Bay Vista Bulletin
April / May 2022 Edition
Message from the Principal
This month, we will begin the first part of our FSA testing. Our 3rd graders will take the ELA portion of FSA and our 4th and 5th graders will take the FSA Writing. Please ensure your students are getting enough sleep each night and completing their homework to ensure they are ready to perform at their best not only for testing days but for each day at school! All students have been working so hard and they are ready for this first round of FSA testing!!
We are also finishing up our Spring Cycle of MAP Testing and are so proud of the growth we are seeing in our Jaguars!
We have six opportunities for meeting credits for the months of April/May combined which include:
· 4/4 Virtual SAC Meeting
· 4/7 PTA Staff Luncheon (must sign-up on Sign-Up Genius link AND donate)
· 4/11 Family Science Night at BVF
· 4/14 BVF Family Night at SkyZone
· 5/2 Virtual SAC Meeting
· 5/5 PTA Staff Luncheon (must sign-up on Sign-Up on Sign-Up Genius line AND donate).
SWIMMING Returns this month
We are so excited that after two years, our Swim Program returns this month! The deadline to sign-up and has passed. We are looking forward to a success swim season with our Jaguars! The P.E. Department will share more in the coming weeks.
Thank you to our amazing PTA for their hard work in fundraising for the Bay Vista 6th Annual Jaguar Jog!!! The event was a fun way to raise funds while promoting physical fitness, a healthy lifestyle, and building school spirit and pride.
Donna Hall
Principal
SAC Nominations
If you are interested in being on the SAC Board or a SAC member, please click the link below to submit your name. Those interested in being a board member will submit a brief statement of their qualifications using the Forms Link below by Friday, April 15th. Only potential board members need to submit qualifications.
Nomination/Submission Link: https://forms.office.com/r/3Qvi1WqeK7
The current SAC committee will review the candidates and vote at our May SAC Meeting.
SAC Board Positions
Chairperson
- Schedules regular SAC meetings
- Calls SAC meetings to order, maintains order & sees that the meetings are properly adjourned.
- Works closely with the Principal to plan each meeting and establish an agenda in time to notify the members of the purposes of the meeting and accepts item for the agenda.
- Shares leadership with the Principal and other SAC members.
- Notifies members of upcoming meeting dates.
Vice Chairperson
- Collaborates with the Principal, Chairperson, and Secretary
- Acting Chairperson in the absence of the Chairperson
SAC Secretary
- Keeps accurate, complete minutes and shares minutes.
- Maintains up-to-date files of minutes
- Keeps accurate records of attendance
End-of-Year Conferences begin this month
Final Week of School - May 23 - 26--Last day of school is an EARLY RELEASE day at 12:25 p.m.
Dreambox Lesson Requirements
Weekly Lesson Requirements
Grades K, 1, 2 - Complete 5-7 lessons per week
Grades 3, 4, 5 - Complete 10 lessons per week
As I monitor student progress, we are close each week to meeting our weekly lesson goals, but falling short schoolwide. Please talk to your Jaguar about their weekly lesson progress to help them meet their goals.
PTA News
Spring has sprung and the PTA has a few more "tricks" up our sleeves before the end of the school year!
Speaking of tricks, did you know that a magic show is coming to Bay Vista? The PTA promised that if our Spring fundraiser reached $7,000, we would sponsor a school-wide magic show for our Jaguars. We ended up raising $13,000 and we are holding true to our promise!
We are preparing for the teacher luncheon on April 7th, and are seeking donations to make sure it is successful! Those who donate can earn meeting credit for April!!! Here is the link to sign-up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0C4AADA92CA2F94-april
We have our super popular Jaguar Jump Spirit Night at SkyZone coming up on Thursday, April 14th, from 3pm-8pm, which is perfect timing since there is NO SCHOOL on April 15th!
We look forward to seeing you at one or more of our upcoming events! Thank you again for the level of support that you show, you are very much appreciated!
Sincerely,
The Bay Vista PTA
Kindergarten Happenings
Reading Focus:
In reading, students will focus on describing the appearance, actions, feelings, and thoughts of characters within a story, with an emphasis on comparing and contrasting characters’ experiences in stories.
Students continue to read just-right books and decodable books, with an emphasis on strategies to help them navigate through higher-level texts. Students activate their extra-strength Super Reading Powers to decode words accurately, monitor for meaning, self-correct, and cross-check. Students also use their Super Reading Powers to read at a steady rate with intonation and expression.
Writing Focus:
In writing, students will focus on using a combination of drawing, dictating, and/or writing to express their opinions about a topic or text with at least one supporting reason. As in previous modules, Explicit Writing Instruction is devoted to teaching students how to follow the rules of punctuation, capitalization, and spelling appropriate to the kindergarten grade level.
Math Focus:
In Math, we are representing addition and subtraction with objects and drawings as well as solving equations with sums up to 10 by acting them out.
Science Focus:
In Science, we are studying life science and recognizing that some books and media portray animals and plants with characteristics and behaviors that they do not have in real life.
1st Grade Frolics
Our current Reading Unit focuses on narrative texts about overcoming obstacles and reaching goals. The topic of perseverance is learned through characters’ experiences and adventures in historical and realistic fiction and fables. Readers will immerse themselves in module texts about characters who face unique challenges and understand the importance of trusting and accepting the support of key role models to do their best and succeed.
In Writer’s Workshop our first grade scholars are writing stories that are realistic and fictional. In realistic narrative writing students will create their own realistic characters and develop stories that could actually happen. Stories that are developed will include story elements such as sequenced events, a problem and a solution.
In Math, our first graders are learning how to tell time to hour and half hour, count and recognize different coins and also learn about place value. They are discovering that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones. They are also learning how to add and subtract by using a 120 chart as a strategy.
In our next Science Unit we will learn about Basic Needs in Life Science. Through observation, students will recognize that all plants and animals, including humans, need the basic necessities of air, water, food, and space in order to survive!
Second Grade Happenings
In ELA we started a new module which is all about expressing ourselves creatively. We are going to be learning more about poetry and learning about street art and how to “read” illustrations. We are going to be focusing more on figurative language and art.
In writing we have been busy learning how to express our opinion. We have been writing to share our opinion using multi paragraph essays that include introductions, body paragraphs and a conclusion.
In math we have been learning about shapes. We focused on triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons and hexagons and learned about the 3D shape, the cube. We have been practicing partitioning shapes into equal parts and learning terms like halve, thirds and fourths.
In science we just finished up our unit on gravity and we had our cycle 2 exam. We have been busy with our class science projects as well and are going to be jumping into a life science unit on Helpful Habitats soon.
Third Grade Updates
ELA:
We are beginning our mystery unit for module F we will be reading mystery books and writing our own mystery stories.
Math:
Third graders are working hard on their geometry! We are learning about shape attributes and classifying quadrilaterals. We will also be learning about perimeter of polygons and partitioning shapes. Both of these topics will relate back to our work with area and fractions.
Science:
We will be finishing our science projects for the Bay Vista Science Showcase Night on April 11. Then, we will dive back into learning about plant parts, plant classification, and plant responses to stimuli.
4th Grade Facts
In April, 4th grade mathematicians will complete their final math unit focusing on converting fractions with a denominator or 10 and 100 into decimals. We’ll also learn how to compare decimals. As we finish out this unit, students will also be reviewing standards we’ve learned throughout the year as we head into the home stretch towards the FSA in May!
In Science, students will continue with their Life Science units. We’ll be learning about heredity, the parts of flowers and food chains. Students will also go to the lab to complete their last 2 science lab units. The Cubelets lab lets students use programmable cubes to explore the various types of energy. In the Owl Pellet lab, students will get to dissect an owl pellet to examine real evidence of food chains. These are really fun labs and students love them!
In ELA, 4th grade writers will be fine tuning their writing skills in preparation for the FSA Writing Test. This text based writing test will be during the first full week of April. Students will also be reviewing reading strategies in preparation for the Reading FSA in May. As we move into Module F, we will be reading many different myths. We will also be comparing and contrasting poems, drama and prose.
Fabulous 5th Grade
Fifth grade is planning some fun end of the year activities.
- Monday, May 23- EPCOT
- Tuesday, May 24th- Pool Party – Lake Vista
- Wednesday, May 25th – Drive Through Graduation
We are currently working on completing Science Fair projects as well as working on our Unit of Environmental Changes. We will also be visiting the lab on Rocks and Minerals. In Math we are wrapping up Unit 4 which is on conversions, line plots and two-dimensional figures. Next we move onto Unit 5 which will be on evaluating expressions and coordinate planes. You have probably seen a lot of math and science review coming home. Please encourage your child to do their best on this!
In Reading we are finishing Module E, our Holocaust unit. The students have been extremely interested in this unit and the history of the Holocaust. We have finished our chapter book Number the Stars and learned all about Annemarie and the bravery of her family in Denmark! We will wrap up this unit with Body Biographies of the characters for a culminating project. The students have explored Anne Frank and the Secret Annex with a WebQuest. For writing, the students have been working hard on timed writing pieces. The students work on timed writing on Wednesdays and then edit them with partners that following Monday. They have completed a ton of writing escape rooms to remember and practice all the steps of the writing process! The next module is Module F. This is our testing module. The first half of the module is testing practice with test taking strategies and practice Reading FSAs. We will be doing creative writing during this time! Then, the second half of the module, we will be reading Save Me A Seat.
Upcoming Dates - April and May
April
April 4th, Virtual SAC Meeting (meeting credit opportunity)
April 7th, PTA Staff Luncheon (meeting credit opportunity)
April 11th, Family Science Night at BVF (meeting credit opportunity)
April 14th, BVF Family Night at SkyZone (meeting credit opportunity)
April 15th, No School
April 29th, Field Day
MAY - Specific FSA testing dates will be shared by your child's teacher
May 2nd, Virtual SAC Meeting (meeting credit opportunity)
May 2-6, Teacher Appreciation Week
May 5th, PTA Staff Luncheon (meeting credit opportunity)
May 25th, Fifth Grade Graduation
May 26th, Last Day of School, Dismissal at 12:25 p.m.