Newsletter

Seedling Mile Families,

The school year is under way and I wanted to take the opportunity to express my excitement for the new school year along with sharing some important dates and information for the new school year.

I’m very excited about our 2008-2009 School Improvement Plan.  We are implementing a new reading structure within the classrooms called the Daily 5.  This reading structure is designed to teach students to become independent during our reading blocks so that teachers can pull small groups of students and conduct guided reading groups.  While teachers are working with guided reading groups, other students will be involved in certain tasks that we call the Daily 5.  These tasks include specific ways to read to self, read with someone, work on writing, listen to reading, and working with words.  Our staff looks forward to sharing our progress with the Daily 5 throughout the year.  I encourage parents to talk to their children about the Daily 5 and how it is helping them become better readers and writers.

We will continue to have individual writing portfolios for students this year.  Each month students throughout the whole school will be given a writing prompt.  They will go through the writing process to produce a final draft that will be scored and reflected on.  By doing this, we hope to show students the individual growth they make through the year.  Hopefully, this process will help students reflect on their writing and understand their strengths and areas that need improvement.  We saw last year that this process can build self-esteem as a writer and also motivate students to do their very best in writing. 

Our final area of school improvement is math.  Teachers will continue to encourage students to share their mathematical strategies in a variety of formats.  A focus area will be building fact fluency and number sense throughout the year.  Please look for specific strategies and activities in newsletters and mailings going home throughout the year.

Finally, I will list some important dates and various pieces of information that I feel will be helpful as we begin the new school year.  As always, please feel free to stop by or call the school with any questions or concerns that you may have throughout the year. 

Bits & Pieces of Information

Dates to Remember
*PTA meeting on September 2nd starting at 6:00 (topics include fundraisers and scheduling events for the year)
*Fall Pictures/September 11th starting at 8:00
*Parent Teacher Conferences starting September 29th
September 29th/full day of school with conferences in the evening
September 30th/full day of school with conferences in the evening
October 1-3 No school for elementary students/conferences in the morning of October 1
*Elementary school conference schedule varies from middle and high school
*Look for specific information/times in mid-September

*New Staff for the 2008-2009 School Year
 Amy Koozer (ELA)
 Lynn Bender (Speech Pathologist)
 Kristin Schultz (Social Worker)
 Neil Berger (4-5 PE)
 Emilie Waits (4-5 music)

*Breakfast begins at 7:30 every morning.  We ask students to begin arriving for breakfast at 7:30.  If students are arriving significantly earlier, it puts a strain on staff members to supervise students in the lunch rooms as most staff members do not begin arriving until around 7:30  If students do not intend to eat breakfast, we ask that students begin arriving in the gym at 7:45 or shortly after.  Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

*Regular Hourly School schedule is 8:00-3:05 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.  Wednesday Hourly schedule is 8:00-2:00.

*At dismissal times, we ask that parents be very careful when picking up students.  Driving slowly, watching crosswalks, and parking in marked parking spots should help traffic move smoothly and safely. 

*A monthly newsletter will be sent home before the beginning of every month.  Each newsletter will contain information from each grade level along with reminders of important dates of school activities that will be forthcoming.  A school calendar with those dates is also provided along with a monthly lunch menu for planning purposes.

*New Food Guidelines provided by the district
*Going home with students you will find a nutrition guideline pamphlet for the 2008-2009 school year.

Please browse through the nutrition guidelines that have been implemented by GIPS for the 2008-2009 school year.  The goal of our nutrition services is to provide well-balanced and healthy meals.  I will list a few important guidelines to take notice of below.  I understand that some questions will arise and please call the school should you need clarification.

*Lunches brought from home can contain homemade items for that particular student only.

*All items brought for class parties and birthday treats must be commercially prepared.  Homemade items are not to be brought for other students consumption. 
Examples:  Homemade cookies or cupcakes made by parents at home are not permitted for other students.  Treats commercially prepared such as mini candy bars are fine.  Cupcakes or cookies prepared at a food stores such as Hy-Vee or Wal-Mart are fine as well.

*We ask students not bring pop to school for lunches, birthday celebrations, or classroom parties.  Please provide juices, gatorade, or milk as beverage choices. 

*GIPS recommends healthy snacks such as baked chips, fruit bought at a store, or nonfood items be given for school celebrations.  There is a long list of recommended foods on the back of your pamphlet.

All students coming to school with stick-on tattoos will be asked to rub them off or cover them up with a band-aid.  This is a GIPS school policy.  We understand that students will need reminders of this and informing parents of this policy is the best way to get everyone on the same page.

Thank you again, for your continued support and assistance in providing the best education possible for your children.

Lee Wolfe
Principal

“Every Student, Every Day, a Success”

Kindergarten News - Mrs. Julesgard

    Welcome to Kindergarten!
 
    We will continue to review the rules of the classroom and grow as a community of learners. 
    In science, we are becoming investigators as we discover trees around our school.  We will be learning more about summer by recording the characteristics of the trees.  
    In math, we will be exploring and identifying patterns and finding the location of objects and people in our classroom.  We will also be exploring numbers in our classroom and our world. 
    In language arts, we will identify and write our names.  We will be starting our “letter of the week”.  We will talk about the letters Aa, Bb, and Cc.  They will get to meet Ms. A who has an aaaachoo, Mr. B who has beautiful buttons, and Mr. C who has a Colossal Cap.  Nursery rhymes are very important and we will be working on them all throughout the month of September. 
    Our Social Studies theme this month is “How to make new friends”.  This will help us learn how to make friends.  We will be using kind words and actions and learning to share within this unit.
    We will be taking the DIBELS test on September 18.  During conferences I will be explaining what DIBELS is and their scores.  Our month will be complete when I see you at parent-teacher conferences to tell you all the wonderful things your child has done!
   

First Grade News - Mrs. Stoeger

    The First Graders have had a GREAT start to the school year! 
    We are implementing the Daily 5, a series of five literacy tasks (Read to Self, Work on Writing, Read to Someone, Word Work, and Listen to Reading).  The First Graders build their reading and writing stamina every day!
    Social Studies Alive! My School and Family provides lessons that help First Graders explore social studies concepts through teacher-led activities.  During Lesson 1, How Do We Get Along in School?, the children played a game in which they worked together to draw a picture, discovering the value of cooperating.  The First Graders have shared their preferences, interests, and special skills as they discovered the importance of learning from and accepting each other in Lesson 2.
    Unit 2 in Math Trailblazers, “Exploring Shapes,” provides opportunities for your child to explore and focus on the attributes of 2-dimensional geometric shapes.   In “Pennies, Pockets, and Parts,” Unit 3, students will visualize numbers using five and ten as benchmarks with ten frames.  Daily Practice and Problems (DPPs) provide daily review of math concepts, facts, and skills.
    The Language Arts theme in the Hello! anthology is “We share what we like.”  We will look for ways that Donald Crews, a noted author and illustrator, gets ideas for books and how he creates them.  He has written School Bus, Carousel, Freight Train, and Truck.   
    The students will be learning about symmetry in Native American art, then they will design their own parfleche bags.  The First Graders will have the opportunity to visit Stuhr Museum on Monday afternoon, September 8.  They will be able to examine Pawnee artifacts, as well as tour the earth lodge and a tipi.
    DIBELS testing will take place on Thursday, September 18.
    I look forward to visiting with you about your First Grader’s growth at Parent Conferences on September 29, 30, and October 1! 

   

Second Grade

   Second Grade is as much fun as a barrel of monkeys!  We have 16 energetic and enthusiastic Second Graders in our class.  We are off to a busy year and excited about the many things there are to learn in Second Grade. 
    We are busy learning the Daily 5 to help students become better readers and writers.  You will hear your child talk about building stamina and building muscle memory.  Children are learning and practicing strategies to help them “Read to Self” and “Work on Writing” independently.  We have learned how to choose a Good Fit book.  September will find us implementing the other three components of the Daily 5: Read to SOmeone, Listen to Reading, and Word Work.
      Children will be ‘publishing’  an exclusive edition of “Extra! Extra! Read All About Me!”, a student newspaper highlighting information, special events, and personal favorites. We will share these  with you at conference time.  We are making headlines!
    Math topics will include problem solving involving addition and subtraction, working with data, and skip counting.  Children will explore numerical patterns and intervals on a number chart and  learn to recognize even and odd numbers.  The Hundreds of Coins Calendar is an ongoing activity giving students daily practice working with the calendar  and finding the value of a collection of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.  Math tools, such as the 200 Chart and calculators, will be used.
    Later in the month we will launch our science curriculum studying Air and Weather.  FOSS Science provides hands-on, active learning.  Using vials, syringes, and tubing, students will experience air as matter discovering that it takes up space and can be compressed.  Children will find that compressed air builds up pressure that can push objects around.  We will construct and compare parachutes and balloon rockets that use air.  Students will observe and record weather on a class calendar and in weather journals.  We will monitor temperature with a thermometer and rainfall with a rain gauge.  These engaging activities make learning fun !
    Be sure that your student brings his/ her planner to school each day.  It is a good means of communicating important activities, events, and information about what we are studying.  Any time there is required homework to be done, the assignment will be listed in your child’s planner.
     Thanks for your involvement and support!   

Grade 3 - Mrs. Perkins

I want to extend a warm welcome to all third grade students.  The class has fifteen boys and nine girls.  We are looking forward to a great school year! 

There are many things to learn in math.  The first unit of study is bar graphs.  We are continually practicing addition facts also.  The students learned a new game called Turnover where they try to get cards numbered 0 – 9 to add up to a target total I give them.  This is a fun way to practice addition facts and strategies associated with them.  Learning line math puzzles is another challenging way to practice addition.  Students enjoy our adventure book that has math stories in cartoon form.

In writing, we are learning the Six Traits of Writing.  They are very important as we will use them throughout the year and build on them.  The six traits are ideas, conventions, sentence fluency, voice, organization, and word choice.  We will also be making writing portfolios where the students will gather their collection of stories during the year and turn it in to Mr. Wolfe at the end of the year.  The students all enjoyed writing papers on something fun they did this summer.

We are implementing a program called Daily Five in reading class.  The students will learn how to be actively engaged in their own reading activity while the teacher helps others in a small guided reading group.  For twenty five days, each student will do one of five different activities, such as listening to stories on tape, while the teacher works with others.  Make sure and ask your child which of the activities they did each day.

Science is always fun.  To start the year, we will learn to do rubbings with leaves, coins, and other items.  We will also learn about carbon printing.  Each student will come up with a scientific invention to present to the class.  You can start helping your child come up with a great idea.

We will have weekly spelling words to learn that students will be tested on.  Each week there will be a pretest on Monday and final test on Friday.  If the student gets them all right on Monday, they do not have to take the test again on Friday.  Please look for the list each week and help your child learn them. 

The students are all excited to learn cursive in handwriting.  We will begin with lower case letters.

Happy birthday to our August and September birthdays:
Alex - August 1, Sidney - August 25, and Dylan - September 24.

4th Grade News

4th Graders Are Shining Stars

   4th graders are indeed off to a glowing start!  We even have our own theme song, “Shining Star” by Earth, Wind, and Fire.  I hope this year each 4th grader discovers that part of themselves that makes them shine...their own star qualities.  Check out our poems for advice on “How To Be A Star”.
    In MATH, we will focus our star power on geometric investigations, solving problems using perimeter and area and learning how to measure angles with a protractor. 
    WRITING is the subject where 4th graders will really want to “Reach for the Stars”, as they will be assessed at the state level.  To get us started this month, we’ll work on the trait of ideas and polish up the steps to the writing process. 
    In READING, everyone at Seedling Mile has been hard at work learning the Daily 5.  Fourth graders are building their stamina in Read To Self, Writing, and Read To Someone.  Reading placement assessments will be given and the Daily 5 will be used during guided reading time.  The first SRI test will also be taken this month.
    We will start off the year with SOCIAL STUDIES  during the 1st  quarter (do Science 2nd quarter, back to Social Studies 3rd quarter, and finish with Science 4th quarter)  The first unit of study is United States regions.  Of course we will start off with the Midwest!  There will be a special emphasis on agriculture.  Be watching for information on a future field trip to look at antique and modern farm equipment.
    A very special activity for fourth graders is going to Lakeview Nursing Home and participating in the Adopted Grandparent program.  Here is where my students shine exceptionally bright as they share themselves with the residents.  Our first visit will be September 23 at 2:00.  Be watching for a note with more information closer to our visit.
    I can’t wait to see how bright this group will shine and how high they will reach this year!

Fifth Grade News

     WOW, another great group of fifth graders!  I am excited for another year of learning.  I have 20 eager fifth graders that are excited to learn and are off to a wonderful start!

In Language Arts, we have begun our Daily 5 activities.  During Read to Self, our class is continuing to build their reading stamina to become even better readers.  While learning Read to Self, fifth graders have also learned the 3 ways to read a book and an important strategy for choosing a book which is “I PICK.”  All of these reading skills are very rewarding for students as they are learning how to become the best readers they can be!  Next in Daily 5, we began “Writing” where students are learning strategies to help them become better writers.  I am already noticing that students are using both Read to Self and the Writing strategies on their own, to become very successful in the classroom!  To continue on with our Daily 5 skills in the next few weeks we will be learning Read to Someone, Listening to Reading and Word Work. 

After some reading placement assessments, we will begin Guided Reading.  This will give us an opportunity to work on the “Big Five” comprehension reading strategies.  IDENTIFYING SUPPORTING DETAILS, MAKING GENERALIZATIONS, MAKING INFERENCES, DRAWING LOGICAL CONCLUSIONS, and PARAPHRASING INFORMATION.

“Populations and Samples,” has been the unit of study in Math.  We have completed several labs where we are:  gathering the data, graphing the data, and analyzing it.  In Unit #2 we will study “BIG Numbers.”

In Science we have started the year by discussing nutrition through a variety of activities, including some fun games.  We talked about the Food Pyramid, and the students were able to play a game on an Internet site.  Fifth graders have also played “Make a Meal Bingo” and “Who Wants to Be a Healthy Snacker?”  We have an experiment taking place in our classroom with apples to see why it is important to use food safety.  Students are documenting every day what they notice about the apples, and we will soon be discussing what we can do to make sure we are using good food safety rules.

During Writing class, we have been reviewing the 6 Traits of Writing and practicing the Writing Process.  Fifth graders have already done several writing activities and we will continue to grow on these experiences.  We will dive into each of the Six Traits to study all of them more in depth and work on scoring our own writing on a regular basis.

Band and orchestra will soon begin!  The instructors brought in all of the instruments so all the students could see them, and each student will have the opportunity to “try out.”  Soon the fifth graders will be providing Seedling Mile with some wonderful music.

Again, I am really excited for the school year!  I know that the fifth graders will have a memorable year of learning!

Erin English
Seedling Mile
5th Grade

Social Work Notes

My name is Kristin Schultz, I am a School Social Worker with Shoemaker, Seedling Mile, and Lincoln Elementary Schools.  This is the third year to have social workers for the school district.  Our goal is to help bridge the gaps between home and school.  The social workers work hand in hand with the guidance counselors, nurses, and principals to meet the needs of students and families.

I believe that parents are the most important teachers that children have, there for it is necessary for parents to be as involved as possible with school.  I look forward to getting to know the students and their parents better during this school year.  We have access to a variety of resources and programs that may be of interest to your family.   Please feel free to contact the office to reach me.