Highlands Highlights

3/13 - 4/22 Edina Art Show at the Edina Library

4/14 - 4/18 Reading MCA 3rd, 4th, 5th Grades

4/15 Beatles Sing-a-long 5:00 - 7:00pm at Highlands

4/21 - 4/25 Math MCA 3rd, 4th, 5th Grades

4/23 Professional development for teachers - No students

4/24 PTO General Meeting and Townhall 6-7pm at Highlands

4/28-5/2 Science MCA for 5th only

4/30 5th Grade Band Concert 6-7pm at Highlands

5/3 Highlands PTO Carnival noon - 2:30pm at Highlands

5/20 Super Fun Kids Day

For more Highlands dates, please Go to the Highlands website at: https://highlands.edinaschools.org/resources/calendar

The MCAs is a state provided test in reading and math for 3rd-5th grade students and science in 5th grade only. These occur yearly. MCAs are used to meet federal and state legislative requirements. These assessments are designed to measure student performance relative to the Minnesota Academic Standards. The MCAs provide valuable information to the State and Edina Public Schools giving teachers and school leaders information in context that can be used in making decisions. Find information about the assessments here.

Students have been preparing for the assessment since the school year began. Just as student picture day provides a single image of a student for that school year, the MCAs provide only part of the story of individual student learning.

Please help to ensure your child is at school on time, as early as 7:35am, receives a good night's rest and eats a solid breakfast. Should you have any questions - please reach out to your child's classroom teacher or Tom Luu, Highlands' Assessment Coordinator.

Our character strong trait for April is courage. Please open this link to see how your student is learning about courage. One way to think about courage is “choosing what is helpful, right, and kind even when it is hard or scary.”

Please join Mrs. Widen, Shaun Pakenham, Dr. Weise, Mr. Widen and Mr. McDonnell and Highlands community for a fun evening together, singing along to some of your favorite Beatles songs!

The event will be held at Highlands school from 5:00 - 7pm on April 15 in the gym.

5:00-7:00pm: Parlour Bar Food Truck on-site; order or pick up pre-orders.

5:45pm: Mrs. Widen warm-up with favorite songs from music class

6:00-6:45pm: Beatles! Sing-along with Mrs. Widen, Mr. Widen, Mr. Pakenham, Dr. Weise and Mr. Mcdonnell

6:45-7pm: Beatles songs playing while people mingle/talk

Due to the large turnout at the last sing-along, Parlour will be back with TWO food trucks this year!

• Menu: double burgers, single burgers, fries, and beverages. Gluten-free buns are available upon request.
• The trucks will be available to take onsite orders and serve pre-orders beginning at 5pm, ending at 7pm.
• Pre-order to make your food pick-up even easier with a designated time slot! (Note: Pre-orders will close at midnight on April 14). Pre Order Here

• Credit card only.
• Parlour will donate 10% of all sales back to Highlands!

We are looking for 55 volunteers to help out with our Highlands 1st Ever Super Fun Kids Day! Super Fun Kids Day is a day in which students will be able to engage in over 15 activities including water activities! We are looking for at least 3 volunteers to help run each of the activity stations. We will need volunteers from 8:00am (the event starts at 8:30am) to 10:30am on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025.

There will be two sessions on Super Fun Kids Day.

The first session from 8:30am-10:30am will be for students in grades: 3rd, 4th, 5th Discovery and 2nd/3rd and 4th/5th CP (13 total classes) - WE NEED ADULT VOLUNTEERS for this session.

The afternoon session is from 12:30pm-2:10pm and will be for students in grades: Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd. This session will be run by our 4th and 5th graders from Discovery and CP families. Parents are welcome to attend and join in the fun!

The Valley View VIBE 5K on May 3rd! HERE is the link. We are SO pumped to be hosting what we hope will turn into a legacy, annual event for Edina. Kids are making the medals (3D printing, ceramics, and glazing) and we have all types of food trucks, DJs, T Shirts etc at the event. It will be a BLAST of an experience and we hope you and your community can make it. There is a little lap (250 yards) and a toddler trot (50 yards) for the little ones.

Edina Unified pairs students with and without special needs in a variety of settings, both academic and social. The ultimate goal of this partnership is to cultivate authentic, lifelong friendships that will last far beyond their time in Edina Public School.

Does your general education student want to participate? We are looking for leaders in Grades 3-5 to partner with students of varying needs.

Most activities will be approximately 30 minutes. These activities take place during the school day. Your student may want to participate in all or part of the activities.

Unified Activities may Include:

• Lunch Bunch

• Craft and Munch

• Field Trip- Arboretum-May ( separate permission slip)

• Physical Education Activities

• Music Activities

• Art Activities

If interested click this link for more information and a permission slip for participation and return to the main office at Highlands, or Mary-Jo Rochester, Special Ed Teacher.

Please check the lost and found when you are at Highlands. Items with labels have been returned to students in their classroom. Thank you for labeling items so they can easily be returned to their owners.

Going forward, all lost and found items without a name label will be donated at the end of every school year month.

The Health office needs to be restocked with gently used elastic waist pants. Boys and girls in all sizes are needed, but we are especially need girls and boys xsmall (5/6), small (7/8), and medium (9/10) sizes. Thank you!

Edina Public Schools' Kids Club program offers a fun, engaging environment for your child that will enrich your child’s experience in Edina Public Schools. Our school year program offers a fun, stimulating learning environment for your child that will complement and rich your child's experience in Edina Public Schools. We provide a safe place for children to develop friendships and grow in confidence, independence and respect for themselves and others.

Kids Club contract request window for the school year opens one week from today. Contract requests must be submitted during the established window to be included in the lottery.

• School year 2025-26: March 25, 8am – April 14, 11:59pm

Find program details and information about the registration process on our website (edinacommunityed.com/Kidsclub).

Join the fun next school year!

If you have any scrap wood, 2x4s, bricks or building materials that you would like to donate, Highlands Kids Club would love to have it for their summer program. Please contact the Highlands Kids Club at 952-848-4569 with questions.

Please support your student by reminding them that no toys (including Pokemon cards) are allowed at school. This will help eliminate distractions during learning. Thank you for your help.

With the weather last week we can all imagine spring just around the corner and with that comes 5th grade graduation! Please consider joining us as part of the 5th Grade Graduation planning committee so we can help celebrate all these 5th graders have accomplished here at Highlands and send them off to middle school in Highlands style.

If you have any questions or want to join us please reach out to one of us.

Hillary Clayburgh hillarycfox@gmail.com

Aimee Martinez amarcich@gmail.com

Sarah Valenziano sarah.valenziano@gmail.com

Come celebrate future South View Middle School students with a fun-filled party at Sky Zone!

Date: Friday, April 11th

Time: 6pm - 8pm

Location: Sky Zone - 7625 Cahill Road. Edina, MN 55439

Cost: $35 per student. Scholarships available (please contact the social worker Addie Hakes)

Don't miss this chance for students to connect and have a blast! Purchase tickets by 4/4. Spots are limited! Get your tickets HERE & don't forget to sign your waiver

https://cbo.io/tickets/skyzone/tix

We need a few 5th grade parents to volunteer to sign in our Highlands kids that night. They will need to arrive at 5:45pm and should be able to leave by 6:15pm. They can contact Aimee Martinez at amarcich@gmail.com or 650-575-8413 to volunteer and get more details.

Buy your tickets here: $125 VIP Reception + Event | $75 Event only

Main Office Line: 952-848-4500

Attendance Line: 952-848-4502

Website: https://highlands.edinaschools.org/
Location: 5505 Doncaster Way, Edina, MN 55436
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HLHappenings

Tech and Infinite Campus Help: The Help Desk is available to answer media and technology related questions from 7am -4pm. For live assistance, please call 952-848-4915