PINE PEACE NEWS

April 26th, 2002

· Congradulation to all of you who participated in our Annual Science Fair. The displays, models, collections and experiments were very impressive. Special thanks to Rachel Roberts for all the time she has put into the Science Fair

I would also like to thank our honorable judges

Sis Frank, Ms. Dorothy, Pastor Sampson and Alan Glenn.

· We are presently setting up next years calendar, which will go home as soon as possible. WE are trying to coordinate ours with some of the other schools to make it easier for those of you who have children at different schools. The Board of Directors must approve our calendar before it is sent out. I am attempting to get it out by next Friday at the latest. Some dates that have already been approved, are the first day of classes for the students will begin on August 22^nd. Next year we will not have school on the day of The Children's Parade.

· There will be more information forthcoming about FACTS, the tuition management program we have contracted to assist us, clearly explaining the benefits for the families who attend Pine Peace School. The have an excellent web page that also explains in detail their programs. If you have a computer, that address is www.factsmgt.com. Their e-mail address is: Info@Factsmgt.com.

· Our final PTO meeting of this school year will be May 9^th at 6:30 in the library. Our guest speaker will be from Vitema. The discussion will be about hurricane and tsunami preparedness. Never a pleasant topic but one that is so necessary for us. Please join us for this last meeting and share your ideas and thoughts for our upcoming school year.

· Have a Wonderful Weekend!

NOTES

· Please contact the office if your phone number or address has changed.

· Please do not park in the BUS area.

· Children MUST be in their classroom ready for school by 8:00am, otherwise you must accompany them to the office for an excused tardy slip before they can go to class. Remember that drop-off time begins at 7:45 and children are to be picked up by 3:00pm.

· If you have not paid the BUILDING FEE, please do so immediately in the office (Visa & Master Card accepted) REMINDERS HAVE BEEN SENT HOME.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Recycling: We have raised over $ 215.00 with all your recycled trash! Thanks so much for helping the school as well as helping our environment. We have almost reached our yearly pledge for Save The Child so we will soon begin a playground fund with this money. Thanks to all especially Ms. Tracey who sorts all of the bottles and cans every week

PPS Grade 6 Newspaper: Look for Edition 5! The newspaper is on sale at both of the Connections offices, St. John Hardware, and the North Shore Deli for 50¢, while supplies last. Thank you for your support! Expect Edition 6 SOON!!

TAG/RUMMAGE: Thank you to everyone who came out on Saturday and supported our TAG/RUMMAGE SALE! - The 6th Grade

Lunch Sales on Thursday & Friday: Thank you to everyone who supported our Lunch Sales on Thursday & Friday! We’re happy you chose to eat with us! - The 2nd & 6th WEEKLY WEDNESDAY PIZZA LUNCH SALE: We have a new pizza ordering system in place. Orders should be placed and paid for at school with the 6th grade by Tuesdays at 3PM, but if you’ve forgotten, Joan Birmingham has volunteered to be outside of the 6th grade classroom to take last minute orders on Wednesdays from 7:45-8:30AM (ALL orders must be placed by then! No Bakery orders, please - they made things very confusing). Sorry, no IOUs. Slices are available for $2 each and punch will be on sale for $1. An order form will be sent home on Thursdays or Fridays of the week prior to the sale for your convenience. Thank to all PPS families, students, and staff who support our weekly pizza sales!

CLASSROOM NEWS

PRE-SCHOOL: We had a great trip to the farm last week! We would like to thank Vanessa, Claudine, Kate, Karen, Lottie, Watisha, Mr. Wade and the Boyson Inc. barge service and everyone else who made our trip possible, thank you, thank you, thank you!! The children’s favorite part seemed to be the pony rides!!! The farm trip culminated our farm unit, now we have begun ‘Jungle Animals”. We are creating a jungle mural and we are enjoying all our animal stories. We are hoping to go to the library this coming week. We will let you know ASAP. Have a great weekend!!!!!!!

PRE-K: We all had a wonderful time at the farm. The kids were so excited to ride on the pony and with petting the animals. I would like to say "Thanks!" to Mr. Wade and Boyson Inc. for helping us with the transportation. We're now working on simple addition and subtraction. We are also reviewing the letters of the alphabet. Please continue to reinforce these concepts at home with your child. Thank You!

KINDERGARTEN: This week, the students worked with the “et” blend. We have read and written many words with “et” blend. Please ask your child to share these words with you. Take Home Books are coming home. Please have your child read to you. In Math, we have reviewed telling time on the hour, and introduced time on the half hour. Please review this concept with your child. Thanks~ Ms. Frett Enjoy the 50th Roogoodoo!

FIRST: I have sent home the Dolch word site word assessments. They are in your child’s homework folder. Please note the words your child missed and work with them on recognition. I will be performing Math assessments. I will include a list of specific areas that your child may show strength or weakness in. These will be in your child’s folder this week as well. Our field trip is Tuesday, April 30th. If you are a chaperone, please see me in regards of carrying additional water or a group snack. Also, Please send in cash only for the fifteen-dollar fee for the trip. I have arranged for a taxi to take us to the trailhead so plan on meeting at school on Tuesday morning. We will leave at 8AM sharp so we will have plenty of time to cover the trail and have ample beach time. You will still need to pick your child up at the National Park dock across from Mongoose junction at 3PM sharp. As our school year wraps up, I will be putting together Summer Folders for your child. These will include reading logs, Website listings, and other suggested activities for your child. I hope these will be helpful to you and your child. Spelling test this coming week will be on Wednesday, as we have our trip on Tuesday! We have begun working on “Literary Response Journals”. These are your child’s reaction to what he/she has read, as well as teaching them to ___underline book titles and to give the author recognition! We are also working on completing our dictionaries for the year, and learning about Compound Words (peanut, homework, etc). Thank you all for your support. Have a lovely weekend~ Miss Jennifer

SECOND: Thanks to everyone for your support of our Lasagna Lunch on Friday! It was GREAT! We are finishing our Dinosaur Unit and watched a dinosaur video today. We are preparing to start an Ocean Unit. Don't forget that Tuesday is our Reef Bay fieldtrip. We are very excited!

THIRD/FOURTH: We really enjoyed getting ready for the Science Fair. The boards turned out very well! Congratulations on a job well done!

FIFTH: Thanks to the MKHCS for the informative presentation on "our changing bodies". This talk has transformed us into young men and women. We are continuing our polygon books in Math - they are coming along nicely. We are all gripped by the emotional suspense of Where The Red Fern Grows. We can't wait to finish reading it! In writing this week, we had a fun assignment on the theme of "cafeteria food". . These were quite humorous! Have a nice weekend!

SIXTH: Edition 6 of the Newspaper will be sent home today or Monday, so keep an eye out for it. We’re working on Edition 7 in the Computer Lab now. The Yearbook is done! It has been delivered to the printer and hopefully will be back by the end of May. We will send out an order form to the school community for the yearbook soon. Our Class Trip to Disney World is moving right along. We have a few minor changes to the schedule due to availability, so I’ll send an updated version home with permission slips next week. We do need to keep raising money for this trip!!! Upcoming fundraiser: Pizza Sale weekly on Wednesdays. The Pizza Sale raised about $100 this week! Thank you to the Rolling Pin and Ganson’s family for coordinating this weekly event, and to Ruth and Josephine for supplying punch. Tag/Rummage Sale raised $225! Thank you, Aimee, for coordinating the event. Lunch Sale raised around $280! Thank you to Ruth, her sisters Maggie and Icilda, and Josephine for the terrific food! We have one or two Pizza sales left - we might be short a few hundred dollars from our goal (not being able to advertise for the last few editions of the newspaper hurt us a little). I’ll let you know, when I know more, if we need to get some last minute money in. I’m sorry! This is in no way a reflection of all of our hard work. We’ve done an awesome job, and raised a lot of money for both the class trip and the school yearbook. We should be proud! Less than two weeks!!! Permission slips will go home Monday! The Bird Survey: Great trip on Thursday. We spotted three new species!! Our last trip is - Thursday, May 30 to Francis Bay. I’ll need another chaperone since Debbie is now gone. The BASICS… Remember: The calendar and daily class work and homework are posted to the PPS website at www.pinepeaceschool.k12.vi <http://www.pinepeaceschool.k12.vi> in the Parent’s Corner. Check it out! Spelling Lesson 27: due 4/26, Quiz 4/29. Spelling Lesson 28 next week. Our English work is currently on verbs. We’ve been working on poetry - students need to write 5 complex acrostics on any topic by Wed., 5/1. Math: We continue to work on fractions in Chapter 7. Students need to keep on reviewing past material - it’s all building on itself. Science: Test yesterday looks good at quick glance. Now, we’re beginning to study changes over time - genetic evolution and extinction of species. Science Fair: It’s over! The kids did a GREAT job! Thank you for all of your help and support! Winners will be announced next week in the Newsletter! Social Studies: We had our Unit Test this week and are moving on to a new unit studying US independence and new government. Students had their Health classes at the clinic this week; ask your child about it. On a personal note: Thank you to everyone who helped me throughout the week. This was a bad cold/flu - and I appreciate everyone pitching in to make my life a little easier and enable me to get well faster! You’re the BEST!

SPANISH: I was absent on Tuesday so we fell a day behind in our planned activities. But we spent class time on Thursday getting caught up! Upper grades have their new Bingo cards due on Tuesday. No excuses for not completing them this time! Our new question is "Como estas?" with the response of "Estoy" or "Tengo" and an adjective. Lower grades are still compiling their books. They are coming along nicely.

LIBRARY: Due to my absence there were no library classes held this week. However, we have made many beautiful posters to adorn our cherished library. If you haven't seen them, please stop by! The kids have worked very hard!

COMPUTERS: PPS COOKBOOK!!!!! Please submit family recipes! There has been to date only three submissions, which is very disappointing. Family pictures may accompany submissions and will be returned. This could be a treasured item and would make a lovely gift for grandparents and the like but only if you get those recipes in. Commit yourself to it over this weekend and send them in on Monday.

PE/POTTERY: No Class News

ART: No Class News

OTHER DEPARTMENTS/COMMITTEES

DEVELOPMENT: PLEASE GET ALL THOSE CAR RAFFLE TICKETS SOLD AND RTURNED WITH $$ TO THE SCHOOL!! We are unable to take the car to St. Thomas this weekend because Tutu Park Mall is closed for Carnival! I will be taking it next weekend and the weekend following if parents/students want to come and help.

We are still taking donations for the BBQ Raffle - sign up sheet is on the outside of the office wall. The more that gets donated, the more that funds go directly to the school! Please help out if you can.

Thank you to those of you have given me leads on individuals who may be interested in donating a week stay at their rental homes for our e-bay auction. I know that between all of us we have lots of connections! Please drop me some names if think of anyone! Have a great weekend! ~ Ms.Damara

BBQ RAFFLE: ALL MEETINGS TO BE HELD AT 3:00PM ON MONDAYS! At The April 29^th meeting we will each select a booth for which we will be responsible. I will have a sign up sheet and I will copy it after we fill it in so we each know who is responsible for what. You will also be assigned to either the Set Up crew or the Clean Up crew. We are using the figure of 500 persons to estimate all purchasing. Please bear this in mind. TENTS are our next biggest hurdle. I want everyone to secure the usage of 1 tent/canopy for the May 18^th affair. Please come to Monday's meeting with that information. There will also be a Saturday preparation/workday on May 11^th from 9am until noon. I am requesting at least 8 volunteers for this! See you all Monday. Thanks for all your help and support. It is so appreciated!

CALENDAR NOTES

May 5^th - Ms. Val's B-day!

May 9^th - Final PTO Meeting - Vitema Presentation

May 9^th - 14^th Sixth Grade Gone On Class Trip

May 14^th - Board of Directors Meeting

May 18^th - BBQ Raffle Event & Ms. Damara's B-day