Barry School Newsletter
February 4, 2019
Events
5th - Class & Activity Pictures, 8:50AM - Noon
6th - MGRT, Kindergarten
7th - Founders Day Dinner, 6PM - 8PM
14th - Valentine's Day Parties
18th-22nd - No School, Winter Recess
25th - PTA Mtg., 6:30PM
Principal's Message
Greetings families! I hope you have been able to stay warm through these frigid weeks. It is amazing to realize that we are already halfway through the school year. Students have been making steady growth through the year. This has been demonstrated through fall and winter universal student screenings in reading and math. Using relevant student data, goals for student achievement have been set by each grade level teaching team. We are dedicated to providing targeted instruction to ensure students are prepared. This includes the use of engaging and relevant classroom instruction aligned to the curriculum and essential standards as well as individualized interventions. There are a few important ways you can support these efforts at home.
  1. Make attendance a priority. The goal for our school is to have 95% or better attendance overall.
  2. Encourage students to complete homework every day! You can help by creating a quiet space for them to work.
  3. Ensure students get a good night’s rest.
As always we appreciate your support. Please contact the school if you have any questions or concerns.
20 Week Report Cards.
Report cards were distributed on February 1 st . Please take a few minutes to review these with your student and be sure to look at the teacher comments. If you would like to setup a conference to review the report card, please contact your child’s teacher. 
Family Involvement Survey
Recently letters were sent sharing information about the district's  Family Engagement Survey.   We hope you received the information about our continuing school improvement efforts and will take a few minutes to share your feedback by completing the 25 question survey. Surveys provide information which we use in the decision making and planning processes as we begin to prepare for the upcoming school year.
 
The survey will be open through  February 22, 2019 . Your response to the survey is very important.   Please take ten to fifteen minutes and share your ideas, experiences and feedback!
 
 **Paper copies of the survey are also available at your child(ren)'s school. If you prefer to complete the survey on paper, please ask for a copy from the building office.
Kindergarten Registration/Screening Dates
Steps to register your child:
  • Child must be 5 on or before December 1, 2019. Children who turn 6 before December 1, 2019 must attend school.
  • Parents are urged to call (607)-758-4106, prior to April 20, 2019, to make a registration/screening appointment and to receive a pre-registration packet.
  • All students must have an appointment prior to the school registration/screening dates listed below!

ALL screenings will take place at Barry Primary School
Current dates for screenings:
  • Thursday, June 27, 2019
  • Friday, June 28, 2019
  • Monday, July 1, 2019

There will be a Kindergarten Meet and Greet in the month of May.
  • This is an event for parents AND their entering kindergarten student.
  • There will be activities for students and students/families will get to meet all of our kindergarten teachers and other staff members
Instrument Recruitment
The 3rd grade instrument recruitment process has started in each of the elementary schools! It is an exciting time for our 3rd graders to pick their instrument. Our elementary instrument teachers have been very busy getting started with the 3rd Grade Recruitment!

The Cortland Instrumental Process
First, music teachers have a recruitment assembly at each of the elementary schools. The teachers demonstrate each instrument the students can choose from and let the students ask questions about the instruments and the process. Next, students bring home the instrumental sign up sheet. Then as the teachers are able to schedule our new recruits, they travel to each school for a series of hands on days. The hands on day is when the students get to try out and get to play each instrument of their choice. Read more...
After School Activities
If your child attends an after school activity through the Youth Bureau or other
organization, there may be days that the activity is cancelled due to weather or other
unforeseen circumstances. Your child will be directed to follow his/her normal dismissal
procedure as he/she would on a day there is no after school activity.
Reminders and Announcements: Safety Concerns
Those of you that drop off and/or pick up a student(s) must use a designated parking space. There is no exception to this rule. When cars are parked in non-designated parking spaces it leads to poor visibility. Furthermore, in the front of the building students must use the crosswalk near the flag and school sign. When crossing only in this designated area, students must look for permission to enter the crosswalk prior to walking. This will
ensure their safety when it comes to crossing in the bus loop area.
Lost and Found
Please encourage your children to check the lost and found table located in the back of the cafeteria to claim their lost belongings. Also we highly recommend that students names and or initials are written on the tag inside their clothing.
Any clothing not picked up by Wednesday, February 6th will be donated.
Kindergarten
Kindergarten has been learning about kings, queens and royal families during our listening and learning time of the day. In our ELA skills groups, the kinders have been working on blending three letter words to read and write. In math, we have been working on addition and subtraction with the numbers 0-10 using manipulatives, drawings and stories. Lastly, in science we wrapped up on weather.  

In the coming weeks, the students will be learning about penguins, as well as plants and other animals. In math,the students will start to learn about teen numbers and how to compose and decompose numbers into ten and some ones. We look forward to our upcoming Valentine's Day celebration. Much thanks in advance to the PTA for organizing this event.  
Reminders From the Nurse
  • Please wash and return any clothing that has been borrowed from the nurse.
  • Please call the school nurse at 758-4154 when your child is absent and send in a written note with your child when he/she return.
  • If your child is sick, vomits, has diarrhea, or a fever, please keep him/her home for 24-hours free of symptoms.
  • Please update all phone number for parents, guardians, emergency contacts, & work to the main office so the school can call you in case of illness or accident.
  • Reminder : NYS mandates a health exam / physical for grades K, 1, 3, 5 and students new to our school district. School physicals are provided by Kelly Hirsch, NP on Thursdays from 9:00-11:00am at Barry School.
  • Reminder: Students entering 6th grade in September will require the Tdap vaccine and a 2nd Varicella immunization; and students entering 7th grade in September will require the Meningococcal vaccine. Make an appointment to get those vaccines before the first day of school.
  • Please read FLU Guide for Parents.
First Grade
In first grade, we are finishing our CKLA unit on fables. We enjoyed a visit from the Merry Go Round playhouse who performed "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". The children each played a role in the performance and were actively engaged throughout the show. The kids were able to make some great connections between the story we read and the play. 
Recess
Please be sure your child is dressed appropriately for outdoor play. Except during
extreme conditions, all students spend some time outside during the day. Please make
sure your child leaves home every day dressed for outdoor play – boots, hats, mittens or
gloves, snow pants and winter coat. Labeling these items with your child’s name will be
extremely helpful if your child ever misplaces any piece of clothing.
For your information, we go outdoors through the winter as long as the temperature,
including the wind chill, is 20 degrees or more.
Second Grade
In ELA, we have been continuing to learn new sound-letter relationships, including learning different ways to spell /ae/, /ie/, /oe/ and /ue/ sounds. We recently finished reading about lots of amazing students in our reader, Kids Excel, and we wrote and published our own personal narratives! We listened and learned about the War of 1812 and Cycles in Nature. In math, we have been adding and subtracting within 200 using different strategies! We will next begin adding and subtracting within 1,000!  
Positivity Project
We will continue to work with students on developing a variety of character traits through the reminder of the school year. For the month of February we will focus on students learning how to support others when they struggle. They have already begun to discuss why this is important as well as some strategies they can use. Within this context we will also be discussing what it means to have social intelligence. As you talk to your students, you may ask them what is means to walk in someone else's shoes. They should also be able to identify some ways they may help others.
Third Grade
Third grade is learning about frogs. Frogs have many adaptations that help them survive. Did you know the Aborigines would dig up the Water Holding Frog and squeeze water from it if they were thirsty? For the end of module assessment each student will research a frog and design a google slide sharing its habitat, physical/behavioral adaptations, life cycle, predators, and prey.  
Fourth Grade
Fourth grade continues to work on multiplication and division in math. We are also starting our colonial projects in ELA.
You Can Make a Difference…..
Parents and Caregivers…..You can make a difference at home! As we progress with teaching the early elementary math standards at school, it is important that students continue to practice math concepts daily at home. Here are some great ways you can help:
  • Count together out loud to 120….Make a game out of counting…..each player says every other number
  • Count actual items in groups to 20, (game pieces, toys, macaroni,etc)
  • Skip count by 2’s, 3’s, 5’s, etc
  • Play simple board games that use dice or a spinner, or that require counting and moving a game piece around the board (Chutes and Ladders, Trouble, Sorry, Hi Ho Cherry, etc)
  • Play games like Dominoes that require the player to “know” the number on the domino by looking at it (a skill called “subitizing”) 
  • Compare groups of items. Ask questions such as ….. “Which has more?” ..... “How many more?”..... “How do you know?”
  • Have students read double digit numbers out loud when you come across them in everyday life (i.e. 17, 35, 72, 91, etc)
  • Count money together….Begin with pennies, and expand to dimes, then nickels, then quarters. 
  • Practice telling time on both digital clocks and analog (“old fashioned”) clocks
  • Keep encouraging your child! Your confidence in him or her speaks volumes!
Fifth Grade
Math- We are learning there are multiple equivalents for each fraction and sometimes they can be written as a mixed number. As state tests rapidly approach, the pacing of math class is going to increase.
ELA/ Writing- We started our new Unit on Biodiversity and reading and writing informational text. The students started a new writing piece where they must write to explain “How To” do something they are good at. They also have been working in stations to investigate the rainforest and the structure of non-fiction texts. 
Social Studies- We began a new unit in social studies: Explorers and the Slave Trade. During this unit students will learn about the various European powers who explored and eventually colonized the Western Hemisphere. This had a profound impact on the Native Americans and led to the transatlantic slave trade.
  • Please sign the late assignment sheet that comes home each Friday and encourage your child to complete any work that is owed over the weekend. HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?
  • Please encourage your child to read 20 minutes each night.
3rd quarter goals end April 5th. 
Sixth Grade
ELA: Students have learned about why we have rules in life and how some rules help us to survive and others help up to thrive. We have read and analyzed speeches by successful people and a novel called Bud, Not Buddy to learn about how others have used rules in life which led them to be successful. Students have also been working on determining the meaning of figurative language and on several writing pieces that involve making a claim and supporting it with evidence.
Math:  In math, students are learning about positive and negative numbers in the real world. We have been graphing integers and rational numbers on a number line, then comparing and interpreting the order of these numbers. 
Science/Social Studies:  In science, students are studying the solar system. We are learning about the effects of the rotation and revolution of the Earth on we see in the night sky.  We are gearing up to start our planet research projects. Our next unit in social studies, which will start in a few weeks, is on Ancient Egypt.
Art News
The Barry 4th grade students collaborated with the district 4th graders in an incredible music concert singing along with Ithacapella on January 16th at the High School. The elementary art teachers created a shield that we cut into puzzle pieces to represent the 5 elementary schools. We asked some 4th grade art students to paint their section to represent their respective school. Mason C., Alecia M., Madelyn N., and Jacob M., were the students selected to paint for Barry. They designed and created the Barry Bulldog surrounded by pawprints as a design to represent Barry school. The shield hung behind the singers on the stage, and the 5 pieces were attached the evening of the concert to show that “we’re all in this together”, our Cortland 4th Grade Team! Great job, and what an incredible event! The shield will be “visiting” each elementary school and displayed for a month to showcase the work and reiterate the message!

FYI: If you’re wondering why your child’s artwork isn’t coming home, just a reminder, that I’m saving most of the student’s artwork to showcase at Barry Arts’ Night, on Wednesday, May 29th! Looking forward to seeing you then to celebrate the diverse work that’s being done by our Barry artists.
Physical Education
Hello Barry Families, This past month the intermediate grades have been working on their football skills and playing a game called “steal the pigskin”. They have also played “Doom Island”, which involves teamwork and cooperation. The primary grades have been working on their throwing and kicking skills and we have also had some fun with the parachute. Decembers P.E. Award winners were Tristen Carrethers and Unique
Reeves.
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