BARFIELD BANNER

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope that you all had a great Spring Break and had the opportunity to sharpen the saw with your family and friends. We have officially begun our 4th quarter of the school year and we are excited to finish out the year strong! Report cards were sent home last week and are also available online via the parent portal. While we are nearing the end of the school year, we still have a lot of learning to do. We appreciate your support in ensuring your students are at school, on time, each day to maximize their learning in the classroom. These next few months will be busy with testing, and we want to ensure your child has the most optimal learning environment to be successful.

I would like to take a moment and thank our TBE PTO for their help and support with our Spring Fundraiser! We are thankful for all that donated and look forward to using the funds to support learning in and outside of the classroom. Thank you to the families, extended families, neighbors, and friends for supporting our school- TBE students and staff are very grateful. To celebrate the success of our fundraiser, we will be holding a celebration on Friday, April 5th in the morning. Students will participate in field day like activities and spend time synergizing with their classmates. It is going to be a great day!

There are many upcoming events, so please review the calendar below. Please note that we will have our last two parent lunches in the month of April. We are also looking forward to welcoming our new TBE Kindergarten students in for a Kindergarten Round Up Presentation on April 26th. If you know of any new kinder students, please have the parents call the front office and RSVP.

As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns. We appreciate your support in ensuring we have a successful end to the school year.

Thank you,

Personal Electronic Devices- if your child has a personal cell phone at school, they are to be powered off during the school day and stored in your child’s backpack. Smart watches that come to school need to be powered off and put in your child’s backpack as well. Watches that tell time only can be worn in school. Students should not be communicating via personal cell phone or smart watches during the school day.

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 you.

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

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 specific dates each grade level will be taking state tests for ELA, Writing, Math and Science. Please avoid these dates when scheduling appointments.

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.

Dress Code Policy-Please visit TBE website for specific dress code information. https://www.collierschools.com/TBE

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

March was another fun and busy month for kindergarten!

Students did a wonderful job showcasing their leadership skills on Leadership Day before spring break and had an amazing field trip to the zoo!

In reading, students are continuing to work on retelling stories using characters, setting and events. They are also practicing identifying topics and details from an informational text. These are great skills to practice when you are reading together at home!

During math, students are building on their knowledge of 2- and 3-D shapes to compare shapes and to combine 2-D shapes to create new shapes.

In science and social studies, students have been learning about how pushes and pulls can change the movement of an object, as well as Medal of Honor Day and various kinds of jobs people do.

At home, you can continue working with students in math on counting to 100 from any number, counting backwards from 20, practicing high frequency words and reading each night!

-The Kindergarten Team

Dear First grade Parents,

We cannot believe the fourth quarter is here! The time has flown by, and your child has grown and learned so much so far!

For reading, please continue to read every night with your child and ask them questions about what they have read. Discussing the story will aid in comprehension. We will focus on describing story elements and identifying stanzas and line breaks in prose and poetry. The students will use text features in informational texts and be able to explain descriptive words and phrases across genres. Please continue to work with your child’s reading development at home by practicing sight word memorization and reading for pleasure to help with their fluency.

The children will continue to use the writing process to write expository texts in writing. We are working on adding more details to our writing!

In math, we will work on understanding equal parts. Please ensure that you are looking over your child’s homework and exit tickets sent home and help them with areas they are having difficulty in.

Science will be exciting! We are focusing on plants and animals and basic needs this month.

The students will be able to explain why people need to make choices because of scarce resources in social studies.

We appreciate all you do at home to ensure your child is successful next year in second grade!

First Grade Teachers

Dear Parents,

As we head into our final quarter of 2nd Grade, we will be working hard to prepare for end-of-year testing.

In language arts, students are learning about Habitats, by connecting Reading with Science. 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 learning about 2-Dimensional figures and Intro to Fractions. 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 Economics, supply and demand, buyer, and consumer concepts.

In Science, we are learning about weather tools and patterns. We are also learning about severe weather preparation.

Happy April!

The Second Grade Team

Dear Third Grade Parents,

We are continuing to learn new standards and skills as we enter the last quarter. We want to finish strong during this 4th quarter.

The students had a blast at our 3rd Grade Market Day! Most of the students were able to sell all their products. We were so impressed with the creativity of the students during Market Day. It helped our students learn first-hand about economics.

In Reading, the students identified text structures, explained the development of an author’s purpose, and how text features contributed to the meaning of informational text. Your child should be reading for 20 minutes each night. This will help them practice fluency and comprehension skills, so they can continue to grow as readers.

In Math, we learned strategies to compare and order fractions. The students have also been learning about measurement and solving problems with elapsed time. Homework is a great time for you to sit with your child and see the skills we are working on in the classroom. Homework is always a current learning goal or cumulative review.

The Third Grade Team

Dear Fourth grade Parents,

Fourth quarter is here! Time is flying by, and it has been so awesome to see all that your child has learned so far! That being said, we still have our final quarter to go, and we want to end strong. Please continue to encourage your child to read nightly for 40 minutes and set a goal to master their multiplication facts if they have not done so already.

Fourth graders had a blast the last day before Spring Break during Leadership Day! Some of us showcased what we do with our Accountability Buddies, while others shared our TBE Celebration Suite. On top of it all, we had a grade level Glow Day.

Academically, in math we are finishing our study of geometric figures and will start measurement. Science is all about energy, it is forms and energy transfer. In language arts we continue to work on identifying text structure and features, author’s perspective, central idea and details, and figurative language. Please mark down the following dates for upcoming FAST assessments:

Writing – April 9

ELA – May 1

Math – May 15

Thank you for your continued support!

The Fourth grade Team

Dear Fifth Grade Parents,

We were hard at work in quarter 3 and we are ready to dive into quarter 4 for our last few days as 5th graders. Pretty soon, we will have middle schoolers!

In Science, we just finished working on forms of Energy and Energy Transfer by doing various activities to demonstrate static electricity like putting a balloon to your hair, working with wire and diodes to make them light up, and designing Snap Circuits.

In Social Studies, we will explore the period of westward expansion. Students will identify the causes and effects and identify roles and contributions of significant people during this time in our nation’s history.

Students have been building and examining samples of expository and argumentative essays to strengthen their writing skills. We will take the BEST writing assessment on April 9. Students will be asked to read a few short passages and synthesize the information starting with a thesis, stating your claim, citing your evidence, and explaining their reasoning.

In reading, we are exploring by reading about the extreme conditions and situations that people are capable of surviving. We will read about these survival stories using metacognitive reading strategies like questioning the text, making connections with the information, visualizing what we read, and finding central ideas. The more we think while we read, the better we understand what we read.

In math, we are down to our last two units! Students will be finishing Unit 14, solving multi-step equations using the order of operations. In unit 13, students will be working with data by creating and interpreting graphs and line plots and finding mean, median, mode, and range. Please continue reviewing multiplication and division facts at home, as well as completing nightly homework assignments.

Thank you for your continued support!

The Fifth Grade Team

This past quarter we have been working on striking with different implements, such as paddles, hockey sticks, baseball bats, golf clubs, tennis rackets and our body. We continue to practice good sportsmanship and respect others while we play. We have also continued to build our cardiovascular health through our running program, both in PE class and our run club program.

During the month of April, our 4th and 5th graders will be completing their end of year fitness testing. This will include a timed-mile run, curl-ups, push-ups, and flexibility tests.

Select Run Club students were invited to a Final Mile Run event on the Golden Gate High Track on April 18th at 6 p.m. This is a free event if you would like to come out and support our runners!

Deana Richett

Riched1@collierschools.com

Twitter (X) @PEatTBE

Kindergarten learned about textures and created art using textures:

First Grade did some texture art as well!

Second grade learned about Andy Warhol and made Pop Art Hearts:

Third Grade learned about Andy Warhol and created these Pop Art Emojis:

Fourth Grade learned about Andy Warhol and created these Pop Art Emojis:

Fifth Grade learned about Andy Warhol and created these Pop Art Emojis:

If you haven’t check out your student’s artwork on Artsonia, check out their art here: https://www.artsonia.com/connect/TCCPZFNC

To look at our artist’s work or to see who the Star Student was for each day, follow @beauvaisCCPS on twitter.

Lane Beauvais

Teacher, Art, Tommie Barfield Elementary

Talent abounds at TBE!!! Students are sharing their individual performance as well as moving to the beat. We move forward learning about notation and musical history. I guess you could say that we are “SPRING-ing into Music!

Craig Greusel

Teacher, Music, Tommie Barfield Elementary

• April brings new activities and lessons based on the learning goals for K-5 Technology Classes from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Click to view: Student ISTE Learning Goals.

• ⌨️ 👐🏼 All K-5 students begin Tech Classes with a 10-minute warm-up of typing on the keyboard using the District Program Typing Club. K-1 students learn the location of the keys and to use two hands on the keyboard. Grs. 2-5 students practice proper posture, keeping fingers on the home row, and using finger paths for each finger. ⭐Please encourage your students to practice typing 2-3 times a week at home for 10 minutes to improve these skills.

• Grades K-1 learn to research online using the District Resource Pebble Go! an interactive encyclopedia for primary students. K students research 🦁🦒Naples Zoo Animals in preparation for their Field Trip there. 🌻🌲Gr1 students research Plant Parts. Both integrating with their grade level science curriculum. Following research, Grk-1 students create a 🎨digital project sharing their learning.

• Grades 3-4-5 learn creative communication, 3D-thinking and problem-solving, modeling and simulations, engineering, coding, innovative designing, and even electrical circuitry using Redstone through the District Resource Minecraft Education program. Please remind students that they are ONLY allowed to use this program in Tech Class with Mrs. McCarty for Tech Class assignments. We are NOT playing the Minecraft video game nor are we using Survival Mode.

Reading Counts updates, Kindergarten through Fifth Graders have read 84,155,161 words so far this year. Students in grades K-5, have taken and passed 10,703 tests on Reading Count Books.

Some Kindergarten students have begun using Reading Counts and they have read 7,499 words and taken and passed 35 tests!

Third, Fourth and Fifth graders are participating in the SSYRA challenge which includes 15-chapter books. We had 16, 3-5th grade students celebrate reading 11 of these books with an Ice Cream Sundae Party! A yummy time was had by all!

On March 26th we had all of kindergarten, first and second grade plus 73 third, fourth and fifth graders vote for their favorite SSYRA book. The education coordinator from the Supervisor of Election office was here with official voting scantron sheets for the students to use. We thank them for allowing our students to learn about this civic duty and participate in this experience!

Our culmination event of this year SSYRA challenge will be a carnival on April 19th. We look forward to this and the announcements of this years SSYRA winning books and next year’s book list!

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Kindness is more than behavior. The art of kindness involves harboring a spirit of helpfulness, being generous and considerate, and doing so without expecting anything in return. Rather than viewing it exclusively as an action, think of kindness as a quality of being we can cultivate. Giving kindness is simple, free and health-enhancing. Kindness has shown to increase self-esteem, empathy, and compassion, and improve mood. Kindness can increase our sense of connectivity with others, decrease loneliness, combat low mood, and improve relationships. It can also be contagious, encouraging others to join in with their own generous deeds. When sharing kindness, it is not just how we treat other people—it is also about how we extend those same behaviors and intentions to ourselves and practice gratitude.

So, ask your child at the start of each school day this question: “How are you going to practice kindness today?” and encourage them to specifically document in a journal their evidence of kindness to others and especially to themselves during the day.

Source: Mayo Clinic—The Art of Kindness

Leanne Hope

School Counselor, Tommie Barfield Elementary

Parents,

Reminder for our Spring Fundraiser which is now happening. There are some pretty cool incentive prizes available for students who raise the most money, we also have fun class prizes. Then the big Celebration Day is scheduled for April 5th. This will be a fun day for all students to participate in. For more information, please check out our website Spring Fundraiser 2024 — Tommie Barfield (tommiebarfieldpto.com)

As we draw near to the end of the school year, we want to thank you for all your help and support throughout the year. Last on the agenda for the year is Staff appreciation week. This year we will celebrate the week of May 6th through 10th. Stay tuned for more details on this. We want to make it special for all teachers and TBE staff.

Best Wishes

Tommie Barfield PTO Board.