 Primrose Hill Elementary School Weekly Newsletter March 31, 2023 |
Primrose Pandas are Respectful, Responsible and Safe |
Dear Primrose Families, Another busy week of learning and fun. On Thursday our students and staff celebrated the end of Children’s Literature Month by dressing as their favorite children’s literature character. We also had a presentation for the Fairy Tales of Ireland and wrapped up the week with our guest author visit with Juana Martinez-Neal. As always I have included photos below for you to enjoy. Ms Martinez-Neal was quite busy after the presentation signing books for our students and I know the children look forward to receiving their copies on Monday. These events aren’t possible without the work behind the scenes-special thanks to Ms Zapasnik and Mrs O’Kane for all your work in arranging for these great programs to come here. If you haven’t done so already, the most recent book challenge for our March Madness is a battle between two of Juana Martinez-Neal’s books. Please use the links below to view these two stories and cast your vote. In honor of Autism Awareness, we will have a spirit week here at Primrose. Some may wonder why the images for the graphic here and online have shifted from puzzle pieces and blue. This year we are looking to infuse acceptance (vs. awareness) into our autism celebration. Autistic self-advocates have indicated that their choice for colors are red/rainbow and an infinity symbol as their preferred means of representation. They have voiced that the color blue and the puzzle piece symbol do not feel representative of them as they are not pieces of a puzzle that should be made to "fit in" or to be "fixed". Rather, they are all individuals, representing a rainbow of abilities within the spectrum. This also lends itself to the neurodiversity movement where we recognize that all individuals' brains are unique and work and process information in lots of fantastic ways. Thank you to our Speech and Language Pathologist, Kayla Tierney for leading this effort for us and making the awesome graphic she hung throughout the school with the help of some of our students! Just a reminder that your students’ progress report is now available on Aspen for the second trimester. Below is a reminder on our scoring system and details for accessing your child’s account in Aspen. Best, Coleen Smith |
Progress reports will be available today on the Aspen portal. We wanted to remind you of the following as you review your child's report: We report your child's progress at this point in time. Each grade level has broken down the end-of-year standards into a year-long progression and defined expectations. The rating scales include marks in-between standards. For example, it is now possible for a student to achieve a 4.5 on the scale, illustrating that they are proficient and moving toward exceeding the standard. The second trimester includes increased rigor and expectations. Therefore, some students can receive a lower score than in the first trimester. If this should occur, review the language of the score to understand the change in score. For example in the Trimester 1 progress report, you'd read your student's score of a 4 as "strong command of beginning of year expectations of the grade level standard." If your student received a score of 3 for the same domain in Trimester 2, you would read that as "moderate command of mid-year expectations of the grade level standard". Also, look at the student work or cover sheets you have received from your child’s teacher to understand the score better. Again, it is important to remember that your child's score on the progress report reflects their growth and their evidence of performance at this point in the school year. The rigor of each standard is more complex than in the first trimester; thus, growth can occur even if the score does not increase. Here is the K-3 Trimester 2 Progress Report Document for Parents and Families. You can find the link to log into Aspen here. If you are having difficulty logging in, please email: x2help@barringtonschools.org |
Fairy Legends of Ireland performance by Diane Edgecomb and Margot Chamberlain. |
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March Madness is in full swing on the basketball courts across the nation and of course we are continuing our Book Challenge as well! Participating families still have a few days to read and vote for our "Flying Feud" Matchup. Links are available on the library website. For those of you keeping track, the following books are already moving on to the Elite Eight Round:
Next up we will be comparing two books about moving to a new country! Sweet 16 - Big Move VERSUS Where Butterflies Fill the Sky: Consider the plot, characters, theme, and illustrations to help you choose your favorite! Vote by 4/09/23 at https://forms.gle/C1GgL77dXb6A... Please use the voting link to help decide which book should go onto the next round of our competition. It can be found at the top of the library website at www.missokane.com or below. Happy Reading! Full Bracket: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18iXIUaV_HbTH5uchFfVPPGAOyKlvqQLM/view?usp=share_link |
Dates to Remember: Link to the BPS Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging resource for March
Friday, April 28- A Day Without Hate -Wear white, the color of peace
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There are some great courses still available for Spring Enrichment! Please be sure to have completed the Waiver in full before attempting to register your child for a course. If you have questions regarding your waiver and status, reach out to coordinatorPHSenrichment@gmail.com first. www.primrosehillpto.org/enrich... Available Courses: Class descriptions are available on our website by clicking the link above. Textile Arts - Monday Class Limit : 8 Grades: 2-3 Instructor: Ms. Densley Cost: $ 100 Martial Arts - Monday (This course will be held outdoors. Cancellations will occur only if the weather presents a safety risk). Class Limit : 25 Grades: K-3 Instructor: Mastery Martial Arts Cost: $ 80 Gardening - MondayClass Limit : 15 Grades: K-3 Instructors: Mr. Penengo and Ms. Scungio Cost: $ 80 Basketball - Wednesday (This course will be held outdoors. Cancellations will occur only if the weather presents a safety risk or creates a situation in which the blacktop is not usable). Class Limit : 16 Grades: 2-3 Instructor: Rhode Island Magic Cost: $ 80 Spanish 1 - Wednesday Class Limit : 16 Grades: K-3 Instructor: Spanish Playhouse Cost: $ 80 Spanish 2 - Wednesday Class Limit : 16 Grades: K-3 Instructor: Ms. Bravo Cost: $ 80 Sculpture - Wednesday Class Limit : 10 Grades: 2-3 Instructor: Ms. Susan Freda Cost: $ 100 Chess & Strategic Gaming - Wednesday Class Limit : 14 Grades: 1-3 Instructors: Ms. Johnston & Ms. Turner Cost: $ 80 POW Science - Wednesday Class Limit : 25 Grades: 2-3 Instructor: POW! Science Cost: $ 80 POW Science Jr. - Wednesday Class Limit : 25 Grades: K-1 Instructor: POW! Science Cost: $ 80 Paper Arts - Wednesday Class Limit : 12 Grades: 2-3 Instructors: Ms. Aylesworth & Ms. Lee Cost: $80 Vocal Group Lesson - Wednesday *NOTE: this Class has a minimum of 10 students to run – if you’re excited about this one, encourage your friends to join you! Class Limit : 10 - 15 Grades: 1-3 Instructor: Mrs. O’Brien Cost: $ 125 |
Green Squad Update: Review of our "Keep Out the Heat" Experiment: Teams tested their insulated model houses last week, working together to read and record a series of changing temperatures in one-minute intervals on a multi-sensor thermometer. We used these readings to monitor temperatures in the room and heat chamber, and to calculate the change in temperature inside each model (placed inside the heat chamber) over time. Each Team formed a hypothesis about which insulation methods and materials would work best to keep the heat from rising inside their model. There were interesting and creative variations among the 6 Teams, and a range of results. The heat chamber maintained roughly 99 degrees F, and room temperature was monitored around 72 degrees F. The temperature rise was 4.6 degrees F over 5 minutes in the uninsulated control model, and only 2.3 degrees F over 5 minutes in our most energy efficient model -- a 50% improvement! Since every Team's insulated model performed better in the heat chamber than our uninsulated control, we could form a working conclusion in this experiment that insulation in general assisted in keeping out the heat. In a "real world" application, this would mean a well-insulated house could use less AC to keep cool in the summer, requiring less energy generated from a power plant. April 28 - Green Squad / Big Brothers Big Sisters of RI Clothing Drive! Mark your calendars, and save your Spring clean-out items! We will be collecting any clean, dry clothes and linens (any condition, size, style; if it can't be reused, it will be recycled). In preparation for our last few projects, we would love it if you could separate out the following items from your donation: any blue, yellow or white cloth / linens / clothing, and your old tie-dyed shirts from "Last Days" past. We have plans for these, and will collect them in a separate bin. Aside from the textiles we plan to use (and recycle later), Green Squad will be bagging the donated clothing in biodegradable cellulose bags-- please do NOT leave any regular plastic bags. |
PRIMROSE PTO PTO Website: Please take a quick moment to log into the PTO website and opt into the family directory at https://www.primrosehillpto.org/directory. With all they have planned, it is a great idea to visit this site weekly to get updates and see how you can participate in upcoming events. |
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