Moreland Elementary
2nd Semester 2024
A message from the principals:
This year our student population has grown to 553 in grades pre-K through 5th. We have 2 sections of prek, 5 sections of K, 1st, and 2nd, with four sections each in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. New to our staff this year is Mrs. Jessica Minlschmidt in 4th grade, and Mrs. Anna Hensley in Kindergarten - Mrs. Hensley is an MES alumni along with Mrs. Andrea Gipson who joins us in pre-k. Joining these wonderful educators is also Mrs. Heather Clay in prek. Many of our other teachers have new positions which adds a new level of energy to our days. Each of these wonderful educators brings with them experience, expertise, and excitement as they help us to grow our program at Moreland.
As we begin the 2nd semester of school we move into the more comprehensive grade level standards and expectations. Please make every effort to help your students stay on top of assignments, projects, attendance, and grades through the use of Infinite Campus Parent Portal and Google Classroom. If you need help with securing a parent portal account please let your child's teacher know and we will guide you.
Communication is key to the success of our academic program. Our teachers and staff utilize many methods of communication to keep everyone up to date. Classroom and grade level newsletters, agendas, email lists, text services (Remind or Bloomz), Class Dojo, infinite campus, and Google Classroom are a few that are available. If you have a preferred method please let your child's teacher know and keep your phone numbers, address, and email current with the front office. To keep current on school information, join our Remind group by sending a text to 81010 and text the message @morelandpa
Just a reminder, that being present and on time to school every day is a key element for academic and social success. We had 117 students with perfect attendance for our 2nd 9 weeks! Way to go Wildcats! Our buses start unloading at 7:15, our front doors open to welcome students at 7:25, and our school day starts promptly at 8:00. It is always best to have students at school and ready to learn no later than 7:50. We thank you so much for helping us have successful students by keeping attendance a high priority.
Our school mission is Motivating and Empowering Success for all students. This is a charge we take very seriously and as always, we thank you for allowing us to partner with your family as we all Work Together to be Our Best.
Smiles,
Ms. Melanie Perry, Ed. S., Principal Moreland Elementary
Mrs. Cheri Barnett, Ed. S., Assistant Principal Moreland Elementary
Counselor
Our Game Of Life Guidance theme continues this semester as we work on skills such as growth mindset (Stuck Stella and Flexible Felix made their appearance), kindness, tolerance, personal safety and careers.
Please be on the lookout for the annual Child Safety Matters permission form to come home. Those personal safety lessons will begin in March.
Some coping skills we have been working on that you can use at home are: calming “dragon” breaths, bubble blowing, journaling, sensory grounding (using our 5 senses to calm our brain when we are upset).
Front Office
Attendance notes - parents must send in a note anytime a student is absent from school. These can be emailed to olivia.cost@cowetaschools.net or sent in to the teacher. Doctor notes are always best but a parent can write a sick note. Remember any student arriving after the 8:00am bell will need to be signed in tardy. Parents should park and walk them into the office. Leaving before the 2:30 bell will also be counted as a tardy. Thanks for your help keeping your child's attendance up-to-date!
If you have an emergency change to student's afternoon transportation, please email before 2:00 pm to morelandoffice@cowetaschools.net
Kindergarten registration began February 1st. See the flyer on our school web page and visit our facebook page for registration information.
Transportation
Would you like to know when your student’s bus is going to be late?
The Coweta County School System Transportation Department is using the Bus Bulletin notification system to notify parents and students when there are bus delays and schedule changes.
If you would like to receive instant notifications when delays or incidents affect your student's bus, please register with Bus Bulletin.
There is no cost for this service.
Registration is simple and fast.
You can choose to receive text messages, phone calls, and e-mails.
All contact information is stored securely and will not be shared or sold - your privacy is protected.
For more information, or to sign-up and start receiving notifications, please visit:
To confirm current bus routes, go to www.cowetaschools.net; click on Departments, then look for transportation, and next Bus Routes.
For help with registration, call Mrs. Madeline Gossett at (770) 254-2820 or email her at madeline.gossett@cowetaschools.net.
Help spread the word. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.www.facebook.com/busbulletin • www.twitter.com/busbulletin
PTO
PTO is excited for all the things we have planned the rest of the year. Please join us for our Red Robin Spirit Night and Skate Night in February. We will also have another Chickfila and Partner’s Pizza Spirit Night later on in the year. We appreciate any support you can provide us! Spirit Nights help us provide lunches, snacks and much more for our amazing staff. We would love to see you at our PTO meetings. Our next meeting will be Monday, February 12th at 2:45 pm.
School Nurse
Students that are sick, with a fever of 99.6 or above, should remain at home until they are fever-free without fever-reducing medication, no vomiting or diarrhea for 24 hours and able to hold down food and fluids. This will help reduce the spread of sickness within the school and give your child time to fully recover and feel their best when they return.
Students should not transport medication to or from school, this includes over-the-counter medications. A parent/guardian or authorized adult should bring medications to the school and see the nurse, there are forms that need to be signed and this is an opportunity to offer explanations and answer any questions. This policy is in place for safety reasons, thank you for your understanding. If there are extenuating circumstances please call the school and speak with the nurse.
The Dental Van will be coming soon! We will announce the date as soon as we know. You should have received a signup form in the Red Folder sent home on Wednesday. Please get those back to us as quickly as possible. Thanks!!
sherri.banovatz@cowetaschools.net
ESOL
ESOL students have completed their ACCESS testing for the year and ROCKED it! We have had a few new students join us that began by only speaking Spanish and so many other students were able to interpret for them. I am very impressed by our dual language speaking students!
If you have any questions about our ESOL program you may contact Mrs. Jennifer Pitts 770-254-2875 or jennifer.pitts@cowetaschools.net
REACH
The REACH program has been wrapping up units on Primary Thinking Skills, Fairy Tales, Art History, The Gold Rush, and Mythology. We are moving into the second semester with a focus on Science standards in all grades after the winter testing window is completed. We are excited to continue “Relishing Education and Conquering Heights.” Kindergarten referrals will open in March and 1st-5th gradereferrals will be open again in the fall. Thank you to all of the wonderful REACH students and our fantastic Moreland team!
Physical Education
K & 1st will be doing the All Kids Bike Program! 2nd & 3rd will be working on basketball and soccer skills! 4th & 5th will be doing FitnessGram Assessments and Track team tryouts!
Music
Chorus has been working on all new music for our Spring concert cycle! Just a quick reminder that Chorus rehearsals are every Tuesday from 2:20-3:20. Our next performance will be at the Nixon Centre on May 8th, 2024 and 4th and 5th grade chorus students will need to wear black shoes, black pants/or long black skirt for the ladies, and white button up top. It will be Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious night!
Art
We are busy in the art room creating artwork for the upcoming ARTSHOW!
The art show will be on March 28th. Please make plans to attend.
As students complete their masterpieces, you can get a sneak peek by logging onto ARTSONIA.com. If you are not familiar with ARTSONIA, the online art museum, please feel free to email me at debra.sewell@ cowetaschools.net
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
Through our positive behavior intervention supports, MES continues to not only model and encourage positive traits but also reward students for their excellence. We have had monthly rewards for the homerooms that receive the most Wildcat Recognition rewards by exhibiting PAWS expectations throughout the building. The school has also hosted two larger celebrations: one that utilized our outdoor game donations and a special movie event. At MES, we are proud of our Wildcats and continue to Motivate, Empower, and Support our students in their social and emotional development and academics.
Media Center
Thank you so much for your support at our spring book fair. We sold 1,594 books during our fair and raised funds for our Media Center. Those funds will be used to purchase books and other items needed for our Media Center. You can still shop our online fair through February 7th if there was something you weren’t able to purchase at our in- school fair. Find the link to the online fair on our book fair website: https://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bf/morelandelementaryschool2 Thanks for helping get books in the hands of our students.
Cafeteria
Please watch your student’s accounts. Charges need to be cleared as soon as possible. Please call the cafeteria manager, Mrs. Faye Render 770-254-2879 if there are questions or concerns.
Pre-K
Pre-K has been working hard on many different skills, such as cutting, learning to glue, writing names, identifying letters, learning to count, and much more. We are also working on social skills such as sharing, listening to directions, communicating with others, and more. Pre-K is working hard to get ready for Kindergarten!
Kindergarten
Kindergarten has been working on spelling & blending CVC words and words with digraphs. For math, we have been practicing adding and subtracting numbers within 10.
Kindergarten also looks forward to attending Zoo Atlanta on Thursday, March 21st!
1st Grade
In first grade, we are rocking our sight words and new phonics sounds! For math, we are reviewing money skills, a new standard for first grade this year, and something meaningful for students to work on since many families use cards for payment these days. We are looking forward to our spring science units coming up, which will go hand in hand with our Callaway Gardens field trip in April!
2nd grade
Second grade has been working on two-digit regrouping with addition and subtraction. We have also been working on many Orton Gillingham Phonics concepts to prepare for 3rd-grade, reading for information. We are working hard on forming complete sentences, along with opinion and informational writing pieces. We have a field trip in April; more information to come soon!
3rd Grade
Third grade is working hard on writing narrative, opinion, and informational essays. Students have focused on writing more compound and complex sentences, as well as implementing dialogue and transition words. In math, students are learning how to tell time and calculate elapsed time. We are also looking forward to identifying fractions and understanding measurement. The students are having so much fun exploring animal adaptations and learning about colonial life. We have an exciting field trip coming up to the Georgia Aquarium.
4th Grade
Fourth-grade students have been busy acquiring a vast vocabulary with our spelling and morphology instruction, which shows in their daily lessons with reading and writing. More and more students are engaging in personal reading goals through the Accelerated Reader program, and we are so excited to celebrate their reading success with them. We are diving into fractions while using our multiplication and division facts and will begin a study of angles and shapes. In Social Studies, we are excited to learn about the westward expansion and the Civil War, and we have enjoyed exploring Force and Motion and look forward to Food Chains and Webs with a field trip to Callaway Gardens in March.
5th Grade
Fifth-graders have been reading for their 12 Brag Tags since we jumped in right at the beginning of the year. We celebrate their successes at the end of each 9 weeks. We’re currently learning about The Oregon Trail and life for a 14 year old as he tries to make his way back to his family with the novel Mr.Tucket. Morphology is the word for us in Spelling as we grow their vocabulary weekly! Science has been hands-on as we dissected owl pellets for our life science unit. We are also slowly gearing up for GMAS by working on a science question of the day! For math, we have been doing everything with decimals! Recently, we worked on student-created, project-based learning activities. Students were able to teach decimal strategies back to the class in fun and engaging ways. Then, we ate donut decimal holes!
Moreland Elementary School
Website: https://mes.cowetaschools.net/
Location: 145 South Railroad Street, Moreland, GA, USA
Phone: 770-254-2875
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/206075392766420