Park Place Post
December 10, 2021
From the Principal
Isn't this cooler weather exhilarating? I'm certainly enjoying it during crossing guard duty. Standing on 35th avenue in temperatures in the 70s is far more enjoyable than the 100s.
This week I have some important information to share about our Title I funding. We need your help to ensure we have the funding next year to keep our current staff and possibly add more. Title I is federal equity funding that we receive with the goal of increasing academic achievement for all students. We use Title I funds to provide intervention services for students, professional development for teachers, and promote parent involvement. Currently at Park, Title I funds pay for two math specialists, 2 reading specialists, an instructional coach, and a behavior specialist. These are critical staff members who address student needs and remove barriers to learning.
To receive Title I funds, a school must meet criteria based on family income. We report the number of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch on the 100th day of school. Funding is based on the percentage of qualifying students. This means we need your help to get our numbers up so we can maintain the positions paid by Title I funding. If you have not yet filled out the Free and Reduced Lunch Application, but think you might qualify, please complete and submit it as soon as possible! We are close to last year's number, but not yet there. Our students cannot afford to lose any of our interventionists, so please click on the "Federal Meal Assistance Program" link below for more information, or click on the "Apply Now" button today!
I've also included our annual Title I meeting video and a link to the Title I page on the Park Meadows website if you want to learn more about Title I programming at Park Meadows.
Thank you for all your support, and Happy Holiday Season!
Principal Lanese
Happy Holidays from the Park Meadows Staff
Life in the lunchroom
For lunch options in December, we will continue to have our first choice entrée available and our two daily items this month will be a grilled cheese sandwich and the grab and go bag will change back to a yogurt, muffin, cheese stick, carroteenies and milk.
School districts are still struggling with all of the supply change shortages and menu items could change daily, these shortages don’t seem to be getting any better and they are nationwide. Our current struggle is with the Styrofoam trays that we put the food on. We cross our fingers weekly to see if they are arriving on the truck. We have had to make a lot of changes in this area. If the students tell you they get a different tray each day, this is why. We will make sure we always have food for the students, it just may not be what is on the menu that day. Shamrock foods has done a pretty good job of sending something as a substitute instead of just shorting us. The district office tries to update the online menu with the changes, so please check there daily.
Math Intervention with Mr. Cookman
Park Meadows offers DreamBox Learning to our K-6 students as an adaptive, online approach to math curriculum. The program is designed to enhance and engage learners beyond traditional classroom instruction by meeting students at the correct level with personalized instruction that allows your child to work on activities that are specifically geared to meet his or her individual needs. As they progress through each portion of DreamBox, the program provides activities that are meant to challenge the child and close gaps in learning. Through consistent practice, your child will develop stronger math fluency, problem solving skills, reasoning and conceptual understanding.
Family involvement is extremely important and beneficial. While students use the program for a designated amount of time during classroom instruction, additional time is encouraged at home, as needed. So please encourage your child to get on DreamBox as often as possible. Students who frequently rely on outside adult support, often advance prematurely beyond the skill level for which they are ready, so please don’t help them even though it may be tempting to do so. The DreamBox platform recognizes that when students struggle in a particular area, reteaching is needed, and the student is redirected to a previous lesson. Within that same concept of personalized, responsive learning, students who are progressing ahead of their grade level targets have the option to move to advanced lessons.
Benefits of using DreamBox:
- Adapts to the learner’s individual needs
- Aligns to state and regional standard
- Provides access for English-Language Learners
- Provides teachers with data that can be used to drive small group instruction
- Ensures learners understand the content through assessment
- Parents are able to see their child’s progress using the parent dashboard
Hello Families,
The motto for this week in school is:
I choose what I believe about myself.
We will hear a variety of helpful and unhelpful opinions about ourselves from other people in our lives. Those opinions are only important if we decide they are important. We choose what we believe about ourselves.
"Opinions aren't facts. Stop worrying about what other people think of you."
-Unknown
When your children hear another person's opinion about themselves, help them understand that they have a choice of whether to believe it or not. Let your child know that they decide what is true about them, not other people.
There will be times when rejecting a negative belief may feel like avoiding an unpleasant truth about ourselves. Even in times like these, our children can reshape their beliefs into something that is helpful and motivating while still understanding the reality of the situation.
For example, if they fail a math test, it can be tempting to believe 'I can't do math,' but this belief limits our possibilities and ignores the idea of improvement. Instead, the belief can be replaced with 'I have more to learn in math,' which allows for better possibilities in the future while still acknowledging the reality of the failed test.
What is true for us in one moment, does not have to be true for us always.
Our children have the capacity to continually grow and improve, and the right beliefs help make that happen.
Best to you,
Danna Evans
All Things E.Q.
Reading Intervention with Mrs. Hainline & Mrs. Gibson
Using Illustrations- using the pictures to help decode a word and/or understand the story better.
Example- If the page has a picture of a farm, and an unknown word is b—n, the child could use the letter knowledge and the picture to decipher that the word is barn.
You might ask- Is there something in the picture that
could help?
Happy reading!
PBIS Update
The PBIS team is currently working on the "Benchmark of Quality" or BoQ internal evaluation. The purpose of the BoQ is to:
- Examine Tier 1 or whole group instruction fidelity. "Are we doing what we said we would do?"
- Document whether the Tier 1 implementation has been effective. "Does our implementation have a positive impact?"
- Identify strengths and weaknesses in the Tier 1 implementation. "What are our strengths that we can acknowledge ? What could we do to improve?"
Congratulations Ms. Leman, DVUSD "Rookie of the Year"
Please be sure to congratulate Ms. Leman!
Grinch sighting at Park Meadows???
Park Meadows Event Center
Important Dates
- Drive-Thru Grinch Night December 10 5:30-7 PM
- December 17- 1/2 day. Dismissal times are 11:50 AM & 12:05 PM
- Winter Break December 20 thru January 3- No School
- NO early dismissal January 7 & 21
- 90 minute early release day January 14
Grade Level Newsletters
Contact and Follow Us
Website: https://www.dvusd.org/parkmeadows
Phone: 623-445-4100
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Park-Meadows-Elementary-School-12
Twitter: @PMScorpionPride