We have settled into the school year and learning is on fire at SGE! Our students and teachers are intentional, engaged, and enthusiastic about school! Our Red Ribbon week was filled with fun, as students and teachers participated in our spirit days and culminating Storybook Character Parade! We loved engaging as an entire school community!

A HUGE Shout out to our AMAZING PTO for hosting another fun-filled evening at our Fall Family Fun Night! We had over 1100 Seahorses in attendance! What a great way for patents, students, and teachers to connect outside of school hours in a safe environment!

This month we are focusing on gratitude. SGE will be supporting Beverly's Angels this season by collect NEW pajamas of all sizes. Be on the look out for posters and our collection bins at car rider beginning on November 6th. The drive will go until November16th. Thank you for helping us support this holiday cause. https://www.beverlysangels.org/

As always, thank you for being a positive and supportive school community! It takes each of us to create a safe, successful learning environment for our students!

With gratitude,

Ms. Kirby

Happy November SGE Families! It’s hard to believe that the first quarter of the 2023- 2024 school year is behind us and November awaits us. November marks the season of gratitude and I feel so thankful for the opportunity to serve our SGE family and community every day. Over the past 11 weeks, your children have welcomed me with open arms. They have allowed me to partake in their favorite recess games, converse during lunch, trade spirit sticks, share their knowledge in the classroom and took a genuine interest and appreciation of all the questions I asked to learn about their unique abilities. I look forward to continuing the many conversations with them, and you, as well as continuing to learn more about your families. As I reflect and think about the beginning of this season of gratitude, I can’t help but be thankful and grateful to the SGE community. Thank you, Mrs. Howard

We had a wonderful October together. Our students ended the month by enjoying our annual Red Ribbon Spirit Week! Red Ribbon Week is the National Drug Prevention Campaign, and at SGE, we celebrated it as promoting healthy choices and Really Excellent Decisions. Thank you, parents, for your support with our dress up days and of course our story book character parade to show off our “great character.” I know our seahorses will continue to make really excellent decisions and healthy choices. We also celebrated the October Seahorses of the Month for respect. Congratulations, Seahorses! November’s character trait of the month is gratitude. November is the perfect time to instill an attitude of gratitude in your child. We will focus on finding ways to celebrate gratitude and appreciation and how that can serve as a powerful tool when facing different situations in life. We will take a moment in our counselor lessons to learn a gratitude breathing technique, reflect on what we are grateful for, and create "gratitude grams" for our teachers. Check out this gratitude game by biglifejournal.com to get the conversation started at home. This could be a fun after-dinner game for the whole family!

Be on the look out for our "Angel Tree" sign-up if you would like to participate in making a SGE student's holidays a little bit brighter.

With a grateful heart,

Miss Carney

Happy November from Miss Barr and Mrs. Sandy! Our Storybook Pumpkin Patch turnout was the best yet - we had 94 pumpkins fill up the media center! Thank you to all families that participated, brought a lot of joy to the school, and gave the media center a very festive atmosphere. Here are just a few of the fabulous pumpkins…

And congratulations to the pumpkin that had the most votes...Karolina Maston! Her Magic Tree House pumpkin was the school favorite!

Students will be able to take their pumpkins home starting Monday October 31.

We have “officially” kicked off the Sunshine State book program for the year. The Sunshine State Young Readers Award (SSYRA) Program is a statewide reading motivational program for students in grades 3 through 8. The purpose of the SSYRA Program is to encourage students to read independently for pleasure and to read books that are on, above, and below their reading level to improve their reading fluency. This program is completely voluntary, it’s just an extra fun program for students to enjoy. For elementary school, the program is broken into 2 groups. The SSYRA program for grades 3-5, and the SSYRA Jr. program for grades K-2. Each program has 15 books.

· 3rd-5th grade students that choose to participate must read and pass the reading counts test on three books to be eligible to vote for their favorite book in April. If students choose to read all 15 books, I’ll be hanging their picture on the “Seahorse Readers are GROOVY” bulletin board in the media center.

· 2nd grade students that choose to participate must read and pass the reading counts test on five books to be eligible to vote for their favorite book in April. If students choose to read all 15 books, I’ll be hanging their picture on the “Seahorse Readers are GROOVY” bulletin board in the media center.

o This year, the media center received a Champions for Learning grant to award all 2nd grade classes a complete collection of SSYRA Jr. books! Books will be given to teachers next week.

· Students in grades K-1 will have the books read aloud to them. They must have heard 5 books to be eligible to vote for their favorite book in April. Between myself and their classroom teacher, students will have the opportunity to hear all 15 books. Classes that have heard all 15 books will have their class picture posted on the “Seahorse Readers are GROOVY” bulletin board in the media center.

That’s all for now from the media center. I hope everyone has a wonderful month, and happy Holiday Season!

We all know that the purpose of a written message is to communicate. If a message is written down though, we must read it to understand what the message means. But ALSO, the speed at which we read the message plays a part in our ability to understand it. It is easier for the brain to remember something read at a rate similar to spoken language rather than something read like a robot.

Educators know that a very important component to understanding what is read is the reader’s fluency (the rate at which one reads/words correct per minute). One of the best ways to increase a child’s fluency is through repeated readings. However, getting a child to reread the same passage or book can be challenging.

Here are a few sneaky ways you can get a child to reread a book or passage multiple times.

Have the child practice several times so they can:

· read it to someone else (i.e. a neighbor, sibling, dog, parent)

· make a video send and to impress someone special.

· beat the first read timing (children love competition; especially against themselves)

· For a performance (like a family get together)

Have your child practice rereading something until their speech sounds like it would if talking aloud. Encourage your child to have inflection in their voice as well. Please reach out to me or your child’s teacher for a list of books on their independent reading level.

11/1: NO SCHOOL Students

11/3: GVMS Performance during lunches (Permission to participate form sent home, please return)

11/6: Principal of the Day, Welcome Mrs. Melissa Dogali!

11/9: PTO General Membership Meeting

11/10: End of Quarter 2 Interim

• Veterans' Day Celebration: Wear Red, White and Blue

11/14: SAC Meeting @ 5:00 in the Media Center

11/16: SGE Thanksgiving Feast during Lunch

11/17: Seahorse of the Month Ceremony: Gratitude

11/20-1/24: Thanksgiving Break

12/1: Kindergarten Concert @ 8:45 am in the Café

12/4: Fall Picture Day Make-Ups

12/5: K-2 Reading PM2

12/6: 3-5 Reading PM2

12/7: PTO Cookie Exchange

• iReady Diagnostic Window Opens
• 12/8: 1st Grade Concert @ 8:45 in the Café

12/12: K-2 Math PM2

12/13: 3-5 Math PM2

12/14: PBIS Day

12/15: 2nd Grade Concert in the Café

• Seahorse of the Month Ceremony: Perseverance

12/18 - 1/1/2024: Winder Break

1/2/2024: Welcome Back Teachers and Students

School Board Policies 2266, 3362, and 5517 – Prohibits discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including sexual orientation and/or gender identity), disability, or age in the provision of educational opportunities or employment opportunities and benefits. The District School Board does not discriminate on the basis of sex or disability in the education programs and activities that it operates, pursuant to the requirements of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

For additional information or to report Title IX or any other discrimination/harassment concerns, contact Ms. Valerie Wenrich, Chief Human Resources Officer/ Title IX Coordinator, at (239) 377-0351, wenriv@collierschools.com or at 5775 Osceola Trail, Naples, Florida 34109.

Don't miss the opportunity to purchase your 2023-2024 SGE Yearbook!

Cost: $30 until March 29th

All 5th graders are gifted a complimentary Yearbook from our PTO!