Forest Lake Newsletter
October 2017
Our Mission is Possible...with Teamwork!
- Dr. Paul Nehrig - Principal
- Mr. David Sanford - Assistant Principal
Dear Panthers,
Thank you for taking the time to read this edition of the Forest Lake newsletter. It’s hard to believe we have already finished the first quarter of the year! We had an excellent first grading period, and as you will read in the articles below, the second quarter will be packed with lots of learning and fun as well. Keeping in mind our theme for the year: “Our Mission is Possible… with Teamwork!” my focus is on ensuring that ALL our students can be successful. Our Mission Statement is:
The mission of our Forest Lake Elementary community is to provide
a learning environment where all students can achieve academic success.
I encourage everyone – students, teachers, parents, support staff, and community members – to work together for this goal. Each member of the team has an important role, and I thank all of you for doing your part. For students and families, some important ways to achieve the mission are to get involved, stay informed, and engage in two-way communication. At Forest Lake, we have many resources for families and students to stay connected: through direct face-to-face or phone contact, notes sent between teachers and parents, email, Class Dojo, Remind101, electronic gradebook, our school web site (including our online event calendar), Sunday night Panther Updates, flyers sent home with students, this newsletter, our street-side marquee, our two Twitter accounts- @ForestLakeVCS and @ForestLakePTO, and now our Parent Liaison Mrs. Morales. Parents, please consider joining our School Advisory Council (SAC), our Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), or becoming a business partner or volunteer. We are continually working on new ways to connect and if you have any suggestions for increasing communication and involvement, please let us know!
Looking ahead, please note the following important events:
- On Tuesday, 10/17, our School Advisory Council (SAC) meets in the Media Center at 2:30. SAC meetings are open to the public and all are invited to attend.
- This Thursday, 10/19 is our Hispanic Heritage Celebration from 5:30p.m. to 7:30p.m. in our Cafeteria. We’ll have student projects on display, food trucks, special guest speakers, performances by the Folkloric Dancers, and more! All are welcome.
- Next Thursday, 10/26 is our annual Spooky Story Night sponsored by our PTO. Come join us for spooky stories, crafts, and pizza for only $3.00! Flyers were sent home for you to RSVP.
- Looking ahead, we will offer a special Parent Night during the week of November 13 to provide parents with important information about how they can support their students’ learning at home. Parents will also get a preview of second semester curriculum and standards.
Finally, I wish to re-emphasize the importance of school attendance, including on-time arrival in the morning. This year, we will continue to work hard to improve attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism through our district’s “Everybody, Every Day” campaign. The research is clear – regular attendance leads to success, and chronic absenteeism has a dramatically negative impact on student learning. Please commit to helping our students attend every day, on time and ready to learn. Thank you!
It’s going to be a great second grading period at Forest Lake, where “Our Mission is Possible… with Teamwork”!
In Panther Pride,
Dr. Paul M. Nehrig
Principal
Forest Lake Elementary
School Advisory Council
Deltona Star Student of the Month
Box Tops 4 Education
PTO NEWS
Happy Fall, Panther families! We have lots of fun events planned for this year, and October is no exception!
October is also Box Tops submission time. Box Tops are a simple way to earn money for our school; simply clip them from participating products, collect them in a container or bag, and send them to school with your child! Please have all Box Tops returned to school by Friday, October 20. For information on Box Tops & a list of participating products, visit www.BTFE.com
Please mark your calendars for these upcoming PTO sponsored events:
October 26 - We hope that everyone can join us for Spooky Story Night.
A slice of pizza, chips, and a drink can be purchased for $3 from 5:30 p.m. -
6:30 p.m.
Crafts and Stories are from 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Please see the flyer that was sent home with your child this week for RSVP information.
November 7 - P.T.O. Budget approval meeting
November 7 - BINGO Night
We are looking forward to seeing you at these events and having you become a member of PTO.
Contact info: panthers1pto@gmail.com
Twitter @ForestLakePTO
Facebook: Forest Lake Elementary PTO
Grade Level News
KINDERGARTEN
The kindergarten kids have been working away like busy bees! We just finished learning how to write uppercase letters and are now learning how to write the lowercase letters. We have discussed story elements such as; title, author, illustrator, characters, setting and key ideas. And we are learning the difference between fiction and non-fiction books. In Math we are learning how to read and write the numerals 0 to 20. And we continue to count up to 20 everyday! We’re excited to go on our first field trip in October to the Pumpkin Patch!
FIRST GRADE
Happy Fall! In the month of October first grade will be busy learning about the sun, moon, and stars in both science and language arts. Please read daily and memorize all of the sight words sent home. We will test your child’s sight word knowledge at the end of every quarter. In math, practice counting and writing the numbers to 120. First graders should be able to recognize two-digit numbers and count on from any number up to 99. Work on forming numbers correctly. The students will also be learning about digital and analog clocks. This month we will focus on time to the hour. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call or email your child’s teacher.
SECOND GRADE
Second graders are busy working collaboratively on their Hispanic Heritage research project. Our media specialist worked with classes to show them how to gather information that would be on their reading and understanding level. Students are participating in BOOK-IT which is sponsored by Pizza Hut. Complete the required reading and assignment and earn a free personal pan pizza! Upcoming, we will be working on composing narratives, learning to tell time to the five minutes, and recognizing weather patterns. October 31, will bring pumpkins and Math together as we measure the circumference of different size pumpkins, and weigh them. The sights and smells of autumn will be all around that day.
Festive Fall to you all!
Third Grade News
We are excited to be going on our first field trip of the year to the Orlando Science Center on October 17th and October 9th. Groups will be completing challenges and labs. This is a fantastic opportunity to explore STEM concepts that the students have been learning about this year.
Third grade will also be doing “Fall Fun “rotations on October 31st. Each teacher will choose a themed lesson plan in a different subject. The students will rotate around rooms throughout the day. This is a wonderful chance for teachers to introduce themselves to other students, we are looking forward to it.
FOURTH GRADE
Fourth graders have been very busy learning various strategies for multi-digit multiplication and division. We have taken our first county writing prompt, expressing our opinion as to where we would rather visit Paris or Florida. In science, we are studying the differences between weathering and erosion. Soon we will be learning about the different properties of rocks. This knowledge will come in handy when we visit The Gillespie Museum in Deland later this month. We are starting our study of native Floridians which will include the Tequesta, the Timucua, the Calusa, and the Apalachee. Congratulations to all the 4th grade students who were accepted into our various school clubs. Looking forward to a great year!
FIFTH GRADE
Fifth grade to Parents, do you copy? Here in the Galaxy of 5th grade we have definitely blasted off into amazing things! We have been learning about the Solar System, Weather, Fractions, Decimals, Native American Tribes, Informational writing, and have continued to read the book, “Wonder”! On top of all the amazing things we are doing in and out of the classroom, like our new clubs, we are going to the Young People’s Concert at the Peabody Auditorium on October 17th. Here we will get to listen to live music performed by professional musicians. We are also planning a trip to go see “Wonder” in theaters. Lastly, we will participating in Pumpkinology where students will investigate how many pumpkin seeds are inside a pumpkin by going through all steps of the Scientific Method! If willing, and able, we are accepting pumpkin donations until the end of the month. Well that’s all for us here in the Galaxy of 5th grade! Over and out!
SPECIAL AREA NEWS
MUSIC
5th Grade will be going on a field trip on Tuesday, October 17th to watch the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra play at the Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach. At this concert, students will hear a live orchestra play works by Handel, Bizet, Tchaikovsky, and many more composers!
Both the Orff and Recorder Ensemble and Chorus started after school practices this month. Orff and Recorder is a new instrumental group that meets on Fridays. Chorus will focus on singing and meets on Mondays. Both groups were open to 4th and 5th grade students and meet from 2:15-3:15. They will be performing in December at the Winter Concert.
PE
Coach Albano will be working on the students cardiovascular endurance by having several activities throughout the months of October and November. She will be playing a field game the rotation from Oct. 13-20 and the mileage club from Oct. 23 to Nov. 7. Our annual Mile run test will be coming up in December.
Coach Albano also needs more girls for her Girls on the Run club!
Coach Boyle is finishing up the Archery unit now and will be starting Gymnastics on Oct. 13th. We will be doing Gymnastic activities until Nov. 7th.
STEM
Our Panther Scientists just finished our first ever STEM unit – STEM and Fairytales. Everyone learned a lot about working in teams, planning and design, and how we can learn even from less than successful outcomes. Thank you to all of the members of our Panther family that donated recycled items for our first STEM unit, we will let you know if we need more materials in the future. Our next unit will focus on aerodynamics. Students will learn about the forces that act on an airplane, and then after a little research, fold and fly their own paper airplane in our paper airplane flying contest. Students do need to have a signed safety contract on file in order to thrown their airplane in our contest, so if you haven’t already done so, please ensure those get turned in soon. Thank you for all of your support for our Panther Scientists.
MEDIA CENTER NEWS
Reading is such an important lifelong skill, yet it is it often neglected because of our busy schedules. Here is a list of some easy ways to support your child's reading:
- Read Every Day Make reading to and with your child a part of every day. Take turns reading newspaper articles, or favorite paragraphs from whatever you happen to be reading. Talk about the writing style, perspective used, and any unfamiliar words.
- Ask Questions About Reading Find out what book your child is reading right now and talk about it. Is it as good as the last one? Is the main character sympathetic or not? Can your child predict what will happen next in the book? What book will be next?
- Set up a Reading Area Creating a cozy home reading corner is a great way to encourage your child to read. If you’ve got room for two chairs, spend some quiet time reading together, too.
- Define Unfamiliar Words Be prepared to help your child discover new words while reading. It’s a good idea to keep a dictionary handy, just in case you’re both stumped!
- Write Notes Use a family bulletin board to leave written messages to family members every day. Encourage your child to write messages for the board, too.
- Offer Reading Rewards Give your child special attention or a specific reward, such as a book, every time your child finishes five or ten books. Encourage them to participate in the Reading Counts Program.
- Share Stories Encourage your child to read stories to siblings or other children.
- Daily Word Open the dictionary once a day at a random spot to come up with a Word of the Day. See who can use the word in a sentence more times during the day.
- Library Visits Make weekly library visits a part of your family routine. Getting to know your public librarian is a great way to find out about new books.
- Give the Gift of Reading. Magazines and books make great gifts for birthdays and holidays.
- Parent/Child Book Club Get together with your child and other parents and children (in the same age range as your child) to form a book club in which parents and children read and discuss the same books.
- Turn Off the TV! Give family reading time priority over family viewing time.
Parents are encouraged to visit our FLE media center. We are open to parents before and after school. Parents may check out up to three books at a time and keep them for a week. Please stop by and see us. We look forward to seeing you.
FLORIDA KID CARE
COMMUNITY NEWS
Volunteers and Business Partners
If you need to renew your volunteer form or you need to fill one out for the first time, please click here for the new online application in English or here for Spanish. Schools will no longer have paper applications on site. If you or somebody you know needs to fill out a new online application but do not have access to a computer, there will be a computer available in our Parent Resource room.
Once applicants have been approved or denied, they will receive an email. Applicants may also check in with our front office to check on their status.
School Information
Website: http://myvolusiaschools.org/school/ForestLake
Location: 1600 Doyle Road, Deltona, FL, United States
Phone: 386-575-4166
Newsletter
Please look for our monthly school newsletter on the first Monday of every month. If you know of a parent that did not receive an email for this newsletter and they would like to receive one, please have them send their email address to Mrs. Wagenhauser at vdwagenh@volusia.k12.fl.us . You may also access the newsletter on our school website at http://myvolusiaschools.org/school/ForestLake .