A Piece From The Principal's Puzzle

August

30 - 1/2 Day Students

2 - Labor Day (No School)

12 - Progress Reports Sent Home

12 - Curriculum "Glowcase" @ 6 pm - Blossomwood Cafeteria

• ALL GRADES

19 & 20 Grandparents' Gathering

27 - 1/2 Day Students & End of Grading Period

Sept. 30 - Oct. 4 FALL BREAK

On behalf of our faculty and staff, we would like to say thank you again to the best PTA! Many schools wish they had the amount of support and involvement that we have.

Last Friday, our PTA shared some frozen sweet treats with our staff. It was "Oh, so good" with a variety of toppings and whipped cream!

At the beginning of each year we administer a few different assessments to establish a baseline to plan for and monitor student growth. An easy way to think about our effort is to compare it to assembling a photo album as we attempt to get multiple "snapshots" of a student's academic status so we can develop an appropriate academic plan for each child. Our local ways of monitoring student progress and success includes: DIBELS, STAR, i-Ready, and ACAP (End of the Year).

Here is a brief overview of the assessments:

1) DIBELS (Grades K-3) - Beginning, Middle, & End of the Year

• DIBELS is an acronym for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, and it is a product from the University of Oregon. The DIBELS assessment is administered three times per academic year to students using a one-to-one individual format, and it takes less than five (5) minutes to assess each child. This assessment is not only used to evaluate your child’s level of proficiency, but it also helps teachers and parents to focus, monitor, and strive to improve area(s) of weakness.
• The DIBELS measures were specifically designed to assess three of the five "Big Ideas" of early literacy: Phonological Awareness, Alphabetic Principle, and Fluency with Connected Text. The measures are linked to one another and have been found to be predictive of later reading proficiency. Below are the assessments given. Please keep in mind that each grade’s assessment may not include all of these measurements.
  
• Your child's teacher will be sending this information home after Labor Day.

2) ACAP (Grades 2-6) - End of the Year Only

• ACAP is our annual, formal state standardized testing instrument given over multiple days in the spring for grades 2-6. It consists of the two content areas of English-Language Arts (including reading) and Math. Grades 4 and 6 also test in the are of Science.
• Our individual results from last Spring will be coming home after Labor Day.

3) STAR (Grades K-6) - Beginning of the Year Only

• The STAR assessment is a brief online test that we only give at the beginning of the year as we use it to determine the Accelerated Reader level for each child in grades K-6. This helps us to get each child started with checking out books from our school library on their own reading level.

4) iReady (Grades K-6) - Beginning, Middle, & End of the Year

• i-Ready is an online program that we use to monitor student progress in Reading and Math three times during the year (beginning, middle, end of the year).

• i-Ready allows your teacher(s) to meet your student where they are and provides data to increase your student’s learning gains. i-Ready consists of two parts: Diagnostic and Personalized Instruction.
• The i-Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment that adjusts its questions to suit your student’s needs. Each item a student sees is individualized based on their answer to the previous question. For example, a series of correct answers will result in slightly harder questions, while a series of incorrect answers will yield slightly easier questions.
• i-Ready Personalized Instruction provides students with lessons based on their individual skill level and needs, so your student can learn at a pace that is just right for them. These lessons are fun and interactive to keep your student engaged as they learn. Each student has a goal of using i-Ready for at least 45 minutes each week.

For more information on iReady, here is a brief 2 minute video:

https://i-readycentral.com/videos/i-ready-family-video-english/

https://i-readycentral.com/videos/i-ready-family-video-spanish/

Don't forget ALL students at Blossomwood are welcome to a FREE breakfast and lunch from our cafeteria.

• If your child would like a breakfast, please remind them to come directly to the cafeteria upon arrival. We serve breakfast from 7:30 to 7:50 am which allows students to be in their classroom ready to learn at 8:00 am.
• If you have questions about your child’s lunch account, please email our cafeteria manager Mirtha Petty at mirtha.petty@hsv-k12.org.

Please take a couple of minutes to complete this parent survey for our district accreditation process. It will also be used for our school improvement plan. The survey will be open until August 30th. Thank you!

Please make sure you select Blossomwood Elementary as the school.

• Parent Survey Link

The main function of the house system is to develop a sense of identity or belonging and to celebrate achievements. Schools with a structure or system like this cite the positive impact it has on the educational experience and school culture. Students report how it helps them form friendships and closer bonds with peers, and teachers share that students seem to enjoy seeing a connection with students in other classrooms as well as other grade levels. As a school, we also believe our new House System supports our school mission statement and vision.

During the first week of school or upon enrollment, all of our students and staff have the opportunity to digitally "spin" the wheel to randomly sort each student into one of four groups or houses — Emerald, Garnet, Onyx, or Sapphire.

Our House System is designed to:

1. Create school-wide community by creating opportunities for students to connect to staff and students in other classes and grades that share their house. Older students become natural leaders by mentoring and supporting younger students. Mentoring also extends to teachers and school staff members who are also assigned to a house.
2. Create a culture of belonging as students are recognized for accomplishments both academically as well as their choices related to behavior.
3. Emphasize building character through a reward system that goes beyond earning a piece of candy for doing something good. Each individual achievement adds to the collective house/group, making the reward hopefully more meaningful and social.
   
4. Provide opportunities to praise and accentuate positives for both individual students and collective groups of students.