Brooke Grove School Newsletter September 2015
Welcome back to our new school year. We had a wonderful and smooth beginning and are
so happy to have the children and staff back at school. The teachers worked so hard to make
their classrooms look beautiful, colorful, and engaging. Everyone is ready for learning.
Thank you to the Staff, the Building Service Team, the Office Staff, the parents and PTA for
all their hard work and help to ensure that the school looked beautiful and welcoming for
students.
Back To School Picnic
Our Back to School Picnic is this Friday evening, September 4th from 5:30—8:00 p.m. (rain
or shine).
It is such a nice opportunity for the children to socialize, unwind, and for you to meet the new
families in your child’s class. There will be a DJ and a food truck. You can bring a dinner
from home, or purchase a dinner from Linda’s Luncheonette. There will also be ices from
Kona Ice. We hope you can all join us.
BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
7:00 p.m.
Please mark your calendar for BACK-TO-SCHOOL NIGHT on Wednesday, September 16,
2015.
Back to School Night is an extremely important night. It begins our partnership between the
school and home, and the teacher and the parent, with the child as our common purpose and
goal. Please make every effort to be there.
7:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Welcome and Message by Principal
School Goals and Instructional Focus
Introduction of Staff
PTA Introduction
7:40 – 8:10 p.m.
8:20 – 8:50 p.m.
Session 1
Session 2
During each session, you will have an opportunity to visit your child’s classroom and learn about
the curriculum, classroom expectations, and routines from your child’s classroom teacher.
BABYSITTING for Back to School Night: Babysitting will be available in the All Purpose Room,
so that more people can attend. Please call to reserve a space.
FALL HARVEST HAPPENING READING & MATH
CURRICULUM NIGHT
Mark your calendars for Tuesday, October 6th at 7:00 p.m. for our
Fall Harvest Reading and Math Happening.
We are going to celebrate learning together with interactive reading
and math activities for the whole family to experience together. There
will be interactive activities from each grade level and the children and
the parents can work and learn together.
There will be 2 sessions that you can choose to attend. Be on the lookout for more information
about this engaging and fun evening.
Celebrations! Food FREE Birthday Celebrations
Students are recognized every morning on the announcements for their birthdays and
we celebrate with a birthday pencil. Each month students are highlighted on our
birthday PTA Bulletin Board with their pictures.
This year we are going to celebrate all birthdays on one day of the month in the lunch
room with a FOOD FREE CELEBRATION. We will decorate a table with table cloths and center
pieces, and invite everyone who celebrated a birthday during that month to sit at the special table.
The students will be serenaded with the birthday song. We will not be distributing any food items
for this celebration.
Kindergarten students will continue to celebrate their birthdays in the classrooms under the
teacher direction. If food is brought in, please remember that MCPS guidelines note that all food
brought into the school must be store bought and pre-packaged and have clearly marked
food ingredient labels. Please be aware that many of our students have food allergies to
peanuts and tree nuts. Thank you in advance for your understanding and help in ensuring the
safety and well-being of our students and staff.
Snacks
We will have working snacks for the primary students while they continue to work since they will
be eating at a later time. Parents can send in healthy, non-messy finger foods, which are peanut
free, as snacks for the children.
We would also appreciate class donations of snacks for the teacher to have on hand.
Please chose from the following list for class donation items.
Pretzels
Animal crackers
Graham crackers
Saltines
Goldfish
Fruit Snacks (low sugar)
Granola Bars (If peanut free)
All food snacks must be peanut free and tree nut free due to student allergy and health
concerns. Thank you for helping us keep our students safe and healthy.
POSITIVE BEHAVIOR INTERVENTION & SUPPORTS (PBIS)
Our goal is to create a positive learning and working environment for our
children and staff at Brooke Grove. PBIS provides a framework to envelope our Renaissance
Program, the Character Counts program, Baldrige, and our Discipline Policy. The goal is to focus
on the positive and use consistent language and expectations throughout the building and school,
and recognizing and encouraging positive behavior and actions.
Our school goals are for our students to:
BE RESPECTFUL
BE RESPONSIBLE
BE READY TO LEARN
Students are aware of the Voice Meter that we use throughout the building to monitor voice levels.
We will celebrate our positive behaviors and achievement at our monthly Town Hall Meetings
during the first week of each month. (8:40 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.)
Discipline means to teach, and it is important to help our children know what it looks like and
sounds like to be respectful, responsible and ready to learn. We look forward to working together
as a school community to reinforce and focus on these positive behaviors.
Fall Reading and Math Assessments
To help us get to know your children and provide individual learning and instruction, we do reading and
math assessments each fall, winter, and spring. This helps us measure progress, and provide interventions
where and when needed.
Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade take the mClass reading assessments. The teachers meet with each
child individually, listen to them read and find out their skill level with phonics, readiness to read, reading
fluency, reading comprehension, and writing in response to reading.
They also take a math assessment on the computer called MAP-P.
Grades 3, 4 and 5 take the Fountas & Pinnell Reading Assessment. Again, the teachers meet with the
children individually and listen to them read and find out their skills with decoding, reading comprehension,
and fluency.
They also take another reading assessment on the computer called the MAP-R which gives us additional
reading skill information.
The math assessment taken on the computer is called the MAP-M assessment.
This information will be shared with you at parent conferences and throughout the year, and is used to help
us plan daily instruction that meets the students' needs
Teachers will be doing running records on each child during their daily guided reading instruction to help
inform them about how each child is doing with reading fluency, decoding, accuracy, and comprehension.
This information will help the teacher plan appropriate and explicit instruction to meet each child’s individual
reading needs, and hopefully maximize the student’s reading progress.
Parent Volunteers Needed
Extra adult hands are always needed and appreciated for Lunch and Recess, from
11:30—1:45 p.m.
We especially need help for the kindergarten and first grade recess and lunch time which is 12:05
-1:10 p.m.
We also would appreciate additional hands outside so we can run the Walking Program, which
we have 3 days a week.
Parent Volunteers are needed to help Mrs. Grief, the school counselor and Mrs. Atabek, the
school reading specialist for the Reading Incentive Program. Please contact PTA or the school
office to volunteer. Thank you.
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
LABOR DAY-HOLIDAY
NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS & TEACHERS
BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT 7:00-9:00PM
SEPT. 7
SEPT. 14
SEPT. 16
NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
EARLY RELEASE DAY 12:30-PRE-K 10:30
EARLY RELEASE DAY 12:30-PRE-K 10:30
PTA VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION 6:30-7:00PM
PTA HARVEST HAPPENING
READING & MATH CURRICULUM NIGHT 7:00PM
WALK YOUR CHILD TO SCHOOL DAY
SEPT. 23
SEPT. 23
OCT. 2
OCT. 6
OCT. 6
OCT. 7
New Bell Times:
School officially begins at 9:00 a.m. Students should arrive at school between 8:40 a.m. and 8:55
a.m.
Breakfast is served at 8:40 a.m.
Patrols should arrive at 8:30 a.m.
School is dismissed at 3:25 p.m.
SCHOOL ENRICHMENT TIME (S.E.T.)
Each afternoon at 3:10 p.m., we are going to have reading and math enrichment time for 10 to 15
minutes. Monday will be Mad Minute Monday and Friday will be Fact Friday. Students will
have a chance to practice their math facts and challenge themselves on different fact and math
websites. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, students will either listen and engage with a
wonderful book being read by their teacher, or have time to read a book of their choice.
Saturday School -Go to http://www.saturdayschool.org/ for more information.
Saturday School offers tutoring and mentoring in reading/language arts, mathematics, and test-taking
skills for students in grades 1-12 that reside in Montgomery County. It takes place Saturday mornings
from 8:30 to 11 a.m. at Sherwood High School and other H.S. Centers. Information will be sent home in
the Wednesday folders. Parents can register in person at any of our 12 centers starting October 3, 2015.
Please remember to bring a copy of your student’s report card to the first tutoring session.
Gifted and Talented News
Dear Parents/Guardians of Grade 3 Students:
Applications for the Elementary Centers for the Highly Gifted (CPHG) were recently mailed directly to all parents of
Grade 3 students in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). This is a reminder that if you are interested in
having your child considered for the CPHG, you must complete the application and return it by November 6,
2015 to: CPHG Application Division of Consortia Choice and Application Program Services ,11721 Kemp Mill
Road , Silver Spring, Maryland 20902. www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/.
There will be two parent information meetings about the CPHG on the following dates beginning at 7:00 p.m. The
same information will be presented at each meeting. Feel free to go to the one most convenient for you.
October 7, 2015
Parent/Guardian Information Meeting at Northwest High School
13501 Richter Farm Road, Germantown, Maryland 20874
October 12, 2015
Parent/Guardian Information Meeting at Northwood High School
919 University Boulevard, Silver Spring, Maryland 20901
Notification of the testing date and time for your school will be mailed to the homes of those applying.
Together we can make great things happen for our children.
Thank you and we look forward to a wonderful and successful school
year!