Head of School Message
Heather Moore, Head of School
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Dear Parents,
Today SIA primar years students enjoyed a virtual author visit with Steve Metzger and his illustrator Jill Dubin! They discussed the process of how a book comes to be and the partnership between an author and illustrator. This was such an excellent experience for our students. A special thank you to Ms. Columbus for organizing this opportunity with community experts!
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Happy Purim! I hope everyone has as much fun celebrating Purim as we will have here at SIA! The joyous holiday of Purim which starts this Thursday night celebrates the salvation of the Jews from the wicked Haman, through the leadership of Queen Esther and her cousin Mordecai. We will celebrate on Friday with a host of Purim activities. Students will enjoy Purim games, a costume parade, Megilla readings, magic show, a dance party and much more! Chag Purim Sameach! Happy Purim! Just a reminder that Friday, February 26, 2021 is Purim, and we have a 12:00 Noon Dismissal, Full care and SIA sundown are open until 4:00pm.
School picture day is next Monday, March 1 and Tuesday, March 2, 2021. We are working with a new company this year Haynes Photography. Due to limited time and mitigation strategies we will not be doing sibling pictures. Your child’s teacher will let you know which day their class is scheduled.
The SIA annual scholastic book fair is coming up, Monday, March 15 – Friday, March 19, 2021. Your child’s class will visit the book fair and make wish lists that will be sent home. Students can make purchases during school or families can visit the virtual version of the SIA book fair as well. More information will be posted in ParentSquare soon.
Below you will see some reminders for next week. Shavuah Tov, wishing you all a wonderful week ahead!
Heather Moore
Head of School
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2/26 - Purim Celebration; 12pm Dismissal; Sundown and Fullcare close at 4pm
3/1 - 3/2 School Photos
3/26 - 4/2 Passover Break
3/26 - No School, Fullcare Closed, JCC Holiday Camp Open
3/29 - No School, Fullcare Closed, JCC Holiday Camp Open
3/30 - 4/2 Fullcare Spring Break Session/ JCC Holiday Camp
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Celebrating Purim at SIA
Rashi Brashevitzky, Judaic Studies Director
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Purim begins this Thursday night at nightfall and continues through sundown on Friday! Our classrooms have been buzzing with excitement as our students learn the Purim story, the Purim “how tos” and get ready to have loads of fun at our celebration on Friday!
Purim celebrates the miraculous reversal of an evil decree to annihilate the Jewish people - and there are a number of observances and traditions to go along with this special day! Friday will be filled with fun activities, along with Purim traditions and Mitzvot.
Here is a brief description of how Purim is celebrated:
Megillah: The Purim story is read from the Megillah scroll. We make lots of noise when we hear the name of evil Haman.
Mishloach Manot: We give gifts of food to our friends.
Tzeddakah: We give charity to a minimum of two organizations or people in need.
Purim Feast: We celebrate with a festive Purim meal.
Hamentashen: These triangular shaped cookies are a Purim favorite! While Haman’s hat may or may not have been triangular, the partially covered filling alludes to the hidden miracles in the Purim story.
Costumes: All SIA students are encouraged to come in costume on Friday! There are a variety of reasons behind the costumes, one of which is again a nod to the hidden miracles of G-d in this story. (Please be sure your child will be comfortable and able to move freely in his or her costume.)
We are looking forward to our Purim celebration here at SIA! For more information regarding Purim please visit www.virtualpurim.org
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Getting Ready To Be Ready
Lorna Orleans, Early Years Director
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D
Dear SIA Families,
Kindergarten readiness is an important goal for our EY4 classes. To that end, our EY4 teachers have done an extraordinary job of implementing our phonemic awareness program inspired by the Lindamood Phonemic Sequencing Program known as LiPS. In a directed and sequenced manner students are introduced to consonant pairs that are named according to lip, tongue or mouth configuration. For example, the consonant pair P/B are called “lip poppers”. Say those two letters out loud and you will see how appropriate that moniker can be. Incrementally, our teachers introduce vowels and our students begin to form consonant, vowel, consonant (CVC) sequences which teaches them how to build words. As they become more adept at blending sounds, the logic of creating words becomes more clear and many of our EY4 friends begin building and recognizing sight words.
Hand in hand with this tool, our EY4 teachers also use elements of the Handwriting Without Tears program to begin teaching children how to form letters. The philosophy behind the method is to break down writing letters into very simple vocabulary: big line, little line, big curve, little curve and diagonal lines. With these lines all of our letters can be formed. This method is also very tactile and includes all the wooden shapes mentioned above so students can feel the shapes and put them together three dimensionally before they begin writing.
While these methods of teaching reading and writing are paced and designed to meet children where they are developmentally, our students achieve a high success rate in recognizing letters, connecting sounds to letters and in understanding how to put sounds together to create words. Our students are writing their names independently and ,for some, they are writing their names in title case. By this point in the year our EY4 students are regularly journaling with a combination of pictures and then words which they sound out and often spell phonetically.
Kudos to our amazing EY4 teachers who are insuring their students will be ready to “be ready” for Kindergarten
Shavua Tov
Lorna Orleans
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Consonant Pairs are on on display in the classrooms along with pictures of how our lips should look when pronouncing them. |
This EY4 friend is tasked with circling quiet or loud letters in a brother pair of consonants. |
Above: The letter W has a lot of diagonal lines! |
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Above: Friends in this EY4 class brainstormed words beginning with these Lip Cooler consonants. |
Making letters with manipulative pieces. It only takes a big line and a big curve to make a capital D. |
Left and above: Letters can make nonsense and real words. Follow the CVC pattern. |
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Left: Friends in this EY4 class learned a new game. When the teacher sounds out a sight words they have to jump over to it.
Above: Journaling by drawing a picture of choice and describing with words sometimes written phoneticially.
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Water Awareness Calendar 2022
Abigail Cochran, PY Art Teacher
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Hello SIA families,
Each year, the City of Va Beach Public Utilities Dept holds a drawing contest for any K-5 students in Virginia Beach to illustrate a number of topics in water conservation, and they choose winning drawings to be published in a calendar. In past years SIA has been represented by several students, and I'm hoping to continue that trend started by our former Science teacher, Ms Conley. I have spoken to each class about the contest, and made available copies of the entry forms and rules for students interested in participating. I have also posted the link and information on each of the SIA Art Class Google classrooms pages for you and your students to read more about this. I will be collecting the drawings by March 1st, and must deliver them to the city by March 5. Please encourage your child(ren)to consider creating an original drawing for this unique opportunity. Good luck to all and please feel free to email me with any questions about this activity.
Last Year's 2021 Water Calendar Winners from SIA
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Jewish Family Service Community Partners |
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SIA Kindergarten White and Kindergarten Blue classes made 30 decorated and colorful cards to cheer up Homebound Kosher Meals on Wheels clients. We are so proud of our caring students.ace article |
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Is your child missing a jacket or coat?
Please send a description to Linda Bridges, and she will be happy to see if the missing item is in our Lost and Found Box!
Please write your child's name in all items.
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Dear SIA Families,
Our school is applying for the 5th year in a row to become a Pearl Award School through the Lynnhaven River Now Project. Pearl School Awards are given in recognition of schools that provide outstanding environmental education. Through project based learning and several of our IB Transdisciplinary units like Sharing the Planet and How the World Works we offer our students, from preschool through 5th grade, opportunities to learn about important sustainable practices that help maintain the integrity of our environment.
To help us achieve the points needed to meet the requirements for becoming a Pearl Award School we invite you to apply to become a Pearl Home. You can find an application in the link below created especially for our school.
Our school can earn up to 15 points toward the 50 points needed to receive the award of Pearl School if five of our families apply for the Pearl Home Award. Here is an excerpt from the LRN website.
So much of the progress we have made in restoring our waterways is a result of the great work our residents are doing to change their practices and adopt more sustainable behaviors. These PEARL HOMES are all over Virginia Beach. PEARL HOMES are places where people care about our community and our environment and want to do what they can to live responsibly and help protect our resources.
The application is very easy to fill out. You only have to choose 15 actions that you have put in place to help make your neighborhood become a more environmentally friendly place. Please join us in our endeavor to teach the importance of sustainable practices.
Lorna Orleans
SIA Director of Early Years
Nicole Bernal - EY Pearl Award Coordinator
Marin Genova -PY Pearl Award Coordinator
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LUNCH ORDER REMINDERS
Ms. Linda Bridges, Office Manager
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PLACE YOUR MARCH LUNCH ORDER!!
If you order lunch for your child (Toddlers to 5th grade), please order in advance from https://orgsonline.com/. Print the days you ordered so you know when to pack a lunch. Primary students should bring several snacks on the days they order lunch from school. Everyone needs to bring a reusable water bottle.
If you need to cancel or change a lunch, please do before 9:30 a.m. if it is on the day of the order.
Remember: if you wait to order, you may forget.
Lunch instructions are included for anyone who needs to start an account or needs a reminder about the program.
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It is hard to believe that Summer Camp is only 5 months away! If you have not registered your child in SIA's 12 month program and would like to register your child for camp this summer, please click here to register. To check if you have registered for camp 2021, please refer to your tuition statement.
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Harris Teeter will automatically give a percentage to SIA everytime you show and use your VIC Card!
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Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to Strelitz International Academy whenever you shop on AmazonSmile.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY
February Babies!!
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Students
Avi Debb 2/1
Jonah Repoki 2/2
Amelia Moll 2/4
Alexa Kass 2/4
Lila Ann Atherton 2/13
Quinn Harvey 2/13
Ryan Gibson 2/15
Henley Hoover 2/15
Avyan Taank 2/15
Benjamin Ohana 2/17
William Booth 2/18
Theodore Lanier 2/22
Ohad Hassid 2/22
Lena Aftel 2/23
Ari Mulligan 2/23
Alexa Steerman 2/23
Heidi Freihofer 2/23
Madeline Cohen 2/25
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Faculty and Staff
Deborah Moye 2/4
Lavette Ricks 2/12
Nicole Gamboa 2/17
Janet Jenkins 2/26
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CARDO HAMENTASHEN ORDERS FOR PURIM |
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Updated Class Cupcake Order Form Below |
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Ice Pops or Cupcakes can be ordered for Class birthday treats!
For Cupcake, please use the form below and drop off at Cardo Campus Cafe or email to: lunch@ujft.org
NO OUTSIDE TREATS MAY BE BROUGHT IN FOR BIRTHDAYS AT SCHOOL.
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