Weekly Update

 Happy Tuesday!

Yay! We made it to winter break! Bravo! You all deserve a round of applause! No school for almost two weeks....it's time to relax and enjoy your time with family. 

Thank you all again for your support as we transitioned back into our DL setting. It actually has been pretty seamless and I am beyond proud of how well your child has been handling this tough transition!

Just a few updates before the break...

Weekly Parent Plans: Click here to access parent plans for the week of January 4th-January 8th. There is a list of materials at the end of each day so you can prepare those items the night before. The lessons that were missed on our snow days were pushed to this week, so you will see some of those same activities. We will also complete our addition assessment on Thursday, January 7th. A friendly reminder to please allow your child to complete the assessment independently. We will also begin our mid-year PALS and DRA assessments this week. If your child needs to complete one of these assessments, a sign-up will be sent to you. 

December Supply Bags:

We will continue to use some of the materials/activities from the December Supply Bag after winter break, so please place these materials in a safe place that can be easily found when we return. Thank you!

Reading Groups: 

I will continue this week with our Monday reading groups, but to accommodate testing, I will not be meeting in a small group setting Tuesday-Friday. I will continue reading groups on those days as soon as mid-year assessments are completed. A Sign-Up Genius was shared if your child needs to complete our mid-year PALS assessment. 

Midyear Literacy Assessments: 

As we did in the fall, we will administer two literacy assessments to see the progress students have made throughout the first and second quarters. Different from the fall testing, not all students will be assessed. Based on fall data, and progress seen in guided reading groups, not all students will need to take these assessments. Informal assessments have been completed in small reading groups for those students above grade level. All students however, will take the PALS spelling test. I will communicate with families if your child does not need to sign up for assessment times. The two assessments your child may complete are the PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening) and the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment). We are working with our first grade support team to develop a schedule, and I will send out a sign up genius shortly to sign up for a time.

**PALS Spelling Test: we will take our PALS spelling test on Friday, January 8th. Please print the Mid-Year PALS Spelling Sheet for your child to use for our spelling assessment, or pre-number a lined piece of paper from 1-20. We ask that you do not support your child in spelling the words and that they use their fine tip marker to write. After taking the spelling assessment, we kindly ask that you take a picture of the spelling sheet and email to me at your earliest convenience. 

Seesaw “Must Do” Activities:

Please be sure to check your child’s “must do” activities in Seesaw at the end of each week.  As we have done in the past, the activities will be available to be worked on over the weekend, to give families a chance to catch up on the week’s work.  However, they will be archived on Sunday at 4PM each week.

Red Choice Board Items:

Items that are red on the Choice Board are Must-Do items for your child. Please remind your child to complete those red activities sometime throughout the week during their Choice Board time in the afternoon. Thank you!

Puma Paw:  

Please click here to access the Puma Paw for important school and grade-level information.

As always, please reach out with any questions, comments, concerns, or feedback. 

Weekly Update

 Good Evening and Happy Friday,

As announced yesterday, LCPS will be returning to 100% distance learning starting Tuesday, December 15th. I am saddened to not be able to see your children in-person, but am excited that we will still continue to learn together, and I am confident that they will be able to smoothly transition back to distance learning.

We will be going back to our “old ways”, where students will log into Schoology each morning, go to our homeroom page, and click on the Daily Assignments page. All students will use the same student schedules for Monday-Friday.

I will still hold our small groups on Monday December 14th for those students currently in a virtual small group, but I will not have small groups Tues-Thurs until after winter break (if we are still distance learning). I want to allow students to adjust back to this schedule, and I want to be able to have enough time to plan authentic reading lessons.

There will be no reading groups on Monday, December 21st. 

Weekly Parent Plans: 

Click here to access next week’s parent plans. Materials should be picked up on Monday, December 14th from 2:30-4:00 p.m. in the Pinebrook Bus Loop. There are materials that  will be used during our lessons up until winter break and after winter break. Please do not complete these assignments until instructed to do so. Some activities we will do together during our synchronous time, and others will be used during asynchronous times. I will include instructions in parent and student schedules.

Supply Pick up: On Monday, December 14th, First Grade will be holding a supply pick up at Pinebrook, from 2:30-4:00 p.m. in the bus loop  

I will be there to hand out a bag of activities that we will use next week in class, a holiday gift for your child, and a special treat for us to enjoy while we watch the Polar Express together on the 22nd (Shhh, it’s a surprise for students!). I look forward to seeing you and your child safely from a distance, if you can attend.

In order to help our First Grade teachers know which cars to approach, it would be very helpful if you could hold up a piece of paper with the words "Miss Drumheller" and your student’s name written in large bold letters as you drive up to the line. 

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you will not be able to attend the supply pick up day.

Library: 

You may return books to school on our supply pick up day. Mrs. Higgins has shared a new way to request library books.  Below are the directions:

1.Students fill out a book request form.

2. Pick up curbside on Mondays from 8:00-2:00  OR pick up books when they pick up their lunch.

3.  Books can be returned to the book return bins curbside Monday - Friday.

Here is the book request form:

https://forms.gle/q5kySwBxvu4jp3Ek8

Puma Paw:  

Please click here to access the Puma Paw for important school and grade-level information.

I appreciate your support and patience in advance as we once again make another transition. I will be working to adjust to a new schedule as will the students. This weekend I will be working on reconfiguring student plans for next week to fit our new schedule and adding new buttons to our Schoology page. 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! :) If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please reach out at any time!

Weekly Update

Good Evening! Happy Friday!

I apologize that my weekly update is a bit later than usual! We had a great week back after break and even did some AWESOME science experiments! I can't wait to be able to do more fun stuff like this in the upcoming weeks! 

I just wanted to reiterate how important it is that your child comes to school each day with the necessary materials needed and completed assignments. We plan our lessons to continue from the day before and if a child misses just one lesson, then it changes our course for the next day and we need to play catch up with some students. We strive to make your child's work completion no more than 90 minutes each day when they are at home, but please try to understand that when they are at home, it is still a school day and lessons need to be completed. Work completion affects your child's grade. I mean this message well and wanted to send a friendly reminder :) 

Weekly Parent Plans: 

Click here to access next week’s parent plans. You will only need to follow the days your child has an at-home asynchronous day.

Navy Group - students who come to school on Tuesday/Thursday

Maroon Group - students who come to school on Wednesday/Friday

Science Experiments -

We did two fun science experiments this week either online or in-person! Students have asked me to include some links so you can try them at home!

1. Dancing Colors Milk Experiment

2. Lava Lamp Experiment

Library-

Students checked out their second round of library books this week. Please return any books from the first check out. New library books from this week should be returned on Tuesday, December 15th and Wednesday, December 16th

PTA News: 

-Xbox X Series Raffle!

You can win a NEW Xbox Series X, just in time for the holidays! Pinebrook PTA is doing a Squares Board Raffle Fundraiser: purchase a numbered square for $10, and see if your square is the winner when we roll the dice on December 14th!

Check out the flyer below for more details, and purchase your square(s) today!

See which squares are available HERE

(Purchased Squares are updated each evening to reflect processed payments.)

Select the numbered square you want HERE, (and then visit the “Pay Here” link posted in the Sign Up Genius to confirm your selection.)

-Pinebrook Holiday Shop Goes Virtual!
Our annual Holiday Shop is a fun tradition for Pumas interested in buying small gifts for themselves and their family. In the past, the pop-up store was available for students to browse during school hours. This year, our shop has moved online! Your student can visit the website to make their selections, and the items will be delivered directly to Pinebrook! Pickup times will be announced later in the month, and items will still include gift wrap for Pumas wanting to surprise friends and family with their presents! The store is open now until December 9th, with delivery dates announced soon.

Click here for the students to shop!
Login: Holiday

Password: PINE2020

PTA Newsletter

Puma Paw:

Please click here to access the Puma Paw for important school and grade-level information.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or feedback, please reach out at any time!

I hope you all have a super weekend! I will be spending majority of the time decorating for the holidays! I just love it when my house smells of fresh cut evergreen :)