Evening Jaguar Families, 

Happy Sunday… I wanted to give a big shout out to our Cohort B students and teachers for successfully completing their first socially distanced fire drill last week… Who would have thought.  As you know, Mr. Gray and I try to keep the school humming down to the minute but when little challenges pop up it has the potential to throw it all off.  Your cherubs did a great job rolling with it and keeping on track.  

On another note,  we finished up our district wide i-Ready diagnostic this past week. As stated last week, i-Ready diagnostic is an adaptive assessment that adjusts its questions to suit your child’s needs. Please see the attached link for more information on i-ready diagnostic.  This assessment is going to be an amazing tool to drive teacher instruction and guide their lessons to best suit your child’s needs.  

Silver Hill Video Conferencing Tid Bits For Families

As you all know, the use of video conferencing (google meets) is new to everyone.   We need your help to ensure the google meets and technology usage are being used appropriately by your students:

Parents/guardians should be mindful about what family activities would potentially be heard/seen during the students’ class time video conferencing.  This includes teacher/parent conversations that would not occur in a regular classroom.  Google meets are to be used as a replacement for a traditional classroom setting.  This is a great tool to keep students connected, but please have your students use these tools somewhere near enough you can monitor, yet private enough for them to concentrate on their work.

Picture info 

Wednesday, October 21st – Remote Learning Academy students (as well as make up day for Cohorts A, B and C)

Times for RLA students to come have their pictures taken on 10/21/2020 are as follows:

Kindergarten and Grade 1 10:30 am – 11:30 am
Grade 2 and Grade 3 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Grade 4 and Grade 5 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

*If your student is in Cohort A, B or C and is coming for picture make ups, please come after 1:30pm, if possible.

When you arrive at the school, please drive around to the right side of the building (staff will be outside providing directions) and stop at the back gym doors. A staff member will be there to greet you and help your student into the gym to have their picture taken. Please remember to have your face mask on as well as confirmation of your online order/payment. 

Access code for Silver Hill families 0034378

https://hockstudio.com/onlineorders.php#orderbox

The HPS “Do not photo” form 

This year we will be a google providing a form to eliminate paper. If you do NOT wish to have your child photographed,  click here 

Bus Passes

This week the district will be strictly monitoring students getting on and off busses.  We have been monitoring riding patterns and figuring out who will be riding on each bus.  The Transportation department has issued bus passes for large yellow buses based on the Haverhill School Committee guidelines. As of Monday, 10/19/20, the bus drivers have been given clear directives from transportation not to pick up any students without a bus pass.  Please make sure your child’s bus pass is attached to their back pack daily.  If your son or daughter is supposed to ride a bus and does not have a bus pass, please let us know as soon as possible so we can help to resolve this. 

Progress Reports

Tentatively scheduled to go out for 10/27/20 

Election Day and Staff PD 

There will be No school on 11/2/20 for staff professional development and No School on Election day 11/3/20.  The school will be closed for voting as well used for staff professional development. 

PTO Updates 

“Silver Graphics” fundraiser-

I will be sending a follow up email pertaining to it in a few minutes. 

There is a meeting Monday night at 6:00 PM.   Below is the Zoom information for any school community members that would like to join us. 

Zoom meeting ID:  880 6444 3383

Pasword:  136405

Chicken Connection celebrates Silver Hill – Tuesday, October 27th from 11AM-8PM. Chicken Connection will give Silver Hill 20% of all pick up phone-in orders. Good through lunch AND dinner! Coupons will be shared soon!

Mr. Parker

Asst. Principal

October 15, 2020

Afternoon Caregivers,

Thank you for all your understanding, patience and support as we have tried to make this transition to school a smooth one…

The Transportation department has issued bus passes for large yellow buses based on the Haverhill School Committee guidelines. As of Monday, 10/19/20, the bus drivers have been given clear directives from transportation not pick up any students without a bus pass.  Please make sure your child’s bus pass is attached to their back pack daily.  If your son or daughter is supposed to ride a bus and does not have a bus pass, please let us know as soon as possible so we can help to resolve this.

Caregivers- Thank you again for your continued help and hard work with your children.  We appreciate it. 

Brendon Parker
Assistant Principal
Silver Hill Elementary School
675 Washington Street
Haverhill, MA
978-374-3448

October 9, 2020

Hello Jaguar families,

I hope you all had a great weekend.  The weather was beautiful to have some quality family time…

With full cohorts coming into school this week, it finally feels like we are in the swing of things! It has been great to see the kids being able to interact safely with one another in person and remotely. I loved popping in to classrooms and on Google meets to see the smiling faces of our students.  Teachers have been highly focused on the social and emotional mindset of students in the classroom and have been designing as well as following lesson plans based around cooperation, assertiveness, responsibility, empathy, and self-control. Our next step at Silver Hill is to focus on academic competencies such as growth mindset, perseverance, learning strategies, and academic behaviors. 

We will be finishing up our district wide i-Ready diagnostic next week. i-Ready diagnostic is an adaptive assessment that adjusts its questions to suit your child’s needs. Each item a student sees is individualized based on their answer to the previous question. For example, a series of correct answers will result in slightly harder questions, while a series of incorrect answers will yield slightly easier questions. Please see the attached link for more information on i-Ready diagnostic. I will be sending more information about i-Ready at home instruction in the next couple of weeks.
 
Thank you for your patience with drop off and pick up procedures. Change is tricky….but was needed. Each cohort, A and C family who has dropped their child off, should have received a badge with their student’s name and a correlating letter as well as their number. Keep this badge visible in your car for an easy transition. If you do not typically pick up your child, you will still receive a badge. Please check your student’s folder. If you are part of cohort B, you will receive your badge during drop off Thursday. Please reach out to the school if your family needs another badge. 

Drop off and Pick up: A couple reminders to keep our children safe and make for a timely drop off/pick up. Please remember to stay in your car. Have your child ready to get out of the car when you pull up to the loading/unloading zone. Please only let your child out of the car when a staff member signals. We will only be loading/unloading approximately 4 vehicles at a time for safety reasons. Again, we appreciate your patience with this.

The HPS “Do not photo” form This year we will be a google doc providing a form to eliminate paper. If you do NOT wish to have your child photographed click here.

Upcoming Important Dates:

• October 12– Columbus day/ Indigenous Peoples’ Day – NO SCHOOL (remote or in person)
• October 13– picture day for cohort A
• October 16– picture day for cohort B
• October 19– PTO meeting 6:00 PM 
  • Zoom meeting ID: 880 6444 3383
  • Pasword: 136405
• October 21– picture day for RLA students and make-ups (times listed below)
• October 23– i-Ready testing window closes
• October 27– Progress reports Issued

Information about free Covid testing:

The city is collaborating with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and will be offering free testing for two weeks starting  9/30 from 1-6 PM.  This free testing is open to anyone interested in getting tested.  

• Testing is free/no insurance is required
• No ID required; only name and phone number to receive results
• Walk-up & drive-up available
• No appointment is necessary
• No symptoms are required to get tested
• 24-48 hours for results 

Testing is being conducted at the Locke Street Parking Lot, next to 125 Winter Street (Behind Butch’s) from 9/30 to 10/14 from 1-6 PM. Testing will not be available on Sunday, 10/4 or 10/11. In addition to the Locke Street site, a second testing site will be at the Parking Lot at 358 Washington Street (in front of Somebody Cares Food Pantry) from 10/7 to 10/14 from 1-6 PM. Testing will not be available on Sunday, 10/11.  This site is WALK UP ONLY.

ALL residents are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity, which will allow even those who may be asymptomatic to learn whether or not they have COVID-19. This ensures more people with the virus will be able to isolate at home, reducing the spread of COVID-19 in the community. Thank you again for being a key player and teammate for your child’s education. 

Brendon Parker
Assistant Principal 
Silver Hill Elementary School
675 Washington Street
Haverhill, MA 
978-374-3448

Tuesday, October 13th – Cohort A and C students

Friday, October 16th – Cohort B students

Wednesday, October 21st – RLA students (as well as make up day for Cohorts A, B and C)

Times for RLA students to come have their pictures taken on 10/21/2020 are as follows:

Kindergarten and Grade 1 10:30 am – 11:30 am
Grade 2 and Grade 3 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Grade 4 and Grade 5 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

*If your student is in Cohort A, B or C and is coming for picture make ups, please come after 1:30pm, if possible.

When you arrive at the school, please drive around to the right side of the building (staff will be outside providing directions) and stop at the gym. A staff member will be there to greet you and help your student into the gym to have their picture taken. Please remember to have your face mask on as well as confirmation of your online order/payment. 

Picture forms will be going home with the Cohort A, B and C students. Cohort D students as well as all other students have the option to also purchase online using the below link.  

Access code for Silver Hill families 0034378

https://hockstudio.com/onlineorders.php#orderbox

Families can begin to drop off students’ “kindness rocks” beginning Friday, June 12 at their convenience. Please place the rocks inside the flower beds located behind the Kindness Rocks sign.

LIBRARY BOOKS

Please drop off your student’s library books that are due. Beginning Friday, June 12 a green recycle bin will be located outside the Silver Hill front door for your convenience.

• YAHOO!  Jaguars came out on top again in the Haverhill Promise reading challenge, 5 weeks in a row!  AMAZING!!!!!

  • Read 20 minutes per day and submit your reading logs. www.haverhillpromise.com/reading-challenge or team@haverhillpromise.com. 

• Reading Spirit Week: Let’s increase the percentage of students taking part in the Haverhill Reading Challenge .  Last week we had 27% of students participating.  Could we get to 50%???  Let’s try with the Reading Spirit Week Ideas!

  • Monday,  April 27th – Read to a pet or stuffed animal

  • Tuesday, April 28th  – Read to a sibling or relative

  • Wednesday, April 29th – Read a story dressed as your favorite character

  • Thursday, April 30th – Read by flashlight (maybe build a fort to read in too!)

  • Friday, May 1st – Read outside