Ray V. Pottorf Elementary School Bulletin
A Title I School
Panther Pause
March 1, 2017
Miracle Night of Reading
MARCH CALENDAR
March 1st
• Ash Wednesday
March 2nd
• Dr. Seuss’ Birthday
March 6th—March 10th
• Dr. Seuss Spirit Week
March 6th—10th
• Scholastic Book Fair
March 9th
• Reading Celebration, 6:30—8:00 pm
March 12th
• Daylight Savings Time Begins, Spring Ahead 1
Join us for our annual Ray V. Pottorf Elementary reading night on Thursday, March 9,
2017, beginning at 6:30 PM in the cafeteria.
There will be one free book for every RVP student, PLUS reading strategies for each family to
use at home. If you would like to attend, please
remember to return the attendance slip to your
child’s teacher. Family fun with games & prizes, plus guest readers.
The more that you read,
the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you’ll go. —Dr. Seuss
hour
March 15th
• Class Picture Day
March 16th
• End of 3 Quarter
rd
March 17th
• St. Patrick’s Day
• Professional Duty Day—No School
March 20th
• Spring Begins
March 28th
• 3rd Grade ELA FSA
March 29th
• 3rd Grade ELA FSA
• Report Cards go home
March 30th
• K—1st End of Quarter Awards
March 31st
Dr. Seuss Spirit Week
♣ Monday, March 6th: Fox and Socks Day!
Wear silly socks.
♣ Tuesday, March 7th: Cat in the Hat Day!
Wear your favorite hat.
♣ Wednesday, March 8th: Wacky Wednesday
Day! Dress wacky & mismatched or backwards clothes.
♣ Thursday, March 9th: One Fish, Two Fish,
Red Fish, Blue Fish Day! Dress in red and
blue.
♣ Friday, March 10th: Green Eggs and Ham
Day! Dress in green.
• 2nd & 3rd End of Quarter Awards
• 4th & 5th End of Quarter Awards
Parents are welcome to come to all school
events.
The School Board of Lee County, Florida
Mary Fischer, District 1, Chairman
Jane E. Kuckel, PhD, District 6,
Vice Chairman
Get current happenings,
pictures of events, and important info
Tweet to @RvpElementary
Vision: Staff, students, parents and community
working in a collaborative partnership to ensure all
are successful learners.
Mission Statement: To ensure all students learn.
Melisa W. Giovannelli, District 2
Chris N. Patricca, District 3
Steven K. Teuber, District 4
Pamela H. LaRiviere, District 5
Cathleen O'Daniel Morgan, District 7
Dr. Gregory Adkins, Ed.D.
Superintendent
www.leeschools.net
Math Corner
A Parent’s Guide to the Standards for
Mathematical Practice
The Standards for Mathematical Practice define what students should understand and be
able to do. As your child works through homework activities, you can help him or her develop
skills with these Math Practice Standards by
asking some of these types of questions.
♣ Make sense of problems and persevere in
♣
♣
♣
♣
solving them.
∗ What are you solving for in this problem?
∗ Can you think of a problem that you have
solved before that is like this one
∗ How will you go about solving it? What is
your plan?
∗ Are you making progress toward solving
it? Should you try a different plan?
∗ How can you check your answer? Can you
check using a different method?
Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
∗ Can you write or recall an expression or
equation to match the situation in the
problem?
∗ What do the numbers in the equation refer
to?
∗ What’s the connection among the numbers
in the equation?
Construct viable arguments and critique
the reasoning of others.
∗ Tell me what your answer means.
∗ How do you know your answer is correct?
∗ If I told you the answer would be (offer an
incorrect answer), how would you explain
to me that I am wrong?
Model with mathematics.
∗ Do you know a formula or relationship
that fits this problem situation?
∗ What’s the connection among the numbers
in the problem?
∗ Is your answer reasonable? How do you
know?
∗ What does the number in your solution
refer to?
Use appropriate tools strategically.
∗ What tools could you use to solve this
problem? How can each one help you?
∗ Which tool is more useful for this problem? Explain your choice.
Page 2
Math Corner (Con’t)
∗ Before you solve the problem, can you es-
timate your answer?
♣ Attend to precision.
∗ What do the symbols you used mean?
∗ What unit of measure are you using? (for
measurement problems)
∗ Explain to me (a term from the lesson).
♣ Look for and make use of structure.
∗ What do you notice about the answers to
the exercises you’ve just completed?
∗ What do the different parts of the expres-
sion or equation you are using tell you
about possible correct answers?
♣ Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
∗ What shortcut can you think of that will
always work for these kinds of problems?
∗ What pattern(s) do you see? Can you
make a rule or generalization?
March 12th Daylight Saving Time Begins. Move clocks forward 1 hour.
Yearbooks Now on Sale!
Order your RVP yearbook for only $10.00
by check or online. The sale ends April
17th so place your order today! Checks
should be made payable to Ray V. Pottorf
Elementary School.
To order online:
Go to www.schoolannual.com
Click on “Buy My Student’s Yearbook.”
Locate Ray V. Pottorf Elementary
Complete your purchase.
If you have any questions, contact the
school office.
Panther Pause
Book Fair!
March 6th through March 10th
The Scholastic Book Fair will be
open in the RVP Media Center
from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. each day that
week. Be sure to check out all of the great
books that are available.
You’re never too old, too wacky, too
wild,
to pick up a book and read to a child.
We did a mail-away on February
27th for our Box Tops. At this
point $500 has been collected and we need
every classroom to participate to reach our
goal of $1,000. The class that turned in the
most Box Tops and won an ice cream
Sunday party will be announced soon.
Please continue to look on packages for
Bonus Box Tops and use the phone app for
e-Box Tops offers. Be sure to check out the
other exciting offers and opportunities
at www.boxtops4education.com, You
can register to win special sweepstakes for
our school.
ParentLink
Parents may access information about
the student’s grades, attendance and
cafeteria balances by using an internet web
browser, such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla
Firefox, and going to:
http://parentlink.leeschools.net.
The introductory information on the login
page of the website outlines how to access your
students’ information.
The Gift of Time
“Never before have we had so little
time in which to do so much.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Time...there never seems to be enough of it!
Each of us starts the week with the same 168
hours to use; but using time wisely is a skill.
Helping your child learn how to spend their
time is one of the best ways to help them do
better in school.
Here are some tips:
Help your child plan ahead. At the end of
each day, plan for the next day. Make a daily or weekly ‘To-Do’ list. Keep a calendar.
Try to follow the same schedule everyday.
Plan the same time for homework, dinner,
reading and bedtime.
Teach your child to leave enough time to
finish big projects, breaking the big jobs
down into smaller ones. Do important
and/or easy jobs first.
Leave some time unplanned for relaxing
and having fun.
Pre-K ESE
Our Pre-K classes are ready for Spring!
In early March we will be celebrating Spirit
Week and Dr. Seuss Day, and will read many of
Dr. Seuss’ books. Take some time and share
your favorite Dr. Seuss book with your child! Is
it Green Eggs and Ham, Hop on Pop, or Horton
Hears a Who? Ms. Cunningham’s favorite
is Green Eggs and Ham, and Ms. Jenkins’
is Cat in the Hat.
In our classes, we will be studying about
Lights and Sounds in our Community and
about the Earth and Sky. We will also be having an “Egg Hunt” closer to Spring Break. Look
for more information to come home in your
child’s backpack!
Your child gets a free, full breakfast every
morning at school. The meal consists of an entrée, juice or fruit, and milk. Please talk with
your son or daughter about the importance of
eating a good breakfast at school so that they
have the fuel for a busy day!
Page 3
Second Grade
Kindergarten
In March, Kindergarteners are learning
some exciting things! We will celebrate
Dr. Seuss’ Birthday with lots of fun literacy activities. In Math we are learning numbers 1120, counting to 100, and ways to show addition
and subtraction. We are working on Quarter 3
sight words: are, that, do, here, go, from, what,
said, was, away, down, good, must, now, off,
our, out, play, say, soon, too, under, up, want,
well, will, yes, your. We are also working on
consonant blends. We continue to review the
alphabet letter sounds and practice using them
to read words and sentences. You can help at
home by working with your child to learn all
alphabet letters, their sounds, and the kindergarten sight words. You can work on math
skills by reviewing adding and subtracting.
These activities will help your child be successful in school.
First Grade
March is “Reading Month” in 1st Grade,
and students are participating in the "Top
20," which stands for the top 20 students
among all of the 1st grade classes who have
read the most words for the week from their AR
book. The students are very excited to become
one of the Top 20 and they love seeing their
names posted in the 1st Grade hallway. Please
make sure that your child reads their AR book
every night. We encourage you to talk to your
child about what they learn in class, and please
make sure that they are completing all of their
homework by working with them and checking
their responses. Also, please make sure to review the Dolch high-frequency words in their
Star binder. We are finishing up the 3rd quarter
for practicing words, but please make sure your
child understands the words already tested.
The end of Quarter 3 is March 16th. There is no
school on Friday, March 17th, this will be a
Teacher Duty day. Dates to remember for 1St
Grade: April 10th - April 17th, Spring Break;
April 4th, 1st Grade Spelling Bee and April 27th,
Interim reports. We appreciate all that you do!
March is the windy month where the
wind blew the hat right off the little
man all dressed in blue. Wait a minute…..I
thought Leprechauns dressed in green. Wait a
minute…..I thought we played golf on a green.
Can you tell second grade is working on the
different meanings of words? We are also
learning about main idea, inferences, cause
and effect, context clues, sequencing and many
other components of reading.
March is a great month to read and learn.
After all, we have to follow the Doctor’s orders…that’s Dr. Seuss, of course, who is the
only one who really knows what a Nook,
Whoop or a Fox in a box with yellow socks truly is. We will be celebrating using Dr. Seuss
themed activities in honor of his birth month.
Speaking of reading, we are in a friendly competition that goes on all school year, with all
the other grades, especially the second grade
classes, to be the top readers and prove to everyone that we really DO love to read! Please
keep encouraging your child to read, read,
read!!
Dr. Seuss Facts
♣
Dr. Seuss, born March 2nd, 1904,
wrote and illustrated 44 children’s
books.
♣
Dr. Seuss began using Dr. as part of his
name because his father always wanted
him to be a doctor, then in 1956 he was
awarded an honorary doctorate from
Dartsmouth College.
♣
Dr. Seuss is credited for being the first person using the word nerd. He used the word
in his book If I Ran the Zoo in 1950.
♣
His children’s books have been translated
in over 15 languages.
♣
His book, The Cat In the Hat, contains 236
words. Green Eggs and Ham contains only
50 different words. It was a result of a bet
between Dr. Seuss and his publisher. His
publisher bet him that he couldn't write a
book with less words that The Cat In the
Hat. Of course, Dr. Seuss won!
Page 4
Third Grade
All third grade students should be
working to memorize their multiplication
facts. Declare this month “Multiplication
March” in your house and encourage your students to practice their facts nightly. Students
have learned a variety of strategies to help
them remember their facts, such as drawing a
picture, using small items like cereal to create
an array, or the magic nines hand trick. Ask
your child to demonstrate their multiplication
mastery! Encourage your child to explain their
understanding of fractions and relate it to their
daily activities. Helping in the kitchen with recipes is an excellent way to bring fractions to
life! Students are also moving towards telling
time to the nearest minute, hour, and quarter
hour. Please work with them by asking them
questions about the time on a clock.
We are focusing on reading comprehension
skills such as main idea and details, making
inferences, drawing conclusions, compare and
contrast, cause and effect, making predictions,
and using context clues for the FSA coming up
in April. Continue asking probing questions
about the books your child is reading. Make it
fun. Have your child create a puppet show for
the family to retell the story or design a movie
reel to sequence the events in their book. Get
the entire family involved and put on a play for
friends to retell the story Remind your child
about the celebration if they read 5 chapter
books this month!
Fourth Grade
March is a busy month in fourth grade.
Students will take the Florida writing
assessment on February 28th. In class, we
have been working on both opinion and informational writing in preparation for this assessment. Also as a heads up the FSA ELA and
MATH tests will be after the spring break. It is
crucial that your child is at school on time
each day throughout this month. Your child
has learned so much and this is their opportunity to show what they know! Please continue to encourage them to do their best work and
always put forth effort on each assignment.
The fourth grade team appreciates your support – we couldn’t do it without you!
It’s better to know how to learn than to
know.
—Dr. Seuss
Page 5
Fifth Grade
READING: We continue to work on the
Common Core Reading standards
through various sorts of reading material. We
have been reading two weeks of informational
text and two weeks of literature. Remember, the
FSA Writing exam is on the last day of February
so be sure your student gets a great night of
sleep and eats a nutritious breakfast!
To ensure academic success for your fifth
grader, it is imperative that he or she reads for
a minimum of 30 minutes every night (including
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday)! Ask your fifth
grader what they are reading and what is currently happening in the book. Readers make
lifelong learners!
“Whenever your read a good book, somewhere
in the world a door opens to allow in more light.”
-Vera Nazarian
MATH: Fifth grade has begun a new topic – Algebra: Patterns and Graphing! By the end of
this topic your student will be able to create and
analyze graphs and the patterns they show.
Next we will move into measurement. We have
begun a 50 Day Countdown booklet to review
for the FSA Math. Please be sure your fifth
grader is completing their math homework, including math facts, every night!
SCIENCE: We are moving into matter. We will
first discover the different properties of matter
and then we will observe how matter can
change. PSELL offers great inquiries and opportunities for your fifth grader to have hands-on
experiences with the science concepts and we
are so lucky to have this at our school! Ask your
fifth grader what they are learning every day!
St. Patrick’s Day Humor
What does a leprechaun call a happy man
wearing green? A jolly green giant
Why do frogs like St. Patrick’s Day? Because
they are always wearing green.
Panther Pause