October 5, 2015

Principal: Jennifer Hetland Asst. Principal: Sharen Lowe

Dear Families,

It is incredible to think that first quarter is nearly complete. Thank you for taking the time to conference with your child’s teacher. Many of the conversations acknowledged that our teachers and students are working diligently to acquire a depth of understanding in all content standards. Although not easy, it can be accomplished when we work together.

One of the most amazing events occurred on September 30th which was Dads Bring Your Child to School Day. We were truly moved by the volume of participants. We had 307 dads and father figures attend and approximately 650 total participants. Wow! Our Citrus Springs community is top notch. We are so grateful!

Our Coupons for Classrooms Book fundraiser is coming home. We thank you in advance for supporting this fundraiser. Last year this fundraiser raised $5000 for Citrus Springs Elemen-tary. Those funds were used to support the purchase of our new playground equipment, which the students love. We look forward to utilizing the funds generated by this fundraiser to benefit our students once again.

As we move into the next months, please insure your child is dressed appropriately for the ever changing Fall weather. Please review calendar dates as we have 3 early dismissals in October and Red Ribbon Week.

Respectfully,

Jennifer Hetland

Upcoming Events

2nd Parent Conference Day 5th Coupon Book Fundraiser 8th Early Dismissal 12:30 p.m. 9th Early Dismissal 12:30 p.m. 12th SAEC Meeting 4:15 p.m. 12th PTO Meeting after SAEC 12-16th National School Lunch Week

13th Picture Retakes 21st Unity Day 26th—30th Red Ribbon Week 28th Early Dismissal 12:30 p.m.

Principal’s News

Citrus Springs Elementary School is proud that the teachers and administrators who work with our students are certified by the State of Florida or other governing boards. We appreciate the following teachers who have volunteered to teach a subject outside of their primary certification and are currently working toward certification in the area they are teaching out-of-field: Noelle Khan, Tanya Purtee, Suzanne Akin-ESOL, Allison Gamblin-Gifted, and Kristen Gage, Hailey Roberts-Varying Exceptionalities. Each of these teachers has coursework in the area they are teaching and we appreciate the extra effort they are putting forth on behalf of our

students. We thank the following individuals who are working toward completion of certification in elementary education: Jillian Banden and Paige Lefkowitz. We appreciate all of these dedicated teachers for their commitment.

Citrus Springs Elementary

Red Ribbon Week

Citrus County Schools will celebrate Red Ribbon Week from October 26th through October 30th.

The activities planned for Citrus Springs Elementary School are as follows:

Monday – 10/26 I’m a True Blue “Jean”ius, I’m Drug Free – Wear jeans and a red shirt

Tuesday – 10/27 “Team Up” Against Drugs. Wear your favorite team jersey or shirt

Wednesday – 10/28 “You’re crazy if you do drugs” – Wear crazy socks

Thursday – 10/29 Pledge to be Drug Free. Wear USA colors and jeans

Friday – 10/30 “We Rule…We’re a Drug Free School!” – Wear your CSES Hawk Spirit gear.

Unity Day October 21st

We, the students and staff will UNITE against bullying and wear orange. For more information, please visit: http://www.pacer.org/bullying/nbpm/

Title I Citrus County Public Schools receive an annual allocation of federal dollars to provide resources to schools that have high percentages of children who qualify for free or reduced lunch. Those re-sources are used to improve student achievement through interven-tions, teacher training, and family engagement. Activities are aligned with the Citrus County Local Educational Agency (LEA) Plan, School-wide Plans, and School Improvement Plans. Part A funds are also used to provide services to homeless children, children in local institutions for neglected and delinquent children, and to ensure that non-public school students, their parents, and teachers receive equitable services. Our school receives Title I funds to assist students, teachers, and families.

“In accordance with the Title I regulations, a copy of the School-Wide Title I Parent Involvement Plan and the School Improvement Plan are available for review in the school office. If you wish to request information concerning the professional qualifications of any of your child’s instructors, you may do so in writing to the principal.”

Thank you so much for your Adopt-A-Class membership.

This business partnership will positively impact the students in many ways and you will be satisfied knowing that your dollars

are going directly to the classroom.

Mr. Kenneth Chance sponsors Mrs. Clark 1st Grade

Steve & Angela Schenk sponsors Mrs. Clark 1st Grade

Title USA, LLC—Jeri Diehl sponsors Mrs. Seminera 2nd Grade

All Around Tractor sponsors Mrs. Jones 3rd Grade

Steve & Angela Schenk sponsors Mrs. Akin 4th Grade

CSES

Phone: (352) 344-4079 (352) 465-8546

Admin Fax: (352) 249-2110

Cafeteria

(352) 344-9066

YMCA (352) 637-0132

E-mail: Crosss@citrus.k12.fl.us

We’re on the Web! Citrus.k12.fl.us/cse

ACCOMMODATION

STATEMENT If you, or anyone you know, requires reasonable accommodations at any of our school events because of a disability or physical impairment, please contact Suzanne Cross at

344-4079 Ext. 5104.

CSES

PTO

Events

Book Fair Nov. 30th—Dec. 4

Winter Wonderland Carnival

January 30, 2016 at 1:00 p.m.

Night at the Museum TBA

Wet Field Day TBA

Guidance

If you are in need of assistance for your child(ren) with school supplies, please contact Holly Becker in Guidance. If your family is in need of assistance with food through our Blessings in a Backpack program please contact Holly Becker in Guidance. Our Blessings program will pro-vide food assistance for the weekend for a child in need . If you would like to volunteer and/or

mentor during the 2015/2016 school year, please contact Holly Becker in Guidance. Our teachers

and students appreciate the extra support.

Picture Re-takes

October 13th

PICTURE DAY!!!!

PBS

Each month, every homeroom teacher (PK-5) will select one student who is showing the S.O.A.R. (Safe, Outstanding Citizen, Active Listener, Respectful) characteristics. Students will have their picture taken with the grade level and pictures will be placed on the “All Star” bulletin board.

Towards the end of the school year each teacher will choose one of their All Stars to represent their class as the MVP. The MVP and their family will be invited to a breakfast at the end of the year.

September ALL STARS

Our September All Stars are: Samantha Fonseca-Delgado, Jonah Crawford, Autumn Maruszczak,

Kailyn Stewart, Payton Moore, Christopher McKay, Reese Hall, Madisyn Graham, Alayna Allen,

Noelle Mellington, Alexis Blomquist, Myra Garrido, Liliyana Villanueva, Anthony Evangelista,

Madelyn Kenney, Addison Raiford, Dante Brooks, Kaidynce Falkenburg, Eve Chastek, Keirstin

Tedrick, Nikolas Karkarashvili, J.T. Tipton, Randall Spears, Alyssa Dunbar, Christopher Kosenko,

Kaylah Rowthorn, Eli Langston, Bailey Crowther, Maddie James, Chase Kenney, Hannah Messer,

Madison Hughes, Caitlyn Pease, Madison Wilson, Andrew Butler, Jonathan Recta, Nathan Jobe,

Nathan Smith, Mark Soverns and Carly Jones. Congratulations and Thank You to these amazing

students.

Encouraging Our Children to Write Independently

Teaching your child to become a self-reliant, independent writer can be a daunting task. It is often easier to spell the words for them but that leads to the child becoming dependent on us to write. Do not tell the children how to spell words during the first writing, ask them to say their sentence and “stretch” out the word they are working on.

When they ask you to spell the word, sound it out slowly and have them do it themselves. Count the sounds you hear. Repeat the process if they need it. Sometimes words have more letters than the sounds you hear; if that is the case, talk about the letters that make a particular sound. Then you can review it, “We hear three sounds but the word has 4 letters.” You can practice “stretching” the words and finding the letter that makes that sounds even when you are riding in the car. For example: I like penguins. /p/ /n/ /q/ /n/ /s/ pnqns is an appropriate spelling for the word penguins.

If your child needs more practice with a hands-on approach, cut out different colored squares and have each square represent each sound that is heard. Move the squares as your child says the sounds. Another help for “stretching” words is to use a slinky and actually stretch the slinky while they are making the different sounds until the word is com-pletely said. Children that practice this orally usually have an easier time writing it on paper. Please do not scold them for incorrect spelling and do not change their work. Ask them to read their sentence to you.

One problem that some of the children experience is working independently. Even though you may feel the need to hover and help with each sound, try to allow your child to independently write the word. Then go back and talk about the sounds your child heard in the word and talk about the letters that made the sounds and the sounds that might have been “hiding”.

Writing is a process similar to learning to talk. When your child first said “Da Da,” you didn’t correct him and tell him the correct way is to say “Father.” After a while, the word “Da Da” will become “Daddy.” Writing comes in stages, too. While you are practicing writing, you will see these types of writing samples. Please continue to encourage your child and find ways to praise their work and efforts. These are the types of sentences you may see. The sample sentence reads, “I like ice cream.”

ILis (This stage uses capital and lower case letters, spaces between the words are missing.)

i lic iscm (Beginning and ending sounds are in place along with easy vowels; spaces between each word are ap-pearing.)

I lic iscrem. (More consonant sounds and vowels are in place, conventions, such as, capital letters at the begin-ning of a sentence and a period at the end of their sentence, begin to appear.)

I like is crem. (Children are using sight words they know how to read from around the room to help them spell words.)

I like ice cream. (Children are using 2 vowel combinations to make long vowel sounds.)

CSES TRACK

CLUB FOR 3RD, 4TH &

5TH GRADERS

Track begins Wednes-day

October 7th

CSES SAEC

School Advisory Council Meeting will be held on

Monday, Oct 12th at 4:15 p.m. in the school

In an effort to reduce duplication, DOE will no longer be producing the School Public Accountability Reports (covering Elementary and Secondary Education Act Requirements for State and LEA Annual Report Cards) in a printed version. Instead, the DOE will post these reports online before the end of September 2015. These reports can be viewed at http://doeweb-prd.doe.state.fl.us/eds/nclbspar/index.cfm. Parents may also find information at our district website http://www.citrus.k12.fl.us/departments/research_&_accountability/default.htm.