Falcon's Nest
October 2019
Principal's Corner by Jennifer Updike
Sensory Garden
The love of learning is in bloom at CMES. We have made major progress with our Sensory Garden. The outdoor education area is starting to take shape. This area is on the intermediate playground. We would like to thank Clarksville Sawmill for the live edge and stumps. The Boy Scouts and Luke Wonderly gave their time to build and assemble our new chalkboard, raised flowerbeds, and benches.
The concrete path our PTO is supporting will begin to be built today after school in our Sensory Garden. We will then meet as a Sensory Garden Committee to determine the next steps and get students using our new outdoor education area. Let me know if you want to be involved or have any questions. Below is the “why” we are connecting our students to nature.
We are still in need of a few major items such as outdoor musical instruments, shade sail, sand table, tunnel. Our fall fundraiser will be a major support for this. If you have a passion for nature, outdoors, or gardening let me know and I can get you involved.
Sensory Garden Proposal Sand Table, Outdoor musical instruments, vertical planters, shade sail, continue to grow different types of gardens that include sense of smell, touch, and taste.
Makerspace
Our maker space is still running strong. We now have Mrs. Green in charge of our library/maker space area. This area is run strongly on volunteers and donations. We are currently looking for anyone who may like to volunteer their time from 9-11 to help with our sewing station. Let us know if you are interested.
Trimesters-We have transitioned to trimesters in order to give our teachers more time to truly evaluate your child’s progress. The first few weeks of school are just getting to know your child. A true reflection of your child’s progress is better suited to Trimesters. Below is the schedule.
Trimester Schedule-End of 1st Trimester-November 1st; End of 2nd Trimester-February 14th;End of 3rd Trimester-Last week of school
Fall Conferences
Expect to see conference forms coming home with your child. We will have conferences on October 23rd and October 24th from 4:30-7:30.
CMES will NOT have school on October 25th due to all-day conferences.
Communication
Our Building Leadership Team has been discussing communication. 8 years ago our building decided we would send a monthly newsletter within each grade level. With the increased use of technology, there are all sorts of different ways to communicate. I would like your feedback so we can evolve and meet your needs. Please respond to the following survey to help guide us in the area of parent/school communication.
Check out our success on the State Report Card Data. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have after taking a look.
GRID
Many of our teachers have started implementing an instructional strategy called GRID. Here is a link to a video that explains how it works.
TGRG
For our families with third graders here is a link from the Ohio Department of Education that explains the law. In a nutshell, your child will be given multiple opportunities to be promoted to fourth grade. These include the Map assessment and the AIR test. The AIR test is a vendor from ODE. This test is given in the fall and in the spring. The Map test is given three times a year. The cut scores are on the ODE website. Please call your child’s teacher or me if you have any questions.A Note from Mrs. Horner:
We have students in our schools that only get enough to eat during the week because of breakfast and lunch being served daily. During the weekend, these students struggle to get the nutrition they need and that is why we created the Falcon Packs. Without your donations, these packs would not be able to be filled and sent home for the weekends.
Thank you so much for all the donations during our food drive. We are still in need of these items to continue to provide Falcon Packs. Please bring any donated food items to the office and they will direct you as to where to put it.
Individual packs of Goldfish snacks, Individual Beef Sticks
Heat & Serve Mac N Cheese, Heat & Serve Ravioli
Individual Fruit cups or Applesauce pouches
Individual Cereal bars, Juice boxes
Individual pudding cups
Individual packs of cookies
From Jen Molitor:
Students at Clinton-Massie Elementary School take the NWEA’s Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) test to help teachers measure student performance and growth, make informed decisions about student learning, and differentiate content and instruction. The MAP test for grades 2-5 is also an approved test from the State of Ohio for identifying students who are gifted in the specific academic abilities of reading and/or math. A student is identified gifted with a score in the top 95th percentile. Students are tested using the MAP test 3 times a year. They are tested at the beginning of the school year as well as during the first two weeks of January and May.
In addition, we offer two whole grade testing opportunities using the CogAT for superior cognitive identification, in the fall for 5th graders and in late winter for 2nd graders. Students with CogAT scores of 112 or higher will also be offered the opportunity to participate in creative thinking testing using the Torrance Test of Creativity.
Due to the Ohio Department of Education's changes in their Lists of Approved Assessments for Gifted Identification, our MAP assessment for Kindergarten and first grade will no longer be used for gifted identification in reading and math. All previously identified first graders will keep their identifications.
If you have any questions, please contact Jen Molitor, Gifted Intervention Specialist, at jen.molitor@cmfalcons.og or visit
http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Other-Resources/Gifted-Education/Resources-for-Parents .
Sign-up to help at the book fair!
Thought Exchange
Thank you!
Clinton-Massie Elementary
Email: esther.wyatt@cmfalcons.org
Website: cmfalcons.org
Location: 2380 Lebanon Road, Clarksville, OH, USA
Phone: 937-289-2515