Paw Prints

• April 3-6 - Preschool and Kindergarten screening; NO preschool classes this week.
• April 3 - Title 1 Annual Review meeting at 3:15 in Mrs. Osburn's classroom
• April 5 - Parents As Teachers group event at 5:30 in Kindergarten room
• April 6 - Early dismissal at 12:30
• April 7-10 - No school
• April 14 - Mid-term grades sent home with students
• April 17 - No school. Teacher in-service.
• April 22 - Prom
• April 24-28 - MAP testing. Avoid appointments and absences this week!
• April 28 - MS class parties after MAP testing

• May 1 - Parents As Teachers group event at 5:30 in PK room
• May 5 - PK and Kindergarten Round-up
• May 9 - Elem. Track and Field Day, PK Trike-A-Thon, Spring concert
• May 10 - Elem. AR party at B & J Skate
• May 12 - MS Track and Field Day, PK-1 field trip
• May 14 - HS graduation
• May 15 - MS field trip
• May 16 - 2-4 field trip, PK last day of school, PK graduation
• May 17 - Elem/MS awards assembly, 8th grade graduation
• May 18 - Last day of school for students, dismissal at noon

• Please do not linger in the hallways after 8:00 AM. All classes (PK-12) begin promptly at 8:00 AM.
  
• Please do not drop off students before 7:40 AM. Students are NOT supervised before 7:40 AM at the school.
• Breakfast is served between 7:40-7:57. Breakfast is NOT served after 8:00 AM.
• Please share an active email address on the enrollment form and with your child's teacher for easy communication.

• Student absences will be limited to seven (7) total absences (excused and unexcused) per semester. The unused portion will not be carried into next semester. Students’ time spent out of school during scheduled instructional time for any reason (to arrive late, to leave early, or to be absent an entire day, whether excused or unexcused) is considered time absent from instruction. This time accumulates toward the total absent limit.

• Letters will be sent to notify parents/guardians when a student reaches five (5) absences to serve as a warning notice.

• Upon eight (8) total absences (excused and unexcused) per semester, the principal will send a second letter to parents/guardians as notification that the student has exceeded their absenteeism limit.

• Make-up work for credit will be required for any absence. One day for each day of absence, with a maximum of five (5) days, will be allowed to make up work.

• The administration has final discretion in all attendance decisions.

• Upon eight (8) total absences (excused or unexcused) per semester, students may be referred to the juvenile office for further action.

• Students missing 20% or more of the year (approximately 30 days) will be under consideration for retention and promotion to the next grade level will be reviewed before the administration.

• Middle School: 3 tardies = 1 hour detention. Excessive tardies and absences may result in your child’s case being referred to the juvenile officer.

This month's character trait is PERSEVERANCE. Our focus for perseverance is "working through challenges to complete a task." PERSEVERANCE is worth three points this month!

Examples of perseverance to discuss with your class:

• Doing things that don't come easily at first
• Taking a break when needed but not giving up when things are hard
• Practice, practice, practice makes progress

These students were chosen by their teachers for being shining examples of cooperation.

I saw this somewhere and it was immensely helpful and challenging.

Parenting is hard. Parents have to choose their battles. Here are 8 fights worth picking with your kids:

The Reading Fight:
Make your kids read. Because reading is tied to everything from cognitive development to the ability to focus. Make your kids read now.

The Outside Fight:
Make your kids go outside. The natural world teaches us things. Plus, outside there's sunshine, fresh air, and exercise waiting for them. Most importantly, nature is full of things in short supply in our world: Discovery, wonder, peace, joy.

The Work Fight:
Make your kids work. I’m saddened by how many parents don’t require their kids to lift a finger at home. There are priceless life principles you can only learn with a mop in your hand. Let sweat be their teacher.

The Meal Fight:
Make your kids eat as a family. Our lives are a blur of incessant activity. Meals together are a physical pause to recover a truth so easily sacrificed at the altar of busyness. Nothing's more important than family.

The Boredom Fight:
Make your kids live with boredom. Don't show a DVD on each car ride. Kids need unscheduled time. And, odd as it sounds, boredom is a skill. It's hard as a parent to deal with the assault of boredom complaints. But if you give in and fill up their time with external stimuli, you'll raise an activity addict. Make them learn how to be.

The "Me First" Fight:
Make your kids go last. Not every time for everything. But enough to remember that the world doesn't revolve around them. Take the smallest piece. Give up the remote. Do someone else's chores. Get their least favorite choice. They won't like it, but they need it.

The Awkward Conversation Fight:
Make your kids have uncomfortable conversations with you. Sex, dating, body image, values...Your kids will roll their eyes and resist. You will stumble and stutter. They need and want your perspective, lessons learned, and wisdom.

The Limitation Fight:
Learning to live within limits is a valuable life skill. In fact, many adult problems arise from an inability to accept them. Screen time limits, dietary limits, activity limits, and schedule limits are all good.

As a parent, you have to pick your battles. They're not easy, but they're worth the fight.

(Source: David Morris via Twitter)

It’s that time of the year to reflect on our successes and ask ourselves how we can improve in the upcoming school year. Below you will see a list of suggestions that was made at our End of Year Title Meeting last year. To the right of those suggestions is what we did to address those needs. After reading the list, I encourage you to think of what information or activities would benefit your student(s) and your family next year. Please contact me with your ideas at sarah.osburn@mndcty.org.

We are down to the last quarter of school, and the elementary students have worked very hard mastering many new concepts throughout the year. With only a little over six weeks left of school, classes will be working on a few more important math skills, and revisiting some challenging older ones. Third and Fourth grades will begin MAP testing April 24th and everyone is drilling down to achieve their maximum potential. We are so PROUD of all our students.

• K-- Will continue to identify and describe shapes, two dimensional and three dimensional shapes. Identify circles, triangles, squares, rectangles,hexagons, solid figures and shapes in our environment. They will analyze, compare, and create two and three dimensional shapes.
• 1st--Working with ten less than a number, measuring lengths. Comparing lengths by using units and appropriate tools. Learning about time and money. the value of coins, and telling time to the hour and the half-hour.
• 2nd--Working with dimensional shapes and learning their names. Discovering polygons and angles, two dimensional shapes, building with shapes, and working with cubes. Learning about area by finding equal shares,and equal partition shapes. Problem solving finding unknown measurements using addition and subtraction.
• 3rd--Equivalent fractions, comparing fractions, benchmark fractions, whole numbers and fractions, and problem solving fractions. Time to the minute, elapsed time, measuring elapsed time, word problems involving elapsed time. Measuring liquid volume, estimating and measuring mass, word problems involving volume and mass. .
• 4th--Patterns, number rules, repeating shapes, problem solving. Lines, rays, and angles, measuring and drawing angles, adding and subtracting angles, problem solving using appropriate tools. Classifying triangles, quadrilaterals, line symmetry, and drawing shapes.

Because then it would be a foot!