Madison Family Newsletter

Questions like: "Tell me about the best part of your day?" or "What about your day do you sill have questions about?" When students can summarize what they learned for a family member it deepens their ability to use the information in more complex ways and increases recall of central ideas. We are looking forward to a spring of learning, assessment and enrichment.

Respectfully,

Principal Estrada

• April 2: MCA Reading testing begins Grades 4th-5th
• April 10: NO SCHOOL,
• April 18: Kindergarten Concert, 12:30 p.m.

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! 😊

Happy Spring, Kindergarten Families!

It’s hard to believe it will be April next week, which means just two more months with our kindergarten kids!

Lately we’ve been practicing addition, subtraction and reviewing the different ways we can find an answer. Ask us about using our math tools, drawing pictures, using a number line, and our fingers (because we always have those with us). We continue to learn new sight words each week. Our goal is to know 40-60 by the time we head to first grade. Remember to check the Madison Blue folders every night to see all the work that we did during the school day and to find the new PAKRAT book to read together.

There is currently a lot of snow on the ground and when it melts there will be lots of puddles outside. Kinder kids love to play outside, so WEARING boots to school AND BRINGING SHOES TO CHANGE INTO HERE is a good idea.

*Mark your calendars for our Kindergarten Concert on April 18th at 12:30! Your students are excited to show you what they have been working on this year 🎶

Hello Families,

Happy April! This month in 1st grade we will…

• cover money, time, and measurement in math.
• learn the following sight words; one, only, once, and does & the sounds -ing, -ang, -ong, -ung,-oy, -ar, and wh- in phonics.
• we will wrap up learning about animals in literacy and writing, and move into focusing on the question, “How can we make sense of the world around us?”
• begin exploring the life cycle of insects in science.

Reminders:

• Please continue to send winter gear; especially boots AND shoes to change into - this helps keep our classrooms clean and dry for learning!
• Please take time to look around your home for any missing library books and PAKRAT books.
• Continue to check the weather each morning before school to ensure your student has the proper layers.

Hello Spring! Nothing says spring like a blizzard! We all know too well it doesn’t last long coming into April. Students are ready for Spring and to burn off some energy.

We are now into Trimester 3. In Literacy we are wrapping up stories and features of Expository Text, identifying cause and effect, and learning how the ground changes over time from natural occurrences. After the completion of this unit, we will move into Poetry. Our students will read and write poems of all different styles. Students will have a chance to get creative writing free verse, acrostic, and diamante poems.

In math, students finished trimester 2 learning mental strategy skills for addition and subtraction, as well as skip counting by 5s, 10s, and 100s. Students were also introduced to their first math lesson using 3rd grade math. Lesson one used place values to round to the nearest ten and hundred place. This was also great practice for identifying greater than and less than skills. Next we will be learning strategies for adding several two-digit numbers.

Our next section of 2nd graders are enjoying their water safety at the YMCA. This is such a great opportunity for students and we are so lucky to partner with the YMCA.

Thank you for continuing to support your second-graders as we dive into Trimester 3.

Best wishes,

The Second-grade team

The third grade students have been practicing for the reading MCA's that are coming up at the beginning of April. They have been building stamina to read multiple paragraphs and finding text evidence. We will soon be preparing for the math MCA's. Those will be taken at the end of April.

During our language arts time, we have been studying elements of poetry. Students have been identifying rhyme, repetition, free-verse, narrative, stanzas, and lines in poems. We continue to keep improving on spelling/phonics rules which is helping build confidence with writing.

Fractions have been our most recent topic in math. Students have learned how to identify fractions and are now learning how to compare them. Students will be busy with lots of math concepts to finish out the year.

As winter has made its return, please make sure your child has winter gear for recess time. Hopefully this "winter" is short lived and we can continue on with spring!

Now that we have started our final trimester of third grade, we all have high hopes for finishing strong and learning lots! Please reach out to your child's teacher if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you,

Ms. Ortloff, Ms. Hartwig, Ms. Deters, Ms. Zheng, and Ms. Hausmann

Hello 4th grade families!

As we enter April, we will be preparing our students for the 4th Grade MCAs. Our students will begin with the reading MCAs starting Tuesday, April 2nd through the 4th. After this, we will have a week off and then resume with our math MCAs Tuesday, April 16th to the 18th. Below are some ways you can support your child as they near these formative assessments:

1. Help ensure that your child gets a good night's sleep the night before the MCAs. Encourage them to be off electronics an hour before they go to bed ensure they fall asleep.

2. Encourage your child to eat all of their breakfast either at school or at home. Classroom teachers will make sure that students have extra time to finish their breakfast and snacks.

3. If able, have students bring a water bottle with them to school. Staying hydrated can help with their academic work.

4. Give them words of encouragement the evening before or morning of the testing.

Your children have been working incredibly hard this school year. We are proud of their work and effort and can't wait for them to show their success this month.

Math:

We have finished up our intensive study on fractions and decimals. We are now shifting to more geometric studies involving lines, rays and angles. We will also be going back to focus on multiplication and division as well.

Literacy:

We are focusing back on realistic fiction, this time exploring figurative and descriptive language and how those are applied to enhance stories. Students are also going to be applying their skills to an animal research project. For these projects, students will be constructing posters and writing reports.

Science and Social Studies:

See below for what your child's classroom teacher will be working on over the next two months of school:

Mr. Maas -- physical science and social studies

Mr. Moline -- social studies and life science

Ms. Jacobson -- earth science and social studies

Ms. Yeh -- life science, and then social studies

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact your child's teacher.

Welcome to Spring!
What a wild ride to round out March, and now we have MCA’s next week on April 2nd. Your child will be applying all the skills and tools they have been learning all year on the MCA tests. The dates for testing are as follows:

Reading -- April 2-4

Math -- April 23-25

Science -- May 7-9

Tips for good test taking: 1) please eat a nutritious breakfast, 2) get a good night sleep, and 3) positive affirmations for your child

In between the Math and Science MCA’s we will be having Great Theater come to Madison and work with our students on a play. Mark your calendars, their performance will be on April 29th, 2024.

Please also note, there will be no school for students on April 10th.

We appreciate all your support you have given us this school year!

Even as the end of the school year approaches, there are still instances where the school nurse may need to contact parents/guardians or leave voicemail messages.

If you, as a parent/guardian are listed as your child's primary contact on their Skyward profile, please try to keep your voicemail inbox clear so it can receive incoming messages. When the nurse can leave a message, it helps eliminate the need to contact teachers and staff to try and guess who may have called. We also ask for you to please keep your cell phone turned on during school hours so the nurse can contact you if needed.

If your phone number has changed, or your student's emergency contact list needs to be updated, please notify the staff at the front office at 320-370-6330. Our front office staff will be happy to update any changes that need to be made.

One last note, please send extra pants in your child's backpack for them to change into if they get wet on the playground.

Thank You!

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 need to pick-up your child early, or 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.