Madison Family Newsletter

As I reflect on my second year at Madison, I am extremely thankful for the connections and friendships made. I am so impressed with your continued community involvement. From STEM night to conferences and everything in between, your partnership is what makes the difference! We are so happy to have all the kiddos back in attendance, they are doing a fabulous job and showing positive growth in Reading, Math, Science and Social Studies as we ready to measure their growth with upcoming assessments.

All students will be measured in reading and math growth in January and our English Language students will take the Access 2.0 language proficiency tests beginning in January and February. We are so proud of all our multi-lingual students and their amazing progress toward English proficiency and high academic success they are experiencing at Madison. Report cards for first trimester were sent in your child's backpack, please let us know if you have any questions about their progress and growth. Our winter conferences will be February 15th and 22nd so mark you calendars for this mid-year check on learning progress.

Looking forward to a fabulous January! Stay warm!

Principal Estrada

• January 8: Family Advisory Committee
• January 15: NO SCHOOL, Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday
• January 30: Preschool and Kindergarten Enrollment
• February 1: Family Literacy Night

When: Monday, January 8th

Where: Madison Media Center (multiple language supports)

Time: 5:30-6:30 p.m.

January Agenda: "How is my student doing in school?"

Testing and assessment overview:

MCA

Fastbridge/iReady

Access 2.0

Madison School Spiritwear - Purchase your custom school spirit wear apparel and Spiritwear Direct. All purchases will ship right to your door.

When? All year long!

Why? Every purchase helps fund school programs!

Important information: All orders will be shipped directly to your homes! Click the ‘Weekly Specials’ icon on the website to see which items are on sale each week. Please click the link to order.

Happy Shopping Mustangs! 😊

January has been a time to review and practice The Mustang Model. In everything we do, and everywhere we go at Madison, from entering the building to start our day, to being in our classrooms, the cafeteria, hallways, specials, recess, the library, on the bus – everywhere and anywhere – our focus is: The Mustang Model *Be Safe *Be Kind *Be Responsible

When teachers notice students modeling Mustang Proud behavior, they can earn Mustang Slips and it’s a source of pride for our kindergarteners.

Since the beginning of January, Kinders have learned 10 Star Words: do, that, but, get, not, my, his, her, are, did

These are easy words to practice writing and reading at home - even five minutes of practice at home will make a big difference in your child's learning.

We continue to practice counting (forward and back) and writing numbers daily. Kindergarteners love to count, so when you're in a car, on a bus, or walking through the snow, spend a few minutes counting with your kinder - you will be amazed at their progress. Our new math learning includes comparing numbers using < and > signs and addition.

Thank you for supporting your child’s learning. We are excited to share their progress with you at conferences on February 15th or February 22nd. See you soon!

Hello First Grade Families!

As we get back into the swing of things this January, our days will be a mix of new learning and building on existing knowledge. Our first week back from break mainly focuses on reviewing expectations and the responsive classroom reboot. We are starting unit 3 for math, which will teach the students about word problems and making comparisons.

In literacy we are continuing to work on Unit 2, which focuses on the question, “What makes a community?” We are learning about genre characteristics, key details, and sequencing. In phonics, we are learning sounds that are at the beginning and ending of words such as "qu-" and "-ck." Later this month we will start an animal research project in writing. In science, we will begin the solids and liquids unit.

A few reminders:

1. PAKRAT is continuing. Your student should bring home a clear bag each night with a book. You and your child should read the book together and complete the reading log in the bag. Your student will turn the book in each day and bring a new one home.
2. Please help your student remember to keep their library books in their backpacks when they are not being read.
   
3. Please be aware of the weather. It is getting very cold outside. Please send the appropriate winter clothes with your student daily – hats and mittens, and once the snow falls, make sure to include boots and snow pants. If you have any concerns, do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher. They should be able to help.

Dear Madison Elementary Second-Grade Families and Friends,

We hope this update finds you well and that you had a wonderful winter break with your loved ones. As we start the new year, we will be reviewing our expectations and procedures as students return to school. We appreciate your help in getting your child ready for school by ensuring that they are getting enough sleep and are organized for the day.

In January, all students will be taking winter assessments. These district assessments will be the same as those taken in the fall. By comparing the two sets of assessments, we can identify student growth and determine the need for additional instruction and interventions based on the results and other data points.

In literacy, second-graders will be exploring narrative nonfiction and how they can help their communities. Through studying history, students will gain more knowledge about how change has occurred over time and how individuals have helped their communities. Various writing tasks will be used to demonstrate their learnings. In math, students will continue to explore more advanced applications, including larger numbers and multi-step problems. They will continue to learn about other mathematical concepts such as money and time. Science lessons will incorporate various science domains and integrate innovation and engineering concepts.

As we continue through the winter season, please monitor the weather and help students be prepared for Minnesota's winter weather. We encourage you to continue reading with your child as it has exponential benefits. You can also use real-life scenarios to practice math knowledge, such as time and money. Knowledge is power.

Thank you for partnering with us in your child's education. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.

Sincerely,
The Second-Grade Team

Happy new year from the fourth grade team at Madison! We have been working very hard these past couple of days getting back into the swing of things, and have many plans moving ahead. We will laying out those plans before you all.

First important announcement, we are in the process of planning out a field trip day with our administration. More information will be coming home to you via your children. Keep an eye out for that.

Math:

We began the new year working on measuring lengths down to the nearest quarter inch. Students then take that data and construct Line Plots with that information. After this brief unit that we are working on, we will be moving into decimals to the tenth and hundredth, rounding and ordering them and comparing them to their fraction equivalents.

Literacy:

We have been working very hard on realistic fiction, story elements and now are just starting our biography genre study. Students are going to be taking a dive into history with these biographies, and students will be working towards doing a historical figure research project, where students will read, take notes, write and present their information to the class. This will be a major research project that students will be taking and will begin a month or so from now. For now, we will continue to work on identifying features of biographies, making time lines and getting information from the text and drawing conclusions on the author's purpose.

Writing:

We are going to be shifting from working on sentence structure and correct punctuation techniques with students transitioning into taking their skills into writing more fluently with various topics and reflections. This will go hand in hand with their historical figure research project that we will be working on.

Science/Social Studies:

We will be continuing to work on rotating our science and social studies curriculum with your child's class. Each class will be working on have 2-3 units taught in these areas by the end of this second trimester.

As always, if you have any questions, please contact us!

Thank you!

Dear Families:

Thank you for sharing your child with us. Transitioning back from break is always a bit like the first weeks of school: resetting the schoolwide and classroom expectations along with reuniting with friends. Please review the student handbook with your child so that we are a unit towards safe, kind, and responsible school behavior. This will help all of us in our journey towards being wildly successful learners. As we embark into the colder winter months, remember, we go outside every day that the weather is above zero. Your student should come to school with boots, snow pants, gloves, coats, and a hat. Please let your child’s teacher know if your student lacks these items so they aren’t cold when we go outside. We are discussing realistic fiction, adding and subtracting decimals, and some classes are working on science (physical, Earth, and life science) while others are exploring our geography and land.

Please mark your calendars for our last set of conferences at the beginning of February. More to come in the upcoming weeks. Once again, you will need to sign-up in skyward when it opens. As always, please reach out to your child’s teacher with any questions or concerns.

Happy New Year!

Congratulations to Hamza Hayir and Justice Vann, who won Madison's 23-24 Spelling Bee Competition. They will be competing in the District competition on Monday, January 8th, at Tech High School!

TDAS has started off 2024 having loads of excitement with learning. Fourth graders completed and had so much presenting their Ozobot coding projects. Students had to learn how to code, in order to create their 'Little Red Riding Hood' project. Fifth graders were fortunate enough to have been invited to and attend the SPARK Conference, at St. Cloud State University! Students got to learn about Yo yo's and the Science of Spin, Recycling and Paper Making - learning how paper gets made and got to make their own paper, Artistic Symmetry with Origami - students got to make a magic wallet using the art of paper folding, and with 'Where the wild things are', students got to investigate the basic needs of Minnesota's wild animals, through games.

Students are continuing to work so hard on their Math, especially using Beast Academy - which challenges the way they think about and discuss Math. Readers are working on character analysis, word-work, and analyzing literature using 'The One and Only Bob', 'Hatchet', and 'Out of My Mind'! Students challenging themselves and each other is for sure, a sight to behold!

There is so much more on the 2024 horizon and I look forward to seeing students have so much fun with challenging projects.

If your child will be absent from school, please call the attendance line at 320-370-6502. When calling into the attendance line, you will only reach voicemail. Please leave a message with your child's first and last name and the reason for the absence. Please note this is a trusted way to report your child's absence as we check this voicemail everyday.

If you prefer to digitally inform us about an absence, you are also welcome to use your Family Skyward Access and submit attendance in this format.

• If you have an end-of-day change for how your child will be leaving school, please ensure those messages are called into our front office by 1:00 p.m. on a daily basis. Our phone number is 320-370-6330. Thank you.

We will also attach our Breakfast and Lunch Menus at the bottom of our family newsletters each month.