Highcroft Hotline
November 10, 2019
Highcroft's Mission
At Highcroft, we help learners grow in a safe, caring community where ALL are valued and supported to become leaders.
Upcoming Events
November
- 11: Veterans Day Celebration, 9:00 am
- 11 - 15: Food Drive to benefit Circle of Concern
- 13: Board of Education Meeting, 7:00 pm, 471 N. Woods Mill Road
- 14: Picture Retakes
- 14: All Read, 3:25 pm - 3:45 pm
- 17: Family Fun Day, Mod Pizza, Ellisville, 10:30 am - 9:00 pm
- 20: Late Start, School begins at 11:05 am
- 20: Spirit Day - Color Day - see details below
- 21: PSO Meeting, 7:00 pm
- 25: Hearing Screening for Kdg, 3rd & 5th graders and new students
- 26: Adopt-A-Family unwrapped gifts due
- November 27 - December 1: No School, Thanksgiving
Lucas Letter
You may remember last year our entire staff engaged in learning on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. We engaged in this learning because we believed it would help us be better educators and that teaching the habits to our students would serve them well personally, socially, and academically. As a school, we have discussed Habit 1-Be Proactive.
Monday, November 11th, is the start of the new trimester. Progress reports will be available online on the morning of November 22nd. You will receive an email explaining how to access your child's progress report that morning.
November's Acts of Kindness Calendar Created By The 3rd-5th Kindness Leaders
Veterans Day Celebration
In recognition of Veterans Day, we will host our fourth annual Veterans Day Celebration on November 11, 2019. We invite our students' family members who are veterans and active service members to join us as we honor and celebrate their service. We also ask that our kindergarten and first-grade students wear red, our second and third-grade students wear white, and our fourth and fifth-grade students wear blue on November 11th for the assembly. Thank you for your participation in helping us honor the men and women who serve our country.
MOSAICS Update
First Grade - The activities in our second unit of push-in experiences for all students provide exposure and the opportunity to demonstrate accelerated learning and divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. Students will be exposed to flexibility in thinking, use words to explain their creative thinking, and create unique and original products.
Second Grade - Identified students begin the program as full participants this second trimester! We will continue the identification process, and continue to include students in both Math Plus and ELA Plus enrichment opportunities. Our research and communication experience (ELA+) will be learning about the food chain, dissecting owl pellets, and reporting on a variety of owl species. Our critical and creative thinking activities (Math+) will center around exploring tangrams!
Third Grade - It is time to rotate new students into our enrichment activities! In the primary grades students are identified by their classroom teachers for this opportunity using a variety of criteria. This term research and communication students (ELA+) will explore, “The X Factor”. We will discover the X in bridges and a variety of other structures, and dig into greater detail about these constructs. Critical and creative thinking (Math+) activities will continue to be enriched through games, manipulatives, and problem solving challenges.
Fourth Grade - This term students in research and communication (ELA+) will learn more about any topic having to do with space! Our culminating activity will be a rocket launch! Students in critical and creative thinking (Math+) will experience their first Math Olympiad contest! This is a world wide competition consisting of five math problems to be solved in thirty minutes. This competition is available to students identified for full MOSAICS services, and those students with the highest math scores on the MAP test. A reasonable goal for new math-o-letes is solving 0-3 on the first contest. This program instills the value of commitment, perseverance, grit, and delayed gratification. Students experience their skills and scores rise over time!
Fifth Grade - We are eager to begin our project on Pompeii! This PBL (project based learning) activity will evolve through each student’s PLP (personalized learning plan)! Students will stretch their organization, conferring and accommodating, goal setting, task completion, and group responsibility skills. This type of learning might be compared to playing an instrument in an orchestra. Each participant will learn and use the skills required for their particular contribution, and then incorporate that learning cooperatively into the larger group project!
Art News
Ms. Mayer, Art Teacher
- After hearing the book Giraffes Can’t Dance, kindergarten students made giraffe collages. They are also working on collages of Jabuti, the Trickster Tortoise, from the Amazon Rain Forest.
- First grade students learned all about Australia. The students learned a couple of popular folk songs, discussed the Aboriginal people and their stories of “The Dreamtime”, and learned about their unique art called Papunya Dot paintings. After discussing some of the animals that live in this interesting country, they drew kangaroos and koalas in their natural habitat.
- Second grade students created autumn tree collages using warm colors and concentrating on interesting ways of showing stylized branches and leaves. Pop Artist, Roy Lichtenstein, was studied and the students created an abstract picture in his iconic comic strip style.
- Third grade students studied about the life and art of Romero Britto. He is a contemporary pop artist who was born in Brazil and now lives in Miami. They enjoyed learning about him and his unique art work. They were inspired to create a project using his style of art to create word art.
- Fourth grade students learned about Dia de los Muertos and enjoyed making oversized tissue paper flowers. They also tried their hand at creating still life drawings using the medium of their choice to add color to their creations.
- Fifth grade’s discussion of abstract art continued as they made interesting foil repousse designs.
New Online Payment System
Parents will soon have access to a new online payment system, a convenient way to view and pay selected school fees, without the hassle of writing a check or paying with cash. The new online payment system is accessible through Infinite Campus. Learn more.
The new online payment system will allow you to:
- View and pay school fees including activities fees, field trips, parking passes, school clothing, athletic fees, etc. This does not include lunch balance payments, which will still be processed through MySchoolBucks.
- Make one payment for all your children at the same time.
- View payment history.
- View and complete selected school forms.
- Pay on a computer or from your mobile device.
There is a 2.5 percent convenience fee for credit card use. There is a 10-cent fee for ACH payments (echecks) and funds will come directly out of checking or savings account.
There are no new accounts to create and you access the online payment system through Infinite Campus. Log in, go to ‘More’ and then click ‘Online Payments’.
For questions, please email: schoolpayments@parkwayschools.net.
Contact Information
Email: clucas@parkwayschools.net
Website: https://www.parkwayschools.net/Domain/16
Location: 15380 Highcroft Drive, Chesterfield, MO, USA
Phone: 314-415-6400
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HighcroftRidge/
Twitter: @HighcroftRidge