Quick Links for Parents:

• Sunny Hills School Website
• Pre-Arranged Absence Forms
• Pay Online
• Sunny Hills PTA Website
• Issaquah Schools Foundation
• PTA Newsletter

 THANK YOU FOR YOUR KINDNESS!  

What an amazing week! We felt truly honored by the generosity our Sunny Hills community! Thank you to each and every one of you who contributed in any way to make us feel appreciated this past week.

A special shout out to Stephanie Shipley and Shariah Lennon and their team for being here everyday, shopping, organizing, cooking, setting up and cleaning up! We appreciate our PTA and the work done all year to make our school a great place for students and staff.

Wildlife Reminders

We have the good fortune of living in a beautiful area that we share with lots of amazing wildlife. We want to let you know that we will alert you when—working with wildlife and emergency officials—we have reason to believe there is an imminent threat to safety, if we’ve or if we have a pattern of sightings in an area. Our school may decide to call for a modified lockdown when there is wildlife in the area we are concerned about to ensure student and staff safety as well. We will notify you of those situations as well.

However, we do not send out notices in every instance that a community member reports seeing a potentially risky animal in the general area. If we did, we would be sending many, many “wildlife sighting” E-News messages to families, making it difficult to determine if there is an actual threat.

Please be confident that school staff and bus drivers will never let a student out of their care into any situation where they believe an animal might be a threat. In the meantime, please continually remind your children that they are in the presence of wildlife every time they walk to and from school or play outside their home. A community “sighting” is just a reminder that coyotes, cougars, bears, bobcats, and other animals ALWAYS live around our residences and schools. Here are safety tips to keep in front of your students and family year round:

 Students

• Never make direct eye-contact with a threatening animal.
• Never turn and run away from a wild animal; slowly back away from the animal and make yourself appear as big as possible.
• Never feed or interact with any unknown animal.
• Report any unknown animal sighting to an adult.

Families

• Call 911 for all emergency dangerous wildlife situations.
• Keep garbage and compost piles securely covered.
• Keep pet food and water inside and keep pets indoors or confined in a kennel or covered exercise yard.
• Do not feed wildlife on the ground, keep wild bird seed in elevated feeders designed for birds, and clean up spilled seed from the ground.
• Do not feed feral cats; coyotes prey on the cats and feed on cat food left out for them.
• Minimize ground cover vegetation near children's play areas to avoid attracting rodents and small mammals that in turn attract predators.
• Use noise-making devices when coyotes are seen. Check with local authorities regarding noise and weapons ordinances.
• To report potentially dangerous (non-emergency) wild animal sightings to the Washington State Dept of Fish and Wildlife you may submit information online at https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/living/dangerous-wildlife or call 1-877-933-9847.

Counselor Corner

May updates from Ms. Schulenberg

You can find all previous newsletters

and more information on my website

Ms. Schulenberg's website

Counselor Class Lessons

• I go into each classroom throughout the year to deliver bully prevention lessons and more based on need.

*Click here to view my May class lessons.

Local Summer Camps and Programs – Summer is right around the corner!  Registration is already open for many programs, and spots fill up fast! Here are some ideas for fun and educational summer camps and programs: Local Summer Opportunities.

Learning Resources

• Anxiety: The change of season/weather, anticipation of summer, and middle school (for 5^th graders), and standardized testing, can cause anxiety for a lot of students. Here are some resources to help!
  • A Yale University program helps train parents with different ways to respond to a child’s behavior. Learn More
  • Here is a coping resource list for kids dealing with anxiety and anger management. 
  • Read this article: Help Ward Off Anxiety with this Daily Routine
  • Here is another resource list with apps, books, and websites to help your child cope with their anxiety: Anxiety Resources
• Executive Functioning and attention challenges:
  • Seth Perler’s: What is Executive Functioning? https://sethperler.com/executive-function-quick/
  • It's one thing to read about learning and attention issues. It's another thing to see them through your student's eyes. Use this tool to better understand your student's world. Try a Simulation

Parenting Websites:

• ParentMap: https://www.parentmap.com/ - resources and ideas on health, education, food and home, parenting, family media, and camps. Check out the calendar for fun, local events to enjoy with the family!
• Parenttoolkit: https://www.parenttoolkit.com/ - resources on academics, social emotional wellbeing, health and wellness, and student growth benchmarks.

 Exceptional Placement Math Test for Incoming 6^th grade students.

Exceptional Placement provides an additional acceleration option for students who are ready to skip CC 7/8 and begin middle school in CC 8/Algebra 1. Interested students must demonstrate sufficient mastery of CC 7/8 concepts and skills on a district-administered assessment. The exceptional placement assessment will be offered to interested students on Wednesday, June 19 from 2:00-4:00 OR Wednesday, June 26 from 4:00-6:00 at the Issaquah Middle School Library. *Since CC6 math is taught in the 5th grade MERLIN program, 5^th grade MERLIN students will take the CC 7/8 Math Mastery Assessment test in their classrooms each spring.

To register to take the Exceptional Placement assessment please complete the sign up at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScMtYzRkyNU2rTip-OQT4xEdrGsdTgwYledJk2_p3322xSa0Q/viewform?usp=sf_link by June 7. Once a student has qualified for Exceptional Placement, parents make the final determination of whether or not to accept that placement. Further information will be provided to families of students who qualify for Exceptional Placement to help inform this decision. More information can be found at http://www.issaquah.wednet.edu/academics/core/math/middle/mathEP