Riverside Monday Memo

MONDAY MEMO

Heidi's Herons (1st graders Violet, Grace, Henry, 2nd graders Ellie, Eli, 1st grader Mabel, 2nd grader J.T. and 1st grader Bryn) finished their study of the solar system by showing off their papier matché planets. Not pictured is 2nd grader Dalton, with Mars.

Greetings!

Welcome back! We hope you each enjoyed some rest and some adventures last week, despite all the variable spring weather.

Happy Monday,

Nelia

Visit Our Website

Upcoming Events

NOTES

SUPER RAFFLE

Our 2nd annual Super Raffle event is planned for May 14 in the Cedars at Riverside! Each family has been given tickets to sell, along with a letter to parents that explains the event in detail. Please return all 3 ticket stubs, or complete unsold tickets, to the office by tomorrow!

If you have any access to items that could make good prizes (crafted by yourself, from your business, or through a personal connection), please let Krystal know this week.

COVID PROTOCOL UPDATE

Thanks to the warmer weather and the fact that the faculty are all back and healthy, we are now going to be mask-optional. We will revisit this decision if conditions change.

Beyond that, we will be following the CDC quarantine and isolation recommendations, with the exception that we will ask for a few days’ additional isolation when there is an active case in the home (to provide a window for a rapid PCR test before returning) and may ask for some additional testing when there is an exposure. If your child may have been exposed on campus, we will let you know and help set up testing. We are still asking families to keep symptomatic children home- even with a negative test- until symptoms improve.

If you are concerned about your child’s potential exposure at school with our return to optional masking and feel the need to make special arrangements beyond having them wear a high-quality KN95 mask during the day, please reach out to their homeroom teacher and/or Roy about how they can support you.

STANDARDIZED TESTING

3-5th grade students will work on computer-based standardized testing over the next couple weeks. Please help students to understand that this should not be stressful, and will not have direct results that affect them. It is simply one tool Riverside uses to understand what students know and can do, and the results can help us to be better teachers and to target needs and goals for some individual students. Encouraging them to focus and to do their best will help us get the most accurate results.

3rd grade - some practice with the digital interface this week
4th grade - practice with the digital interface on Thursday and Friday afternoon
5th grade - practice with the digital interface on Monday morning; ELA tests on Tuesday and Wednesday; Math tests on Thursday and Friday
6-8th grade students who need more time to finish their tests will work with Nelia and Caroline to find time without missing core academic learning in classes. Students who were absent during testing sessions may have to miss class time to finish.

SWIMMING

We are going to wait one more week to resume K-2 swimming; there will be no swimming this Friday, but we hope to be in the pool next Friday.

MOVIE NIGHT FOR UKRAINE

This Friday, April 29, Student Council is hosting a movie night! Grades 3-8 are invited to join us in the barn from 6:30 to 8:30 to watch Big Hero Six. This is a fun, sweet, adventure-filled movie about a tight knit group of friends using their brains not only to create robots and groundbreaking technology, but also to save the world. Follow thirteen year old Hiro, his healthcare companion Baymax, and their friends, through the ups and downs of loss and laughter in an adventure to save their world! Kids can feel free to bring a blanket and pillow, and wear comfy clothes!

Admission is free, but donations for Ukraine refugee relief are encouraged. Snacks will also be sold. All donations will go to Ukraine refugee relief!

PAG MEETING

The next meeting of the Parent Advisory Group will be Tuesday, May 10 at 5:00 pm. If you would like to suggest agenda items, please email them to Kim and Ellen.

PARENT "BOOK" CLUB

As promised, a few members of this winter's Parent Book Club wanted to extend the conversation further, and have planned one more meeting for Thursday, May 12 at 5:00 pm. All are welcome to attend! The conversation will be about these two short articles by Emily Oster:

SPRING FIELD TRIPS

Thanks to everyone for your patience and flexibility as we determine the feasibility of our spring time program traditions; the state of the pandemic; and the availability of learning opportunities and accommodations. We are excited to be sending K-3rd graders on day trips, and 4-8th graders on overnight trips! Note that the 4-5th grade class has two listings below. Further details about each trip will follow in future MMs.

6-8th grade: Cape Cod, May 18-20. We will depart from school on Wednesday morning by carpools, and return on Friday afternoon around 4:00 pm. We will be staying in cabins at Camp Farley in Mashpee.
4-5th grade: Fairbanks Museum, May 18-19. Drop off will be at the museum on Wednesday morning, and pick up there on Thursday afternoon. Students will stay overnight at the museum, and spend the days engaging in programs there, as well as with the St. Johnsbury History and Heritage Museum, also exploring the cemetery and hiking to the knob.
3-5th grade: Vermont Historical Society Museum and State House, Friday, May 20. Departing from school by bus and returning for regular pick up.
K-2nd grade: Montshire Museum, Friday, May 20. Departing from school by bus and returning for regular pick up.

TREE PLANTING HELP

This fall, after a visit from 350 Vermont, our students took action and planted a few trees on campus, as part of our re-wilding efforts. They learned that trees absorb carbon, give off oxygen, help control water runoff, reduce erosion, and that many species in the wild depend on trees for food and protection. After a long winter, it’s time to get outside and start planting again. On Friday, May 6th, our partners from 350 Vermont will be delivering more trees for us to plant on Riverside property. We will be receiving 2 apple trees, 25 more cedars, 4 American plums, 3 catalpa, 3 gray birch, 3 ginkgo, 6 paper birch, 6 red oak, 15 sugar maple, 6 white oak, and 3 yellow birch trees. If you’re available to help us plant on May 6th, or if you’d be willing to donate a shovel, spade, marking tape, mulch, grade stakes or a sledge hammer to the project, please email Caroline to let us know how you're able to help. Thank you.

MUSICAL COMPOSITION SUCCESS

5th grader Russell Desjardins recently participated in a composition writing program though the guidance of his piano teacher. His piece, "Question and Answer," was one selected to be performed tomorrow at the Opus 36 Concert by professional Vermont musicians, at St. Paul's Cathedral in Burlington.

CHESS CLUB SUCCESS

The Vermont State Chess Championship for middle schoolers and high schoolers was held in Berlin, VT Saturday, April 16. This all day affair was packed with the top chess players from all around the state for the right to represent Vermont at Nationals. Riverside sent four chess players (7th graders Phoebe Donn, Kingston Newell, and Patrick Tester, and 6th grader Ingacio Montague); we would have sent more, but with it being Passover, Easter, Ramadan, and a full moon, turnout on our end was a bit low. The students played well, coming in first place as a middle school chess team (cumulative score). Individually, Kingston had a great day and tied for 4th in the state despite accepting a draw he knew he could have won. More importantly, our chess club represented Riverside so well that our table grew as more and more kids from around the state chose to hang out with us and asked to be honorary Riversiders for the day (if not forever!). One of those kids will be joining us in chess club from here on. So, we played well and carried ourselves well. We were the best middle school chess team there.

BIOGRAPHY FAIR

4-8th grade students are preparing for our annual Biography Fair, which will be held in-person on the morning of Friday, May 13. We welcome all visitors who want to celebrate student learning by witnessing their presentations, viewing their visual displays, and talking to them about the figures they represent. A schedule of the day is here.

RIVERSIDE AGAINST CANCER

Remember to clear your calendars for Friday, May 13th, from 12:00 - 2:30. We have 19 days left until we relay. We hope you’ll make plans to join us on the soccer field and kick off this event with us. Bring a brown bag lunch and share a picnic with your children, and their friends and teachers, as we come together in the fight against cancer. The relay walk will start directly after lunch, so have your walking shoes ready and rest up for lap after lap of music, crazy themes, dancing, and just plain family fun.

This week your child will be bringing home a fundraising envelope from The American Cancer Society (ACS) and we’re asking for your help. Every donation, no matter the size, will make a difference, and all donations to ACS are tax deductible. ACS is a 501 (c)3 tax-exempt organization. Their federal tax ID number is 13-1788491. Their mission continues to be, “save lives, celebrate lives, and lead the fight to a world without cancer.” Please make a tax-deductible donation, and participate in our relay to help ACS continue to save lives. Stay tuned for a volunteer sign up sheet and more details about how you can help with the relay on May 13th. Contact Caroline Thompson with any questions.

2022-2023 CALENDAR

We have finished drafting next year's school calendar, you can see/print a copy here. We will post it to our website soon, and mail home the final copies in June.