BARFIELD BANNER

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I can’t believe that it is almost March, it seems like February has flown by! Our students, staff, and families had some great experiences this past month and we look forward to an exciting month ahead. Thank you to all our families that participated in Student Led Conferences. It was great to see so many of our families on campus engaging with their children in the classroom. I hope that you had a positive experience and learned more about the leadership, culture, and academics of your child’s classroom.

We have been busy this month hiring students for various Leadership Day Roles. This year, TBE will hold its annual Leadership Day on Friday, March 8th. This day is so special to our students, staff, and community members. It is a day to showcase our students’ leadership abilities and let their genius shine! Please take the time to ask your child what their role in leadership day is, all 473 students will be engaged in some way! We can’t wait!

Directly following Leadership Day, is our Spring Break! We hope that all our families take the time to sharpen the saw over break. I know I am looking forward to spending time with my friends and family at home over break.

Once we return, we will only have a few days left of the third quarter. Please note that there is no school on Friday, March 22nd or Friday, March 28th. There is, however, school on Monday April 1st. This was an adjustment made to the district calendar at the start of the year. We have also changed the date of a parent lunch in April- 3-5 Parent Lunch will be held on Friday, April 19th (instead of the 12th).

Please take the time to read about our upcoming PTO Spring Fundraiser. Our PTO has done an outstanding job this year at creating new and exciting events for our students. We look forward to synergizing with them this spring and fundraising for our amazing school.

Thank you again for your support at home. We are beyond proud of our student leaders and look forward to seeing them continue to shine, both in and outside of the classroom.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Ledbetter

Principal

Parents,

AM Car Line Drop Off- We try our best to help students get out of the car in the morning with staff and safety leaders. However, there are days when we are short-staffed. Thank you for your patience and understanding in providing this courtesy service. If you are interested in volunteering from 7:45-8:10 any morning, please contact Mrs. Hope @ 377-8506 to set it up! We need the most help on Tues-Thurs!

Lost and Found-we have numerous items in our lost and found. Please make sure your child’s name is on their water bottle, lunch box, eyeglasses etc. so if they are misplaced, they can be returned to them.

Birthday Treats-please refrain from sending in unhealthy treats for your child’s birthday. We are a Blue Zone school and try to provide healthy options for students.

Laptop-if your child brings their laptop home to work on homework, please help your child be proactive and make sure it is fully charged and returned the next day, so they are not interrupted to call home to have it brought in.

Attendance- Please refer to the CCPS academic calendar when planning vacations and appointments as much as possible. Vacation days are not excused absences and students miss valuable instruction by the teacher on the days they are not in school. A doctor’s note excusing an absence must be turned in to the school office within 24 hours of the student returning to school to be marked excused in the computer. Parents will receive a letter in the mail when the student has excessive absences whether they are excused or not. Habitual absences are monitored by the County Attendance Officer and may result in Truancy Court. Students who have been approved for Out-of-Zone permission to attend Tommie Barfield may have their permission revoked if they accumulate excessive absences and/or tardies and/or early pick-ups from school. Students are recognized quarterly and annually for perfect attendance.

Please call 377-8500 to report your child’s absence each day your child is absent. Calling the school will validate the absence and will avoid the “unexcused” marking on your child’s record.

Arrival and Dismissal- Please review these arrival and dismissal procedures to keep all our students safe. Adult supervision starts at 7:45 in the morning. and our WTBE News starts @ 8:15! Dismissal begins at 2:50 p.m. For the safety of our students, please have your car rider sign visible and remember that the car line is a No Cell Phone Zone. Thank you for helping us greet and dismiss our students safely every day! If you would like to change your child’s dismissal routine, please email tbedismissal@collierschools.com. All changes must be received no later than 2:30 p.m.

Toys from home: Safety is a priority at TBE. Please check and clean out backpacks to make sure your child is not bringing things to school that can cause a distraction. Toys, Pokémon, or other trading cards, pop its, squishies, or any other items that are a distraction will be collected and parents are free to come and pick them up in the front office.

Florida B.E.S.T Standards-The teachers are teaching the rigorous Florida B.E.S.T Standards. These standards as well as other parent resources can be accessed through the Florida Department of Education website below.

https://www.fldoe.org/accountability/assessments/k-12-student-assessment/best/

Testing Information for your Calendar-

Below are the testing windows. more specific dates will be shared when we get them.

Dear Parents,

We had a wonderful time celebrating the 100th Day of School with many activities involving 100. Thank you for the 100th Day family t-shirt projects. They were amazing!

We cannot believe March is already here! We have spring break coming up, March 11th – 15th, and the children have worked extremely hard to get to this point. Quarter 3 ends Friday, March 21st and then we are on to the last quarter of the year! Please continue to read with your child, discuss the story (beginning/middle/end), and review sight words nightly. In math, please continue to practice addition and subtraction word problems to 20 and make sure they recognize 2D shapes (circle, triangle, square, rhombus, rectangle) and 3D shapes (cube, sphere, cone, and cylinder). We will be learning about Motion and working with Blue Bots in Science. In Social Studies, we are focusing on learning a phone number, street address along with the city & state where your son / daughter lives. Our Kindergarten teachers are so lucky to have these little ones!

Kindergarten Teachers

Dear Parents,

Spring break is around the corner for our first graders! The children deserve a long break for all of their hard work! Towards the end of the month, we finish our third quarter for the school year! Time is flying by!

In reading the children are focusing on using correct English grammar, spelling, handwriting, and reading/understanding fiction and non-fiction texts. We are working on fluency and comprehension. Please continue to work with your child’s reading development at home by practicing sight words and reading for pleasure each night.

In writing we are working on the writing process, focusing on personal and fictional narratives. The children have come a long way with their writing compared to the beginning of the year. We have worked hard on adding more details to our writing and making sure we are using transitional words to show sequential order.

We are having a lot of fun this quarter in math! We are focusing on measuring lengths, telling time, and identifying values of coins. Please ensure that you are looking over your child’s homework and exit tickets sent home and help them with difficult areas.

Science is full of excitement! We are learning about living and nonliving things and the parts of plants.

We are focusing on Women’s History Month, chronological thinking, and goods and services in Social Studies.

The end of the year is around the corner and the students are all working very hard! We are so incredibly LUCKY to have these little ones in our classroom!

First Grade Team

Dear Parents,

We are heading into Spring Break and then into our final quarter of the school year. We have so much fun ahead!

In language arts, students are learning about what plants need to live and grow by connecting our reading with science. With a focal text of planting a seed, students brainstormed activities that need to be done in a set order and then selected one activity to write a paragraph and write the steps in a list. Later in the month, students will be reading stories about animals and how different habitats meet the basic needs of the animals that live there. Skills that the students will be focusing on are supporting opinions with reasons and examples, identifying, and explaining figurative language, and using ask and answer questions while we read to gain a better understanding of the text. These are just a few of the skills we are continuing to develop and learn this month. Please continue to encourage your child to read nightly so they can take quizzes on the books they have read and earn Reading Counts points.

In math, students will be solving problems using graphs and then moving into our geometry unit which will be categorizing two dimensional figures and partitioning circles and rectangles. You can continue to help your child develop fact fluency by using the addition and subtraction flash cards for nightly practice.

In social studies, students are focusing on identifying identify reasons people came to the United States throughout history, discuss the importance of Ellis Island & Statue of Liberty to immigration from 1892-1954, and discuss why immigration continues today and explain the cultural influences and contributions of immigrants today. For the month of March, the character trait of focus is honesty. Finally, in science, the students are beginning the unit on weather and severe weather preparedness.

Happy Spring

The Second Grade Team

Dear Parents,

Third graders started working on their Market Day projects. They will sell their products they created to visitors on our annual Leadership Day for teacher bucks. We can’t wait to see what they created to sell!

Students are learning about fractions and how to represent and compare them using number lines and pictures. We are still practicing our number chants to help the students with their multiplication fluency.

In Reading, the students have focused on many standards including comparing two texts, describing connections between stories, and understanding text structure such as chronology, cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, etc. In Writing, the students are reading a text and responding to a question using evidence from the text. In Science, students learned about how light travels and worked in groups to complete a laser light challenge. This helps demonstrate that light can travel in a straight line until it strikes another object. In Social Studies, we are finishing up our Market Day advertisements.

Please continue to read with your child every night. Thank you attending Student Led Conferences. We appreciate all your involvement, encouragement, and support at home!

The Third Grade Team

Dear Fourth grade Families,

As our fabulous fourth graders head into March and look forward to Spring Break, we finish third quarter. More than ever, it is crucial for students to be in school, all day every day, as much as possible! We are looking forward to seeing our students work hard academically while preparing for Leadership Day on March 8 highlighting our annual grade level Glow Rooms.

Academically, in math the end of the 3rd quarter brings us to Unit 14. This unit is divided into two areas of study, one involving perimeter and area and the other exploring angles. Students will explore and classify angles, draw, and estimate measurements, and classify angles in polygons. Help your student to set a goal to master their multiplication facts if that have not done so already. Multiplication and division facts are crucial to being successful in math.

Reading this month takes us through Module 8. Students will continue to dig deeper in explaining literary elements and how the theme develops in prose and poetry, identifying figurative language, summarizing across genres, identifying test structures, and how text features contribute to the meaning in informational text. Please continue to encourage your child to read nightly for 40 minutes.

In science, students will learn about changes in matter. They will be able to identify some familiar changes in materials that result in a different material with different characteristics. We finish the quarter learning about the different forms of energy. Students will observe and describe some basic forms of energy.

Finally, in social studies we will explore how large numbers of people moved to the United States in the late 1800’s and boosted the economy, the effects of the 1920’s Florida land boom and bust, and the challenges Floridians faced during the Great Depression.

We are so grateful for your continued support at home. We tell our students they are now rising 5th graders; we are very proud of how hard they are working, but we need to stay focused so we can finish quarter 3 strong and start on the right foot for fourth quarter.

Thank you!

Your Fourth Grade Team

Hello families,

Can you believe it is already March? It has been such a busy, but fun start to 2024.

In ELA we are actively engaged in informational text. The students are reviewing the different forms of text structures and how they help to better understand text. They are also working hard to meet their Reading Counts and February Reading Challenge Goals. Please continue to reinforce and encourage independent reading at home.

In Math, we are finishing with multiplying and dividing with fractions and mixed numbers. Our next unit is geometry. Please continue to remind students to complete their homework daily.

Our young Scientists just finished learning all about galaxies, asteroids, comets, and how inner and outer planets are the same and different. We had a blast! Now on to Energy. This next unit explores the various types of energy (Mechanical, Electrical, Light, Thermal, Sound, Solar) and how energy transfers from one form to another. There is a great deal of information covered. Please encourage your child to study vocabulary and notes each night.

In Social Studies, students will use primary and secondary sources to understand history and utilize timelines to identify and discuss significant events surrounding the American Revolution.

Please remind your students to read, practice math flash cards, and study science notes each night! If students take laptops home, please assure they are returned to school the next day.

As always, thanks for your continued support.

Your Fifth Grade Team

Reading Counts updates, Kindergarten through fifth graders have read 74,010,811 words so far this year. Students in grades K-5, have taken and passed 9,308 tests on Reading Count Books.

Some Kindergarten students have begun using Reading Counts and they have read 3,632 words and taken and passed 19 tests!

SSYRA

Third, Fourth and Fifth graders are participating in the SSYRA challenge which includes 15-chapter books. We had 21, 3-5th grade students celebrate in the Celebration Glow Room Suite last month. On March 20th we will have an ice cream party for those who have read 11 SSYRA books!

Any student who reads (or listens) to 3 books is included in the SSYRA Voting on March 26th.

Third grade came and was challenged by the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. This year’s theme was Florida’s Hidden History, students used captions, charts, and timelines to answer scavenger hunt questions. Some interesting things they learned were that John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park was the first underwater park established in 1960 and that the Marco Cat was preserved well due to low levels of oxygen in the surrounding mud in which it was buried.

toDear Parents/Guardians,

Kindness is defined as the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. Kindness bonds individuals, improves relationships, and feels good physically. Did you know that acting kind results in naturally elevated levels of dopamine?

As a parent, you can promote kindness by:

• Modeling acts of kindness—leading by example
• Recognizing and rewarding acts of kindness
• Appreciating kindness – writing notes
• Encouraging acts of kindness – paying it forward is contagious
• Supporting a charity as a family
• Cultivating a kindness rock garden

Thank you so much for the support you are already giving to our school by teaching kindness!

Sincerely,

Leanne Hope, School Counselor

Greetings from your PTO Board.

Reminder that we have our Birthday Celebrations live now and this can be ordered through our website. We have an option of popsicles for the class and a Dress down pass (with birthday sticker and Cert). please see the link below

Birthdays — Tommie Barfield (tommiebarfieldpto.com)

We are still selling our Spirit Wear - this can be worn on Fridays or any approved non-uniform day. We have a selection of options if you want to check it out. All orders will be delivered to your child's class.

Shop — Tommie Barfield (tommiebarfieldpto.com)

Please look out for details of our Amazing Spring Fundraiser on which we are working. information will be going home in the Wednesday folder on March 6th, and we will have a Celebration Day for all students on April 5th. Stay tuned, it is going to be Epic!!!

Please let us know if you have any questions about the above information. You are all welcome to come join our PTO meetings. The next one is March 20th at 8.45am in the media center.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

PTO Board.

Siobhan St. Amour

President of Tommie Barfield PTO

Tommie Barfield (tommiebarfieldpto.com)

239 269 3863