September/October 2016 Mustang Messenger

Mustang Messenger
VO L U ME
SE P TE M BER
|
3,
I S S UE
O C TO B ER
1
2 01 6
TITLE I School
(2016 - 2017)
The School Day
Message From
6:50-7:20 Breakfast
7:25 First Bell
The Principal
7:30 Classes Begin |
Tardy Bell
*Students not in class will be
marked TARDY
7:30 Morning
Announcements
DISMISSAL:
2:00 Bus, PreK, K, 1st
Grade
2:05 Walkers, PERK,
Daycare and Older
Siblings of PreK, K,
and 1st grade
2:10 All remaining PPU
Inside…
School Fundraiser, pg. 2
Volunteering, pg. 2
Yearbooks, pg. 3
Fall Book Fair, pg. 3
Dear Parents and Students:
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Millwood Elementary School. The faculty and staff
are excited about working with you during the 2016-2017 school year. We need your help and
support as we provide learning opportunities for the academic, ethical, physical, and social
development of your child. Our goal is to furnish educationally enriching, stimulating, and
enjoyable activities that recognize the varied abilities of each student.
This is an exciting time to be part of the Millwood family. We are adding two full-time behavior
interventionists to our team, in addition to a full-time math coach. All of our students are being
provided differentiated instruction based on their levels of academic achievement. We believe this
opportunity for students to receive instruction on their academic level will result in greater
learning and improved academic achievement for all students. We are continually refining our
curriculum and instruction to use best practices. We will need help from parents and the
community working together with our teachers to provide the most effective learning
opportunities for our children.
I am proud of the tradition of excellence, which has been established by the Millwood family over
the years. These accomplishments were realized because of a team effort put forth by the
students, parents, and teachers. I look forward to working with each of you as we strengthen this
team. We will be counting on your participation each day to encourage and help your child with
his or her academic, social, and ethical responsibilities at Millwood Elementary School. The future
of our community rests upon the development and enrichment of our children.
Fall Festival, pg. 3
Sincerely,
Grade Level News, pg. 4 - 6
Stella S. Hall
School Calendar, pg. 7-8
Principal
Inclement Weather Procedures
During periods of unsafe weather conditions when it may be questionable to hold school, the school district has
several options, including closing school, opening schools one hour late, or opening schools two hours late. If
schools open on a delay, breakfast will not be served.
Decisions for any of these options will be announced to the public no later than 5:00 a.m. on the day in question
on the following local radio stations: WIBZ 95.5 FM, WKHT 93.7 FM, WICI 94.7 FM, WNOK 104.7 FM, WDXY 1240 AM, WTCB 106.7 FM,
WCOS 97.5 FM, WLJI 98.3 FM, WWDM 101.3 FM, WHXT 103.9 FM and WMHK 89.7 FM. The television stations used are WIS TV 10, WOLO
TV 25, WBTW 13, WACH 6, and WLTX TV 19. You will also receive a call from our Edulink system.
Announcements are only made through the media if there is a delay or closing.
School Fundraiser
Ends September 7th!
For more information, see the packet that
was sent home with your child or call the
school. All money needs to be turned in by
September 7th! Students who sell 10 items
or more will be able to go to the Kona Ice
Party.
You can shop online! Visit:
shop.believekids.com/ChooseGroup
Once there, you can select a student to
purchase from, select the items you want,
and have them shipped directly to your
house. The selection online is even better
than the catalog. Remember it is never to
early to think about Christmas shopping!
Menus
Breakfast and lunch menus
will be placed on our school’s website each
month as soon as the District makes them
available. Remember that all students
qualify for free breakfast and lunch!
PAGE 2
Be A School Volunteer
Please consider becoming a certified volunteer this year at Millwood. To
participate in school activities (field trips, school-wide parties, field day,
etc.), volunteers must have completed an application and a background
check. There is no charge for the background check. Volunteer
applications can be picked up in the school’s front office. Please note that
younger children are not allowed to come with you when you volunteer
during the school day.
*All volunteers must be at least 18 years old.
Social Media
Keep up with what is going on at Millwood by following us online!
https://www.facebook.com/millwoodelementary
https://twitter.com/millwoodelem
Ident-A-Kid
Millwood has an electronic sign-in system for school visitors. It is called Ident-AKid. Located in the front office, this special computer program allows visitors to
input their name, reason for visit, and have their picture taken for identification.
Once completed, a yellow ID label will print from the machine for our visitors to
wear while in the building. This system is also used by parents to sign in their
children who arrive after the 7:30 a.m. tardy bell and to sign children out for early
dismissal. Be sure to always bring your driver’s license with you!
PAGE 3
Fall Book Fair
October 24th—28th
7 am - 3pm
* Special Evening Hours: Tuesday, October 25th (3pm—6pm)
Pumpkin Night
October 3rd, 6pm
* More information about this event will be sent home soon!
It is time to order school yearbooks.
Yearbooks will be $15.00 (*No
checks) and they go on sale right
after Labor Day. A yearbook flyer
will be sent home with additional
details. The order deadline for
yearbooks is December 14th. This
year, our yearbook will have a
custom-designed cover and end
page with artwork created by two
of our students in art class with the
help of our new art teacher
Mr. McDow.
Yearbooks will be delivered
sometime in March and we will host
a yearbook signing party once they
arrive.
You can order your copy online at:
Saturday, October 29th
10 am - 2pm
* More information about this event will be sent home soon!
No School on Monday, October 17th!
This is an in-service, professional
development day for teachers and staff.
YBPay.lifetouch.com with
Yearbook ID Code: 9890317
A new feature this year is that you
can submit photos online to be
considered for use in the yearbook.
To do this, visit
community.lifetouch.com
*The code to upload your pictures
to the website is: NBZAMH.
Kindergarten News
Kindergarten has been busy and is off to a great start!
Preschool News
The youngest Millwood Mustangs are very busy making new friends
and learning rules and procedures for our classrooms and school.
This fall we are looking forward to our first field trip to the Pumpkin
Patch, where we will see pumpkins of many shapes, colors, and
sizes. All parents that would like to go on our field trip will be
required to complete a background check packet several weeks in
advance in order to be approved on time. Please don’t hesitate to
contact your child’s teacher with any questions or concerns. The
contact information is located at the bottom of your child’s weekly
newsletter. We are looking forward to a “rockin’- sockin’ “good year
in Preschool!
We will be learning a lot of exciting things this year.
We are writing our names and will be working toward
writing sentences in the upcoming weeks. Soon we will
also be introducing letters and sounds. In September,
we will be learning about Johnny Appleseed and we have
many more exciting things coming this fall! We are
hoping to visit the pumpkin patch in October, more
information to come. Also in October, we will be
introducing the FRED (Families Reading Every Day)
reading program and we look forward to watching your
child grow as a reader. Thank you for all of your
support so far, and we look forward to a great year!
Second Grade News
First Grade News
Welcome to first grade! We are looking forward
to a great year. The first grade teachers have a
lot of exciting things planned for our students
this school year. During the first quarter,
students will learn about earth materials in
science, families and their community in social
studies, work on basic addition and subtraction
skills in math, and start to work on becoming
fluent independent readers. Please help your
child have a successful year in first grade by
making sure they complete their homework
nightly and READ, READ, READ!
PAGE 4
We are off to a great start to the school year! It was wonderful to see
so many parents at orientation. We are all very excited to be working
with you and your children this year! If you have not yet purchased a
PTA membership, please do so. The cost is $5.00, and it lets you have
a chance to win door prizes at every PTA meeting you attend. The
money collected from memberships goes right back to the students at
Millwood in the form of supplies and other things.
Math: We will begin working on applying addition and subtraction
concepts in Math.
Reading: We will read and write many interesting stories this quarter.
We are setting up our writer’s workshop and reviewing conventions for
writing sentences.
Grammar: Our classes will be learning about the four kinds of
sentences: statements, questions, commands, and exclamations. We
will also learn about sentence parts like subjects and predicates.
Science: Our first unit of study in Science will be weather. We will be
learning weather terms, using our senses to describe the weather,
measuring the weather, comparing/contrasting the seasons, and
discussing ways to stay safe in severe weather.
Social Studies: We are working on procedures and expectations. Our
first unit will be on identifying the location of places and geographic
features on a map.
PAGE 5
Third Grade News
Our third graders have begun the year with a bang! They
are already hard at work learning their multiplication facts
so that they will be ready to defend Millwood’s status as
Third Grade Multiplication Champions for Sumter School
District. Students are studying their multiplication facts
every night and practicing them each week in class. Their
teachers are very proud of them for working hard for
multiplication success.
In Reading, students have begun working in Readers’
Workshops. Each class has established the routines and
procedures for Readers’ Workshop, and the students are
reading every day. We have completed our Next Steps
Reading Assessments and are proud of our students for
doing their best to become even better readers! We have
been working on Story Elements and learning all about
character, setting, and plot. Students can even identify
the problem and solution in a story.
In Writers’ Workshops, students are diving into writing
personal narratives. They have discussed things that
writers do to make their stories interesting for their
readers. Each student has created a list of ideas for stories
and is enjoying sharing his/her writing with the class.
South Carolina History has been fun as we have learned
about the regions of our state. Students are looking
forward to learning about the history of South Carolina
and having some special guests to share their expertise
with them.
In Science, the first unit has been a lot of fun as students
have learned all about minerals, rocks, and soil. Students
are looking forward to working with Mrs. Holloway in the
Science Lab as well as completing activities and
experiments in the classroom.
Fourth Grade News
Welcome to a wonderful year in fourth grade! Students are already
off on the right track with learning classroom and hallway
expectations. Teachers are proud of the way the students are
responding and respecting our fourth grade guidelines.
Students are completing a variety of testing to identify their
individual reading needs. We want to be sure that every student gets
the absolute best instruction this year, and these tests will also allow
us to better meet their individual needs. If you have any questions
about the testing we are doing, please send us a note or leave a
message on our phone. We will be happy to talk with you about your
child’s instructional plans for the year.
This year, students will be using the science lab for instruction. In
the lab, they will complete hands on activities and begin exploring
the many wonders of science. We will be incorporating many STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) instruction where
students plan, create, and explore their own experiments. Our first
activity will include red apples in a variety of forms. No, we are not
making apple pie, but it will still be a lot of fun as students observe
their different apples.
To read better, children must read more! Your child is expected to
read a minimum of twenty minutes per night in addition to other
homework. A “Week at a Glance” will go home each week in your
student’s folder. The “Week at a Glance” will include their
instructional material for the week and also their homework
assignments. Please look for this the first of the week along with the
Fourth Grade Parent Connection.
Our PTA is gearing up for a brand new year. We would encourage
every parent to purchase at least one membership to support our
school. Membership is only $5.00.
We have a great team in fourth grade and are looking forward to
sharing many exciting adventures with your child. Please feel free to
let us know at any time if there are any problems or concerns.
Math
Interventionist
News
Greetings everyone!
Fifth Grade News
Things are off to a great start in fifth grade. We have many new
faces on our hall, and we have enjoyed getting to know each and
every one. It’s going to be a great year full of fun and exciting
learning adventures.
In Math, we are reviewing place value and various number sense
skills. In ELA, we can’t wait to begin our exciting novel unit study on
Frindle. Social Studies will be picking up right where we left off in
fourth grade with the Reconstruction Era. In Science, we are
learning all about various ecosystems.
There will be so many exciting things to look forward to this year.
We know we are off to a great start, and can’t wait to see what this
new fun filled, exciting school year will bring.
Quest News
We are off to a great year here at
Millwood Elementary School! I am
quite honored and know that it is a
privilege to be a part of such an
amazing school family and
community. This year at Millwood, I
will be servicing student in our QUEST program. QUEST is
Sumter School District’s Talented and Gifted program for
elementary level students, and we have an exciting year planned
with many challenges and opportunities for enriched learning
ahead of us. QUEST uses a pull-out model for instruction that
will focus on building upon qualified students’ math and
problem solving skills, as well as their abilities to use higher
levels of learning to think and conduct tasks and challenges
much like engineers do using the Engineering Design Process.
We will follow an approved gifted curriculum and will focus on
many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) activities
to enhance students’ learning. I look forward to working with
our QUEST students this year. If you feel as if your child meets
the qualifications of the district’s QUEST program and they have
not yet been identified, please feel free to contact your child’s
teacher or myself. Here’s to a great year! ~ Heather Clemmons
PAGE 6
I am the new Math Interventionist at
Millwood Elementary School. I am
thrilled and excited to be serving your
children!
Being at Millwood Elementary is like
coming back home. I am blessed to return to Millwood after teaching here
some years back. Millwood is a special place!
The position of Math Interventionist is a new teaching role for Millwood.
With such positive gains through our reading interventionist, we are offering
to intervene with math as well. Of course, I am honored to fill this position.
As a Math Interventionist, I am teaching the advanced math classes for 4th
and 5th graders. I will be teaching the math standards as we accelerate and
enrich so as to meet the full potential of the students.
In addition to these advanced math classes, I will be working daily with 3rd,
4th and 5th differential math groups. During these differential classes, I will
reinforce what the class room teachers are teaching during their math
classes.
Through these innovative opportunities to serve our students at Millwood,
we are anticipating positive growth for all of our students we are so
fortunate to have.
Please drop by any time to see me.
Looking forward to a great year!
~ Millie Welch
Behavioral
Interventionist
News
Welcome Back
Mustangs!
The first two weeks
have been just
awesome getting to
see all of you after a restful summer. This school year is full of so
many positive changes and Mrs. Jarecki, along with I, are so glad to
be a part of it. Many of you will remember me as Mrs. Burgess, 5th
grade teacher for 23 years, here at Millwood. However, this year I
am one of MWE’s first Behavioral Interventionists. My focus is on
grades 3—5 and Mrs. Jarecki works with grades PreK—2nd. Our
goal is to work with students in both individual and group setting
to improve behaviors that may be a hindrance in their learning
process. We do classroom visits and we also do take-outs during
differentiation time or any other needed time. The fact that we are
both certified teachers allows us to continue the lessons that may
have been missed from the regular homeroom teacher. This
ensures that every child’s needs are still met. We would like to
welcome Mrs. Dora Jarecki to our staff and we look forward to
accomplishing great things this year.
~ Mrs. Burgess and Mrs. Jarecki
PAGE 7
Sunday
4
Tuesday
Monday
5
7
6
Thursday
Wednesday
Saturday
Friday
1
2
3
8
9
10
15
16
17
23
24
SCHOOL
FUNRAISER
ENDS
NO SCHOOL
11
12
13
14
GRANDPARENT’S
DAY
PICTURE DAY
SPIRIT NIGHT
18
19
20
INTERIMS
ISSUED
21
VISION,
HEARING &
DENTAL
SCREENING
22
SPIRIT NIGHT
1ST, 3RD, AND
5TH GRADE
25
26
27
28
29
SPIRIT NIGHT
30
Sunday
3
2
Tuesday
Monday
4
Thursday
Wednesday
5
7
6
PUMPKIN
NIGHT / PTA
MEETING 6PM
1
8
11
10
9
Saturday
Friday
12
13
14
15
19
20
21
22
28
29
SPIRIT NIGHT
16
17
18
TEACHER
INSERVICE /
NO SCHOOL
MAKE UP
PICTURE DAY
SPIRIT NIGHT
23
24
25
BOOK FAIR
EVENING
HOURS
3 PM - 6 PM
26
REPORT
CARDS ISSUED
27
SPIRIT NIGHT
FALL
FESTIVAL
10 AM - 2 PM
Fall Book Fair (7am - 3pm) / Red Ribbon Week
30
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Sumter School District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, or age in
admission to, treatment in, or employment in its programs and activities. For inquiries regarding the policy, contact the
Assistant Superintendent of Personnel or the Director of Specialized Programs, Sumter School District, 1345 Wilson Hall
Road, Sumter, SC 29150 or call 803-469-6900.