K-2 Curriculum Night shift and a little bit more . . .

Greetings, lower school families!

It has been such a gift to have your students back on campus! Classrooms are humming along, the playground is vibrant, and we are settling into the year ahead and all that it promises. 

The early weeks of an elementary school are important opportunities for growing community and establishing routines. Villa faculty has been intentionally providing activities that help your children get to know one another and to become comfortable with the procedures that will be in place in the classrooms and throughout Villa’s hallways and blacktops. Routines are one of the most important aspects of our students’ day - they enable students to know what to anticipate and to feel safe and comfortable in their surroundings, all of which then allow our students to move on to the important work of learning and risk-taking. Families should now anticipate seeing a shift toward a more academic classroom focus in the coming days.

Curriculum Night change

Please join us for a virtual K-5 Curriculum Night on Tuesday, September 21st from 7:00-8:30. This is a shift for the K-2 classrooms and families. When the four Villa curriculum nights were initially placed onto the school calendar, it was an extreme oversight not to notice that the K-2 evening landed on the holiest days of the Jewish faith, Yom Kippur. Our sincerest apologies to our families who practice this faith tradition. Should you need to divide your time between more than one grade level, please know that teachers will be recording their presentations to share out with families.

Outdoor Lunch 

Villa teachers and students have been testing out strategies for a move toward eating lunches outside. We recognize that the Delta variant is much more contagious to our unvaccinated learners, and that eating out of doors would add an additional layer of safety. Navigating the trek, the restroom needs and hand-washing, and the carrying of hot lunches has certainly been educational and we have learned much in the process! We continue to work as a faculty with the kitchen and facilities departments to enable us to manage this and our goal is to put a more permanent routine in place the week of September 20th.

Drop off and Pick up

To help these run smoothly and safely for our students, there are a couple of reminders for families. Most critically,

1. Please keep your students safe by helping them exit and enter their cars from the passenger side so they are not walking behind and in front of cars. When possible, please shift the placement of your booster seat to allow for this.
   
2. The crosswalk is also a safety zone. There are three drop off spots in front of the crosswalk and three behind. If you are in one of the first three spots, please pull up as far as possible so that the third car in the line does not block the crosswalk for our walking families. The Villa carpool crew is there to help remind you!
   

There are several additional reminders for a smooth pick up and drop off. Please refer to the attached infographic (It is also posted on the Back to School section of the Villa website and was in the latest edition of The Weekly).

Thank you for an excellent start to our year!

Warmly,

Michelle Lorda Sullivan, Interim Lower School Director