Watergrass Elementary School32750 Overpass Road \ Wesley Chapel, FL 33545 \ 813-346-0600 \ wges.pasco.k12.fl.us

Scott Mitchell, Principal \ Liz Boeger, Assistant principal

Principal’s Message Thank you to everyone who completed our School Climate Survey. Our School Advisory Council will be looking at the results to help plan for the next school year. The month of March means FCAT testing has begun. Fourth graders took FCAT Writes on February 26. They worked hard all year and we look forward to seeing the wonderful results in June! If Mrs. Boeger or I can be of any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Mr. Mitchell

Watergrass Elementary attendance & Tardy news March 2013 Total number of tardies: 132 Number of students with two or more tardies: 36 Total number of absences: 349 Number of students with five or more absences: 23

NOTICE: Our LOST & FOUND box is

overflowing with warm jackets and children’s eye glasses. Please stop by the front office to

look for your lost items today!

March 6, 2013 Important Dates 03/08 Movie Night 03/19 SAC Meeting 03/15 Spotted Owls to Crystals Springs Preserve 03/22 End of Quarter 3 Field Day Snowy Owls to Crystal Springs preserve 03/25 Spring Break Begins Up-Coming 04/02 Students return 04/04 K&1 Music Concert 04/05 Spring Fling 04/08 Report cards go home 04/15 – 26 FCAT 04/29 SAC Meeting

            Guidance March promises to be a busy month of classroom Guidance lessons. I will be delivering the Speak Up Be Safe curriculum to all students in Grades 1-5 starting now and carrying into April. Speak Up Be Safe is a comprehensive, research-based, culturally and developmentally appropriate school-based bullying and child abuse prevention education program developed by the Monique Burr Foundation for Children and Childhelp. Each class will have 2 visits from me as we address this important topic. Be on the lookout for handouts coming home with your child that will detail what we covered during each lesson. For further information visit www.MoniqueBurrFoundation.org or feel free to contact me here at school. Kindergarten students will also receive lessons based on the Safer Smarter Kids program created by Lauren's Kids foundation, a partner of the Monique Burr Foundation. I look forward to spending this time with all our Watergrass Owls. Mrs. Ward

Citizens of the Month February Trait: Respect Burrowing: Sean Donahue (Perez) Pygmy: Jennifer Ruiz (Armstrong) Eagle: Christopher Deligatti (Dansby) Snowy: Michael Rodriguez (Ruday) Spotted: Paige Lehrer (Preston) Great Grey: Alexander Hayden (Turner) Elf: Jayla Collins (Stockelman) Read Across America The Watergrass Elementary Media Center was a buzzing hub of activity on Friday, March 1st, for kindergarten, first, and second grade students. In celebration of Dr. Seuss’ birthday, the students enjoyed fun-filled craft activities and had Dr. Seuss books read aloud during their class visit. The event was hosted by our Literacy Coach, Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Maldonado, our Technology Specialist. In addition to the fun, each student was given a FREE book! Over three hundred books were given away in this first ever WGES event. Thank you Mr. Maldonado and Mrs. Hughes for your leadership in organizing and handling this celebration of reading. Additional help was also provided by these wonderful volunteers and staff members: Joan Conti, Marcia Sanchez, Lanitra Brown, Diane Tomlinson, Kristin Maddox, Steve Hughes, Jessica Maldonado, and the K, 1, and 2 classroom teachers.

*****Reading TiP: Good reading skil ls grow when a child

reads f iction AND non-fiction books. Does your child have a hobby or budding

interest? Your child can check out many great non-

f iction titles at our WGES media center! P.E. Rundown FIELD DAY is March 22nd. Volunteer information forms were sent home in February. If you have any questions please contact Coach Wolfe at 813-346-0600. Exercise Logs for Quarter 3 are due on March 15. We encourage students to turn them in early if completed. Everyone keep moving!  

Music Notes Our spring Family Movie Night is Friday, March 8th, at 7:00PM, in our cafeteria. We will be showing "Wreck it Ralph." Admission is free, but we will be selling pizza, soda, water, popcorn and candy. Proceeds from this event help the music department. Bring your lawn chairs and blankets for a great night out with the family! Please remember, you must stay with your children. You may not drop them off unattended. Our Kindergarten and 1st grade students have been busy working on their upcoming musical, "Sunny Day, Come and Play." It will be presented Thursday, April 4th, at 7:00PM, in our cafeteria. Students should wear bright colors. Make sure your child has turned in a permission slip to participate so they can go to our extra rehearsals on the stage. These rehearsals will be held during the school day.

Art Most students have finished working with clay. They will be creating pictures with Tempera and Watercolor Paint this month. Elf Owls have completed the illustrations for their alphabet book and will be working on the text for each page. ESE Parent Survey: The annual ESE Parent Survey is now open for input from parents of students receiving ESE services in Pasco County. The survey is available online through June 30th at the following link: www.esesurvey.com

                 

Burrowing Owls The Burrowing Owls congratulate our Citizen of the Month, Sean Donahue. He was chosen for his respectful manners toward others. Early this month we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday with special activities and lots of reading. Continue to read nightly with your child and have him or her practice retelling the events of the story. We especially want you to keep reading over Spring Break! Check out your child’s class website at www.wges.pasco.k12.fl.us for class updates and reading activities. As the weather warms up, please remember to follow the dress code. Shorts, skirts, and dresses should be of a modest length. Tops with spaghetti straps or that allow any of the mid-torso to show are not appropriate in the school setting. Please allow your child to practice tying their own shoes. This is a skill that should be mastered by this time of the year. Do you like outdoor fun? We are in need of approved volunteers to help with Field Day on March 22nd. The Burrowing Owls wish everyone a fun, relaxing Spring Break! P.T.A. Can you believe it? Another month has flown by. We are looking for volunteers for the Spring Festival that will be held in April. Please contact us at wgesptavolunteers@gmail.com if you are interested in volunteering. Thank you to everyone who came out to support us at Family Night at Brewster's. We brought in $75. What a great night! Our next Family Night is still a work in progress. We will be sending home a flyer with each child on the place, date, and time. Keep those OWL eyes open for the flyer. Last but not least, Spring Break is at the end of the month. The WGES PTA would like to make sure all of our Owls have a safe and happy Spring Break.    

Spotted Owls The Spotted Owls have put a SPRING in their step! We are relieved that the FCAT Writes 2.0 Test is behind us. We are so proud of our 4th graders’ hard work with writing so far this year. The students have shown a great deal of writing growth throughout the year. We felt prepared for the test! Our field trip to Crystal Springs Preserve is just around the corner on March 15th. Mark your calendar! It is an all-inclusive field trip. Lunch will be provided at no cost. If you prefer your child to bring his or her own lunch, please let us know. The permission form for this field trip was sent home last week. The Spotted Owl team’s Citizen of the Month for February is Paige Lehrer from Ms Preston’s class. Paige exemplifies the character trait of “Respect”! On another positive note, our 4th graders were recognized once again for awesome cafeteria manners and behavior. Mr. Mitchell complimented us on the WGES Morning News Show. Keep up the good work fourth graders! We wanted to take a moment to point out that many of our Spotted Owls have been making great strides with AR. Read on for their names.

Ms. Gaudens’ AR Stars are: Caitlyn Crilly, Kai Savatphoune, and Zaynub Siddiqui with a special shout out to Meagan Vincent, Justin Holden, and Joshua Lutzker for working hard to make their goals. From Ms. Preston’s class: Blake Devisfruto, Zion Flavien, Koby Gallington, Jaden Lafosse, Paige Lehrer, Erica Perez, Debrah Portillo, Bryan Ruiz, and Gabriela Smith are leading the pack, while Jonathan Albergina, Andrea Fitzgerald, Nathaniel Henzel, Gabriella Pittman, and Suri Reyes-Toro are making big gains. Mrs. Hyatt’s classroom AR leaders are: Conner Andre, Olivia Chappie, Bryce Chumbley, Caitlyn Koch, Jonathan Mohammed, Chloe Spector, and Angelina Torres, while Milan Scarbrough, Adrian Vazquez, and Cameron Williams are having great success! Finally, in Miss Rosekelly’s class: Caleb

Addis, Joel Brown, Ethan Nguyen, Alexia Parz, Tyra Stewart, Phillip Stephens, Reese Hyatt, Destiny Davila, and Felipe Arencibia are shining AR Stars! Congratulations for your hard work!

Pygmy Owls             The Pygmy owls want to CONGRATULATE our Citizen of the Month, Jennifer Ruiz. She always shows respect for her peers and her teachers. We are so excited that it is March. In addition to Dr. Seuss’ birthday, that we celebrated last wee, we have fun things planned for St. Patrick's Day and spring’s arrival. Be on the lookout for those tricky leprechauns. They will probably be up to their shenanigans soon. Make sure to continue reading nightly with your child and logging the books onto their Book It log. This is the last month for the program and their final chance to earn a free pizza from Pizza Hut.

Snowy Owl News Snowy Owls are excited to announce two owls, Bailey Buchanan from Mrs. Hoffman's class and Jerica Rodriguez from Mrs. Welling’s class, as our March Citizens of the Month! They have been demonstrating responsibility. Bailey is always willing to help out and completes her task in an orderly fashion. Jerica completes her assignments as well as showing care and dedication for her education. Thank you and congratulations! Information was sent home on February 15th, about the Snowy Owl field trip to Crystal Springs Preserve on Friday, March 22nd. The field trip will cost $3.00 per student. This will cover bus fare and an incredible indoor/outdoor hands-on science experience. Please have your child’s money and forms turned in by Thursday, March 7th. The FCAT testing is just around the corner. Please make sure your child is taking advantage of FCAT Explorer for fun reading practice. Just click the Kids’ Corner link on our school webpage, scroll down to Test Today, and click on the FCAT Explorer link. Your child’s login and password are located in the planner or Take Home folder. Also, please have your child review math vocabulary terms and complete FASTT Math lessons daily. These are great ways to get prepared for the test.

Thank you, parents, for reading and signing your child's planner each evening. The planners are checked by your child's teacher and are a great daily communication tool. As always, thank you for sending your child to us, rested and ready to learn. Eagle owls Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss! Our students were able to enjoy being a part of Read Across America on Friday, March 1st in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday! Have you read a good book lately? Both our 100th Day Celebration and Valentine’s Day were huge successes! Thank you so much for bringing in 100 edible counters, as well as all of the amazing sweets and goodies that were brought in and shared on Valentine’s Day! We could definitely feel the love! Our supplies are running low! We are in need of baby wipes, hand sanitizer, and tissues! Thank you in advance for any donations that you can send our way! As Spring Break approaches, please continue to encourage your child to keep giving his or her best effort! Please monitor your child’s homework assignments daily by reviewing and signing your child’s planner. Students should be bringing home two books every week from the media center in order to fulfill their weekly reading goals and enable them to earn points toward their quarterly AR goals. Books should be returned promptly to ensure that new books can be checked out (at least every two weeks). Reading EVERY day makes students better readers! Finally, please do not allow your child to bring candy, games, toys, or makeup to school. These items are distractions both in and out of the classroom! Thank you! Spotlight on WGES Student Resources: Kids InfoBits Using your favorite Internet browser, type in the following URL and bookmark the MIND page on your computer:

http://mind.pasco.k12.fl.us

Enter by clicking on Thomson-Gale: Choose Kids InfoBits, Library ID: pasco

Five Star Partner

Great Grey Owls

Get your calendars out! March Madness has begun! This month is going to be full of activities and excitement! We have a music field trip to WCHS-PAC to view the WCHS Band Recruitment Concert on March 20th. We’re sure it will be a fun time for all. Also, JA BizTown is only two months away and we will need many volunteers. Please let your child's teacher know if you are a school-approved volunteer and would like to spend May 10th, working with our students at BizTown. It takes a large group of people to make sure the visit is a success, so please consider volunteering! We would like to thank our chaperones who supported us on our field trip to the Florida Pioneer Museum. We appreciate you Mrs. Maddox, Mrs. Devisfruto, and Mrs. Connelly! This month we are wrapping up a few units of study. The Tropicana Speech Unit is coming to a close. Students should have been working on their speeches and practicing their delivery at home. We are looking forward to all of the speech presentations, as it always proves to be an entertaining event! We are also excited about the upcoming WGES Invention Convention, which will be held on March 13th in the media center. Good luck GGO students! Finally, we will be having a movie celebration for students who have worked hard during this quarter to reach their goals. They have a chance to earn popcorn, a drink, and a candy treat if they reach their goal. The teachers love seeing all those movie tickets go up in the center of the pod, and we hope many more will be placed on it soon. Finally, we are in need of a few supplies: wet wipes, tissues, pencils, and lined paper. If you are able to donate any supplies we would be very appreciative. Thank you in advance and keep up the great work fifth graders!

Military Kids Our Military Kids group will meet the third Wednesday of this month (3/20). We will discuss

the events in the lives of our Military families.

Fifth Grade Peer Mentors Our Fifth Grade mentors are an enormous help. Our Elf Owl students enjoy having them assist during their special time.

Elf owls February brought our annual Special Olympic Games for our Elf Owls at the Wesley Chapel High School field. Our K-5 students participated and had a wonderful time enjoying their events and the grand parade. We especially appreciated having so many families turn out for the day of fun. All of our students earned a ribbon for their efforts. Go Owls! Our intermediate grade students in Ms. Anderson’s and Ms. Pascarella’s classes will be taking their important Alternative Assessment over the next month. So please remember to get a good night’s sleep to stay focused and on track each day. In Ms. Torres’ speech-language program the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) continues to gain momentum. Our many students have been working hard and progressing through the phases systematically. Ms. Anderson’s class is still looking for donors for our DonorsChoose Project on our school website. Please share the word with your friends! With Spring Break just around the corner, Ms. Pascarella's class will be working on some special spring activities. In March Ms. Poe's class will focus strongly in the area of Reading. We will also create March fine motor craft activities. We had a wonderful time at Special Olympics and we are very proud of all of our winners. Ms. Milligan's PreK TALK class will be marching right into spring with language-filled spring activities. The students in Ms. Stockelman's PreK classroom continue to work on our pre-academic and our social skills. We are wrapping up our lessons about winter, and we even went ice-skating on paper plates in the classroom. Spring is around the corner and we plan many wonderful Spring activities. The preschoolers in Ms. Bade's Pre K class have been exploring our five senses. We are continuing to increase our fine motor,

communication, and social skills. We also enjoy exploring beginning concepts in Reading and Math. Ms. Eikeland’s PreK classroom see that March is upon us, and we are planning some exciting fine motor spring themed activities. Keep a lookout for wonderful projects created by your child.

FCAT Reminders

 1.    Focus  on  the  learning  not  the  test.     Parents   and   teachers  must   help   students  keep   their   focus   on   daily   learning   and   skills  practice  instead  of  focusing  only  on  the  outcome  of   the   FCAT.     While   test   performance   is  important,   having   a   relaxed   and   confident  student  is  more  beneficial  for  overall  success.        

2.    Get  rest,  fuel,  and  think  carefully.     Always  get  a  good  night’s  sleep   the  night  before   a   test.     Make   sure   your   child   eats   a  nutritious   breakfast   at   home   or   school   on   the  morning   of   testing.     Finally,   when   doing  homework  with  your   child   you   can  help  him  or  her  to  slow  down  and  think  about  each  question  so   that   your   child   learns   to   think   carefully   and  maintain  a  steady  pace  during  testing.    

3.    Encourage  effort  and  persistence  in  all  school  assignments.               Students  accustomed  to  setting  goals  and  completing  tasks  are  more  likely  to  be  successful  in  high  school  and  college.   Learning   the   habits  of  success  are  just  as  important  as  the  skills  and  knowledge   learned   in   textbooks.     So,   please  praise  your  student  for  sticking  to  a  difficult  task  and  trying  their  best,  even  if  the  final  result  is  not  perfect.    Help  him  or  her  learn  to  break  activities  into  small  steps  that  are  more  easily  managed  for  more   likely   chance   of   completion.     Thank   you,  parents,  for  leading  the  way  to  success!  

 

PLACE News    

PLACE is the PLACE, to fill up that space, That seems to take PLACE, when time won’t Erase,

the boredom in case, you’ve no plans in PLACE, for Spring Break.

PLACE has some Seuss-tacular plans for the month of March. Our thematic activity plans will center on the study and styles of Dr. Seuss. During Spring Break, Watergrass students will attend program at Wesley Chapel Elementary School where we will continue with our Suessy theme. The PLACE Staff has planned many special activities that include a visit from friends at the New River Library, a breakfast of Green Eggs and Ham, a Wet and Wild Water/Field Day, and a visit from a group of Therapy Dogs from the Wesley Chapel area. (The Cat In the Hat may wish to stay away that day!) As a reminder, on April 15th, PLACE will be accepting New Client Registration for “Camp Wow 2013”. If you have any questions regarding Spring Break or the “Camp Wow 2013” summer program, please call 813-346-0692.

   

 

SPRING BREAK  is  March  25th  -­‐April  1st    We  will  see  you  back  at  school  on  April  2nd.  

Have Fun, Read, Explore, Create, Be Active!