The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It is also one of the busiest times of the year for us all. Let us not forget to keep calm and do what we do best in the next few days as we approach a much needed two week break. This week's blog has a lot of information. Please keep reading so you can be informed because there are so many things happening this week! 

Important Info to Know:

Fundraiser Pick-up: Orders will be at the school on Wednesday, December 16th in our school's media center for pick up between the hours of 1:30 pm and 5:30 pm. We have communicated this information via paper and email. On Tuesday, December 15th a reminder call will go out to parents via Edulink. It would be helpful for you to communicate this to your class parents as well as some items need refrigeration. 

Fundraiser Incentives: Individual prizes that students earned will be included in with the orders picked up on Wednesday.  The top nine sellers will have the opportunity to slime Mr. Moore on Friday, December 18th. Friday will also be the day for the "Game Day" students earned. See below for the schedule. We have 110 students participating! (We will get a list of students participating to you as soon as possible.) Thanks for your support and assistance to make this winter fundraiser a huge success. 

Third Grade and Barnhill, Thompson, Moore, and Fulbright @ 9:30-10:30 
Fifth Grade and Hughes, Wilkie, Jordan, and Tate @ 10:30-11:30
Each group will be divided into three groups, and will rotate through each station for 20 minutes (game truck, laser tag, hamster ball). Students will finish with Kona Ice before they go back to class.

Class Party: Class parties will be held on Friday, December 18th beginning at 1:40. No one will be allowed to classrooms until 1:40. Parents can sign in through our main lobby area. They will have the option to sign their child out in the classroom at the end of the day. We look forward to a festive time with our students and parents on Friday afternoon! Please let the front office know if you need anything that day or afternoon. Feel free to leave after car riders have been dismissed. 

Chorus and Strings Concerts: Our Chorus concert will be held on Tuesday, December 15th in our school's multi-purpose room at 6:30. Doors will open at 6:00 at which time members of our Chorus are to report to the music room. The Strings concert will be held on Thursday, December 17th also in our multi-purpose room at 6:30. Again, doors open at 6:00. We have very talented students at PVES and hope you can make it to support our students as they perform!

Live streaming and recording: In a previous e-newsletter, we were excited to announce to parents that we would be able to live steam and record events this Christmas season. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are simply not able to do so. We are confident that we can use the system in the Spring and in the future to live stream and record events. We attempted to use the system to record the third grade performance, but our attempt was unsuccessful. Please make sure any parents who ask know that currently this is not an option. 

Let's Talk Testing

An email went out last week about testing information and updates. Included in this email was a presentation with information the District Office Administration felt our teachers need to know. Mr. Havird has strongly encouraged teachers to view this presentation. Here are some of the highlights:

SC Ready (Grades 3-8) 

• Tentative Test Window: April 27 - May 6
• Writing, Reading, English, Mathematics
• Open ended, traditional multiple choice, selected response items
• Timing (to be determined by the SCDE)
• Grades 5 and 8 will test online
• 100% aligned to 2015 SC College and Career Readiness Standards

SC PASS (Grades 4-8)

• Science, Social Studies
• Optional online
• Untimed
• Science includes field test items for the 2014 SC Science Standards

Please also keep in mind that Tammy Lee will begin working with resource, ESL, and regular education teachers to review testing accommodations to prepare for ordering testing materials, creating small groups, etc. Thank you for working with her and assisting her as needed in this process.

Great Things Are Always Happening at PVES:

Teachers and students have been working hard to Tech the Halls of PVES. Enjoy this quick Animoto video of some of the displays around our school. 

Great job to both our teachers and students for stepping up to donate canned goods. We had 793 items donated last week. Thank you for your generosity. 

Last week Mr. Moore took some third grade teachers to visit Forest Lake Elementary School in Richland 2. This school is doing some great things with PBL and NASA. Teachers came back with some wonderful ideas. 

Third grade students performed their Christmas program and had an excellent turn out by friends and family. Mrs. Turner made sure students were prepared and the musical was a hit. Thank you to third grade teachers for supporting their students and being flexible with some last minute changes in logistics. 

The Christmas Luncheon sponsored by PTSO was a special treat. Please make sure to express thanks for all they do for us at PVES!

Our hospitality committee put together another wonderful Christmas Dinner for staff members and spouses. The evening included dinner, desserts, games, door prizes, and a hay ride to see Christmas lights. A great time was had by all who attended! Check out some pictures from the snowman competition.  

            


On Monday third grade teachers had an opportunity to use half of the day to plan their upcoming PBL unit on bees. It was incredible to hear such rich discussion taking place between teachers, our science lab teacher, media specialist, and school technologist. They were able to tie in all content areas and related arts during the planning process. Third graders will begin their PBL unit on January 19th with a special guest to share their driving question for the unit. Look for updates on this amazing and innovative time for PVES! 

Mark Your Calendar:

• Tuesday, December 15th- Digital Playground @ 3:15
• Tuesday, December 15th- 4th and 5th Grade Chorus Concert @ 6:30 (MP Room)
• Wednesday, December 16th- Fundraiser Order Pick up 1:30-5:30 (Media Center)
• Wednesday, December 16th- Fire Drill (Time will not be announced) 
• Thursday, December 17th- Strings Concert @ 6:30 (MP Room) 
• Friday, December 18th- Jean Day for Teachers and Everyone's Tacky Sweater Day for Relay for Life ($1 for Sweaters)
• Friday, December 18th- Fundraiser Game Day (see above for details and times)
• Friday, December 18th- Slime Mr. Moore
• Friday, December 18th- Class Parties @ 1:40 

Tollison's Tidings:

• This month's Digital Playground will be the best one yet! Join us in the Media Center turned Coffee Shop at 3:15 for some hot chocolate, coffee, and sweat treats. Use this time to treat yourself, learn about Today's Meet and enjoy great conversations with colleagues. Jessica Preisig also has some exciting giveaways. You will not want to miss! (Be sure to sign into PD Express for credit.) 

• This week's video includes our school Christmas card. We shared this card with our District Office staff and administration as well as other school's administration teams in our district. Thank you for sending in photos and videos. Please share with your parents and students. We will plan to share via social media soon! 

'Tis the Season

And just like that, we're off and running toward Christmas Break. We are less than three weeks away from a well-deserved time away from school. December is crazy busy for educators (emphasis on CRAZY). Still, let's take a moment to reflect on our higher calling and purpose. We can use these last few weeks to make a difference. It's important that our students know that these days leading up to break do indeed count. In the chaos that ensues throughout the next twelve days, let us remain patient and kind and truly focused on our jobs. 'Tis the season, as they say, so let us keep doing our very best so we can say we did everything in our power to make a difference.

And We Have A Test:

*Please do not share this information with parents or students just yet*

From the creators of PACT and PASS comes SC READY! Yes, your new state test for accountability has been voted on and approved. While there is still much we DON'T know about the test, we do not that it will be 100% aligned to the new SC College and Career Ready standards. That's right - teach the standards and we will be fine. We do not expect the test to be timed. We do expect a variety of question types (multiple choice, constructed response, etc.). A test blue print and practice test will eventually be provided. The contract for this test is signed through 2020 so there will certainly be some consistency. One grade level (not grade 3) will be tested online this year with all grade levels being tested via computer beginning next school year. If you are doing some preliminary research, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan have tests that will be similar in make and procedure. If you are like me, you have a million questions. Please know we will release information as soon as it comes available. However, as far as high stakes testing goes, this is great news! 

PASS for Science and Social Studies will still be administered, but to whom is still up in the air. More than likely, our third grade friends will be spared from both but 4th and/or 5th grade students are fair game. We hope to know soon! 

Christmas Fun for YOU:
Our faculty Christmas luncheon will be held on Tuesday, December 8th in the PD Room (102). Parent volunteers will cover your classrooms beginning as soon as they check in at 11:00 A.M. until about 1:00 P.M. Obviously, you will want to leave instructions for your parent that they can easily follow. This is always an enjoyable time for our teachers and staff! Be sure to thank our PTSO board for their hard work in planning the event as well as serving during the event.

Our faculty Christmas party is scheduled for Friday, December 11th at the River Reserve Clubhouse. Information was placed in your teacher box about the event including menu and payment options. As was the case last year, we will have some fun activities and games in store for the party that you will not want to miss. Get your money to Patty as soon as possible. We had our largest crowd ever last year and we would love to top that number this year. Look forward to seeing you all there!

Christmas Calendar:
Please familiarize yourself with the many events taking place at PVES this December. 3rd graders are performing this week. Our 4th/5th Chorus and Strings students have performances soon. Our canned food drive is ongoing as well! It's a busy time of year, but I hope you will consider attending and participating in these events. Check out the smore I created and shared with parents for December!

Relay Fridays:
It's that time again....RELAY Fridays!

This coming Friday, December 4th will be extra recess day.  Every $1.00 your class raises will give them an extra minute of recess!  Plan to spread the minutes out over the next two weeks before Christmas break (if that's feasible).  

Friday, December 11th will be Pajama Day!  Any student who brings a $1.00 donation for Relay for Life can wear pajamas on that day.

The final Friday, December 18th will be Crazy Christmas Day!  Students who bring a $1.00 donation for Relay for Life can dress tacky, crazy, Christmasy..etc.!  The more red and green, the better!

Please get the word out about these Friday events via newsletters, email blasts, etc. Thanks!

If you follow our twitter feed, you know there are so many awesome things taking place in our classrooms. Our teachers are so talented! Here are some cool things we captured on camera.

PVES Art Show:
Mrs. Nix's hard work paid off in a tremendous way with her best art show to date! Thanks to those of you who made it a point to stop by and support your students and Mrs. Nix. A special "thank you" to those of you who volunteered during the event. We have some very talented students!

Cleaning Out:
As I walked down the hallway one day, I spotted Mrs. Clary and Mrs. Garrett at the end of the hallway cleaning out a closet. No one asked them to do this. They took it upon themselves to get the job done. They have made a great deal of progress in the closet at the end of the hallway (making their way through black widow spiders and unknown objects) and it will soon be a well-organized space that houses a variety of science equipment and materials. Thanks again, ladies!

Field Trip:
Ms. Marino's class visited the Upstate Children's Museum on Wednesday and had a blast. I was lucky enough to attend and enjoyed bring with that special group of students. The museum was very accommodating and Ms. Marino did a great job of planning the day for her students. It takes quite a bit of work to load up that group of students and hit the road, but we made it safe and sound. Thanks for the invite!

Moore's Musings:

• With so much happening these next few weeks, please make every effort to be at school. It is more difficult to find subs on Mondays and Fridays especially and even moreso as we near the break. 
• Thanks for making sure you are at school by 7:50 A.M. and in your room. Duty seems to be going very well in both the morning and afternoon so thank you all for that! 

Mark Your Calendar:

• December 3rd - 4th (morning)/5th (afternoon) Grade Reading Teachers PD in Room 102 (Lunch Provided). 
• December 4th - 3rd Grade Reading Teacher PD in Room 102. 
• December 4th - Relay Friday - Extra Recess Day
• December 8th - PTSO Faculty Luncheon in PD Room from 11:00 A.M. - 1:00 P.M.
• December 11th - Faculty Christmas Party at 6:30 P.M.

*Please review all upcoming events on our shared calendar. 

Video of the Week