Bristow
Run Elementary School
“A Fully Accredited School and
School of
Excellence”
Our School
Vision Statement "A Team on Track for the
Future Bristow Run Pledge “I will remember to be
respectful, kind, trustworthy and a good citizen. I will be responsible for
my actions, work hard and try my best. I will seek to make a positive
difference at school today.”
From
The Panther’s Pen
Andrew Buchheit,
Principal
Jo Linda Toth - Assistant Principal
November 9, 2004
Hello Panthers!
Well,
it has been an Awesome first 9 weeks. I
have enjoyed seeing all the returning students again and getting to know our
new students. We were thrilled to welcome an entire new community to our school
– Bridlewood Manor. We have such wonderful students
and it is nice to see them all work together.
As you already know, we have
outstanding teachers. No matter which classroom your child is in, I have no
doubts that they will have a successful school year. Please work closely with
your child’s teacher. I believe teaching is a partnership and our teachers
appreciate your support and assistance.
If you have not had a chance to meet with your
child’s classroom teacher call now and schedule an appointment. Your child’s
teacher wants to meet with you. This is such an important meeting and we
really hope to have 100 percent turn out
for the Parent Conference Days.
As you know, our school motto
is: “A Team on Track for the
Future”. At Bristow Run we recognize
that it takes all of us (Teachers, Staff, Students & Parents) working
together to ensure the success of each student. We truly believe that by
working together all children will learn to their fullest potential. I look forward to continuing to work with
you and your children this year.
It has also been great to see so many of you
at our Family Fun Night “Bingo Night”, Back to School Nights, conference
nights, the Spirit Nights at Burger King, our Ice Cream Social and our first
ever golf tournament. We appreciate your involvement and participation in these
activities. Many of these events were
organized and sponsored by our PTA. If you haven’t yet joined, I encourage you
to do so. Our PTA does so many wonderful things for our school and students.
Mrs. Becky Gay is working hard and doing an outstanding job as your PTA
president.
Thanks for all you
have done to help us have such a wonderful first 9 -weeks of school and for
entrusting your students with us. I anticipate a GREAT 2nd 9 weeks too.
Sincerely,
Andrew Buchheit,
Principal
Bristow Run Elementary
School is committed to the belief that all children will learn to their fullest
potential in a safe, respectful and motivating environment of high expectations
and continuous improvement in partnership with our parents and community.
OUR SCHOOL SCHEDUE:
This year we are on a 6 day rotation. It is important that you and your child know which day they have certain special classes such as Library, PE or Music.
Our school
hours are from
Morning Kindergarten students attend school from
UPCOMING CALENDAR
- Wednesday, November 10 – Science
Fair Information Night;
- Thursday, November 11– Veteran’s Day – no school
- Week of November 14 is Cafeteria
Worker Appreciation Week
- Tuesday, November 16 – Picture
Retakes
- Thursday, November 18 – PTA Spirit Night
- Friday, November 19 – Class
Compliment Day
- Wed., November, 24 – Early dismissal(
- Thursday-Friday, November 25-26 –
Thanksgiving Holiday – no school
- Week of November 29 – Book Fair
- Monday, November 29 – Family Book
Fair;
- Friday, December 3 – PTA/Advisory
Family Fitness Night
- Monday, December 13 – Interims go
home
- Thursday, December 23 – Winter Break begins
- Monday, January 3 – School
reopens
- Monday, January 17 – Martin
Luther King Jr.
- Friday, January 28 – end of 2nd
grading period/Career Day
- Monday, January 31– Teacher
workday – no school for students
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Each school in Prince William County 6:30 pm .
GIANT BONUSBUCKS
Did
you know that every time you shopped at Giant, you can designate
All you need
to do is fill out a quick form designating our school. It costs you nothing. Our school code is 03606. You can also
register online at: http://www.giantfood.com/bonuscard_aplus_pin.cfm.
So if you have not already designated Bristow Run as your school, I ask you to
take a moment to do so. It is one of our easiest and most successful
fundraisers. Thank you.
SCHOOL WEB SITE - http://www.pwcs.edu/pwc/schools/brun/bristowrun.htm.
Did you know that Bristow Run has a
website on the Internet? It is being updated continually. Read the latest
Panther Press, see Advisory Council minutes and PTA news, look at teacher
pages, check the lunch menu for Monday, read our school song, look at student
picks for the top 100 children’s books, and see what the weather is for our
area at the News 4 weather Station at Bristow Run. After checking it out email
us with any comments or questions
PANTHER PRIDE RECOGNITION
We are proud and happy to recognize our students for their Outstanding Panther Pride. Students must meet the following criteria:
1.
Conduct:
S or S+ on the report card and no checks in the descriptors.
2. Work Habits: S or S+ on the report card and no checks in the descriptors.
3. Effort: No X for any area for the grading period.
4. Discipline Plan: Follows Discipline plan. No suspension from school or bus. No detention.
ACADEMIC
RECOGNITION
3rd
-5th grade Students at
ATTENDANCE IN SCHOOL
It
is very important that all students attend school on a regular basis and on time.
Children, who are not in school each
day, arrive late or leave early miss important educational opportunities and
learning experiences. At Bristow Run, we recognize, and I’m sure you will
agree, that regularly being at school and being on time is very important for a
child’s academic success. This may become a very serious issue.
It is important to note that
Please continue to call in to let us
know if your child is going to be absent and to send in notes to the teacher
when he or she returns to school. As you already know, all our procedures and
regulations are in place to help ensure the safety, security and continued
success of all our students and not to inconvenience you. By working together,
we truly can do everything better. Please let us know if you have questions or
concerns by calling 703-753-7741. We thank you in advance for your
support.
Every
9 weeks, we will recognize students for “Perfect Attendance” - meaning they have attended school each day
and have no more than 2 tardies in a 9 week period
or “Excellent Attendance” –
meaning they have missed no more than 1 day or school and have no more than 2 tardies in a 9 week period..
NEWS FROM MS.TOTH – YOUR ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
(1) Standardized Testing News: 3rd grade CogAt Testing -
Bristow Run Students third graders will be taking the CogAT
tests this month. They will take a
Practice test - November 12 and the
actual testing Nov. 15, 17 and 18. The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) was designed to assess the development of verbal,
quantitative, and nonverbal reasoning and problem solving skills. These skills are important in all school
curriculums. The CogAT
includes tasks that (1) are based on content that children of this age group
are likely to have experienced; (2) require the children to use familiar
content in a new way; and (3) emphasize cognitive skills that children in
grades K-3 have developed. Parents please be sure your child gets a good
night’s sleep the night before testing.
Also, make sure to help your third grader start the day off positively
with verbal encouragement and a good breakfast the morning of the test. The tests will start promptly at
(2) Word Study Article - Working and Playing with Words
Remember how we were
taught to spell when we were students? Many of us
were simply handed a list of words and told to
write each word five times. We then
had our Friday spelling test, after which we may
have forgotten those very words. Remember how we were taught to decipher new
words we encountered when reading? I can still hear my teachers saying,
"Just sound it out!" 
Of course,
we were also taught some reading and spelling rules such as, "When two
vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." But did you know
that this rule, like many others that we were taught, holds true less than
fifty percent of the time? (Clymer, 1996)
Not only do
these precepts lack reliability, but the teaching of rules is not really
the best way to help our students learn. We
learn best by active involvement and
practice with the task at hand, which allow us to
see word and letter patterns for
ourselves. Research suggests that the brain
is a pattern detector, rather than an
applier of rules (Cunningham, 2000). If our brains are indeed
"pattern detectors,"
then we should provide our students with plenty of
opportunity to investigate and
organize those patterns.
Fortunately,
we are now seeing dramatic and exciting changes in the teaching
of spelling and word recognition. The field
of "word study" provides students an
opportunity to manipulate words (and parts of
words) in meaningful and enjoyable
activities and games.
lessons develop experience with:- Letters
and their corresponding sounds.
- Components
of words, such as roots, prefixes, and suffixes.- Patterns
of how words are spelled, such as word families.- How parts
of words often will give hints to the meaning of a word, as well as its spelling
or pronunciation.
Word study
activities call for active problem solving. Students are encouraged
to look for spelling patterns, form hypotheses, predict
outcomes, and test them.
These activities require students to continually
ask themselves, "What do I know
about this new word, and how is it similar to words
that I already know?"
© 2001-2003 S. Ruth Harris, LLC. All rights
reserved.
INK JET RECYCLING PROGRAM
Did
you know that we collect used Ink Jet cartridges to recycle? For each cartridge
we recycle our school earns money. Money from this recycling program is often
designated for our technology needs. Put it in a small bag so that your child
does not get messy and have him or her drop it off in our big recycling
container in the front lobby.
GRADE LEVEL NEWS – What to expect for the next 9 weeks.
Mrs. Ciampaglione’s class
The children in the 3rd- 5th
grade class have been busy so far this year!
Aside from daily academic work, as well as focusing on various themes to
cover science and social studies topics, the children have group projects that
we work on weekly or monthly. Our
classroom continues to work monthly on our job of selling, making, packaging
and distributing popcorn to the children of the school. This year the classroom has also taken on the
responsibility of helping out with the new recycling program. With the help of Mrs. Mirabal, the children
collect and empty the recycle bins from each classroom. The children are hard-working and really
enjoy these activities, which require a lot of teamwork. In other news, some of our children
participated in the 4th and 5th grade PE trip to
Kindergarten - Kindergarten has been very busy so
far this year! Coming up in math we will be learning about classification,
patterns, graphing, tallying, and counting and writing numbers to 20. In science we will be learning about winter,
experimenting with sink and float and heavy and light. In social studies we will be talking about
Election Day, Thanksgiving, winter holidays, and Martin Luther King Jr. We have many exciting activities and lessons
planned for the days ahead!
1st grade – In the beginning of the
second quarter, first grade is excited about starting their new spelling
program. A letter was sent out asking
each child to bring in a composition book to be used solely for the spelling
program. There will be an activity for
your child to do each night, in addition to their nightly homework assignment
and 20 minutes of reading. In math, your first grader will work on building
addition and subtraction to 12, geometry, fractions, probability and numbers to
60.Our social studies and science units will include nutrition/food groups,
studying pilgrims (compare & contrast to present day life), Veteran’s Day,
Five Senses, Force, Motion, Energy, Push & Pull, Winter Holidays (Diversity
& Culture), Winter, Winter Animals and Hibernation.Up
Coming Events:Fall Festival – Friday, Oct. 29th.
Accelerated Reader begins Wednesday, Nov. 3rd. Winter
Celebration – Wednesday, Dec. 22nd
2nd Grade -The
Second Grade Team would like to thank parents for all your support in helping
to make our first quarter so successful!
We are looking forward to an exciting second quarter of the school year! We have many topics to cover, but second
graders are up to the challenge of learning as much as they can! As we read
each day, we’ll continue to practice the strategies that good readers use
before reading, during reading and after reading. And of course, we’ll continue to add to our
Accelerated Reader totals! Second graders already see their own progress in
writing. We’ll continue to use and apply
the writing process. Look for more of
our creations in the hallway! In math
we’ll study place value, money (counting change to $2.00), two-digit addition
and subtraction, skip counting and patterns.
We will also continue to memorize addition and subtraction facts for
speed drills. Our social studies topics will be:
Map skills – locating continents, oceans, rivers, mountains,
the
And our science topics will be: The three types of matter, Weather
and the water cycle and
Living systems/Adaptations
Third Grade
- We have had a terrific first marking period in third
grade. We have been studying Folktales,
Civics, Geography, Probability, Data Analysis, and Animals. For the upcoming marking period there is a
lot of exciting activities planned. In
Language Arts we will be finishing our study of folktales and will be reading a
variety of fiction and nonfiction books.
Mrs. Manning’s and Miss Gentile’s classes will be studying the ancient
cultures of
Fourth Grade - 4th grade has had a great first
nine weeks. Its hard to believe that it
has come to an end and that we are already 1/4 the way through the year. Next
nine weeks the 4th grade will be focusing on the Ecosystem, Addition and Subtraction,
Early inhabitants of VA, and as always, we will be exploring reading and
writing everyday. Do not forget Miss Betty will be here with her trunk full of
"Colonial goodies" on Nov. 1st. We will also be going to the
Planetarium in Jan. Just a few reminders:
Please remember to sign your child's agenda every night. All homework and class work need to be
completed on time and neatly. We are
looking forward to the next nine weeks being as fantastic as the last.
Fifth Grade - We
have had an awesome start to what promises to be a memorable year in fifth
grade. First quarter parent/teacher
conferences are scheduled for November 3rd and November 9th. We are looking forward to discussing your
child’s progress and sharing our QRI results with you. Our first field trip is scheduled for December
8th to see the play, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” We will travel to George Mason’s Center for
the Performing Arts to see this wonderful fantasy by C.S. Lewis come to life. Please mark your calendars for the very
informative Science Fair parent meeting on November 10th at
News from Mrs. Grimes, Mrs. Howarth, Mrs. Husar, and
Mrs. Quinn
Welcome to the 2004-2005 school year. We are excited about working with the
students and teachers at Bristow Run. If
you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call on one of
us. We are here to help. Definition of
the quarter: Inclusion. A class is lucky
if they are an inclusion class. Why you
ask, all of the students benefit from having two teachers working in their
classroom. Stay tuned to more on
inclusion.
LIBRARY
NEWS from Mrs. Kyker - School Libraries are essential to the
development of students as life-long learners and library users. In
BOOK
FAIR November 29th-December
6th And May 9th-13th
Check Out
Policy Students may come to check out books
any time during the day. Two books may
be checked out for 12 days and renewed a second time. If a book becomes overdue, NO more books may
be checked out until the overdue book is returned. If a book is damaged beyond repair or lost,
the borrower is responsible for paying for it.
Magazines and Reference Books are for library use ONLY. The oldest set of World Book Encyclopedia may
be checked out overnight. It must be
returned the next morning.
Grade Level Checkouts -Kindergarten---One books at the beginning of the year. Two books starting
second semester.1st thru 5th Grade----2 Books. Students with special projects
or reports may check out more books.
Birthday Books - A book is a wonderful gift for
a child to share with others. Our
Birthday Books program provides a way for parents, grandparents, or friends to
honor the birthday of a BRES student in a very special way. At the same time this book helps to increase
the number of volumes in our school library.
Last year the program contributed over a hundred and fifty new books to
our library shelves. The cost for the
book is $15.00 the form will be sent home in the fall of this school year. A permanent bookplate will be placed on the
inside cover with your child’s name and birthday. Your child will be the first to borrow the
book from the library. A presentation
will be made during your child’s library class time.
The Accelerated Reader Program
continues to be an important part of the BRES
reading program.
You may search the Accelerated Reader Database from the main
page of the BRES website. This year Run, our
traveling panther, will be sailing the seven seas visiting interesting and
exciting places. He will leave this
weekend from the city docks in Annapolis ,Maryland Reading
VOLUNTEERS - We need YOU to volunteer to help us in the library. With our increased enrollment we need your
help. The library is the one place in
the school where you can help every child.
If you can spare some time to help checkout books, relieve Betty for
lunch, shelve, or any other little job we would love to see you in the library.
READING Reading
Our friend “Run”
left our school to begin a wonderful sea voyage to different seaports around
the world. The only way he gets to keep
sailing is for the students at BRES to read Accelerated Reader books and take
the coordinating test. We need 1,000
points for Bristow to sail on to 
Here is a letter he just sent to us: Dear
BRES Students, I arrived in
Please keep in mind, when your child chooses
an Accelerated Reader book, it should be at the independent
reading level, not your child’s instructional reading level. This is so the reading will be easy,
enjoyable and it allows the child to read with meaning and really think about
the story and make connections with the story.
When your child takes the reading test, his/her mind is open to think
about the comprehension questions asked.
Here is a way to help your child choose a book for independent
reading: Just like an
athlete practices his sport or a musician has to practice music; all readers
need to practice their reading too. A
child’s independent reading level should “feel easy” to them. This means the reading is done with little or
no help. Using the 5-finger rule will
help your child know if the book is too hard for silent, independent
reading. The child reads a sample page
from the book and puts up a finger each time a word is unknown. If your child does not know 4-5 words on a
single page of 100 words, the book is too hard.
This is a book you would read to your child.
5 fingers up – the text is too hard at this time. Wait and read
it in the future.
4 fingers up – the text is still a little too hard at this time.
Try again later.
3 fingers up – this book should be just right for you,
but you may need a little help.
2 fingers up – this book should be just right for you!
1 finger up – this book is independent and easy for you.
Upcoming events: We will have a Family Reading Night on
Math and Science
News 
from Mrs. Cowne I have been working
with most grades doing extended Math lessons.
Fourth and fifth grade started Accelerated Math as well as learned the
game 24. Fourth grade did a class
probability activity. Third grade did a
graphing activity based on their favorite ice cream flavor. First grade did an activity on eye color and
started basic addition facts with a bean “shake, drop and count” activity. For those students who need a little extra
help, I have been pulling small groups to work on basic skills and number
sense. If you have any questions about Math
and your child please contact me at school.
We have had a wonderful first nine weeks doing hands on science lessons
and can’t wait to start the second nine weeks.
All grades will be learning the Scientific Process through the Skills,
Reasoning and Logic objectives. First
grade will be doing experiments dealing with Matter (1.3) and Force/Motion
(1.2). Second grade will do Matter (2.3
and 2.4) and Weather (2.5 and 2.6).
Third grade will learn about the Water Cycle (3.9) and Earth/Space
(3.8). Fourth grade will study
Ecosystems (4.5) and the Solar System (4.7).
Fifth grade will focus on Geology (5.5) and Oceanography (5.6) as well
as the Science Fair Unit (5.1).
Thank you!, thank you!, thank you! to all the parent volunteers who come
into the Science Lab and help with experiments.
Bristow
Run Music Notes/PAWS FOR MUSIC NEWS General
Music and Panther Chorus will be taught by Mrs. Lynn Maletick.Fifth
grade string classes will be taught by Mr. Michael Maletick.The
M and M team is happy to be working together again for the
seventh year at Bristow Run Elementary School. All General Music classes
have started the year with a unit on Patriotic music. I am asking all grade 3,
4 and 5 students to bring a two pocket music folder to class.
Returning students in grades 4 and 5 used music folders last year. They can
bring them back or bring in a new two pocket folder for class. These folders
will stay in the music room with papers coming home from them during the year.
With our new block scheduling: Grade 1 thru 5 music students come for a music class once every 6 days for 45 minutes. K classes will be coming for 45 minutes of music once every 12 days.
Panther Chorus is
a musically disciplined chorus for fourth and fifth grade students. This is an
after school activity. 30 fifth grade
students have joined this year (they do not audition) and 33 fourth graders
auditioned. 22 fourth graders joined the
chorus and 11 fourth graders are on the waiting list to join the chorus later
in the year. Practices are every Monday after school on stage from
String Program There are currently 53 fifth grade students
signed up for the string music program at Bristow Run. These students attend
string class once every 6 days for 45 minutes. Mr. Maletick is
very pleased with the interest shown by all the students ! Classes are
currently working on bow co-ordination, playing open string rhythms and
learning the fingerings for the songs they will play this year .Programs are
planned for January, April and June. Students should have a time to practice every
day. Thank you parents for your support of the music programs her at Bristow
Run. VOLUNTEERS If you are a
musician please let us know so that we can invite you to share your talent with
the Bristow Run students.Donations. From
time to time we will ask for a variety of items. Tissues are welcome right now
since all the student noses at Bristow Run come to music.We
are looking forward to another NOTEworthy year at Bristow Run.Mrs.
Lynn Maletick and Mr. Michael Maletick
ART UPCOMING EVENTS
I would also like to extend a warm
welcome to our parents and the community, and thank you for your continued
support for the arts. I am Mrs. White,
your child’s art teacher. I have been at Bristow Run 7 years and have taught in
Prince William County Public Schools 17 years. Donations really help out in the
art room. This year I am asking for parents to again bring in egg cartons,
newspapers, and multiple same-sized
containers of seven or more in a set. A
one-time donation of a box of tissues, a
dispenser of hand soap, a roll of paper towels, or a container of
baby/wet wipes would begreatly appreciated .
Leftover crafts items are also
useful. At Bristow Run all student artwork is regularly displayed in a variety
of locations throughout the building.
Samples of student artwork can also be viewed on our school website at http://www.pwcs.edu/BristowRun/Classes
are busy working on art projects already.
Kindergarten classes are learning
how to identify and create line. They will be viewing a CD Rom series on “line”. First grade is learning about shape as one of the “Elements of Art”. They are figuring out how shapes go together
to make new shapes and how to identify shapes in the environment around
them. Second grade is learning about
famous artist like Vincent Van Gogh and painting a sunflower still life. Several works of art by Van Gogh have been
featured. Third grade is learning
about the art of Ancient
SPANISH CLASS by Sra. Mirabal
Dear Parents,
During the
past weeks, students in all grades have been practicing greetings and
responding in the Spanish language. They
have also learned the days of the week.
First second and third graders have been learning to name the basic
colors and will soon participate in a graphing activity involving numbers and
colors. Fourth and fifth grades have
viewed part I of a Cultural/History video:
All grades will complete “calendarios
Thank you so much for sending the much needed paper towels, facial
tissues and soap. I am happy to say that
I have enough to keep us going for a while. What I could use are diaper wipes,
so if you have any packages lying around, please send. They are great for wiping our boards! Also, I wish to send a special” ¡Muchas Gracias!” to Mrs. Moser and all of
the parent volunteers at the Welcome table.
COUNSELORS’ CORNER - The School
Counseling Program motto,
“Keeping students on track for the long run”, is
accomplished through individual and small group counseling, classroom lessons,
and consultations with parents and staff.
The Bristow Run school counselors are: Mary Pat McCartney,
Robin Vaneman, and Christine Marshall
Classroom Lessons Focus on Bullying
We are a “No Putdowns” school at Bristow Run. Our lessons so
far this school year have centered on the words in our student pledge to “BE
KIND”. Students in K-5 have been encouraged to show kindness to others at
school. They have been taught the meaning of empathy and different ways to stay cool when others bother them.
Various strategies for handling teasing/bullying were also explained to
students. Getting along with people requires skills that can be learned.