Saving Photos

The PTO sponsors the creation of a Fifth Grade Yearbook that is typically presented to students after the Moving Up Ceremony in June. Parents on the Yearbook Committee find acquiring pictures of students from prior years to be time consuming because parents or guardians have to look through a lot of photos.  The Yearbook Committee has asked me to please ask parents to save pictures over the years in a file so they are easy to find when students are in fifth grade.  Examples of pictures to save would be from concerts, field day, field trips, and grade specific events such as fourth grade’s Rocket Day.  A Photo Parent would be an individual who saved these photos over the years to share when his or her child was in fifth grade for the yearbook.  Any parent of a student at any grade can be a Photo Parent.  

A terrific tool to organize these photos is Dropbox.   Dropbox can be found in an app version. It helps organize photos by date and the user can create multiple files within it.  In addition, the photos and albums in it are accessible from any device.  Another great organizational tool is Google Drive.  A recent article from CNET OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive and Box: Which cloud storage service is right for you? discusses some of the some of these tools.

                      

Grade 5

Fifth grade students left for Camp Bournedale today. We hope they have a terrific trip.

Music

In this picture Mrs. Agati and some third grade students are singing during music class.

Centers

The following pictures show one of the centers in Ms. Mills first grade classroom.

Grade 3

Students in Mrs. Doherty's 3rd grade classroom responding to their reading with writing.

Volunteers Needed at the Pine Glen Library

Burlington's First Annual Bowl-A-Thon - Sunday, October 4th

Burlington's First Annual Bowl-a-thon at Kings Burlington will be on Sunday morning 9am - 12pm, October 4th.  $15 per person (for ages 3+) and bring the littler ones (0-2) at no extra charge.  This is an ALL AGES family event.  "GUTTER BUMPERS" are available so even the young ones will have a blast bowling!   There will be plenty of carnival style activities for everyone to enjoy before or after their turn on the lanes at no extra charge.  

The $15 for admission gets you 2 strings of bowling, shoe rental, food, beverages, carnival activities, and entry into the door prize (Kings Gift Certificate).

We are also selling tickets for a Grand Raffle ($10 for one ticket and $20 for three tickets).  [1st Prize - iRobot Roomba Vacuum : 2nd Prize - Kings Bowling Party for 10 people : 3rd Prize - Cases-Cases Inc. BackYard Campfire Basket].

  

You do not need to attend the bowl-a-thon to win the Grand Raffle, so it is a great way to support the cause if you cannot make it on the 4th.

To purchase admission tickets, grand raffle tickets or for more information, visit our website at www.burlingtonbowlathon.com

All proceeds benefit the Adopt-a-Class 2027 Program

BHS Robotics Fundraiser - Thursday, October 8th

Boy Scouts Registration - Wed. 9-30-15

"Did you miss it?  Don't worry.  Parent Open House Registration night for Cub Scouts will be Wednesday 09-30-15 from 6:30pm - 7:30pm in the Fox Hill School lobby.  Come and see more information and to sign your son(s) up for Cub Scouts.  This program is available for boys in grades 1 through 5.  Please contact Monique or Kim for further information or questions. 
klynch@bpsk12.org or pgrasso1970@yahoo.com.

Kindergarten and Reading

Students in Mrs. Parnell's kindergarten classroom were reading poems and making Mother Goose Books today. After reading the poem, the students would make an inference as to what color the author wished to convey in the writing.

Response to Intervention (RTI)

Burlington Public Schools

Pine Glen Elementary School

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John Lyons, Principal jlyons@bpsk12.org

1 Pine Glen Way Burlington, MA 01803 Phone 781-270-1712 Fax 781-229-5793

September 17, 2015

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Our goal throughout the year is to provide your child with specific support in curriculum areas where he/she needs it.  Soon we will begin our tiered literacy and in some grades tiered math instruction.  This is done to create educational groupings to work on specific skills and is often referred to as RTI (Response to Intervention) or MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports).  In order for each student to receive tailored instruction, he/she may experience different classroom teachers throughout the school year.   The classroom teacher may be different for reading and/or math instruction.  In addition, specialists and RTI tutors may be in students classrooms throughout the day.

We will target instruction and provide specific interventions in areas where students need it.  Assessments and progress monitoring help teachers and specialists determine which skills to address within the classroom.   We also use this information to provide interventions as extra support in addition to the core curriculum in literacy and math.  These intervention/skill development groups take place during our daily thirty minute Intervention/Extension Block and may change frequently throughout the year.  Instruction during the Intervention/Extension Block might be provided by the classroom teacher, specialist or RTI tutor.   

Grade level teams work closely with one another, specialists and myself to examine your child’s progress and skill development.  We refer to the practice of having changing classroom tiers and skill intervention groups as flexible grouping.  If you have any questions regarding your child, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s homeroom teacher.   Also, please feel free to email me if you have any questions (jlyons@bpsk12.org) regarding this process.

Sincerely,

John Lyons, M.S. Ed.

Principal

Pine Glen Elementary

Hero Assembly 2015

On (9/11/15) we had our annual Hero's Assembly at Pine Glen Elementary School. On this day we say thank you to the police officers, firefighters, first responders, and members of our different military branches that help keep our community and country safe. In addition, we remember Lieutenant Commander Thomas McGuiness, an F-14 Fighter Pilot, and alumni of Pine Glen Elementary School.

Hero Assembly 2015

This is a short clip from our 2015 Hero Assembly.

Thank you

It was wonderful to see everyone at Back to School Night this week.  I would like to thank Steve Cross (School Resource Officer- Burlington Police), Kelly Kasparian (parent), Dawn Thyne-Naddaff (parent), Sarah Visocchi (grade 4 teacher), and Lauren Zanotti (Guidance Counselor) for volunteering their time to be on the School Council with me this year. The School Council meets regularly throughout the school year.  

Physical Education

Third grade students in Ms. Govoni's physical education class played a game called Pin Ball today. The students loved the game!

Grade 2 Science and Trees

Mrs. Beaulieu's second graders are learning about coniferous trees and their characteristics. Her students will be able to use pictures and field notes taken on their iPads to later create a book comparing and contrasting different types of trees.

School Cafeteria Substitute List

Looking to work three hours a day on a per diem basis?  How about joining our school     cafeteria substitute list?   If you are interested please contact Karen Damaso at 781-270-1756. Thank you.

Back to School Night

It was wonderful to see everyone at Back to School Night. Mrs. Salvador our reading specialist spoke to first grade parents about assessment and response to intervention (RTI).

We are so fortunate at Pine Glen to have amazing resources like a reading specialist and such talented professionals like Mrs. Salvador working with our students.

Grade 3 Math

In the following pictures you can see Mrs. Cunha, Mrs. Doherty, and Ms. Hayes all teaching different parts of a lesson on number lines. The student's knowledge and use of math vocabulary is amazing.

PTO and Twitter

The Pine Glen PTO Twitter account is @pineglenpto.

A Parent Guide to Response to Intervention (RtI) and Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)

Back to School Night for Grown-Ups

Back to School Night for Grown-Ups is scheduled for this Wednesday, September 16th from 6:00 to 7:30.  The night will begin in the cafeteria at 6:00 with opening remarks from the principal.  We will leave the back doors of the cafeteria open to parents in order that they can enter and exit the building through the cafe.  At 6:15 parents are free to proceed to classrooms.  We will continue to have two informational sessions.  The first session will be held from 6:15-6:45.  The second session will run from 6:55-7:25.   Parents are welcome to attend either session.

This is a great evening when teachers and parents can discuss expectations, curriculum, classroom procedures and establish a partnerships between home and school.  We regret that we are unable to provide child care.  We appreciate parents making arrangements for the care of their children in order to attend this important evening.

Grade 1 and Google

Ms. Mills this morning was reviewing with her first graders how to access their Google Accounts on their iPads. It is terrific how a teacher can use a big screen to model what her students will see on their smaller screens.

Universal Screening

First grade students in Mrs. Hayes classroom took the i-Ready screener today. All students at Pine Glen receive universal screening for math and literacy.

This allows us to asses student's skills and focus our instruction. We also learn which students will benefit from interventions to improve skills. I often think of it like a pediatrician taking the temperature of 289 children at the same time.

Art

Fourth grade students today worked on making three dimensional shapes during art class with Ms. Fallon.

First Day of Kindergarten

Kindergarten students had their first day of school today. They were very excited to start learning.

Adopt A Class 2027 Bowl-A-Thon

Confidentiality Meeting

All parent volunteers are required to have an updated CORI form on file at Central Office and also attend a Principal’s Confidentiality Meeting to be eligible to chaperone field trips and volunteer.  

Volunteers are expected to attend a Confidentiality Meeting hosted by the principal. These meetings will be held periodically throughout the year.  This orientation will review expectations and confidentiality.  All schools need to maintain strict confidentiality of all student information. It is a privilege to be a volunteer and any breach of confidentiality will result in a discontinuation of volunteer services. If you have already attended a Confidentiality Meeting and it is on record at the school, you do not need to attend another. 

All parent volunteers are required to have an updated CORI form on file at the central office to be eligible to volunteer at school.

I will be hosting a Confidentiality Meetings on the 14th, 15th and 18th of September at 8:40 am.

Grade 5 Writting

Today during my daily walk-through of classrooms I saw students in Ms. Lane's 5th grade class working on written expression.

Stage Curtain

First grade students were very excited to help point out our new stage curtain. We are thrilled to have to this new curtain!