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View Ridge Elementary Arts Academy

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October Family Newsletter Update

Posted Date: 10/03/25 (02:35 PM)
View Original Post


VR Newsletter
 
Mrs. Mendoza

Letter from Mrs. Mendoza

Click here to read a letter from Mrs. Mendoza.
 
Parent Waiting Area

Student Drop Off/Pick Up

At View Ridge Elementary Arts Academy, student safety is always our top priority. To help ensure smoother and safer afternoon dismissals, we have created a new parent pick-up map and procedures for families to follow. We appreciate your partnership in making this successful for all students.
Key reminders for pick-up:
  • Please enter the parking lot through the Sylvan Way entrance.
  • There are two lanes of traffic, both moving in the same direction—similar to an airport drop-off.
  • Right-hand lane: Quick pick-up for families actively loading students.
  • Middle lane: Crossing area for adults and students.
  • Left-hand lane: Quick pick-up for families actively loading students.
  • Keep the main doors clear. Families now have a designated parent waiting area for safety and efficiency.
  • The preschool parking lot is reserved for preschool families only.
  • Yellow areas are for pedestrians and buses only. 
  • Buses and pedestrians have priority.
  • The green area next to the fence should only be used if necessary. You still have to wait in line if parking next to the fence. 
  • There are two lanes in the parking lot during drop-off. Don't drive up the middle because we're crossing kids. 
  • Please drive slow. 
  • Use the inside loop if joining the drop-off line
  • Don't park anywhere along a red line. We need to keep everyone moving. 

Thank you for helping us keep dismissal safe, smooth, and efficient for all of our students. Your support makes a big difference!
Drop off
 

Great Shakeout

The 2025 Great Shakeout Earthquake Drills will occur on Thursday, October 16, 2025, the third Thursday of October, which is International ShakeOut Day. Participants should practice the "Drop, Cover, and Hold On" earthquake safety technique and can register at ShakeOut.org to find resources and join the worldwide effort.
 

Weather Reminder

As the weather starts to change please make sure your students are coming to school with appropriate clothing for that days weather. Our goal is to let kids get fresh air as much as possible so they will be going outside for recess unless it is freezing or pouring.
 

Right at School @ View Ridge

Right at School
Right at School
 
New building

Bond Info

Our new school will be built adjacent to our current school, allowing students to continue learning in the existing school while the new school is built.
Construction has begun!

 Estimated completion date: December 2026!
 
The schematic designs below were presented at the April 17 school board meeting.  View the update here. 


Click here to visit our bond website.
October Open House
 

ABC's

Please be on the look out for our annual demographic updates aka ABC's! We have tried to streamline it a bit more this year to make it more user friendly and time efficient. Click here for more information on Skyward and the ABC's.
 

Volunteering in Our School

We are excited to have you volunteer! Please fill out and submit the application as soon as possible. Once received and completed by the district, you will receive an email confirming your application. Should you have any questions please feel free to call or email Keely Johnson at keely. johnson@bremertonschools.org.
 

Reminders

Office Reminders

Student drop off is 8:55 at the earliest. We do not have supervision prior to that.
Please pick up students promptly at the end of the day. We have had a lot of students picked up late.
Lastly, please remember attendance is very important. Click here for our attendance awareness letter. If your student is going to be absent please let the office know. 360-473-4507.
Attendance

Non School Days

October 13- Indigenous People Day
October 31- Non student day
November 7&10-Parent/Student Conferences
November 11- Veteran's Day

View/download the 25/26 academic calender here. 

 
SEL News

Counselor's Corner

Please check out our Counselor's October Newsletter here!!
 

View Ridge PTA

Meet Your PTA

President- Katie Ketterer
Vice President- Open
Treasurer- Open
Secretary-Open
PTA Interest Survey
Trick or Treat Street

Trick or Treat Street

We are excited for Trick or Treat Street on Wednesday, October 29th, from 5:00 pm-6:30 PM.
Please consider donating a bag of candy! You can send it with your student or drop it off in the office.
Otter Spirit Wear Link

News

We are looking for new members and new officers!! Please consider joining PTA!!!

PTA will be hosting Trick or Treat Street. Please consider donating candy.
If you have questions for PTA feel free to contact them.

Need to get in touch with the PTA? Feel free to email us at ViewRidgeArtsPTA@gmail.com.

Meeting Dates

Next meeting is October 16th.
More meeting dates to come!
 

View Ridge News

Save the Date

Save the Dates!

Every Wednesday- release at 1:40
Trick or Treat Street- October 29 5-6:30


Dress Up Days

Oct 30 2025, Thu
Halloween Costume Dress Up Day (no masks)
Nov 24 2025, Mon
College & Career Week Dress Up
Nov 25 2025, Tue
College & Career Week Dress Up
Nov 26 2025, Wed
College & Career Week Dress Up
Dec 15 2025, Mon
Merry Monday Morning PJ Dress Up Day
16 Dec 2025, Tue
Holiday Headgear Dress Up Day
Dec 17 2025, Wed
Festive Flannel Dress Up Day
Dec 18 2025, Thu
Elf Yourself Dress Up Day
Dec 19 2025, Fri
Ugly Sweater Weather Dress Up Day
26 Feb 2026, Thu
Fairytale Dress Up Day
Mar 2 2026, Mon
Read Across America PJ Dress Up Day
Mar 3 2026, Tue
Read My Shirt Dress Up Day
 

Grade Level Instructional Focus

Kindergarten

Jennifer Crane- jennifer.crane@bremertonschools.org
Dottie Armistead- dorothy.armistead@bremertonschools.org
Julie Morse- julie.morse@bremertonschools.org
Dottie Schnyder- dorothy.schnyder@bremertonschools.org

  • Letter Names and Sounds
  • Counting and number recognition to 5
  • Writing our names
  • Listening and Following  2-step directions
  • SEL focus:  Responsibility

First Grade

Anita Cryder-anita.cryder@bremertonschools.org
Melissa McCourt-melissa.mccourt@bremertonschools.org
Ruth Perez-ruth.perez@bremertonschools.org

Reading-Reading and writing words with short vowels and words that follow the cvc pattern. 

Writing-Complete sentences with correct capitalization, punctuation and legibility. 

Math-Counting, comparing and adding numbers with sums up to 10. 

Second Grade

Tina Bowers- tina.bowers@bremertonschools.org
Lynda Shipley- lynda.shipley@bremertonschools.org
Melinda Villines- melinda.villines@bremertonschools.org
Ainslee Nill- ainslee.nill@bremertonschools.org

  • Our first trip to the Kitsap Regional Library is 10/7
  • SEL focus is on Responsibility
  • Math- Place Value to 1,000   Hundreds, Tens, Ones 
  • Reading- Story Elements focus- Characters, Setting, Events, or Problem and Solution
  • Writing- Sentence vs, Fragment

Third Grade

Heidi Estano- heidi.estano@bremertonschools.org
Amy Spencer-amy.spencer@bremertonschools.org
Shannon Gooding- shannon.gooding@bremertonschools.org
Melinda Villines- melinda.villines@bremertonschools.org

Math-Multiplication and division with numbers 2-5, and 10.   
Reading- Finding text evidence to support our answers when reading.Prefixes and suffixes.
Writing-Opinion pieces

Fourth Grade

Benny Dixon- benjamin.dixon@bremertonschools.org
Philip Thompson- philip.thompson@bremertonschools.org
Katie Sprague- kathryn.sprague@bremertonschools.org

Hello Everyone!

In English Language Arts, we are starting our first rough draft of our narratives! Our reading will be focused on literature with the focus on making inferences. This year, we have started  identifying unknown words using both context clues and morphology (affixes and greek/latin roots). 



ELA Essential Standards: RL4.1, W4.4, W4.9, L4.4, RF4.3

Math Essential Standards:  4.OA3, 4.MBT2

In Math, we have continued a review of subtraction, and introduced some multiplication problems. We are concluding comparing numbers and will be taking an assessment towards the end of the week. We will continue to look at word problems and strategies to solve them.  

Please make sure your child wears appropriate clothing.



Fifth Grade

Michelle Baumgarten- michelle.baumgarten@bremertonschools.org
Meredith Vincent- toni.vincent@bremertonschools.org
Katie Sprague- kathryn.sprague@bremertonschools.org

*Our musical rehearsals have started and we are loving this show.   Our performance will be December 11th at 6:00 at Bremerton High School!
*In ELA we are focusing on character development as well as identifying story elements and comparing between texts. 
*In math we are focusing on multi-digit multiplication and will be moving into division.  We are continuing to focus on applying their skills to word problems.



 

Arts

VREAA Performance Dates - 2025-2026 School Year

Nov. 15  - Fall Dance Showcase - 1st, 4th, Villines - 5:00  @ BHS Gym

Dec 11 - 5th grade Musical - 6:00  @  BHS Auditorium

Feb. 21- Winter Dance Showcase - 3rd, Kinder - 5:00 @ BHS Gym

Feb 26 - 1st Grade Musical - 2:45 @ VREAA Gym

*March 19 - Bremerton Voices (3-5 Choir) - 6:00 @ BHS Auditorium

March 26 - 4th grade Musical - 6:00 @ BHS Auditorium

*April 15 - Disney Musical - 6:00 @ BHS Auditorium

*April 16 - K-2 Musical & Disney Musical - 6:00 @ BHS Auditorium

May 5th- 2nd grade Musical - 6:00 @ BHS Auditorium

May 21 - Kindergarten Musical - 2:45  @ VREAA Gym

May 27 - 3rd grade Musical - 6:00 @ BHS Auditorium

May 30  - Spring Dance Showcase - 2nd, 5th, Sprague - 5:00 @ BHS Gym


* optional programs


Frozen Jr

Disney

Our Disney after school drama program information will be located here once we get going!
Mrs. Sprague also uses ParentSquare as a communication tool once your student is involved so look there for communications as well.
Forms will be going home next week.
 

Music w/ Mrs. Hutchison

Kindergarten - We will be learning that pitch is how we talk about high and low sounds. We will explore pitch with our voices and with instruments. 

First Grade - We will be learning about the difference between steady beat and rhythm. We will also identify 3 rhythms, ta, ta-di and rest. This is the rhythmic language we use in elementary school to describe quarter notes, paired eighth notes and quarter rests. We will also begin holding auditions for our musical Stone Soup. 

Second Grade - We will be learning about how ostinatos can be used to sing and play 2 part music. An ostinato is a short pattern that is repeated.

Third Grade - This month we will be learning about the 5 line staff and the notes Do Re Mi Sol La. We will practice writing notes on the staff and singing and playing from the staff.

Fourth Grade - We are learning about Melody with a focus on ascending and descending scales, major and minor melodies and melodic ostinatos.

Fifth Grade - We are having so much fun learning the songs and dances for our upcoming musical Olympus!

Bremerton Voices - We are learning 7 songs this year, including one in Spanish and one in Mandarin Chinese! We rehearse every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and will join choirs from each of the Bremerton Elementary schools for a combined performance on March 19th at the Bremerton High School Performing Arts Center. New singers are always welcome.