Bear Cub Digest #10

Posted Date: 10/27/25 (10:21 AM)

Bear Cub Digest

Parent & Community Newsletter

October 27, 2025

Last Stretch to PM2

Welcome to Days 53–57 of our school year—a pivotal stretch as we enter the final five weeks before the second Progress Monitoring (PM 2) FAST assessment window opens on December 1st. With just 19 instructional days remaining until the testing window opens, every single day and every single lesson truly matters. This is our moment to lean in, stay focused, and ensure our students are receiving the strongest instruction possible. Please be sure that your kids are here daily and on time.

We have had a great increase in tardies this first quarter. Please note that every time a child is significantly late to school, they may miss critical instruction.

Last Week of October

This is the last week of October! We will have our live streamed "Leadership Parade," this Friday along with student clubs.

October Activities

10/27- 5th Grade field trip to Dr. Phillips Orlando Philharmonic 10:30-1:30

10/31- Student Clubs- NEW DATE

10/31- Leadership Parade

10/31- Last day to donate to the Howl-O-Ween Service Project

Parents Needed at the SAC Mini-Conference

SAC members, parents, staff, and community members, please join us for the 2025 SAC Conference on November 3rd at Gateway High School from 5:30-8:00pm.

PTO Trunk-A-Treat Success!

We give a huge shout out to our PTO for organizing an amazingly successful Trunk-a-Treat event! We had a huge turnout. See some pictures below. More pictures to come in a subsequent post.

Students dressed as Alvin and the Chipmunks

Habit Homework Due Friday!

Our October Habit Homework is due this Friday, October 31st. Currently, we have less then 10% of our school participating. Please help us increase this number. The grade level class with the most participation will receive a special award sign to hang out the classroom door and a treat. These will be delivered during the first week of November. Here are the standings as of Friday for the classroom with the most participation:

Pre-K: Crespo

Kindergarten: Maldonado, Tiedeman, & Trudeau (3 way tie)

First: Macaluso

Second: Bunnell-Walker (most turned in for the whole school!!!)

Third: Massey

Fourth: MIller

Fifth: Harrolle

Academic Corner: Revising Notes

What is focused notetaking?

Focused notetaking is a more active and organized way of taking notes that helps students better understand and remember what they learn. Unlike traditional notetaking, where you might just write down what’s being said without much thought, focused notetaking involves a series of steps. You start by preparing to take notes, then actively jot down key points, review and organize them, connect what you learned to things you already know, and reflect on it all. This approach pushes students to really engage with the material, making it more useful for learning rather than just recording information.

According to the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), the focused note-taking process has five phases.

1) Taking Notes

2) Processing Notes

3) Connecting Thinking

4) Summarizing and Reflecting on Learning

5) Applying Learning

Revising notes takes place in phase 2 of notetaking. Teachers may have students revise notes by underlining, highlighting, circling, chunking, questioning, adding, deleting—to identify, select, sort, organize, and classify main ideas and details. In the pictures below, students in one of our 4th grade ELA classes are adding to notes they have already taken (using red pens or other writing utensils) based on more discussion and reading on the topic.