Bear Cub Digest #23

Posted Date: 02/09/26 (07:49 AM)

Bear Cub Digest

Parent & Community Newsletter

February 9, 2026

Celebrate Black History/ Love in Action

As we enter Week 5 of the second semester and third quarter—days 110–114—I want to take a moment to recognize our district’s February’s theme, LOVE IN ACTION. This theme is on full display in our leadership, in our classrooms, and in every interaction, love becomes visible through purposeful action—through showing up, following through, and giving our very best to every student, every day.

February also marks Black History Month, a powerful reminder that excellence, courage, creativity, and resilience have shaped—and continue to shape—our nation. Let us honor this month not only through celebration, but through our daily commitment to opportunity and high expectations for every learner. When we uplift our students’ identities and histories, we put LOVE IN ACTION in its most impactful form.

February Events At-A-Glance

Feb. 6- Q3 Progress Reports

Feb. 6- School Crossing Guard Day

Feb. 11- PTO Arts Night

Feb. 12- Dress Down Day

Feb. 15 - SRO Day

Feb. 16 - Rodeo Queens Visit Kinder/1st

Feb. 17 - Random Acts of Kindness Day

Feb. 17 - SAC/PTO Meeting in Media Center @ 7:00am

Feb. 17 - Kindergarten Field Trip-Wild Florida

Feb. 19 - 2nd Grade Field Trip- Seaworld

Feb. 20 - No School- Rodeo Day

Feb. 26 - 3rd Grade Field Trip- Orlando Science Center

Parent Resource Night words on SMART Board.

Parent Resource Nights

I would like to thank all parents that came to one of the three offered Parent Resource Nights last week. Those in attendance received valuable information about 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade benchmark requirements, FAST testing and requirements (including taking a look at some of the released test questions, and FAST test Parent Reports. All in attendance left with valuable resources to use for these remaining weeks of school. We will send some of these resources this week for your use. Thank you again!

Math and Science Coach presenting FAST progress monitoring information

Presentation and translation during Parent Resource Night

Son presenting to mother at Parent Resource Night

Parent working with child in resource night

Progress Learning lesson at Resource Night

Using ClassLink Resources at Home

If your child does not have their student device with them, they can still access ClassLink by visiting: https://login.classlink.com/my/osceola or google "Classlink Osceola".

The login credentials may require the student to add @student.osceolaschools.net after their student id number.

The password to log into class link will be the one they use to log into their student devices.

K-2 Level Up Parties

We had our final Level Up party for all of our students in kindergarten through 2nd grade that made reasonable growth from PM1 to PM2. These students had an amazing time. Thank you to all of our PTO volunteers that helped us serve students!

Math Week

OCTM Math Week is this week, and our school will join the celebration by participating in and supporting school-wide math activities that spark curiosity and joy in mathematics. These activities help build a positive math culture and reinforces the message that math is for everyone—full of creativity, problem-solving, and fun!

TRACK SEASON COMING!

Track team tryouts will begin on Monday, February 23 for students in grades 3-5. Tryouts will continue Tuesday, February 24 and Thursday, February 25th. To participate in tryouts and subsequent practices, students must be registered on aktivate.com.

ALL paperwork will be filled out through this site. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Coach Waters or Coach Brown. Their email addresses are:

Candice.waters@osceolaschools.net

Amanda.brown@osceolaschools.net

Yearbook Purchase

The deadline is approaching for yearbook shoutouts and purchases. Please make sure you use the information below to purchase your shout-out pages and yearbook. We want to give you plenty of time to make your order!

Academic Corner: Protocol Sheets

We are now 52 instructional days away from May 1, when the FAST PM3 testing window opens. These next weeks are critical. Your intentional leadership will set the tone for the strong finish our students need and deserve. In this time we must be highly intentional with our work to support student learning:

Student by student
Skill by skill
Week by week

FAST testing requires preparing students to use planning or protocol sheets to enhance performance on progress monitoring (PM) assessments, which occur three times a year. Teachers can train students to use these tools for brainstorming, mapping out answers, and managing time, thereby building confidence and reducing anxiety.

Strategic Planning: Students should use planning sheets to map out responses before entering them, especially for constructed-response questions, which are part of the FAST assessment.
Protocol Familiarity: Training to utilize the protocol sheets can help them become comfortable with the format, leveraging short, high-energy, and repeatable test-feedback-test cycles.