Sea Cliff School Parent Community Association

 

Sea Cliff PCA Meeting Minutes

February 27, 2019

Sea Cliff School Library

 

Attendance:  Amelia Hecker, Courtney Chambers, Grant Kletter, Nicole Ecker, Tannaz Balooch, Sara Jones, Adeline Phelps, Natasha Gordon, Jessica Accetta, and Laura Ryniker.

 

  1. PCA Updates
  1. Welcome: Co-president Amelia Hecker called the meeting to order at 8:00 p.m. and welcomed attendees. She thanked everyone for attending. She announced that the PCA executive board will have several openings next year, including the positions of co-president, treasurer, co-events, and merchandising. She encouraged those who want to be more involved with the PCA to apply.

 

  1. Events Update: Tannaz Balooch updated attendees on three upcoming PCA events and passed around volunteer sign-up sheets. She encouraged attendees to volunteer to help with events. The upcoming events are:
  1. School play: The school play will be held on Friday, March 8th at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 9th at 1:00 p.m.
  2. Movie Night Night: This year’s movie night will be Friday, March 15th at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium. The movie has not yet been decided.
  3. International Night: International night will be April 4th at 6:00 p.m. Claudia Ames and Katia Kallour are the event co-chairs.

 

  1. Grade Happenings:

Teacher liaison Mrs. Hild submitted a report about ongoing grade level and specials (music, art, FLES, SWES, PE) activities. Please see attached report.

 

III. Principal’s Report

Dr. Zublionis began by updating attendees on “Sea Cliff Saves the World,” a volunteer project begun last year. Recently, Sea Cliff mayor Ed Lieberman and village trustee Dina Epstein met with fifth grade students to discuss village environmental regulations. NS CASA (North Shore Coalition Against Substance Abuse) also recently met with fifth graders to discuss an upcoming poster contest relating to overall wellness. In upcoming months fifth graders will begin volunteering with a Sea Cliff food pantry and at the local senior center. Parent volunteer Mrs. Reynolds has spearheaded this program for the last two years and is looking for another parent to take over as her youngest child will be moving on to the middle school next year.

In other school news, NYSSMA forms are due Monday, March 4th. The Sea Cliff Singers will be performing on March 24th at the Nassau Coliseum. Local music group Antigone Rising recently met with all fifth graders in the district at North Shore High School with a program about being a game changer and tolerance. Antigone Rising will be meeting with Sea Cliff 3rd and 4th graders at Sea Cliff School soon.

Parent/teacher conferences will be held March 7th and 8th; conference sign-ups are on-line and the link was sent out earlier this week. School will be dismissed at 10:40 on Thursday, March 7th and there will be no school on Friday, March 8th.

The shared decision making committee is concentrating on movement, mindfulness, and physical activity during the day. The committee is also creating ideas for teachers to utilize the outdoor learning spaces. Gardening classes with Renato will resume once the weather improves.

Dr. Zublionis also updated attendees on new security updates at Sea Cliff School. The school has a new part-time security supervisor, Bob Oldham, who is familiar with the procedures outlined by the new district security consulting company, Altaris. The school now has full security coverage between 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. There will be a few more lockdown drills this school year. The school is working on improving the dismissal process along Franklin Avenue; better fencing is needed to keep parents and students out of the street.

The Sea Cliff School student government started a new “Snowkid Challenge” this year. Classes are making snow kids (similar to snowman) out of recycled materials. The students are enjoying this activity. Finally, the school Geography Bee was won by Arianna Giannola.

 

  1. District Reports:
  1. Sara Jones, President of the North Shore Board of Education, noted that the 2019-2020 district budget will be released soon. The next Board of Education meeting will take place on Thursday, February 28th. At that meeting, the board will discuss the budget particulars, including line by line expenditures, a 5 year history of past expenditures, and five year revenue projections. The budget is approximately $107 million. Sara reminded attendees that Dr. Giarrizzo gave an overview of the budget at the last BOE meeting; if you are interested, you can watch the meeting on the district website.

 

  1. Guest Speakers
  1. Enrichment committee chair Laura Ryniker reported that the third session of the enrichment program will begin in April. Sign-ups will likely begin in mid-March. The enrichment committee will continue to hire aides to chaperone the classes rather than rely on parent volunteers. The program may be given a new name this spring as it is confusing to have the after school classes use the term “enrichment” as it is also used in school classes.

 

  1. Grant Kletter spoke on behalf of North Shore Parents for Safe Schools to advocate for safety issues in the district. The group has been working since November 2017 to move elections out of the schools. He asked the PCA Executive Board to support the group and write letters endorsing their efforts, and he also asked individuals present at the meeting to sign a petition circulated by North Shore Parents for Safe Schools to remove elections from school buildings.

 

  1. Dalia Rodriguez, North Shore Fine and Performing Arts Director, spoke about the arts program at North Shore. She encouraged parents to encourage their children to continue with arts education through middle and high school. She gave an overview of the arts program at North Shore, including music, visual arts, and theatre opportunities.

 

  1.  Closing: Co-president Amelia Hecker adjourned the meeting at 9:15 p.m. and thanked everyone for attending.

 

Attachments:

 

Grade Happenings Report from Mrs. Hild

 

 

PCA Notes February 27, 2019

 

Kindergarten In kindergarten we are just finishing and publishing our How To writing and finishing our Bigger Books, Bigger Muscles unit of reading. Students are beginning to leave patterned text as their reading muscles and strategies become stronger. Our 100th day of school celebration with all day long 100 day center activities was Friday, February 15th. We have been working on counting by 2s, 5s and 10s as we learn to recognize numbers to 100. We are looking forward to beginning our non-fiction units of writing and reading upon our return from break.
First Grade First grade is starting our poetry unit and the kids will have the opportunity to experiment writing all different kinds of poems. We also are continuing with our light and sound science unit. They are also doing lessons with Mrs. Krupin on this topic. In math we have moved onto solving addition and subtraction word problems.
Second Grade In reading, second graders are studying characters in longer texts. They are thinking about character’s choices, feelings, traits and lessons they are learning. In writing, they are planning, drafting, revising and editing their realistic fiction texts! Students have developed characters that they are taking on special adventures. They are making sure to stretch out the hearts of their stories with dialogue, actions and feelings. They are crafting new beginnings and trying on different types of endings. In math, students are discovering attributes of 2D shapes! We will move to 3D shapes shortly.
Third Grade Third grade began studying China. We will be focusing on the people o f China and exploring topics like food, clothing, celebrations, education, arts etc. In math we are working on fractions. Our focus has been to understand a unit fraction, equivalent fractions and comparing fractions
Fourth Grade The 4th graders just finished an awesome study of the American Revolution and are looking forward to becoming “Reading Detectives” for reading and writing. In math, the 4th graders are ready to start learning about area and perimeter and solving challenging problems with area and perimeter. In science, we are starting to learn about magnetism and electricity!

Before February break, our 4th grade students were able to visit Raynham Hall Museum in Oyster Bay, Long Island. At the museum, the students learned all about the Washington Culper Spy Ring and what life was like for a spy during the American Revolution. The kids had a great time!

Looking forward to parent teacher conferences!
Fifth Grade In math we just finished learning how to multiply and divide decimals. We are about to start geometry. We are reading and writing researched-based arguments in literacy. We are studying ecosystems in science with Mrs. Krupin, and we will be learning about the US government in the coming weeks.
Art The “Doodle for Google” contest entry forms are due to Mrs. Giurlanda by March 9th, 2019. Parents can also enter their child’s entries up until noon, on March 18th. If you need more information, please email Mrs. Giurlanda.

Kindergarteners are exploring 3D shapes and ways to apply paint.

First and Second graders are going to be working in 3D, through the use of clay.

Third graders are working on animal paintings and will soon be moving into artwork inspired by China.

Fourth and Fifth graders are currently learning about value and how artists use value to achieve different results in their paintings.
Music Students are busy preparing for the NYSSMA Solo Festival which is taking place on March 27th and 28th.

Piano NYSSMA Festival applications are due no later than March 4th. They can be picked up from Mrs. Hassett-Bordes.
Mandarin In Mandarin at all levels, we have been engaging in the “Chinese Circle” activity. During this activity, students sit or stand in a circle, and are encouraged only to speak Mandarin. Fun, silly, dynamic, language-rich pairings and transitions are used to get the students to interact and be engaged and move around the room, as well as encourage them to think and problem solve in the target-language.
Spanish 3rd grade – students are working on school supplies vocabulary  and how to ask for them in a polite way.

4th grade – students are working on vocabulary and expressions relating to activities, clothing and weather in the summer season. They will be able to talk about activities they enjoy playing, clothing they wear for these activities and describe the weather in the summertime.

5th grade – students are working on the food unit and will talk about things they enjoy eating and drinking. They will be able to order a meal and the check at a Latin American restaurant.
Library In library, we have been focusing on Black History month through literature highlighting the achievements of African Americans. While we always share diverse books, fiction and non, by and about people of color, the students understand why there needed to be a month set aside (established in 1976) to honor many of our unsung heroes!
STEAM Focused around our two big questions (How do different objects  move? How can we change the way an object moves?), kindergarten engineers have been busy building and testing different ramps as part of their scientific investigation of motion and design. After making discoveries about speed, force, and motion, students are now using their ideas to build safe and innovative marble roller coasters using foam insulation tubes.

To enrich their study of astronomy, first grade astronauts and engineers are currently engaged in this year’s FIRST LEGO League Jr.’s “Mission Moon” challenge. As part of this adventure, students are working in groups to construct model Moon Bases out of LEGO materials. After first thinking about what humans need to survive, and how Earth gives us what we need, first graders discovered that they will need to bring and build these essentials if we are going to live safely on the Moon. To help humans have food and air on the Moon, students designed and created greenhouses for their Moon Bases, thinking about what crops they will grow and what their plants will need to thrive. After considering how we use water on Earth, first graders then added a greywater system to their Moon Bases so that gently used water could be recycled and reused to water the greenhouse crops. In the coming weeks, students will continue working through the challenge with Mr. Bridgwood as they use LEGO WeDo 2.0 robots to create and program a vehicle for their Moon Bases.

As an extension of their study of matter and its properties, as well as their investigation of polygons, second graders worked as civil engineers as they planned, created, and tested bridges that followed specific criteria and constraints. Using only 40 straws and masking tape, engineering groups were challenged to build strong bridges that could hold the most weight. Like all engineering challenges, research and brainstorming were done before bridges were built; second graders learned about the parts of a bridge, different types of bridges, and the strength of different shapes before they worked collaboratively on a group design.
SWES Please remind parents to check out my Twitter feed (Sea Cliff Enrichment@stemteach23), which displays all our latest enrichment experiments and investigations.

I continue to enrich the K – 5 Science Curriculum as follows…

Kindergarten – Students are participating in hands-on investigations to learn about animal adaptations, hibernation and migration.

First Grade – Waves, Light, and Sound – Students are currently investigating Light energy and how particles of light travel.

Second Grade – Processes that Shape the Earth – Students are investigating the causes of volcanoes and earthquakes and how they shape Earth’s terrain.

Third Grade – Ecosystems, Cycles, and Traits – Students are learning about animal adaptations and the difference between traits that are inherited and acquired.

Fourth Grade – The fourth graders are investigating Magnetism and Electrical Energy – Through hands-on experimentation, students are discovering ways to use magnetism to create electricity.

Fifth Grade – The fifth graders are using the scientific method to learn about ecosystems and animal adaptations, as well as environmental issues that threaten Earth’s biomes.
Gym We just finished foot skills in PE. We celebrated healthy heart month from February 11th-February 15th. Students participated in a theme related week, worked on various healthy heart activities in PE and competed in the heart rate obstacle course. We read healthy heart facts and played heart related music everyday. We will be starting

March Madness (basketball) when we come back from our winter vacation.