FALLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
WEST END ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
2010-2011 : Issue FOUR JANUARY, 2011
Jan.17-21, Mon-Fri
Jan. 18, Tues.
5:00 pm
Jan. 21, Fri.
Jan. 24, Mon.
Jan. 25, Tues.
Jan. 28, Fri.
No ECFE Classes
School Board Meeting – FHS Cafeteria
END of SECOND QUARTER
NO CLASSES – Teacher In-Service Day
3rd Quarter ECFE & School Readiness Begins
Early Childhood Screenings at KOOTASCA
REMINDER TO PARENTS….as your phone number or address changes,
please send the new information to school [note] with your child!!!
FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK:
G Hilfer
From the Principal’s Desk
Happy New Year! The New Year brings changes to our front offices at Falls and
West End Elementary Schools. Debbie Mitchell is now secretary at Falls
Elementary replacing Linda Tolle, who retired at the end of December. Vicky
Wickstrom has been hired as the new secretary at West End Elemenary.
Welcome, both, to your new assignments.
Last month Marilynn Pavlak, a math consultant from Everyday Math, came to
conduct a parent night at Falls Elementary. Though our turnout was small, the
information Marilynn came to share with us was excellent. The following
suggestions are taken from the materials Marilynn presented last month. I hope
you find it helpful.
How to Help Your Child with Mathematics
Create a homework routine.
Familiar routines help work go smoothly at school and at home. With your child, decide on
a time and place to do homework, along with a few rules. A typical routine might be as
follows:
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Come home, have a snack, clear a space at the table, start math homework. Create
a place for homework supplies. Always have a sharp pencil, and circle problems you
want help with. Once homework is complete, put it in your book bag.
Read Family Letters and Home Links.
These pages describe what your child is learning so that you can help. They also suggest
fun and easy math activities you can do at home. Consider keeping all of these pages in a
special folder to refer to later.
Communicate with the teacher.
You are the link between your child and school, and it is your responsibility to share your
thoughts and concerns with the teacher. Call or write a note if your child has had trouble
with homework, ask questions if you or your child do not understand something, and share
good news when you see progress.
Ask your child to explain.
Encourage your child to teach you the day’s math lesson using the problems in the Home
Links. Ask questions about the steps your child uses to solve a problem, such as Why did
you put that number there? or What does that zero mean?
Use questions to help.
Although it’s tempting to give children answers when they’re confused, they learn more if
you help them discover the answers for themselves. Try doing this with questions such as
these:
• Have you seen problems like this before? Is there an example anywhere that might
•
•
•
help?
What is the problem asking you to find?
What’s one idea you have for finding an answer?
Can you draw a picture of the problem? Can you use objects (like coins, beans, and
so forth) to show the problem?
Be accepting of mistakes.
Let your child know that every mistake is an opportunity to learn. When your child makes
a mistake, ask him or her to explain how he or she arrived at the answer, give praise for
the correct steps or thinking, and gently point out where the error occurred. Then have
your child try a similar problem (you may have to make one up) to practice the new
understanding.
Play math games.
Games your child brings home from school or store-bought games that involve
mathematical thinking will help your child master skills. Your child’s teacher can give you a
list of popular commercial games with mathematical components.
Observe a mathematics lesson in your child’s classroom, or volunteer to help.
Visit your child’s classroom—it’s the best way to find out more about Everyday
Mathematics. When you volunteer to help with activities, you also learn a great deal.
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Don’t worry if you’re not a math expert—teachers always appreciate an extra hand and will
find ways to use your skills.
Read My Reference Book (for Grades 1 and 2) or the Student Reference Book (for
Grade 3) with your child.
Many teachers periodically send home this “math encyclopedia” for families and children to
use together. Choose a page or section related to the day’s Home Link, and read it
together. Try the activities or questions at the end of the section with your child.
Share real-life math situations.
Think about the way you use math in your everyday life—at work, at the store, at the bank,
in the kitchen, and so forth. Invite your child to observe or participate in these activities
with you. Encourage your child to think mathematically about common activities, such as
folding laundry or taking out the garbage—How many socks in 12 pairs? About how many
pounds does a bag of trash weigh?
Give gifts that encourage mathematical exploration.
Children love special gadgets and tools, as well as games and activities that challenge their
minds. Giving a gift related to math is a good way to reinforce and reward your child’s
accomplishments. Here are some ideas: a watch, a timer, an hour glass (egg timer), a
calendar, a tape measure, a calculator, pattern blocks, books of brainteasers, 3dimensional building kits, puzzles, maps, and a wide variety of games.
KINDERGARTEN NEWS: S Fougner, M Hardwig, J Mellstrom, M Pavleck Your child’s report card will be sent home the end of January. Please keep the report card, but
sign and return the envelope to school.
To prepare your child for report card testing please go over the following items with your child.
Review these letter names and sounds: Mm, Ss, Rr, Tt, Pp, Cc, Aa, Nn, Dd, Ff, Gg, Ii, Ll, Hh.
Also practice reading these words: red, orange, yellow, green, white, black, purple, blue, brown,
a my, the, I, like, go, we, on, to, you, have. Continue to practice counting to 100 and review
shapes.
We will be having our 100th Day Celebration and our Valentine’s Party in February, so be
watching for notes coming home with more information about that.
FIRST GRADE NEWS: L Auran, S Dowty, K McDonald, L West
WOW! Where is the time going? I bet you are finding some fluent first grade readers. Thank
you for your work on continuing with the Reading Journals and consistently listening to your
first graders read. We are noticing the difference in their reading. Keep up the good work
parents and kids!!! During or after reading, it is always a good idea to ask your child who the
main characters are in their story, where the setting is (where is the story taking place), what is
the problem of the story, how is that problem solved, and what happened at the beginning,
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middle, and end of the story. These questions will help your child comprehend what they are
reading.
In Everyday Math, we are continuing to count money, use standard measurement, work with
addition facts with sums to 12, solving word problems, counting forward and backward by 2’s,
5’s, and 10’s. We will soon be working with place value—ones, tens, and hundreds. Once
again, we thank you for assisting your child with his/her math homework. We appreciate your
hard work at the end of a busy day.
Please make sure that your child is dressed for this cold weather. If weather permits, they do go
outside after lunchtime and sometimes towards the end of the day. Having warm clothes is a
necessity in this cold weather.
In the spirit of cooperation – Mrs. Dowty, Mrs. McDonald, Mrs. West, Mrs. Auran
SECOND GRADE NEWS: J Katrin, J Little, L Zika Happy New Year! The second graders enjoyed sharing about their Christmas break. This month
we will focus art and writing activities around the Winter theme. We are busy learning new
Math vocabulary and concepts daily. Students are enjoying all the hands-on activities and games
that go along with this new Math program. Please continue to go over the Math Home Links with
your child. This reinforcement at home helps so much and we really appreciate it. Thanks also
for listening to your child read and helping with Spelling words. Reading Logs should be
returned weekly to your child’s teacher. This activity counts for a responsibility grade on your
child’s report card.
THIRD GRADE NEWS: P Hjelle, E Johnson, M Nemec, S Rinke
Happy New Year! We hope that you enjoyed the winter break with your family and friends.
The 3rd/4th Grade cookie dough fundraiser will kick off on Wednesday, January 12!
Please watch for packets to come home. All of the orders and payments are due on Thursday,
January 20.
Students just finished taking their second round of NWEA Reading and Math tests. We
look forward to looking at the scores and planning instruction as we prepare the 3rd Graders to
take their state tests this spring.
The classes will be going to Voyageur’s National Park to snowshoe the week of January
25-28. Please contact your child’s teacher if you are able to join us at VNP for this fun outdoor
activity.
The end of 2nd Quarter is Friday, January 22. Watch for report cards to be sent home on
Wednesday, January 26.
NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 24 for a teacher in-service day.
Please continue to send your child to school with appropriate outdoor clothing.
We look forward to a great 2011 working with you and your children!
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FOURTH GRADE NEWS: K Erickson, K Gilbert, H Lennox We are off to a great start in the New Year. In math we will be working on place value of large
numbers, multiplication of large numbers, estimating, rounding, and exponential notation. As
always, your student’s success is directly related to their knowledge of math facts. We were
excited to hear that a lot of students spent time reading over the vacation. It is wonderful to see
students’ enthusiasm about reading. Thank you for supporting the math and reading at home.
There are a couple of events to look for this month. We will be getting information about our
Cookie Dough Fund Raiser so be looking for that. Also, we will be participating in the snow
sculpture for the Ice Box Days celebration.
Thank you again for all that you do to support your student and teachers.
Stay Warm!
FIFTH GRADE NEWS: A Cody, M Glowack, Nicci Wood, B Youso
Happy New Year from the Fifth Grade! We are glad to be back and ready for this great stretch
of time for learning. The first few weeks of January will see us taking our NWEA math and
reading tests again; please visit with your child about their scores and how they can keep
improving for the all important tests this spring! We had a good turnout for our shirt fundraiser
and are calculating what is still needed for our field trip to the Forest History Center this May. It
is a great trip and the kids are already talking about it! Please remember to sign reading logs and
work on math facts at home; we notice your help here at school! Dress warmly for outdoor play
and have a great January!
SIXTH GRADE NEWS:
D Schindeldecker, A Schwartz, E Veith It is nice to get back to school after winter break and begin the second half of the school year.
Report cards will be out in a few weeks, so check your student’s grades online for any missing
work. The Minnesota Booklet will be handed out early next month, so stay tuned for the big day.
If the students start the project in a timely matter and work at a steady pace, they should have no
trouble finishing it. The second round of NWEA testing is going on this week and the sixth grade
will be testing on Tuesday. Make sure to have your child return the class trip chaperone consent
form if you are interested in going on the class trip. The weather has turned very cold so please
make sure your child is properly dressed. School policy states that students will be outside unless
it is colder than -20 degrees.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION NEWS: Kevin Gordon
Congratulations to this year’s 2010 Presidential and National Fitness Award winners from
Falls Elementary School. A total of 57 award winners in grades 3 through 6 with 9 students
winning the highest award the Presidential Fitness Award.
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Presidential Award Winners recognizes students who achieve an outstanding level of physical
fitness. Boys and girls who score at or above the 85th percentile in all of the required fitness tests
receive this Presidential award.
Grade 4 Winners: Joseph Glowack, Avery Sivonen, Evan Dahlquist,
Grade 5 Winners: Josh Cann, Trevor Becvar, Svetlana Zatavskiy.
Grade 6 Winners: Alexis Erickson, Shane Nicholson, Riley Nemec,
National Fitness Award Winners recognizes students who score above the 50th percentile on all
5 events, but fall below the 85th percentile in one or more of the events. These students receive
the National Award.
Grade 3 Winners: Tenneyson Amdahl, Justin Besch, Jacob Erickson, Holly Wold, Anthony
Saari, Kady Ruport, Travis Kalar,
Grade 4 Winners: Tanner Wood, Tatyana Zatavskiy, Libby Miggins, Garrett Koenig, Faith
Black, Stephen Christie, Edward Serrano, Carter Germain, Margaret Roeder, Morgan
Rasmussen, Cole Hay, Gina Boyum.
Grade 5 Winners: Dominic Sprecco, McKenna Holt, John Cowman, Tanner Budris, Jena
Sullivan, Barrett Kalar, Wyatt Amdahl, Amber Tilander, Megan Nemec , Kane Kostiuk, Nick
Foreman, Rachel Anderson, Jacob Smith.
Grade 6 Winners: Brett Lindvall, Lauren Rautio, Kayla Christianson, Emma Bartlett, Clara
Palm, Lexi Edwards, Constance Bragg, Grace Christianson, Paige Wold, Nicole Skifstrom,
Emily Saari, Brandon Podpeskar, Tyler Coffield, Haley Lehman, Nick Hedtke, Elizabeth
Brummett.
RESOURCE ROOM NEWS: Shawn Johnson
Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday break with your families.
NWEA testing began shortly after we started back to school. This assessment will help create
assignments within the Compass Learning program that we use within the classroom. The kids
will also have the Children’s Progress Assessment that they will be completing. I use this data to
create assignments for the stations we have in our room.
The end of the quarter is fast approaching, so look for progress reports to be sent home
soon. I am very pleased with the progress made so far. I will be sending assessment results
home with a brief note explaining the results. Please don’t hesitate to call if you have any
questions. We will continue to work on the core subject areas and fit in some art and cooking
projects.
With the cold weather setting in, please send your child to school dressed for the weather.
There are several times throughout the day where the kids get to play outside. Extra socks and
pants would be greatly appreciated.
Stay warm, and please call with any concerns you may have.
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ECFE AND SCHOOL READINESS PRESCHOOL NEWS:
A Baron, M Walls Mrs. Baron’s 3-4 Year-Olds
Our preschoolers are all refreshed from winter break and excited to be back in school with their
friends. This month we will enjoy playing and learning with themes such as Nursery Rhymes
and Pets. We will also focus on letters S, J, and F. There will be no school readiness classes on
Friday, January 28th as you will be provided with the opportunity to register your child for Early
Childhood Screenings at KOOTASCA. For more information, please call 283-2571 ext. 186
Mrs. Baron’s ECFE:
As we head further into winter, our ECFE classes will enjoy some fun indoor activities
surrounding themes such as “Happy New Year!”, “Nursery Rhymes”, “Dinosaurs”, and more!
We will have a short break (no classes) during the week of January 17-21, and will resume
classes beginning in the third quarter. Please join us Monday evenings from 6:00-7:30pm, or
Tuesday/Thursday from 10:00-11:30am. Please call our Community Education office at
(218)283-2571 ext. 186 if you would like to enroll in weekly classes. We look forward to hands
on learning and playing as we learn fun new songs and create memorable projects.
Mrs. Walls’ 4 year olds.
This month our discussions will include the four seasons and the weather that goes with them.
We will begin working on buttoning, zipping and maybe tying...help at home is always great.
We are offering Preschool Screening on Friday January 28th. If your 4 year old has not been
screened yet...please sign them up by calling Community Ed @ 283-2571 ext 186. All
preschoolers must go through screening before they can enter Kindergarten.
When the weather is not so cold, we will try to go outside....please send all outdoor clothing.
SCIENCE NEWS: D Lorenson The first week in January is a special treat for ALL of the science students because we
are able to go into the Star Lab to learn about stars. The students are able to learn about some of
the more common constellations and the mythology behind them. The rental of the Star Lab is
made possible with Box Top for Education money. So thank you for saving Box Tops.
The Five Senses are what the Kindergarten students have been learning about. So far
we have learned about our sense of sight and we will start learning about our sense of hearing
and smelling in January.
3rd grade students will be learning about how Earth’s movement effects our days and
nights, years and seasons. We have studied the planets in our solar system. Next, we will be
learning about our solar system, the sun and stars. We will spend some time learning to identify
some of the more common constellations, including Ursa Major (Big Dipper), Ursa Minor (Little
Dipper), Cassiopeia, Draco and many others. To help us identify the constellations, we will be
using an inflatable tent called the Star Lab.
4th grade students will be starting our Microworlds unit. We will be observing items
with a magnifying glass. The students will learn that translucent, curved objects magnify. Then
we will focus on the use of microscopes, how to prepare slides to use with the microscope and
will observe a variety of living and nonliving specimens with the microscopes.
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5th grade will be wrapping up our Lifeboat experiments that had the students learning
about capacity. We will continue to working on controlled experiments, where only one variable
is changed at a time as we investigate Airplanes.
6th grade has been learning about the particle arrangement of solids, liquids and gases.
We have observed how the kinetic energy of solids, liquids and gases react when exposed to
heat, by expanding and cold by contracting. Next we will be investigating how energy is
transferred.
NEWS FROM THE NURSE: D Swendsen, 283‐2571 ext. 131 Good job attending our school-based flu vaccine clinics!
Koochiching Public Health Nurses and Rainy Lake Medical Staff vaccinated a
total of 383 students, parents, & staff in December! We can only expect this will
mean much less disruption to learning due to illness over the next few months.
Thanks so much for everyone's pleasant cooperation!
Children Who Were Vaccinated Against Seasonal Flu for the First Time this year
may NEED A SECOND DOSE:
All children 6 months through 8 years of age are recommended to receive 2 doses of 2010-11 flu
vaccine 4 or more weeks apart unless they have received:
1. at least 1 dose of 2009 H1N1 vaccine last flu season, and
2. at least 1 dose of seasonal vaccine prior to the 2009-2010 flu season or 2 doses of 2009-10
seasonal flu vaccine last flu season
If a child has fulfilled both requirements, they only need 1 dose of the 2010-11 flu vaccine. No
further flu vaccine clinics will be held at school this year.
If you're not sure what or when your child received vaccine, you may call the public health
department at 283-7070. They have access to computer records of what your child received at
any local provider clinic, and can advise you about what to do.
They also hold Flu Vaccine Clinics every Friday until further notice at Koochiching Public
Health Department, 1000 Fifth St., 10 - 4 pm. No appointment necessary, FREE for all kids and
any adults who aren't eligible for no-cost vaccination through an insurer.
The flu season is NOT over, so if you and your children are not yet vaccinated, it's NOT TOO
LATE. Make plans now. Again, good job for your efforts to BAN THE BUG!
Of course, contact me with any questions or concerns. Be well.
THE END
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