Bushy Bear Tales

Julia Bialeski, Principal
Keith West, Assistant Principal

Email: julia_bialeski@hcpss.org
Website: http://bpes.hcpss.org
Location: 14601 Carrs Mill Road, Woodbine, MD, United States
Phone: (410) 313-5500
Twitter: @hcpss_bpes

BPES Community,

It is with the utmost gratitude that we wish you and your family a happy, healthy, and restful Thanksgiving! We are so fortunate to be a part of the Bushy Park community and certainly count your children as we identify what we are grateful for this week.

We have much to celebrate from the past several weeks! We welcomed approximately 150 visitors to our school during American Education Week last week. We hope that if you were able to sit in on your child's day, you enjoyed seeing the teaching and learning that is taking place at Bushy Park! On Friday, we celebrated 50,000 green Dojos as an entire school community by dancing and limbo-ing through the hallways! Students and staff thoroughly enjoyed the few minutes of fun and school-wide connection as we celebrated the children's positive behavior. Thank you to our parent volunteers who were able to join us for this celebration. We will hold another school-wide celebration when we reach 100,000 green Dojos!

Finally, thank you to our wonderful PTA for providing dinner for staff during parent-teacher conferences on Monday evening! It was so thoughtful and much appreciated.

Happy Thanksgiving to our community!

Fondly,

Julia Bialeski, Principal

Keith West, Assistant Principal

Upcoming Important Dates

November

27 - No school for students/Parent Teacher Conferences

28-29 - No school for students

December

3, 4, 5 - CogAT Testing, Grade 5

4 - PTA STEM Night - 6:45-8:30pm

9 - PTA Update/Winter Potluck with Damon Foreman - 6:30-8:30pm

9, 10, 11 - CogAT Testing, Grade 3

12 - Identakid Photos

12, 13 - CogAT Makeups

13 - Quarter 2 Interim Reports sent home with students

20 - Spirit Day - Pajama Day!

23 - January 1 - Schools Closed for Students - Winter Break

Please update your calendars! All Howard County Public School System schools and offices will be closed on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, due to the special primary election to fill the 7th congressional district seat vacated following the passing of Rep. Elijah Cummings.

HCPSS schools and offices already are scheduled to be closed April 28, 2020, when the special general election will be held.

HCPSS schools and offices are typically closed on all election days as county school buildings are used as polling sites by the Howard County Board of Elections. Students and staff are not able to access school buildings for instruction while elections are underway.

As this closing was not originally listed on the HCPSS Calendar, this announcement is being made as early as possible to allow families to plan ahead for the closure. HCPSS has reached out to community partners who typically provide camps and other programs on non-school days to encourage them to provide similar opportunities on February 4. Additionally, our Office of Food and Nutrition Services is exploring the possibility of opening food sites where free lunches could be served to children under the age of 18.

The school system plans to apply to the Maryland State Department of Education for a waiver of the closing day.

Grades 3 and 5 students will be participating in CogAT (Cognitive Abilities Test) from December 3-11, 2019 (see schedule below). CogAT assesses the learned reasoning abilities of students, which are developed through both in-school and out-of-school experiences. The students will be assessed in three areas: verbal, quantitative and non-verbal reasoning. Verbal reasoning assesses the students' ability to use search, retrieval, and comparison processes using concepts essential for verbal reasoning. Quantitative reasoning assesses students' ability to reason about patterns and relations using concepts essential in quantitative thinking. Non-verbal reasoning assesses students' ability to reason with more novel questions that use spatial and figural content. CogAT is one of several assessments used to help determine eligibility for GT math placement in 4th and 6th grades. For further questions, feel free to contact Mr. West at 410-313-5500.

Testing Schedule

Grade 5 December 3-5, 9:30-10:30 AM
Grade 3 December 9-11, 9:30-10:30 AM

FFN Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) Night

Wednesday, December 4th, 6:45-8:30pm

Family Fun Night

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Night (STEM) at Bushy Park Elementary School

Wednesday, December 4th, 6:45-8:30pm

RSVP by December 2nd at: https://forms.gle/whyio416CrJFid4b9.

Our Presentations thus far...

BLOOD: We will learn about what makes blood so special that we can't live without it! We will discuss the basic parts of blood, its major functions, and how it moves around our bodies.

CRYPTOWHEEL 101: This talk introduces younger students to the basics of substitution cryptography. Using a cipher wheel, students match separate alphabets to determine the ‘slide’ of the alphabet. Students are then challenged to solve a simple substitution cipher to put their new skills to the test.

MAKER SPACE: Visit Ms. Carey's "Maker Space" where you can create, explore, build, and program with a variety of materials.

MINDFULNESS: We will introduce the science of mindfulness and connection to health and brain science (neurology). How does our physical activity/posture/facial expressions effect our brain and moods?

PAINT WITH MATH: Create a masterpiece with Dr. Josh and GauGAN. Learn how finger painting and math come together to create a fun experience for all ages.

ROBOTIATORS 888: Come see a demonstration of Glenelg High School robotics team's latest inventions. Talk to high school students and learn how you can get involved.

Our 5th grade Leo Club has set up their annual Giving Tree in the front lobby. Please see the flier pictured above for further details.