It is time for Maury’s Third Annual Spelling Bee, but first VIRTUAL Spelling Bee!  

As in past years, Maury will hold two levels of competition. For the first level, the Scripps National Spelling Bee has developed an online testing platform that will allow students to participate in the bee remotely from your homes.  For the second level, in place of our traditional in-person spelling bee, we plan to host a virtual spelling bee via Zoom.

The first step to spelling bee participation is for you to register for the Scripps National Spelling Bee’s online testing platform by visiting https://online-test.spellingbee.com.  Any student that is not registered cannot participate, so please sign up promptly! 

Once at the above website, click the “Register” button and type in Maury’s zip code, 22301, to find Maury, and fill in the requested information. We encourage you to watch this video tutorial that will walk you through the registration process. In addition, you may view detailed registration instructions here.

Once you have registered, we will be able to assign the appropriate grade-level test to your child. Your child must complete the test before the given deadline, and these tests can be taken on any device with a web browser, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. The window to take the test will be 1/20/2021 to 2/12/2021. List of study words attached.  Level 1 words are geared for 2nd and 3rd grades and Level 2 words are for 4th and 5th grades.  

We will select the students with the highest scores in each grade to move on to compete at the school level, our Big Bee. The full list of all 450 words (Levels 1, 2 and 3) that are used for the Big Bee is available here.  This year, our school-level competition will be administered via Zoom in an online Bee. Our school champion will then move on to represent Maury Elementary School  in the Northern Virginia regional spelling bee program, which also may include online tests in lieu of in-person spelling bee events.

First Step: register at online-test.spellingbee.com.

Please register at your earliest convenience as the Bee Coordinators will begin assigning tests to students soon. If you have already registered in the online testing platform for another child, you can log in to your account and add an additional child to that same parent account. There is no need to register a different email address for each child in your household.

Here is a quick list of how all of this will work with prizes and acknowledgements all along the way:

1. Register your student

2. Check your email for notifications regarding the test

3. Administer the test for your scholar – remember, no helping allowed!

4. View results

5. If your student advances to the Big Bee, they and you will receive additional information

6. Compete in a Virtual Big Bee via Zoom

7. Finalist will advance to the Regional Bee

Please reach out to the Bee Coordinators if you have any questions about our school spelling bee program. We look forward to having your child compete to represent our school!

9/8 – 7am – 7:45am. Join ACPS students as we Walk the Block before the first day of school and start the day right. #ALXWalktheBlock

Reminder! Maury’s annual Open House will be held on September 4th, virtually, from 10-11:30AM. There will be three tailored sessions based on grade level, as well as optional sessions from 11:00-11:30 with the School Support Team, Talented and Gifted Team or Special Education/EL Team. Zoom links will be sent by your child’s teacher to the email provided to the school. If for some reason you have not received a Zoom invite, feel free to reach out to the Administrative team, [email protected], Principal or [email protected], Assistant Principal, in advance of September 4th.

ACPS has announced that in Fall 2020, students will attend school virtually and have access to additional resources, including:

• Enhanced and formalized social, emotional and academic learning supports 
• Childcare options with community partners
• Continued meal distribution
• Expanded technology resources

On Friday, Aug. 7, the Virtual PLUS+ reopening proposal will be presented to the Alexandria City School Board to vote on before submission to the Virginia Department of Education on Aug. 14.

Learn more and provide your feedback through the ACPS website.

Our amazing music teacher, Ms. Koss, has set up Google classroom pages (one for grades K-2 and the other for grades 3-4. Mr. Ramirez was awesome and made an encore page for grade 5). This may be the best way to receive some music lessons/activities because some of the music files are so large. There is plenty of information/activities up there that Ms. Koss sent out in emails already. This will be a place to have everything in one spot for music classes. Thank you so much for your patience as teachers navigate how to best teach online!

You can join from a student’s chromebook. Siblings with a chromebook can join the younger kids’ classrooms as well. Sharing is caring!

Google Classroom Codes for Music

K-2 code- ukosin6
3-4 code- q2x7vvv
5 code- hjlxnap

Ms. Tio has made available a number of take home sheets that she and fellow ACPS art teachers developed. A few are age-specific (K-2) and (3-5), and the others are coloring sheets about famous female artists, some of which your students have studied in art class (Faith Ringgold and Frida Kahlo). Feel free to download, print out and enjoy!

Grades K-2 Art Activity

Grades 3-5 Art Activity

Drawing Steps for One Point Perspective

Faith Ringgold Coloring Page

Frida Kahlo Coloring Page

Yayoi Kusama Dots Coloring Page

Yayoi Kusama Pumpkins Coloring Page

Zaha Hadid Coloring Page

Schools will close on Monday, March 16, 2020. See ACPS Coronavirus Update for Friday, March 13, 2020 at 12:00 p.m.: acps.k12.va.us/coronavirus.

During our closure, a daily update will be sent out via ACPS Express around 1 p.m to all families and community members who are signed up to receive these updates. Sign up for ACPS Express now. There will be a webinar at 3 p.m. every day to answer questions from families.

Important Info:

Learning Activity Packets for Emergency Closing

How can I get internet access at home?
Sign up for Comcast Internet Essentials. Visit www.internetessentials.com.

• Comcast is offering a FREE 60 day service and then $9.95/month
• New customers receive a free self-install kit that includes a cable modem with a Wi-Fi router.  There will be no term contract or credit check and no shipping fee.
• For assistance call 1-855-846-8376 for English and 1-855-765-6995 for Spanish.

Will there be other instructional supports?
ACPS-TV will be running educational content from 9 a.m. through noon each day. More information will be sent out on Monday.

Will there be continued access to food?
Families in need may also contact our local food pantry at https://www.alive-inc.org/ or 703-837-9300.

Food Access Update During School Closures

Starting Monday, March 16, 2020, Alexandria City Public Schools will be providing emergency meals at no cost for any child under 18 and any family who needs it.

There are two ways to access food while schools are closed:

1. Individual Meals to Go: Any child between the ages of 2 and 18 – whether or not they are eligible for Free or Reduced Price Meals – can pick up a meal to go in a bag. Stop by the Chinquapin Drive side of T.C. Williams High School (door 14) between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. to pick up a meal-to-go. You do not need to fill out any forms to pick up a meal-to-go.
    
2. Family Meal Packs: You can order a family meal pack online and pick it up at the drive through pick-up point outside Chinquapin Recreation Center (Chinquapin Drive side of T.C. Williams High School, door 14) between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m the following day. If transportation is an issue, please remember to check the box to request meal delivery. Fill out the form to request a family meal pack.

Additionally, students and families can access the supports below if there is a crisis or emergency during the time of the closure:

• Crisis Text and Crisis Link: 
  • Text: CONNECT to 85511 
  • Call: CrisisLink: 703-527-4077
• Alexandria Safe Place
• Alexandria City 24-Hour Emergency Mental Health Services
• Alexandria City Health Department
  • Contacts
• Inova Alexandria Hospital (ER)

For additional information and regular updates, please go to the ACPS website page dedicated to COVID-19.