Dear OSES Families,

Although there is only a quarter of the school year left, please be sure to register on ADDitions. This platform is used to prescreen visitors on campus during the school year. If you visit the campus during the school day, and have not cleared on ADDitions, you will not be able to go past the front desk. This is a no exception rule shared by all OCPS charters and public. I encourage everyone to complete the process within the first week of school, you never know when the opportunity may arise to be on campus. This is an annual process and is managed exclusively by OCPS; if you are not cleared and feel its an error, please contact OCPS.

This is only one of many layers of security at OSES. After clearing ADDitions, you will still need to provide a drivers license to the front desk. After an additional quick clearance, you will receive a printed ID badge with your information. Please make sure this badge is clearly visible at all times.

There are several opportunities to visit campus in the last quarter. We hope to see you on campus as a guest, volunteer, parent, or to support your student. Be safe.

Michael Singleton

Principal

On Thursday, April 4, OSES invites families to attend this year's science night! Students will get to participate in hands-on activities and demonstrations that are tied to Florida's science content standards.

OSES is excited to announce that our campus will once again be hosting a STEM summer camp! Families are allowed to register prior to submitting payment this year; however, all payments must be submitted no later than May 24, 2024 in order to finalize spots for camp. Please register your child as soon as possible to hold his/her spot for camp. Registration packets can be submitted digitally to Jasmin.Michaud@orlandoscience.org or dropped off at the front desk of either building.

Please see your email for camp descriptions (sent out on Monday!).

*only students who will be in grades 1-6 for the 2024-2025 school year are eligible to attend*

Due to supply issues at the OCPS level, we do not know if hot or cold lunch will be served. Please be prepared to have either lunch until further notice.

Breakfast and Lunch will be FREE for the 2023-2024 school year

If your child has food allergies and will require a special meal from OCPS please click on the link below to fill out the special diet order form

Special Diets for Food Allergies - Orange County Public Schools (ocps.net)

Thank you Ms. O’Connor for putting on another successful schoolwide STEM Fair! It was fun to see all of our classroom winners’ hard work as well as their interesting findings.

Today many students participated in exciting Pi day activities ranging from STEM activities to tasting different flavors of pie.

B.E.S.T. Writing will take place on April 1st for Grades 4-5 and April 2nd for Grade 6. The May FAST/Star assessment schedule will be available following Spring Break. Safe travels!

Which Orca will master the most skills before the time runs out?

Visit IXL via clever to get started!

Enjoy your break :)

A big congratulation to all of the competitors and participants in the Florida Destination Imagination Regional Competition this past Saturday! The second-grade team, competing at a 3-5 level, has been invited to advance to Global Competition in May based on their stellar performance! The K-1 team swept their category as well!

Additionally, thank you to the students who participated in the Instant Challenge Exhibition teams to show the audience what happens behind the closed doors of an instant challenge! We are excited to see the amazing things in store for all of the Destination Imagination kids!

OSES placed 3rd in the K-3 Under section at the FL State Scholastic Chess Championship that took place this weekend (March 8-10)

The OSES chess team consisted of-

Shyam Garg- grade 3 (5 pts)

Kannan Garg- grade 3 (3.5 pts)

Laksha Prabhu- grade 3 (1 pt)

Shyam also took 1st place and Kannan Garg placed 10th in the individual K-3 Under Section

Congratulations to all those who participated in the Smile Mile last weekend.

A few kindergarten and 4th grade classes have started Learning Buddies with our STEM-focused LEGO kits! Students explored Newton's Third Law of motion and connected soccer with mechanical energy by building a structure that simulated a kicking foot. They had a blast!

This week in Kindergarten Ms. Bradley’s class joined with Mr. Mateer’s 4th grade class to complete a STEM project in which they built a spring loaded device to throw a ball. Students had a blast! In social studies, students have been identifying places in their neighborhood and using a map to describe their location. In math students have been reading and writing numbers to 100 using a 100’s chart. In reading students are working hard on reading words and sentences with blends and vowel teams.

Ms. Bradley has a new classroom pet! While some classes may have a hamster, her students have a robot. Her 21st century classroom is home to the Oti-Bot that is capable of interacting with students. Say hello to Rainbow Color Changer!

STEM meets Magic with our Leprechaun traps in Kindergarten.

In Ms. DiNuzzo’s class we finished the nine weeks by wrapping up our units. In reading and science, we learned about plants and compared different versions of Jack and the Beanstalk. In math, we finished fractions and started our unit on time and money. In Social Studies, we have been learning about geography and how to use maps.

We also started the week learning about Ramadan and ended the week learning about St. Patrick’s Day and Pi Day! Students completed a St. Patrick reading and math mystery and even learned how to dance the Irish jig. Happy Holidays to all families celebrating!

Aydin also read "It's Ramadan, Curious George" to the class

Greetings, families! Ms. Sonn's second grade class is doing a wonderful job learning and growing. Students were proud of their STEM Fair project, which was the culmination of many weeks of learning and activity. You can see pictures below. Students have been learning about the human body, the differences between the past and present, money, and reading fiction and informational text. Be sure to practice counting change and money with your child. And let's make sure they know how to read a clock and tie their shoes.

Students have been very busy lately with many fun and enriching activities. In February, Ms. Sonn's 2nd graders read to Ms. Lamour's Kindergarteners. And then at the end of the month, they had their very special Black History Night performance. Wonderful job, students! In March, students enjoyed participating in Read Across America week. They dressed down everyday; they listened to a special story by Orange County Public Library; they had a mystery reader (thanks, Ms. O'Connor!); and the class had the pleasure of reading with a fifth grade class. Whew! Busy,busy.

Next up is Spring Break, and we hope everyone has a safe, wonderful time. This is also the time of year when we begin prepping for the end-of-year tests that are just around the corner. You can help your student by reviewing any study suggestions sent home. It is helpful to do a little bit each day so that a large amount of content and concepts can be reviewed over the next six weeks.

Ms. Gerstung’s class has been exploring fractions! We started learning about equivalent fractions and how we can show whether 2 fractions are equal or not. We loved being able to use the fraction strip manipulatives to help in our understanding.

As a reminder to all third-grade families, permission slips for the upcoming field trip to the Marine Science Center are due on 3/26. Please be sure to send all signed slips, waivers, and payments in by this date, as we will not be able to add any students after 3/26.

Have a wonderful and restful Spring Break!!

This week in fourth grade, students are bringing in their STEM fair projects! They were excited to display all their findings, focusing on having an independent and dependent variable and making sure they followed the scientific method to conduct the experiment. It was fun showing each other our boards and seeing all the hard work put into each experiment!

Mrs. Aramayo’s classes celebrated Pi Day this week! We had a lot of fun exploring the concepts of Pi, eating pie, and participating in a Pi memorization contest! In Mrs. Aramayo’s morning class, Katherine correctly stated 126 digits of Pi and Sadajit correctly stated 125 digits of Pi!

In Mrs. Aramayo’s afternoon class, Pranil correctly stated 60 digits of Pi and Alyson correctly stated 59 digits of Pi!

On behalf of the 5th grade teachers, we hope that all have a safe, wonderful, and relaxing Spring Break!

This week in STEM was all about rainbows and lucky charms!

The Kinders created rainbow bridges and tested how many pennies it would hold. Firsties created a way to hide the leprechaun's gold. Second grade got clever with some Lucky Charms cereal math, and Third/Fourth created leprechaun traps.

Caleb S from 3rd grade is #5 in the school runners, and he is the youngest in the top 5. The rest are all 5th graders ➡️

Mile Students ⤵️

In Sixth Grade Life Science, students are expanding their knowledge and creativity with a collaborative Biomes/Ecosystems Mini Golf Hole STEM Project. Students have been assigned a Biome that they extensively researched in small groups & are creating & building a Miniture Golf Hole. Their plan includes designing a golf hole based on their Biome, with accurate placement of plants, animals, and decor. They will include obstacles & challenges. Students will have the opportunity to set up and play their Biome based golf course with their class after Spring Break!

Life Science students dissected Barn Owl pellets during an Ecology Lab. They were able to identify the owl's last meal by matching the bones of the organisms to visuals.

STEM Earth & Space students are a brand new bunch for second semester. They are currently planning & building Edible Mars Rovers 2.0. The Rovers must be engineered with at least four rolling wheels & four Science instruments. One of the instruments must function. It seems pretty sweet to build with materials such as graham crackers, cookies, candy, and frosting, but students are finding out just how challenging this can be! They are problem solvers and solution finders which is all part of the process!

During 3rd quarter, PE students were challenged in running laps every Wednesday.

Boys top 3:

Alec 114 laps

Colby 90 laps

Yusuf 86 laps

Girls:

Elina 80 laps

Isabelle 79 laps

Maylin 77 laps

Congratulations!

As I read this quote, I’m reminded of the importance of setting high expectations for ourselves daily. Students say the ORCA Core Values on the announcements everyday. Putting them into action is the part we are working on to be more consistent. I am enjoying seeing students weekly who have consistently shown our core values by earning commendations. If you would like to donate to our Orca Store, please click here.

Spring Break is a great time to recharge and get ready to persevere through the last few months of school. Have a wonderful, relaxing Spring Break!

Hello families!

Please read carefully for all club reminders:

PICK UP: Please remember that you should not arrive on campus before clubs dismiss. Even coming 5 minutes early causes backups in our dismissal process.

• Building 1 (grades K-3) - clubs dismiss at 3:40 during the week and 2:40 on Wednesday
• Building 2 (grades 4-6)- clubs dismiss at 3:40 during the week and 2:40 on Wednesday

ABSENCES: Remember that 3 or more consecutive absences will result in a removal from the club. If you are missing club because of tutoring or sickness, email the club teacher so it can be excused.

If you want to withdraw from a club, please email Marketa.Thomas@orlandoscience.org

Information on the next OSS OTC tennis session which begins on Thursday, March 14th.

- ⁠3/14, 3/28, 4/4, & 4/11
- ⁠4:30 p.m. or 5:30 p.m.
- ⁠Limited to 16 players
- ⁠$80 per child
- All ages & levels

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1AO-Vz4pWvdBXK8XnsKE2hiv9cct8QeulYtPOvfCD9_4/viewform?edit_requested=true

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ofou-Az8udKcRJvLF2_LeZGmZ8sErax6KFI2vzT3M_E/edit?usp=drive_web

Dear Parents,

I hope this message finds you well. I would like to remind you that our elementary school mathletes will be having their next practice math competition this Saturday at our high school campus.

Location: OSS High School Campus

2600 Technology Dr, Orlando, FL 32804

Schedule:

9:00am -9:30am Mathleague.org Elementary Number Sense Round

9:30am -10:30am Mathleague.org Elementary Sprint Round and Snack Break

10:30am - 11:00am Mathleague.org Elementary Target Round

11:00am to 11:50am Review of the Contest Problems

11:50am to 12:00pm Awards

Drop-off Time: 8:45am-9:00am

Pick-up time: 12:05pm - 12:20pm

Additionally, our next Mathleague.org contest is at Lake Whitney Elementary School on Saturday March 16th . Please register your child via the following link. https://mathleague.org/escontest.php?event=11501

Brainfuse offers free online tutoring through the Orange County Library System to ALL students in Orange County Public Schools.

FREE live tutors are available every day from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Using Brainfuse, students can connect with a qualified tutor for expert help in a variety of subjects.

Attendance Emails and Notes K-3 - Nicole.Wallace@orlandoscience.org.

Any doctor's notes can be dropped off at the front desk, or sent via email.

Attendance Emails and Notes 4-6 Keily.Molina@orlandoscience.org

Any doctor's notes can be dropped off at the front desk, or via email

If you want to volunteer in your student's classroom, eat lunch with your student, or chaperone a field trip. You must be additions approved. If you have volunteered in past, you must update your account each school year. For any questions, please reach out to Nicole.Wallace@orlandoscience.org.

In order to help keep our families informed of the latest legislative updates regarding their student's education, a Parent Rights Resources page has been added to the school website.

Recent updates include:

• Internet Safety
• District Health Care Services
• Special Magistrate

The mission of Orlando Science Elementary School (OSES) is to provide a well-rounded education with special emphasis in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), while using research-based and innovative instructional methods in a stimulating learning environment. OSES is committed to the social-emotional learning and character development of all students.