Important Dates
February 9th & 11th student-led conferences
February 12th no school
February 15th no school
Iowa Assessments
Despite the two snow days, we were able to complete the math and social studies assessments this week. Next week students will take the science assessment and will make up any of the assessments they have missed. Please continue to encourage your child to do his/her best on these assessments. Please try not to schedule any appointments during the testing times. Thank you.
Winter Wear
As a reminder, we go out for recess daily, so students should be dressed appropriately. If students do not wear snowboots, they must stay on shoveled sidewalks only. If they want to play in the snow, they will need to wear snow pants as well.
CODING CONTEST (through NASA)
“Imagine Cup Earth” is open to ages 6-18 with two categories. There are two dates available to enter: March 31 and June 15. Tutorials and information are included when you visit the web site for more information and to register. https://www.imaginecup.com/earth?__af3b91cc=_af3b91cc Cash prizes are available. For more information contact Kathy Hay at [email protected].
Solving the Discipline Puzzle- Steps for Growing Respectful and Responsible Kids
A FREE workshop provided by Keystone AEA and the Parent & Educator Connection: the workshop will help parents find simple methods that help their kids be respectful and responsible while ensuring strong positive relationships with them and keep peace at home.
Join us to learn how to:
- View discipline problems as a chance to help your child learn new, socially appropriate ways to behave.
- Use common socials skills for children and youth to guide your discipline efforts.
- Clarify your personal expectations for your child/youth at home, creating more peaceful routines.
- Strengthen your child/youth and increase desired behaviors through the use of effective praise.
- Look at misbehavior as a teaching opportunity and to peacefully correct your child/youth.
Please go to http://tinyurl.com/pecpw16 by February 26th to register for the workshop. Further information is available on the Keystone AEA website under the Parent & Educator Connection tab.
NEWS FLASH!!
From Mr. Peterson: In science we are beginning a longer-term engineering project where we build balloon powered cars to specific design criteria. The kids created design company logos and slogans and now they are beginning to put together the car chassis. In reading, we are putting together some materials that we will share at student-led conferences. We are reflecting on our reading and setting some goals. In writing, we are working on creating a book trailer video, which we hope to share with you at conference time. This involves writing a script and enhancing the script with music and photos to help entice readers to read the book.
From Mrs. Nowack:
Science: Though we have take a bit of a timeout this week for snow and to prepare for our student-led conferences, we will continue to with our unit on human impacts on the environment.
Reading: This week we began analyzing the features of realistic fiction. We’ve read two sample texts and have compared their text features. Next week we’ll read a more complex text selection. Students are asked to read an average of 20 minutes/day and are being asked to discuss what they are reading. This week students discussed the character traits of one of the main characters in their books and made connections to those characters.
Language: Though we have continued with our daily language review and our word work, this week has been primarily focused on preparing for the student-led conferences.
VIP: week of Feb. 8- Thea
From Mrs. Suhr:
Social Studies - The chapter 9 test will now be Monday, Feb. 8. Chapter 10 will be about growing tensions between the colonies and Great Britain.
Language - Students have been making plans for writing an ending to a historical fiction story starter that takes place in colonial Plymouth.
From Mrs. Halweg: We were still able to complete our Iowa Assessments this week for math, but that is about all we did. Today we took some time to prepare for student-led conferences. We’ll be continuing our unit on multiplying and dividing fractions next week.
From Mr. Kelley: We just finished an opinion writing project in which students decided which was better - dogs or cats. Have the students show you their writing within their Google Drive! In social studies we have begun studying the American Revolution. We are using a simulation website called Mission U.S. in combination with primary sources to study the tensions leading up to the war.