Bear Cub Digest #11

Posted Date: 11/03/25 (7:03 AM)

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Bear Cub Digest

Parent & Community Newsletter

November 3, 2025

November Habit Homework

Thank you to everyone that completed the October Family Habit Homework!

Congratulations to first grade for having the highest participation across our school. Prizes will be delivered by Friday, November 7th.

Our November Family Habit Homework will be coming home this week. For November, families will focus on sharing their Family WIGs (Wildly Important Goals) and leading measures (Habit #2: Begin with the End in Mind). Please find information about the 4DX Challenge below, along with some guiding questions to help families create a meaningful Wildly Important Goal.

Speaking of WIGs, our Family Action Team WIG for the November Habit Homework is to have 25% of our school participate by completing and returning the homework by Friday, November 21st.

Hello November!

We are already in the month of November! There are many things happening before we are out for Thanksgiving Break.

November Activities

November 3-7 is Holocaust Education Week in Florida. See the information in the picture below.

11/3- SAC Mini-conference

11/6- Picture Retakes

11/11- No School - Veteran's Day Holiday

11/14- Quarter 2 Progress Reports

11/18- SAC/PTO at 7:00 am

11/19- Paraprofessional Support Day

11/20- Dress Down Day

11/20- Choice Fair 5-7:30 Heritage Park

11/21- Student Club Day

11/24-28- No School- Thanksgiving Break

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.

NCES Leadership Parade!

We had an amazing week with an amazing Leadership Parade to end the week. Thank you to all students who participated in this event. See a few of the pictures below.

Principal as Mario and student as Mario character.

Ms. Maldonado's class in leadership parade.

Mrs. Morrison is Retiring

Our beloved Varying Exceptionalities (VE) teacher, Mrs. Morrison is retiring. Mrs. Morrison has over 30 years of service in Osceola County! Most of her experience has been at Narcoossee Elementary School (formerly Narcoossee K-8) and began as a kindergarten teacher here. Mrs. Morrison has been an extremely valued member of our school team, and she will be greatly missed! We wish her the best as she takes this next step in her journey.

Academic Corner: Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning strategies aim to improve student engagement by ensuring all voices are heard, tasks are managed effectively, and students can work together productively to build on each other's ideas.

One of those strategies used by some of the teachers at NCES is called the carousel brainstorm and gallery walk. In this strategy, questions or prompts are posted around the room, and students move in small groups to write their ideas on each paper, promoting anonymous participation.

Students share and process the ideas with the whole group with a gallery walk (students silently move from poster to poster, reading and noting important ideas). A carousel uses wait time for planning and a degree of anonymity in answering to create a nonthreatening atmosphere in which all students have an equal chance share their ideas. See some pictures of one of our second-grade teachers incorporating this strategy with her students in the math subject area.