This is just a reminder for our level 3’s.  We will be having our SAGE essay test Monday morning, April 7th.  Please make certain your student is ready by having a good night sleep and a breakfast with protein.  Students are welcome to bring gum to chew on while testing and please make certain they have a water bottle.  Snacks will be provided.  Enjoy your Spring Break!

The  movie fundraiser for Friday has been cancelled.  Sorry for any trouble this may have caused.

This Friday the sixth grade will be hosting a fundraiser movie night.  The cost is $3 and the movie is Frozen.   Children may be dropped off from 6 p.m.-8 p.m.  If you are bringing a non-student to watch the movie an adult must be present.  Popcorn will be provided.  Blankets, pillows and comfortable clothes are encouraged.!

Home projects are due this week!  Remember next week is Spring Break.

Spring is almost here!  In celebration of Spring and our level 1 bird unit, we will be having a special “Birds of the World” presentation Thursday afternoon.  This is done by the same group who does “Scales and Tales”.  I am sure it will be a big hit!

Please come out and support our school by attending the Spring Gala on Saturday.  Fliers were sent home this past week with your children.  You should have also received a school email with the same information.  This is our big school fundraiser for the year and your support is needed.  It is certain to be a fun night for a great cause.

I hope you have enjoyed your long weekend with your children.  Please remember to be working on home projects.  We have only seen a few so far this month.  Please remember to have your level 3’s type their projects this month, It is great practice for our SAGE test.  We only have two weeks before the end of the month and these are required assignments.  Please help your student understand their responsibility in completing this assignment.

We could really use some help this month with snack sign ups.  We are okay for this week, but could really use help in the coming weeks.  You can visit the blog for sign up.  Thanks.

We just finished reading Matilda this past week and were able to watch the movie on Tuesday.  We thankfully didn’t have a repeat of The Polar Express disaster.

We also have some exciting news, Ms. Brec is engaged to be married!  We are all so excited and happy for her.  She will be getting married in May and will be taking a week away from the classroom at that time.

There is no school this Friday, it is professional development.  Also, the Gala is Friday the 22nd, this is always a fun night and a great opportunity to help our school.  The grade level art projects are always a hit, the kids have had lots of fun working on them, so plan on coming and having a great time.

The SAGE test is coming up soon!  Please get out your calendar and get these important dates marked.  As you know we have spring break coming up, the students are out of school from March 29th-April 6th.  Well, bright and early Monday morning, the 7th of April, our class will be testing on their essay questions.  I would ask that you make certain your child is ready to be back in the swing of things come Monday morning.  Make certain they get to bed early and have a good breakfast.  Students generally have a hard time coming back from breaks and getting right back into the swing, so I ask for your extra awareness in helping them be ready for this important day.  We then have our next testing day  Thursday April 10th, this will be their language portion.  We will finish up with math on Wednesday April 16th.

As you may be aware, I was unable to get iXL accounts for all of our third grade.  I have opted to use the SAGE formative practice questions in replacement.  This is a little more time intensive to set up, and a little limiting, but is more directly linked to what the students may see on the test.  Last week was the first time the students have logged in.  This is a learning curve do to the fact this is the baseline year.  We will be focusing hard the next few weeks on applying the knowledge they have and being able to apply it to the context of the questions they are seeing.  The test is very interactive, they draw figures, fill in graphs, write own equations, etc.   They have been doing this type of work on the their Daily Written Math for the past several months and now will be applying it onto the computer in the test format.

Our work the next few weeks will be working heavily on our opinion and informative essay questions.  If you have any further questions, please let me know.  I will be sending home log in information for SAGE shortly.

Thank you for helping your student continue to be responsible for completing home projects and reading each night.  We are continuing to hang our hearts for reading around the room.  We had some incredible home projects this past month.  We have started a new month and I look forward to projects rolling in.  I had several students who did not complete a project last month.  Please encourage your child to be working on this.  We do not have formal homework in the classroom, but this does not mean we do not have homework.  These projects are valuable and provide numerous opportunities for your child.  Please continue to have your child read every night for 20 minutes.  Students who are in reading groups are sent home with reading assignments each week night.  Please support your child in this.

I know the students enjoyed having you visit during their work cycle this past month.  The children have made great strides this year and I know they love having you in the classroom with them.

I am still looking for volunteers to help come read.  If you are available, we will welcome you with open arms!