Principal's Newsletter

Hello Spicewood Families,

I hope everyone has been staying warm this week—it looks like the chilly weather is sticking around for the weekend! A huge thank you to our incredible Spicewood staff for braving the cold during outside duty—we appreciate you!

This week's newsletter is packed with important information, so please take a moment to read all the way through. We also have a few exciting events coming up, so be sure to mark your calendars.

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Melanie Solis

Principal

Spicewood Elementary

Upcoming Important Dates

Feb. 25th- Spirit Night at Cabo Bob's 5:00-9:00

March 7th- Spirit Night at Playland Skate Center (more info to come)

March 14th- STEAM Day

March 17-21- Spring Break- No School

March 26th- PTA General Mtg. 6:30pm In-Person

March 29th- Spicewood Auction & Gala

March 31st- Student Holiday/Staff Development

April 1st- Kindergarten Round-Up

April 3rd- One World One Night (more info to come)

April 8th- STAAR Reading (3rd-5th)

April 16th- STAAR Science (5th only)

April 18th- Staff and Student Holiday

April 23rd- STAAR Math (3rd-5th)

April 25th- Field Day

April 30th- Donuts with Grownups

Ms. Cimo here! I had the chance to travel to Costa Rica this month and left inspired! As as an International Baccalaureate school, we gather a lot of local and global inspiration. What experts can we learn from? What are others doing in their communities? What are we inspired to do and to become? Check out this week’s Wondering Wednesday segment. Ms. Arredondo’s kindergarten class was inspired to design their own farmers’ market products (depicted on the index cards below!). Our second graders will be learning about advertising, entrepreneurship, and planning for their Market Day soon! Our third graders will be studying financial literacy. Inspiration and connections are all around. ✨

On Thursday night our 3rd grade students took us on a trip around the world with their folk dance performance. Students performed traditional dances from Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Mexico, Ireland, and the Czech Republic.

It was an amazing event! Special thanks to our specials team and 3rd grade team for assisting with the performance. An extra special thank you to our music teacher Rachel Brown for teaching our students the dances and preparing this event for our 3rd grade families!

Last Friday, our 5th graders took part in a special friendship and Valentine’s celebration with a heartwarming service project. They spent part of their party time crafting handmade tissue paper flowers, each with a personalized note on the leaves. The effort paid off—together, they created over 140 flowers, forming 12 beautiful bouquets!

A group of 11 students then delivered the bouquets to two nearby assisted living communities, where they handed out individual flowers, chatted with residents, and even played games. While some students initially found flower-making challenging, they worked together, supported one another, and discovered the joy of giving.

The experience left a lasting impression. Many students shared how much they enjoyed bringing smiles to the residents, with some even wanting to return to volunteer. One student who had struggled with making the flowers admitted afterward that the effort was totally worth it!

The success of this activity has inspired a conversation about making it a new 5th-grade Valentine’s tradition. A big thank you to our students for showing kindness in action! 💐💕

Next week we will be administering the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) to evaluate the English proficiency of our Emerging Bilingual (EB) students. We assess students' language proficiency upon enrolling in a Texas public school if a student speaks a language other than English at home (as indicated on their Home Language Survey). If a student scores below proficient, a counselor or administrator will notify parents, and we will begin evaluating their language progress every year through TELPAS. Kindergarten and 1st grade students are rated holistically using a TELPAS rubric, completed by their teachers. 2nd-5th graders take TELPAS online, which we divide over two days (2nd & 3rd graders will test Tuesday and Wednesday morning, 4th & 5th graders will test Tuesday and Thursday morning).

You can find released and practice TELPAS materials here if you would like to learn more about the content and structure of these assessments. TELPAS does not count as a class grade and does not affect grade promotion or class placement. Once a student scores an average of Advanced High, they will no longer be assessed with TELPAS. Results are sent through the parent portal over the summer.

Please reach out to Mrs. Kentopp if you have any other questions!

This year we are combining two of our favorite events! Art in the Classroom and STEAM Day. Art in the Classroom is looking for volunteers to help organize, sort, cut, and package materials for our STEAM DAY Experience! Please follow this link to sign up for a 30 minute time slot between March 11 and March 13 to assist in preparing the magnificent materials that we will be using to create our exciting collaborative artwork! We thank you for your help!!

We are also still collecting bottle caps and buttons!

In preparation for STEAM Day, our committee has created a website of information and to gather volunteers. It takes help in all different ways to facilitate this fun day of learning for our students. We would love to have your help on this day!

Please click on this link to visit the website for more information.

We are still seeking nominations for next year's PTA Board positions and would love to answer questions for anyone interested. You can self nominate or nominate a friend who you think has that "special something" by completing the Nominating Doc or emailing spicewoodnominatingcommittee@gmail.com

Please see the list of Board positions

PTA BOARD POSITIONS 25/26

- PRESIDENT (Pryscila Barvik Guttoski)

- PRESIDENT ELECT
- SECRETARY
- TREASURER

- PARLIAMENTARIAN (appointed position)
- VP OF MEMBERSHIP
- VP OF COMMUNICATION
- VP OF PROGRAMS

- VP OF FUNDRAISING
- VP OF CLUBS
- VP OF SERVICE AND OUTREACH
- VP OF DEI- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

PTA Board Nominations are open! All those interested in serving please sign up here.

We need volunteers for our upcoming Panther Patrol volunteer dates. Spend the day at Spicewood! Our school needs your help!

Please visit the link to volunteer for our upcoming dates:

March 5th

April 2nd

May 7th