A Message from Mrs. Vazquez-Markley, Principal

I cannot believe it’s February! This year is going by so fast. Your students are continuing to learn and grow and we are so excited to share their progress with you during family/teacher conferences.
If students would like to bring in cards for Valentine’s Day, February 14th, please try to have non-food items such as stickers, pencils or temporary tattoos. We will exchange, but students will open their Valentines at home.
During our FTO meeting we will review the School Improvement Plan and discuss ways to utilize our Title I Fund Budget to support our Ross students! We hope to see you there!
Join us later this month for our Pages & Prizes Literature Night being held at the Lancaster Library, 151 N. Queen St. This will be a fun-filled evening of activities and games! Come and explore the amazing facility right in our city!
Please note: students do not have school on Monday, February 16 or Tuesday, February 17. February 17 was not on the SDoL calendar that was sent to families at the beginning of the school year. It was omitted in error.
I hope to see many of you during our Guardian Teacher conference!
In partnership with you,
Mrs. Vazquez-Markley
Important Dates in February

Thursday, 2/5
School is in Session
Thursday, 2/5
Guardian/Teacher Conferences 4-7:30pm
Friday, 2/6
No School for Students
Friday, 2/6
Guardian/Teacher Conferences 8:30am-noon
Wednesday, 2/11
Early Dismissal at 12:30pm
Wednesday, 2/11
Ross FTO Meeting at 6pm
Monday, 2/16
No School
Tuesday, 2/17
No School for Students
Tuesday, 2/17
Chipotle FTO Fundraiser 5-9pm; 2081 Fruitville Pike
Thursday, 2/19
Pages & Prizes Family Literature Night 6pm; Downtown Library, 151 N. Queen St.
Wednesday, 2/25
Spring Picture Day
Guardian Teacher Conferences

Guardian Teacher Conferences will be held Thursday, February 5, 4-7:30pm and Friday, February 6, 8:30-11:30am.
Students will have a regular learning day on Thursday. School is closed on Friday.
If you are uncertain of your conference time, please call the office.
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What's Happening in my student's class…
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Our K4 friends will move into a community theme. We will explore what a neighborhood is and who we would find in neighborhoods. We will explore different community helpers and how they help our community. Throughout the theme we will continue to work on identifying our letters, letter sounds, number recognition, and counting. During February, we will also celebrate the 100th day of school!
In ELA, our K5 students have begun a new unit on ecology, where students are building background knowledge by reading and writing about ecosystems and the plants and animals that live there. In Math, we are starting Unit 5, exploring 2D and 3D shapes, describing and comparing shapes by their attributes, building larger shapes from simple ones, and counting and comparing data using picture graphs. In Social Studies, we will continue learning how working together and including everyone helps us build a strong classroom community. In Science, students will begin a unit focused on weather and how it affects our world. Thank you for your continued support!
First graders will be exploring more emotion words. Students are expected to make the shift from a 1B to 2B reader towards the end of the month. We will continue to read, retell, and write family stories. We will be focusing on geometry in Unit 5 in math as students learn to describe 2D and 3D shapes using distinguishing attributes and create composite shapes. Students will be wrapping up their Families Near and Far unit in social studies and preparing to present their family quilts. Our science unit will be focused on learning about animal body parts, heredity, and survival. Thank you for your continued support at home!
In our third ELA unit, second graders are reading many different types of animal stories, particularly traditional tales and twists on these tales, like Little Red Riding Hood. Students are busy creating characters, settings, problems, solutions, and morals for their own animal stories. Their stories will be gathered together in an anthology of their own animal stories in written form as well as a digital book. In Bridges Math, we are currently working on place value in the hundreds as well as counting and solving problems with money. We are in the midst of a science unit on changes to Earth’s surface, including slow and fast changes. The students are really enjoying the science experiments for this unit! In social studies, students will be using what they have learned to brainstorm and create plans for a product or innovation. It will be an exciting and challenging month of activities!
Miss Krol’s class has been working hard! We have been learning new ways to use our coping skills and communicate our needs! We had so much fun in January learning new topics and the way things work. We have been learning how to set SMART goals for ourselves to achieve. We have been working hard to meet our goals and earn our next class party! In February, we will be voting on our next party to earn. Our students are having fun learning and gaining new skills!
In February, our awesome 3rd-grade Ross Rockets just wrapped up our research projects about weather and have moved into our traditional tales unit. We will be reading and analyzing fairy tales, legends, tall tales, folktales, and mythology. We will wrap up the unit by having students create their own fairy tales. We will be finishing up our unit on measurement in a couple of weeks and returning to multiplication and division to deepen their current understanding. In social studies, we will continue our unit on Civil Rights, learning about many famous people who have helped to change our world, and continuing our project on how we can help make our world more equitable. In science, we will continue to study living things and their environment. We also continue to work on our social and emotional learning skills, developing a better understanding of our best self and the meta-moment, which helps to maintain a positive classroom community. Thank you, families, for all of your support!
In ELA, our 4th-grade students are diving into American historical fiction and strengthening their ability to analyze story elements such as characters, setting, and plot on a deeper level. A strong emphasis is being placed on text-dependent analysis, as students practice using clear evidence from the text to support their thinking in writing. In science, we are exploring various landforms and how they shape the Earth’s surface, while in social studies, students are learning about the natural resources of the United States and why they are important to our daily lives. In math, students are building accuracy and confidence with multi-digit addition and subtraction, and toward the end of the unit, they will begin applying these skills to measurement concepts.
In February, 5th-graders will continue Unit 4 in math, building confidence with multi-digit multiplication and division and learning to multiply whole numbers by decimals and fractions. In ELA, students will be reading the novel Storm Runners during our Adventure Unit while practicing Text-Dependent Analyses (TDAs) using evidence from the text. In Science, we will explore energy and matter in ecosystems, and in Social Studies, students will begin learning about the Colonial Era.
Read more to find out what your student is learning in Art, Music and PE

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Art Class at Ross: In art this month, all students are focusing on winter and holiday-themed projects. Kindergarten is learning about watercolor resist in their Valentine’s Day heart painting. 1st graders are creating a penguin collage on a tempera-painted background. 2nd graders are learning about paper weaving in their painted heart project. 3rd graders are learning about warm and cool colors in their watercolor winter tree landscape. 4th grade is creating a symmetrical snowflake drawing with a cool colored watercolor background. Finally, 5th graders are working on a bugs-eye-of-view winter tree silhouette painting while learning about how to blend colors.
In music class this month, PreK – 2nd grade will continue to explore the elements of music while singing songs and playing games with a Valentine’s Day theme. PreK will continue to explore the steady beat in music, Kindergarten will learn about piano (soft), forte (loud), and mezzo (medium). 1st and 2nd graders will continue to decode simple melodies and rhythms and begin composing their own while making decisions about high, low, macrobeats, and microbeats.
3rd through 5th graders will continue to learn lyrics and choreography for our Spring musical, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr., which will be performed May 14 and 15 at 7:00 on the school stage.
In PE classes, all students will be participating in our gymnastics unit. Here, students will work on skills focusing on rolling, balancing, jumping & landing, and more. Students will also have the opportunity to climb the rock wall and climbing ropes during this unit with station practice. This unit will culminate in our yearly obstacle course, where students will race another student through the course to see who can finish first!
A message from the Ross Family Teacher Organization (FTO)
Thank you to everyone who supports our monthly teacher appreciation events. The Ross staff truly enjoys being recognized.
Our next FTO meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 11, at 6:00 p.m. Thank you to those who participated in our fundraiser, The Egg Roll Lady. Egg rolls will be delivered on February 26th. This product freezes great!
Join us on Tuesday, February 17th, 5-9pm at Chipotle Restaurant, 2081 Fruitville Pike. All purchases made, either in the restaurant or online (for pick-up using code 3D3KC6A), will result in a portion of the proceeds going to the Ross FTO. Additional communication will be shared through ClassDojo and flyers will be sent home in Thursday Folders.
The Ross FTO is for everyone! Whether you volunteer once, give feedback, support an event, or join the conversation, that’s participation! However you engage, your involvement strengthens our Ross Community.
For updates and volunteer opportunities, check out ClassDojo or follow us on Facebook at George Ross Elementary School FTO.

Egg Roll Lady Fundraiser
Orders will be available for pick-up on Thursday, February 26th.
Entering Absences in ParentVUE
If your student is absent, please enter their absence through ParentVUE on the day of their absence. If you don’t remember your log-in, or if you’ve not yet set up your account, you may call the office for your log-in information. ParentVUE is an important part of your students’ school records. Easy access for you to enter absences, email their teacher and update your phone number or the phone numbers of emergency contacts.
You may also send a message by email to attendanceross@sdlancaster.org
Parent excuses must be received in the office within 3 school days of the absence.
Volunteer Clearance Platform
The School District of Lancaster is using a new platform for guardian volunteers to upload clearances. Any guardian who would like to chaperone field trips, please plan ahead. Start the process now so when asked, you can say, “Yes! I’d love to chaperone the field trip!”
