Marumsco Hills Eagle News

This newsletter will provide parents with updates and events at Marumsco Hills Elementary for March.

• March 7: Tornado Drill
• March 13-17: Book Fair
• March 14: Chick-Fil-A Spirit Night (hosted by MHES PTO)
• March 17: Lockdown Drill
• March 20: KG Registration Opens
• March 22: Bus Evacuation Drill
• March 28: Spring Pictures
• March 29: Advisory Council Meeting at 6:00
• March 30: 5th Grade Strings Concert at Fred Lynn MS at 6:30
• March 31: End of Quarter 3
• Looking ahead....School is closed for Spring Break April 3-10; Classes will resume on April 11

Many of our students are communicating in group chats using Snapchat and Instagram on their phones. These messages include mean comments about others, which is affecting our learning environment. Please take the time to check in with your child about their online habits. Children under 13 must have parental permission to use messaging apps and websites under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Thank you so much for supporting safe internet use at home.

The Spring Book Fair will be held the week of March 13-17!

Visit our school Scholastic Book Fair page for more information or to set up your EWALLET.

https://www.scholastic.com/bf/marumscohillselemschool

If you are able to volunteer at the Book Fair, click on the link below.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0C4FAAAF2BA3FA7-spring

Classrooms are competing against each other to see who can gain the most units each week. Minutes on Lexia do NOT count toward classroom progression.

If your child is using Lexia at home, make sure the steps below are followed to monitor their units gained:

• Make sure students move the green bar ALL the way to the end before closing out!
• Full green bars mean pie pieces are gained... which means units are completed!
  
• Make sure students are clicking the X three times and the blue "Log Out" button so their data is accurately synced!

According to the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA), our school is required to have an Asbestos Management Plan. Following the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Federal requirements, this letter is to inform you that Asbestos Containing Building Material (ACBM) is present in our school.

For further information regarding the ACBM you may contact our Local Education Agency’s designated person, Mr. Derrick Fulcher at 703-791-8918. A copy of the Management Plan, which contains the exact locations of the ACBM, can be found in the office or alternately at the Environmental Office, at 14800 Joplin Road, Manassas VA. The Plan will be available for your review and inspection during normal work hours.

Please feel free to request information on or about our Management Plan. We plan to provide you information on our progress in implementing the Management Plan on a periodic basis, through mailings, Parent Teacher Association Meeting, and other means.

Do you have questions about the gifted program, or would you like to refer your child? Contact our Gifted (SIGNET) teacher Miss Flynn at flynnsm@pwcs.edu or use this link to refer your child: Referral Link.

Attendance is extremely important. We want our students to be in school every day, unless they are sick. Students should arrive to school beginning at 8:45 each day. Students should be in school by 9:00 to avoid being tardy. Students are considered chronically absent when they miss 10 or more days each school year. This included excused and unexcused absences. If a student misses 1 day every month of the school year, they will be considered chronically absent. Please avoid taking trips and vacation during the school year. Thank you for your assistance in ensuring students in class each day.

If your child currently has 10 or more absences (excused and unexcused), a doctors note will be required for any additional absences to be marked excused.

Marumsco Hills is proud to announce we have nominated the following teacher as part of the outstanding educator recognition.

• Carly Killmeyer was nominated for Teacher of the Year. Carly is our K-5 teacher of students with autism. Teacher of the Year is for a teacher who has more than 3 years of teaching experience.
• Emily Wilson was nominated for Novice Teacher of the Tear. Emmy was a 1st grade teacher for two years and this year is teaching 2nd grade. Novice Teacher of the Year is for a teacher who has less than 3 years of teaching experience.

Marumsco Hills is in the first year of implementing Leader in Me. Leader in Me is focused on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Students are learning the 7 Habits and beginning to practice and develop what it means to show the 7 Habits. We have a 3 year implementation plan as we grow and learn with Leader in Me. Leader in Me is a great mindset for students, staff, and parents.

As a Leader in Me School, we have 5 Core Paradigms that drive our decisions, behaviors, and results. A paradigm is simply the way we “see” things.

These 5 Core Paradigms include:

• Everyone can be a leader.
• Everyone has genius.
• Change starts with me.
• Empower students to lead their own learning.
• Educators and families partner to develop the whole person.

These paradigms or “the way we see things” at our school drive our everyday interaction with not only your student, but ourselves too. A partnership with families supports our ability for students to lead their own educational journey—empowering them to be responsible, reflective, and active in their learning experiences. The great news about paradigms is that they are also powerful at home! When you operate through these five paradigms in your own life, you are communicating your own value as well as encouraging greatness in your student.

Ways to engage your family in these paradigms can include:

As a reminder, the 7 Habits are:

Habit 1: Be Proactive

• You’re in charge: take responsibility for your thoughts and actions.

Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind

• Have a plan: know what you want and what you value and believe.
• Ensure that you have an awareness of others’ values and beliefs.

Habit 3: Put First Things First

• Live by your values and beliefs.
• Respect others’ values and beliefs.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win

• Everyone can win: think mutual benefit with others.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

• Listen before you talk.
• Seek to understand others and to be understood by others.
• Every person deserves a voice.

Habit 6: Synergize

• Creatively cooperate with others.
• Be open to all ideas, thoughts, and beliefs.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

• Balance feels best.
• Continuously renew your body, mind, heart, and spirit.
• Engage in educating yourself and your student about values, beliefs, and cultures that are different than your own.

Kindergarten

Language Arts:

• Poetry and rhyming

Math:

• Number Sense to 20

Science:

• Living and Nonliving

1st Grade

Language Arts:

• Reading: Poetry
• Writing: Narrative, Poetry
• Phonics: Compound words, r-blends, vowel teams

Math:

• Addition story problems
• Fact families
• Data

Science:

• Natural Resources
• Physical Properties

2nd Grade

Reading/Language Arts:

• Unit 6: Paired Passages

Math:

• Unit 7 - Number Sense, Computation, and Data (data, regrouping, quality, and estimation)

Science:

• Unit 5 - Changes in Living Things (life cycles)

Social Studies:

• Unit 5 - Innovations in Communication and Transportation

3rd Grade

Reading:

• Continuing Units 5 and 6 of poetry and functional texts
• SOL Review of all Fiction and Nonfiction standards

Math:

• Unit 6 - Place Value through the Hundred Thousands, Addition, Subtraction, Counting Money and Making Change, and Patterns
• Begin Unit 7 - Measurement (Temperature, Telling Time to the Minute, Volume, Length, Perimeter, and Area)

Social Studies:

• Unit 5 - Ancient Greece and Rome

Science:

• Unit 5 - Interactions with Soil
• Begin Unit 6 - Interactions that Impact Ecosystems

4th Grade

Reading:

• Poetry
• Functional Text

Writing:

• Expository Writing

VA Studies:

• Civil War and Reconstruction

Math:

• Fractions

Science:

• Living Systems and Oceanography

5th Grade

Reading:

• Students will be able to understand how text features help understand poetry
• Students will be able to compare and contrast paired texts
• Students will be able to summarize main idea/plot events in poetry

Writing:

• Students will begin learning about opinion writing
• Students will continue research on their opinion piece
• Students will create a final draft of their opinion writing

Math:

• Students will work on classifying and measuring right, acute, obtuse, and straight angles
• They will be looking at triangles and how to label and measure their angles
• Another goal for our students is to recognize and apply transformations, such as translation, reflection, and rotation

Science:

• Students will investigate that visible light has certain characteristics
• Students will understand that light behaves in predictable ways
• There will also be an emphasis on how matter influences the path of light

Social Studies:

• Students will be able to identify the different physical features of Mexico
• Students will understand the geography and climate of Mexico

Art:

• Kindergarten and 1st grade will continue building their drawing and painting skills by creating mixed-media pieces
• 2nd and 3rd grades are discussing art from cultures outside our own and using their art to inspire our own
• 4th and 5th grades are exploring 3D art forms through architecture, textiles, and clay

PE:

• KG, 1st, & 2nd Grades: Finish jump roping unit with long rope jumping. Begin short-handed implement activities such as balancing, flipping, and volleying
• 3rd, 4th, & 5th Grades: Finish jump roping unit with long rope jumping. Begin short-handed implement activities such as volleying and striking a ball

Music

• KG: Form and Musical Opposites with Carnival of the Animals. Performance March 24th at 2:10
• 1st-2nd: Playing borduns and composing music for xylophone
• 3rd-5th: Finishing Ukulele Competition, and begin Pianos

Website: www.marumscohillses.pwcs.edu
Location: 14100 Page Street, Woodbridge, VA, USA
Phone: 703-494-3252
Twitter: @MHES_Eagles