Happy Friday, Valley View!

A big shout out to all of our students who have participated in the Valley View Read-A-Thon! It has been wonderful to see the excitement around reading and to hear our kiddos talking about the books they are enjoying. We are so proud of all of our readers!

We also have a fun week ahead at Valley View.

Halloween Parade: Valley View students are invited to wear their Halloween costumes to school on Friday, October 30, 2026.

To help everyone have a fun and safe day, please keep the following in mind when choosing a costume:

• Comfort and Mobility: Students should be able to comfortably participate in all regular school activities throughout the day, including lunch, recess, and using the bathroom independently.

• No Masks: Face masks are not permitted so that students and staff can easily identify everyone.

• No Weapon Accessories: Please leave all toy weapon accessories at home.

• Please label all parts of the costume so we can be sure everything makes it back home.

Our Pre-K students will have their Halloween parades on Thursday (10/29).

Next week, we will also have our second Valley View all school assembly of the year! Our focus will be on feelings and community, and we are excited to bring everyone together again for another special Valley View experience.

We hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Mallory Emmons

Principal

Please make sure to email vvattendance@portlandct.us if your child will be absent or if there is a change of dismissal/transportation plans. Please do NOT send messages directly through ParentSquare to the office. The email should include your child’s first and last name, name of teacher, reason for absence, and the date or dates of absence. Please make sure the email is sent the night before or the morning of the absence to ensure the office staff, nurse and teacher are aware. Please make sure the office is aware of all transportation updates regarding your child.

Busing in the Portland Public Schools is provided by M&J Bus. Bus route lists are posted here: https://www.portlandctschools.org/bus-routes The bus lists identify each stop's pick-up/drop-off time and location.

 

On a typical day, when all drivers are present and there are no abnormal road conditions, we expect that the routes will pick up and drop off students at times identified on the bus lists, give or take ten minutes.

 

If parents/guardians need real-time information about the whereabouts of a bus, please call M&J Bus at (860) 342-2217. The dispatcher at M&J Bus has real-time access via radio to all bus drivers.

Your child’s school works with Community Health Center, Inc. School Based Health Center program to provide health services (behavioral/mental health) services to your child during the school day. This means they won’t miss as much class and you don’t need to miss work to support their health care needs. 

Lean more about the services offered at your child’s school and enroll today at SBHC1.com! Interested families can also seek this service through the link or through our school website.

 

A functional pencil grasp supports comfort, control, and legibility. It helps children draw, form letters, and write without tiring as quickly. While there is no single perfect grasp, developing an efficient grasp helps children manage increasing writing demands.

The best way to develop pencil grasp is through fine motor activities and regular drawing and writing practice.

Try these simple activities at home:

Alyssa Sampognaro, OTR/L asampognaro@portlandct.us 

Happy Friday!

Our vision screening with the Lion’s Club volunteers has been scheduled for Monday November 9th.  They will screen all children in Kindergarten and First Grade and time permitting they will screen our preschool students as well.It is a state mandated test for Kindergarten and First Graders.  If you do not want your child to be screened, please send me an email and we will exclude them.  If you have any questions regarding the screening, please reach out to me.

The weather has gotten chilly so please be sure to dress your child in layers.  It may be cold in the morning but warm up by recess.  It can also remain a little colder up here thanks to our hill.  

I hope you have a wonderful fall weekend!

 

Mrs. Karen Rettich

Valley View School Nurse

Phone 860 342 3226

We started a new unit in library- learning how to use Chromebooks!  The students are very excited.  After learning about the parts of books, students are now learning about the parts of the computer and how they help us get information.  

We are looking forward to our next birthday book club on October 28th for November and December birthdays.  Emails have been sent out.   If your child would like to participate in our next one and you didn’t get an email, please send me an email or message on Parent Square.  

Save the date! Our Scholastic Book Fair will be held November 16-24th in our Valley View Library.  We will need shopping helpers during the classes’ library times which are 8:45-10:15am.  I will be sending home more information soon. 

I am going to share our library stats as often as possible. See the picture below.  We are up to 30 overdue books- please get those books back to the VV library.  If you or your child is having trouble keeping track of the A-E special schedule, please have them keep their library bags and books in their backpacks daily - take them out to read them and then put them right back in.  That way, they will always have them ready to return.  Our 100% club on our board is classes who have ALL returned their books that week.  Thanks for helping your child keep track of their library book(s)!  

Finally, we received a shipment of new library books thanks to our generous PTO!  We made an unboxing video to show everyone some of our newest library books so if your child is interested in checking them out, they can let me know on their library day! They should be ready for check out in a couple of weeks once they are put into the system.  Thank you so much, Valley View PTO!  

Thanks for all your support!  Happy Reading!

Melissa Thorpe

Library Media Specialist

This week Valley View artists celebrated the upcoming SPOOKY holiday while learning to show motion in artwork. They created a variety of ghosts from friendly to scary, and glued them to a background. Placing them at an angle and drawing some curvy lines around them helped their ghosts take off from the page. 

Happy Halloween to all!

Mrs. Julie French

Visual Art Teacher

This webpage includes all nutritional information for everything offered in the cafeteria at school. 

This app allows you to monitor your child’s cafeteria account at school. You can see each transaction and balance information.

Breakfast is FREE for all students. If your child should be eating breakfast at school, let them know they need to come see me in the Cafeteria before they head to their classrooms. 

In order to purchase milk or snacks from the cafeteria, students must have a positive balance in their account or bring in cash. The easiest way to manage their meal account is by downloading the MySchoolBucks app.