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Community Brief from Citrus Elementary School
January 17, 2018
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Happy New Year! Welcome to the second half of the 2017-2018 school year - 2017-2018 calendar. We have had many new additions and I would like to welcome all of our new students, parents and staff who recently joined us. We are delighted to have you as a part of our Citrus Elementary family.
At Home Support in 2018
As a school we are continuing to provide quality instruction to ensure that your child is successful. However, we cannot do this alone and need your help.
Ultimately, the highest level of support you can provide your child is to read with them, sign their planners, check their homework, and ask them to teach you something they learned in school every day.
A daily 10-15 minute parent commitment to reinforcing new knowledge in our students will benefit your family. Asking your child about their day must include questions about what they learned. If they can teach it to you that will help reinforce new knowledge and build mastery of lifelong reading, math, science and social studies skills our students will need to be productive 21st Century citizens. Please see your child's teacher for more specific ways in which you can help your child at home.
Student Safety and School Hours
Safety is very important to all of us here at Citrus Elementary. It is critical that we all do our part to keep everyone safe and secure at all times. Your cooperation by following the procedures in place is greatly appreciated. Whenever you are on campus during the school day please make sure to sign in and out at the front desk and get a visitor sticker. If you see someone without a badge or visitor sticker, please let school personnel know.
I would also like to remind all parents that OCPS employees are not responsible for supervising students who arrive on campus 30 minutes before school starts and 30 minutes after school ends. Students must be enrolled in the After School Program (ASP) or a school program if they are to remain on campus before or after school. Please help us by not dropping your child off before 8:00 am and by picking your child up by 3:15 pm daily.
Upcoming Community Survey
As part of the ongoing continuous improvement process, of which all stakeholders are a part, OCPS will be sending you an invitation to participate in an online survey between the dates of Monday, January 22, 2018 through Wednesday, March 14, 2018 as one method of reaching all stakeholders.
Surveys are a means to engage all our stakeholders in two-way communication. They provide school leaders and teachers a view into the thinking and perceptions of our stakeholders. Careful analysis of the results enriches understanding of areas of strength and effectiveness as well as those areas that possibly need improvement. The survey results will enable our school leaders to measure stakeholders' attitudes and help target improvement strategies focused on student achievement as well as school and system effectiveness. Taking the survey will also help stakeholders understand the AdvancED Standards for Quality and provide a means for learning about what a parent, student or staff member should be looking for in a high quality school.
Your cooperation and support in completing the surveys will be greatly appreciated. Please be on the lookout for your survey invitation in the coming weeks!
PTA
PTA would like for you to mark your calendars for Saturday, February 10th for the annual Girls Night Out at Tanner Hall in Winter Garden. This is a much anticipated event and you will want to purchase tickets early as it usually sells out. Tickets will be available for purchase soon. It is a masquerade themed dance this year!
Testing
The
Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) testing window is fast approaching. The testing window for the writing component of the FSA for students in 4th and 5th grade runs from March 6th through March 9th. The English Language Arts testing window for 3rd grade will run from April 9th through April 10th. The testing window for 4th and 5th grade computer based English Language Arts test runs from April 16th through April 20th. The testing window for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade computer based math will run from April 23rd through April 27th. Lastly, the testing window for 5th grade Science runs from April 30th through May 1st. I highly recommend that all parents of 3rd through 5th grade complete the training test found at
www.fsassessments.org and see the format of this assessment.
We will be providing parents of 3rd through 5th grade students with Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) information during an upcoming Literacy and FSA parent night on Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. in the cafeteria. Each parent that attends will receive 2 homework passes for their child to use as they wish and we will have supervision for school age children during the presentation. We hope to see you at this
very important information session!
We wish you a happy and prosperous New Year,
Delanine Bender
Principal
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Jose Gonzalez
Asst. Principal
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Pictured very top:
The City of Ocoee's 12th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Unity Parade and Celebration.
* Each year students and family members from Citrus Elementary march in the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. parade. The parade begins at Citrus Elementary and proceeds down Clarke Road to the West Oaks Mall where the festivities continue. Pictured above are students that marched in the parade on Monday, January 15th.
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Upcoming Events
January
18th: Book Club Meeting, 7:30-8:00 am
19th: Report Cards Go Home
19th: Let's Skate Spirit Night, 5:00-8:00 pm
22nd-26th: Literacy Week
23rd: Literacy Night and FSA Parent Night, 5:30-7:30 pm (please see below)
24th: 4th & 5th Spelling Bee
25th: Book Club Meeting, 7:30-8:00 am
27th: Saturday Enrichment Camp, 8:30-11:30 am
30th: Student Council Meeting, 7:30 am
February
10th: Saturday Enrichment Camp, 8:30-11:30 am
10th: Girls' Night Out, 6:00-8:00 pm at Tanner Hall, Winter Garden
Tanner Hall, Winter Garden
13th: Student Council Meeting, 7:30am
12th: SAC Meeting, 6:00 pm
16th: Progress Reports distributed
16th: Jump Rope for Heart during specials all grade levels
16th: Snow Cones $1
19th: Student Holiday/President's Day
23rd: 1st Gr. to Science Center
24th: Saturday Enrichment Camp
26th: 2nd Gr. to Orange County Regional History Center
27th: Student Council Meeting, 7:30am
26th-March 2nd: Read Across America Week
PTA Masquerade Ball: Save the Date!
PTA invitations to the annual Girls' Night Out will be coming soon. Please save the date for Saturday, February 10th.
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Vital Signs
Weekly attendance rates over the past 5 school weeks.
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Dec. 1
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Dec. 8
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Dec. 15
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Dec. 21
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Jan. 12
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Kgtn.
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91.1%
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84.7%
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84.4%
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83.7%
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91.9%
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1st Grade
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79.7%
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73.8%
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70.4%
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81.5%
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84.2%
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2nd Grade
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80.4%
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82.0%
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81.4%
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78.1%
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87.1%
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3rd Grade
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86.5%
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84.4%
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81.5%
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76.8%
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85.4%
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4th Grade
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89.5%
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91.8%
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89.3%
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86.1%
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93.8%
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5th Grade
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88.7%
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91.3%
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87.9%
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90.7%
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91.9%
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* Higher percentages are more favorable.
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What Citrus Students are Reading . . .
Most popular books based on checkouts from the Media Center!
The top 3 most popular books for the month of December 2017:
1. The Wild Robot by Peter Brown - 54 circulations
2. Drama by Raina Telgemeier - 31 circulations
3. Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks - 27 circulations
* The Wild Robot was our book of the month in Book Club for December. The students enjoyed it very much and told their friends! Please see Book Club story below.
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Rigor in the Classrooms
The students and teachers got off on a great start to 2018!
Kindergarten
Mrs. Webb-Smith's kindergarten class has been learning about onomatopea and acting
out sounds of words.
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i-Ready Reading Program
Ms. Hilley's class is working towards earning 100% on i-Ready lessons. Once students in the class passed 80 lessons at 100%, they earned a reward to read with a stuffed animal!
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West Oaks Library
January 2018 events
Please click the link below to the West Oaks Library schedule of events for the month of January. There are many fun events scheduled to keep you busy throughout the month and the best part is they are free! While you are there you might want to check out a book too!
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Media Center News
Celebrate Literacy Week '18 kicks off next Monday . . .
FLORIDA CELEBRATE LITERACY WEEK
Florida Celebrate Literacy Week is January 22nd through January 26th. This year's theme is to "Find Yourself in a Book!" Get Caught Reading tickets will be given to staff members that catch students reading. Students can turn tickets in to the Media Center. A winner will be announced daily on the Morning Show.
January 22nd -
Create a bookmark contest. Students will be given an opportunity to create their own bookmark to go with this year's theme, "Find Yourself in a Book"! Please have your class vote for one winning bookmark and turn it in to me by Wed. afternoon so that a special panel of judges can choose the school's winner (to be announced on Friday).
January 23rd -
Support Citrus Reading by wearing a school shirt. Literacy Night will also be held on Tuesday evening.
January 24th -
Reading makes us winners' day! Wear your favorite team shirt to show your love for reading.
January 25th -
Reading Marathon Set a time in your classroom to "D.E.A.R." (Drop Everything and Read) on Thursday for 15-20 minutes. At the end of the day, email
Ms. Sermons with the number of students and number of minutes read.
January 26th - Reading rocks with crazy socks! Wear your bright, colorful crazy socks to school to support literacy!
LITERACY NIGHT
Join Us for Literacy Night: January 23, 2018
Literacy Night will be held on Tuesday, January 23rd from 5:30pm until 7:30pm at Citrus Elementary School. This event will focus on teaching parents how learning to read begins at home and how families play a critical part in instilling the love of reading in their children.
* Parents will also get information about strategies to prepare for the FSA test and learn ways to help improve the reading of their English Language Learner (ELL) students.
ACCELERATED READER (AR) CELEBRATION!
The AR Celebration for the 2nd 9 weeks OF 2017-2018 was held on December 19th in the Media Center. The students that met their AR with an overall average of 85% or higher were given a book and goodie bag. Congratulations!
Second Quarter AR students, Dec. 19, 2017
The students honored were:
Masiah Howell, Juliette Mauvaism, Ganesh Uzagir,Naeka Pochette, Smarie Gowins, Devyn Lartz, Adriana Rodriguez, Jaida Dale, Austin McMurtry, Nyreka Adkins, Ashlyn Barton, Kermissa Desir, Colby Salvatore, Molly Dungan, Nicklus Dock, Caleb Martin, Shaina Pierre, Trivin Dao, Dahina Pierre, Haiden Zaph, Emily Marsden, Envy Rose, Isabella Mickle, Peyton Schoby, Deandre Powell, Sydney Shelley, Brianna Sharma, Dorana St. Pierre, Haley Ramlagan, Karrigan Beverly, Bao Tran, Isabella Roman, Mariska Vyskocilova, Samuel Davis, Hannah Le, and
Preston Jones.
Our 2nd quarter AR students received both a new book and a holiday goodie bag last month!
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Book Club Update
While difficult to see here, above are the Book Club members' hand-made brochures which summarized last month's featured book title - "The Wild Robot"
The Book Club has successfully read another Sunshine State book.* The students completed
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown before the Winter Break. To encourage other students to read this story, Book Club students created brochures about the novel. The brochures allowed them to share a summary of the story, new title and recreate the cover for the book.
This month the students are reading
My Brother is a Superhero, by David Solomons. The Book Club will meet on Thursday mornings from 7:30am - 8:00am. The Book Club will meet on January 11th, January 18th, and January 25th.
*
Sunshine State Young Readers Award program
Completed just last month, one of the Sunshine State Young Readers Award books
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January's SSYRA book. The Book Club's next meeting is this Thursday, Jan. 18 (see above).
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Copyright Notice
 Reproduction of this material, either written or electronically, including the general layout, graphics, analyses, and content topics without the express approval of Target Performance Systems, Inc., a Florida corporation, and OCPS - Citrus Elementary School is forbidden without written consent. Thank you for your support of the Orange County Public Schools and especially Citrus Elementary School. Please contact Ms. Delaine Bender (principal) at
[email protected]
with any questions.
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Citrus Elementary School | Ms. Delaine Bender, Principal | 407.445.5475 |
CES Website
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