Mosinee Elementary News Volume 18 Issue 10 MAY May, 2015 Pictured are the Mosinee Elementary Top Banana award winners for the month of MOSINEE ELEMENTARY TOP BANANAS May: Row 1: Skylar Shirek, Toryn Campbell, Aidyn Cronk, Jonathon Gates, Jenna Gornicke and Rudy Harris. Row 2: Anna Gagnon, Andrew Meinke, Mitchell Michlig, Jace Nechuta, Ayana Strong, Noah Mundt and Destiny McAllister. Row 3: Matthew Bluemel, Keyanna Tranetzke, Danny Decaluwe, Abigail Fisher, Brock Wawrzyniec and Lauren Creske. Row 4: Aubrie Bower, Jaeger Dhein, Haylie Kluz, Mrs. El- dredge, Marina Kudla, Sylvia Hintz and Isabelle Olson. Not Pictured: Grayson Brown, Kadin Delikowski, Brandon Secord, Caroline Eick, Jarek Brunette, Drake Pemble, Cameron Kuklinski, Landyn Timm and Isabel Plaisance. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF YOU “TOP BANANAS”! LAST DAY OF SCHOOL FRIDAY, JUNE 5TH Dismissal @ 12:40 The Mosinee School District shall not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, ancestry, creed, religion, pregnancy, marital or parental status, sexual orientation, handicap or physical, mental, emotional or learning disability or any other characteristic protected by state or federal law in the educational programs or activities which it operates or in employment practices. All inquiries or complaints regarding discrimination under Title II, Title IX, Section 504 or other state or federal law shall be directed to the Director of Instructional Programs, Mosinee School District, 591 West Highway 153, Mosinee, WI 54455 at (715) 693-2530. MAY COMPLIMENT CRITTER WINNERS Front Row: Ireland Plisch, Parker Chmiel, Korvin Lewis, LillieAnne Wessell, Ryleigh Secord, Isabella Verhasselt and Bella Fandrey Row 2: Autumn Riedner, Alexandra Salazar, Dakota Duberstein, Michael Rogers-Behrens, Dreyden Borski and Charlotte Sirny. Row 3: Ethan Curtis, Allison Maguire, Hailey Haessly and Natalie Block. Back Row: Michael Danczyk, Francis Wysocki, Shane Erickson, Jacoby McLaughlin, Hannah Block, Janetta Ramsey and Guadalupe Contreras. Not Pictured: Cecelia Holzem-Morales, Jayden Mijal, Ariel Kasat and Kody Woytasik. THANK YOU FROM PRINCIPAL ELDREDGE: On behalf of the elementary staff, we would like to thank all of the parents, guardians and volunteers who have worked with us this school year. Your support has been greatly appreciated in our efforts to prepare our students for the future. This year we continued implementation of curriculums in Mathematics and English Language Arts aligned with the Core Standards. We have done more writing and have focused on having our students apply the information learned to a real world setting. Our students have read more informational text this year and have learned how to find information of interest to them. In Math, students applied their math strategies in realistic story problems. As you plan your summer activities, you may want to let your child help with the planning as some real world practice of their new skills. We have also learned more about how to use the computers to find information and type. Our third graders participated in the state BADGER exam in May which required them to apply many of the English Language Arts, Mathematics and technology skills they have learned. Our 4K-2nd graders took the state PAL (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening) three times during the year. We appreciate your support and assistance in reinforcing the character traits we have emphasized throughout the school year. Students have learned about trustworthiness and honesty, respect, responsibility, citizenship, caring and compassion, and fairness and cooperation. We hope you will help students remember the social skills taught by reviewing them with the children over the summer months. The Elementary Open House will be August 27, 2015. We hope everyone has a peaceful and relaxing summer! Page 2 Volume 18 Issue 10 Mosinee Elementary News May, 2015 ELEMENTARY PEP RALLY On Wednesday, May 20th the Elementary School Students gathered together for a Pep Rally Assembly in the gym. The high school pep band came to play, and even played the school song and the students sang along to show our Mosinee school pride. A check from Box Tops was presented to the students for $4,707.50. We recognized and Thanked our Amazing Assistants, Office Staff, and custodian with t-shirts and treats. We also took time to surprise Mrs. Eldredge with a Special Thank You, a basket full of goodies, and a beautiful purple lilac bush for her to take along with her to her new school in North Dakota. She dedicated 16 years of service to the Mosinee Elementary School and we are wishing her all the best in her new adventure. THANK YOU MRS. ELDREDGE!! YOU WILL BE MISSED!! Page 3 Volume 18 Issue 10 Mosinee Elementary News May, 2015 MobyMax We are excited to implement a new web-based curriculum called MobyMax in our classroom during this summer. MobyMax is tailored to your child's individual needs, and I think you will be very impressed by how fast your child will excel while using Moby. Moby's features include: -Placement tests that accurately identify where your child excels and his or her "missing skills" -Targeted instruction to "fill in" those missing skills -Systematic review sessions that ensure that your child retains 100% of what he or she has learned Best of all, your child can access Moby from your home computer at any time. Your child will be registered for MobyMax by your child’s current teacher over the next two weeks. Once your child is registered, the steps to get to MobyMax are as follows: Login steps: 1. Please go to www.mobymax.com/signin 2. Enter School Code: [1286] 3. Enter: Username: **Sent home by teacher within the next two weeks Password: **Sent home by teacher within the next two weeks Once the child is logged in, your child will immediately start the lessons and begin improving his or her missing skills. You can sign in as a parent as well by selecting "Parent" from the drop-down menu and entering your child's username and password. You will be able to monitor your child's progress and even send messages to his/her teacher. This is an exciting time for your child and we hope that you are excited to help in their growth over the summer! Thank you, Leslie Felch K – 12 Mathematics Coach Mosinee School District Page 4 Volume 18 Issue 10 Mosinee Elementary News May, 2015 Research shows that reading 20 minutes a day over the summer helps students maintain or even expand academic reading skills. Why Summer Reading Matters Grade Level Reading Achievement 8 7 6 5 No Summer Reading 4 Reading throughout the Summer 3 2 1 0 Beg. End Beg. End Beg. End Beg. End Beg. End Beg. End Gr 1 Gr. 1 Gr 2 Gr. 2 Gr. 3 Gr. 3 Gr. 4 Gr. 4 Gr. 5 Gr. 5 Gr. 6 Gr. 6 This graph shows how the “Summer Reading Loss” compounds throughout grades 1 through 6. This difference is 1.5 years of reading achievement! Source: Reading Rockets www.readingrockets.org/article/15218 Prevent summer reading loss: Have your child gather books that s/he will enjoy reading this summer Set a goal to read five chapter books throughout the summer or 20 minutes a day for younger readers Visit the public library weekly Read together; Kids of all ages benefit from being read to! Attend summer school Remember…Smart is not something you are…Smart is something you get…by reading, writing, listening, discussing and THINKING! Page 5 Volume 18 Issue 10 Mosinee Elementary News May, 2015 Literacy tips for early readers Point out print in the child's environment: on cereal boxes, food labels, toys, restaurants, and traffic signs. Sing songs, say short poems or nursery rhymes, and play rhyming words games with your child. Tell stories to your child. Read aloud to your child. Point to the words on the page as you read. Read a short passage several times to your child until your child can read it with you. Then encourage your child to read the passage to you. Encourage older children to read with younger children. Encourage your child to read (or pretend read) to you. Make this reading enjoyable. Don't worry if your child does not read all of the words correctly but, rather, applaud your child's efforts to read. Go to the library together. Have books, magazines, and newspapers around the house. Let your child see you reading. Encourage your child to write messages such as grocery lists, to-do lists, postcards, or short messages to family members or friends. Don't worry about conventional spelling at this point but, rather, encourage your child's first efforts at authorship. When watching television, have the captioning feature enabled so that the children view the words while hearing them performed aloud. Literacy tips for more advanced readers Talk to your child about what he or she is reading. Ask open-ended questions such as "What do you think about that story?" "What would you have done if you were that character?" Make reading and writing a regular part of your daily home activities. Let your child see you using reading and writing for real purposes. Visit the public library. Help your child to get his or her own library card. Read to your child regularly, even after your child is able to read some books independently. Listen to your child read. Use strategies to help your child with tricky words. For example, when your child comes to an unfamiliar word, you might say, "Skip it and read to the end of the sentence. Now try again – what makes sense and looks like the word that you see?" Praise your child's efforts at reading. Play word games such as thinking of different words to describe the same things. Support your child's writing. Have writing materials such as paper, markers, and pencils available. Read what your child writes. Set reasonable limits for television viewing. Adapted from Mraz, Padak, & Baycich (2002). Page 6 Volume 18 Issue 10 Mosinee Elementary News May, 2015 KINDERGARTEN NEWS: What a great time May has been for the kindergarteners! We are growing so much and soon will be off to first grade! This month we have accomplished so much! We started off our month with a fabulous Kindergarten concert! Our concert was spectacular thanks to the hard work of our volunteers and dedicated teaching staff. The students showed such good self control and stamina in following all the routines and learning our songs and actions. All of their hard work sure paid off! This month in language arts we have been trying on the role of researcher! We have practiced how researchers use informational text to find facts. We have learned how to identify the different text features that non-fiction books have. Expanding on this research, we have worked cooperatively to write about the information we gathered. We also had great fun studying authors and their books this month. Mercer Mayer and Jonathon London were two of our favorites! In Math, we have been busy continuing our work with adding and subtracting numbers, working on ten groups, and reviewing concepts we have been learning all year. This month we also spent some time talking about why we celebrate Memorial Day and how we can honor those who sacrificed so much. We are finishing up our month with a trip to the farm and the Marshfield Zoo…What fun!!! June 4th – Marshfield Zoo field trip June 5th – Last Day / Graduation 10:00 Elem. Gym FIRST GRADE NEWS: As we wrap up the school year we have spent much time assessing students on their growth this year. Students have shown great improvement in their word recognition, oral reading and comprehension, and applying spelling patterns in their writing. Students should also be proud of all the great math concepts they have learned including increasing their fact fluency, creating diagrams and equations for story problems, and learning complex math skills. We have also been busy this month with field trips. The students watched the Kindergarten concert and took a trip to the school forest. At the school forest, classes enjoyed a hike through the woods to learn about birds and their adaptations. As the year comes to a close, please make sure that you are returning any items that belong at school. This includes guided reading pouches and classroom/library books. Also, please make sure you are watching your newsletter for important dates of end of the year activities including class picnic and early release on the last day of schoolFriday, June 5th at 12:40 PM. Page 7 Volume 18 Issue 10 Mosinee Elementary News May, 2015 2ND GRADE NEWS: What a fabulous year we have had in second grade! It is amazing how fast time goes and how much they have learned throughout the year! We are very proud of the hard work and dedication our sensational second graders have put forth this year! To wrap up the school year, the second graders have had a very busy month of May with assessments, research projects and field trips. In Math we worked on expanding our addition and subtraction skills up to the thousands place value and taking a look at arrays and fractions. We continued to independently research endangered animals and use a variety of technology to present our information to others. We explored the process of writing a letter and put those skills to use as we wrote a letter to our upcoming third grade teacher. We kept very active with several field trips and presentations throughout the month as well.The second graders were able to sign up for a Marathon County Public Library card and check out books when their class walked to the Mosinee Public Library. This creates a great opportunity to continue those reading strategies over the summer and find a variety of books that meet their interests. We were able to get real life experience while researching some of our endangered animals when we took a field trip to the Wildwood Wildlife Park in Minocqua. Students were amazed by being able to see some of their favorite animals in person and learn about a few new ones as well. Towards the end of the month we are lucky to have Paper Cities Kennel Club bring a few of their furry friends to visit us and talk about animal safety. Keep those rules in mind as you are out playing this summer! Here are a few suggestions for keeping those academic skills growing over the summer. Write letters to family, friends and your teachers! Continue to practice those everyday math skills like counting money, giving change, telling time and our addition and subtraction strategies. Go to the public library to check out books and take part in their summer programs. Use a notebook or online blog to write about your summer experiences Keep challenging yourself with personal summer reading goals On the Mosinee School District website, under the Elementary School tab, there is a student section that has great educational sites and games for review Have a safe and fabulous summer! Page 8 Volume 18 Issue 10 Mosinee Elementary News May, 2015 3RD GRADE NEWS: It's been a busy year in 3rd Grade! We appreciate all of the support we received this school year from family and friends of our students. This month we're wrapping up with assessments and celebrations of academic successes. Also, Happy May Birthday to: Darren M., Morgan S., Gloria L., Olivia G., Canyon W., Michael H., Cayla C., Isabelle O., Patrick B., Alina F., Haylie K., and Tristan T. This summer, don't underestimate the power of family reading and math-talk about things you do in every day life. Enjoy your summer! PHYSICAL EDUCATION NEW FROM MR. MIELKE: The 2nd and 3rd grade students finally had a chance to “spring” into fitness by exploring and learning about some track & field events. Students have learned where the finish line is, how many meters it is one lap around the track, what lanes are, how to finish a race fast, which direction to correctly run around the track, how to start a race, why we have staggered starts for some races and what exchange zones are for relays. Students also learned the rules and technique to the long jump. Some events the students participated in are the50M dash, 100M dash, 200M dash, 4x100M relay and the long jump! If your child is interested in competing in a track meet, the Wausau Kiwanis is hosting the 50 th Little Olympics for Boys and Girls at Stiehm Stadium at D.C. Everest Jr. High on June 6 th, 2015. IF you child lost their registration form there are some extras available outside the elementary school office. Best of all, IT’S A FREE EVENT! With the start of T-ball, softball and baseball the kindergarten and 1 st grade classes have been practicing very hard to improve their overhand throw. These students have also been working on chasing and feeing skills by participating in various tag games like Mosquito tag and Fire & Ice and Traffic Light tag! All grade levels also participated in an Earth Day lesson called Landfill. In this lesson we discussed what a landfill is, why we recycle and what things can be recycled. If you are interested in some Summer-FUN Healthy food options that your child can help prepare you may want to check out the website below for some fun ideas! http://www.food.com/topic/summer-kid-friendly At this time I would like to wish all students and their families and very active and safe summer! Page 9 Volume 18 Issue 10 Mosinee Elementary News May, 2015 LIBRARY NEWS FROM MRS. AGEMA… Bring Back Books! It’s hard to believe that we are almost finished with another school year. It seems like it was just a few weeks ago that the first graders and I were reading books about fall and Halloween! Now we are reading stories about the last day of school. With the last days rapidly approaching it’s now time to round up all the library books and return them before the end of the year. Starting the week of May 25 we will be sending notices to all students who are missing library books. We will run additional notices as needed through June 5. After June 5 any students who have not returned their library books will receive a reminder letter from the school office. Overdue/lost books remain on the student’s record over the summer and will still be in effect for the next school year. Please help your child remember to return their last library books of the school year. Any damaged or lost books can be paid for by checks made out to Mosinee Elementary School. If a lost book is paid for and found over the summer you can return it for a refund in the fall. Your help is greatly appreciated! Here are some ideas for some fun summer reads: Page 10 Volume 18 Issue 10 Mosinee Elementary News May, 2015 ART NEWS: Spring in the art room has been a very exciting time this year! Students in Kindergarten created art projects for their concert and all grades participated in art centers/stations which allowed students to have some choice in their art project for the day. It was very popular! Computer center, Minecraft Center, and Free Creation Station proved to be the most popular with students. In other exciting news, there is a new face in the art room! Mrs. Colden will be teaching in the art room for the rest of the school year for Mrs. Ford who is out on maternity leave. Mrs. Colden will also be back next year for the entire school year as Mrs. Ford will be taking a year-long sabbatical. We are so happy to have Mrs. Colden at Mosinee Elementary - please stop by and welcome her, too! If you are looking for a nice art activity to do with your child this summer, be sure to check out the free sculpture gardens in our area. In Wausau, the sculpture garden at the Woodson Art Museum has a wide variety of sculptures - something for everyone! www.lywam.org. In Stevens Point, the Sculpture Park takes you on a hike through the woods to view sculptures stevenspointsculpturepark.org/. We hope you have a fun-filled and creative summer! Mrs. Ford, Mrs. Gelling, and Mrs. Colden K-3 Art Teachers Greetings from the Music Room Wow...it’s been a fun-filled year in the music department! All of the concerts are finished for the year and with much success by all of the grade levels. I appreciate the support from those of you that were able to come to see the students perform. I hope that you enjoyed the concerts as much as we enjoyed performing them for you. The concert dates for next year are set and I have included the dates below so that you can plan ahead and try to attend. 2015-2016 Concert Dates (all concerts held in the Creske Center Auditorium) 2nd grade- Friday, Dec. 4th- 2015- 1:30 p.m. 1st grade- Thursday, Dec. 17th- 2015- 6:30 p.m. 3rd grade- Friday, March 4th- 2016- 1:30 p.m. Kindergarten- Friday, May 6th- 2016- 1:30 p.m. I wish you all a relaxing and safe family-filled summer. See you next fall! SincerelyMrs. Westfall Page 11 Volume 18 Issue 10 Mosinee Elementary News May, 2015