Sandhill E-News

Week of 10/14/2024

A Message From Mr. Johnson:

Hello Sandhill Families,

We have a lot to celebrate and look forward to as we head into the next week!

This past week, our students did a wonderful job during our ALICE Evacuation Drill over to LakeView Church. Their attention to safety was impressive, and we appreciate everyone's cooperation.
National Bike to School Day was a big success! A special thank you to Working For Kids (WFK) for organizing this event in collaboration with the Stoughton Police Department.
If you haven’t yet, please remember to sign up for Family Conferences. These meetings are a valuable time to connect with your child’s teacher about their progress.
Our Fall Festival is this Friday! School-appropriate costumes are encouraged. If you have a costume to donate or if your student needs a costume, please message your child’s teacher, and we can help ensure they are all set!
Soon, many of our families will receive letters about reading interventions at Sandhill, which are part of our efforts to meet the guidelines of Wisconsin’s Act 20. These interventions are designed to provide extra support for students who need it. More information is provided below.

As always, please feel free to reach out with any questions!

Bob/Mr. Johnson

School Updates

Family Conferences Sign Up

Kindergarten:

1st Grade:

2nd Grade:

Ms. Null (Formerly Andrews)

3rd Grade:

4th Grade:

5th Grade:

Reading Screening Fall 2024

Dear Families,

As we have for many years, SASD students will participate in screening in mathematics and reading in the Fall, Winter and Spring. A screener is an assessment that quickly checks your child’s reading or math skills.

This year, as part of 2023 Wisconsin Act 20, all Wisconsin students in grades 4K-3 are taking an assessment called the aimswebPlus early reading screener. aimswebPlus is very similar to screeners we have used in the past. Our students in grades 4-5 will also participate in screening using Fastbridge as we did last year. Below are some answers to questions you may have:

What skills are tested?

The screener will check important literacy skills including alphabet knowledge, letter sound knowledge, phonemic awareness, decoding, and oral vocabulary. The skills are tested differently based on your child’s grade level. Please review the additional information about reading skills included at the end of this letter.

What information will families/caregivers receive?

In Fall 2024, you will receive your child’s test results at Fall Conferences. If your child would benefit from extra help in reading, we will notify you sooner via email in the next two weeks. We will also share a plan to help your child meet grade-level goals.

How will we use the information?

The information from the early reading screener is one way that your child’s teacher will learn about your child's reading skills.

If you have any questions or need more information about the early reading screener, please contact your child’s teacher or principal.

Sincerely,

Bob Johnson

Principal

National Bike to School Day

Early Reading Skills

2023 Wisconsin Act 20 requires that children are assessed in the early reading skills of alphabet knowledge, letter sound knowledge, phonemic awareness, and decoding. These skills are assessed differently depending on the student’s grade level. You can learn more about these important early reading skills below:

Alphabet knowledge: Knowing the names of printed letters.
Letter sound knowledge: Knowing the sounds of printed letters.
Phonemic awareness: Hearing , saying, and manipulating individual sounds in spoken words.
Decoding skills: Connecting sounds to written letters to read printed words.
Oral vocabulary: Understanding the meanings of words when speaking or listening.

aimswebPlus Reading Screening Assessments to Measure Skills

The aimswebPlus reading screeners that measure the skills above are based on a student’s grade level. More details are below:

Letter naming fluency (5K): Measures a student’s knowledge of upper-and lower-case letters. Your child will have one minute to say the names of visually presented upper-and lowercase letters that they know.
Letter word sounds fluency (4K-5K): Measures a student’s letter sound knowledge. Your child will have one minute to say the sounds of visually presented letters, syllables, and words that they know.
Initial sounds (4K-5K): Measures a student’s phonemic awareness. Your child will be provided a page with four pictures. Your child will be asked to either point to a picture of a word that matches the initial sound the teacher says or make the initial sound of a word spoken by the teacher. This assessment will take 2-3 minutes.
Phoneme segmentation (1st grade): Measures a student’s phonemic awareness. Your child will listen to a word that is spoken by the teacher and then say each sound they hear in the word. This assessment will take 2-3 minutes.
Auditory vocabulary (5K-1st grade): Measures a student’s knowledge of words commonly found in 5-year old Kindergarten and Grade 1 reading materials. Your child will match a picture to an orally presented word. This assessment will take 2-4 minutes.
Vocabulary (2nd- 3rd grade): Measures a student’s knowledge of the meanings of grade-appropriate words. Your child will choose the meaning of target words by selecting from multiple choice options. This is an untimed, computerized assessment that typically takes 4-7 minutes.
Oral Reading Fluency (1st-5th grade): Measures a student’s decoding skills. Your child will read two stories aloud, each for one minute.

School District Updates

Happenings at Stoughton High School

Open the Community - SHS’s “Trunk or Treat” next Wednesday!

Join the Stoughton High School Unity, Club, Athletics, and Student Organizations for "Trunk or Treat" on Wednesday, October 16 from 5:00-6:00PM in the Lincoln Street SHS Parking Lot!

🎭The SHS Performing Arts presents Lionel Bart's OLIVER!

This musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' beloved story features a talented cast of 37 students and will captivate audiences of all ages!

Show Dates:

📅Friday, November 1 @ 7 pm

📅Saturday, November 2 @ 7 pm

📅Sunday, November 3 @ 1 pm

📍Location: SHS Performing Arts Theater (enter from the back parking lot off Devonshire Rd)

🎟️Tickets are available at https://ow.ly/yBvP50THYqb or at the door (no cash sales).

Safety Awareness Month

We’ve designated October as Safety Awareness Month. In October, your students can expect:

Active Threat/ALICE Discussions
Review of our Speak Up, Speak Out incident reporting tipline.
Tornado Drill

The controlled active threat drill will take place during the week of October 7. Building principals will follow up with a communication to families shortly after the controlled drill is completed.

For more information, please click here.
Albanian Translation
Spanish Translation

WFK Updates

Good evening, Sandhill Families & Friends!

October WFK Meeting - Monday, October 14!

Please consider joining us this Monday, October 14 for our monthly WFK meeting. We meet at 6:30pm in the Sandhill Library. We will be finishing up plans for our fall events and start talking about the upcoming Giving Tree and other winter plans. Free childcare is available in the PRIDE Room #102.

Throughout the school year, we are super busy supporting our students and staff and planning events, and it takes a lot of volunteer time to make it all happen. If you are interested in helping out in any way, please let us know! It could be volunteering with or coordinating a single event, helping with staff appreciation, or taking on a leadership role within the group.

SANDHILL READ-A-THON - HAPPENING NOW!

Sandhill's 6th Annual Read-a-Thon is happening now and goes until October 18!! Make sure your kiddos are logging those reading minutes! And remember, we are inviting volunteers (parents, grandparents, community members) to come in during morning recess for grades K-2 to read to our younger students. Students LOVE having guests come and read to them, and I'm pretty sure our guest readers enjoy it, as well!

Sign up to read to our younger readers during recess!

How it works:

Your kiddo has brought home a pledge sheet with a reading log on the back.
Your students’ goals during the Read-a-Thon are based on their grade level expectations for daily reading and are described on the form.
If they choose to, students can ask family and friends to support them in their reading by making a pledge. Fundraising is optional!
Online pledges can be made via our Read-a-Thon website: https://app.99pledges.com/fund/sandhillreads2024
All pledges collected will be put toward Sandhill Working For Kids initiatives.
Reading logs and pledge sheets are due back to teachers by Monday, October 21!

Incentives for students!

All students who meet their reading goal and turn in a completed reading log by Monday, October 21st will be eligible for a prize drawing (even if they didn't collect pledges). This year, WFK will be giving away five $10 gift certificates for the upcoming book fair for each grade level.

UPCOMING EVENTS

FALL FESTIVAL - 10/18

Mark your calendar for our annual Fall Festival on Friday, October 18 from 5pm-7pm. Kids can win prizes playing carnival games, create fall art, get photos taken, race in an inflatable obstacle course, and enjoy the Kona ice truck. We'll also be offering pizza (for purchase) and snacks.

This is one of our biggest events of the year, and so please consider volunteering to help! We need donations of healthy snacks and sweet treats for our concession area, plus a lot of volunteers to run carnival games and crafts stations. Grandparents and responsible middle and high school students are welcome to volunteer, too! Thank you for your help in making the Sandhill Fall Festival a success again this year!

Donate items or volunteer at the Fall Festival

Our wonderful neighbors at Milestone Senior Living (2220 Lincoln Avenue) have invited our Sandhill Families to Trick or Treat from 4-5pm on 10/18! Stop by Milestone, show off those Halloween costumes, and head on over to Sandhill for the Fall Festival!

TRUNK OR TREAT - October 19!

Working For Kids is partnering with the community again this year and participating in a fun Trunk or Treat event! The event is located at Racetrack Park (1241 Racetrack Road) and goes from 2pm - 5pm! It is a FREE event and all families are welcome, but please register ahead of time! We look forward to seeing you there!

Register to attend Trunk or Treat!

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

FALL CONFERENCES AND STAFF DINNER - October 23!

Our fabulous Sandhill staff always work hard for our students and their families. But, during conferences, they really go the extra mile and don't have much time to refuel. That's where WFK comes in! It is our tradition to provide dinner for the entire staff to enjoy on the first day of conferences.

Please consider signing up to donate a food item, help set up, or help clean up as a way of showing our Sandhill staff how much we appreciate them!

Fall Conference Dinner Sign Up!

If you would like to help support our awesome teachers and staff but prefer not to have to worry about ordering food, preparing food, or delivering items to school, feel free to donate directly to WFK through our PayPal account. Please use an apple emoji or clearly specify that your donation is intended for teacher and staff support!

Here is the link for persons interested in donating with ease! :)

Donate to Sandhill Elementary Working For Kids

VOLUNTEER FOR LUNCH DUTY!

If you are looking for an easy way to help out at school and spend some time with our students, consider volunteering during lunch and/or recess duty!

Sign Up for October Lunch/Recess Duty

Sign up for November Lunch/Recess Duty

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK

Did you know we're on Facebook? We post information about upcoming events and other information about what's going on at Sandhill. You can find us @sandhillwfk. Tell your friends and family too!

INTERESTED IN GETTING INVOLVED IN WORKING FOR KIDS?!

Throughout the school year, we are super busy supporting our students and staff and planning events, and it takes a lot of volunteer time to make it all happen. If you are interested in helping out in any way, please let us know! It could be volunteering with or coordinating a single event, helping with staff appreciation, or taking on a leadership role within the group.

WFK meetings are the second Monday of every month. We meet at 6:30pm in the Sandhill Library and free childcare is provided! All are welcome!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS