Hello Viewlands Families!
May is Asian America Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage month and Jewish American Heritage month. We have students and families in our Viewlands community that have a connection with the AAPI and Jewish American communities. In the past few months, in classrooms communities and through events we have: learned about Lunar New Year in art exploration; explored and talked about Black leaders during Black History month; partnered with Onyx Fine Art Collective, featuring local black artists; and explored Ramadan and how that is honored Muslim families and communities.
If your family has something to share related to AAPI or Jewish American Heritage, please reach out to your child’s classroom teacher. The goal is to allow students and families to create space in their learning communities for their family story and individual identity. How we as a school community can make more space for students and families to share their story and create learning for others in the diversity of our community is ongoing work.
On Wednesday morning it was the Spring Walk, Bike, and Roll to school day. The VIewlands Bike Bus Team coordinate and lead this event. Thank you to everyone that supported this event. Thank you to Sam Orr for coordinating and planning! The team shared that our Viewlands community collected 126 signatures on our poster which is the most participation we’ve had to date:
👟 36 walked
🚲 50 biked
🛴 16 rolled
🚌 +24 signed as bus or carpool (many more commuted this way)
This past week was staff appreciation week! The Viewlands staff felt seen, valued, and appreciated deeply this week, and of course well fed! Thank you to VEPTSA and all the families that contributed to helping show the love to the Viewlands staff this week. Truly, I am beyond grateful how families show up to show their appreciation and care for the staff. Thank you to Danae, Ann, and Nicole who coordinated this week of love and appreciation for VEPTSA!
This week a few highlights from my time connecting with students and our learning spaces include: seeing students further grow their biking skills, students that have limited to no biking experience outside of school having small and big moments of success; talking with kindergarteners about their walking fieldtrips to Carkeek this week, including the unfortunate but now famous few bee stings that occurred on Tuesday; and having the chance to spend small group time at lunch with some students, listening and learning from them, a couple times this week.
Your children are bright, inquisitive, and creative thinkers. We will continue to seek ways to make every student feel known, valued, and empowered through the year.
In Partnership,
Carrie Wheeler | Viewlands Principal
