Mustang Messenger
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016 TITLE I School (2016 - 2017)
The School Day 6:50-7:20 Breakfast Message From 7:25 First Bell 7:30 Classes Begin | Tardy Bell The Principal *Students not in class will be marked TARDY 7:30 Morning Announcements Dear Parents and Students: It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Millwood Elementary School. The faculty and staff DISMISSAL: are excited about working with you during the 2016-2017 school year. We need your help and 2:00 Bus, PreK, K, 1st support as we provide learning opportunities for the academic, ethical, physical, and social Grade development of your child. Our goal is to furnish educationally enriching, stimulating, and 2:05 Walkers, PERK, enjoyable activities that recognize the varied abilities of each student. Daycare and Older This is an exciting time to be part of the Millwood family. We are adding two full-time behavior Siblings of PreK, K, interventionists to our team, in addition to a full-time math coach. All of our students are being and 1st grade provided differentiated instruction based on their levels of academic achievement. We believe this 2:10 All remaining PPU opportunity for students to receive instruction on their academic level will result in greater learning and improved academic achievement for all students. We are continually refining our Inside… curriculum and instruction to use best practices. We will need help from parents and the community working together with our teachers to provide the most effective learning School Fundraiser, pg. 2 opportunities for our children. I am proud of the tradition of excellence, which has been established by the Millwood family over Volunteering, pg. 2 the years. These accomplishments were realized because of a team effort put forth by the students, parents, and teachers. I look forward to working with each of you as we strengthen this Yearbooks, pg. 3 team. We will be counting on your participation each day to encourage and help your child with his or her academic, social, and ethical responsibilities at Millwood Elementary School. The future Fall Book Fair, pg. 3 of our community rests upon the development and enrichment of our children.
Fall Festival, pg. 3 Sincerely,
Grade Level News, pg. 4 - 6 Stella S. Hall School Calendar, pg. 7-8 Principal Inclement Weather Procedures
During periods of unsafe weather conditions when it may be questionable to hold school, the school district has several options, including closing school, opening schools one hour late, or opening schools two hours late. If schools open on a delay, breakfast will not be served.
Decisions for any of these options will be announced to the public no later than 5:00 a.m. on the day in question on the following local radio stations: WIBZ 95.5 FM, WKHT 93.7 FM, WICI 94.7 FM, WNOK 104.7 FM, WDXY 1240 AM, WTCB 106.7 FM, WCOS 97.5 FM, WLJI 98.3 FM, WWDM 101.3 FM, WHXT 103.9 FM and WMHK 89.7 FM. The television stations used are WIS TV 10, WOLO TV 25, WBTW 13, WACH 6, and WLTX TV 19. You will also receive a call from our Edulink system. Announcements are only made through the media if there is a delay or closing.
School Fundraiser Be A School Volunteer Please consider becoming a certified volunteer this year at Millwood. To Ends September 7th! participate in school activities (field trips, school-wide parties, field day, For more information, see the packet that etc.), volunteers must have completed an application and a background was sent home with your child or call the check. There is no charge for the background check. Volunteer school. All money needs to be turned in by applications can be picked up in the school’s front office. Please note that September 7th! Students who sell 10 items younger children are not allowed to come with you when you volunteer or more will be able to go to the Kona Ice during the school day. Party. *All volunteers must be at least 18 years old. You can shop online! Visit: shop.believekids.com/ChooseGroup
Once there, you can select a student to Social Media purchase from, select the items you want, Keep up with what is going on at Millwood by following us online! and have them shipped directly to your https://www.facebook.com/millwoodelementary house. The selection online is even better than the catalog. Remember it is never to https://twitter.com/millwoodelem early to think about Christmas shopping!
Menus Ident-A-Kid Millwood has an electronic sign-in system for school visitors. It is called Ident-A- Breakfast and lunch menus Kid. Located in the front office, this special computer program allows visitors to will be placed on our school’s website each input their name, reason for visit, and have their picture taken for identification. month as soon as the District makes them Once completed, a yellow ID label will print from the machine for our visitors to available. Remember that all students wear while in the building. This system is also used by parents to sign in their qualify for free breakfast and lunch! children who arrive after the 7:30 a.m. tardy bell and to sign children out for early dismissal. Be sure to always bring your driver’s license with you! P A G E 2 P A G E 3
It is time to order school yearbooks. Fall Book Fair Yearbooks will be $15.00 (*No checks) and they go on sale right after Labor Day. A yearbook flyer October 24th—28th will be sent home with additional 7 am - 3pm details. The order deadline for yearbooks is December 14th. This * Special Evening Hours: Tuesday, October 25th (3pm—6pm) year, our yearbook will have a custom-designed cover and end page with artwork created by two Pumpkin Night of our students in art class with the help of our new art teacher October 3rd, 6pm Mr. McDow.
* More information about this event will be sent home soon! Yearbooks will be delivered sometime in March and we will host a yearbook signing party once they arrive. You can order your copy online at: YBPay.lifetouch.com with Yearbook ID Code: 9890317
Saturday, October 29th A new feature this year is that you 10 am - 2pm can submit photos online to be considered for use in the yearbook. * More information about this event will be sent home soon! To do this, visit community.lifetouch.com No School on Monday, October 17th! *The code to upload your pictures This is an in-service, professional to the website is: NBZAMH. development day for teachers and staff. Kindergarten News Kindergarten has been busy and is off to a great start! Preschool News We will be learning a lot of exciting things this year. The youngest Millwood Mustangs are very busy making new friends We are writing our names and will be working toward and learning rules and procedures for our classrooms and school. writing sentences in the upcoming weeks. Soon we will This fall we are looking forward to our first field trip to the Pumpkin also be introducing letters and sounds. In September, Patch, where we will see pumpkins of many shapes, colors, and we will be learning about Johnny Appleseed and we have sizes. All parents that would like to go on our field trip will be many more exciting things coming this fall! We are required to complete a background check packet several weeks in hoping to visit the pumpkin patch in October, more advance in order to be approved on time. Please don’t hesitate to information to come. Also in October, we will be contact your child’s teacher with any questions or concerns. The introducing the FRED (Families Reading Every Day) contact information is located at the bottom of your child’s weekly reading program and we look forward to watching your child grow as a reader. Thank you for all of your newsletter. We are looking forward to a “rockin’- sockin’ “good year support so far, and we look forward to a great year! in Preschool!
Second Grade News We are off to a great start to the school year! It was wonderful to see First Grade News so many parents at orientation. We are all very excited to be working with you and your children this year! If you have not yet purchased a Welcome to first grade! We are looking forward PTA membership, please do so. The cost is $5.00, and it lets you have to a great year. The first grade teachers have a a chance to win door prizes at every PTA meeting you attend. The money collected from memberships goes right back to the students at lot of exciting things planned for our students Millwood in the form of supplies and other things. this school year. During the first quarter, Math: We will begin working on applying addition and subtraction students will learn about earth materials in concepts in Math. science, families and their community in social Reading: We will read and write many interesting stories this quarter. studies, work on basic addition and subtraction We are setting up our writer’s workshop and reviewing conventions for skills in math, and start to work on becoming writing sentences. fluent independent readers. Please help your Grammar: Our classes will be learning about the four kinds of sentences: statements, questions, commands, and exclamations. We child have a successful year in first grade by will also learn about sentence parts like subjects and predicates. making sure they complete their homework Science: Our first unit of study in Science will be weather. We will be nightly and READ, READ, READ! learning weather terms, using our senses to describe the weather, measuring the weather, comparing/contrasting the seasons, and discussing ways to stay safe in severe weather. Social Studies: We are working on procedures and expectations. Our first unit will be on identifying the location of places and geographic P A G E 4 features on a map. P A G E 5
Third Grade News
Our third graders have begun the year with a bang! They are already hard at work learning their multiplication facts so that they will be ready to defend Millwood’s status as Third Grade Multiplication Champions for Sumter School Fourth Grade News District. Students are studying their multiplication facts Welcome to a wonderful year in fourth grade! Students are already every night and practicing them each week in class. Their off on the right track with learning classroom and hallway teachers are very proud of them for working hard for expectations. Teachers are proud of the way the students are multiplication success. responding and respecting our fourth grade guidelines.
In Reading, students have begun working in Readers’ Students are completing a variety of testing to identify their Workshops. Each class has established the routines and individual reading needs. We want to be sure that every student gets the absolute best instruction this year, and these tests will also allow procedures for Readers’ Workshop, and the students are us to better meet their individual needs. If you have any questions reading every day. We have completed our Next Steps about the testing we are doing, please send us a note or leave a Reading Assessments and are proud of our students for message on our phone. We will be happy to talk with you about your doing their best to become even better readers! We have child’s instructional plans for the year. been working on Story Elements and learning all about This year, students will be using the science lab for instruction. In character, setting, and plot. Students can even identify the lab, they will complete hands on activities and begin exploring the problem and solution in a story. the many wonders of science. We will be incorporating many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) instruction where In Writers’ Workshops, students are diving into writing students plan, create, and explore their own experiments. Our first personal narratives. They have discussed things that activity will include red apples in a variety of forms. No, we are not writers do to make their stories interesting for their making apple pie, but it will still be a lot of fun as students observe readers. Each student has created a list of ideas for stories their different apples. and is enjoying sharing his/her writing with the class. To read better, children must read more! Your child is expected to South Carolina History has been fun as we have learned read a minimum of twenty minutes per night in addition to other homework. A “Week at a Glance” will go home each week in your about the regions of our state. Students are looking student’s folder. The “Week at a Glance” will include their forward to learning about the history of South Carolina instructional material for the week and also their homework and having some special guests to share their expertise assignments. Please look for this the first of the week along with the with them. Fourth Grade Parent Connection.
In Science, the first unit has been a lot of fun as students Our PTA is gearing up for a brand new year. We would encourage have learned all about minerals, rocks, and soil. Students every parent to purchase at least one membership to support our are looking forward to working with Mrs. Holloway in the school. Membership is only $5.00. Science Lab as well as completing activities and We have a great team in fourth grade and are looking forward to experiments in the classroom. sharing many exciting adventures with your child. Please feel free to let us know at any time if there are any problems or concerns. Math Interventionist News Greetings everyone! I am the new Math Interventionist at Millwood Elementary School. I am thrilled and excited to be serving your children! Fifth Grade News Being at Millwood Elementary is like Things are off to a great start in fifth grade. We have many new coming back home. I am blessed to return to Millwood after teaching here faces on our hall, and we have enjoyed getting to know each and every one. It’s going to be a great year full of fun and exciting some years back. Millwood is a special place! learning adventures. The position of Math Interventionist is a new teaching role for Millwood. In Math, we are reviewing place value and various number sense With such positive gains through our reading interventionist, we are offering to intervene with math as well. Of course, I am honored to fill this position. skills. In ELA, we can’t wait to begin our exciting novel unit study on As a Math Interventionist, I am teaching the advanced math classes for 4th Frindle. Social Studies will be picking up right where we left off in and 5th graders. I will be teaching the math standards as we accelerate and fourth grade with the Reconstruction Era. In Science, we are enrich so as to meet the full potential of the students. learning all about various ecosystems. In addition to these advanced math classes, I will be working daily with 3rd, th th There will be so many exciting things to look forward to this year. 4 and 5 differential math groups. During these differential classes, I will We know we are off to a great start, and can’t wait to see what this reinforce what the class room teachers are teaching during their math new fun filled, exciting school year will bring. classes. Through these innovative opportunities to serve our students at Millwood, Quest News we are anticipating positive growth for all of our students we are so fortunate to have. We are off to a great year here at Please drop by any time to see me. Millwood Elementary School! I am Looking forward to a great year! quite honored and know that it is a ~ Millie Welch privilege to be a part of such an amazing school family and Behavioral community. This year at Millwood, I Interventionist News will be servicing student in our QUEST program. QUEST is Sumter School District’s Talented and Gifted program for Welcome Back elementary level students, and we have an exciting year planned Mustangs! with many challenges and opportunities for enriched learning The first two weeks ahead of us. QUEST uses a pull-out model for instruction that have been just will focus on building upon qualified students’ math and awesome getting to problem solving skills, as well as their abilities to use higher see all of you after a restful summer. This school year is full of so levels of learning to think and conduct tasks and challenges many positive changes and Mrs. Jarecki, along with I, are so glad to be a part of it. Many of you will remember me as Mrs. Burgess, 5th much like engineers do using the Engineering Design Process. grade teacher for 23 years, here at Millwood. However, this year I We will follow an approved gifted curriculum and will focus on am one of MWE’s first Behavioral Interventionists. My focus is on many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) activities grades 3—5 and Mrs. Jarecki works with grades PreK—2nd. Our to enhance students’ learning. I look forward to working with goal is to work with students in both individual and group setting our QUEST students this year. If you feel as if your child meets to improve behaviors that may be a hindrance in their learning the qualifications of the district’s QUEST program and they have process. We do classroom visits and we also do take-outs during not yet been identified, please feel free to contact your child’s differentiation time or any other needed time. The fact that we are teacher or myself. Here’s to a great year! ~ Heather Clemmons both certified teachers allows us to continue the lessons that may have been missed from the regular homeroom teacher. This ensures that every child’s needs are still met. We would like to welcome Mrs. Dora Jarecki to our staff and we look forward to accomplishing great things this year. P A G E 6 ~ Mrs. Burgess and Mrs. Jarecki P A G E 7
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
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SCHOOL FUNRAISER ENDS
NO SCHOOL
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GRANDPARENT’S DAY PICTURE DAY SPIRIT NIGHT INTERIMS ISSUED
18 19 20 21 VISION, 22 23 24 HEARING & DENTAL SCREENING SPIRIT NIGHT 1ST, 3RD, AND 5TH GRADE
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SPIRIT NIGHT Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
2 3 4 5 6 7 1 PUMPKIN NIGHT / PTA 8 MEETING 6PM
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SPIRIT NIGHT
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TEACHER MAKE UP INSERVICE / PICTURE DAY NO SCHOOL
SPIRIT NIGHT
23 24 25 BOOK FAIR 26 27 REPORT 28 29 EVENING CARDS ISSUED FALL HOURS FESTIVAL 3 PM - 6 PM 10 AM - 2 PM SPIRIT NIGHT Fall Book Fair (7am - 3pm) / Red Ribbon Week
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Sumter School District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, or age in P A G E 8 admission to, treatment in, or employment in its programs and activities. For inquiries regarding the policy, contact the Assistant Superintendent of Personnel or the Director of Specialized Programs, Sumter School District, 1345 Wilson Hall Road, Sumter, SC 29150 or call 803-469-6900.