BARFIELD BANNER
APRIL 2022
MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Dear Parents and Guardians,
What a fun and exciting month we just had! March was filled with excitement as we held our annual TBE Field Day and finished the rewards from our fundraiser. Students truly enjoyed the time spent synergizing with their peers throughout field day activities, circus transformation rooms, and buddy class activities. It was a great way to send us off into Spring Break! I hope that your family enjoyed the week off and had the opportunity to sharpen the saw.
As we end the month of March, our teachers are working to complete our Quarter 3 Progress Reports, which will come home in next weeks Wednesday folders. As always, if you have questions or concerns about your child’s performance, please reach out to the classroom teacher.
April brings the start of our last quarter of school. This is a busy time of year with upcoming state testing for our students in 3rd-5th grade. Parents please be aware of the testing dates and ensure your child is here on time those days. Making sure your child is prepared with a good night sleep, a healthy breakfast, and on time to school each day of testing will help them do their best. We appreciate your support with this. Our students have worked so hard this year, we cannot wait to watch them continue to shine!
A few more updates that I am happy to announce as we move into the last quarter is that we are once again able to welcome our parents and volunteers back on campus. This means we will move forward with our monthly parent lunches. A lunch schedule and flyer will be sent home prior to April 1st, which is our first parent lunch date. Refer to the information below that was sent in a parent email last month.
LUNCH WITH YOUR CHILD:
Previously, TBE has designated one Friday per month as our “Friday Parent Lunch.” We are excited to be able to resume this tradition in the month of April and May. For those of you who have not been able to participate in our Friday Parent Lunches before, here is some additional information.
· Parents who plan on attending will park in the BACK parking lot near the cafeteria.
· Parents will use gate and video doorbell system to enter the school cafeteria.
· All parents and guests must show ID upon entry.
· Parents will be given a visitor sticker and will remain in the cafeteria during their child’s lunch time.
· Parents must not stay in cafeteria throughout any other scheduled lunch blocks besides their child’s. If parents have more than one child, we kindly ask that you leave and return at the scheduled lunch times. There will not be space in the cafeteria for parents to stay and wait.
· School staff will set up specific tables around the cafeteria for parents to eat with their child.
· Parents can only eat lunch with their child- all other students will remain in their normal lunch table location.
· Sharing of food with other students is prohibited due to allergies (no birthday treats)
· Parents will not be able to purchase school lunch on these dates.
We are excited that parents have this opportunity once again. We appreciate your support in ensuring it runs smoothly and safely for all our students. Below are the scheduled lunch times for all grade levels and dates of the two Parent Friday Lunches.
We are excited to welcome you back to campus and appreciate your patience and support as we put back into place our original systems to ensure a safe and comfortable learning environment for all students. This includes our front entry procedures when coming into the building. No parent or volunteer will be allowed in the building without a valid ID. Please be prepared to show your ID upon entrance into the building. We kindly ask that parents and volunteers exiting and entering the building shut the front door behind them. Please do not others to enter the building as you are coming and going- this creates a safety concern.
In addition to parent lunches, we are also welcoming back volunteers. Please see information below that was sent out last month. Please know that volunteers serve in the capacity of supporting our students in their academic setting. Parents do not need to register to be a volunteer if they are just visiting the campus for events such as Student Led Conferences or teacher/parent conferences.
· Volunteer activities and opportunities vary throughout the school year
· Volunteer activities need Administrative approval and should serve in the capacity of supporting students education
· Volunteers must be cleared as a Level 1 or 2 volunteer prior to volunteering on campus
· Access the volunteer application on the CCPS website; collierschools.com/volunteer
· All previous volunteers must update their application each year online on the Parent Portal
· Parents will not volunteer in their own child’s classroom during instruction.
· There will be opportunities throughout the year (ex: field trips, special events) where parents can volunteer with their child’s classroom.
It is highly recommended all volunteers are Level 2. Level 2 status allows you to work directly with students on campus and as a chaperone on field trips. Contact Ms. Hope with any further questions at 239-377-8500.
We are excited for our students to engage with their parents in Student Led Conferences in April. The structure of these conferences will be communicated by the classroom teacher. These conferences are STUDENT led and serve as a great opportunity for students to show their growth and accomplishments for this school year!
I look forward to another productive month ahead!
As always, please reach out to our front office with any questions or concerns about our upcoming events.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Ledbetter
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL'S NEWS
State and District Assessment Dates-Please mark your calendars and plan for kids to be in school. If possible, please plan family vacations around the testing dates.
o 3rd Gr ELA FSA (session 1) Tues, April 5
o 3rd Gr ELA FSA (session 2) Wed, April 6
o 4th and 5th Gr State Writing Test, Thurs, April 7
o 4th and 5th Gr ELA FSA (session 1), Mon, May 2
o 4th and 5th Gr ELA FSA (session 2), Tues, May 3
o 3rd Gr Math (session 1), Wed, May 4
o 3rd Gr Math (session 2), Thurs, May 5
o 4th and 5th Gr Math FSA (session 1), Mon, May 9
o 4th and 5th Gr Math FSA (session 2), Tues, May 10
o 4th and 5th Gr Science FSA (session 1), Mon, May 16
o 4th and 5th Gr Science FSA (session 2), Tues, May 17
o District Post Tests May 16-June 2
As we get closer to district post-test dates, we will let you know more specific information for your child’s particular grade level.
Toys from home: Please check and clean out backpacks to make sure your child is not bringing toys to school that can be a distraction. Toys, Pokémon cards, pop its, or items that are a distraction will be collected and parents are free to come and pick them up in the front office.
Be Proactive! Many of you have been making an extra trip back to the school because something was left at home. To help decrease the number of trips to school and disruptions after classes are in session, try this idea when preparing the night before and/or before leaving for school.
Make a checklist (or print this one below) with your child and hang it up in a prominent place. Each morning your child can check off what you need to bring before you leave the house.
ATTENDANCE-
Please refer to the CCPS academic calendar when planning vacations and appointments as much as possible. Vacation days are not excused absences and students miss valuable instruction by the teacher on the days they are not in school. A doctor note excusing an absence must be given to the school office within 24 hours of the students return for absence(s) to be excused in the system. Parents will receive a letter in the mail when the student has excessive absences whether they are excused or not. Habitual absences are monitored by the County Attendance Officer and may result in Truancy Court. Students who have approval for Out-of-Zone permission to attend Tommie Barfield may have their permission revoked if they accumulate excessive absences and/or tardiness and/or early pick-ups from school. Students are recognized quarterly and annually for perfect attendance.
Parents must call the school at 377-8500 before 8:00 a.m. regarding your child’s absence each day your child is absent. Calling the school will validate the absence so your child will not have an UNEXCUSED absence on their record.
LAPTOPS - Please Use Responsibly!
Just a reminder - laptops are still CCPS property and need to be cared for responsibly.
Pursuant to Rule 27 of the District’s Code of Student Conduct, students are responsible for the cost of repair or replacement of District property in their possession such as a laptop or other electronic device. The rule provides the following:
RULE 27. SCHOOL PROPERTY – MATERIALS/BOOKS/INTERNET
- Students are expected to take good care of school property. Students must assume full responsibility for the care of school property available to them. This includes, but not limited to textbooks, uniforms, equipment, electronic devices, or library books. These items are issued by school personnel and must be returned to the same person upon completion of the school year or withdrawal from school. Responsibility for the property rests with the student to whom the property is issued.
The cost to repair or replace laptops for irresponsible damage is as follows:
- Power adapter $48.00
- Keyboard $95.00
- Screen $231.00
- Laptop Total Replacement $586.00
School Information: The inside and back cover of the Wednesday Communication Folder is where you can find detailed information about school. Please look there and/or call get clarifications on school procedures.
Dana Franklin-Riashi, Assistant Principal
Tommie Barfield Elementary School
239-377-8502
Follow us on Twitter: @tommiebarfield
Like us on Facebook: https://www.Faceboook.com/ccpstbe
Our Mission: Recognize individual genius, build confidence and create leaders.
KINDERGARTEN NEWS
We cannot believe the fourth quarter is here! The time has flown by, and your child has grown and learned so much so far! As always, please continue to read every night with your child and ask them questions about what they have read. Discussing the story will aid in comprehension. Please continue to practice the 220 sight words that are in his/her red folder. In math, we will finish up the unit on shapes. The students will be learning to compose ten ones and some more ones. We need to be able to identify and write numbers 1- 20 without any reversals. Please continue to review counting from any given number to 100. In Social Studies, we are focusing on learning our phone number, address, and where we live. In Science, we are learning about day and night and objects in the sky. We will also be having a zoo con where we will learn about alligators. Please look for the Wednesday folder and review the completed classwork with your child every day. Your encouragement and support make a big difference in your child’s education.
Your Kindergarten Teachers
FIRST GRADE NEWS
In reading, students are engaging with a variety of fictional texts, including folktales and fables, to understand that readers can learn lessons through stories. Students will be practicing key skills with our texts, such as recognizing elements of drama, identifying the moral of a story, making connections to other texts and the real world, and identifying the speaker or narrator in a story. Getting an early start on applying these important reading skills will help your child become a stronger and more confident reader as they prepare to move up to second grade. Please continue to work with your child’s reading development at home by practicing sight word memorization and reading for pleasure each night.
In math, we are exploring two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) shapes. We are identifying, describing, and building 2D and 3D shapes. Students are expected to be able to name a variety of 2D and 3D shapes, as well as be able to draw shapes when given defining attributes. Please ensure that you are looking over your child’s homework and exit tickets sent home and help your child with difficult areas as needed. Other ways to support your child at home in math is by introducing and practicing money value using coins, as well as using an analog clock to tell time on the hour and on the half hour. We will be exploring these concepts in the coming weeks.
In Leader in Me, we are preparing to show off our leadership skills with student-led conferences, where students will exhibit their growth and hard work that they have collected throughout the year in their Leadership Portfolios. This will be a wonderful opportunity for students to apply Habit 8- Find Your Voice.
First Grade Teachers
SECOND GRADE NEWS
We are in our final quarter of the school year, and we have so much fun ahead!
In language arts, students are learning about what plants need to live and grow by connecting our reading with science. With a focal text of planting a seed, students brainstormed activities that need to be done a set order and then selected one activity to write a paragraph and write the steps in a list. Later in the month, students will be reading stories about animals and how different habitats meet the basic needs of the animals that live there. In writing, for this module, students will choose an animal to research and then write an informational text about its special relationship with others. Skills the students will be focusing on are supporting opinions with reasons and examples, identifying, and explaining figurative language, and use ask and answer questions while reading to gain a better understanding of the text. These are just a few of the skills we are continuing to develop and learn this month. Students will be taking their AP3 iReady diagnostic this month which is the last diagnostic in reading for the year. Please continue to encourage your child to read nightly so they can take quizzes on the books they have read and earn Reading Counts points.
In math, students have been working on learning about measurement in centimeters and meters and learning addition and subtraction in centimeters and comparing lengths. You can continue to help your child develop fact fluency by using the addition and subtraction flash cards for nightly practice.
In social studies, students are focusing on identifying identify reasons people came to the United States throughout history, are discussing the importance of Ellis Island & Statue of Liberty to immigration from 1892-1954 and understanding why immigration continues today and explain the cultural influences and contributions of immigrants today. In science, the students are beginning the unit on weather and severe weather preparedness.
Happy Spring!
The Second Grade Team
THIRD GRADE NEWS
We hope that you all enjoyed spring break! The students had a blast celebrating at Field Day. Thank you for all your help and support during our school fundraiser.
We are so very proud of how hard the third graders are working as we review for FSA! The students take the Reading state test this month on April 5th and April 6th. Work hard and play hard is what we like to do in Third Grade! The students will participate in some fun games and activities as we sharpen the saw after FSA testing. As state testing continues for Math next month on May 4th and 5th, please motivate your child to do their personal best and show off all the amazing things that they have learned this year! Homework is a great time for you to sit with your child and see the skills we are working on in the classroom. Homework is always a current learning goal or cumulative review.
The following are imperative for success: adequate sleep, healthy breakfast, being on time to school, and most importantly celebrating their success and hard work!
The Third Grade Team
FOURTH GRADE NEWS
Happy April to our 4th Grade Parents!
The next 2 ½ months are going to be very busy in 4th grade.
With our upcoming FSA tests and end of year projects it will be super important for students to be in school, all day every day, as much as possible! Our students worked very hard on the quarter 3 benchmarks assessments. They also had a blast celebrating field day, Circus fun, and Glow Day! What a way to kick off Spring Break. We hope everyone got to have some fun and relax. Very important dates coming up:
· Writing FSA will be on Thursday, April 7th
· ELA FSA will be Monday and Tuesday, May 2nd and 3rd
· Math FSA will be on Monday and Tuesday, May 9th and May 10th
Students will be participating in some fun and challenging “Boot Camp” reviews for our tested subjects. The writing boot camp is taking place now in your students classroom. We will start our reading boot camp April 19th and math boot camp will start April 22nd. Be sure to ask your child what fun ways we are reviewing content to prepare for their upcoming assessments.
In math, we will be finishing our unit on Geometry with symmetry and starting measurement. Ask your child about The Land of Gallon and King Henry. We will also be learning elapsed time and line plots as we finish out our units and head into reviewing.
Reading this month continues to dig even deeper into text features, figurative language, theme can help us use comprehension strategies to help us in better understanding the text we read.
Social Studies had us focus on our Medal of Honor projects. In Science we are learning about changes in matter and forms of energy.
We had an amazing time synergizing first as a grade level and then as an entire school during our synergy stick Leader in Me culminating activity. Be sure to check out twitter for lots of photos and videos.
Thank you! Your Fourth Grade Team truly appreciates all you do for us and your children. Your support at home, and in the classroom, means so much to us.
FIFTH GRADE NEWS
We are cruising along into April! Quarter 3 Benchmark Testing has wrapped up and 5th Graders are gearing up for the upcoming FSA Writing Assessment. This year, teachers will be providing a district created “Boot Camp” during class times in preparation for the writing, math, reading, and science FSA testing. These will provide critical review of all content tested in a fun and engaging manner.
For ELA (Reading and Writing), we are continuing to read multiple texts in the same genre to pull information from each passage in order to deepen our knowledge of the content. We are also writing to these texts in either an informative structure or providing our opinions while using text evidence to support our opinions. Students should be completing their 45 minutes on I Ready each week and reading each night for at least 20/25 minutes. In Math, the students will be exploring graphs, patterns, and 2D Shapes in addition, we will be working on spiral review of previously taught concepts in preparation for testing. Continue to encourage your child to get their ALEKS minutes each week as class instruction time is packed tightly. During Science, we are finishing our unit on Energy, and will be working on Forces and Motion. In addition to class instruction and lessons, students should be getting 45 minutes each week on USA Test Prep.
Homework is an extension of the day’s lesson and therefore imperative to your child’s understanding of the material being taught in class. Please encourage good organization and study skills, as well as completion of nightly homework, Aleks minutes, and USA Test Prep minutes.
Thank you as always for your continued support!
The Fifth Grade Team
ARTISTIC STROKES
Kinder, first, and second grade were able to mix primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) to create secondary colors (green, purple, and orange) over the past month to go along with our circus theme at TBE.
Third, fourth, and fifth grade learned about pollution and how to communicate a message to our community and county by taking part in the Keep Collier Beautiful project. Their artwork has been sent in and there will be one piece of art chosen from each grade in the county that will go into 2023’s Keep Collier Beautiful calendar.
If you haven’t check out your student’s artwork on Artsonia, check them out here: https://www.artsonia.com/connect/TCCPZFNC
To look at our artist’s work or to see who the Star Student was for each day, follow @beauvaisCCPS on twitter.
MUSIC NOTES
I can hardly believe that we are entering the final quarter of this school year. Our attention now turns to rhythmic ensembles and performance movement. Our secondary students will start studying about the history of music. They will explore their individual opinions concerning their favorite songs and performers, as they discover the many possibilities of those who work in the music industry.
Finally, I would like to send out a GREAT JOB to our fifth-grade students who performed in this year’s Honors Chorus program. Here is the web address where you can find the 2021-22 CCPS Honors Concert Series: Elementary Honors Orff Ensemble and Honors Chorus
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
A big thanks to all our parent volunteers who came out to help assist in field day this year! Our amazing, related arts teachers ran the events while students had the opportunity to celebrate fitness and fun! Our focus on field day was sportsmanship- treating others with respect, having fun, following directions, and playing by the rules. Although all our classes did an amazing job displaying good sportsmanship and had a wonderful time, we recognized just on class per grade level as our sportsmanship award winners.
Kindergarten: Ms. Leedy & Ms. Herzog’s split
1st Grade: Ms. Wilcox
2nd Grade: Ms. Robau
3rd Grade: Ms. Matthiesen & Ms. Dolan’s split
4th Grade: Ms. Cizek
5th Grade: Ms. Kerens & Ms. Benito’s split
MEDIA CENTER NEWS
Reading Counts Updates
Kindergarten through Fifth graders have read 82,960,647 words this year. Students in grades K-5, have read and passed 10,739 tests on Reading Count Books.
SSYRA NEWS
We celebrated those students that had read and successfully tested on 11 SSYRA books on March 4 with a build your own ice cream cone party. Each student was allowed to invite a friend to join them for our sweet treat! We will be voting for our favorite SSYRA 3-5 and SSYRA JR books on April 8th. Students need to have three books read by April 1st to vote.
COUNSELOR'S COLUMN
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Here are some habits you can teach and use with your child in preparation for our state testing:
1. Understand that each test is designed to measure progress.
2. Go over what your child can control about each testing day:
a. Getting enough sleep
b. Eating healthy meals
c. Take deep breaths
3. Practice positive thinking:
a. “I am a successful person.”
b. “I am in control of how hard I work.”
c. “I am smart!”
Practicing these habits with your child can ease test anxiety!
Sincerely,
Leanne Hope, School Counselor
239-377-8506 hopele@collierschools.com
PTO NEWS
Thank you to everyone that attended our last PTO meeting on March 8th. We are busy planning for our TBE staff appreciation week May 2nd-6th. If you would like to participate or help with donations of food, please reach out to our PTO board.
We are happy to announce that to date we have raised over $9700.00 with our local dine outs this year! We really appreciate our local businesses and parent support.
Our next Dine-out fundraise will be April 6th at Chipotle!
Our next meeting will be April 12th, 9:30 am in the Media Center
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
*April is our next stock the fridge by kindergarten parents
*Our next meeting will be Tuesday, April 12th, 9:30 am in the Media Center