Message from the Principal
The new year is here, and I am excited to welcome our Jaguars back to school!!! I hope you had a wonderful Winter Break. It was a treat to spend some quality time with my family and allow myself to disconnect for a few weeks.
Please read the important dates listed in this bulletin concerning fundamental and magnet application periods. Families with fifth graders or incoming Kindergarten children will need to apply for their middle and elementary school during this period.
December was filled with a lot of wonderful events both in the classroom and out! Thank you to our PTA for hosting our Family Dinner and Movie Night. Families had an amazing time watching the movie and hanging out with friends. It was a fun night for all.
Our Fourth Annual Color-Fun-Run was also a huge success Parents, students, and staff enjoyed themselves and didn't mind the messiness! Thanks to our amazing P.E. Department and all of our volunteers for making this a fun day for our Jaguars!
I am looking forward to a wonderful second semester with you and our Jaguars!
Donna Hall
Principal
Upcoming Important Dates
Please remember there is only ONE OPTION FOR MEETING CREDIT IN JANUARY. The January Mandatory Parent Meeting is Thursday, January 1/30. This is our annual Curriculum & Testing Night. Primary and Intermediate grade meeting times will be staggered as listed below.
- Grades K, 1, & 2 meeting times will be from 5:30-6:30
- Grades 3, 4, & 5 meeting times will be from 6:45-7:30
If you have more than one child, you only need to attend one of the student meetings. Third, Fourth and Fifth-grade teachers will review all upcoming FAST Testing Requirements and students will be leading parent conferences and data chats. This will count as your mid-year teacher/parent conference. More will follow from your child's teachers regarding the Student-Led Data Conferences for grades 3, 4 and 5.
Grandparents Day - Parking and More
Our Grandparents' Day events are Wednesday, 1/22, and Thursday, 1/23. We welcome our Bay Vista grandparents to pack a lunch and join their special student in the Rainbow Garden during regularly scheduled class lunches. Grandparents may attend on their assigned date as indicated below:
- Wednesday, 1/22: Students with last names A-M
- Thursday, 1/23: Students with last names N-Z
Important: Because we expect high attendance, we ask that parents please communicate with grandparents about parking options at school. There will be some parking available in spaces along the car line, but families are encouraged to park in the church parking lot across Dr. MLK Street. As such, it may be beneficial to arrive a few minutes before your student’s lunchtime.
Additionally, since our final lunch period ends at 1:40, I am asking that no cars line up for carline prior to 2pm on these days. Thank you for your flexibility on these two days!
To our parents with incoming Kindergartners, as well as our 5th grade parents, the district application period will be January 7th through January 17th at 5:00 p.m. I urge our 5th grade parents to participate in a tour or Discovery Night at Thurgood Marshall Fundamental or Madeira Beach Fundamental Middle Schools. You may also visit the district's website for more information at www.pcsb.org/dap .
Application Period for the 2025-2026 School Year
- January 7th, 9am through January 17th, 5pm
- Application closes at 5 pm on Friday, January 17, 2024
DAP Acceptance Period Facebook/ YouTube Live Event
- February 11, 2024, 5:30 pm
Acceptance Period for the 2025-2026 School Year- February 12th, 9am through February 21, 2024, 5pm
- Closes at 5 pm on Friday, February 21, 2024
Late Application Period Opens
- April 2, 2024
Weekly Lesson Requirements
Grades K, 1, 2 - Complete 5-7 lessons per week
Grades 3, 4, 5 - Complete 10 lessons per week
As I monitor student progress, we are close each week to meeting our weekly lesson goals, but falling short schoolwide. Please talk to your Jaguar about their weekly lesson progress to help them meet their goals.
Reading and Writing- This month we will continue working with informational text. We will investigate like researchers. Using baskets of books, we will research different animals.
We will Work collaboratively in groups to study different animals to collect details. Then we will use our notes to answer questions and teach other people. We will end this unit by creating a group poster project.
Math- Students are working on addition and subtraction. Students will represent addition and subtraction with objects, fingers, mental images, drawings or acting out situations. Soon we will be moving on to teen numbers.
Social Studies- How do we describe where a person, place, or thing is? What is a map? Why do we need maps? What is a globe? Why do we need globes?
Science -Students investigate that things move in different ways, such as fast, slow, etc.
When we return from the Holiday Break first grade will be focusing on the genre of literature known as literary text. In this genre students will be reading fiction stories that involve characters, settings, events and the plot of the story. The plot of the story will have a problem, important events and a resolution. Students will also dig deeper into the moral of the stories by inferring what the author wants the reader to learn. Students will be introduced to quotation marks in the text to understand which character is doing the talking inside the story. In Writing, the focus will be on opinion writing. They will share their opinion with or about a character that is in the text by writing friendly letters.
In Math, we will wrap up learning about 2- Dimensional and 3-Dimensional shapes. We will be exploring number sense and operations. Students will learn to read and write numbers from 0 to 100 in standard form, expanded form and written form. Another standard that they will learn is being able to compose and decompose two-digit numbers in multiple ways using tens and ones rods. This will be shown with objects, drawings and equations. The final skill will be for students to plot, order and compare whole numbers up to 100.
In Science, the next unit will be about Motion. Students will demonstrate the way to change the motion of an object is by applying a push or a pull. They will learn that it takes energy to change the motion of objects.
In Social Studies, the next unit is on Geography. Students will be learning about maps and globes.
Reading: In STUDENTS continue to build their informational reading strategies as they are introduced to a new topic: how humans can help and harm the environment. They will be reviewing and deepening their knowledge on text features and author’s purpose.
Writing: Students continue to build on their work with expository writing as they gather facts from multiple sources before writing their texts. Throughout the month, students participate in teacher-guided research, learning strategies for summarizing facts, developing organized writing, and elaborating on details. They will also learn how to do their own research on World Books.
Math: Students will revisit word problems. This time the problems will include two steps. These two steps will be both addition, both subtraction, and a mixture. It is important for students to pay attention to what the question is asking like in a story. This will help them decide which operation they need to use in order to correctly solve the problem.
Science: Students will be learning about states of matter. This includes solids, liquids, and gases. They will then learn about different types of energy and how it works.
Social Studies: Students will be learning about Geography. They will learn about how to read a map and what a map teaches you.
ELA: 3rd graders will be jumping back into fictional reading and narrative writing! We will be reading the novel The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane together and studying character perspectives and how theme is developed in literary text. In writing, students will use photographs and mentor texts as inspiration for creating their own narrative stories.
Science: 3rd graders will be finishing up our Physical Science units: Measure Up and Changing States. For Measure Up, students will measure and compare the temperature, mass, and volume of various solids and liquids. With our Changing States unit, students will describe the changes water undergoes when it changes states through heating and cooling by using familiar scientific terms such as melting, freezing, boiling, evaporation, and condensation.
Math: 3rd graders will be delving into fractions. Students will explore fractions as part of a whole/part of a set, representing fractions, fractions greater than one, and representing one whole. Third graders will also work on finding equivalent fractions and comparing fractions with the same denominator or the same numerator.
Math
In January, 4th graders will continue their work with Fractions. We’ll be exploring a variety of strategies to add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers. As in every unit, problem solving and word problems will be used to continue to encourage student stamina and perseverance with challenging tasks.
Science
This month 4th grade scientists will continue working on our Physical Science units. We’ll explore speed, learning how it is calculated and the forces that affect it in addition to a unit on sound and how it is created from vibrations.
Reading
In January, reading again focuses on informational text. Picking up where Module D ended, Module E looks at the historical events and inspirational people who have contributed to modern-day Florida. Both Reading and Social Studies benchmarks are woven throughout lessons. Students spend the first several lessons in a continued study of Florida’s Native American tribes and events. They then move to an investigation of the state government before taking a brief pause to explore Florida-centric poetry. The module rounds out with time spent looking at Florida sites of interest, the Everglades, weather, and the space industry.
Writing
In Writing, students will be starting the month with another Expository essay about what students can learn from Olympic athletes. After that is finished, we will begin Argumentative Writing. As this new essay writing is taught, small mini lessons will be given on voice and elaboration in writing.
In reading, students use informational reading skills as they read texts about the American Revolution. They focus on identifying central ideas and relevant details, determining authors’ perspectives, and comparing and contrasting primary and secondary sources as they read texts to build knowledge about the events leading to, occurring during, and following the Revolutionary War. Through reading and analysis of the central text of the module—King George: What Was His Problem?—as well as additional primary and secondary sources, students explore the causes, significant events and figures, and results of the American Revolution.
In writing, students learn about and apply their knowledge of the American Revolution to write expository, argumentative, and nonfiction narrative texts. Students integrate information across multiple texts about the significant events leading to the Revolutionary War to craft several expository essays that focus on developing their central idea with text evidence. Students will also take the position of argumentative writers. Students begin by developing a speech to the First Continental Congress, focusing on delivering their argument with proper voice and tone. Students then review the issue of Patriots and Loyalists to develop a claim and craft an argumentative essay. In the final arc, students participate in a DBQ analysis that bridges their work in Reading and Writing. Analyzing various documents, they establish a position on one of three battles fought during the war and develop an argumentative essay. Students end the module with a culminating nonfiction narrative story, applying the information they have learned to develop a story that utilizes the narrative techniques studied in previous modules to both inform and teach their audience.
In fifth grade Math, we will start of the year off completing our unit on dividing with decimals. Students will use models as well as using a standard algorithm to solve problems. They will have plenty of practice with problem solving as well. After they complete the unit on division of decimals, we will move into Fractions. Students will also extend the work they did in 4th grade as they work with fractions with unlike denominators. They also use what they learned about equivalent fractions to create fractions with common denominators. After fractions are written with a common denominator, students can add and subtract the fractions.
In Science, we will be completing our physical science unit on properties of matter and changes in matter! We will be learning that mixtures of solids can be separated based on observable properties of their parts such as particle size, shape, color, and magnetic attraction. Also, be able to identify materials that will dissolve in water and those that will not and identify the conditions that will speed up or slow down the dissolving process. Also be able to describe that many physical and chemical changes are affected by temperature, and be able to identify some familiar changes in materials that result in other materials with different characteristics, such as decaying animal or plant matter, burning, rusting, and cooking.
The fifth grade is excited to start preparing for our Enterprise Village field trip. Students have applied for their jobs and received their assignments. They are beginning to start their lessons on how to write checks, use a debit card and keep track of their earnings using a check register. They will begin working in their business groups and filling out all paperwork needed to start a business.
JANUARY
1/6-Students return to School/Second Semester begins1/7-District Application Period opens
1/8-Rainbow Garden CLOSED for December Student of the Month & Jazzy Luncheon
1/16-Report Cards go home
1/20-No school
1/22-Grandparents Day for students with last names A-M
1/23-Grandparents Day for students with last names N-Z
1/30-$1 Dress Down Day
1/30-Required Curriculum/Testing Night & Student-Led Conferences-ONLY JAN. MEETING CREDIT OPTION
Looking Ahead to February
2/3-SAC Meeting via Zoom (Feb. Meeting Credit Option)
2/4-Class Picture Day
2/5-Rainbow Garden Closed for January Student of the Month & Jazzy Luncheon
2/5-PTA Staff Luncheon (Feb. Meeting Credit Option)--NEW DATE
2/6-5th Grade to Enterprise Village
2/7-Quarter 3 Mid-Term Reports Go Home
2/7-Be My Valentine Dance @ Gulfport Casion (Feb. Meeting Credit Option for volunteers)
2/13-National Elementary Honor Society Induction Ceremony at BVF
2/17-School IS in session (hurricane make-up day)
2/18-Quest HOPs In-School Field Trip (grades K,1,2 Quest students)
2/19-Riley's Class (4th) to Boyd Hill
2/20-Ruffing's Class (4th) to Boyd Hill
2/21-Kaddis's Class (4th) to Boyd Hill
2/24-Stophel's Class (4th) to Boyd Hill
2/25-3rd Grade to Boyd Hill (Cianca, Jennings, Dunlow)
2/26-3rd Grade to Boyd Hill (Wooten, Smotzer)
2/27-$1 Dress Down Day
