSDE) para obtener más información sobre cómo el Aprendizaje Social Emocional beneficia a su hijo/a y su entorno: https://www.ksde.org/Agency/Division-of-Learning-Services/Career-Standards-and-Assessment-Services/Content-Area-M-Z/School-Counseling/Social-Emotional-Character-Development-Standards-Assessment-and-Instruction.
From PTA
PTA News & Notes
Please join us on October 15th at 7pm for our first virtual PTA meeting for this school year! We will going over this year’s budget and meeting the board members. Dr. Gonser will also give a presentation on Canvas as well as doing a Q&A session. Please feel free to submit questions ahead of time to heatherhussey77@gmail.com. A WebEx link will be provided prior to the meeting.
Please visit our PTA website today, www.benninghovenpta.org, to stay up to date on all of the latest PTA info! You will also find links and information on the following;
Joining PTA – It’s never been easier! Memberships are just $9 and you can join online through Memberhub.
Staff Appreciation – Help us show our faculty and staff how much we appreciate them! This year in lieu of food items we are collecting monetary donations for staff appreciation activities.
Volunteer Opportunities – We are always looking for volunteers and couldn’t do what we do without your support! Check out our Committee sign ups and let us know where you can help.
Spirit Wear
2020 Spiritwear is here with hundreds of apparel choices and over a dozen NEW Benninghoven Knights designs to choose from! Order direct any time throughout the year and orders will be processed as they're received and shipped straight to your home. There will be a different promotion offered each month. Shipping is always free on orders of $50+! Info is posted on the PTA website, or click the link here to go straight to our online spiritwear shop.
Butter Braids are Back!
Our PTA's biggest fundraiser is kicking off! Based on the success of the past three years, we will again be selling Butter Braid pastries. This is our ONLY "selling" fundraiser of the year, so we hope your child will participate. The products truly sell themselves, and since Butter Braids are only available through fundraisers, many people look forward to purchasing them from year to year! We have some fun incentives for grade levels, classes, and individual sellers including extra recesses, choice time in PE, lunch with your teacher and principal, concretes from Culver’s, gift cards to Dave & Buster’s, Applebee’s, IHOP, and more! All students are eligible for the prize drawing for every 5 items sold.
There are two ways to sell this year – online and paper orders. The online store is open and ready for orders: https://tinyurl.com/BenninghovenElem. Order forms will be coming home with your student in the next few days. Forms and money are due back to school on October 28, and order pick-up is on November 11 at Benninghoven from 3:15 - 5:45. If you have any questions, please contact our Butter Braid chairperson, Whitney Claycamp, at wclaycamp@gmail.com (913) 269-5651. Thank you in advance for participating and helping raise funds for all of the great programs, projects, and events that our PTA does for our students, staff, and community!