Thank you for your continued partnership in making our school a welcoming and engaging environment for all. Thank you for continuing to work with your children at home. It takes a whole village to inspire great minds. The goal for all of our K-3 students is to score at least a “3” on the state assessments and to show growth from last year. If students scored a 4 or 5, we are working to maintain those levels. Most of our students made huge gains. 

We will look at the Beginning of Year (BOY) assessment data and compare it to the Middle of Year (MOY) assessment data to determine the growth each student has made. These assessments are important because they give us a glimpse at the trajectory of each child in terms of their growth toward grade level standards and their progress towards individual “learning gains”. While learning gains are important for all of our students, they are especially important for students in fourth and fifth grade because learning gains is one of the assessment data indicators that make up our school grade. I am so proud of our students! 

The start of winter break also brings a close to the first semester of the school year and the second quarter grading period. Students will be working into the week before the break to finalize their learning and unit assessments. Attendance right up until December 19 is important to ensure that students are able to complete all of the work for the second grading period.  

On December 19, our students will be participating in field day. We are still looking for volunteers to run each station. You can sign up to volunteer here: https://signup.com/go/iMwGwwm. If you plan to attend, please let your child’s teacher know. As a reminder, everyone who attends needs to be ADDitions approved and siblings are not allowed. 

Thank you for your continued support and dedication to your child’s education. We look forward to another productive and exciting week ahead! Together, we make this holiday season brighter for everyone in our school community by the lovely spirit we show towards each other. I so appreciate all of you and I hope you have a Merry Holiday and you have good health in the year to come. There will not be a newsletter next week. The newsletter will resume on January 4. See you in 2026!

Best Regards, 

Dr. Angela Murphy-Osborne

Principal

This is a great time of year to check if students have any library books that have been checked out longer than 1 month. Students are able to log in Launchpad and open the library research tool folder. They can click on the Follett Destiny App and then click on the words My Stuff. It will list any items checked out to the student.  

Also, did you know students have access to e-books and magazines through their launchpad. They can click on the Sora app and search through hundreds of titles to read. 

Accelerated Reader is a digital program that helps students and teachers manage and monitor independent reading practice in both English and Spanish. Students pick a book at their level and read it at their own pace. When students finish the book, they take a short quiz on a computer/device to check their understanding. As students read and take quizzes, they earn points and track their progress toward their individualized Accelerated Reader goals.

All students in K-5 have the ability to use AR at school or home. You can access the program by using Launchpad. 

Go to: launchpad.ocps.net

In Launchpad, Click on Renaissance.  

Then Click on Accelerated Reader

Type in the title of the book the student is quizzing on. Then Click Start Quiz.

Kindergarten-2nd Grade students can earn brag tags for completing badges in the program and for 9 passed quizzes on their reading range level each quarter. 

Third Grade-5th Grade students can earn brag tags for meeting their quarterly goals. Our library does have several books with an AR quiz (those are the books labeled with a dot sticker on the side of the library book). SSYRA Brag Tags are also passed out to those who take and pass an SSYRA book.  

SSYRA, Jr for Grades K-2: