March - Eastbrook Elementary School

Seminole County Public Schools
MARCH 2016
Eastbrook Elementary School
Volume #8 Issue #7
—Creating a Community of Learners!—
Current Student Enrollment: 775
FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK:
SCHOOL CALENDAR
Dear Eastbrook Families,
Our FAMILY STEM NIGHT was a success! We had a wonderful turnout
and the children (and parents) seemed to enjoy the hands-on activities.
Thank you to all who attended—and to our teachers and Dividend volunteers who ran stations and showcased STEM projects that evening.
March 1—FSA Writing—4th and 5th
March 3—Report Cards Go Home
FSA testing begins this month. As parents and caregivers, you can assist
us by ensuring that your child is well rested and arrives at school on time.
A good breakfast each morning is also a must. If your child eats breakfast at school (which will be served at NO CHARGE to students during
testing days) please make sure they arrive by 8:05 a.m. Students arriving after testing has started will not be allowed to interrupt their classes
and will need to take the test during make-up times. Testing will begin
each day at 9:00 a.m. The testing schedule is included in this newsletter.
Please post it in a prominent place at home for quick reference.
March 6—Tijuana Flats Family Night 5 -9pm
We are also including a Skyward Family Access form for parents who
have not yet registered. Skyward allows you to access up-to-date information about your child’s progress in each class. You will be able to set up
“missing assignment” email alerts, and you will also be able to update your
information online. It works well on mobile devices, too!
March 10—FSA Information Night 6:00pm
Finally, please use extreme caution when driving on campus and make
sure children take the safest route as they walk/bike to and from school.
Thanks for your continued support.
March 21-25—NO SCHOOL/Spring Break
March 8—PTA Meeting 6:00pm
March 8—Vision Screening VPK, 1st and 3rd
March 9—PTA Skate Night 6:30pm
March 9/10—Spring Pictures for Individuals and Classes
March 16—Vision Rescreening for VPK, 1st, and 3rd
March 18—School Closed/Teacher Workday
March 28—School Resumes
Mr. Ricky Carver
March 29/30—FSA English Language Arts—3rd
Principal
March 31—Key Kids at 9am and Field Day
S.A.C. News
March 31/April 1—FSA Math—3rd and 4th
The School Advisory Council (SAC) assists the school in preparing, implementing, and evaluating the School Improvement Plan. The group is comprised of Eastbrook parents, teachers, and staff members. This year’s
members are:
April 4/5—FCAT 2.0 Science—5th
April 5—PTA Meeting 6:00pm, SAC Meeting 7:15pm
April 8—PTA Movie Night 5:45pm
Rick Carver, Sam Vrochopoulus, Cornelius Mays, Christina Wimberly, Lisa Langston,
Michele DeGrazio, Christopher Schmidt, Donald Swift, Cristina Parson, Alice Hickey, Sandra Stenoff, Sharon Redmon, and Jami Hendrick Von Schmidt.
Table of Contents
In the past, Eastbrook’s S.A.C. has supported teachers by funding professional development and training and has assisted with implementing
district and school-wide initiatives. Attendance at these meetings supports a wide variety of programs that directly affect student progress.
Principal’s Message
Primary News
Intermediate News
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Key Kids
Page 4
September 8th

October 6th

November 3rd 
Lunch Menu
Page 5
December 8th

January 5th
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February 2nd 
PTA Newsletter
Page 6
Skyward Access Form
Page 7
FSA Testing Schedule
Page 8
March 8th
April 5th
May 3rd
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Eastbrook Local News: Primary News
Kindergarten
Second Grade
ESE Department
Spring is here! We are very enthusiastic about our
We have just begun our final trimester
of second grade. Some of us started March by celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday. March 3rd was ReadAcross America Day. A day set aside to celebrate and
encourage everyone to read. We spent part of our
day celebrating literacy and the other part delving
into good books as we continue earn AR points. Second graders are really excited to earn those AR
points. Our Reading Block is a time for students to
continue to take apart stories and nonfiction selections looking for facts and opinions, author’s purpose,
main ideas and supporting details, cause and effect
and the plot or theme of a story. Please continue to
work at home on finding the answer and supporting
evidence for those answers on the homework. For
vocabulary we will focus on prefixes and suffixes and
how those word parts change the meaning of a word as
well as silent consonant digraphs such as “ph” and “gh”.
Greetings from the ESE Department! Our
department provides services to students
who have Individualized Education Plans
(IEP). We provide support to students,
teachers, and parents. Your involvement is
important to our programs. You can contact
us through the Guidance Office. The ESE
Staff at Eastbrook 2015-2016 are:
upcoming Sea World trip. This trip has been scheduled
for Friday, April 15th. If you have not yet paid or have
any questions, please contact your child’s teacher.
Please remember that if you are getting the SeaWorld
Preschool Pass, you must bring your voucher and birth
certificate to SeaWorld prior to the trip to obtain the
actual pass.
We will be working on letter recognition and formation,
as well as the letter sounds (phonics) on a daily basis.
Please encourage your child to be reading and writing at
home to practice these skills. It is important that you
take the time at home to read at least 15-20 minutes
per day with your child daily. Discuss the story and ask
comprehension questions like those that start with who,
what, why, when and where. This is an important
kindergarten skill that will help your child perform
better not only in testing situations but overall
academically.
Students are being rewarded at school for using
SuccessMaker (www.successmaker.com ) at home for
math and reading/language. If you need your child’s log
in information, please contact his/her teacher.
In
math, we will work on numbers greater than 20, counting
to 100 by ones and tens, and recognizing the missing
number in a sequence or pattern. Please continue to
practice these numbers and simple addition/subtraction
to ten. Our Science and Social Studies units will
incorporate ocean life, light, energy and heat.
This month will also be our final family project, creating
a leprechaun trap or rainbow. These projects are given
to help you spend some creative family time with your
children. We hope you have enjoyed them as much as
much as we have. The students love presenting and
sharing their work. In March, the classes will be having
an author study and celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday.
More information to come about these great learning
Math has us moving from 2D, 3D shapes and fractions
to 2digit and 3 digit addition and subtraction and
2digit addition. We always, encourage the practice of
math facts at home to build mathematical fluency.
Second graders will have hands-on experiences in the
classroom as they examine rocks and soil in our science unit about the Earth’s surface. We enjoyed
Professor DoDad who visited in February as another in
house field trip. Ask your child what they learned
about science from his presentation. We will discuss
weather and the impact of the Earth’s temperature
and precipitation patterns on the plants and animals
that live here for one of our final units of study in
Science.
We discussed some famous Americans last month
including some African Americans who made significant contributions to America. Ask your child who
they learned about and the contribution they made to
our country.
BUSINESS PARTNERS
Listed below are our current business partners that aid in
the success of our students through a variety of ways
from incentive coupons to volunteer hours.
7/11—3608 Aloma Ave.
experiences!!
Asia Kitchen—5405 Lk. Howell Rd.
First Grade
Gators Dockside—5275 Red Bug Lake Rd.
March will be a fun month. We will celebrate Dr.
Seuss’s birthday on March 2 which is also known as
Read Across America Day. This would be a great
time to find all those Dr. Seuss Books at your home
and get your children reading. His books are fun and
engaging.
Jeremiah’s Italian Ice—6864 Aloma Ave
In reading, we will continue to work on reading
strategies which will help to build reading
fluency. We will cover phonics skills such as
compound words, long vowels, and three letter
blends. Comprehension plays an important part in
the reading process. We will be working on
comprehension skills such as retelling key events in
stories, central message of a text, sequencing
events and understanding characters, setting, and
plot.
In math, we will be working on time, money and
fractions. As we work on these new concepts please
continue to reinforce basic addition and subtraction
skills at home. We will close the month of March
with our Field Trip to see Skippy Jon Jones.
Orlando Tae Kwan Do—4100 Metric Dr.
Sonny’s Bar-B-Q — 3390 University Blvd.
Tijuana Flats—3635 Aloma Ave.
Tuscany Pizza—3748 Howell Branch Rd.
Brio Tuscan Grille—480 N. Orlando Ave.
Aloma United Methodist—3045 Aloma Ave.
Varying Exceptionalities, Karen Mayou and Katelyn
Busowski; SID, Angela Schniepp; Physical Therapy,
Heather Friend; Occupational Therapy, Luz Grace;
ASD, Roxana Viau; Speech Language Pathologists:
Cynthia (Cindy) Aguilar, Lisa Levin, & Nancy Ringier:
PreK-VE, Kay (Ernest; Paraprofessionals: Karen
Kersey, Andrea Rice, Kaniz Jagani, & Laura Cohen
Music News
Recently, several Eastbrook
Chorus students participated
in The Seminole County Elementary Music Festival. This
huge event featured over 150 students from
20 different schools. Students met together
for several evening rehearsals and performed
at Winter Springs High School on February
20th. Eastbrook was represented by Amber
Allred, Cory Cordero, Michelle Stein, Zoey
Neville, Christy Martinez, Suarez, Lance Harmon, Parisa Milan Rijal, Dylan DelCampo, Anderson Taylor, and Grace Wilkins. Congratulations on an outstanding concert performance!
Recorders are still on sale in the music room
for $8.00. Third, fourth and fifth grade students will be using their recorders in the
spring show.
Art Corner
Eastbrook students have been working
hard creating masterpieces in the art
room this year! Last week we started our
clay unit. Be sure to ask your child what
he/she is working on! They will take home
their ceramic pottery and sculptures
after spring break.
Respectfully,
Becca Ford, Art Teacher
[email protected]
Mathnasium—1450 Tuskawilla Road
PE News
Art Websites
In physical education, we are
continuing our dance and rhythms,
ball handling skills and large group games.
www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/education/
Please remind your student(s) to wear appropriate footwear so that they may participate
to the best of their ability.
www.metmuseum.org/learn/for-kids
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www.getty.edu/education/for_kids/
www.artsonia.com
Eastbrook Local News: Intermediate and others!
Third Grade
Fifth Grade
As 2016 rolls on 3rd Grade has been steadily picking up steam, charging forward and
getting ready for our FSA and Iowa examinations. It is important for all parents
and guardians to know about our FSA information night. It is taking place on
Thursday March 10, 2016 here at Eastbrook Elementary in the activity center.
Please attend this event as it will have critical information pertaining to content
that will be covered on the test, as well as a conversation with our Team Leader,
Dr. Karen Shearer.
In ELA, students are wrapping up with informational texts and
poetry about Black History Month and important African
Americans. Our literary scholars are diving into nonfiction texts as well as
historical fiction. Students are learning about World War I and the sinking of the Lusitania. We are also exploring texts and videos about the
annual Iditarod Race that takes place in Alaska (The race starts March
5th!).
In addition to preparing for our exams we are all still learning plenty of new and
fun material. Having just finished geometry and 2-Dimensional shapes, 3rd grade is
hip-deep into fractions right now! Coming up around the corner we are looking
forward to starting additional units on measurement, telling time, and money!
That’s not even mentioning reviewing material covered in the beginning of the year.
There is a lot to be done, but there are plenty of ways for you to get involved and
help out. Review addition and subtraction with regrouping with your kids at home.
This is a critical skill and it has been a while since we’ve gone over it. Also reviewing
multiplication and division facts at home is a wonderfully helpful activity.
Our young scientists are wrapping up the animals, habitats, and environmental changes unit. Next up: the human body! Students will be learning
about different organs that help our bodies function. Students will also
be learning about how organs work together to form body systems.
In math, students are closing up fraction division concepts. We will be
cruising through concepts about graphing!
As we prepare for FSA, we encourage families to revisit previous units
and lessons for extra practice and review. Remember that XtraMath,
SuccessMaker, TenMarks, and ThinkCentral are great tools to keep kids
practicing concepts regularly.
We recently began our third and final trimester of the year. With this transition
comes new material for our Language Arts block. Our previous trimester included
wonderful lessons on fable writing, differences between literal and non-literal
phrases, comparing and contrasting stories that are similar, and determining the
author’s point of view. This trimester we have several more great lessons to look
forward to like opinion writing, central message of a story, determining character
traits, and finally revisiting poetry!!
Media Center News
Coming up in the month of March we have several important dates to look out for.
If your student is in Mrs. Neilson, Mrs. Thompson, Ms. Lawrence, Ms. Eltonhead, or
Mr. Moore’s class then you know we were unfortunately rained out of our January
field trip to the Environmental Center. Luckily that field trip has been rescheduled
for Thursday March 18th. This will be a great day for a field trip because it is the
last day of school before Spring Break which runs from Friday March 18 – March
27th. Everyone comes back to school on Monday March 28 th. Once we return to
school we get one day, Monday, to get everyone in the right mindset, because on
Tuesday March 29th, FSA Examinations begin and continue throughout the week.
Box Tops: This 2015-2016 school year we have raised $2100.00 for our
school. Way to go!
AR is still a focus for our students in second through fifth grades. Consider using the www.arbookfind.com to help your child find just right AR
books to read or to locate the point value for a particular title.
Thanks to all the Dividends who continue to volunteer their time each
day.
Finally we want to extend our thanks to all parents, students, family members, and
friends who attended S.T.E.M. night. Whether you made paper airplanes, designed
roller coasters, played with fractions, or made fake poop, it was a very exciting
night! There certainly is a lot going on but do not fear! The third grade team is
here, ready and willing, to finish this year off strong.
If you have any questions anything regarding the media center, feel free
to call me at 407-746-7951 or email at [email protected] or
just come by and say hi!
Cross Country News
Fourth Grade
We would like to recognize the boys and girls who represented Eastbrook
Elementary at our Saturday morning cross-country meets. These runners
worked very hard in preparation for these events, ran strong races and
enjoyed meeting other runners from other schools. Congratulations to
each runner!
Fourth grade students just returned from a fantastic field trip to
St. Augustine. A big thank you to all parents and families who
helped us make this trip a reality this year! It is truly appreciated!
Reading classes are learning and reviewing skills such as theme and firsthand and
Six year-old boys: Brennan Hudson, Dalton Smith, Aiden Kearney, Jace Copeland
secondhand accounts; we are reading lots of poems, stories, and informational
texts to discover all of the details that authors use in their writing. In math
class, we've just started working on Units of Measurement. We will cover customary and metric units of length, mass, volume, and weight. Students will learn
to convert one unit to another by using multiplication and division formulas.
These skills will also be used to find the area and perimeter of polygons. Measurements of time will also be taught so be sure to regularly ask your student for
Six year-old girls: Emma Wines, Sophia Rivera, Kylie Gallagher
Seven year-old boys: Francisco Ferrara, Dawson Boyd, Jayden Rivera, Seth Hill
Gabriel Legaspi, Israel Tate
Seven year-old girls: Syriana Hernandez, Jordyn Waterman
the time on an analog clock!
Eight year-old boys: Jalin Copeland, Aidan DeMeglio, R.J. Wines, Cole Herring, Jaden
Rodriguez,,Addiel Torres
We are proud of our students for all their hard work on the FSA Writing test –
now we are working to prepare for the FSA Reading and Math tests which are
Eight year-old girls: Isabella Robinson, Harper Sterling, Emma Keyes, Katelyn Nicklaus
Nine year-old boys: Jodah Lawrence, Landon Spain, Jack Kaley, Bryce Hill, Ian Kearney
coming quickly. One way you can help your student prepare is by making sure
they complete any homework assignments that are sent home, as well as by making sure they are reading at least 20 minutes a night and practicing math facts.
Homework is review of skills taught during class time, and is good practice for
any upcoming tests.
Nine year-old girls: Zakari Foxworth, Loriana Thompson, Angelina Servider, Kailey
Jackson,Alexandra Torres, Amara Rodgers
Ten year-old boys: Aidan Wright, Gabriel Abbate, Adrian Mulroe-Rivera, Miller Clure
Ten year-old girls: Grace Wilkins, Angelina Sprague, Mia Redmon, Katelynn Radziski
If you might be willing to donate snacks or juice for your child’s class for the
FSA testing time, please contact your child’s teacher. Any prepackaged snacks
or juice boxes are appreciated as this allows our students time to refresh and
get that “brain food” needed to have a successful testing day!
Eleven year-old boys: Lance Harmon
Eleven year-old girls: Nicolette Degrazio, Ashley Degrazio
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KEY KIDS for February
Sophia Rivera
Isiaih Madelo
Jamil Tulloch Johnson
Ramere Jackson
Liliana Busowski
Malia Brown
Benjamin Fagan
Hector Garcia
Kyleigh Pino
Angelina Giardullo
Channing O'Sickey
Tina Raulerson
Elena Ortiz
Emma Keyes
Dylan Cappuccio
Bryanna Frias-Pena
Emily Weeks
Daniel Rodriguez
Sean Carp
Kailey Jackson
Jose Pino
James Kennedy
Violet Hernandez
Deansya Manning
Jonathan Condemarin
Sydney Lee
Areebah Islam
Mia Van Antwerp
Aliana Torres
Sadhie Mendez
Bianey Lopez
Mackenzie McCrystal
Aidaliz Ruiz
Malcolm Jones
Akira Wignal
Lauren Hutchinson
Ayanna Lockett
Cory Cordero
Brodi Swift
Michelle Stein
Taina Echevarria
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