Maple Monthly

Happy New Year, Dragon Families!

January flew by, and I wanted to take a moment to reconnect. We’ve had a wonderful start to the year, and it’s been exciting to see our students diving back into their learning. One of the highlights of last month was our Dragon Token Drawing Boosters in the classrooms, which have brought extra energy and excitement to our school.

We’ve also wrapped up our Winter Benchmarking assessments in both Reading and Math. These assessments help us track our students' progress and growth, and we will be sending home your child's Winter Scores in their backpacks soon. Please look out for an email with more details.

Wishing you all a fantastic February!

Warmly,
Megan Knight
Principal

At Maple Elementary, every student belongs. This means that every student regardless of their race, religion, language, gender, or any other factor- will be loved and accepted as a member of our school community. Bias and discrimination in any form are not tolerated within our school community. If and when incidents of bias occur, we will respond with care for those who have been harmed and education and consequences for those who have caused harm.

Three times a year we assess each student to celebrate growth and help guide/adjust our instruction. We go through a process called Core Review after each benchmarking assessment to determine the Literacy focus for each grade and strategies to help teach each focus skill. Below is each grade's focus skill that was determined after our Winter Benchmarking session last month.

Kindergarten: Focus on Phoneme Segmentation and Letter sounds. Increased practice for students, pulling students into small groups for targeted instruction.

1st Grade: Focus on long vowels and word reading. Adding choral response with sound cards as well as partner reading with familiar text.

2nd Grade: Focus on single syllable decoding. Using whiteboard routine in Whole Group Reading as well as strategic planning in Small group instruction.

3rd Grade: Focus on multisyllabic blending. Added blending routine in Whole Group Reading as well as daily fluency practice.

4th Grade: Focus on 2-syllable and multisyllabic words. Templates added in Whole Group Reading, targeted practice for students in Small Group and fluency practice daily.

5th Grade: Focus on rate and syllabication. Fluency practice in Whole Group Reading and Small Group Reading with increase use of partner and choral reading.

Oregon Battle of the Books (OBoB) battles have begun!. Encourage your student to continue reading if they are still competing; the books are available on loan from the Springfield Public Library, as well as the school office and library.

If they want to participate in next year's OBoB, they can get a jump on reading the books; the organization typically posts a reading list by the end of March.

Spring 2025 TAG identification is right around the corner and we are beginning to take referrals for our program. The SPS Talented and Gifted program assesses through district wide tests and classroom work samples whether or not your student has the potential to perform at the 95%ile or above in the areas of Reading, Writing, Math, Science, Social Studies and/or Intellectual giftedness.

The 95%ile means that if your student was in a line of 100 students, they would know more than the first 95 students in line. These students are at the top of their class, and typically above most students at their entire grade level at school and require more advanced work to meet them at their rate and level of learning, keeping them challenged.

Teachers, families and specialists can all refer students for identification if they feel they meet the criteria. Students must be referred for screening no later than February 28, in order for TAG contacts to be able to gather data for the upcoming testing session. If you would like to refer your child, please reach out to your child’s teacher for information on where your child is at academically and to start the referral process.

After you refer them for screening, the teacher will share with you the questionnaires, along with our preponderance of evidence form to begin filling out for your student. At this time the teacher will begin gathering together the work samples and testing data in a TAG referral file. If your family has any more information to add to the files, please share them with your child’s teacher when you return the questionnaire. All of this data will be used to create a “preponderance” of evidence in order to determine if the student will/will not qualify for the TAG program in one or more areas.

Thank you for your support and please do not hesitate to reach out to your child’s teacher or me with any questions you may have about the identification process.

Thank you ~

Brooke Henriksen, Maple TAG Contact

As we head into cooler, wetter months, the potential for school delays or closures due to snow and ice becomes a reality. SPS announces delays and closures in several different ways. Our goal is to determine by 6:30 a.m. whether school will be delayed, closed or open as usual. Remember, no news means no change. You can ensure that you will receive announcements of delays and closures in several key ways:

1. Make sure that your contact information is up to date with your student's school.
2. Follow SPS on Facebook, Instagram and X.
   
3. Sign up to receive FlashAlert alerts.
4. Check our website.

We now have an official Facebook Page!

This page will have information, events, information about staff and exciting info about what is going on in our classrooms and schools. Please click the link below to follow!

We are excited to continue our Weekly Walking School Bus every Tuesday. A Walking School Bus is a program supported by Safe Routes to School and Maple staff to provide a chaperoned walk to school every Tuesday morning. If you don't live directly on the route, feel free to drive your student to any of the stops before pick up time.

We are excited to be continuing Healthy Moves! The program runs Monday-Thursday each week.

This is a 30-minute activity program that is done before school. A variety of physical activities includes a warm-up, cardiovascular activities, games, and a cool down/yoga stretch. Activities are adapted to be appropriate for each grade. This program is designed to stimulate physical activity for kids in grades kinder-to-5th, and this has the added benefit of preparing them to be able to focus better in the classroom.

• Healthy Moves Trainers will come to Maple at 7:45
• Beginning at 8:00, trainers will pull any student finished eating breakfast, or students who have already eaten at home to the gym to lead them in activity.
• There will be a cap of 80 students per day, no students brought after 8:15
• At 8:25 trainers will line up students by grade level and dismiss to class

Thank you Healthy Moves for continuing this program at Maple!

Come see our Family Resource Ea, Jessica Thomas!

Our Family Center is located in our school right by the front office. Jessica is here to help students and families so that ALL students feel supported and able to participate in school everyday. Some of the resources we have available at the school are food, clothing and basic toiletries.

Please stop by the front office and visit the Family Center if you would like to pick up some items. We also roll out our Community Cart every other Thursday after school. If you have any questions please feel free to visit the office or call the school at 541-744-6395.

Breakfast doors open daily at 8:00am. Students can enter through the cafeteria doors. We encourage any student who would like to eat breakfast to arrive no later than 8:20 to ensure they make it to class when school starts at 8:35. Any student that enters school after 8:35 receives a sack breakfast to take to their classroom.

We are now offering 2 main choices for lunch and breakfast each day. As students walk through the line, they are able to make their choice. Students have been excited for this change!

Just a friendly reminder that to keep the drop off line moving, we ask that you do not get out of your car. If you would like to walk your student to the door, please park in our lot.

Additionally, when parking on J street we ask that you not block off any of our neighbors' driveways.

Dismissal Information:

• Student dismissal time is 2:50 each day. Student dismissal locations are as follows:
• Kindergarten: Dismissed through Kindergarten gate, behind school off of J Street.
• 1st/4th/5th grade: Dismissed through Cafeteria doors
• 2nd/3rd grade: Dismissed through front doors by Main Office

Thank you for helping our Drop off and Pick up times go safely and smoothly!

We receive donations from Costco each Tuesday for our families. Jessica, our great Family Center EA, will push out carts at the end of the day each Tuesday afternoon around 2:50. Please be aware we have many families in need so only take what is needed.

February 17th: No School, President's Day

February 21st: Early Release: Dismissal @12:30

March 3rd-March 7th: Classified Appreciation Week

March 6th: Papa's Pizza Fundraiser

March 14th: Early Release: Dismissal @12:30

March 21st: No School: Grading Day

March 24th-March 28th: Spring Break: No School

April 3rd: Maple Literacy Night

Email: megan.knight@springfield.k12.or.us
Location: 2109 J Street, Springfield, OR, USA
Phone: 541-744-6395