Roadrunner Roundup. Orange City Elementary 555 E. University Ave. Orange City, FL 32763

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1 Roadrunner Roundup Orange City Elementary 555 E. University Ave. Orange City, FL February 2018 All students learn at Orange City School, where CPR Cooperation, Pride, and Respect brings us to life and helps us to do our best. Dear Roadrunner Families: Principal Points With the passing of the 100 th day of school on February 2 we only have 80 more days left in this school year. Every day is important, and students need to be here on time and ready to learn. The curriculum we teach is challenging and to prepare students for what lies ahead, their attendance is imperative. From VPK to 5 th grade students are learning and practicing the skills necessary to compete in our ever-changing world. Students here at Orange City Elementary and across this district are preparing for professions that have not even been created yet. Reading and comprehension are crucial to their future success. These two skills must be practiced. Just as the professional athlete practices their drills so should students practice their reading. Simply reading 20 minutes every night will develop those areas in the brain and make them process faster. Also, follow up with questions about what your child is reading and ask specific questions about who, what, when and why. It does take a village as the saying goes, and with your help we will prepare them for a brighter future. Also, during the second half of the year brings Florida State Standards testing. As long as I can remember there has been testing and today s times are no different. Please re-assure your child to do their best as they continue to prepare for testing. Encourage them to take all the time allotted for each section and to check their answers carefully. Testing is an opportunity for students to show what they have learned. Our teachers have been preparing them all year and I am confident our students will shine. Through a tremendous effort from our PTA, our playground will be getting a much needed makeover. This month a large portion of sand will be removed and play-safe engineered mulch will be the new ground cover. For years we have been patient and now our patience pays off. Please check out our FACEBOOK page for pictures and Finally, throughout this month and beyond be on the lookout for school family nights such as Snuggle up and Read, on Feb 6 th. With each event we do a call out using the automated call out system with important information. Please make sure to listen to all messages and again check out our new FACEBOOK page for information as well. Important Dates February 6 Snuggle Up and Read 6:00 PM February 9 Midterm Reports February 16 Jump-a-Thon February 19 NO SCHOOL Presidents Day February 23 3rd Grade SeaWorld FT February 26 SAC Meeting 6:00 PM Sincerely, Charles D. Bynum

2 Roadrunner Reminders from Ms. Hemings, Assistant Principal 2018 is off to a great start! As we approach the 100 th day of school, please take a moment to think about the positive things that are happening here at school and the successes that your child has achieved this year. Be sure to ask your student about what he or she learned at school each day. Make every day count! One way to promote student achievement is school attendance. Did you know that school attendance is one of the most important predictors of student success? We challenge you to ensure that your child is here each day, on time and ready to learn. And what about the most important meal of the day? Breakfast is served at 7:25-7:50 in the cafeteria each morning. How about having your child start the day with a Roadrunner breakfast from School Way Café? Please be mindful of the district school dress code, especially as the cooler temperatures find their way to Central Florida. We are asking all families to send students to school with proper attire, as well as jackets and warm clothing for cold weather. The dress code requires that students refrain from wearing sweatpants and tights as outerwear. Polo shirts may be in the colors blue, grey, black or white. Bottoms can be in solid tan/khaki, blue or black. The color of jeans must be solid blue or black, free of embellishments, decorations or holes. Fridays are spirit days and we hope all Roadrunners will proudly wear their Orange City Elementary t-shirts! As a reward for positive participation this year, some classes have earned Rocket Bucks and the privilege of having a Hat Day, No Uniform Day, and/or a Sports Team Day. Please contact your child s teacher for more information about these events. Counselor s Corner For the past several months students have come to me concerned, or even excited by videos, articles, or posts they have seen on the multitude of social media sites that are inappropriate for elementary age students. Some of them are very concerning and deal with issues that need to be carefully presented to impressionable young minds. I am most concerned with older children and/or siblings sharing with younger children to be cool or influential. Here is an article from Our Parenting Wizard, a site for lots of parenting information. Kids and Social Media: Three Tips for Parents Social media has opened new and creative ways for people to share information, and many young people are drawn to this kind of technology. While young children may not be using these platforms quite yet, many become familiar with social media and how it works well before they create their first account. They often learn about it from the environment around them, whether they hear someone talk about "likes" on television or they observe their siblings or parents using these platforms. Regardless of whether they use it themselves or not, parents should be aware of the perks and the risks involved when their kids and teens are using social media. Moreover, parents should encourage responsible use of social media and teach their kids skills that will help them enjoy these apps safely. 2

3 Here are three things that parents can do to help their kids safely enjoy social media. Understand Privacy Settings Different social media apps have different privacy policies and settings. Many social media apps keep their default privacy setting rather low, requiring the user to adjust their settings to the level of privacy they desire. As a parent, it will be useful to know that these settings exist and familiarize yourself on how they work on various social media platforms. Talk to your kids and teens about using privacy settings on social media, and encourage them to keep those settings to where their page and posts are only shared with a limited group of individuals including friends and family. Besides helping your kids and teens to maintain some level of privacy online, keeping their pages mostly private will help to avoid them being followed online by strangers. Discuss Posts and Followers Making smart choices about what to and what not to share on social media is so important. Talk with your kids about what is appropriate to post and who will be able to see it. Remind them that before publishing something, they should consider whether the post will be harmful to them self or anyone else. Make sure your kids know never to post personal information like their home addresses, bank account numbers, social security number, and more. Discuss what kinds of photos are okay to share and what should be kept offline. This not only includes pictures of themselves but also of other people. Some individuals may not want images of themselves posted online, so encourage your kids and teens to ask their friends if it's okay to post photos of them before doing so. Also, talk about social media followers. Urge them only to accept friend requests from known individuals. Encourage your kids not to respond to messages from strangers and to tell you if they are receiving messages from people they don't know. You can help your kids report this to the social media platform and stop the harassing behavior. Friend Your Kids Online Children and teens won't always want to share parts of their personal life with their parents, yet their social media pages can often provide a glance into it. Create your own profiles on the various social media outlets that your kids use, and send friend requests to them or follow each of their pages. Following or friending your child's social media pages will give you a more in-depth look as to what they're posting online. Try not to constantly check their pages or read into posts too much, particularly if everything looks to be healthy and safe. If you do notice concerning behavior at home and on their social media pages, talk to them about it. Also, cyberbullying is a relevant concern when using social media apps. Speak to your kids about the effects of cyberbullying, and encourage them to report it if they are experiencing it. This article has some additional tips and information about online safety basics and cyberbullying. Social media safety skills are important for any person using these apps to learn, especially kids and teens. These three tips can help you children use social media safely, but it's may also be useful to encourage them not to get too devoted to these apps. Advise them to limit their usage of these apps and maybe even take periodic breaks from using them altogether. Be a role model for your kids by doing the same yourself. When your children are with you, schedule offline times during which you all can enjoy each other's company without technology. Being safe on social media is one thing, but also knowing how to use it in moderation can be just as important. 3

4 Kindergarten is working on the following: ELA - looking at Black History Month Math - 2D and 3D shapes Science - Life Science - plants and animals Annual Jump Rope For Heart Jump-a-thon is on February 16 th during special area time. Please wear sneakers that day and dress comfortably. Book fair February 1st-9th In the media center Third grade is excited about their upcoming trip to Sea World. The trip is February 23, This trip is always fun and packed full of learning. We are working hard to learn as much as possible in all subject areas. We are working on opinion essay writing. We are incorporating many important learning standards as we discover and research famous African Americans, this month. In social studies, we have explored primary and secondary sources as they relate to our learning in reading and social studies. Science has been really enlightening as we discover the ways light travels and the properties of light and heat energy. There have been so many new vocabulary words we are covering for the first time. Ask your 3 rd grader what reflect and refract mean. Their answers might surprise you. In math, we are working on multiplication facts, 2 step word problems, graphing and we will be getting back to calculating area. Please remember to have your students read every night because there is nothing that replaces what reading can do for their growth as a student.

5 SPRING PICTURES WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21ST ALL STUDENTS WILL BE PHOTOGRAPHED AND PROOFS WILL BE SENT HOME. THE UNI- FORM POLICY WILL BE RELAXED, BUT STUDENTS STILL MUST DRESS APPROPRIATELY AND CLOSED-TOE SHOES ARE REQUIRED. Fourth grade is excited to announce that February 1, will be our Social Studies Night. It will be held in the media center from 6-7. All of the 4 th grade projects will be on display to show off the student s work. Also, 7 students will be chosen to go to our county fair, which will be held Saturday, February 24 at Deland High School. Girls On the Run We are excited to start a new season of Girls On the Run. Girls On the Run is an organization dedicated to helping 3 rd -5 th grade girls promote good choices for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living which is combined with training for a 5k. If your girl is interested, please apply online at Scholarships are available online. Registration deadline is February 14.. Our first session is February 20th. We will meet every Tuesday and Thursday, after school, from 2:05-3:15. We are looking forward starting up this Spring season. If you have any questions, please see Mrs. Hancock.

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