Comet Courier
Horizon Elementary Monthly Newsletter March 2021 Edition
A Message from the Principal
Greetings, Comet Families!
I hope this message finds you and your loved ones well. It’s hard to believe that we are now in March and working our way through the second semester. We have truly enjoyed having some of our students back in the building for hybrid instruction! Please be on the lookout for a message from me regarding our Virginia School Climate Survey this month. This survey is sent out annually and provides schools with information on school climate, safety, and working conditions in order to maintain a safe and orderly school environment conducive to learning. Please take a moment to complete the survey once it is sent out. As always, please do not hesitate to reach out if there is anything that we as a school can do to support your students during hybrid and distance learning.
Warmly,
Jasmine Carpenter
Principal
Office Reminders
Now that we are back to distance learning, the office is open every day from 7:30 - 3:30. If you need to pick up materials for your child, please come to the front door and buzz the office. We will bring them outside to you.
Have you joined the PTA?
Is your student going to miss logging in to school?
UPCOMING EVENTS...Mark your calendars
Month of March -Equity in Education Month
Tuesday, March 2 - Teacher Work Day, NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
Tuesday, March 23 - PTA Meeting, 5:00
Wednesday, March 24- LCPS Family Room Workshop, 6:00
Monday, 29 - Friday April 2 - Spring Break NO SCHOOL
Student of the Month
Kindergarten
Mrs. Dettmer's Class: Hidben Cortez Murillo
Mrs. Toynbee's Class: Ryder Becchio
Mrs. Wright's class: Adrian Khazai
Mrs. Yang's Class: Charlotte Pasquarello
First Grade
Mrs. Abney's Class: Max Flores Jimenez
Ms. Kutkuhn's Class: Hannah Mahler
Miss Nichols' Class: Brody Hoover
Miss Rickey's Class: Emily Amaya Bonilla
Mrs.Wallace's Class: Benjamin Combs
Second Grade
Ms. Fornatora's Class: Ibraheem Adeel
Mrs. Gruehn's Class: Shain Dougan
Mrs. Perka's Class: Addison Marrs
Mrs. Rooker's Class: Aedan Gaffey
Mrs. Seufert's Class: Zuhair Qidwai
Third Grade:
Miss Strohl's Class: Soeeba Hamzayeva, Jessica Taylor
Ms. Wasser's Class: Everly Marino
Mrs. Williams's Class: Yasin Din
Ms. Zahid's Class: Yusha Ahmed, Cameron Litteral
Fourth Grade
Mrs. Drury's Class: Jarine Serpa, Fareed Met
Ms. Griffith's Class: Layla Askari, Aiden Interiano
Ms. Huff's Class: Dalton Porter
Mrs. Jeffers' Class: Brady Gill
Fifth Grade
Miss Bohl's Class: Armando Costa, Eva Bhatnagar
Ms. Harrison's Class: Isabelle Ferney, Christian Calimlim
Ms. Mueller's Class: Ashana Paige Hormillada
Ms. Rohrbach's Class: Marissa Wagoner
From Miss Nichols- 2021 Courtyard Makeover
Hello Comets! We are excited to once again move forward with the Horizon Garden/Courtyard makeover. We are reviewing and revising renovation plans and looking forward to new input, ideas, and volunteers. At this time, volunteers will not be able to enter the school. But if you have project ideas, I would love to hear about them. I too have some projects I would love for students and families to begin working on. They can be completed and dropped off for future installation. I will be hosting an interest meeting on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 at 3:30 p.m. to introduce project ideas and to answer questions. A reminder and Google Meet link will be shared with the Horizon community closer to the date of the event. If you know of any parents or community partners who would like to donate time, materials, labor, etc. I would welcome the help.
MUSIC NOTES
March is Music in our Schools Month!
In the month of March, The Blues will be our musical genre of focus! We'll continue moving, singing, and playing together.
5th Grade students signed up for middle school music courses in Student VUE during the month of February. The window has now closed. If you have any questions or changes, parents are encouraged to call the middle school their child will attend next year. They can adjust the student's schedule as needed.
-Mr. Grivetti and Mr. Russell
FROM THE LIBRARY
During the month of March, we will be doing many of our synchronous lessons on Nearpod, a new interactive way to engage students in lessons. Grades 3-5 will be beginning Dragons in a Bag, one of the novels for this year's Virginia Readers' Choice. On asynchronous days, they will continue exploring literary genres and earning badges by completing book report assessments in Schoology. Grades K-2 will be finishing up their Virginia Reader's choice selections as well, so they can vote for their favorite in April.
-Mrs. Christiansen
A NOTE FROM PE...
Hard to believe March is already upon us. It is the perfect time to start the striking unit using body parts, otherwise known as pre-volleyball skills, with slow moving objects for K-2. Slow moving objects ensure greater success for the students as they have more reaction time to track the object and get in good position for a proper 'return'. Students love striking colored balloons of various sizes and shapes. As they progress in their skills, they will move on to striking balls of various sizes. Students really enjoy the various challenges and activities set up for them each day. It's great to see their excitement and smiles as they enter the gym! Object control skills are a part of fundamental motor skills and basic functional skills, which work as a prerequisite to becoming a skilled performer in many sports. Striking is one of the most difficult to master due to a variety of interrelated movement components. Vertical or underarm striking is a more advanced level of striking and is a key movement pattern for sports such as golf or field hockey. Students in 3-5 will also work on striking but with an implement. Students use a friendly version of the standard hockey stick. Students are taught the proper grip, parts of a hockey stick, safety, and stick handling skills to aid in dribbling, passing, and aiming at targets. Students will safely practice and develop their skills through fun activities in the gym.
~ Mrs. Vazquez and Mrs. Ciccone
FROM THE ART ROOM
A Note from the Ms. Yoon's Art Room!
In March, our 2nd-grade and 5th-grade students will be finishing art projects celebrating Black History Month. 2nd-grade students are working on a collage piece inspired by the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and 5th-grade students are working on a painting inspired by the artist Kimmy Cantrell.
1st-grade students will continue to explore color theory with a heart project inspired by the artist Romero Britto. 3rd-grade students will be learning about the principle of design (repetition and variation) inspired by the artist Paul Bursnall.
Our 4th-grade students will also be exploring color theory using watercolor paints to create a landscape painting inspired by the artist Jen Aranyi. Kindergarten students will continue to explore different types of lines and shapes.
Lastly, please note that most of our art projects take more than one synchronous lesson to complete. We encourage our students to keep their art projects in their art kit (a zipper pouch) the whole time. Please remind our Comets to have their art projects and art kits ready for the synchronous art lessons.
Hybrid students - please remind our hybrid Comets to bring the art kit to school!
If you would like to see what Comets have been working on, please check the following links for updates!
- Horizon Art Gallery Padlet
https://padlet.com/clara_yoon/n855219i94lmfgcf
- Horizon Art Room Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/hrz_artroom/
Thank you!
Clara Yoon, Horizon ES Art specialist.
A Note from the Mrs. Walker's Art Room!
Ms. Yang (KG), Ms. Nichols (1st) - Due to the snow days we will continue to work on our Black History Month art unit as well as finish our Lunar New Year art unit.
Ms. Rooker & Ms. Perka (2nd) - During Read Across America Week, students will learn about Illustrators and create a book character illustration. We will also create artwork inspired by Surrealism.
Brandy Walker
Art Specialist
FROM OUR READING SPECIALISTS
My Child is a Fake Reader!
Do you have one? Do you harbor a nagging feeling that your precious child is “one of those?” What am I talking about? Fake reading! Fake reading is something about which teachers and parents struggle and worry daily. We are all aware that the best way to improve at something is to practice it-daily if possible. But we ask our kids to read every day, only to discover that the time allotted was spent not really reading at all. Yes, sadly, you have a fake reader.
As experienced teachers, we have seen this all too often ourselves. We know how worried you are and we agree-this cannot be left to resolve on its own. As parents and teachers we must be proactive and persistent in trying to create a real reader at home and at school. In this month’s article, we hope to give parents some tips to help you increase your child’s connection to texts and to end fake reading once and for all.
Make reading a part of your family routine. You may be saying that you already do this, but let us challenge you-are YOU also reading each day? Your kids know if you are ‘walking the walk’ or just ‘talking the talk’. We are fortunate at the elementary level because our routines and behaviors demonstrate our values to our kids and essentially, pass those on. If you want your children to value reading every day, turn off the tv and read. Read on your own or find a book your family would enjoy reading together. Make it part of your daily routine and something to which you look forward every day.
Check to see if what your child is reading by themselves is too hard or uninteresting to them. Children may have books they think they should be reading but in reality are too difficult or not interesting. You can figure this out by listening to them read half a page. If they cannot read more than 5 words, it’s too hard. You may hear your child’s teacher recommend a specific level, but your child is not a level. This is a guide to help teachers know what to teach next. If your child is very interested in a topic, they may be able to tackle books at more difficult levels for that topic. Either way, take time to hear them read. Some word challenges are okay-but a lot? That book should probably be read to them rather than read by themselves.
Allow your child to choose what they want to read. Lots of us adults have strong feelings one way or another about graphic novels and comic books. Children are left to hide those types of text from us, even though they really like reading them. If that’s true for you and your child, relax. Graphic novels and comic books offer shortened text, illustrations, and spacing formats that are appealing to many children. These texts have complicated plot lines and high levels of vocabulary to challenge your children. If that’s what they want to read or if they want to read lots and lots of texts about a particular topic, it’s okay. More than okay-we must stop trying to control what our kids read and embrace the reading itself.
Partner up. A wonderful way of helping children to engage and connect with books is to read as partners. You read one page or part and encourage your child to read another. It really is more fun together. You can help each other through the tough parts. Stop and talk. Giggle. Wonder aloud. Encourage your child to make predictions and exclamations about what is happening in a story. These discussions will lead to a warm and fruitful reading experience.
Make this month a month of change for your child. Hopefully by trying some of these tips your child will become a real reader after all. Let us know how it goes.
Donna White
Eileen Snyder
Literacy Specialists at Horizon Elementary School
From the Technology Department
We spent February celebrating the contributions of Black Americans. Check out this slideshow to learn about some Black pioneers in the area of computer science. March is Women’s History month, and we want to recognize the many contributions women have made in the field of computing. Girls Who Code is an organization working to close the gender gap in technology. Every two weeks they post free online and offline Code at Home Activities featuring women innovators. The most recent available for download now are on digital art.
Thank you to those students and parents that participated in the Brightbytes Survey! LCPS will use your input about tech use at home and school to inform decision-making regarding funding and professional development for next year. LCPS’s recent purchase of Nearpod for all staff members is a good example of this, and many teachers and students are loving the new tool. I see every day the many ways our staff is working hard to keep students engaged, and we appreciate your support at home too! This article has some great tips for parents to Help Motivate Kids to Learn.
Additional information from the Technology Department
For how-to or instructional technology questions, it is recommended that all families start with the child's teacher.
Distance Learning students with access or hardware problems should call the Technology Support Center (TSC) at (571) 252-2112 or email your question to supportcenter@lcps.org. The TSC is staffed from 8 AM - 5 PM, Mon.-Fri., and includes Spanish speakers. To make an appointment for repairs, go to bit.ly/DDI-REPAIR. Dominion HS is the closest repair center to Horizon.
This information has been updated on our Family Distance Learning Resource site for your reference.
A Note from the Search Department
Reminder: Academies of Loudoun will be hosting an information session designed for 5th grade parents. This is to help parents understand the academic offerings and admission criteria for students, which may in turn affect their course recommendations and choices for 6th grade math (which they are making now). The next session is March 2nd at 6:30pm. View LiveStream HERE
Eligibility: Due to COVID-19, the gifted evaluation process for winter/spring, 2021 will be delayed. The Gifted Education Department is currently developing a plan to evaluate this year’s 3rd - 5th grade students when it is safe and equitable to do so.
Please check Horizon’s SEARCH webpage (https://www.lcps.org/domain/7135) and/or the LCPS Gifted and Talented webpage (https://www.lcps.org/Page/211705) for the most up-to-date information. As soon as the 2021 gifted evaluation timeline and referral window is established, it will be posted at these locations.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
SEARCH: Ms. Johnson and Ms. O’Sullivan want to thank all students who participate in their SEARCH lessons. SEARCH is an opportunity for all students to enrich their thinking and expand their thinking in a safe environment. Challenges help to grow our brains.
Horizon School Counseling News
What’s important? Ms. Anderson and Ms. Demory are the School Counselors at Horizon Elementary School. Every week, the School Counseling Newsletter is updated with new and important information for students/families. We encourage all students to attend their school counseling classroom lessons, every other week! View the School Counseling Newsletter to get updated information for students in hybrid and distance learning! Please click here to view the School Counseling Newsletter!
What’s next? In the month of March, we will begin career exploration! These lessons are very important for all students to attend, as the school counselors will be collecting an “artifact” for each student. An artifact is a career exploration activity that all students are recommended to complete and submit to their school counselor. See below for a detailed description of Career Exploration!
- Beginning in the elementary school years, students are to explore the different occupations associated with career clusters and select an area or areas of interest. Students will begin the development of an Academic and Career Plan Portfolio (ACPP) in elementary grades to include information about interests, values such as dependability and responsibility, and skills supporting decisions about their future interests and goals.
How to contact your school counselor? All contact information is provided in the School Counseling Newsletter.
Horizon Elementary School
46665 Broadmore Drive * Sterling, VA * 20165 * Telephone 571.434.3260 * Fax 703.444.7418
Absentee Line 571.434.3261
Absentee Email hrzabsentee@lcps.org
website: www.lcps.org/Horizon
Principal: Mrs. Jasmine Carpenter jasmine.carpenter@lcps.org
Assistant Principal: Mr. Max Merick maxwell.merick@lcps.org
Financial Technician: Mrs. Holly Buehler Laura.Buehler@lcps.org
Registrar: Mrs. Katie Wright katherine.wright@lcps.org
Follow us on Twitter: @HorizonElem or Facebook: www.facebook.com/HRZSterling