LETTER FROM PRINCIPAL ESTRADA
Greetings Families!
Trimester one has come to a close and we are so excited about the progress our students have made academically and socially at Madison. Students are diving deeper into the content standards and working toward proficiency as well as project based learning that offers creativity and critical thinking beyond the grade level standards.
Encourage your child to talk to you each day about their learning. Often, when parents ask about their child’s day at school (this happens at my house), you might be just a shrug, or a quick “fine.”
Asking open-ended questions can help make kids think more deeply about their day and you get more than a one-word answer: “What made you laugh today?”, “What was the best part of your day?”, “What was the most interesting thing you learned today?”, “What was the hardest/easiest thing you did today?”
Making a habit of asking about your child's learning encourages them to remember what they plan to share with you after school and children that can summarize what they have learned are more able to apply their new learning.
Thank you families for sharing your children with us. They are brilliant, creative and natural investigators of the world around them!
Wishing you the brightest December!
Principal Estrada
Language Immersion Information Nights:
Join us to learn more:
Wednesday, December 6th from 5:00 p.m.- 6:00 p.m. (Northside families)
Discovery Community School
Wednesday, December 13th from 5:00 p.m.- 6:00 p.m. (Southside families)
Talahi Community School
Madison Online School Store!!
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! 😊
KINDERGARTEN
Dear Kindergarten parents,
It’s beginning to look a lot like winter, so please dress your kiddos warm. Kindergarten needs your help to make sure our kiddos are safe. Healthy kids are learning kids here at school. Put on boots, hats, mittens and nice warm clothes because its beginning to look a lot like winter, once more.
We had a blast having Friendsgiving before our break. We met new friends and got a yummy snack too! As we talked to our neighboring class friends, we wrote about things we both like to do. Writing is getting easier since we have learned all our letters and sounds. We focus on hearing the sounds in words and putting those sounds onto the paper. We are busy learning about 3-D and 2-D shapes, adding and subtracting within 5 and writing our numbers. There are so many smart mathematicians here at Madison. Please remember to read PAKRAT books every night.
We are so thankful for such wonderful families. Thank you for all that you do!
The Kindergarten Team
1ST GRADE
Hello First Grade Families!
As we start December, our days will be a mix of new learning and building on existing knowledge. We are going to be wrapping up unit 2 for math, which taught adding and subtracting teen numbers. We are excited to continue building on those skills while we learn about doubles and near doubles.
In literacy we finished Unit 1, which focuses on the question, “What makes you special?” We are starting to work on unit 2, "Buildings," while focusing on learning about genre characteristics, key details, and sequencing. For writing, we finished our personal narrative unit and wrote our own stories. For our next writing unit, we will begin working on fantasies. We just finished our first science unit - Pebbles, Sand, and Silt. The students were able to explore and work with the materials to see their different properties.
A few reminders:
- 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.
- Please be aware of the weather. It is quickly getting chilly 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.
2nd GRADE
Greetings Second-Grade Family and Friends,
As November comes to a close, we are amazed at how fast time flies by. The second-graders have been hard at work, learning and exploring so many things. With the winter season upon us, please ensure that your child has proper outdoor recess clothing to stay warm and comfortable.
During our Essential instructional time, students have been diving into more advanced phonics skills, which will help them become more fluent and confident readers. In literacy, we have been exploring expository text and will soon be moving on to units of study that include fables and poetry. Students are being exposed to different genres of text and are encouraged to explore these genres through their own writing.
In math, second-grade students have been working on applying their math skills in solving word problems. We will soon be using 2-digit numbers while adding and subtracting, as well as practicing the skill of estimating. Additionally, we will be exploring the concept of telling time and using money. Our science lessons will delve into physical and life science standards, while our social studies lessons will continue to explore topics about civics and history.
As we approach the winter break, we are excited to continue working with our second graders and helping them grow in their educational journey. Thank you for partnering with us to make this year the best it can be!
Best regards,
The Second Grade Team
3RD GRADE
3rd grade has been busy, busy, busy!
Learning about historical fiction and argumentative texts
Learning about the theme of a story
Persuasive writing process
Social emotional learning
Learning about archaeology
Practicing multiplication facts and strategies to solve them
Enrichment Day/Student Choice
We thank you for your time at conferences this month. It is really nice to be able to work together on goals to help students succeed!
4TH GRADE
Greetings parents and guardians,
Trimester 1 is coming to a close. Teachers will be doing report card grades on Friday, December 1st. Look for your child's grades coming home with them the following week. Grades will be in a white envelope with your students name and both the ISD742 and Madison logos.
Math:
We are finishing multi-digit multiplication and division. These will be skills we will continue to revisit through IReady, practice work time with the teacher and in review work. We also got some brief practice on area and perimeter of 4 sided shapes (rectangles and squares). We will continue to practice these skills with more complex shapes as we go throughout the year.
Moving forward, we are going to begin exploring and focusing more on the concept of data, graphs, as well as fractions and decimals.
Just a reminder, 4th grade expectations are that students complete 40 minutes of work a week on MYPath, located on IReady. We do this in class, but be prepared to have students bring devices home on Tuesdays and Thursdays if they need extra support. Your child’s teacher will give further details if this is needed.
Literacy:
For reading, we have finished our poetry and drama genres. Students also performed small classroom plays for their respective classes. We focused on comparing and contrasting nonfiction information in the first trimester. Moving forward, we will be diving deeper into nonfiction, as well developing our fiction skills. Most of these skills will be new, but our Wonders curriculum is set up to allow students to use and deepen their knowledge base within this learning area.
Science/Social Studies:
In social studies we learned about Geography and the People of America. For science, students rotated between physical, natural, or life science.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher!
5TH GRADE
Can you believe that we are almost half way through the year?! We ask as the temperatures continue to drop, please make sure your child has a hat, gloves/mittens, snow boots/pants when appropriate, and a warm winter jacket. If you are in need of some items please reach out to your child’s teacher.
We are beginning a Mustang Challenge at school. Our goal for each classroom is to earn a total of 65 mustang slips by December 15th, 2023. The way they can earn these are by following the mustang model and working towards individual classroom goals. Please encourage your child to practice safe, kind, and responsible behaviors.
In math we are working on decimals and powers of ten. For reading we are focusing on folktales and fairy tales, and will soon transition to poetry. Science and social studies is rotated throughout the grade level so please see your child’s planner for further details. We are continuing to encourage the students to read for 20 minutes each day and ask you to do the same.
Lastly, first trimester is coming to an end on Friday Dec.1, 2023. This will be a non-school day for your child while teachers are working on finalizing grades. Please be advised, report cards will be available via skyward before the winter break.
Thank you for sharing your child with us!
5th grade Team
ALLIED ARTS: MUSIC
Dearest Madison families,
Our Madison 5th graders deserve enormous praise for the Veterans Day program which they produced and presented on November 10th for our veterans, families, friends, students, and staff. In the words of Principal Estrada: “The program was perfect! It was so special, and the slide show blew people away! Our families and vets were so touched. It was personal and had lots of gratitude and joy!”
The following is a “rap” which the fifth grade wrote for Veterans Day:
- Thank you Veterans for keeping us safe. You make the world a better place. When you protect us and do your best, we know that we can have a good night’s rest. Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, your bodies were trained to work like machines. You spent a lot of time serving in the war. How happy we are when you come back to shore. For all of us you risked your lives. Because of you, our country will survive. Without all of you our lives would fall apart. Thank you for your service from our hearts.
A special thanks goes out to Makinley Parrish, Leo Joseph and Ziyer Smith for connecting this rap to our education from Mr. Chadwick of Walker West Academy. Also, a big thank you goes out to you, our 5th grade families, for your creative and beautiful children!!!
Our learning grows everyday as we connect our fluency in note reading to sound, the instruments of the orchestra, and “The Nutcracker.” If you have a student in Ms. Deters or Zheng Laoshi’s classrooms, ask them about their experimentation and explorations of sound with stethoscopes, tuning forks, boom whackers, and plastic cups with strings. It was an exciting time!
Thank you for the gift of teaching your children! We cherish them A LOT!!!
Keep a song in your heart!
Grace Ryan and Karen Kruse
ALLIED ARTS: GYM
Our students have been off to a great start this year. We have already got a lot of work done in the gym. We have completed our soccer unit, learned new games, and have been working at becoming healthier kids! Our older students completed their fitness testing and are now working on new fitness stations, as well as completing their volleyball unit. Or younger students have worked on locomotor skills and are currently doing some throwing games. The students have done a fantastic job of being active learners while having fun!!!
SEL News
It might be getting a little colder outside but at Madison we are having a heatwave. We announced a new Mustang Slip Challenge called the “HeatWave.” Each classroom will develop safe, kind and responsible goals to focus on during the month of December. Classrooms can earn Mustang Slips for meeting these daily goals and work their way up a classroom thermometer. When classes have reached the top of the thermometer they will earn a fun surprise before winter break.
This week we also celebrate our Trimester 1 Mustang Model students during Madison's first assembly of the year. Two students from each grade will be recognized for demonstrating safe, kind and responsible behavior at school. We will also have fun challenges for teachers as well.
Talent Development News
Oh, what a busy and exciting month it's been for TDAS!!!!
Young Scholars have created and presented a working Vision Board. They focused on strengths - both physical and academical, setting goals for improvement in all areas! They are currently practicing their coding skills in order to complete a final project. High Achievers have been working to strengthen their skills in critical and analytical thinking, when solving word problems in Math and responding to Literature in Reading. All the skills that are being rigorously strengthened are skills that are taught in their homerooms.
5th graders have been studying oh so hard!!! We have conducted this year's Classroom Spelling Bee and are now preparing for Madison's 23-24 School Spelling Bee competition which will be held on December 14th at 9:15 am! This year's top two spellers will get to compete against the other district elementary winners for the title of District Spelling Bee Champion. The District Spelling Bee is scheduled to take place on January 8, 2024 at 4pm.
Mustang Scholars CONTINUE to meet and exceed expectations!
From our Madison Nurses:
Cold and Flu season usually begins in October in Minnesota and peaks in February. So with that in mind, please make sure you have listed an EMERGENCY CONTACT for your student. This should be someone other than a parent (in addition to the parent or primary guardian) who you would trust to collect your student from school in the event of a health emergency. The emergency contact is called when the nurse is unable to get in contact with the parent/guardian.
Please make sure your emergency contact information is complete and accurate. If you move or get a new cell phone number give the new information to the school immediately.
As a family make a plan for who will stay home with your child when he/she is sick- because it's bound to happen! Make a plan and be prepared for child sick days.
Reminder: Students who have a fever over 100.4 must stay home from school until they are fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications. Students who vomit must stay home from school until they have been vomit free for 24 hours and are able to keep foods and liquids down.
Reporting Absences Protocol:
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.
BREAKFAST AND LUNCH MENU
We will also attach our Breakfast and Lunch Menus at the bottom of our family newsletters each month.
