Starkey Bear Necessities

Hi Starkey Families,

Happy New Year! I hope you had an enjoyable Winter Break.

A beneficial resolution for the New Year would be for all students to read each night at home for at least 15 minutes. This could be reading with a family member or reading on iStation or MyOn. It is great for students to have exposure to reading various genres of books on a wide range of topics. Share your passions with your child through a good book. Students are always able to check out books from our Media Center to take home to read.

Our 3rd-5th Graders are reading books from the Sunshine State Young Reader Award List for Battle of the Books. Many of them know that I am reading them too and we are having great conversations about them! Here is a link to the book titles:

https://www.pcsb.org/cms/lib/FL01903687/Centricity/Domain/2489/Battle%20of%20The%20Books%20List.pdf

Did you know that attendance is a goal on our School Improvement Plan and students can earn rewards (including a dance celebration, popcorn, and ice cream / popsicles)? We understand situations arise when students may need to stay home sick or for an appointment. However, we have seen an increase in absences and tardies that do not qualify for being excused. Students can be on campus as early at 8:15am. Anyone arriving before then will need parent supervision. Breakfast is served until 8:35am. To make it to class on time, it is important to arrive at school before 8:40am each day. When students are late, they do miss breakfast and often class meetings that set the tone for the day. Being late interrupts not only your child's day, but the entire class as well. We have also seen an increase in students leaving early. Please try to schedule appointments outside of the school day to help keep the educational flow for your child and their classmates. We understand that it is not always possible, but leaving early should be for emergency situations and not a common practice. If you need support with attendance, please call and ask for our school social worker.

We are off to a great start and have a ton of fun events coming up during the second half of the school year! Don't miss any of them and read the rest of this newsletter for information!

Sincerely,

Ms. Kranzel

January 9th and 10th:

Uniform Exchange 4-6 pm

(See PTA Flyer Below)

January 13th-26th:

Read-A-Thon

(See PTA Flyer Below)

January 14th:

Grade 5 Field Trip to Seminole Arts Festival

January 21st:

Grade 5 Field Trip to Enterprise Village

January 22nd:

Club Pictures

January 23rd:

Class Pictures

January 28th:

PTA Dinner and General Assembly 6-7 pm

(See PTA Flyer Below)

Literacy Night 7-8 pm

January 31st:

Grades 3-5 Soccer World Cup during PE

Starkey PTA Spirit Night @ Treasure Island Fun Center 5-8 pm

(See PTA Flyer Below)

February:

3rd - 7th - Jog-A-Thon Fundraiser

4th - Ready..Set..Kindergarten! 6 pm

5th - 100th Day of School

6th - Kindergarten Field Trip to Central Park Performing Arts

7th - Grade 3 Field Trip to Central Park Performing Arts

7th - Valentine's Dance 6:30 pm (See flyer below)

11th - Donuts with Dads 8:00 am

11th - Grade 1 Concert 6:30 pm

12th - Grade 4 Field Trip to Boyd Hill Nature Preserve - Artidiello

13th - Grade 4 Field Trip to Boyd Hill Nature Preserve - Benner

14th - Grade 4 Field Trip to Boyd Hill Nature Preserve - Laczko

17th - Grade 4 Field Trip to Boyd Hill Nature Preserve - Strickland

18th - Grade 4 Field Trip to Boyd Hill Nature Preserve - Wright

17th - School in Session - Grade 1 Field Trip to Tampa Bay Watch (Reccy and Bedinghaus)

18th - Grade 1 Field Trip to Tampa Bay Watch (Purpura and Stevens)

20th - SPIFFS Field Trip

March:

7th - Family Game Night - 6 pm

11th - 2nd and 3rd Grade Concert at Osceola Fundamental High School - 6:30 pm

13th - Field Day

17th - 21st - Spring Break - Schools are closed

27th - Spring Individual Pictures - Non-Uniform

April:

3rd - Grade 3 Field Trip to Zoo Tampa

8th - PTA General Assembly - 6pm

14th - 25th - Papa John's Fundraiser

18th - Schools Closed for Students

21st - Schools Closed for Students

22nd: Chorus Concert

29th - ESE Sensory Day

5th grade sculptures are turning out amazing! Students are now painting their armature sculptures, and many show a great emphasis on movement. Students are working diligently to create a well painted sculpture with great craftsmanship.

4th grade has been doing a fun digital project. They are learning about surrealism and creating their own animal by merging to animals together on the Juxtaposition app.

3rd grade is using their drawing skills to create a realistic turtle that they have painted using the wet-on-wet technique. They also have sprinkled their paintings with salt to create texture.

2nd grade has learned how to take a 2-dimensional paper and turn it into a 3-dimensional form by curling it. They are turning their cylinders into houses!

1st grade is creating their own Wild Robot again but this time they are drawing them out of a large sheet of paper. They are learning about how to create form by adding shadow.

Kindergarten is practicing their motor skills by practicing step by step drawing. They are getting ready to creating color spectrum fish after the break!

Second-grade students built on their understanding of the ELA standard for identifying the central idea and supporting details while exploring careers. Aligned with Pinellas County Schools’ mission to “educate and prepare each student for college, career, and life,” this month’s creativity lessons focused on depth and complexity. Students designed sweaters (details) representing an assigned career (main idea). Their classmates then guessed the career, testing whether the details effectively supported the central idea.

Talent students (grades 3, 4, 5) explored concepts of computer science with Kubo.

Our Book Fair was a HUGE success! While we don’t have all of our numbers in yet, we wish to thank every family here who participated in our Book Fair. It was wonderful to see so many students and their families enjoying the many books that found new homes and new readers. Last Friday was the last day, but never fear! The next Book Fair will be here again on April 7th.

Congratulations to our 4th and 5th graders who are participating in reading the Battle Books. They have already earned over 60 badges or dog tags so far for reading the SSYRA books. Our students are excited and eager to continue reading over the Winter Break, so we anticipate many more earned badges upon our return in January. Here’s wishing everyone lots of wonderful reading time over the break!

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported the Tumbling Shows. Thank you to everyone who supported the Can Food Drive and the Sallie House.

We start a big Soccer unit in January. Focusing on soccer skills trapping, kicking and passing.

In January, we are doing lessons on problem solving. We are going to learn and practice how to communicate better to resolve conflicts or disagreements peacefully. We are going to discuss how to think through possible consequences to help make the best possible choices. For our 5th graders, we are going to have Osceola Middle School visit us the last week of January. They are going to give a presentation on what to expect in middle school, help the students select courses, and answer questions. Lastly, we have Say Something Week coming up March 3 -7. Say Something Week is when we focus on having students report any concerns or warning signs for potential harm or danger to their trusted adults. Anyone can report concerns on our state’s reporting system: https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/say-something-tips/ More information about the week’s activities to follow.

Always finding amazing ways to learn. Subitizing to 10, exploring the world on a parachute, with environmental print, and a little stem with our Quboo snail. Learning is always meant to be fun and explored.

In Kindergarten we’ve been working diligently to review for STAR testing but also making the most of our learning this holiday season with fun! We did Holiday’s Around the World! The students got to travel to Mexico, Israel, China, and Germany. Not only are they working on their fine motor skills while creating a craft keepsake for each holiday they learned about but they also worked on their writing skills while filling out their passports. We have also been learning addition in math (in very festive themed ways) and as always, working hard on our reading skills.

Second grade has been working on partner, group, and class activities. This month we have learned different strategies to add and subtract 2-digit numbers. We continue to have class meetings and share out important topics. This week we enjoyed our end of unit tumbling show for PE!

4th Grade:

In ELA, we’ll continue to explore Florida’s history as we read and write about informational texts. In math, students are starting to explore fraction equivalence, students will learn how to identify and generate equivalent fractions and how to use different strategies to compare fractions. Students will also order fractions and mixed numbers. In science, students will observe and describe some basic forms of energy, including light, heat, sound, electrical, and the energy of motion. Investigate and explain that sound is produced by vibrating objects and that pitch depends on how fast or slow the object vibrates.

Fifth grade is learning about different types of energy! They use mechanical energy every day in class! They're also becoming experts at dividing decimals. Perfect timing for Holiday shopping and figuring out how much money they can spend! In ELA, they are wrapping up their reading of City of Ember. They're enjoying all the details of the book!

Check out the contract form below for the mutual benefits!

• Vision: 100% Student Success

  
  

• Mission: We will partner with families to inspire a love for learning as students achieve personal goals.

Email: kranzell@pcsb.org
Website: https://www.pcsb.org/starkey-es
Location: 9300 86th Ave. Seminole, FL 33777
Phone: (727)547-7841
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StarkeyBears