Ferguson PTO Weekly Newsletter

Friday, November 8, 2024

Firefly Families,

The first full week of November has been great for our Fireflies.

On Wednesday, Center Court graciously allowed us to host a Spirit Night. Families gathered for an evening of delicious food and fun! We appreciate everyone who came out to support our campus and build connections within our school gamily.

This week, our 2nd grade students attended a field trip to Blessington Farm! The anticipation of this day had been building for weeks and the experience didn't disappoint. Thank you to our incredible teachers and parent volunteers who helped make this experience safe, smooth and unforgettable for our students.

As we dive further into November, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you in advance to all of our Veterans. We are thrilled to honor you during our Veteran's Day program, Tuesday, November 12. Your unwavering service and dedication our Country and to our Firefly community are deeply valued. We are grateful for the sacrifices you and your families have made to protect our freedom and keep us safe. Thank you for being an inspiring example of courage, commitment and resilience. We look forward to celebrating and recognizing you on this special day.

Enjoy another 3-day weekend!

Filled with Firefly Pride,

Carla

• No School-November 11th
• 2nd Annual Spelling Bee-September 20th
• Class Pictures & Retakes
• Library News
• Cultural Display
• Spirit Event
• Volunteer Babysitters Needed
• All Pro Dad Meeting
• Community News
  

Students have taken a NWEA MAP Growth and/or Reading Fluency assessment during the beginning of the year. You can review the report in Skyward by following the steps on the job aide. This report summarizes your student’s scores. These assessments are given at the beginning, middle, and end of the year to determine a student’s zone of proximal development and to monitor growth. As with any assessment, many factors can affect a student's scores. It is important to understand that these scores provide only one picture of how your student is doing in school. For additional information about your student’s progress, please reach out to the teacher. For more information about the assessment, please visit Family Toolkit - NWEA.

Fort Bend ISD will complete NWEA MAP computer-adaptive assessments three times a year to gain information about what students know and what they are ready to learn next. MAP also gives insight into how students are growing academically, allowing you to track your student's progress throughout the school year and across multiple years. Families will have access to their child's results after each testing window.

RIT Score

MAP Growth uses a scale called RIT to measure student achievement and growth. RIT stands for Rasch UnIT and is a measurement scale developed to simplify the interpretation of test scores. It is an equal-interval scale, like feet and inches on a ruler, so scores can be added together to calculate accurate class or school averages The RIT scale range is 100-350.

Test (Achievement) Percentile:

This number indicates the percentage of students in the NWEA norm group for a test and grade that a student’s RIT score equaled or exceeded. The achievement percentile is a normative statistic that indicates how well a student performed in comparison to similar students in the norm group. For example, if your child has an achievement percentile of 32, your child has performed as wells as 32% of other students nationally in the same grade.

Achievement Quintile:

A percentile ranking based on MAP Growth Norms for achievement in one testing term. The five ranges - Low, Low Average, Average, High Average, High - in reports correspond to percentile ranges of 20 points each, or quintiles. For example, the lowest quintile covers the 1st through 20th percentiles. Descriptors and corresponding percentile ranges are as follows:

• Low: 20th percentile or lower

• LoAvg: 21st to 40th percentiles

• Avg: 41st to 60th percentiles

• HiAvg: 61st to 80th percentiles

• Hi: 81st percentile or higher

The FBISD Whole Child Health Team (that's US) is excited to share FBISD Sound Bites - two to four minute video and audio clips to educate students and parents about the practice ways to improve our mental, physical, and social wellness.

Please visit https://www.fortbendisd.com/Page/165705 for more information.

The Fort Bend ISD UPLIFT Mentor Program is soaring into the 2024-2025 school year, and we need stellar community members like you to help our students reach new heights! Be a mentor, and watch students launch into success.

For more details and to apply, visit: https://bit.ly/FBISD-Mentor FBISD Collaborative Communities

💫Spelling Bee Dress up day (ALL of Ferguson Elementary)

Students are encouraged to wear their Best Bee attire (black and yellow) to show their support for all the spellers.🐝

Classroom pictures and Retakes are on Thursday, November 21, 2024.

The flyers below are a digital bulletin board and digital version of the Classroom Group envelope for picture day at Alyssa Ferguson Elementary. Orders should be placed through the online ordering system or any order envelopes that have been provided. Also, please see the additional flyers containing individual fall picture day retake information.

Parents can sign up to receive email updates about their child's school portraits after picture day. These emails are sent to announce important things like when images are ready for viewing online, when novelty items are available for purchase and when new deals and promotions are being offered. When entering student information, parents should be sure to enter the student's name as it is on file at the school.

Sign up link: https://strawbridge.fotomerchanthv.com/clients/alyssa-ferguson-elementary/fall-retake-pictures-11-21-2024-139/optIn

At Alyssa Ferguson Elementary, we have amazing staff members who exemplify creativity, kindness, bravery & uniqueness. Please help highlight them and show some appreciation for all that they do to help our school shine bright!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScTTmFt_bHUcEviNnkRF6Gwvik1hS-FMt4yIM4bI4f2MK1NOw/viewform

We welcome our families to come enjoy lunch with his/her Firefly!

• Guests will sit at the designated guest tables with the student they are visiting.

• Guests will only be allowed to eat with their Firefly when visiting for lunch.

• Guests will only be able to eat with their Firefly on designated days.

• Guests will be invited to exit the cafeteria during the start of the 5-minute quiet SEL moment.

💫Diwali is one of India's biggest festivals. The word 'Diwali’ means rows of lighted lamps. This festival is as important to Hindus as the Christmas holiday is to Christians.

Diwali celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. The festival resonates with our school motto, which believes in ‘Being the light’.

Some parents of the firefly family sponsored a lunch for the staff and teachers at the school to share their joy and happiness and light up our school as a part of their festivities !

Be sure to stop by our Cultural Display to admire the beautiful Diwali display!

A big shoutout to Kiran Agrawal, Abeer Nawaz, Nidhika Soni, and Olivia William for transforming our cultural display into a vibrant celebration filled with color and sparkle! 🌟

✨Congratulations to the 3rd Grade Class for collecting the most boxes during our October Month Cereal Drive!! 3rd grade collected 42 boxes making them the winners of the Cereal Bar Party, which took place yesterday!!

💙 125 boxes were collected in total!

We surpassed our goal of collecting at least 100 cereal boxes! 👏👏👏These cereal boxes will support the Shared Dreams Pantry and provide families all over the district with breakfast. 💛 Thank you to those who generously donated! 🙏

💫Spirit Wear is now OPEN!!! And we added a couple new items!!!

Order now till Sunday, November 17th

LINK: https://fergusonwinter2024.itemorder.com/

Another successful Firefly School Store! Thank you to all our volunteers who came out to help our Fireflies shop!!

Save the date for our next date: Friday, November 22nd!

This year EVERY staff member at FE will be treated to a handmade goodie box for his/her birthday! Please come help assemble the birthday cake boxes. We will have all supplies cut and ready to glue.

Sign Up Link

https://www.konstella.com/app/school/64bb173a47fc80b417fcc5a6/signups/670586ec079cf2f599c09e5d

Honoring Our Veterans

RSVP to join us for a musical performance and breakfast https://forms.office.com/r/U4dWQeKBrw?origin=lprLink

Email photos & info to feptopresident@gmail.com

SAVE THE DATE: National Parent Involvement Day Breakfast with the PTO

Join us on November 18 - 8:10 AM - Extended Day Room

As parents and caregivers YOU play such an important role in your child's education and that's something to celebrate! Get your Fireflies off to school and stop by the Extended Day room for a light breakfast and good conversation. RSVP Below.

https://www.konstella.com/activity-details.html?activityId=671b9ffd079c5f7cec7673b8

Support Ferguson Elementary and shop Color Street with Nadia!

Makeup, hand + nail care, and the best nail strips on the market!

Nadia, a mother of a Firefly graduate, will generously donate 25% of your purchases back to Ferguson Elementary.

Click below to shop now through November 22. Before shopping, make sure Nadia J. is selected as your stylist.

https://www.colorstreet.com/nadiaj

Volunteer Babysitters Needed

https://www.konstella.com/app/school/64bb173a47fc80b417fcc5a6/signups/672d077a079c3bbc2da1789b

📣Calling all Dads, Stepdads, Uncles, Grandfathers and/or any type of father figure may join but all children must be accompanied by an adult.

Head on over to Konstella to RSVP or use this link:

https://www.konstella.com/.../66b3d1571b5c66110abd3bb9

Mark your calendars for all of our PTO events and activities!

Please note: dates are subject to change and we will notify you as soon as possible.

Volunteer sign ups can be found on Konstella. We will be adding more as events approach.

https://www.konstella.com/cd/WA8X61

Calling all Firefly Families!! Make a difference by volunteering your time to support our students and teachers. This is a great way to meet some of the Firefly Staff and see your little Firefly too.

Sign Up To Volunteer Today by using the links below or thru the Konstella App ( + More & + Sign-Ups).

💛Birthday Cake Box Assembly --> Monday 11/4: 1pm - 3pm & Friday 11/22: 9am - 12pm

LINK: https://www.konstella.com/.../670586ec079cf2f599c09e5d

💙Laminator Help

LINK: https://www.konstella.com/.../66b1587e1b5c66110ab5f976

💛2nd Grade Copy Helper ->TH 1:55pm- 2:40pm

LINK: https://www.konstella.com/.../66b7a2151b5c548811f7e4f1

💙Firefly School Store (Friday 11/22; Lunch/Recess time)

LINK: https://www.konstella.com/.../66b3d7101b5c66110abd536cCalling all Firefly Families!!

Firefly Wishes are birthday messages displayed on the school marquee and mentioned in the weekly Fireflyer newsletter. Click on the graphic below for more information.

**Please submit your request at least 10 days week prior to your desired publishing date. We will not be able to enter late submissions into the system. Firefly wishes are $12 plus a $.59 processing fee. Availability is based on a first come, first serve basis. Firefly wishes can be purchased through Konstella under the "sales" link. When you are on the home feed, click "more", and "sales".

Click on the logos below to check us out on our websites and social media.

President: Stephanie Titas

Vice President: April Royston

Secretary: Whitney Johnson

Treasurer: Kiran Agarwal

Parliamentarian: Megan Allshouse

2024 -2025 Meeting Dates

The PTO Board meets monthly at the dates and times listed below. Meetings at 12 pm will be held in person in the Extended Day Room. Meetings held at 7 pm will be on Google Meet.

Everyone is welcome and invited to join us. It is a great opportunity to hear what the PTO is doing and share ideas with us. The PTO Board will convene on the following dates:.