Steere Farm Elementary School

Happy New Year! The first part of the 2024-2025 school year has gone by quickly! Our mid-year benchmarking period is January 6th-10th. During this time, students will complete testing in math and literacy to assess their progress from the beginning of the year. STAR screening will continue to be used to monitor the progress of students. In addition, students have ongoing assessment in reading using core assessments from Eureka Math and Into Reading. As we know, this is one way teachers assess student progress over the course of the year. Results of this testing will be communicated with parents in a timely manner.

Warm Regards,

Mrs. Francis

The middle of the school year is a great time for families to check in with students on goals. Setting academic and personal goals helps motivate, energize, and focus students, and it is a valuable skill that will benefit learners throughout their lives. Parents can help students set and achieve these goals.

Goal-setting can be tedious, even intimidating, for some students. Parents can support

students in this process by following these steps: pick it, map it, do it, own it, and celebrate

it.

Pick it. Encourage your child to consider his or her dreams and passions and pick goals

that are important and meaningful. Guide your child to think about, “What motivates me? What would inspire me to give my best effort? What would make me feel good while I’m doing it? What achievement would make me feel proud?”

Map it. After your child picks a goal, help map the path from where he or she is now to

where the child wants to be. Offer the following analogy: If we want to drive across the

country from New York to California, we don’t just get in our car and start driving—we get a map, pick a route, and follow it until we get to California. With your child, analyze

different approaches and define clear steps to reach their goal. For instance, if the goal is

to get a higher test grade in a tough subject, each quiz or project is a step on the path to

the higher goal: earning an A.

Do it. Once you and your child have mapped a path to their goal, encourage him or her to take action, focus on the first step and give it his or her best effort. Remind your child that no goal is ever reached without focused action.

Own it. As your child makes progress toward their goal, help him or her to take

responsibility for making it happen. Teach the mantra, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me!” Reflect

with your child. Ask, “How are you doing? What’s working? What’s not working? What can

you or your family change to get to this goal?” From there, analyze the map, and make

changes to the plan if necessary. Help your child keep a positive attitude and own mistakes as well as successes. Remind your child that if something comes along that holds him or her back temporarily, to look at the experience as feedback. Failures, or bumps in the road, can provide us with information we need to succeed. Reinforce the message that we can learn from our mistakes and move on with new, valuable knowledge.

Celebrate it. Acknowledgment and celebration are huge parts of achieving goals.

Acknowledge every effort and celebrate your child’s mini-successes along the way to

achieving a goal. This builds his or her confidence and motivation. Your child will feel good and understand that perseverance will result in another mini-success and finally goal achievement. Try going through the goal-setting process as a family. Pick a family goal (perhaps a charitable activity) and work together to achieve it. After the family experience, have each family member pick a personal goal. Support and acknowledge one another as you move through the above steps. Success is assured when students believe in themselves and in their ability to achieve. Parents are key to helping them believe and succeed.

Report to Parents, written to serve elementary and middle-level principals, may be

reproduced by National Association of Elementary School Principals members without permission.

Dear Parents/Guardians,

A dental screening, mandated by the State of RI, will take place at Steere Farm Elementary School on January 22, 2025.

This is strictly an inspection of your child’s mouth to identify any serious dental conditions. NO dental treatment or cleaning of any kind will be done at this time. If your child is found to have a dental issue which requires further evaluation or treatment, you will be notified in writing and can arrange such care with the dentist of your choice.

Sincerely,

Julie E. Pirri, CSNT

Although we do our best to avoid early dismissals, they are always a possibility, especially during the winter months! Please plan ahead for these scenarios. We will follow your child's usual dismissal routine unless you contact us to tell us otherwise. Thank you!

• SurveyWorks is a statewide survey sent out annually to students, families, and teachers to hear from Rhode Islanders directly about their experiences in our state's public schools.
• SurveyWorks will be given to all students in grades 3-12, parents, teachers, support professionals and building administrators.
  
• The Rhode Island Family Survey is for all parents to complete. Parents of students receiving special education services will receive a single survey that combines the Rhode Island Family Survey and the Special Education Survey.
  
• More information will be sent home in the coming weeks.

Students will continue to have outdoor recess, weather permitting. Please ensure your child is dressed for these conditions, and have a coat, hat and gloves in their backpack. When it snows, students who bring in proper gear (snow pants, boots, gloves, etc.) are permitted to play in the snow!

Thanks to the fundraising efforts of our PTA, a generous donation from the Burrillville Youth Basketball Association, and free installation provided by the local P&R Construction Co., SFE now has brand-new outdoor basketball hoops!

A heartfelt thank-you goes out to everyone who helped make this project a reality for our students. We look forward to enjoying these hoops for years to come! An official community announcement will be shared in the coming weeks.

As part of our partnership with RI School Recycling Project, Bootstrap Compost would like to encourage the staff and families of our Get Food Smart schools to compost at home as well! All faculty, staff, and families of students are invited to sign up for Bootstrap’s five-star rated residential food scrap pickup service. Use the coupon code RHODYSCHOOLS when signing up to receive two months of service FREE!

Each month SFE recognizes students who have gone above and beyond to show their 3Rs: Respectful, Responsible and Ready to Learn! Students are nominated by their classroom and/or special subject teachers. Congratulations to our December Students of the Month!

Teachers are nominated by students, who were extremely thoughtful about their nominations! Students love celebrating a teacher monthly. Congratulations to Mrs. Topik, our December Teacher of the Month!

Toodle Tickets continue to be a hit! Students are invited to fill out a Toodle Ticket to give a special shout out to another student who was kind or helpful! At the end of every month, Toodle Tickets are chosen from grades 2-5. These students are then invited to have a special popsicle with Mrs. Francis. Check out the pictures below from our most recent Pops with the Principal!

Students continue to participate in a weekly lesson rooted in one of the four Units: Courage, Gratitude, Forgiveness and Compassion in Action; all part of the Choose Love Formula. This month students are continuing to learn all about forgiveness.

A copy of the Choose Love calendar was sent home to all families. We hope the calendar is a daily reminder of the small steps we can take daily to Choose Love at home!

This month, the Multi-age class has been very busy. The students were learning about gingerbread through all of our curriculum activities. They learned the history of where gingerbread people and houses began. They learned the science of baking cookies, and how to get them to brown in the oven. They had discussions about their preferences for a wide variety of items vs the gingerbread. Through this activity, we were working on forming complete sentences and adding a "why" to their answer. The students completed many math activities using gingerbreads to count, add, subtract and measure. They learned how to use measuring cups and measuring spoons. In reading, we worked on comparing and contrasting books with the same title, but noticing how different the inside story could be. The students also completed many journal entries about gingerbread.

There were also a few highlights for the students this month. Our class all wrote Toodle Tickets for two fifth grade girls who go out of their way to say hi to us every chance they get. For writing those, the students were invited to pops with the Principal. Lastly, the students all worked hard writing their letters to Santa. We mailed them off and Santa surprised us by sending letters back. The children were all excited to get these!

Grade 2 students enjoyed their special Polar Express Day! Students enjoyed reading the book, getting a special train ticket, and watching the movie while sipping hot chocolate in their pjs! Such a memorable day for our second graders!

After wrapping up our first unit "Water and Climate," third grade had a visit from NBC 10 meteorologist Jason Doris. He spoke with the third graders about various aspects of his career, including how to become a meteorologist, how meteorologist forecast the weather, and how a green screen works! Students were a great audience and asked lots of challenging questions. Thank you to Jason for spending some time with us!

Grade 4 students have been working hard to master long division! Students have been working independently or in a small group with Mrs. Richards and Ms. Gosselin (student teacher) to reach this important grade 4 math goal! Mrs. Barr's math class was challenged to learn the steps of division using the mnemonic Does (divide) McDonalds (multiply), Sell (subtract), Cheese Burgers (check/bring down) and in return were rewarded a gift card to McDonald's! Way to go, fourth graders!

Our fifth graders went on a field trip to Trinity Rep's "A Christmas Carol" at Providence Performing Art Center. The students really enjoyed seeing this classic story that they have been studying come to life!

4th and 5th grade learned about water color nature artist Jen Aranyi. Students got to use water colors and sharpie pen to create their own winter landscape. When students completed their work, they were able to turn them into fun snow globes for the holidays!

SFE staff members had a lot of fun keeping students guessing with a secret spirit week! Students caught on quickly and were quick to guess the theme of the day! Check out the video below for highlights from the week!

More than 75% of our students returned their report card tickets to be entered into a raffle to win extra recess for their class! Congratulations to Zachary and Cooper; our lucky winners!

Burrillville choral and recorder students delighted their audience with a festive holiday performance! Here is our SFE chorus and recorder ensemble! Kudos to Mr. Latendresse and students!

We had a week full of holiday cheer and school spirit! The highlights included school-wide themed days (holiday socks, colors, hat, and ugly sweater/PJ day) and a special holiday concert! Students also participated in special grade level activities! Priceless memories!

Keith Munslow, storyteller, musician, cartoonist, and standup comedian for kids, had Steere Farm Elementary Broncos laughing through two assemblies just before winter recess. Special thanks to our PTA who sponsored the assemblies!

SFE staff was welcomed back to school with a nice breakfast and the teacher lunch room was re-loaded with snacks!!

January 2nd: School Resumes

January 6th-10th: Mid Year Benchmarking Window (Math and Literacy)

January 8th: PTA Meeting @ 6:30 p.m.

January 15th: Student of the Month Family Ceremony @ 8:25 a.m.

January 20th: No School - MLK Jr. Day

January 21st: No School - Professional Development Day

January 22nd: Dental Screening

January 24th: Bronco Friday

January 29th: School Improvement Team Meeting @ 3:30