The Patriot Parent Newsletter
Brooklyn Park Elementary September 2019
Our Mission and Vision at BPES:
Mission: Rigorous instruction, engaging experiences, positive relationships, no exceptions.
Vision: With the collaborative support of our families, staff and community, Brooklyn Park Elementary will be a school of excellence focused on the academic and social needs of ALL students.
A Message from Principal Walker
Dear BPES Families,
Our students are excited to start the new year and I know this is going to be a great school year. Below are suggestions and updates for the new school year.
Security and Safety
Ensuring all students and staff are safe is my number one priority. I ask for your assistance and understanding with the following:
- Please follow the directions of posted signs. These include no parking signs and where we are asking parents to stand for dismissal and arrival.
- Please understand that parents cannot walk students to class. We will have scheduled Open Houses and family visitation days to visit classrooms.
- If you would like to visit your child’s class, please email your child’s teacher to schedule a date.
- Stop in the main office for a Visitors Pass
Back to School Best Practices
Here are suggestions to ensuring a positive school year:
- Communicate and meet your child’s teacher. Back to School Night is September 24th @ 5:00pm
- Have a bedtime routine
- No electronics 1 hour before bedtime
- Check your child’s grades with Power School Gradebook ( directions are on-line or call the main office)
- Join PTA and volunteer. Remember you must have a background check to attend field trips. Arlington Echo ( 4th Grade ) and Drownproofing ( 5th Grade) require fingerprinting.
- Complete homework
- Visit museums and zoos
- Sports/Exercise and healthy eating
- Ensuring your child is reading every night. Look for ways to incorporate Math into their lives. ( time, menu prices, and shopping)
This is going to be an awesome year!! I thank you for all you do to make BPES an amazing school.
Mr. Walker
Principal
Brooklyn Park Elementary School is equipped with a video camera system. It covers selected interior and exterior public portions of the building and grounds. It is NOT monitored constantly, but it is monitored during emergency situations. During certain events, when the safety or security of students may be in question, authorized personnel from local, state, or federal police or fire emergency units may be given access to view images projected on the camera system. If you have any questions about the system, you should call the Supervisor of School Security at 410-222-5083.
School Lunch Applications:
Please take a minute to complete the online lunch application form. Our school receives federal funding based on the data collected from these forms! Our goal is to have 100% of our families complete the form, so that we can secure our additional funding for next year!
Here is the link! Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete the application form!
Link:
http://aacpsschools.org/nutrition/apply-for-free-or-reduced-price-meals/
Federal Impact Aid Survey
On Monday, September 30, 2019, your child will bring home a Federal Impact Aid Survey form. Please assist us by filling out the information requested on the form and:
Elementary Schools – return it to your child’s school (Brooklyn Park Elementary School).
The U.S. Department of Education allows a multiple child form. AACPS has designed a form that will allow two children’s names for your convenience. Should you have more than two children, please utilize a second form that you can either obtain from the school or download from the AACPS website at www.aacps.org. Also, please note that the complete address of the Parent/Guardian’s Employer if they work on Federal Property, the complete address of the Federal Property on which they work, and each survey form must be signed and dated by the Parent/Guardian. The Federal Impact Aid Survey form for 2019-2020 will be available to download on September 30, 2019. We will also be using our Connect-Ed Automated Telephone Notification System to remind everyone about the significance of completing and returning this survey. The school system receives approximately $2 million in funding from the Federal government in support of our children after the forms are processed.
Thank you in advance for your support and assistance. Should you have any questions regarding this information, please call Angie Smack in the Finance Office at 410-222-5200.
Chisholm's News!
September PBIS News
Welcome back to school! Transitioning from Summer routines to school routines can be exhausting for both parents and children. Establishing consistent morning and bedtime routines are invaluable to helping the family stay on track. It reduces stress and anxiety for children because they know what is expected and what is happening around them.
We are all excited to be back and to see so many smiling faces. This year we have planned 4 celebrations to recognize students. We will celebrate attendance, behavior, and academic success. Teachers will be recognizing students in their classroom using Class Dojo. Please make sure you have access to the app and can see your child’s progress throughout the year.
If you are interested or able to help with PBIS activities or other school related events, please email me (kchisholm@aacps.org) or Mrs. Selznick at (aselznick@aacps.org). If you have ideas about school spirit or recognition for student behavior, please let me know.
KChisholm
Upcoming Spirit Days:
September 11 Patriot Day-wear red, white, and blue
September 23rd First day of Fall-wear fall colors
September 25th Comic book character day
Attendance matters.
Please bring your child to school every day! Students with perfect attendance for the first marking period will be recognized with an attendance parade. We do have some addition family recognition planned for students who come to school every day. Let’s improve our attendance rates and have everyone at school every day!
Employee of the Month!
Our employee of the month is Mr. McManus! We can’t say enough about him. Mr. McManus or Mr. Tyrone as the kids all call him is one of those people we wouldn't be able to function without him here at school. From his smiling face to his hardworking mentality Mr. Tyrone keeps BPES a great place to be everyday. He is always willing to step in and help - he has starred as our MC in our school's first annual talent show where he brought smiles to the faces of parents and the nervous performers behind the curtains. He helped at rehearsals and supported the teachers organizing the talent show way past his work hours every day in May while they prepared. Mr. Tyrone steps in and helps teachers whether it is talking with the kids, watching over the kids; interacting with them at lunch or moving that heavy box or book shelf for teachers!! Mr. Tyrone has been described by teachers and all the staff as supportive, the BPES anchor, and the best smile. Mr. Tyrone has been described by the kids as fun, witty and the "coolest dude at school!" Mr. Tyrone has won over every heart here at BPES and it is because of him that the teachers and students have a beautiful building to spend their days in and a smiling face every time they see him. Mr. Tyrone thank you for all that you do!!!
September Important Dates
September 3 School Opens for grades 1-5
September 3 & 4 Conferences for Pre-K & K Parents and Students
September 5, 6, & 9 Staggered entrance for Pre-K & K Students
September 6 Back to School Family Picnic 4:30-6:30
September 10 First day for all Pre-K & K Students
September 10 PTA Meeting 6:00
September 12 Vision & Hearing Screening
September 21 PTA Chuck-E-Cheese 3:00-9:00
September 24 Back to School Night 5:00
September 30 Rosh Hashanah-School Closed
PTA Happenings!
September 10 PTA Meeting 6:00 All are Welcome!
September 21 PTA Chuck-E-Cheese 3:00-9:00
PTA Membership Drive $10.00 per family.
Have an Idea for the PTA?
Your PTA wants to hear from you. Please write down and send in your thoughts to the school office on what you would like to see happen with PTA. We value your ideas and will try to make them come to reality. We need your ideas and YOU. As PTA president, I will be reading your comments and discussing with my team how to make them real. So please share, all ideas are welcome!! Looking forward to meeting you.
Teisha Jackson, PTA President
From your school social worker
Fall is just around the corner which means cooler temperatures and sweater weather. If you are in need of warmer clothing for your student, please notify Ms. Wells. We have resources we can notify. Also, we have access to a Food Bank should you require a food assistance. I have informational handouts for low cost home WIFI, lower cost cell phone service, and supports for Grandparents/guardians of grandchildren. Please contact me at Lewells1@aacps.org. If you have an emergency need, please call the school at 410-222-6590 and ask for Ms. Wells. Cheers to a New School Year!!!
Classroom News!
Pre-Kindergarten
We are so excited to start our first year of full day Pre-K at Brooklyn Park Elementary! This month, our theme is "Myself as a Learner". We will learn all about what happens at school, how we learn and get along at school, and what makes a good friend. We will be spending significant time learning our classroom and schools procedures, rules, and routines. Our students will spend time learning our schedule, building stamina to work independently, and learning our routines for math and literacy centers. By the end of the month, we will begin small group instruction to meet your child's individual needs through differentiated instruction. We can't wait to learn all about our Pre-K friends! Please remember to check your child's folder daily, there will be many important notes coming home this month. Thank you for support!
Kindergarten
We enjoyed getting to meet all of the families at conferences and we are excited about starting the new school year. K students are learning and practicing classroom routines. We will start the school year learning about ourselves and others. Please sign up for Class Dojo if you have not already. We are looking forward to a great year!
First Grade
Students are adjusting to first grade. We have had lots of fun getting to know each other and learning the routines of our classroom. We will begin learning about Monarch butterflies very soon and raising our own caterpillars! Homework will begin the week of Sept 9 and it will be due each Monday.
Second Grade
Second grade is well under way! We are all off to a great start and have put in a lot of hard work at school and at home with learning the school and grade level routines and expectations. We have been working on addition and subtraction within 100, as well as working with our doubles facts. Please continue to practice at home with your child to help build their understanding of numbers and how they work together. Please make sure your child is reading every night. It is very important to practice the reading and phonics skills learned in class. Class Dojo has been working great. Most families have signed up and will probably agree it makes communicating with the teacher so much easier than phone calls and emails. If you have not been able to sign in please contact your grade level teacher by sending a note in with your child or sending them an email. As always thank you for your support at home, we are a family at BPES and we all are doing great things for our children!
Third Grade
Welcome to 3rd Grade!!! We have many engaging, interesting and topics your child will be learning this school year!
Please begin and continue to practice multiplication facts each night. They are the foundation for the many topics we will cover this school year. Math will consist of hands on learning, interactive activities, and engaging discussions. During the month of September we will be exploring the meaning of multiplication and division through the use of problem solving. Students will begin to gain an understanding of multiplication by building on 2nd grade knowledge of repeated addition and arrays. They will begin to see the relationship between multiplication and division and have hands on exploration opportunities to show a variety of representations to show a problem to build their conceptual understanding for multiplication and division of whole numbers. As stated above, multiplication is a critical area for students and we will build on these concepts throughout the year, working towards fluency by the end of the year. Homework will be given weekly and will be a review of the previous weeks lessons.
Reading is the foundation for everything we do! This year in third grade we will continue to nurture your child’s love of reading through interactive read alouds, engaging texts, and real-life connections. In the month of September, students will be listening to and reading a variety of texts that have a common theme of Communication. We will focus on retelling to determine the central message, describing characters, and determining the meaning of unknown words. Please encourage your child to read every day for at least 20 minutes and ask them to retell what they have read. Some questions you might ask:
Tell the important things that happen in the story.
How does the character feel in the story?
What lesson do you think the character learns in the story?
What is the genre of the book you read? How do you know?
Give an example of descriptive language the writer uses to show you how the character feels.
What does the writer do to keep you interested?
Science: Students will explore things that move and how they move. They will understand forces such as a push or pull, friction and speed.
Social Studies: Students will define and describe what a community is and the different purposes for them.
Writing: Students will be writing personal narratives this quarter. They will become storytellers and begin finding their voice as a writer.
Fourth Grade
Welcome back 4th grade families!! We are excited for a fun-filled year with your child this year! We have started off building relationships in our classroom and among the 4th grade class and will continue doing that all year long! Please plan to visit us on back to school night September 24 @ 6pm so we can meet all of you.
In Language Arts we will be working on Fiction stories and their elements. Please talk to your child about reading (which they should be doing every night for 20 minutes). Talk to them about themes of their books, why characters do what they do, main ideas of their books and inferring what would happen if the characters did something differently. Talking about books is the most amazing way to get their brains to think beyond the text in front of them and becoming better readers.
In Math we have began with talking about factors and multiples and different ways to display them. It is imperative that your child work on their multiplication facts every night until they are stuck. It will be super beneficial to your child throughout the entire year. The dollar store, Shoppers and Five Below have packs of flashcards to review every night. We will be moving into the addition and subtraction of big numbers, adding and subtraction fractions and multiplying and dividing with big numbers this marking period. Please reach out to your teacher if you ever need assistance with math (or anything!).
As part of the 4th grade curriculum we will be going to Arlington Echo this year (November 11-12). This year will be an overnight trip where we will be roasting marshmallows, sitting by the campfire and spending the night in cabins all while doing our curriculum work and having tons of fun. This is part of their curriculum and I know super new and different- we will work with them calming any nervousness! Please join us at Back to School night for all the details and if you are interested in volunteering either as an activity leader or an overnight chaperone please contact Ms. Nauman as soon as possible.
We are super excited about this year and we hope you are as well! Please always remember to reach out if you ever need anything at all!
Ms. Nauman, Ms. Bonaparte and Ms. Phelps
Fifth Grade
Fifth grade is off to a great start! Please make sure that you review and return the emergency information that went home with your child the first day of school. This is the information that we will use to contact you if your child is sick or there is an emergency, so we need accurate information, particularly phone numbers. We are hoping to be able to plan several field trips for the students. One very important field trip that is already on the calendar is Drownproofing. We will be going to the Annapolis Aquatic Center on December 17 through 20. The students will be participating in four days of activities focusing on preventing drowning when boating or swimming. We need PARENT CHAPERONES for this trip. Parents must have fingerprint background checks for this field trip because you may be in the locker room with the students. The 5th grade teachers will have more information at Back to School Night.
Media News
Hello Brooklyn Park Families! In the library this month, students are reviewing rules and procedures for class behavior and book checkout. Grades 1-5 will begin book checkout next week; Pre-K and Kindergarten checkout will begin in October. Some quick library policy reminders:
• Primary students may have one book checked out at a time; Intermediate students can have two books.
• If you are concerned about your child losing their library book and would prefer for them to keep books at school, please send me a message via Dojo or skolodziej@aacps.org to let me know. I will put a note in your child’s account to remind them to leave their library book in their locker.
• I run a fine-free library and will forgive lost book fines through our Read-It-Off program, or via donations of books or Legos, or other learning materials.
• Speaking of donations! I am seeking donations of old technology items for our Makerspace. In our Makerspace, students will have the opportunity to take apart and build with old technology items such as telephones, computers and keyboards, VCRs, etc. If you have any unwanted items like this, please bring them in any time.
I’m so excited to begin our year in the library! Happy Reading,
Ms. Kolodziej
Art News
Welcome Back to Art!
Since it was such a hit last year, we will be participating in the Square 1 Art Fundraiser again this year! This is a unique fundraiser that provides you the opportunity to buy your child’s artwork printed on keepsakes such as mugs, keychains, stickers, phone cases and much more. All of the proceeds go towards purchasing awesome art materials such as clay, diffusing paper, paint, etc. The fundraiser will take place this fall and all items ordered should arrive right before Winter Break. Perfect timing for gift giving! Visit Square1art.com for more info and to check out the awesome items you can buy. Contact Casey Perkins at caperkins1@aacps.org with any questions.
A BIG thank you to all the families that purchased their child’s Square 1 artwork last year. We were able to purchase and use some really neat clay tools, gel pens, art paper, watercolor paint, sharpies and so much more, all thanks to you!
I’m looking forward to another creative year in art! – Mrs. Perkins
Strings & Band
Band and String registration is open now for all returning and new 3rd-5th grade students! Registration forms have gone home, but in case your child has misplaced theirs or did not receive one, please see Mrs. Israel or Ms. Hess. Lessons start soon and now is the time to get prepared! Any questions? Email Mrs. Israel at risrael@aacps.org.
Physical Education
I am excited for the start of another great year in physical education! Please remind your children to wear their sneakers and comfortable clothing on the days that they have physical education so they can safely participate in all of the fun activities. If your child has an injury or illness that will prevent them from participating, please send in a note so I can excuse them from the lesson and have an alternate activity available.