Principal's News
December 6th, 2017
Message from Dr. DeWeese
Special thanks to everyone for attending all of our special events the past month. We had a great turn out for our Veteran's Day Celebration. It brings the staff at Harvest Ridge a great sense of pride to be able to provide a celebration and a meal to our veteran's and their families. Our first grade Grandparents Day was also very successful. The students enjoyed having their families visit to perform and eat donuts.
The Harvest Ridge Choir performed for students and families yesterday. It was a great performance and it was clear how hard the students have worked to prepare for the show. Dr. Adams led the students through a fun and and entertaining show. Thank you to all the families who work to get their child to choir each week and for attending the show.
Our third, fourth, and fifth grade students took our annual Gates Reading Assessment and we have recently received the results. We are proud to share that we saw growth in the scores in third grade from the students who are in third grade now compared to the students who were in third grade last year. We also saw growth in our fourth grade students. They showed an overall gain in achievement from the scores last year. This assessment is just one piece of information in determining a student's reading level and need for reading interventions.
Today the staff at Harvest Ridge came together to problem solve the playground. As a team we came up with some great solutions to help students be more successful on the playground. Stay tuned for playground improvements. As I have shared in earlier newsletters we are seeking any parents who would be willing to volunteer to run an organized game at recess. Just let me know if you are willing to help.
As we close out this quarter please enjoy the holidays. It is a pleasure to work with you and your children and I appreciate all the support you provide the staff at Harvest Ridge. Have a great break and as always please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
New Chromebooks
Recently, the Harvest Ridge PTO has generously donated enough money to purchase another set of chromebooks and a cart for our intermediate grades. With the addition of this set we just need three more sets and three more carts to accomplish our 1:1 goal in the intermediate grades.
Our students use chromebooks daily for a variety of activities. During Writer's Workshop students use google slides to prepare presentations of their research. They also use google docs to write narrative and expository essays. By using google students are able to share their work with the classroom teacher allowing the classroom teacher to provide feedback on the student work. It is awesome to see the student engagement during writing.
Students take many of their assessments, especially in math using a chromebook. The use of the chromebook allows for the classroom teacher to quickly assess students mastery of the skills. The ongoing use of technology during assessments also helps prepare our students for our state assessment in the spring.
Thank you to all of the families for purchasing Entertainment Books this year to help provide funding for additional devices. We are thankful for your support and commitment to prepare our students for the future.
Attendance Updates
We have two attendance goals as a school. One goal is to have 96% of our students at school daily and the other is to have 90% of our students attending school 90% of the time.
- 91.9% of our students are attending school 90% of the time
- 137 students have not been at school 90% of the time
- 16 students have missed more than 10 days of school
- 83 students have missed 6-9 days of school
- 38 students have missed 4-5 days of school
- 553 students had perfect attendance for the month of November
- 80 students have had perfect attendance all year
Thanks for all your help in letting us know when your child is not at school and for all your support in getting your child to school each day.
One Book One School
It is that time of year again to start getting ready for One Book, One School. Each year every family receives a copy of the same book. On January 25th we will have a family event at school to kick off the reading of the book. Families will be provided their copy of the book along with some activities. One Book, One School is used to promote the enjoyment of reading at home.
Below is a link for parents to weigh in on what book we should purchase and have give to families. We appreciate your input and we will share with you soon which book was chosen. Mark your calendars for January 25th at 5:30 to attend the family event!
Curriculum Connection
Kindergarten
First Grade
Second Grade
Third Grade
Fourth Grade
Fifth Grade