MAP Testing

As I am sitting here on Monday evening, I am wondering what the weather will bring in the morning! I know everyone is hoping for snow, but it is questionable at this point. Time will tell.

I attended as many MAP testing sessions this week as possible. I had several IEP meetings as Mrs. McGuffin was preparing for her maternity leave, so I missed a couple of classes. I was pleased with the sessions I was able to attend. The students were focused and we saw gains in almost every student. Some were very significant gains. I appreciate the hard work and effort that went into these gains. I will be meeting with everyone for mid year GBE conferences this week, but I will attende MAP testing when time permits.

Again, thank you to everyone for the caring and support of our students. Have a great week!

Classroom Visits

I visited all second grade classes this week and one first grade classroom. I saw great teaching and learning taking place, and I know we are moving toward our goal of raising student achievement. I took a few photos of some of the visits to share with you. This will give you an opportunity to get a glimpse of what is taking place in other classes. I will continue to share with you as I visit classes this semester. Have a wonderful weekend. (Sorry Mrs. Harben, the pictures did not come out well that I took in your room.)





Sandra Moore's class transitioned to the next activity by arranging themselves from shortest to tallest without talking. Great problem solving!











Natalie's Nelson's class were involved in small group reading instruction and wrting acrostic poems using winter words.








Hannah Hardy's class were working on their character books. They use our monthly character words to create these books, and they publish a writing piece for the hallway each month using these words. The students were also involved in literacy stations while Mrs. Hardy was assessing individual students using Dominie.



















The students in Stephanie Collins class were participating in small group reading instruction and literacy stations.


















Rebecca Moore works with small groups of second grade students to provide support for improving reading skills.

Class Visits

What a great week I had visiting classrooms. I am most impressed by the behavior of our students. In each class that I visited students were on task! Natalie Nelson was implementing science notebooking with her class. The students were excited about being scientists, and I was excited about the writing in science. I have noticed that our students seem to be reading more. Please continue to encourage them to participate in 100 Book Challenge and AR. Remember the media center is open at 7:25 for students who need to complete missing assignments. Due to budget cuts, the computer lab is not open before school this year. Please look at your MAP data before next Tuesday's faculty meeting. It would be beneficial to have that information as we meet in our groups to develop our plan for improvment.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Clemson field Trip

What a great time we had on Saturday with the fourth and fifth graders. They were so excited about seeing the stadium and believe it or not- riding the cat bus! We had great weather and the kids were so well behaved. It was a perfect trip, except for the mountain of stairs at the stadium. I am really getting old! Many thanks to the wonderful chaperones we had on the trip. They were so helpful, and we could not have done it without them. Please enjoy the pictures from the trip.

Grits for Grands

Thanks to everyone for being patient and flexible during our

Grandparent's breakfast. What a wonderful turnout we had for this event. I appreciate the cafeteria staff and the teachers who arrived early to help during this time. It was so helpful to have you to guide our grands and get everyone served. What a great team we have at Orchard Park. If this is any indication, the Tuesday folders are working!! Thanks again for making all of our visitors feel welcome at our school.

Olympic Readers

I thought you might like to see some of the pictures from our Olympic Reading Celebration. The Olympic Rings picture turned out really well, and the students appeared to have a great time reading and eating ice cream. Thank you for your flexibilty on Friday and for making the day fun for the students. It is important to maintain our reading focus, and promote daily reading at home and at school.

Reader's Theater

Can you believe two weeks of school have passed? What a week this has been! Thank you to everyone for a great job this week during the severe weather. Our staff and students remained calm, and thankfully we are all safe. We had a visitor in our school from the District Office during that time, and he complimented everyone on the smooth and calm way the situation was handled. You all are the best.

I was invited to visit Mrs. Nelson's class today during Reader's Theater. They did an outstanding job, and I was pleased to see the class involved in such an engaging activity. Thanks for the invitation!.