Sea Gate Scoop
September 2022
Lightbulb Moments
Our students are lighting the way to success! They are practicing our procedures, modeling our expectations, and settling into their new grade level. This month, we focused on the life skill of TEAMWORK! There is no doubt our Seahorses know the benefit of synergizing; working together to problem solve, complete a project, or just have a good time! We look forward to celebrating our Seahorse of the Month today!
This Scoop is packed with information to help you navigate through this school year. If you are not receiving the email, please update your contact information in the Portal. As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or if we can assist with anything!
Making Ideas Happen,
Ms. Kirby,
Connect for Success 2.0
Our Flag Patrols, reporting for duty!
Whole School, FSA Pep Rally! Thank you BCHS Drumline!
Important Progress Monitoring 1 Information
As PM1 approaches, please remember the following measures to maximize your students’ success:
- Have your student get a good night’s sleep.
- Make sure your student has a good, nutritious breakfast.
- Arrive to school on time, before 8:15 A.M.
- Change any medical appointments during the testing dates.
- If your student is not feeling well enough to test, keep them home and they can make up the test upon their return.
Dates of Testing:
Kindergarten, 1st Grade, and 2nd Grade: STAR Literacy - Wednesday, September 7th
STAR Math – Thursday, September 8th
3rd Grade: F.A.S.T. ELA – Wednesday, September 7th F.A.S.T Math – Thursday, September 8th
4th Grade: F.A.S.T. ELA – Friday, September 9th F.A.S.T Math – Monday, September 12th
5th Grade: F.A.S.T. ELA – Friday, September 9th F.A.S.T Math – Monday, September 12th
**Due to state testing from September 7th through the make-up window of September 15th, we ask that parents/guardians refrain from coming to school during the student lunch time. This ensures all students are prepared without distractions on their assigned testing days. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
School Procedures with Dr. Santacrose
Arrival: Students may arrive on campus at 7:45 A.M. Parents/guardians can drop off students at the front entrance of the school and must stay with the child until the doors open at 7:45 A.M. Please refrain from using the bus loop or staff parking lot to drop off students. Once inside the building, students can eat breakfast or go to their grade level assigned area until the first bell rings at 8:15 A.M. Students arriving tardy, after the 8:25 A.M. bell, will need an adult to accompany them to the front door of the school and ring the buzzer to gain entry to the building.
Dismissal: The school parking lot is closed off at 2:30 P.M. to ensure safe dismissal procedures. Parents picking up children from the walker area are encouraged to park in the St. William’s Church parking lot and cross Seagate Drive at the crosswalk. We ask that parents not park on the grass or anywhere on West Boulevard when picking up their child from the walker area. Parents should also refrain from parking at St. William’s Youth Center parking lot and crossing West Boulevard. Any change in arrangements for dismissal should be made by 2:15 P.M. by calling the main office.
Attendance: Being in school and arriving on time to school are important components for academic success. Parents/guardians are responsible for their child’s attendance. It is extremely important that your child be in the classroom before the second bell rings at 8:25 A.M. We highly encourage your child arrive by 8:15 A.M., as this allows for time to get to the classroom and prepare for the day. It is equally important that your child remain at school for the entire day. A child who is late to class or dismissed early is at a disadvantage and loses precious organizational and instructional time. A student is considered tardy when he or she arrives after the beginning of the school day or when the student is not inside their classroom when the tardy bell rings at 8:25 A.M.
Excessive Absences: Please notify the school by 8:30 A.M. when your child is absent and to inform us of the reason for the absence. When a student accumulates five (5) days of absences, the parent will be contacted by the school to discuss the reasons for the absences. When a student accumulates seven (7) days of absences, a letter documenting the record of absences will be mailed to the parent/guardian of the student. This letter includes information about Truancy Court. When a student is absent ten (10) or more days, another letter documenting the absences will be mailed to the parent/guardian of the student. A parent conference is scheduled with the principal and District Attendance employee.
Walker Dismissal Procedure
We love seeing those end-of-the-day Seahorse smiles after a day full of learning😊!
Thank you for your patience and cooperation with dismissal as we navigated the significant increase in students who are walkers, as well as implementing new safety and security measures. As a review, dismissal is at 2:50pm and parents are to form a line on the sidewalk (the one parallel to Seagate Drive), and state their student's name and grade as they approach the SGE Staff member. Oftentimes, Kindergarten and 1st Grade arrive first (before 2:50). We ask that these parents wait towards the front so that we can keep the flow moving and we can dismiss students as quickly and safely as possible. Some of these parents have older siblings, so they are asked to wait along the adjacent sidewalk for their older Seahorse. If you arrive after 2:50, please join the line regardless of grade level. Thanks again for helping this process run smoothly.
Calling ALL Seahorses!
ESE News from Ms. Ellis
Welcome back to a great 2022-2023 school year!! I look forward to another great year working with you and your child! We are back in full force and ESE services are under way. We have great news to share, ALL IEP, 504, and Educational Plan meetings will be held face to face in the Sea Gate Conference Room! If you prefer a virtual meeting, we are also able to accommodate your request, please notify the secretary at the time of scheduling your meeting. I would like to introduce our amazing team that will be working together to ensure your child’s success.
ESE TEAM
School Psychologist: Denys Butler
School Psychologist Intern: Edwin Munoz
ESE Inclusion Teacher: Damian Shadrick
ESE Inclusion Teacher: Natascha Schenk
ESE Inclusion Teacher: Nicole Manning
Deaf and Hard of Hearing: Penny Jacob
Speech Language Pathologist: Margaret Froitzheim
Speech Language Pathologist: Nicole Brown
Speech Language Pathologist: Allison Richard
Occupational Therapist: Roxanne Johnston
Physical Therapist: Caroline Hickey
Modified Curriculum 3 Teacher: Noreen Rushworth
Modified Curriculum 3 Teacher: Kristyn Stetson
Modified Curriculum 3 Teacher: Kylen Carmody
ESE Specialist: Ashley Ellis
ESE Case Managers have sent out a welcome back letter to kick off a great year and introduce themselves. All staff have also been notified of all students with plans and continue to implement the plans with fidelity daily. On behalf of the ESE team we look forward to a great year and if you have any questions, or student concerns please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Sincerely,
Ashley Ellis
ESE Specialist
September Lunch Menu
School lunch is $2.00 this year. Please put money into your student's account using MySchoolBucks
MEDIA CENTER NEWS
Happy New (School) Year from the Media Center! Over the summer, the Media Center got a major facelift, with new carpet and new paint. Later this year, new bookcases and furniture will be making their debut, too! It’s already a brighter and more inviting space, and I can’t wait to make it even more welcoming.
Thanks to my amazing assistant Mrs. MacClugage, the upgrades didn’t slow us down a bit! Students in grades 1-5 have already come in for orientation, with kindergarten starting next week. Just as a reminder:
• Students in grades 2-5 are allowed to check out 3 library books
• First grade students are allowed 2 library books
• Kinder students will be allowed to check out one book for now, and will be allowed to take their book home
Students are allowed to keep their books for one week but can renew their books if they haven’t finished reading them. All students received (or will receive when they come in for orientation) one large Ziploc bag to keep in their backpack. This bag is for storing library books, as it is an additional way to keep library books safe. Please make sure your student always has this bag in their backpack.
Also...our first Book Fair is coming soon!
Our “Wild About Reading” Book Fair will be September 19-23. We will be having preview days to come as a class, as well as shopping days throughout the week. More information, including the book fair flyer, will be coming soon. If you haven’t had a chance to use Scholastic’s eWallet for the book fair, it is a safe and easy way to provide your student with funds for the book fair. Here’s the link for Book Fair Information: https://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bf/sge
BOOK FAIR
Reading News with Ms. Pelletier
To begin, I want to thank the Sea Gate staff, families, and students for such a warm welcome. I am very excited to be part of the Seahorse family and am looking forward to working with you all.
B.E.S.T Standards
Collier County is in its second year of implementing Florida’s B.E.S.T (Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking) Standards for English Language Arts in grades K-5. The B.E.S.T. Standards emphasize that literacy is achievable through content-rich instruction rather than merely through a skills-based approach to reading comprehension. B.E.S.T Standards also emphasize that an explicit, systematic instruction of phonics is the foundation for literacy.
During the ELA block, we will continue instructing all students with on-grade level content. During Foundations time, students will work on Phonological Awareness, Phonics and Word Analysis, Encoding, and Fluency. Students will apply phonic knowledge to decodable text rather than leveled text.
i-Ready
The i-Ready reading program is just one of the ways your child’s reading progress is tracked. In the past week, your child completed the initial i-Ready diagnostic that is taken each year. The purpose of this diagnostic is not to give your child a grade, but to determine how best to support their learning. As a result of this diagnostic, a learning path has been created for your child. This path will help your child grow in the areas of vocabulary, comprehension, and for our early readers, phonological awareness, phonics, and high frequency words. This diagnostic also allows teachers to plan for personalized learning with differentiated small groups of enrichment and support as needed in the classroom.
When your child logs in to i-Ready through Canvas, they will see their “minutes” and “lessons passed” for the week. 45 minutes is the weekly district expectation, and this time will be completed at school. Encourage your child to listen to the instructions and take their time in order to do their best. Children should focus on passing 80%+ of their lessons. The lessons are at your child’s level, so with focus and effort, they should be able to pass each lesson.
School Counselor’s Corner: PBIS Spotlight
It has been so great to be back for another school year with our seahorses! Our campus is filled with lots of learning, laughter, and love. We are getting into the swing of things: learning school and classroom routines, expectations, and processes. This month’s corner is all about PBIS (positive behavior interventions and support). PBIS is a school-wide, evidenced based framework used to address student behavior. It is a proactive approach that follows a multi-tiered system of support and helps to create a positive school climate. We teach our school-wide expectations where we model and practice what expected behaviors look like, sound like, and feel like at Sea Gate. Our school-wide expectations are the 3 B’s: Be Safe, Be Respectful, and Be Responsible. Through our PBIS initiatives, our students and classes are rewarded for following our expectations. Every month we focus on a school-wide theme. We talk about the theme on the school news as well as in Classroom Life Skills Lessons with me. This month we focused on Teamwork as we formed our classroom families. We can't wait to have our first Seahorse of the Month Ceremony for Teamwork on September 2nd. We are excited to have parents join us this year. September's focus will be Self-Awareness. Students will work on identifying feelings and learning strategies to cope with different emotions.
Here are some of our SGE PBIS terms for parents/guardians to be “in the know” 😊:
SGE PBIS Expectations (Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible)
Individual Incentives:
-Super Seahorse Cards (blue cards given to students as a form of praise/ “caught following our expectations”) Students put their name & teacher on the back and are entered in grade level bins for a drawing on “Super Seahorse Fridays” on the school news for a chance to win a Spirit Stick! Spirit sticks are a fun incentive that students can collect throughout the year! (see picture)
-Student of the Month (Recognizes 1 student per class students who exemplify monthly character theme. They receive a special Spirit Stick, car magnet, and Culver’s coupon!)
-Positive Referrals (Students who go above and beyond expectations can be rewarded with a positive referral. Teachers submit these, students get “mail” from myself or Dr. Santacrose and an ice cream coupon)
Class Incentives:
-Compliment Chart (a chart the class fills up with each compliment received and class chooses reward)
-Compliment Cards (a compliment given to whole classes for following expectations)
School Wide Incentive:
PBIS Day (School-wide celebration for all students to celebrate the year’s positive behavior efforts 😊)
9/13: VIRTUAL PARENT ACADEMY - - CCPS Portal and FOCUS
Looking Ahead:
9/1: Kindergarten parents can begin to have lunch with their child (please check with your teacher for the correct lunch time)
9/2: Seahorse of the Month Ceremony @ 2:05 for invited guests9/5: NO SCHOOL; Labor Day
9/7: PDQ Night - Tell them you are with SGE :)
9/7 - 9/15: Closed Campus due to State Progress Monitoring-No volunteers or lunch visitors
9/8: General PTO Meeting - Cafeteria
9/9: Red, White and Blue Spirit Day
- Grub Hub (Healthy Snack ) in cafeteria begins
9/13: Parent Virtual Academy: CCPS Parent Portal & FOCUS 10am and 5pm
9/19 - 9/23: Book Fair
9/20: SAC Meeting @ 5:00pm in the Media Center
9/26: NO SCHOOL STUDENTS
9/29: PTO Dine and Shop at Waterside
SAVE THE DATE
10/4: Fall Picture Day
10/5: NO SCHOOL
10/21: PTO Family Fun Night 5:00- 7:00pm
Sea Gate Elementary
Email: kirbym1@collierschools.com
Website: https://www.collierschools.com/SGE
Location: 650 Seagate Drive, Naples, FL, USA
Phone: 239-377-8300
Facebook: facebook.com/SeaGateES
Twitter: @twitter_SeaGateES