Our annual Beginning of the Year Parent Meeting was held last night (Tuesday, Aug. 22nd). We also continued our tradition of holding a large group GEP meeting for the new 3rd grade parents beforehand. For those of you who were not able to attend the meeting(s) I have provided links to the presentations that I used below. If you ever have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to call me at the school (379-3000), email me (cchunn@jefcoed.com) or send me a message via ClassDojo.

3rd Grade Presentation

BOY TAG Presentation

Follow This Link To Register!

This year’s TAG Parent Meeting was held on Tuesday evening. I want to give a huge thank you to all the parents who came out to learn about our program.

Third Grade Parents Only

The first half of this meeting is always reserved for the parents of our new third grade students. We discussed the Second Grade Child Find process and what all the information that I gathered during it means. Any parent who was unable to attend is welcome to request a copy of their child’s Gifted Eligibility/Screening Dertermination Form (we call it the Matrix). The presentation I used is linked below and should explain the scores listed on the Matrix.

Third Grade Parent Meeting Powerpoint

All TAG Parents

In the second half of our beginning-of-the-year meeting we explained how our program works and all the little things that make it awesome!

The two most important pieces of information that we covered are this year’s Concept Based Curriculum topics and our continued emphasis on technology. As usual, we will be using  Schoology and Google Apps for Education and Duolingo. We also touched on this year’s TAG Schedule, reviewed the money system, and talked about our extra curricular opportunities.

If you missed the meeting, or just want a refresher, you can check out the presentation I used by following the link below.

Beginning-of-the-Year Parent Meeting Powerpoint

A Few More Things

A few things that I meant to cover in the meeting but somehow didn’t manage to…

1. Make Up Work – Any work that is done in class while students are gone to TAG does not have to be made up. Many teachers still give their TAG students a copy of the work so that they know what was covered while they were out, but it does not have to be made up. Any homework assigned for that evening does need to be completed. If tests are given or work is assigned on a long term project while students are away in TAG these, obviously, need to be made up.
2. Supplies – Instead of asking for supplies to be sent in (although tissues are always appreciated) or requiring that students purchase their own binders and other materials, we ask that each student donate $10 to our program. This allows us to buy specifically what we need when we need it. It also lets us save up money to buy big ticket items, like technology resources, for our students to use. The students will receive TAG money for turning in their donation.

Parent Webinar Series, March 29, 2022, 6:00 pm CT

Brooke Brown is a National Board Certified Early Childhood Teacher with 18 years of teaching experience in Kindergarten through third grade. She is currently a Gifted Resource Coordinator for early childhood students, teaching Gifted and Talented, math and literacy enrichment, and STEM. Brooke is a former district Teacher of the Year and has a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership. She creates original teaching resources as the owner of Teach Outside the Box®, is a product developer for hand2mind, and is the inventor of STEM Bins®. Brooke is passionate about STEM, coding and robotics, Makerspaces, hands-on literacy, and purposeful play for elementary students. She lives in Norman, Oklahoma with her husband, Andy, and two children, Ellie and Beau. Learn more about Brooke on teachoutsidethebox.com.

For a printable flyer click here.

To register for the session click here.

Happy Beginning-of-the-Year!

TAG classes officially began last week for 4th & 5th graders. 3rd graders (those that have already been tested) will begin class in early Sept. You can find the schedule HERE.

Assuming that nothing changes and school remains in person the entire year, TAG classes will be in person as well. But that doesn’t mean our students who are home due to COVID will be left out. A new course in Schoology has been created for this year with all of our work in it. Students at home for any reason can still complete brain teasers and other work as if they were in class!

The screening and testing process, called 2nd Grade Child Find, that normally happens each year in 2nd grade was not finished last year. For that reason, very few 3rd graders have been placed in the program so far. But not to worry! Ms. Chunn will be finishing the process this year, testing and placing students throughout the year. Please be patient with this process. As soon as new 3rd graders are placed in the program, they will begin attending classes.

If you have any questions about TAG this year, please contact Ms. Chunn.

It’s time for the TAG auction! Our students have been working hard this year. Now it’s time for them to use all that TAG money they earned and buy something special at the TAG Auction.

Each year about this time we ask that you clean out your toy boxes, sort through your closets, and rummage around your attic to find new or gently used items for our auction. Toys, games, books, unopened cosmetics, craft kits, etc. of all kinds are needed to reward our students for their hard work throughout the year.

However, due an abundance of caution and a desire to continue keeping our students safe and healthy we are asking that this year all paper and cardboard items donated to the auction be NEW. And we will not be accepting any stuffed animals, soft toys, or cloth/fabric items. We are also asking that all second hand and gently used items be thoroughly sanitized before donation.

Students may choose to bring either toys or food or both! Prepackaged and individually wrapped cookies, brownies, crackers, cupcakes, chips, candy, fruit snacks, soft drinks, juice boxes or pretty much any goody you think the students will enjoy are welcome.

Please note that all food items need to be prepackaged. We will not be accepting any homemade food items this year.

Please bring items to the office from now until Monday, May 10^th.

Auction items need to be clearly labeled as “TAG Auction” and have the donating student’s name on it. We cannot give your student credit for bringing their auction items in if the items don’t have their name on them!

Our students have been working hard this year and they deserve an awesome reward.

Please help us make this auction a success!

Traditional students will have an in-person silent auction on Monday, May 17^th. Remote students will have a digital silent auction on Tuesday, May 18^th.