Dear Pleasant Plains Families,

After 22 days of school, we are well into our instructional program for the 2016-2017 school year. Our events and activities revolve around the BCPS Curriculum and the PPES School Progress Plan in order to continue to promote student achievement in all areas.

We are very excited that we have received the remainder of our student devices at the end of September. From this point on, all students in grades 1-5 now have the access to use an Elitebook to complete portions of their work. All of the activities completed on the Elitebook will be planned and facilitated by the classroom teacher.

If you plan to volunteer and/or assist with field trips, be sure to complete the Volunteer Training online at www.bcps.org.

We are off to a great start and appreciate your help and support!

New Phone System Implementation – School Status Information Line As a part of the new phone system implementation, the School Status Information Line (410- 887-5555) has been changed to 443-809-5555. Questions regarding this information should be directed to the following individual: Greg Vukov, Director 443-809-9888.

School Safety As shared in our Welcome Back letter, Pleasant Plains Elementary opens at 8:30am. Consequently, there is no adult supervision prior to 8:30am and students should not arrive unsupervised prior to that time. ALL individuals walking to and from school should utilize the designated crosswalks.

Carpool For those utilizing carpool as a mode of transportation, we are urging parents to use the carpool lane in the parking lot. Please enter the carpool lane from the top entrance of the parking lot which will allow you to drop your child off at the curb. This practice deters from dropping children off in the middle of Pleasant Plains Road, and avoids potential accidents.

Transportation Be sure to notify the office in writing of any change in your child’s transportation plans (ex: carpool vs. bus). Unless a note is received, students will be directed to take their normal mode of transportation. In

OCTOBER

3 Schools Closed,

Rosh Hashanah

4 Volunteer Training,

8:30 am

4 Interim Reports

4-7 Bullying Prevention

Week

10 Lifetouch Picture Day

12 Schools Closed,

Yom Kippur

13 STEM Fair Parent Night,

4th & 5th Gr., 6:00 pm

13 PTA Meeting, 7:00 pm

17 Magnet Information

Night, 5th Gr., Halstead

Academy, 6:00 pm

19 Student Assembly,

“What’s the Matter?”

20 PTA Spirit Night,

Gino’s Burgers &

Chicken, All Day

21 Schools Closed,

MSEA Convention Day

25 Coffee with PPES

Administrators, 9:00 am

28 First Quarter Ends,

Half Day of School,

12:15 pm Dismissal

(Continued on Pg. 2)

Pleasant Plains Elementary School Newsletter October 2016, Page 2 of 9

order to ensure the safety of all students, no child will be permitted to ride a bus that is different from their assigned transportation. The majority of our buses are at capacity and consequently will not be able to transport additional students. Middle school and high school students will not be permitted to ride PPES buses. No special permission for students to ride alternative buses will be granted. For transportation questions, contact the route manager at 410-887-8669.

Attendance and Absentee notes Regular school attendance contributes to your child’s success in school. Children are expected to attend school every day unless they are sick or have one of the following reasons for being absent: death in family, religious holiday, lack of authorized transportation, court summons, work approved activity, or school closing. Family trips or vacation are not excused absences.

To support a positive start to the school day, students should arrive and be seated in their classroom by the 8:45am bell. Students arriving after this time are considered tardy.

The Maryland State Department of Education requires that students bring notes from home when returning from an absence. Notes are also required when children arrive at school late or leave school before the end of the school day. A note must be presented to the child’s teacher within three days of the absence, otherwise the event is marked “unexcused”. These notes are kept on file in the school until the following school year.

Math Homework Helpers Math Homework Helpers will air LIVE on Wednesdays, from 4:30-5:30pm, on Comcast channel 73 and Verizon channel 34. Call in, spin, and win! The number to call is: 410-494-1459. Teachers review math facts in the classroom on a regular basis. However, we find that students who are successful mastering math facts receive additional help at home. Here are some guidelines that you can use to help support your child with learning their basic facts. These are the minimum countywide expectations for our students:

By the end of 2nd grade, students should know their addition facts to 20.

By the end of 3rd grade students should know their subtraction facts to 20.

By the end of 4th grade students should know their multiplication facts through the 9’s tables.

By the end of 5th grade students should know their division facts through the 9’s tables.

There is a direct correlation between students who have mastered their basic math facts, as well as an understanding of the math processes, and their level of success in higher level math courses such as Algebra 1. Please support our efforts by spending a few minutes every day working with your child to review their basic facts. Joyce M. Albert, Principal Karen D. Looney, Assistant Principal

NOVEMBER

6 Daylight Savings Time

Ends

8 Schools Closed,

Election Day

10 Distribution of Report

Cards

10 Pre-K Conference Day,

No School for Pre-K

Students Only

10 PTA Meeting, 7:00 pm

11 Conference Day,

No School for Students

14-18 American Education

Week

14 Parent and Guardian

Workshop, 9:00 am

14 PTA Spirit Night,

Chipotle, 5:00-9:00 pm

16 Lifetouch Retakes and

Grandparent Picture Day

16 Water Night at Halstead

Academy, 5:30 pm

24-25 Schools Closed,

Thanksgiving

30 Family Math Night,

6:30 pm

Pleasant Plains Elementary School Newsletter October 2016, Page 3 of 9

Picture Day

Lifetouch Portrait Studio will be at Pleasant Plains Elementary on Monday, October 10th to take student pictures. Information concerning the available packages has been sent home to assist your family in making a selection that best suits your needs. Should your child be absent that day, retakes will be Wednesday, November 16th.

Parent University Workshops

The BCPS Parent University is offering workshops to coach parents in teaching reading and writing skills. The workshops are for parents, caregivers, and those interested in helping preschool/prekindergarten children become proficient, lifelong readers, all are invited to attend any of the following free 90-minute Parent University workshops. You may register by calling 443-809-4496 or by e-mail at rcary@bcps.org. Workshops will be held on Wednesdays: October 5th and 19th, and November 2nd at the locations below:

Woodlawn Library Rosedale Library 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 pm 7:00 – 8:30 pm 1800 Woodlawn Drive 6105 Kenwood Avenue Gwynn Oak 21207 Rosedale 21237

Upcoming Parent Event

Loch Raven Technical Academy will be hosting a parent event on Thursday, November 17th from 6:00 – 8:30 pm. There will be a keynote speaker and various breakout sessions. Sessions will include information on creating Social Stories, Mindfulness with Kids, the Teenage Brain, and Using Technology for Social Emotional Learning. More information will be sent home in late October.

Math Night in November

Pleasant Plains Elementary School will be hosting Family Math Night this fall! We hope that you will join us for math activities, family games, and pizza on Wednesday, November 30th at 6:30 pm.

Bullying Prevention Week

This week, October 4th-7th, is BCPS Bullying Prevention Week. This year’s theme is “Be Smart, Don’t Start.” Each day students will be participating in different activities raising awareness to and preventing bullying. Students are asked to dress in specific colors each day to represent character traits that all people should demonstrate:

Tuesday: Wear green for Equity Wednesday: Wear yellow for Empathy Thursday: Wear red for Respect Friday: Wear purple for Positivity

Pleasant Plains Elementary School Newsletter October 2016, Page 4 of 9

Counselors’ Corner

We are excited to continue our Terrific Kids Value of the Month program at Pleasant Plains Elementary School. The Kiwanis Club of Loch Raven is sponsoring this program. The program began in September and will continue through the rest of the school year. Each month a new value or character education trait will be introduced. The staff will collaborate to provide activities and ways to incorporate this value into their daily teaching. At the end of the month the teacher and students will determine which student demonstrated that value the most in their classroom. He or she will be invited to attend a special Terrific Kids assembly to celebrate the wonderful accomplishment. A parent letter will be sent home inviting family members to attend. The student will be asked to prepare a short speech or drawing to read/show at the assembly. The Kiwanis Club of Loch Raven will present each nominee with a certificate, a button to wear, a pencil, and a coupon. We will begin with celebrating the values of our new SPARK code of conduct. More information will follow with the remaining values.

September- Safety October- Perseverance November- Accountability December- Respect January- Kindness

Ey on Sports

We hope everyone has had a great first month back to school. Students have been active and engaged during physical education on a daily basis. However, please remind students to wear tennis shoes and appropriate clothing on their physical education day(s). In the upcoming month students in Kindergarten – 2nd grade will be enhancing their throwing (underhand and overhand), catching, kicking, and dribbling skills. Additionally, Kindergarten – 2nd grade will be improving their components of fitness (aerobic capacity, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, body composition) during a fitness and wellness unit. Grades 3 – 5 will be participating in a flag football unit to enhance their throwing, catching, and flag pulling skills. Students will also learn basic offensive and defensive strategies, as well as flag football positions. Furthermore, grades 3-5 will also begin Fitnessgram testing. Fitnessgram is a comprehensive health-related fitness activity assessment. Students will learn the proper way to complete the Fitnessgram assessments and keep track of their assessment scores. Even though fall is upon us, we will still be going outdoors for PE when the weather is permissible so please have students dress accordingly for the weather. Students may also bring hats, sunglasses, and water bottles as needed for physical education.

Thank you for your support of the physical education program at Pleasant Plains.

Steve Ey, sey@bcps.org & Lamont Smith, lsmith3@bcps.org

Pleasant Plains Elementary School Newsletter October 2016 Page 5 of 9

Notes from the Music Department

Less than a month has passed, but students are already hard at work in their music classes. Ms. Seymour, the school’s vocal music teacher, has been filling the students’ heads with new musical knowledge! First and second grade have been working on reading and composing quarter, eighth, and sixteenth note rhythms. Third grade has been working on identifying musical opposites, such as presto/largo, forte/piano, staccato/legato, and also reviewing solfege in order to play boom whackers. Fourth grade has been transitioning away from reading music in solfege to reading music with letter names in order to prepare for playing xylophones and recorders. Fifth grade has been practicing reading rhythms with numbers in order to play drums. The fourth and fifth grade students have been working just as hard with Ms. Ciaccio, the school’s instrumental music teacher. Fourth grade spent the first few weeks exploring the science behind making sound and music, and have now started the brass family unit. They have been practicing with the trumpet mouthpiece and will soon be ready to play using the entire trumpet! They have also been learning about other instruments of the brass family and what makes an instrument a member of the brass family. Fifth grade has recently started taking instrumental music lessons for band and orchestra! They are learning the basics of making sounds on their instruments, as well as how to hold and care for their instruments. They will soon transition into reading and performing written pitches and rhythms for their respective instruments. Though it is still early in the year, Ms. Ciaccio and Ms. Seymour would like for you to mark your calendars for the Winter and Spring Concerts, which will both be held at 7:00 P.M. in the school gymnasium. The Winter Concert will be Thursday, December 15, 2016 and the Spring Concert will be Thursday, May 25, 2017. Finally, we invite you to visit us online: Music Department website — http://pleasantplainsesmusic.weebly.com Follow us on Twitter — @PPESMusic Join our Facebook group — Pleasant Plains ES Music

Musically Yours,

Ms. Ciaccio, sciaccio2@bcps.org & Ms. Seymour, kseymour@bcps.org

American Education Week American Education Week, November 14th – 18th, presents us all with an opportunity to celebrate public education and honor those individuals who are making a difference with our children each day. At Pleasant Plains Elementary School, American Education Week provides us with an opportunity to host classroom visits throughout the week. Please look for information about scheduled visits to your child’s class later this month. Additionally, grandparents are invited to visit their grandchild(ren) at school on Wednesday, November 16th. For a fee, Lifetouch Portrait Studio will be available to take special portraits of grandparents with their grandchild(ren) on that day as well.

Pleasant Plains Elementary School Newsletter October 2016, Page 6 of 9

¡Saludos desde la clase de español!

Welcome back to school and the third year of our Elementary Spanish Passport Program! It is so exciting to be back teaching Spanish to all the fourth and fifth grade students at Pleasant Plains. The year has been off to a great start! In fourth grade, we are in full “Spanish Mode”. Not only are the students learning the routines of Spanish class and getting used to being fully immersed in the language, but they are learning how to communicate in the language too! Currently, we are working on basic communication skills like talking about names, feelings, ages, birthdays, favorite colors and animals. It is so great to hear the students practicing in class and in the hallways! ¡Buen trabajo! In fifth grade, we have picked up Spanish class right where we left off at the end of the last school year, and we have added 20 minutes of instruction to each class by making Spanish a special! Currently, we are working on being able to describe ourselves and others in Spanish. It is so impressive to see what the students remember from fourth grade and can apply to what they are learning in fifth grade. ¡Excelente! As the school year continues, both fourth and fifth grade will have access to the Middlebury Interactive Online program. I am so excited to see how the students will include what they’ll learn from the program in our future Spanish classes.

Hasta luego,

Señorita Reier

Here are some animals in Spanish so you can talk about your favorite animals at home!

Stay Informed

Like us on Facebook: Pleasant Plains Elementary (Official) Visit the school website: https://pleasantplainses.bcps.org

Pleasant Plains Elementary School Newsletter October 2016, Page 7 of 9

Pre-Kindergarten Pre-Kindergarten students will be busy learning this month! In math, they will learn about shapes and their attributes, numbers to 10, and comparing groups. Students will continue to work on identifying their own names and the first letter in their names, as well as focus on the letters and sounds of Aa, Dd, Mm, and Ss. We are continuing to learn how to use objects and tools in the classroom, such as glue, scissors, and markers.

Kindergarten In October, kindergarten students will be producing and discriminating rhyming words, clapping syllables, and working to identify letters and sounds (m, a, s, p, t, n, I, c). We will work on those letters in all positions (beginning, middle, and end) of words. Kindergarteners will be learning these sight words: we, am, at, see, a, like, to, it, and, go, in, you, big, on. In math, kindergarteners will be sorting by attributes-color, size, shape. Students will also be counting objects up to 10, identifying numerals 0 to 10, and learning to measure and compare lengths.

First Grade First graders will practice letters and sounds in order to blend, read, and write words. Students will also listen to and read a variety of texts (interactive read-alouds, literature big books, and decodable texts) in order to retell stories. In math, students will be working on a numbers unit to count, order, compare quantities, and work with the operation of addition.

Second Grade Second grade students will continue to review and solidify skills taught in first grade. Students will be working on different sounds that vowels can make, such as the long vowel sounds made using the vowel, consonant, silent e pattern. In reading, students will be writing a personal narrative and begin working with information texts. Students will begin the second unit of math instruction, focusing

on geometry as students work with both two dimensional and three dimensional shapes. Students will also work through the health unit called Illness, Drugs and Decisions.

Third Grade In October, 3rd grade will be continuing their study of peoples' effects on nature in reading. Students will read a variety of informational selections to develop skills and strategies for reading expository texts. The unit culminates with an endangered animal research report. In math, students will be ending Unit 1: Understanding Multiplication and Division and taking a Part 1 and Part 2 unit assessment. Part 1 will be conducted on the students’ devices and Part 2 will be paper-pencil. They will begin Unit 2: Strategies and Properties for Addition and Subtraction, which will build on knowledge they have gained from earlier grades. In the unit, students use place value, properties of operations, and number sense to perform multi-digit arithmetic.

Fourth Grade In October, 4th graders will be working on estimating sums and differences in math. Please continue to practice rounding with your 4th grader — it is a very important skill when estimating. This month, 4th graders will begin small group instruction as well as continue learning how to identify essential vs. non-essential details while reading a story and summarizing. In science, students will be analyzing how non-living factors impact the health of habitats with special attention to our own schoolyard.

Fifth Grade In math, 5th grade students will be working on place value, whole number, and decimals with adding and subtracting. This month 5th grade students will begin to study the colonial times during social studies. Students will be continuing to read the novel “Out of My Mind” incorporating reading skills such as summarizing and comparing characters.

Pleasant Plains Elementary School Newsletter October 2016, Page 8 of 9

Pleasant Plains Elementary School Newsletter October 2016, Page 9 of 9

Volunteers Needed in the Art Room

Would you like to experience the excitement of children making art?

Or maybe you just want to be surrounded by art and art making?

There are many reasons and ways to become involved in the Art Room at Pleasant Plains Elementary. If you are interested, please email Mrs. Valuntis at avaluntis@bcps.org or fill out the form below and send it back to school with your child.

Art Room Volunteer: The following is a list of tasks that I will need assistance with throughout the year. Please check off any tasks you feel comfortable with. Your help is greatly appreciated and meaningful to our school community. Hope you can help! __ General assistance in the classroom __ Preparing art materials (cutting supplies or paper, dividing materials, refilling paint containers) __ Displays (hanging and taking down artwork)

__ Help with fundraisers or planning museum trips __ Filing and making copies __ Laminating __ Assistance with the Art Website/Wiki

Name ____________________________________________________________________________________ Phone/Email_______________________________________________________________________________ Student(s)___________________________________ Homeroom Teacher ____________________________

__ I would like to volunteer on this day/time: _________________________

__ Any time is fine with me