Friday, February 5, 2016
Dear Farmland Families,
It is wonderful to have the children back in school! You must have looked forward
to resuming your regular routine as well after that enjoyable second winter break.
The Farmland Spelling Bee was another magnificent success! We are so proud of
all the third, fourth, and fifth grade students who took their personal time and put
forth so much effort to prepare and participate in this school event. Each student is
awesome for that achievement alone. I am very proud of all of
you. Congratulations to Navya Shukla for winning the Spelling Bee and to
Sidharth Kammili for being the runner up. What a huge accomplishment for both
of you! We were very impressed by your performance. Also, we want to wish
Navya all the best as she prepares to represent Farmland at the Montgomery
County Regional Spelling Bee on March 12th. We wish the same for Sidharth who
will also be preparing in case he is called upon to stand in for Navya if she is
unable to make the event. We want to again acknowledge the tremendous
dedication of Pamela Lew and Vicki Dunn in being the Spelling Bee
chairs. Without you, this event would not have been able to occur.
We would like your support in speaking to your children regarding an important
matter. Before I share, I want you to be aware that no such incident has occurred
at Farmland ES. However, this school year, there have been ten cases district-wide
of primary students, mainly kindergarteners, walking out of the school building
without being noticed by school staff following a visit to the health
room. Fortunately, all of the students were located safely. It was determined that
students misunderstood the adult’s directions. Comments, such as, “Go get your
things because you’re going home,” were taken quite literally. The students
seemed to all hear/understand their direction as, “Go retrieve your belongings and
then walk home.” As I mentioned, we have not had any incidents at Farmland, and
we do have a plan in effect to prevent such a situation occurring. However, the
Leadership Team, along with the Health Technician and Nurse, will be discussing
our current process to determine whether it would be beneficial to make some
updates to our plan. For your part, we are asking you to talk to your children about
never leaving the school alone and without adult supervision. The safety of our
students is a top priority for us to work on together as a team.
This Saturday night is PTA’s Annual Skate Night at Cabin John Skating Rink from
6:30-8:00. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend as I have an engagement that
was rescheduled to this date from the snow storm. Mr. Tucci will represent
administration for us! He is a far better skater anyway. Hope that you are able to
attend with your family because it always is such a great opportunity to be active
and healthy while having fun with your family and friends!
Next week, SGA has planned a terrific Spirit Week for us! Students can take part
as much as they desire as participation is optional.
Monday - Fancy Clothes day (dress to impress with suits, ties, dresses, skirts, etc.)
Tuesday - Pajama Day (no slippers)
Wednesday - Book character day (dress like your favorite book character. No
weapons or masks)
Thursday - Rainbow Day (each grade level wears an assigned color):
Kindergarten - Red
1st Grade - Orange
2nd Grade - Yellow
3rd Grade - Green
4th Grade - Blue
Fifth Grade - Purple
Friday - Valentine’s Day (wear red and pink, hearts, etc.)
Valentine’s Day Parties will be held on Friday, February 12th at 2:45 p.m. Many
thanks to all our phenomenal room parents and parent volunteers for planning
these celebration parties for our children’s enjoyment!
“It’s a wonderful thing to be optimistic. It keeps you healthy and it keeps you
resilient.” – Daniel Kahneman
Warmest regards,
Mrs. (Mary) Bliss