White Marsh Elementary School

It's Read Across America Week! We will celebrate with a Spirit Week! See the theme days below, and encourage the Bears to show their spirit!

On Tuesday, the Robotics Club will meet. Students should be picked up at 4:30. The PTA will meet on Wednesday at 6:30 pm. Friday is a Professional Day; there is no school for students on Friday.

Have a great week!

This week, we will have the Bear Crawl for those students with Perfect Attendance (Bell to Bell) in February! Students will get to crawl like bears and ROAR down our hallways! Please be sure to check your students' attendance on HAC. If they have an absence that you feel should be excused to allow them participation in this event, email Mrs. Steele with the date(s) and the reason for the absence by March 1.

The final volunteer training for WMES will be offered on Tuesday 2/28/2023. Two sessions will be offered- 9:30 am and 3 pm in the cafeteria. All volunteers wishing to work in the building or serve as field trip chaperones are asked to complete this site based training each year. Remember, you must also be approved SMCPS volunteers, as well.

We will have several activities in the future needing volunteer support including field trips, Book Fair and Field Day. If you are interested in supporting our school for any of these events, please be sure to have completed all necessary trainings. This is the last Site Based Training for this school year.

• Student Accountability

• Students are responsible for the care and upkeep of their laptops, chargers and school-issued textbooks and novels. Please see this NEWSLETTER in regard to all accountability of print resources and technology.

• Please note: Fines are assessed for any damage, loss or repair on our school-issued devices. When a student is assessed a fine, the fine is populated in My School Bucks. Cafeteria funds cannot be used to pay for school invoice fines. Please do not add money to a food/cafeteria account as it cannot be applied to school invoices.

Academy applications will open on Wednesday, March 29th, and close on Friday, May 5th. All students interested in applying for STEM 6 will need to submit an online application within the application window. Late applications will not be accepted.

On Wednesday, March 29th, SMCPS academies will hold a Virtual Open House. Students interested in attending an academy program in SMCPS are welcome to attend in order to learn more from program teachers and students. More information to come.

Please encourage our Bears to read at home every night, if they are not doing so already. In our data reviews this past week, we looked at student growth in reading. Many students are making good progress, but overall, we could all use more practice especially with reading fluency. I told the Bears that a good goal would be to read at least 15 minutes every night, and they can read anything- books, magazines, recipes while helping someone cook, graphic novels...anything! For our younger Bears and those with reading difficulties, they can look at books and take a "Picture Walk" and practice the letter sounds of words in front of them.

Other reading activities can include:

• Reading with a Parent or Family Member
• Listening to Someone Read
• Partner Read
• Phone a friend (literally!) and read with him/her
• Read to a family pet
• Audiobooks

Mar 7 Grade 3 to Elms

Mar 8 Grade 2 to Calvert Marine Museum

Mar 8 - 15 MISA Testing, Grade 5

Mar 14 Dress For Success Day!

Mar 20 - 24 PTA Penny Drive

Mar 8 - 15 Grade 5- State Science Testing (MISA)

Apr 3-10 Spring Break

Apr 12 PTA Spirit Night- Rita's

Apr 13 Spring Picture Day

May 10 PTA Popsicle Social/Book Swap

May 25 Spring Concert- Band, Strings, Chorus 10 am

May 30 - Jun 6 Book Fair!

Jun 2 Field Day

You may have noticed receiving an email earlier this week with a link to this newsletter in Schoology. Events have also been added to the Schoology event calendar. Did you know that parents can access Schoology? We will continue to post links to the Smore and school events in Schoology. It is our hope that we can transition to having this resource be a one stop shop for your information. As your students get older and proceed through middle and high school in SMCPS, it will become very useful tool for you to monitor grades, assignments, and other information. Here is a link to the Schoology Parent Resources site, which can provide lots of helpful information!

Please consider joining the PTA; the membership form is here.

One of the goals in the SY 22-23 WMES School Improvement Plan is attendance. Parents can view student attendance at any time by accessing the Home Access Center. You will need your logon and password to access HAC. Please contact the Main Office if you need this information.

Absences can be reported with a note sent in to the Main Office, or by clicking the link on our website. Please refer to the SMCPS Student Handbook for more information about Attendance.

In an effort to communicate with parents and keep you informed about student absences, we send home letters every marking period to those students with 5 or more absences. We understand that a variety of illnesses continue to surround us, and appreciate your communication with Nurse Parrish, teachers, and the Main Office about your children's health.

Band and Strings Rehearsal Schedule:

A Week: Wednesday and Friday

B Week: Wednesday and Thursday

A reminder that all Volunteers (including Field Trip Chaperones) must be approved through SMCPS. Beginning this year, this will be an annual requirement. At WMES, those volunteers being asked to support students and teachers in the building will be required to complete a site based training session.

Any volunteer with an interest in supporting classroom activities, Field Day, Book Fair, copying/laminating for teachers must attend the WMES Volunteer Training Session prior to working with students. Please note- participation in the Training Session does not ensure that you will be needed to support an individual classroom. Teachers will reach out to you if school based volunteers are needed.

Future training dates are less than 30 minutes long, and have been added to the WMES event calendar.

ALL students in SMCPS must have a completed Acceptable Use Agreement on file for School Year 2022-2023.

Elementary (PreK-5th) Link: https://bit.ly/22022-2023_Elementary_AUPForm

From the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE)-

Chronic Absenteeism: Students are chronically absent when absent 10% or more of the school days while enrolled at that school. For example, a student who is registered to attend a school for 30 days and who is absent 3 of those 30 days is considered chronically absent.

WMES will follow up with chronically absent students through the Pupil Services Team, Pupil Personnel Worker, and the Department of Student Services. In order to reduce the number of our students with Chronic Absenteeism, incentives to encourage good attendance include participation in the Bear Crawl, Running Club, and School Dance.

Student Resource Accountability: Students are responsible for the care and upkeep of all of their SMCPS assigned resources: print and technology. The student accountability document is also linked in this SMORE.

SMCPS Text Alerts are a great way to get information quickly. They are not sent often, and usually only in the event of an unexpected school delay or closure. On occasion, WMES will send a text alert about a late bus, substitute bus, or school event. Click the link for information about registering for text alerts.

Email: jwsteele@smcps.org
Website: schools.smcps.org/wmes
Location: 29090 Thompson Corner Road, Mechanicsville, MD, USA
Phone: (301)472-4600
Twitter: @wmes_smpcs