Falcon's Wing
September
A message From Mrs. Flemming
Hello Farmar Families,
The school year is off to a great start! We have been in school for 13 days now and a lot has already happened. We would like to thank our Parent and Teacher Group (PTG) for organizing the Back to School Barbecue and Boo-Hoo/Yahoo for families of TK and Kindergarten! Both were a huge success and focused on us coming together as a community! Thank you to all of our families for attending Back to School Night and checking out our Wellness Center. The energy was great and a wonderful way to start the school year!
Coffee with the Superintendent
Please remember that our Superintendent, Dr. Wright will be on campus this Tuesday, September 5th in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) at 8:00 a.m to meet and talk with our families! If you have younger kids who do not attend Farmar, it is ok to bring them to the MPR for this event.
Tuesday, Sep 5, 2023, 08:00 AM
901 Military West, Benicia, CA, USA
Good Attendance Helps Your Child Succeed!
Your child’s attendance during their elementary school years lays the foundation for a successful educational journey. Consistent attendance helps students develop critical skills, build friendships, fosters positive habits and impacts academic progress and future success. Thank you for your continued partnership in supporting your child’s education.
Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP)
To support the LCAP processes, we have a Parent Advisory Group. The team is an Advisory committee that reviews, monitors progress and gives input into the goals and actions listed in the LCAP. Please complete the application if you are willing to be a representative for Mary Farmar. Here is the application.
NWEA Assessments
You may already be aware that Benicia Unified School District is continuing to use the NWEA Map-Growth, a computer-adaptive assessment, as our Benchmark system for the 2023-2024 school year. Students in Grades 2nd-5th are taking this assessment (*1st-grade students will not test until the 2nd administration in December). Information gained from these assessments provide teachers and support staff with information on where your child and our students are currently performing and where they need support. We will complete our first round of these assessments by this Friday.
PBIS
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). PBIS is an approach to supporting students to be successful in schools We have selected 3 school-wide expected behaviors. Those expectations and values are: Be Safe, Be respectful and Be responsible. During the past few weeks, teachers have been discussing our expectations with their students, unpacking what it looks and sounds like to demonstrate these expectations AND what it does not look like. There are conversations about these values in classrooms and school-wide. We are able to use common language consistently with our students. Announcements are made daily in the morning by students to reinforce these expectations along with providing students with specific praise and feedback when these expectations are demonstrated at school. This past week we have been focusing on what it looks and sounds like to demonstrate being safe, respectful and responsible in the cafeteria. Below are some examples:
Always walk
Wait your turn in line
Throw away your trash in the appropriate bin
STEAM WHEEL and VOENA
In Benicia Unified, all four of the elementary schools are fortunate to have students in grades 3rd-5th participate in an enrichment program called STEAM Wheel for 15 weeks. As you may know, STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. These classes include dance, singing, tinkering (woodworking), art, coding, chess and drama. The STEAM Wheel facilitators work at two schools for 15 weeks and then switch to two more schools. We are fortunate to have begun classes two weeks ago. STEAM Wheel happens every Friday. There is so much creativity, critical thinking and collaboration at play when you watch our students engage in the activities.
In addition to STEAM Wheel, we are able to provide classes during the school day for third and fourth graders by VOENA. VOENA, a capella group that teaches children’s choir, wrote a proposal to the California Arts Council for a grant to teach music at the Mary Farmar! The grant was awarded last school year and continues throughout this school year. This is another wonderful enrichment opportunity for our students!
Picture Day Wednesday, September 20
Picture day is coming soon. You can preorder your picture package by visiting https://my.lifetouch.com/mylifetouch/ and using this picture day ID: EVT7ZRN87
Paper order forms will be sent soon.
If you are a cleared volunteer and would like to help us out with picture day, please call the office at 707-747-8350.
