April 1st

CELEBRATIONS!

• Holly for power-washing the bench courtyard where we can eat lunch!
• Mrs. Merritt and Mr. Scott for pulling together (along with a floater) to keep the school clean while Mr. Marrow is out!
• Megan Hill for combining two third grade classes to co-teach the students in both her class and Mrs. Pollock’s class
• Student teachers for stepping up to the plate to help where needed!
• Quarterly Planning Days!!
• PTA stipends ($125 a semester), here is the link if you don’t know if you have spent it this year - Staff - Stipend
• 2 weeks until Spring Break!
• Maggie and Baby “Foard” are home and doing well!

Wish Well

• Cindy and family
• Rachel Frasier
• Allisa and family
• Sherry and family
• Star and family
• Maggie and her new family of 4!

Parking on Fairview-   
Starting on April 1st,  there will be NO parking on Fairview Rd. from 3:30 - 4:00pm. This an effort to decrease congestion on Fairview road during Afternoon Carpool.  Please be aware that you do park on Fairview, you will need to move your car prior to 3:00pm.  Otherwise you will be towed or ticketed!

Quarterly Planning Days-  We will be finishing our last round of quarterly planning days this week!  It might be a nice gesture for each team to write a thank you note to the PTA for funding these days.  If you do write them, please put them in Alex Van Stavern’s box!

NC Check-Ins-  NC Check-Ins are this week and next week.  If you have any free moments to help cover an accommodation, please look at the following document.  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EsZt7qjdAxU0VpuPY7NRWKPaZ8-GnGaVT0FTlXN-xcw/edit?usp=sharing

Panorama Survey-  Please include in your newsletters!  
Last week, you should have received an email from the "Panorama Education Team."  This email contains a family survey to learn more about you and your child's experience at Underwood.  If you have children at multiple schools, the link will allow you to take surveys for each school. As a school, we utilize this information to ensure we are creating a great experience for all of our families.  The survey should take about 15 minutes. If you need a paper form or did not receive the email, please reach out to Alexandria Judge-Lenkeit (ajudge-lenkeit@wcpss.net or 919-856-7663). If you missed the email, the Panorama team will continue to send an email weekly.  

Wellness Fair-
Due to the cafeteria being used for presentations, lunch will need to be in your classrooms.  Please refer to the following documents for next week's Wellness Fair. Tracey has suggested that everyone wear their "Small School.. Big Talent" shirts on Friday.  If you are part of the Wellness Team and have one of the old Wellness shirts, please wear that instead. (If you were on the Wellness Team and have a shirt and are willing to give it back, we will share it with one of our new Wellness Team members.)

We want all staff to stay with their class during the presentations.  

Wellness Fair Schedule-  This is subject to change, so please refer back to it next Friday to double check
Wellness Fair descriptions/bios-  This will be great to share with your students prior to the event so they know what they will be learning  I have just shared it with the presenters, so it is not populated yet. This is also an editable document, so please be careful.  😉

Specialists will be providing a break to the classrooms that do not have a teacher assistants.  They will get with you after we fill them in where the presenters need support.

Thanks for your continued support and flexibility.  Let Alexandria know if you have any questions.  

Volunteer Celebration
Please submit all names for the volunteer celebration by Next Tuesday April 9th. We will be compiling the names and sending out invitations to out volunteers the week of April 15th.  Thank you so much!

Final Observations
Happy April! It is that time of year for final observations.  Travis or Mallory will be coming to your classroom soon :)

YEARBOOK REMINDER: The yearbook ordering deadline is March 31, 2019.   Paper yearbook orders received should be turned into the Yearbook box not later than Monday, April 1, 2019.   Parent questions can be directed to PTA Yearbook Chair, sharoncole@carolina.rr.com.   Thanks to Underwood’s faculty and staff for your support of Yearbook!

Makerspace:
The Makerspace and it's materials are being used on a daily basis by different classes and electives - so awesome! New items - including craft materials and electronics (circuits, simple machines, etc.) - are being added over the next couple weeks. In order to keep the space and materials manageable, help is needed. If you use, have used, or plan to use (or are thinking about using) the Makerspace, please sign up to manage it for a week. What does managing the Makerspace entail? Simply stopping by for 5 minutes 3 - 4 times during the week to tidy, restock, etc. Please sign up at the Makerspace entrance. Also, please consider including the following info in your weekly communications with families:

Playground Equipment-  Playground equipment is out!  The black cart can be taken out by the first grade team.  Please do not let the students grab balls out of the blue cart.  This is only for teachers to re-stock the black cart if we are missing  materials. If a ball goes over the fence, please let Mr. Marrow and front desk know.  We will need to get the balls. Check the inventory sheet to make sure all materials are in the cart before your grade level goes in!  5th grade/Mrs Snyder’s class, please bring the cart in at the end of the recess block!
*Tip (maybe for next year)-  assign 2-3 people as playground equipment collectors!

Brain Hive -Apparently (I don’t think I have provided you this information), there are at least 31 science titles in Brain Hive in ebooks.  For some reason when I received this information in October, I totally missed it and just ran across it in my “to do’s!” I am so sorry!  Follow the directions below and if you have any questions, please reach out to Alexandria:

Please watch the following Brain Hive introduction video to familiarize yourself with the ebook platform for students.
See the Brain Hive School Links to access your school’s site for students. You must use an HTML5 browser such as Chrome for assess.
Each school has a generic login, that will allow students and teachers to access and use the platform without having to create individual logins.
School Name:
User: brainhive
Password: brainhive
Click “Go” and you will see the titles. You can show the titles on the screen during ELA or science. Students can also access the titles on their devices. See the list of titles that match each standard.

North Carolina State Senior Leadership Project (our student teachers)
The student teachers will be providing us information based on feedback we had during our SIP Meeting (based on behavior data).  Each week will they provide information! This is a great launch to our next steps in addressing our instruction when teaching boys.  The second one has been provided by Olivia Buenemann (Heather Peaden’s student teacher).

The overall question we are trying to answer is “How do we reach our boys academically and behaviorally in order for them to be the most successful in school?” Looking at Underwood specifically, we know that 78% of referrals come from students who are male and 82% of referrals come from students in kindergarten, first and second grade. The top two places referrals occur is in the classroom and on the playground. Here are some ideas on what you can do in K-2 classrooms to reach the boys!

First off, let the boys be active. I find myself throughout the day asking students to stop playing with this paper or that toy because I believe it is distracting to them. We also expect students to sit straight up and face the teacher because we believe that’s when we have their attention. We need to loosen our expectations on sitting straight and not fidgeting as long as they are doing those things and still listening to us.

The next two ideas can go hand in hand. Give boys books that appeal to their interests such as “How To” books, Captain Underpants or Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

In order for students to read, we must motivate them with books about topics they are interested in. If we do this, reading seems more fun and less like a chore. Next, have male role models and influences in the classroom. In our school the majority of our teachers are female. By having males come into the classroom, it sparks interest in the boys. This can be done by having reading groups or fathers come in during read aloud time once a week. It may also be possible to have a couple fifth grade male students come read to the K-2 classes.

Next, try to avoid idle time in the classroom. Always have something planned for students to do when they have finished the activity they are working on. This helps students who have ADHD or ADHD like tendencies because it avoids disruption in the flow of the school day. Lastly, avoid taking away recess as a punishment. By doing this you are only hurting yourself and the student more. When boys don’t have a chance to work off their energy, their behavior can get much worse. Instead of taking it away, make an addition to playtime by having students run extra laps around the track or have them pick up 10 pieces of trash before they can start to play.

These suggestions should be very useful inside your classroom to help reach male students. Instead of changing the students, we need to work together with them to adapt the classroom to work for everyone. One extra idea I thought of is to make or purchase a Wooden Uniplane Rocker to help students who want to fidget on the carpet. This is typically used for balance in physical therapy but could be a useful tool if students sit and balance on it!


Buddha Bowl Lunch for Wellness Fair
In honor of the Wellness Fair (and wellness at Underwood), let's do another Buddha Bowl Lunch on Friday, April 5. If you are interested in participating (there's something for everyone!),please sign up here - Wellness Fair Buddha Bowl.  We will also be hosting the Wellness Fair presenters who are donating their time, so please consider throwing in a couple extra servings.For those of you who did not participate on our last Buddha Bowl Friday, just know that really anything goes. There are no rules, as long as it's (somewhat) healthy and yummy to you!

KHS readers
A group of students from Knightdale HS students will be coming to Underwood on Monday, April 8 from 10:10 - 10:40 to read and visit with our students. This is the info from Kristel Behrend, librarian at Knightdale High School:

Our HS Library Media Studies students are currently preparing for our Literacy Week (#JustReadIt) 4/8 - 4/12 and they really want to be role models for younger readers. So we'd like to take a field trip ... (and also to Hunt Library) to do read-alouds to ES students.  We're talking very simple - kids come in, pass out some bookmarks, share why they should read and read a picture book to a class.

This looks like a great opportunity for encouraging and inspiring our students!   Sign Up for KHS student readers   **Please indicate your class/elective grade
level so students can plan accordingly.

EOG dates 2019

• Wednesday May 29th- 3rd and 4th Grade ELA
• Thursday May 30th - 3rd and 4th Grade Math
• Friday May 31st- 5th grade Science , 3rd and 4th grade make ups
• Monday June  3rd- 5th grade ELA
• Tuesday June 4th- 5th grade Math
• Wednesday June 5th- 5th grade make ups

Check the Underwood Calendar often….

Check the shared Underwood google team drive, folder-Daily absences and info for the preferred sub list.

Together we are better!  Feel free to share feedback/celebrations anytime here


Conscious Discipline Challenge of the week:  
Look for the kind and helpful acts of others and recognize them on our “Ways to be helpful board” in the workroom.

Calendar/Important Links:

• April 2nd-Business Meeting; 8:15am
• April 5th-TA Meeting; 7:45am
• April 5th-Wellness Fair
• April 9th-Leadership Meeting; 7:45am
• April 9th-Q3 Report Cards go Home
• April 11th-CD PLT at 7:45am
• April 12th-Living Rhythms (9:30 K-2; 10:30 3-5)
• April 15th-19th-Spring Break
• April 22nd - Teacher Workday