Hawk Highlights

It has been a learning-filled week here at HI. State Assessment testing started for 4th and 5th graders, and our K-2 buddies spent time creating and delivering "Good Luck!" cards for 3-6 students. We are all cheering you on!

Upcoming Events:

• 🏠 Open House/STEAM Night: April 4th @ 5:00-7:30
• 5:00-6:00 Open House in classrooms - classrooms close at 6:00
• 5:00-7:30 STEAM stations
• 🤖 Robots in the Library (until 6:00)
• 🎨 Art in the Art Room
• 🦎 SME Environmental Lab animals in the MPR
• 🔬 Mad Science Experiments in the Science Lab
• Wing Stand Food Truck 5:00-7:30
• 🚌 Pre-K Round Up: April 10th @ 5:30-6:30
• 🚌 Kindergarten Round Up: April 11th @ 6:00-7:30
• 🚫 No School: April 12th & April 15th
• 📚 Scholastic Book Fair: April 16-19
• 🧺 VIP Guest Lunch: Picnic on the Playground: April 19th
• During each student's normal lunch time. Bring lunch & blanket.
• 🎭 Variety Show: April 26th @ 6:30
• 🚲 Bike and Roll to School Day: May 8th

It's great to be a Highlands Hawk!

Laura LaHue

Principal

Instagram: @HighlandsHawks512

Twitter: @512Hawks

Maggie Carter, Instructional Coach at Highlands, has been named the SMSD All-Star for April! Check out this video highlighting her work at HI, as well as incredible interviews from students and staff. Congratulations, Maggie!

On Monday, wastewater construction will start along Roe. Please see the traffic map above for closures. It appears traffic will be able to access Highlands northbound on Roe, but southbound will be closed. The city communicated that this project is expected to take 4 weeks. We will need to exercise patience and give ourselves a little more time to get to school these next few weeks.

On April 8, 2024, a solar eclipse will be visible on a path across the United States. Classroom teachers across the Shawnee Mission School District are preparing lessons to help students understand what is happening during an eclipse, and individual schools may provide additional details regarding viewing activities for their particular school.

As always, student safety is our top concern. Looking directly at the sun without proper eyewear is unsafe. The only safe way to look at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed sun is through special-purpose solar filters, such as “eclipse glasses”. Per NASA, homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses, even very dark ones, are not safe for looking at the sun.

SMSD will provide all elementary students who view the eclipse as a classroom activity with eclipse glasses to wear during this event. Although there is no way to fully guarantee student safety during such a rare event, we will take precautionary measures including pre-education to make students aware of the risks involved in directly looking at the sun. At no time should students or participants remove their eclipse glasses and look directly at the sun as it could cause permanent eye damage or other unknown effects. Students will be directed not to remove their eclipse glasses.

Please reinforce this by speaking with your child about the importance of keeping their eclipse glasses on at all times during this event.

If you have questions, or if you would prefer that your student not participate in outdoor events during the eclipse, please contact your school principal.

Our 3rd-6th grade students will be completing the Kansas State Assessments over the next couple of weeks. We are SO proud of all of the effort they have put in to setting goals for this assessment and committing to giving their best effort.

3rd Grade KAP Assessments:

Reading: April 2 & April 5

Math: April 8 & April 11

4th Grade KAP Assessments:

Reading: March 26 & March 27

Math: April 2 & April 5

5th Grade KAP Assessments:

Science: March 26 & 27

Reading: April 2 & April 3

Math: April 8 & April 11

6th Grade KAP Assessment:

Reading: April 3 & April 4

Math: April 8 & April 11

Highlands Elementary and Crestview Elementary are excited to partner for our inaugural Cultural Night (Fall 2024)! This night is designed to celebrate the many cultures around the world, and, more specifically, the family cultures that are present in our two schools. By filling out this form, you can help us create an experience that embraces the heritage present in the homes of our two school communities.

• 📌 Please fill out this form to provide your family's cultural heritage.

HI WIG #1: Implement a system-wide monitoring process that utilizes collaborative instructional teams who meet regularly to review student data from screening, progress monitoring, and common formative assessments (CFAs) to identify next steps for instruction. (Intentional Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 instruction)

• ✅ Lead Measures (to get us there):
• Intentional Core Instruction: Students are doing the talking (thinking); teachers are asking questions to encourage students to think and generalize what they know to new situations.
• Intentional Core Instruction: Teacher teams will use information from CFAs and real-time observations during core instruction to strategically target skills that will accelerate achievement
• Educational Equity: How will we get EVERY student there? A collective responsibility to provide students with what they need, when they need it, and with an urgency to master essential outcomes.
• IXL: students will engage in personalized learning plans using the IXL app to master skills for each priority standard with an 80% proficiency in both ELA and Math.
  

HI WIG #2: Prioritize social/emotional personalized learning through explicit instruction, modeling, classroom norms, school rituals/routines, and caring attention.

• ✅ Lead Measures (to get us there):
• Student absenteeism: monitor student absenteeism and create a plan to help students be at school consistently. Students that miss 10% of school days are defined as chronically absent.
• Mindful Mornings: Each morning from 8:00-8:30 will be a time for face-to-face (device-free) connection and friendship. Students know they can softly enter their school day.
• Schoolwide system of mentorship: all-school mindful mornings each month, Hawks Nests each month, classroom buddies, and 6th grade jobs.
• Positive behavior system: of grace and accountability through our PBIS and BIST programs.