Home of the Pumas March Hats Off To The

Home of the Pumas! March 2007 Hats Off To The Following Honor Roll Students FOURTH GRADE HONOR ROLL ALL A’S Manisha Bhanot Rachel Clark Will Donohoe Georgia Evangeliou Bianca Ferrante Lauren Funk Ericka Larosa Janice Lee Kaila Martin Sean Pickering Nathalie Primo Bhavya Ravigopal Siwani Regmi Joanna Shaju Brian Weiss Jeremiah Kim Mackenzie Kuhn Austin LaChance Abby Lambert Rachel Malinowski Michael McGregor Alisson Montemayor Octavia Morrill Scott Morrill Nikhil Narayana Farhana Nawaby Aliyah Nelson Lisa Nguyen Sarah Nickles Connor Norris Dylan Peacock Samantha Pham Scarlett Phares Alyssa Rathigna Sumved Ravi Rahul Ravindra Miguel Rillo Donnie Roessler Joe Saah Chris Saenz Leah Smith Jordyn Sofranko Noelle St. Laurent Nathan Stec Samantha Suarez Megan Swanson Cayman Ward Hollis Young Megan Zywicki Ryan Fuller Ross Grizzard Anna Jacobson Eckert Giovanni JimenezSenzano Eram Khan Ziyanah Ladak Brooke Landry Mikaela Mohardt Katy Nystrom Charith Ratnayake Arianna Robinson Haley Staples Zachary Tidwell Eric Weismiller Kelly Wieczorek Andrew Williams Tim Wilson Jana Zschoche Varun Jain Zachary Johnson Jasmine Jordan Daanyaal Khan Jimmy Lamantia William Lee David Lieberman Meghana Mantha Christian Mitchell Shonalika Mondal Christine Moya Alexa Osgood Michael Paik Karen Park Andrew Peretin Madison Porter Bea Pulido Sabrina Qreitem Brandon Rafferty Alex Rearden Macoia Richmond Xina Rodriguez Amber Rogers Eric Ross Nabil Saad Sterling Shelly Kara Smith Rachel Smith Brittany Spargo Nick Stelly Rachel Stephenson Saizone Terrell Jessica Tran Taylor Trivett Mercy Wadhwa Brittany Walker Soyeol Yoo Ashley You Jennifer Yudd Allison Zigadlo Katie Zigadlo A AND B HONOR ROLL Jennifer Ahmad Casey Allison Brock Ashton Bryce Ballard Matthew Blumen Frank Boudreaux Taylor Campbell Mackenzie Cestare Susie Corkran Shayna Dart Hejran Darya Connor Day Harnaik Dhami Harsha Dindigal Francine Evangelista Sophie Fontaine Christian Freeman Jessie Graham Lila Hafiz Sean Haliyur Alexis Haycraft Peter Heo A AND B HONOR ROLL John Tyler Aceron Berkley Addi Haniya Ahmad Vimal Basani Ilona Bodnar Basil Coker Carlee Craze Hayden Dabbs Nhat Dang Damon Dixon Sam Forte Natalie Gandolfo Srikar Gangavarapu Maddie Graham Jamie Guerra Sam Hagood Elizabeth Hayes Christine Higginbotham Jason Jenkins Ben Johnson Chalon Johnson Anush Karnati Kevin Kent Morgan Khov FIFTH GRADE HONOR ROLL ALL A’S Ally Arpajian Allison Babick Ryan Babick Alex Bierly Tyler Bierly Andrea Colon-Perez Lindsey Cudd If due to a disability, you need assistance to enable you to participate meaningfully in the meetings at school, please contact Dawn Haddock at (703) 957-4325 at least five work days prior to the event. Students At Pinebrook Recognized For The Good Character Award! Kindergarten Jacob Angelus Anvitha Anumolu Cindy Chavarria Ashleigh Hall Alexis Haney Johnny Horn Griffin Kuhn Levi Moody Tim Mulieri Lexi Parvin Freddy Qreitem Liberty Ricca First Grade Simon Cha Joey Collins Nicolas Edier Sabrina ElShanti Teagan Essman Troy Martin Lynzy Mitchell Pranit Nadipelli Lindsey Nystrom Alex Thoden Second Grade Nafi Ahnaf Jade Alemayehu Kyle Blackburn Jared Blumen William Cho Vivian Dang Selen Elliftawi Nayaab Khan Wafa Khan Madison Meier Savannah Merritt Megan Thornhill Third Grade Karana Afshari Skylar Blake Victor Botteicher Isaiah Davis Taylor Hawley-Wagoner Joseph Jaco Claire Ko Ghnana Madineni Carson Nizialek Minh-Nguyet Pham Fourth Grade Rachel Clark Nicholas Fisch Diamond Hardy MacKenzie Kuhn Caroline Morrill Aliyah Nelson Jennifer Ortega Briana Rivera Connor Rooney Megan Zywicki Fifth Grade Charles Claeyssen Andrea Colon-Perez Connor Day Jessie Graham Ross Grizzard Kelly Melendez Varshan Suresh Kelly Wieczorek Ashley You Katie Zigadlo Kiss and Go Safety Kiss and go safety continues to be a concern of mine. If you are parking your car and coming into the school with your child, please use the crosswalk. If you are waiting in line, we ask that you pull all the way up and wait patiently for the cars in front of you to move up. We normally can have all cars loaded and on their way in 10 minutes. Please call our Absentee Line if your child is going to be out sick or arriving late (703) 957-4330 Odyssey of the Mind Competition Pinebrook faculty and staff would like to wish our best to the following students as they compete on March 3rd at Potomac Falls High School. We are proud to send a primary team this year to the competition. We couldn’t have done this without the help of Mrs. Ligas, the coordinator, and Seema Jain, the coach. They have worked endless hours to make this happen. Best of Luck! Matthew Betsill Shriienidhie Ganesh Casey Graham Nicole Foley Sachin Jain Albert Jang Lauryn Legeer Taylor Rentz Youth Art Month Mrs. Johnson will be hosting “Art Activity Night” on Wednesday, March 21st. It will take place from 6:30-7:30PM in the Pinebrook cafeteria. This is a great time for you and your family to enjoy an art activity with your child. Mark your calendar for this fun event! Basketball Game The staff basketball game has been rescheduled for Wednesday, March 7th at 6:00PM at Freedom High School. Bring the family for a fun-filled night as the Haddock Hammers take on the Jammin’ Josephs. Jump Rope For Heart This year we had 130 children participate in the after school Jump Rope For Heart program. The students raised $7,200.00. It is so important to teach our children the importance of making a difference in the lives of others. A thank you to the many parents who helped Yearbook News as well as those parents who let their child participate! Friday, March 2nd, is the last day to order your 06-07 Thank you to Mr. McPherson and Mr. Bauder for makPinebrook yearbook. If you did not receive or have mis- ing this happen! placed your order form, there are extras in the office. Please send a note or have your child come to the office. Please note that I only order ten extra yearbooks at the end of the year and they do go fast. Specialist News Articles Reading__________________ Wendy Breeden Jeannie Lambert Developmental Reading Assessment Science Fair Project Ideas With the recent distribution of report cards, many parents have become aware of the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA), which is used as a reading assessment in Loudoun County Public Schools. This article will explain exactly what is assessed on the DRA and how you can help practice for the DRA with books at home. Reading Engagement is the first area assessed on the DRA. In the elementary grades, children are asked what kinds of books they like to read, they tell about one of their favorite books, and they tell with whom they read at home. The primary students fill out a reading survey where they actually list books they have read and are currently reading. Oral Reading Fluency is assessed in several different ways on the DRA. Teachers evaluate the children’s expression, phrasing, rate, and accuracy while reading a passage orally. The oral reading is timed to calculate the reading rate and miscues are counted to determine accuracy. Comprehension is the next area of assessment on the DRA. Children are asked to preview the story by making predictions, retell the story orally including a sequence of the events, refer to the characters and details, and use vocabulary from the text. Each time the student must be prompted by the teacher to include this information, the evaluation score is lowered. The children are then asked to reflect about a favorite part of the story and to make a connection to the story. The older students do the comprehension component in writing. All these skills can be practiced at home with almost any book. It can even be a book that is read aloud to the child to work on the comprehension of the story. Graphic organizers of story maps are wonderful ways to teach children how to do story retellings. It is also helpful to let the children use the pictures when first learning how to do oral and written retellings. Then they can try to retell the story orally without looking at the pictures. On the DRA assessment the children need to do all these skills after reading the story only once and the oral retelling is done without the book. In the older grades they are allowed to use the book to write their summary. We hope this helps you understand the DRA assessment a little better! The fifth grade will be participating in the Science Fair in April. So, start thinking of ideas for your science fair project! Here are a few web sites that can help you learn how to do a science experiment as well as some interesting experiments to try out: http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/ - This website allows you to search for Science Fair projects by specific search criteria, or just browse through projects organized by subject area. Sort by difficulty to have elementary school level projects listed first. If you select a specific project you can get all the details of how to do the experiment. http://school.discovery.com/sciencefaircentral/scifairstudio/ This website contains information on the scientific method and many project ideas to get you started on a science fair project. Once you pick a question you want to answer, follow the scientific method to finish your project. http://www.tryscience.org/experiments/experiments_home. html - Select a topic area and look through the suggested experiments. Then follow the scientific method to conduct your experiment. Special Note To Parents: Please always supervise your children on the Internet! TECHNOLOGY BITS AND BYTES__________________________ Joe Harris John Copeland Art_______________________ Donna Johnson First Graders have been working on Jim Dine inspired hearts and patterned jester hats. Next up is Cityscapes and Inuit figures. Second grade completed their Chinese Dragon puppets and clay figures and will be moving on to still lifes and turrets. Third grade completed Mali mud cloths and Greek vessels. Their next project will be Ancient Architecture. Fourth grade completed an abstract clay project and modern still lifes and will move on to silhouettes. Fifth grade is finally working on M.C. Escher inspired tessellations and then Egyptian Profiles. “Painting and sculpture help other people to see what a wonderful world we live in..” ... Henry Moore Search_______________________Alana Skelly Gifted Programs • Participate in making things better by voicing your opinion, voting, serving on committees, reporting wrongdoing and paying taxes Play by the rules Obey parents, teachers, coaches, and others who have been given authority Observe just laws Honor and respect principles of democracy • Loudoun County Public Schools will be holding informational meetings regarding the gifted programs in the district. For your convenience, the same presentation will be shared at each site, so please attend the one that best fits your schedule. March 21st 6:30 PM Eagle Ridge Middle School March 27th 6:30 PM Farmwell Station Middle School April 18th 6:30 PM Hutchison Elementary School April 19th 6:30 PM Cool Spring Elementary School April 19th 6:00 PM Reid Elementary School April 25th 6:00 PM Park View High School April 26th 6:30 PM Harmony Intermediate School and Horizon Elementary School If, due to a disability, you need assistance to enable you to participate meaningfully in these meetings, please contact the principal of the school at least five working days prior to the meeting. • • • FLES______________________ Luisa Quintero Leticia Rodriguez Studies have shown, and experience has supported, that children who learn a language before the onset of adolescence are much more likely to have native-like pronunciation. A number of experts attribute this proficiency to physiological changes that occur in the maturing brain as a child enters puberty. Of course, as with any subject, the more years a child can devote to learning a language, the more competent he or she will become. Regardless, introducing children to alternative ways of expressing themselves and to different cultures generally broadens their outlook and gives them the opportunity to communicate with many more people. This month in FLES we will cover: 1 grade: 2nd Grade: 3rd Grade: 4th Grade: 5th Grade: st Family, Clothing Zoo Animals, Clothing Food, Shopping Reading in Spanish using clues and familiar vocabulary, The Sun, the Earth &the Moon, Professions. Marine Animals, Insects & Bugs, Food, Restau rant and Reading in Spanish. Guidance_____________ Joyce Shanholtzer Melissa Brewer FLES WISH LIST If you have any of these items and would like to donate some for the FLES program, it would be greatly appreciated: ♦ Construction Paper Glue Sticks Responsibility - Respect - Caring - Fairness Citizenship – Trustworthiness The character pillar for March and April is Citizenship. Pinebrook Pumas can show good citizenship by doing the following: • • • • Be a good citizen and a good neighbor Care about and pursue the common good Be a volunteer — help your school and community be better, cleaner, and safer Protect the environment by conserving resources, reducing pollution, and cleaning up after yourself (Continued in next column) ♦ Physical Education_________Brad Bauder Brian McPherson We have started our gymnastics unit. The students will be learning and practicing several different ways to balance. They will be learning to roll, tumble and jump. We will be using several different pieces of equipment such as mats, incline mats and balance beams. To culminate our gymnastics unit, the students will be creating their own tumbling routine. Thank you to all of the parent volunteers who helped make this year’s Jump Rope For Heart program such a big success. The students raised just over seven thousand dollars at this year’s event. Way to go! Parent Liaison——————– Cathy McCoy Musical Notes___________________ Pat Avery Pam Hoffmaster Keep up the communication with your child's teacher....... Communication with your child's teacher is a great gift to give your child. When you and your child's teacher are on the same team, you can work together to build the support your child needs to learn more and will help him or her take a positive risk to do their best in school. Get to know your child's teacher… do not wait until there is a problem or a need. Make sure you read your child's Thursday folder and their Take Home folder daily, that way you will know about upcoming field trips, dates for events at the school, and you will be aware of any correspondence from the school. Also, remember to ask your child each day if they brought anything home for you from school. Look at your child's homework. The best way to know what your child is doing in school is to review their homework. Email is a great way to communicate with the teacher, but please have patience… teachers work long hours and it may take several days for even the most dedicated teacher to get back to you. Arrange for a conference if you have some big problems to resolve, and write down all of your concerns ahead of time One of the best ways to build a strong relationship with your child's teacher is to say “THANK YOU” for all that they do for your child and you. Summer in the Arts registration has begun online for students currently in fifth through eleventh grade. The classes will be held at Freedom High School from June 26 until July 13, 2007 from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM each day. Registration deadline is May 24, 2007. Register early because class size is limited. Please go online to: www.loudoun.k12.va.us and click on quick links, fine arts, and Summer in the Arts. Brochures are available in the Pinebrook office if you are interested. PROGRAMS AT PINEBROOK: Third Grade Mar. 15, 2007 6:30 PM Ancient Civilizations Fourth Grade Mar. 22, 2007 6:30 PM Colonial Virginia Fair LIBRARY___________________ Denise Higgins Charlotte Lombardo FUTURA____________________ Kay Franklin, Sue Jurey, Penny Manion News You Can Use... After studying the structure of a newspaper, the Pinebrook FUTURA students have done a wonderful job creating their own original “Ancient Times” newspaper stories. Keep up the great work! Mrs. Franklin will be continuing her research into math structures as a meaningful arrangement of elements by exploring Pascal’s Triangle and the Golden Ratio. Mrs. Manion will investigate Pythagoras and the Pythagorean Theorem. All classes will be delving into the Middle Ages this month. They will be investigating the structure of feudal society and the architectural elements of castles and gothic cathedrals. To further enhance our study, the Pinebrook FUTURA classes will be touring Washington’s National Cathedral on Thursday, March 15th. Students will explore the architecture of the Cathedral. By focusing on its structure, students discover how and why a building of such magnitude was created. The program offers students the opportunity to take measurements, solve equations, experiment with the force of gravity, and apply and recognize the practical application of math and science skills in a real world scenario. Please notify your child’s teacher if you’d like to be a chaperone. Accelerated Reader News: There are four classes who have earned over 2,000 points and twelve classes who have earned over 1,000. To date, there are 138 students who have qualified for the AR Carnival which will be held on June 15, 2007. As always, I thank you for encouraging your child to read. Mark Your Calendars: Author Peter Parente and "Peeper" the Kinkajou and "Mo" the two-toed sloth will visit Pinebrook on March 26th. The students in grades 3-5 will attend the program from 12:05-1:05 and grades K-2 will attend the program from 1:15-2:15. Parents are welcome to attend either of the programs. Dr. Seuss' Birthday: In honor of Theodor Seuss Geisel's birthday and Read Across America Week, we will have a week long celebration March 5-9, 2007. The activities will be announced on the morning news show. Tuesday, March 6th will be Sneetch Day, so help your child locate a yellow shirt, sweatshirt, sweater, etc. "The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn." John Lubbock March 2007 Sun Mon Tue Wed 1 Thu Fri 2 *Interims sent home 3 Sat 4 5 6 *5th Graders take the SOL multiple choice writing test 7 *Haddock Hammers take on the Jammin’ Josephs at Freedom High School at 6:00PM 8 *1st Grade Field Trip Biggs/Rogan/Weiss/ Noland 9 *1st Grade Field Trip Howland/Doehler/ Myrick *5th Graders take SOL direct writing test 11 12 13 14 *3rd Grade field trip to Mt. Vernon *Tornado Drill 21 *Art Activity Night 6:30 –7:30PM 15 *3rd Grade Performance 6:30 PM 16 *4th Grade field trip to Jamestown 10 *Daylight Savings Time -2:00AM. Turn your clocks forward 1 hr . 17 *Happy St. Patrick’s Day 18 19 *PTA Meeting 7:00 PM Library 20 *Academic Challenge Test 8:00AM 22 *4th Grade Colonial Virginia Fair 6:30PM 23 24 25 26 *Mr. Parente (Rainforest Author) Assembly for all students 27 28 29 30 31 *Spring Break Begins–Return to school on April 9th