BARFIELD BANNER
November 2021
A Message from the Principal
Dear Parents and Guardians,
We have officially completed the first quarter of the school year! It seems like the beginning of the year has flown by quickly. We are excited to jump right into Quarter 2! We finished up October by celebrating some great events such as Red Ribbon Week and our Annual Pumpkin Decorating Contest! The creativity and enthusiasm that goes with each one of these activities always makes it that much more exciting! These events have provided our students with some great experiences this past quarter!
This past week we had our first Virtual Learning Day of the year. Virtual Learning Days are a great way to continue instruction with our students, while also providing our staff an opportunity to participate in professional development. Thank you for supporting your students with their virtual learning and ensuring they completed their assignments on time.
As we move into November, we look forward to continuing some fall activities, like our Thanksgiving Feast. Although our parents and families will not be able to join us again this year in the cafeteria, our Student Lighthouse Team is planning a great event for the students. We are also looking forward to hosting our first Book Fair of the year! In addition to visiting the Book Fair during the day, we will also provide some afterschool hours so that you can visit the Book Fair with your child! Book Fair will be available the week of November 15th. This will be the perfect opportunity to purchase some books before the holidays!
Beginning the week of October 25th, CCPS has opened the opportunity for volunteers to join us back on campus. Volunteering can include chaperoning a school field trip or academically supporting the students throughout the school day. Currently, no volunteering will take place in the cafeteria. We are lucky to have some wonderful volunteers here at Tommie Barfield and we look forward to speaking further with you about how we can best support students. Our school Counselor, Leanne Hope is our Volunteer Coordinator. She can assist and answer any questions you may have.
Remember to ask you child about their Leadership Club! We had another successful Club Day in October where each child in the school participated. It is wonderful to watch each student build their leadership skills and have an opportunity to share their individual genius with others!
I look forward to a great month ahead! As always, please reach out to me with any questions or concerns!
Sincerely,
Alyssa Ledbetter
News from the Assistant Principal
Kindergarten News
It is unbelievable that we have “FALLEN” into the second quarter of Kindergarten already! The Kindergarten teachers are so THANKFUL for our students and parents at TBE! With parent support, our students continue to make great gains. Please continue to have your child practice writing their uppercase and lowercase letters, letter sounds, and sight words daily.
Here are some ideas to make learning sight words, letter sounds, and making words fun at home!
~Practice making the words using magnetic letters on a cookie pan or the front of the refrigerator.
~Write letters and words in a pan of salt or in the sand at the beach.
~Write letters and words in shaving cream spread on the countertop or the tile wall to the bathtub.
~Use play dough to shape each letter to make the words.
~Give your child a highlighter and a newspaper or magazine and ask him/her to be a Sight Word Detective by highlighting the sight word each time it appears on a page.
~Cut out letters from magazines to spell sight words and words.
~Be creative and share your ideas with us!
For math practice, please work on writing numbers 1-20. For writing practice, please work on “sound spelling”. We are so THANKFUL to have these wonderful students and appreciate your help at home! Thank you for all you do!
Let’s keep learning fun!
The Kindergarten Team
First Grade News
Hello First Grade Families!
Our First Graders have been hard at work at school learning all about the relationships between addition and subtraction and how to apply strategies for solving both types of problems. Students are also becoming more fluent in solving addition and subtraction facts. Please continue to use the Math parent letters to support this learning at home!
In reading, students have spent the past few weeks reading both fiction and non-fiction texts to learn all about animals and how their bodies help them. Students have been able to research and become experts on an animal of their choice and are working on writing an expository piece about their animal.
This month, we were able to meet with our third-grade buddies to get to know each other better, read some exciting books and complete a pumpkin math activity. It is always a treat to spend some time with our buddy classes!
During our Leader in Me time, students have been learning all about Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind. They have been able to practice goal setting and tracking and even worked on class and personal mission statements. Students had a great time thinking about and identifying their “why” and making plans to carry it out.
Please continue reading and practicing sight words each night. As always, we appreciate your support!
The First Grade Team
Second Grade News
Second grade has been busy with several exciting Science experiments to finish up our unit on Matter. They enjoyed testing out the chemical and physical reactions to clay, the smell and consistency of sour milk vs fresh milk, adding vinegar to milk, watching chocolate morsels melt into a liquid (and tasting it,) adding cream of tartar to baking soda, and seeing the reaction to popping bubble wrap. What fun! The students also observed what happens when you put vinegar into a plastic bottle and add a balloon that is filled with baking soda. Their expressions were priceless!
In reading the students have learned more about how to compromise effectively through various stories and have been in the process of writing an opinion essay about their favorite candy.
In math we finished up our two modules on Place Value and are moving into the next three modules on Coins, Dollar Amounts and Telling Time. Please have your student continue to work with their flash cards nightly and continue reading to meet their Quarter 2 Reading Counts goal.
Thank you for your ongoing support always~
Third Grade News
Third graders are working hard this quarter!
The students are still working on their multiplication fluency in Math. Multiplication is a large part of the 3rd grade math curriculum and the students have been singing their facts songs. Please have your child continue to practice these songs at home. They have been learning about strategies and properties to help them solve their multiplication equations. We also have started solving division equations. In Reading, the children have focused on text features, main idea, and key details. They are learning how to use context clues when reading new text. In Writing, the students are continuing to learn about expository writing. In Science, the students learned about animal classifications. During Social Studies, we learned how to identify maps and use map elements.
Please continue to read with your child every night and practice multiplication facts. We appreciate all your help and support at home!
During our lead time, we are talking about Habit 3: Put First Things First. At home, you can talk about what’s most important to your family. Make a list of your family’s top Big Rocks (most important priorities).
The Third Grade Team
Fourth Grade News
Hello Fourth Grade Families!
It is hard to believe that it is already November and that the second quarter is in full swing. We loved meeting with our Leader Clubs last month and are looking forward to our next meeting. We will continue to work with our new Reading standards and curriculum. This quarter we will be focusing on text features, figurative language, and the elements of a story. Students are really enjoying the stories and be sure to ask them to summarize what we have read for you! Students are super excited to begin writing about a person they know who has made a difference. In Math we are continuing to work with multiplication and division. Be sure to ask your student to teach you all the different strategies they have learned and what strategy they enjoy using the most. We also continue to work on our Math Fact Fluency. Knowing our multiplication facts fluently will make long division so much smoother! We started quarter 2 in Social Studies by learning about the Native American tribes that inhabited Florida. We will continue to learn about how these tribes were influenced by the different explorers that came to Florida. In Science continue to talk about energy and food chains before we move into our study of rocks and minerals.
The month of November brings us to focus on Habit 3: Put First Things First. Talk with your student about what it means to spend time on things that are most important, set priorities, make a schedule, follow a plan, and to be disciplined and organized. How do you and your family demonstrate Habit 3?
The Fourth Grade Team!
Fifth Grade News
Hello Fifth Grade families! Here we are in November already and the kids are working so hard!
We’ve had our 2nd day of Leadership Clubs recently and the synergy the kids are showing is really incredible at making a difference in our school, community, and world.
Our fifth graders have been very busy academically with taking on all of the rigorous content from each subject area, in addition to recently completing quarter 1 benchmark testing in math, science, and ELA.
In writing the kids will be working on elaborating on text evidence to explain a topic or support their opinion on a given prompt. In Reading, we are going to be reading various texts about the Wild West! During our social studies time, we are finishing up learning about various Native American groups and getting into the Age of Exploration. We will dive into the reasons Europeans first started to explore further reaches. In math, fractions will be the word of the month. First continuing with adding and subtracting and shortly getting into multiplying and dividing fractions. During our science studies, the fifth graders will be continuing the weather unit, and later beginning climate studies.
Please continue to encourage your child to read each night, and make sure to check agendas each night to keep up with homework assignments.
As always, we are always available to be reached through Classtag, email, or a phone call.
Thank you for your continued support to help your child reach their full potential!
Sincerely,
The Fifth Grade Team
Tech Talk by Mrs. McCarty
🎶 C-O-D-I-N-G! CODING! Hey! Coding! If you have a primary student at TBE, you may hear this song 🎶 as we start our Q2 Coding Unit in Tech Classes. All students from kindergarten through fifth grade will learn the basics of block code programming starting with continued work in their accounts at code.org, building up to the annual worldwide Hour of Code in December, the largest educational movement on the planet🌏, challenging everyone of any age to try an hour of coding, or programming. Families can check it out by visiting code.org, where there are *free* coding courses ranging from pre-reader all the way through pos-graduate programming levels. In addition, TBE Tech students will also explore programming using such hands-on technology as: Blue Bot Robots, Dash and Dot Robots, OzoBot Robots, Kano Harry Potter Coding Wands, and Kano Build a Laptop & Code.
Music Notes
We now enter that wonderful time of the year where there is a song for just about every occasion. Our entire school will be preparing performance work to sing in the holidays ahead of us. We look forward to sharing our talents by saluting our veterans, understanding the music of thankfulness, and celebrating the entire winter season. We will also be recording our work so that it can be shared with our families and community friends. So, haul out the holly…here we go!!!
Mr. Craig Greusel
Music Teacher
Artistic Notes
We had a great September and October in art at TBE! We learned about shades and tints by making a pumpkin in the moonlight with our kindergarten students. In first grade, we learned about line placement and creating lines that I wanted them to make and then they created and placed shapes where they wanted in their scarecrow project. Second graders at TBE learned about depth in art by overlapping pumpkins and making smaller pumpkins to appear further away and larger pumpkins to seem close up. Third through fifth grade learned about shades and tints by making pumpkins the past couple of weeks.
Everyone made ceramics lately in class. Kind, first, and second learned about coil pots and pinch pots and got to make pinch pot pumpkins first hand. The older students learned about fall colors and made fall leaves.
To look at our artist’s work or to see who the Star Student was for each day, follow @beauvaisCCPS on twitter.
Physical Education
This past month in PE class, students have been working on their underhand tossing and rolling technique in a series of fun activities and games. Students are constantly being challenged with using good sportsmanship when working with others and playing by the honesty policy. Student’s practice confronting their peers when something is wrong, as well as celebrating each other’s successes.
Additionally, students will be receiving their running bling (running shoe tokens) which represents how many miles they have completed within the past month. The apples and pumpkins represent how many laps they ran in just one day. Kindergarten and 1st grade students must complete 3 laps during our warmup, 2nd grade must complete 4 laps, and 3rd thru 5th grade must complete 5 laps (1 mile) to receive the special token. This has been an awesome program to help motivate and create a positive association with running for our students.
Deana Richett
Media Center News
The Scholastic Book Fair is coming to TBE. Student preview day will be Friday November 12th. The book fair will be open for sales Monday Nov. 15- Friday Nov. 19th with a special family shopping event Tuesday Nov. 16 from 3:30-6:30.
Scholastic provides a digital payment option called eWallet. Once created you or family members can add funds. Please be aware any unused funds become a gift card balance that can be used at future book fairs or online with Scholastic.
More information on when your child’s shopping day is and how to set up an eWallet will be coming! All proceeds made from the book fair are used to support the TBE Media Center.
Here is a video link about eWallet
https://players.brightcove.net/1543299976/Eyj59PHsg_default/index.html?videoId=5831064261001
Here is a link our TBE book fair page
Our SSYRA 3-5 program is steadily moving along. We now have 2 students who have read all 15 books! Congratulations to Ava and Colin!! We have students who have read 3 and 22 that are eligible to vote in the statewide election in the Spring.
Counselor's Corner
Leanne Hope will contact you when an academic volunteering position is available.
From the District:
- Level One Volunteer Application Expiration
Thank you for volunteering with Collier County Public Schools. We appreciate you.
This is to inform you your level I volunteer status/application expired as of July 23rd, 2021.
This will happen every year to ensure compliance with orientation, policy review and accurate school association information.
When you update your contact information in the green Returning Volunteer portal, indicate the associated schools where you desire to volunteer. The “All Buildings” choice has been removed in effort to have accurate accounting of your location and hours.
As a level I, you will be unable to volunteer until you update your application and complete an orientation with the school you are a volunteer. If you would still like to volunteer, please go in, and update your volunteer application as well as contact Tommie Barfield—LEANNE HOPE at 239-377-8506 to complete your volunteer orientation again.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Danielle Reynolds at 239-377-0350 or reynod@collierschools.com.
- Level Two Volunteer Application Expiration
Thank you for volunteering with Collier County Public Schools. We appreciate you.
This is to inform you, your level II volunteer status/application, expired as of July 23rd, 2021.
This will happen every year to ensure compliance with orientation, policy review and accurate school association information. Also, we are required to update fingerprint information every five years so you will receive a separate notification when your five-year fingerprints have expired. This notification will include the process on how to schedule fingerprints and the form required by the school to receive fingerprints.
As a level II, you will be unable to volunteer until you update your application and complete an orientation with LEANNE HOPE 239-377-8506 at Tommie Barfield.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Danielle Reynolds at 239-377-0350 or reynod@collierschools.com.
Leanne Hope
School Counselor
Tommie Barfield Elementary School
239-377-8506
hopele@collierschools.comNurse Station
Welcome to November. It’s the season of pumpkin spice and cool breezes. November is also National Diabetes Awareness Month. It appears to be that more and more students are being diagnosed each year with diabetes. One of the best ways to avoid diabetes is by staying healthy, eating well balanced meals and proper exercise and a good sleeping pattern. It’s a disease that is also hereditary that can’t be prevented.
As I say in every newsletter, please make sure to keep all your phone numbers and addresses current with the school. If any of them need to be updated call the front office @ 239-377-8500 and they can update them for you.
All medications need to come to school by parent or guardian. Please do not send them into school with a child. The proper paperwork also needs to be in place as well for all medications. All prescription medications need to have the prescription label with the child’s name on it and it needs to specify a school time on the orders and label. All over the counter medications need to be now -expired and in an unopened package and age appropriate for your child.
Remember time change occurs on November 7, 2021, which means it will be getting dark earlier so be safe and always look around for our little ones out there playing. Thank you and enjoy the November festivities with your family, loved ones and friends.
Tricia Kutzke NCH Nurse
Tuesday and Thursday @Everglades City School
Clinic Hours 7:30am until 3:30pm/ Clinic # 377-9809
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday @ Tommie Barfield Elementary School
Clinic Hours 7:30 am until 3:30 pm /Clinic# 377-8509
PTO News
PTO Barfield Banner Blurb:
Thank you to everyone that attended our 1st PTO Dine-Out at Joey’s Pizza. We are thrilled to share that we raised $1500! A special thank you to Joey’s Pizza for hosting and being a part of this fundraiser!
Our next Dine-Out will be on Wednesday, November 10th at the Italian Deli. Stay tuned for details!
If you have any questions or would like to be a part of the PTO, please feel free to email us at tommiebarfieldpto@gmail.com
November 9th: General Meeting, 6:00 in the Media Center
November 10th: PTO Dine-out at The Italian Deli
December 1st: 4th Grade Stock the Fridge
Annual HOLIDAY SHOPPE: Stay tuned for details
regarding this fun annual event!
*Our next meeting will be Tuesday, October 12, 6:00 pm in the Cafeteria