"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot."

— Michael Altshuler 

• • • We will have a Lockdown Drill on Thursday 9/21 at 9:45- Lockdown information will be put in your mailboxes on Friday (make sure your doors are locked)

    • We will have an Evacuate (fire) Drill on Tuesday 9/26th at 9:45

    • Our Building Response Team will be visiting all classrooms/spaces over the next week to ensure you have an evacuation map and know the path to take to exit your spaces and exit the building

    • Attached is the slideshow of NPS Emergency Responses.  Use the videos to show your students on slides 23,36,43 and 51  

                            District Safety Protocols 2023-2024

• All specialist teachers, MLL, SPED, Improvement teachers, SEL... practice drills with your groups of students so that in the event of a real emergency or drill during your time-students will know what to do

• Practice drills when with your WIN groups, so they also are prepared

• • • Classroom teachers, make sure you are punctual to pick up your students from recess or to return when it is indoor recess.  There are no transitions between recess shifts this year so it is important that all teachers return on time.

    • Make sure all classroom doors are locked at all times

• • • Please refer to the NWEA Schedule and DIBELS Schedule as dates have recently changed: 

 Fall Testing Calendar

• • • If you are adjusting your time for testing you need to let John S. and Cherie know about your change

    • PLEASE READ THROUGH SLIDES 8-17 ON UPDATES TO NWEA.  ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE REACH OUT TO JOHN S. OR CHERIE

      NWEA UPDATES  

• ***New K-3 DIBELS testing window: Sept. 20-Oct. 3

• On Monday during our staff meeting, a group of staff will be meeting to problem-solve our dismissal process

• More information will be shared after that meeting

Tracey's Book Fair is approaching!!! The Book Fair will kick off during our Open House on Thursday, 9/14. The Book Fair will be open to families from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in our Library. This year, the Book Fair will be during your Communications special. Thank you, Mr. Riddell, for hosting our Book Fair this year and helping our Cubs find books right for them! Please click on the link to see the schedule. Book Fair 2023 

Important Notes:

-On Friday, 9/15, and 9/18, Communications will be held in your classroom. 

-Purchasing- 

E-Wallet-  HTTPS://WWW.SCHOLASTIC.COM/BF/TRACEY 

or cash in a labeled envelope.

-Sales tax is added to the total. If you have any spare change that you would like to donate to help our Cubs out, that would be appreciated! Many Cubs only had exact change last year and needed more for the sales tax. I'll be collecting change in Room 108 to help out with this. 

-Volunteers can sign up using the QR code in this link. Book Fair 2023 

Thank you to our fabulous PTA for sponsoring these special events for our Cubs!

Next date for Community Meeting is 10/12 - plenty of time to prepare a Celebration for Hispanic Heritage month and a tie in to our monthly theme of respect.  Please let me know ASAP if you will be signing up, I can offer some support!

Thank you to Mrs. Mick’s Class for an awesome Community Meeting.  We are excited to support your students in kicking off Start With Hello Week, next week - September 18th - 22nd.  Here is a re-cap of what is happening 

Meet and Greet Monday - Remind students about the importance of a hello and the space that it holds in someone’s day.  A great way to practice this is sitting with new peers at lunch and including others at recess.  A simple hello EACH day can be really special.  

Up-Stander Tuesday - Messages will appear on your doorways/areas thanking YOU!  Be on the lookout :) 

Please send this to parents on TUESDAY for WEDNESDAY - Parent Square Message: “Hello Families, last week in Community Meeting we learned about the importance of kindness, inclusivity and empathy from Mrs. Mick’s class.”  We were currently in the middle of Start with Hello week - an initiative from Sandy Hook Promise, reminding us all of the power of a hello, kindness and being present with each other.  Wear green tomorrow, Wednesday 9/20 to show support!”

Wear Green Wednesday - This is the official Sandy Hook Color - reminds us of the importance of inclusivity, empathy and kindness.  

Thursday - Trusted Adult Thursday.  In your mailboxes you will receive “trusted adult grams” for each of your students to fill out and send to a trusted adult in the building.  Encourage your students to write a meaningful (or draw a picture) message to an adult in the building that means something to them or that they would like to show gratitude to.  

For teachers - there are also “Cups of kindness” they are small squares that YOU can pass out to students and or fellow colleagues.  You can do these this week or sprinkle throughout the year.  We must model and engage in this work with our students as well!

Moving Forward Fri-Yay - Pledges!  Review and sign the pledges of how you and your students committee to starting with hello.  Sign those pledges and hang them up (makes for an easy bulletin board!).  Write a class commitment on a piece of chart paper and slap it on the bulletin board, too!!!

THANK YOU for participating in this meaningful work and message!!

2023-24 OTUS Handbook

ELA and Math assessments are required to be completed on OTUS for grades 2-5. The district has provided us with a OTUS Handbook to guide us in assigning assessments, accomodations available and grading process. We will be presenting some of these features at an upcoming Staff Meeting.

**Important**

ELA pre and post assessments should be administered through OTUS. There is only one pre-assessment and one post-assessment per unit. Shelley has sent out the rubric for grading constructive written response questions.

Math checkpoints and end of unit assessments should be administered through OTUS. Students should use a district provided work space sheets instead of the paper assessment, in order to get students used to taking online assessments. Below is an excerpt taken from the Handbook.

When administering a math assessment, students should be provided with a work space that will allow them to complete the necessary work for questions within the assessment. That work page should then be collected for teacher reference. A customized work page has been created for each IM assessment to be given in Otus. These pages have been adapted from a basic blank work page to one that corresponds to the question numbers in each assessment and to provide, where necessary, supports students can use when answering the question. In general, the customized work pages for elementary grades contain more supports than those for the secondary grades. These pages can be further customized; make a copy of the file to change spacing, layout or what images have been included. 

ELA

WIN Cycle Dates 

Cycle 1: 9/6-10/17, Cycle 2: 10/18- 11/10, Cycle 3: 12/11-2/9, Cycle 4: 2/12- 5/10, Cycle 5: 5/13- End of the Year

Please use this link to access our Cycle 1 spreadsheet. Cycle 1 WIN 2023-24 

If you need any materials, please fill in this spreadsheet. WIN Materials

CORE Phonics Survey

Data Instructions - Please use this link to access the above pictures and links.

 DRA PM Passages

It is important that our students have access to texts they can read independently. Attached is a folder with all of the DRA PM passages. These are helpful to use when determining a student's independent reading level. Any student needing Level A/1, B2, or C3 needs the benchmark assessment. All benchmark assessments can be found in Room 108 by my desk in the teal filing cabinet. You are free to help yourself. 

DRA PM Passages