 Important Upcoming Dates
10/12 School Planning Day / Student Holiday
11/2 and 11/3 Parent Conference Days/ Student Holidays
IN THIS ISSUE
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NEW: Food for Students During the School Year
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UPDATED: Library Book Distribution
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Send us your pics!
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iReady Testing at Home
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Important Information About Receiving Communication from Fairfax County Public Schools
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UPDATED:Technology News
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Health Information and Emergency Care Forms
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Family Assistance
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PTA News
1.NEW: Food for Students During the School Year
FCPS is currently providing free “grab-n-go” breakfast and lunch for all students through December 31, 2020. There are two daily pick-up locations: 6:25am-6:35am at Waples Mobile Community Park (intersection of Via Drive & Lee Hwy Access Rd), and 6:45am -6:55am at the front door of Fairfax Villa ES. Students do not need to be present. A parent can pick up for multiple children, and parents and siblings over the age of 18 may purchase a meal for $2. Please be sure to wear a mask, and maintain social distancing rules.
2.UPDATED: Library Book Distribution
Fairfax Villa is holding a curbside checkout of library books every Monday and Tuesday from 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM. Curbside checkout will provide students the opportunity to quickly and safely check-out and return library books.
Here’s how the process will work:
- Students will put up to 5 books on hold in the library catalog by the Thursday night before the curbside checkout event. Mrs. Case, our librarian, will show students how to put books on hold. Here is a screencast with the directions:
Putting Books on Hold Screencast
- Mrs. Case will check out the books to the student and have them ready at the checkout event. Please note there is no browsing at this event. Books must be put on hold ahead of time.
- Students should check their FCPS Gmail accounts the morning of the event to see if their books are ready. An email will be sent when the holds are ready to be picked up.
- Checkout events will occur every Monday and Tuesday from 8:30 – 4:00. Any time in that window, you can come by Fairfax Villa to pick up books your child has put on hold.
- On curbside checkout days, the books will be on a table right inside the main door of the school. When you come to the school, you can walk up and just take the books labeled with your child’s name. They will already be checked out to them.
- Books may be returned Monday through Friday between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm. Please put the books in the box in the blue cart inside Door #1.
- On Monday afternoons, we will be traveling to Waples Mobile Home Park office parking lot and Robinson Square community building parking lot to distribute books. The times are listed below:
- 1:00 Waples
- 1:30 Robinson Square
 3.Send us your pics!
Over the next couple of weeks, if you have created learning activities that your children have enjoyed or have pictures of your children learning online, please email us at drgerstner@fcps.edu and DRSutter@fcps.edu with a picture and a brief description. We would like to share them in our upcoming Friday News You Choose messages and they may also be included in the 2020-21 yearbook.
4.iReady Testing at Home
All students in grades 1-6 have started or will start taking the math and reading yearly screener called iReady. In past years, this screener has been given to students online at school. Because it is an adaptive assessment, students take different amounts of time to complete it. It is not a timed test.
This year, the students will START the test online with their teacher. Your child's teacher will let you know the schedule for each test. They will begin at school (synchronous work). If your child does not finish within the synchronous time provided by his/her teacher, your child will finish it at home during specialized instruction/asynchronous time. It must be completed within 21 calendar days of starting the test.
Please check this page to learn more about the iReady assessment at home, for guidance in administering the assessment at home, and a checklist that will assist you in helping your child be successful. Please do not help your child in answering the assessment.
The purpose of these assessments is to determine students’ areas of strength and growth. This data will help drive the teachers’ instruction and enable differentiation to best support your child this school year. These assessments will not be graded. To ensure equity, these assessments should be completed independently by the student. Below are a few suggestions on ways to encourage your student, rather than help, while they take assessments in the virtual environment.
Remind your student that the assessment is not graded and will be used by their teacher to help them learn this school year. It is okay if they do not know the answer to a question as it will tell the teacher that they need help to learn that concept.
Students in grades 1-6 will be taking the math and reading iReady (Universal Screener) assessment from now until October 30.
Students in kindergarten will be taking the reading iReady (Universal Screener) assessment from October 5 to November 13.
 If you have questions about the assessment, please contact Ms. An at kan@fcps.edu or Ms. Schmidt at bdschmidt@fcps.edu.
5.Important Information About Receiving Communication from Fairfax County Public Schools
How can I make sure I receive emergency information from Fairfax County Public Schools?
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) communicates all emergency and essential information to parents via email. The information is also translated into eight languages: Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Korean, Spanish, Urdu, and Vietnamese. Information communicated via email includes:
- School closings and delays
- Attendance
- Emergencies at school
- Low lunch balance
- Power, phone, or internet outages at school
- Bus delays
- Testing dates
When providing an e-mail address to FCPS, please avoid using an educational (.edu-including fcps.edu), military (.mil) or government (.gov) email address. The security settings on government servers often block messages from FCPS. It is a best practice to not use work related email addresses; therefore, it is important to use an email address from another internet service provider such as Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc.
How do I receive text messages from FCPS?
Parents can receive text messages for emergencies and essential information. Please make sure your parent cell phone numbers are listed in the “cell telephone” fields in the parent/guardian contact information section on the emergency care information form for each of your children.
Parents and guardians can view and update emergency contact information online using the weCare@school feature of FCPS 24-7 Learning. Standard message and data charges may apply for text messages depending on their cell phone service plan. More information: https://www.fcps.edu/resources/parent-communication-overview/fcps-text-messaging-parents-and-students
6.Technology News
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UPDATE: Having trouble keeping track of your child’s BBCU links? Please do not “bookmark” the link directly to the Chrome bookmarks bar. Instead, try this way of creating a google doc, copying and pasting the links into the doc, and then bookmarking the google doc!
- Start by creating a google doc in your child’s FCPS google drive. On the top left, select NEW..Google Doc. Title the doc “My Schedule.” You can choose to make a table for the links and the class they are for or just list them.
- Go to your child’s FCPS gmail and find the emails in the BBCU Links folder on the left side.
- Open the email and right click on the link for the class and select “COPY LINK ADDRESS.”
- Back in the google doc, right click and PASTE. Hit your ENTER key and the link will be live.
- Be sure to then label which class this is (teacher’s class, specials’ class, etc.) either by typing that next to the link or making a table.
- You may now easily place this document on the bookmark bar by clicking on the star at the top right of the website address bar. Choose “bookmark bar” for where to keep the bookmark.
- Now your child can just open this doc, click on the correct link, and connect to the class.
- You could also add extra things to that doc such as a schedule or other notes that will help your child.
- Even if your child gets a message from FCPS to change the password, please do NOT do that. Those messages have been sent to some students in error!
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Password Recovery: (Rising 1st-6th only) We encourage parents to setup password recovery information for their student using the FCPS Account Manager system located here https://itweb.fcps.edu/AccountManager/
- If you are having any problems with the laptop you were issued from Fairfax Villa, the first place to go is this parent help website. It has troubleshooting ideas for everything from finding your child’s google account to how to resolve audio/video issues.There is a helpline (833-921-3277) that you can call from 7am to 11pm 7 days a week. If you need a translator for your call, please let them know.
If none of those fix your problems, there is also a link where parents can put in a RequestIT to the FCPS Service Desk. Please do not let your students put in a RequestIT. There are also parent information phone lines in different languages. Please do not contact your child’s teacher about technology problems unless it is a classroom specific issue (i.e. Google classroom code).
- If you did not request an FCPS laptop for your child and would now like one, please email Ms. Schmidt at bdschmidt@fcps.edu to set up an appointment to get one.
- If you do not have internet in your home and would like to learn how to obtain low-cost internet service for qualifying families from Cox, please email our social worker, Maria Marris, at msmarris@fcps.edu.
- Don’t forget to give your consent for your student to use the approved digital applications for our school. Go here to see the list and find the link for submitting your approval.
7.Health Information and Emergency Care Forms
The Health Information Form (HIF) (SS/SE -71) and the Emergency Care Information form (SS/SE-3) provide valuable information regarding student health conditions. These forms are critical in the early identification of students who may need healthcare support in the educational environment. Along with the development of Healthcare Plans (HCP) and Action Plans, the Public Health Nurses (PHN) utilize the information contained in the HIF to develop teaching strategies for FCPS staff in order to meet the requirements of Regulation 2104 Health Services-School Health Related Needs.
As the school year begins virtually, it is important to communicate to our Fairfax Villa parents that both these forms are required for all students for SY 20-21 and are available for electronic submission by parents via their FCPS 24/7 (Blackboard) accounts within the weCare@school (weCare) module.
8.Family Assistance
We are STILL here to help!
Should you find your family in need of assistance, we are still here to help! Please let us know if your family is in need of school supplies, food, books, etc. We will try our best to help. We’re all in this together! Please contact Maria Marris at msmarris@fcps.edu.
9. PTA News
The following message is sent on behalf of the Fairfax Villa ES School PTA. Its content reflects the views of the PTA.
Memberships
You can still become a member of the PTA for the 2020-2021 school year! Please join online at https://fairfaxvilla.memberhub.store/. Memberships are $10/person.
Please contact Jessie Crain & Simon Bowyer (Co-Presidents) anytime with questions at villapta@gmail.com.
After School Activities Survey
The PTA wants to hear from you about After School Activities and PTA participation! If you have a minute, please fill out our short survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NKXTFY6. Thanks!!
Outside Activities
Is your child looking for a safe, socially distant activity? Then check out Pack 1513 Cub Scouts! Meetings are both in person and virtual. Activities are outdoor with social distancing. For more information, please contact pack1513fairfax@gmail.com.
Girl Scout troops are forming and have spaces for girls and adults in the Fairfax Villa Elementary School area. Become a Girl Scout family! To sign up to attend our virtual meeting on 10/4/2020 at 6:00 PM or get more information go to https://bit.ly/girlscouts-54-14. Questions? Email Elizabeth Fouche, GSCNC Membership Specialist, at efouche@gscnc.org. Hope to see you there!
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