Our Jump Rope for Heart event will take place on Friday, February 16th. All donations will go towards The American Heart Association. No donation is too small and all proceeds go towards heart health research.  Please make checks payable to the American Heart Association or you can donate online. If you are able to volunteer to turn rope for our younger students in kindergarten through 2nd grade anytime between 9:15-11:30, please contact the office.  

In an effort to improve system practices, Citrus Elementary is conducting a parent survey. We value your opinion and ask that you take the time to complete this survey. The survey will be available until March 16, 2018. In order to complete the survey, please go to the official Citrus Elementary Facebook page or you can access the link on the school website at www.citruselem.ocps.net Please be assured that your responses to this survey will be anonymous. Your honest opinion is appreciated and we would like to thank you in advance for completing the survey.

Congratulations to our Spelling Bee winner, Trivin Dao and runner-up, Jonathan Pierre-Louis! Our school level spelling bee took place in January.  Trivin will represent Citrus Elementary at the upcoming County Spelling Bee on February 23, 2018.

Our fourth and fifth grade students will "kick off" our testing season with FSA Writing on Tuesday, March 6, 2018. Our teachers have been working diligently in preparing their students for this writing assessment. Fourth and fifth grade students have been practicing reading multiple texts and responding to a question about the text in 120 minutes. We have very talented writers at Citrus Elementary!

Thank you to all the parents that attended the FSA Parent Night on Tuesday, January 23, 2018.  We had a great turnout. We shared information about the state assessment and how your child will be graded. Your best resource for how you can help your child in preparation for the FSA is your child's teacher. Please see the attached daily schedule for FSA testing located with this newsletter (print-ready for home).

A resource that is available to you to keep yourself informed of your child's progress is ProgressBook You can access student's grades on quizzes and tests. ProgressBook parent letters were sent home in September with parent log on information. If you need another letter, please let your child's teacher know. We know our students will be successful test takers not only because of what takes place at school, but also because of the support they receive from home. Thank you in advance for assisting us by ensuring that your child is present and on time on the days of testing. Please make sure that your child gets plenty of rest the night before each test, eats a nutritious breakfast each morning, maintains a calm home environment, wears glasses if applicable and receives encouragement from you to do his/her best.   

Girl's Night Out (formerly Daddy Daughter Dance) tickets are now for sale. Tickets are $10 for the masquerade themed dance on Saturday, February 10th. The dance will be held at Tanner Hall located in Winter Garden from 6-8 pm. A light dinner and refreshments will be served. Purchase tickets in advance because tickets will not be sold at the door. We look forward to this fun event!

Please take a moment to check out the upcoming events for February & March on the attached calendar.  

Delaine Bender Principal

Jose Gonzalez Assistant Principal

Pictured very top: Students at one of the activity stations - "Design Your Own Bookmark" - during our Literacy and FSA Parent Night (please see story below).