Message from Principal Collins
May 3, 2024
Hello Evergreen Friends and Families,
This week our choir scholars had an opportunity to participate in the District Choir Festival. They went to Lakota Middle School and met up choirs from different districts. It was a great experience for our scholars. We also started our final sport season of track, baseball and volleyball. Come on out to our events and cheer on our athletes. This coming week all students will be starting our first state test. We will start with the Smarter Balance Math Assessment. Here are some test tips to help our scholars be successful during testing time.
Go into the test with confidence. Staying confident makes it easier to remember everything you need to know.
Get enough sleep the night before the test. Your memory recall will be much better if you've had enough sleep.
Put away all your study materials before the test. It’s more important for you to clear your mind and relax during this time, so you’ll save your mental energy for the actual test.
Listen closely to any instructions. As the teacher hands out the test, be sure you know what's expected of you.
Read through the test first. If something seems unclear before you start, don't panic: ask.
Answer the questions in any order. You may find it easier to answer a question you’ve skipped after you've answered other questions.
Relax. If you're so nervous that you blank out.
Finished already? It's usually a good idea to spend any extra time checking your work.
We are in the middle of the Attendance Cup Competition- Our theme is "Attend Today, Achieve
Tomorrow!" We want to make coming to school not just important, but also fun and rewarding for everyone involved! Regular attendance isn't just about being present – it's about setting yourself up for a bright future! But wait, there's more! We're setting up a friendly competition between our schools in our district! The schools in each group with the best attendance and most improved attendance overall will take the top honors award at the end of the school year. Plus, there will be weekly challenge awards as well! You can help EVG earn the FWPS Attendance Cup! Make sure your child(ren) come to school every day on time. Right now, we are still in 3rd place, but only by a few percentage points.
Spring into math- Spring is here! Let your child welcome the season with these fun math activities. Calculate daylight a little more daylight every day—-and that means more time to play outside! Encourage your youngster to calculate the hours and minutes of daylight. They can check sunrise and sunset times online, then find the difference. For example, if the sun rises at 7:38 a.m. and sets at 8:09 p.m., that’s 12 hours and 31 minutes of daylight. How much does the amount change from day to day? Make symmetrical kites Invite your youngster to decorate for spring—and explore symmetry—by drawing colorful kites. They can cut white paper into squares, fold each "kite" in half diagonally, and paint a design on one half. While the paint is wet, she should fold along the line, press down, and unfold. They'll see a symmetrical design— each half is a mirror image of the other. Track thunderstorms During a storm, ask your child to count the seconds between lightning and thunder (say, 15). If they divide by 5s, they can tell you how many miles away the storm is (15 seconds + 5 = 3 miles). Why? Lightning and thunder happen at the same time. But light travels faster than sound (about 186,000 miles per second for light vs. 1 mile every 5 seconds for sound). Idea: No thunderstorm? Create one for your child by flashing a light (lightning) and popping a paper bag.
As always, please let us know how we can best support you and your student. The education and wellbeing of our students is the utmost importance to us and we will continue to do everything we can to meet the needs of all our students. We are here to support, encourage, partner together, and engage students in their learning. Thank you for partnering with us! I appreciate you and truly believe that we will finish this school year Grizzly Strong with your unwavering support. Thank you for being a part of the Grizzly family.
Your Partner in Education,
Mrs. Collins
253 945 5100
Why can’t we just watch movies for the rest of the year?
Middle schoolers are so funny. The closer we get to the end of the school year, the more I hear kids saying things like, “Do we have to learn today? Can’t we just watch movies for the rest of the year?” Of course, our teachers do not see things this way. With the possible exception of the very last day of school, our teachers will be teaching rigorous and interesting material, and students will be expected to learn it. We don’t take our foot off the gas when we see the finish line – we accelerate!
It's not just the days that we hold sacred at Evergreen; It’s also the minutes and seconds. At Evergreen, we subscribe to a bell-to-bell teaching approach. Instead of wasting 5 minutes of every lesson for attendance, students are expected to enter and immediately get started on exercises in their notebooks – also known as “Ready to Learn” – while the teacher takes attendance. Instead of having students huddle next to the door as they wait for the bell to ring, we end lessons with short quizzes – also known as “Exit Tickets” – so that every last second of precious class time is dedicated to learning.
So, no, we won’t be watching movies for the rest of the year. This doesn’t mean that the end of the year will be dull. This week we sent 60 students to the University of Washington Tacoma to tour the campus and learn about college. The excitement that this field trip generated about learning and college readiness is much more valuable in the long-term compared to the short-term gratification of junk food and movies.
