December 2014 Important Dates Volume 1, Issue 4 Cork Elementary School Cougar News Dec 22-Jan 2 Holiday Break Jan 5 Students Return 9 Club Pictures 15 SAC Meeting 2:40 16 End of 2nd 9 weeks 19 MLK Day-No School As 2014 comes to a close, I want to wish each and every one of you the Happiest of Holidays and a Joyful New Year! During the last two weeks of December, we asked students to write little notes expressing their thoughts about what makes their teachers (or staff members) so special. We then took these note cards, wrapped them in aluminum foil, and gave them to each teacher or staff member. As you can imagine, the recipients of these notes were overjoyed at receiving such a priceless gift. This project went along with a book that Mr. Bruck and I read to the students called Silver Packages: An Appalachian Christmas Story by Cynthia Rylant. It is a beautiful story about giving back and spreading joy. The students wrote beautiful messages straight from their hearts which made me so proud. The teachers and staff members who received them felt so loved and appreciated. There is absolutely nothing more special than words of endearment from a child! 20 Non-Student day 27 Parent Night @ Knights Elem. 6pm 28 Spirit Night @ Sonny’s-KG 28 All Pro Dad 29 Studio Night 67:30 p.m. I want to make you aware of an opportunity that you will have once we return from winter break. On January 27, 2015, the School District of Hillsborough County’s Math Department will be conducting a workshop on the new Florida Standards in Mathematics. I know many of you have concerns and some may even be frustrated by the “new math.” I have seen this presentation and it is dynamic. You will not want to miss it! Knights Elementary will be hosting this event for both of our schools because they have an actual auditorium that can accommodate the number of parents we believe will be interested in this session. Both schools will have teachers and staff on hand to provide fun activities for the students to do while parents attend the presentation. Please mark your calendars for Tuesday, January 27th and make plans to join us at Knights Elementary for this event. For more information see the attached flyer. Febr 2 3501 N. Cork Road, Plant City, FL 33565 (813) 757-9353 http://cork.mysdhc.org A Hillsborough County Public School Letter from the Principal Also when we return, please make every effort to have students arrive before 7:55 a.m. and remain at school all day with as few early check-outs as possible. Students who arrive early have time to settle in, get themselves organized, and feel less stressed because they are ready to learn. Students who arrive late or leave early miss invaluable instructional time. Report cards go home 4 Award Ceremony 5 Head Start to Dinosaur World 9 Walk-a-thon 12 Class Spring Pictures 13 Glazer Museum – 1st Gr Enjoy this extended time with your family! Be safe and we’ll see everyone again on Monday, January 5, 2015 Sincerely, Sherri Black Cork Elementary School FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @ HCPSCorkES New this year, we will tweet what’s happening at Cork. Sherri Black, Principal Ryan Bruck, Assistant Principal Grade 5 Page 2 - December 2014 Kindergarten On Friday before Thanksgiving Break, we had our annual Kindergarten POW WOW! It was a big success and the students really enjoyed the fun educationalactivities.Winterbreakbeginsnextweek.Itis a well-deserved time off for your child who has worked hard, so enjoy this time with your family. WhenwecomebackinJanuary,wewillstarttheNew Yearrefreshedandreadytolearn.Wewillcontinue to work on reading strategies, sight words, and blending words. In math, we will begin working on addition and subtraction. Please continue to read withyourchildeverynightandchecktheirdailyfoldersforimportantnotesandinformation. From Science Fair to Tropicana Speeches, this past month has been one of the busiest for 5th grade. We would like to congratulate Max Edwards, Alexis Villegas, Ryan Petrik, Jesse Storm, Kyle Willey, and Jonathan Ramos Lopez. These students will be representing Cork at the county Science Fair competition in February. We would also like to recognize Autumn Sullivan who won overall at the schoollevel Tropicana Contest. Autumn will compete at the District level in January. Good luck to you all! In math, we have been working with fractions and will soon start addition and subtraction of decimals. Please encourage your children to practice their math facts as well as use Think Central throughout Christmas Break. In ELA, we just finished learning about the Colonial Market Economy as well as completing our opinion writing pieces. As you can see, your child has been working hard! We are looking forward to a well-deserved break and coming back refreshed and ready to work hard in January! Grade 1 We are almost heading into the third nine weeks. First grade has been very busy learning across the curriculum. We are happily welcoming the holiday break this school year. In Reading, we are using fictional and nonfictional text to find details/facts to explain the author’s purpose in our text. We are also continuing to practice sequencing the events in our fictional text. Please continue to read with your child every evening, especially during the holiday break. We cannot stress enough the importance of daily reading practice at home every night. Your child is now also able to access Istation.com at home or at the public library for additional reading practice. He/she should have received a green letter, along with their special password, to access the program. In Math, we are wrapping up our unit on using addition and subtraction strategies to help solve word problems. Soon, we will begin our unit on Counting and Modeling Numbers to 120. Grade 3 Seasons greetings from the third grade team! Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to chaperone for our Busch Gardens field trip. As we get ready for our time of rest, we would like to give a few reminders to our families. Please remember to have your child read for at least 20 minutes daily. Also, for those who have internet access, I-Station and MyOn, and are a few websites that students can utilize to get extra practice in reading. The more they read, the better they read! During writing, we have been responding to our reading. We are using text evidence in our writing to explain the author’s purpose. Through our writing, we are also using capital letters at the beginning of our sentences and ending them with the correct punctuation mark. Finally, we are practicing how to add more detail to our writing. We are continuing to work on multiplication and division. Please practice multiplication facts with your child on a regular basis as we will be moving to fractions in the near future and knowing the facts will make a smoother transition. In addition, Think Central is a great resource for extra math practice. In Science, we have learned about engineers and the many different jobs of an engineer. We have also become engineers in our classroom while participating in different Design Challenges. Ask your child what an engineer does and the structures they have built in class. You might be surprised with what they have to say. We have also learned about the sun and stars. In science, our little scientists are currently working on the properties of matter and will be investigating changes in matter when we return from the break. First grade teachers would like to wish all of our families a happy holiday break. Relax and enjoy spending time with your family! We also look forward to welcoming our wellrested students back for the New Year! Have a wonderful break!!! Grade 2 Thank you for all of your support! We really enjoyed seeing and talking with you at the Conference Night. Please know that we look forward to 2015 and have many wonderful things planned to help your child learn. Your child will be learning the following in the upcoming new year: how to compare and contrast, identifying the main idea of an informational text, adding/ subtracting three digit numbers, and all about earth structures (soil and rocks). Have a safe and wonderful winter break! We look forward to a fantastic 2015! Page 3 - December 2014 SPEECH/LANGUAGE NEWS Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Did you know our Hillsborough County School District offers free hearing screenings and evaluations? The school speech language pathologist can screen your child’s hearing right at school! Should your child fail the screening, you may make an appointment with the District audiologist for a full audiological evaluation. This service is available even for young children not of school age; so if you have concerns about a child who is not enrolled in school, you can call the audiology scheduling number and make an appointment, as long as you are a resident of Hillsborough County. Services for children who are hearing impaired can be provided: in the home, in a day care, in a regular classroom at your neighborhood school, or in a special classroom--depending on your child’s age and need. Even a child with a mild hearing loss can miss important information, and not just from the teacher! Curriculum encourages discussions among peers as a vehicle for learning and for experience with presentations and public speaking. Speak with your school speech language pathologist to arrange a hearing screening for an enrolled child or call 813-276-5561 to schedule an appointment for a complete audiological evaluation with one of our staff audiologists for a nonenrolled child. Music Chorus: Cub Chorus and Cougar Chorus had a successful performance on December 11th. Great job by everyone involved! Group pictures will be taken on Friday, January 9. Order envelopes will be sent home with students. I am asking all chorus members to wear a Cork spirit t-shirt (if they have one) for the photo. Chorus rehearsals will resume on Monday, January 12 for Cubs and Wednesday, January 14th for Cougar Chorus. Also look for t-shirt order forms in January. In the Music Room: 4th and 5th graders are learning how to play the recorder in class and 3rd grade will begin in mid-January. Students have expressed interest in purchasing their own recorder for home use. Miss Wilson will be taking orders for recorders until January 14th. Those students who want to get a recorder sooner can go to one of several local music stores: •Dove Music Center 104 W. Reynolds St Suite 8 Plant City, FL 33563 813-764-9002 •Music Showcase 402 Oakﬁeld Dr. Brandon, FL 33511 1 blk W of Brandon Hospital (813) 685-5998 •Roydon Music 939 Oakﬁeld Dr. Brandon, FL 33511 (813)685-8909 Websites: Here are several music oriented websites that students can explore: h>p://www.creatingmusic.com/ Ideas for creating music, honing listening skills h>p://bu>onbass.com/ Another one for creating music using “cubes” and “bu>ons.” h>p://classicalkusc.org/kids/opera/base.htm Learn about Hansel and Gretel and opera h>p://dsokids.com/ Learn about the orchestra h>p://studiokay.com/recorder Songs to play one the recorder along with play along tracks. Click “Students” for the recorder songs. Page 4 - December 2014 GUIDANCE I am so excited for the holiday season, not to mention we get two weeks off from school!!!!! Please join us on January the 29th for our Arts Night. This will be a night to focus on Art, PE and Music. All grade levels will be represented and students will be able to show parents what they are learning during their “Specials” time at school. The night will start at 6PM and go till 7:30. Please join us. Also, All Pro Dad will be on January 28th at 7:10AM. I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday. Message From Our Assistant Principal I hope that you and your family have a safe and wonderful winter break! The winter holidays are the perfect time to read for the simple joy of reading. Writing thank you notes is also a good way to express gratitude, as well as practice important writing skills. We are looking forward to an outstanding 2015 working with each of our families to create the very best instructional partnership for our children. Teacher of the Year We are thrilled to announce that Mrs. Rachel Zipperer was selected by the teachers at Cork Elementary as our Teacher of the Year representative. Ms. Zipperer strives to make learning fun and meaningful for her fourth grade students each and every day. Mrs. Zipperer is truly a blessing to our school. Ida S Baker Award Winner Hip Hip Hooray to Mrs. Winona Perez! Mrs. Perez was selected by the teachers at Cork as our Ida S Baker Award representative. Instructional Support Employee of the Year A round of applause is due to Deborah Thompson our Instructional Support Employee of the Year. Ms. Thompson serves with our Student Nutrition Services. NAEP A random sample of 4th grade students will be taking the NAEP assessment in February. Students who are scheduled to take this test were given an informational letter on December 11th. If you have any questions or want to see if your child is on the list to take the test, please contact me. Perfect Attendance Cork Elementary had 315 children, over 43% of our school population with Perfect Attendance for the first grading period. We had an overall attendance rate of 96.7%. Let’s get that up to at least 97 by the next quarter. Thank you so much for your support in making school attendance a priority! It is cool to be in school-each and every day! Student Safety Parents, who help at school, please make sure that you have completed a SERVE volunteer form and that you bring your driver’s license to school every time you would like to sign in. No one can enter the school without a driver’s license. Thank you so much for all of your support. Happy and Healthy Holidays! Sincerely, Ryan Bruck Page 5 - December 2014 Media Center The end of the nine weeks is fast approaching with only 2 weeks once we get back from the holiday break. Please check with your student to see if they are on target for meeting their independent reading goal (RP) for the nine weeks. We will celebrate those students who meet their individual reading goal by having a bingo party!!! Prizes will be given to our lucky bingo winners!! Our annual walk-a-thon will be held Monday, February 9, 2015. Prizes will be given to students who donate $5 or more. Businesses that donate $100 or more will be recognized on the back of our walk-athon t-shirt. More information will be sent home towards the end of January. PTA Our first collection of Box Tops for this school was super. The school earned $877.40. That's AWESOME! Great job, Cougars! Congratulations to Mrs. Boyd’s class for winning the Box Top competition for the first 9 weeks. Keep bringing in Box Tops! The classroom competition is still going on for the second 9 weeks. AGP AGP has been really busy in the month of December! Congratulations to our 5th grade Math Bowl team who came in 2nd place at the competition. They were within three points of winning the whole thing! Way to go Lisee Griffin, Autumn Sullivan, Caleb Thatcher, Trevor Smith, and Kasey Drapp. Congratulations to Autumn Sullivan and Kacey Drapp who placed 1st and 2nd in the Science Fair. They will be going to the district Science Fair. I am excited to be piloting a math program for 2nd grade that will start in January. It is for AGP only and it is called Measuring with Meerkats. More details will be forthcoming and the students are excited. I gave them a sneak peek and we looked up some fun facts about Meerkats. 3rd graders should be studying their multiplication facts and they will start weekly testing on these facts after winter break. Flash cards are excellent and there are many math websites that are good for additional practice. Technology Inordertohelpourstudentsprepareforsuccessthisschoolyear,we’reprovidingMicrosoft Of+ice365toeverystudentfreeofcharge.Ourpartner,EducationFundingPartners,is workingwithMicrosofttosponsorthecostofcommunicatingthisopportunitytoreachall studentsandparents. TheOf+ice365bundleincludesWord,PowerPoint,Excel,OutlookandOneNote.Itcanbe installedonupto5compatibledevices(PCs,Macs,ortablets)andthesubscriptionlastsuntil thestudentgraduatesfromourdistrict.Studentswillneedtheirschoolemailaccounttosign in. StudentsandparentscanfollowthesestepstogettheirOf+ice: 1.Visithp://www3.sdhc.k12.ﬂ.us/pdf/Oﬃce365_MSA.pdf 2.Clickthroughtodownload&signinwithyourchild’scredentials 3.Onthedownloadsite,selectyourlanguageandclickinstall Wewillbesharingmoreaboutthisopportunitywithourparentsandstudentsthrough December31stusingourwebsite,schoolposters,socialmediaandournewsletter.Thankyou inadvanceforspreadingthewordaboutthisgreatstudentopportunity. Page 12 - December 2014 HUMAN RESOURCES The School District of Hillsborough County does not discriminate nor tolerate harassment on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, age, disability or marital status in its educational programs, services or activities, or in its hiring or employment practices; and it will take immediate action to eliminate such harassment, prevent its recurrence, and address its effects. Any student(s) or employee(s) found to have engaged in acts of harassment on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, age, disability or marital status will be promptly disciplined. Such discipline may include, if circumstances warrant, suspension or expulsion for students, or suspension or termination for employees. PLEASE DO NOT SEND SODA CANS IN LUNCHBOXES! We are trying to teach students to make healthy choices and hope this can be modeled at home as well as school! All school personnel, students, and parents are expected to work together to prevent harassment. Should you believe you or another individual has been subjected to harassment on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, age, disability or marital status, you should report the harassment to your school or to: Mark West, General Manager of Employee Relations Division of Human Resources 901 East Kennedy Boulevard Tampa, FL 33602 (813) 272-4227 mark.west@sdhc.k12.us County School Board Absence Line Please let us know of your child’s absence by 10:00 am. Call 757-9353 and press #1 during the greeting. Leave your child’s name, teacher’s name, date and reason for the absence. Estimados Padres Si necesitan esta información en español, por favor avisan a la oficina, 757-9353. Gracias Carol W. Kurdell, Chair Susan L. Valdes, Vice Chair Doretha W. Edgecomb Transportation Changes If your child will be changing the method of his or her transportation home, please send in a note to your child’s teacher. Beginning this year we must have all transportation changes in writing. April Griffin Candy Olson Cindy Stuart Stacy R. White, Pharm.D. Superintendent of Schools MaryEllen Elia www.sdhc.k12.fl.us