April Newsletter

I hope that everyone had a safe and relaxing Spring Break! We are nearing the tail end of our school year and things seem to really get busy!

The last part of the school year agenda includes our state and district end of year assessments. The 3rd-5th graders will be taking the MStep, which is the state assessment for Michigan. They will begin the week of April 21st. All grade levels have a reading and math portion, but 5th grade also includes the areas of science and social studies. More information will come from your child's classroom teacher as it gets closer to assessment time.

There are a few reminders for parents during this time:

Before testing, it may be helpful to mark testing days on a calendar to prepare your child for a change in their daily routine, encourage them to do their best, and make sure that your child is in school on the testing days. It is understandable if it is illness, but other than that, attendance is important.

During testing, make sure your child gets a good, healthy breakfast. The school will provide snacks on the morning of testing days. A good night sleep prior to testing day can make a huge difference on student performance and focus.

After testing, provide some down time and fun activities. Teachers are encouraged to keep homework to a minimum, and they also provide many movement breaks between testing sessions.

With assessments, we often have a few students that experience test anxiety. Please let your child's teacher or our school counselor know if you are concerned about how to support your child through this. Handling test anxiety in children involves a combination of strategies that focus on emotional support, preparation, and relaxation techniques. Here are some effective approaches for you that may be helpful:

Open Communication: Encourage your child to express their feelings about tests. Listen actively and validate their concerns, reassuring them that it's normal to feel emotions. Be positive with your child and remind them of their strengths.

Relaxation Techniques: Teach relaxation strategies such as deep breathing, visualization, or mindfulness exercises to help your child calm their nerves before and during the test.

Positive Reinforcement: Use positive affirmations and focus on effort rather than results. Celebrate small achievements to boost their confidence.

Another end of school year activity we are preparing for is our 5th grade Bay Cliff Field Trip! 5th grade parents will be receiving more information soon, and there will be a parent information meeting held at Superior Hills in the near future to explain all of the details. This is a fun, educational experience for students!

While spring is technically here, we are definitely not through with our winter weather! Please make sure that your child continues to bring warm winter clothing to wear for recess. I don't anticipate packing the winter gear away at any point soon, but it will get here.

March 31st - Welcome Back to School!

April 8th - SKSA Meeting @ 6:30 pm (Library)

April 9th and 10th - Preschool Screening for 2025-2026 (call 228-6522 for more information)

April 9th - Lego Club 3:50-5:00 pm

April 10th - Family SEL Night Powered by STEAM 5:30-7:00 pm @ SK

April 16th - Lego Club 3:50-5:00 pm

April 17th - Popcorn Day!

April 18th - NO SCHOOL

April 20th - Happy Easter!

Week of April 21st - MSTEP testing begins for 3rd, 4th, 5th grades

April 23rd - Lego Club 3:50-5:00 pm

April 30th - Lego Club 3:50-5:00 pm

May 1st - JK/K Skills and Health screening for the 2025-2026 school year at Messiah Lutheran Church

Activity Day has been set for Tuesday, June 10th! There will be more information to come regarding volunteer opportunities for this amazingly fun day!! We will have many fun activities at all of the stations, including the bounce houses! We welcome all volunteers, and please make sure to fill out a volunteer form soon, if you have not already done so this school year.

Mr. Sedgwick sent a message to families on March 21st introducing the new MAPS app. You can download the app for free from your app store on your mobile phone. He included links to directions within his letter. The app is convenient for locating all school and district information. If you go into your settings and choose Sandy Knoll as your default group, our school information will be what appears as soon as you open the app. I do plan to share a great deal of information utilizing this format. The events calendar (located in the drop down menu) on our page will reflect the "important dates" information that I put in the newsletter. The biggest change that our school has to make, is to open a new Facebook page that is public so that we can link information from the app to our Facebook page. The app will not allow me to link my live feed to the current Facebook page because it is private. This will also allow the district to be able to share our information as well. We have so many great things happening in our school, and it would be wonderful to share that out to the district page. You will soon see a message on our current school Facebook page that will ask you to join a new Sandy Knoll Elementary page. You can be assured that we will continue to honor the no photo requests from parents, and I will be monitoring every live feed post.