October 2024

Parents/Guardians,

As we welcome the crisp air and changing leaves of October, our school community is gearing up for a month full of excitement! This season offers renewed opportunities for engagement and learning, with several fall-themed events aimed at keeping students, teachers, and families connected. We encourage you to explore volunteer opportunities and participate in activities that strengthen our sense of community. Together, we can continue fostering strong relationships and creating enriching learning experiences for our students.

Here’s to a successful and vibrant October!

Tanya Montgomery, Principal

Karyn Chisholm, Assistant Principal

Pre-K 3

Hello Parents/Guardians,

We will be starting Theme 2: My Family and Friends. Your child will be exposed to the letters C, c, E, e, A, a, G, g, I, i, P, p, F, f, O, o. They will hear a variation of the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears, learn about helping family, pets, and community helpers. They will learn about size, color, shape, and relationships of objects. Please read each night with your child. It is a valuable experience to share!

Pre-K 4

We are settling into our routines and showing great progress thus far in Pre-K! In the month of October, we will be ending our School and Friends unit and beginning the Our Environment unit. We will focus on habitats and the plants and animals that live there. This month, we will learn the letters Ss, Tt, Ee, Ll, Mm, Oo, Bb, and Aa, as well as the sounds they make. In math, we will focus on counting objects using 1:1 correspondence (pointing to each object as we count) and shapes. Please continue to check your child's folder daily for important newsletters, notes, etc. If you have not already signed up for ROOMS, please reach out to your child's teacher for more information. More information regarding parent teacher conferences towards the end of the month!

-Pre-K Team

Kindergarten

Kindergarten families - We have been doing a great job adjusting to school expectations. During Reveal Math we are learning numbers 1-10 and how to compare groups using greater than and less than. In Social Studies and Science, we are learning how to problem solve and demonstrate social skills such as sharing and taking turns. In Literacy, we are wrapping up nursery rhymes and fables. We will move on to the five senses. We are also learning to blend and segment words during our Skills block. Thank you for being so supportive of your child’s education and sending them to school every day to learn and have fun. If you all have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to the team. Thank you!

1st Grade

Hello families! We are halfway through the first marking period and first grade has been working hard! First graders finished our first unit in our CKLA reading block. Our new topic for Unit 2 is The Human Body. We will be learning about our different systems and organs that make our amazing bodies work. In Math, we have started learning about place value and how to represent 2 digit numbers. We will finish Unit 3 with comparing numbers and then move into addition strategies within 20. Our caterpillars arrived from Arlington Echo and we have been watching them grow. Our next topic will be day/night and how the seasons change. Please make sure you are connected to Rooms so that you don’t miss out on any announcements.

Thanks!

The First Grade Team

2nd Grade

Wow, the month of September flew by pretty fast! The 2nd grade team has really enjoyed getting to know each of our students! We can see their unique personalities shining already!

We are continually working on being positive star students while showing respect, being responsible and safe in school. Please make sure your child brings their take home purple folder every day! Instruction time has been jam packed. In MATH we’ve worked with Place Value. Students learned to work with hundred, which is formed from ten groups of tens; • compose and decompose 3-digit numbers by place value; and • compare 3-digit numbers as well as learning routines and rotations to support math instruction. Our next unit will be working with numbers, patterns, addition and subtraction to close out the quarter. There’s no time like the present to start practicing those facts when you can! Feel free to use the Additional Practice Book to reinforce what we have taught during instruction time.

Continue to look for the new Literacy curriculum we’ve learned. SKILLS activities include sounds, grammar and sentence structure along with our KNOWLEDGE activities as we listen and read about Early Asian Civilization. This will be a growing experience together!

Be on the lookout for information on our 1st field trip which will be Wednesday, October 30, 2024. We are excited to see the play, “Grace for President!” A permission slip will be sent home. Please make sure if you plan to attend that you have completed; background information/fingerprinting(if necessary). We are looking forward to an amazing experience this school year! We know your support is worth everything! Thank you!

~ 2nd Grade Team

3rd Grade

READING

Congratulations to those students who have returned their signed reading homework passages the past two weeks! Keep reading; practice makes progress! This month, we will begin Unit 2 of CKLA. In this unit, students will be researchers. They will develop scientific skills while they observe and practice identifying important characteristics of organisms and objects. They will also have numerous opportunities to engage in discussions with classmates to share their observations and thinking that occurred while reading.

WRITING

In writing, students will focus on an informational writing piece that will extend their understanding of animal classification. They will have many opportunities to work with their peers, share ideas, and provide feedback on their writing. Please encourage your student to start every sentence they write with a capital letter and end every sentence with a form of punctuation: period, question mark, or exclamation mark. They have also learned that the pronoun I is always capitalized and students need to be capitalizing it in their writing.

MATHEMATICS

This month our Math mathematicians begin their exploration of the concept of multiplication and division. They will build on the idea of repeated addition from last year to connect to the idea of multiplication. Students will create drawings and representations of equal groups and arrays as they learn to write equations that represent their models.

SCIENCE

This month our scientist will conclude our unit on force and motion with a culminating project. They will create a miniature pizza box golf game. We are excited about our upcoming field trip to Night Hawk miniature golf. Students will get a lot of good ideas on the field trip as they create their miniature pizza box golf game.

*Just as a reminder:

Field trip money for the Night Hawk miniature golf is DUE Friday, October 4th. The trip is scheduled for October 18th.

SOCIAL STUDIES

In social studies students continue to learn about the people, places and things in their communities. We will be learning about the geography of Maryland and how it impacts the people who live here. They will end the unit by creating a game that teaches others about their community. Third graders will be busy this month with a lot of hands-on projects. Can’t wait to see their creativity shine through.

4th Grade

Hey parents! We are just wrapping up our personal narrative unit in CKLA. Our next unit with focus on the Middle Ages! In math, we are working on multi digit addition/subtraction strategies with and without regrouping. Our class has earned a candy salad and continues to show leadership at BPES! I'm super proud of our 4th grade class!

Reading and Writing: Fourth grades are beginning a new unit on Empires in the Middle Ages. Students will travel back in time while practicing taking notes from the informational text in their reader, as well as practice writing an informative, explanatory paragraph and writing a persuasive paragraph.

Math: Students have begun practicing adding and subtracting strategies and algorithms. A unit overview as well as family letters have been sent home. Please check your students' folders for the information of how to support your student at home.

Science: Students to the idea that animals, like plants, have structures that help them survive, grow and reproduce in their habitats. At the end of this unit, students will be able to develop a model of animal structures.

Social Studies: Fourth graders have begun to investigate push and pull factors that motivate European Exploration as well as how Europeans were rooted in power and dominating cultures that were seen inferior.

5th Grade

In 5th grade, we are starting our ELA unit on Early American Civilizations, which will focus on the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations. In math, we are working on understanding place value of decimals, then we will be adding and subtracting numbers with decimals. In science, we are studying food webs and ecosystems. In Social Studies, we are continuing to learn about the foundation of our country and the structure of our government.

ESOL

Hello Families,

This month we will finish-up administering our new beginning of the year language assessment, LAS Links. This assessment will provide us with valuable information that will support your child’s English language learning. We will be starting regular push-in and pull-out services to support your student once testing is completed.

If you have not done so already, please complete the parent notification form for English Language Development. You can also access the form by clicking this link: https://secure.aacps.org/webapps/SEFP/en-US/ESOL/Placement

This form only needs to be completed once a year!

ELD Tip:

The new CKLA program has family newsletters that teachers regularly send home with topics that have been discussed in class. Speak with your child in your home language to strengthen their vocabulary of key terms learned in class! This greatly supports new language acquisition as well as refines home language skills.

PTA

The PTA wants to thank everyone for joining and attending our first meeting on 9/25. If you are still interested in joining the PTA, click the link below. Our next PTA meeting will be December 3, 2024, at 6:00pm in the Media Center. We will be discussing some upcoming events and looking for volunteers to help. Also this month we will have the following events:

10/4 - 10/8: Virtual Fundraiser with Double Good Popcorn

10/7 - 10/25: Boo Grams for Sale; Delivery Date 10/31

10/25 - 3rd Annual Trunk or Treat & Book Fair Night 5:30pm - 7:00pm

10/28: (2hr early dismissal day) - Chuck E. Cheese Spirit Night 12:00pm - 9:00pm

11/1: School closed for students - BPES Day at MD Corn Maze

All flyers and information will be shared on the BPES PTA Facebook page, the app as well as flyers sent home. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at bpes_pta@yahoo.com.

PTA Membership

Chorus and Band

Welcome Back Music Families!

Instrumental music lessons will start on Monday, September 16th. All students will have received a lesson schedule prior to their first lesson. Remember to check your emails for a digital copy of the lesson schedule as well as any other important information Mrs. Israel has sent to you. Please also check our communication platform, Thrillshare, for other important information as well as a quick way to message Mrs. Israel or other teachers.

Looking forward to musical year!

PBIS

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m9D0XpblrHN471KzL-manZKibqvzFSEx_Usj-i9kshY/pub

Counselor

What does a School Counselor DO?

I work alongside teachers and parents to help students develop

socially and emotionally, and to help remove any barriers to learning!

I Provide:

•Classroom lessons teaching social skills, how to take care of strong feelings, study skills, etc.

•Small group counseling

•Short-term individual counseling

•Consultation with parents and teachers

•Parent workshops

•Community resource referrals (including longer term therapy services)

•Schoolwide programming (Kindness Week, Harvest for the Hungry etc.)

Own your power and lift your voice, you have a special story to tell that will impact others. One of our classes in Parent University for this school year is coming up! Join us on October 7th with our partners from Anne Arundel Community College for a time of storytelling, sharing and learning. The class is free of cost, we will have translators, and the first 8 registrants get a FREE art kit for your kiddo. Secure your spot today! Scan the QR code to register.

BPES is full of many unique cultures! We have students and families that represent different countries from all over the world. Join us October 9th as we set our focus on celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with an evening of fun, learning and sharing. We are still looking for performers / hosts to represent their home country. You can sign up today and RSVP to secure your spot. We are so excited to celebrate with everyone.

Last year we introduced our Appreciation Station Snack Cart to our staff! The cart will be filled every Wednesday full of sweet and salty snacks and drinks to show our BPES staff just how much we appreciate them. This school year we are looking for families to sponsor a week by either purchasing snacks or making a $40 donation so the snacks can be purchased. We ask that donations are dropped off to the school by Monday of the sponsored week. Please consider signing up below! Thank you for helping our staff know how much we appreciate them!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080D4BABAA2CA0FB6-appreciation

Five Star Parent

1. Builds a positive relationship with all staff members.

2. Dedicated to the BPES community.

3. Builds a partnership with their child's teacher. This partnership is based on trust, communication, and student growth.

4. Dedicated to preventing chronic absenteeism and chronic tardiness.

5. Respects and honors our community of diverse learners.

Emergency card verification emails have been sent. Please make sure you check and update your emergency contact information. The links are only active for 10 days. If you need assistance, please contact the main office at 410 222 6590.

Doors open at 7:40.

Students are dismissed at 2:25.

Late arrival/Early Dismissal

If your child arrives at school after 8:00, they are considered late. Please make sure they are at school prior to this time. If your child is late to school, or is getting picked up early, an adult MUST come into the building to sign them in or out.

Early dismissals must take place before 2:00 pm. The office is busy after 2:00, preparing for dismissal procedures, and will not be able to call any kids for dismissal after that time.

Below is the link for Before/After Care for families who need childcare.

https://www.aacounty.org/services-and-programs/child-care-programs

School start times:

The doors will open at 7:40am for breakfast and community building. Instruction will begin at 8:00am. It is EXTREMELY important that all kids arrive on time ready to learn!

Walkers

Walkers will be dismissed at 2:25

Bus-Riders

To access BPES bus schedules, please click HERE

Car-Riders

We will dismiss car riders car by car. Please have your child's name on the hang tag so we can quickly call them to your car. Please do not park on 13th Ave during dismissal or arrival. It can make it challenging for people to enter and leave the lot.

Arrival

When students arrive they will pick up their breakfast and report to their homeroom. Teachers will greet students as they arrive.

Dismissal

At dismissal, walkers will be released. Following the release of walkers, car riders will be escorted to the cafeteria. Bus riders will be called as buses arrive.

Visitors

We will be planning several events this year where we will be inviting parents into the building. Unfortunately, we will not be able to allow parents to have lunch with their children in the cafeteria.

Student Birthday Celebrations

• Each student will receive a Birthday pencil and be acknowledged by the whole school on the morning announcements.
• We will celebrate all students' birthdays each month.
• It is very important to understand that food cannot be shared to celebrate. Please do not bring food to share with the class for your child's birthday. We have students with allergies and food sensitive health conditions.

Families can pay for their student’s meals online by going to www.mypaymentsplus.com.

At schools this year, breakfast will be free, and lunches will cost $2.75 for full price students.

Students will need to log in with their student ID in order to get their lunch. Please work with your student at home to help them memorize their ID.

Apply for Free or Reduced-Price Meals: Online Meal Benefit Application (MBA) (English and Spanish) - Link to online MBA – www.aacps.org/mealapplication. Applications must be filled out each school year, even if you qualified the previous year.