FES Monthly Newsletter

I hope you all had a wonderful winter break and holiday season. The children were excited to be back last week, and we were happy to have them back. The second half of the school year goes by fast! Please continue to watch our school and classroom newsletters, social media, and website for information as it comes out. As always, if you have questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Our first semester ends this week on January 12. Teachers will be working to finalize grades for report cards the week after, and grades will be posted on Skyward (our student information system on January 23). You will be able to see a label that says "Report Cards" once they are finalized, and that is how you will access your child's report card. You will not be able to click this until January 23. If you would like a paper report card, please call our front office to request no later than January 19. Paper report cards (if requested) will be sent home on January 26.

Some reminders about Report Cards, Assessments and Scoring

Letter Grades: Our 6th graders use a traditional grading system, and those grades will be reflected on their report cards.

Standards Based Grading: In Freeland Community School District for grades K-5th, we use standards based grading, which is different than your traditional scoring of letter grading and percentages. By using standards based grading, it allows teachers to score children on a scale for the state standards in which they teach, and allows children to receive academic related feedback on an ongoing basis that shows guided improvement. The scale is 1-4, and specific indicator descriptions will be listed on report cards.

Standards Based Scale Indicator:

4: Accelerated

3: Consistent and Independent Application (Desired Level)

2: Occasionally Needs Support

1: Does not meet grade level expectations

At the halfway point in the school year, when our first report cards come out, it is important to remember that every standard has not been taught or for that matter retaught. Children have the whole year to learn the required material. It is okay if they have 1's and 2's at this point in the year, because content is still being taught.

NWEA (Reading and Math): Each year students in 3rd-6th grade will take the NWEA test 3 times (Fall, Winter, Spring) in reading and math to show progress towards standards. Students in 2nd grade will take NWEA Math. This assessment gives our teachers a great idea of how your child is doing and how they are progressing through grade level standards. We break the assessment up over time, and allow students to have breaks between the testing sessions. Results of this assessment, along with other classroom assessments drive our instruction to ensure your child is meeting the grade level expectations. Our goal over time is for students to show high growth as they take the different benchmarks throughout the school year. This assessment is adaptive, which means the tests are not the same for each child and will adjust based on what the students know or don’t know. It provides us as educators a great deal of information and can also predict performance on state assessments such as MSTEP for our 3rd-6th graders. For more information about NWEA testing and how it works, check out the NWEA Family Toolkit.

i-Ready (Reading): The i-Ready Reading Diagnostic is given three times per year (Fall, Winter, Spring) for our 2nd-4th graders. This assessment is used as a screening and diagnostic tool to inform instruction and intervention planning and to monitor growth in core components of early literacy word recognition and language comprehension skills.

Both i-Ready and NWEA, measure student achievement and growth and are designed to monitor progress toward meeting Michigan state math and reading academic standards. Both assessments are a part of a balanced assessment system that include screening, diagnostic, formative, summative, and state-level assessments. It is important to know that teachers use a variety of assessments to measure how students are performing when it comes to state standards.

I am looking forward to the rest of the year and I hope you are as well!

Your Proud Principal,

Mrs. Kali McKenna

Reminder: 5th and 6th graders release at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday (1/11/2024) and Friday (1/12/2024)

• Check out this Google Drive Folder of several activities for your child to get involved.
• Link to Folder
• January is Learn to Ski Month in Michigan and Snow Snake would like to invite all Freeland students to participate, especially 4th and 5th grade students who can ski free with the Cold is Cool app.
  
• https://www.goskimichigan.com/cold-is-cool/

Since the start of the school year, our 6th graders have been doing morning announcements. They now have a channel on YouTube so that we can include our community in our news channel. Enjoy!

Tune in to the Falcon Nest! (@falconnestannouncements)

• Next meeting: February 6, 2024 @ Freeland Elementary School.
• Dances are coming up!
• Sweetheart Dance- February 3: Click Here for the Informational Flyer
• RSVP Form: Y5-2 Dance: 3:00-5:00 p.m.
• RSVP Form: 3-6 Dance: 6:00-8:00 p.m.
• Questions about the dances please email, freelandPTOdances@gmail.com
• SAVE THE DATE: Gentlemen's Dance, February 24: Click Here for the Informational Flyer
• RSVP Form: Y5-6 Dance: 5:00-7:00 p.m.
• For more information and meeting notes visit our FES/LC PTO Website.

Reminder: No School

Teacher Professional Development Day

Safety Drills: Each year, our students and staff practice fire drills, lockdown drills, and also tornado drills. Our teachers talk with the students before the drills and then they reflect after the drills are over. All of our Falcons have done a great job practicing this year.

Front Parking Lot/Bus Lot: Just a reminder that our front parking lot is our bus parking lot. With two dismissal and arrival times, this parking lot needs to be kept clear during certain time periods of the day. Also, traffic only should be going one way in and one way out. This is a safety concern if cars are parked in this lot and go against the bus traffic. If buses are in the lot, we ask that you wait in a parking spot, until all buses have pulled out. This allows our drivers to start their route, and to get our students to school and home safely. Our morning drop off periods are from 7:15-7:45 and then again from 8:30-9:10. Our afternoon pick up times are from 2:10-2:35, and then again from 3:30-4:10. During those time frames, we ask that you use an alternative lot, or wait patiently in a parking spot until buses pull out.

Winter Weather: Heading into winter always leaves us with little predictability with our weather. One of the ways that we are able to keep students safe is to provide consistency with winter gear and recess. If the feels like temperature is 39 degrees or below, students will need to have coats, and other gear is optional depending on what the students plan to do at recess. We highly encourage students to bring all winter gear if they plan to be in the snow. Students will only be in the snow if they have boots on, as we don't want them to be uncomfortable during the day if they get their shoes wet. Between 40-54 degrees (feels like), students will need to have long sleeves on, and 55 and above, students can wear what they are most comfortable in. If your child is need of a winter coat, please reach out to our front office. We will go outside as long as the feels like temperature is above 5 degrees. Our staff will use best judgement on the wintery conditions on those days, if we need to have indoor recess. Our goal is our student's safety when they are outside playing.

Pick up and Drop Off: Please make sure you are following procedures for pick up and drop off. Practicing patience and safety is our priority. If you notice something out of the norm, please reach out and I work closely with Officer Schrems (our School Resource Officer), and the Tittabawassee Township Police to keep Powley and 7th Street as safe as possible. Please fill the parking spots first before using the streets, and please follow the flow in the morning for drop off.

End of Day Messages: If you need to get messages to your child in regards to changes in their end of the day schedule, please make every attempt to do so at least 30 minutes before their dismissal time. This will allow our front office staff to relay that message in a timely manner to your child.

Volleytuff is coming back! High school students will play volleyball during our 2nd-6th graders lunch periods. Watch for more information!

Our second and fourth graders will be having their yearly hearing screening on January 8 and 9.

January Breakfast Menu

January Lunch Menu

ATTENTION Menu Changes:

January 17 and January 31 will NOT be cereal fun lunch. They will be soy butter and jam sandwich fun lunch.

January 11 and 12: Half Days for 5th and 6th Grade (Release @ 11:00 a.m.)

January 15: No School for Students: MLK Day!

January 17: FCSD Board Meeting (6:00 p.m.) @ HS Auditorium

February 3: Sweetheart Dances (See more information in PTO Links)

February 6: FES/LC PTO Meeting (6:30 p.m.) @ FES

February 19: No School for Students: President's Day!

February 21: FCSD Board Meeting (6:00 p.m.) @ HS Auditorium

February 24: Gentlemen's Dance (Stay tuned for more information)

February 28: 6th Grade Band Concert

March 1: Kicks off March is Reading Month!

Kali McKenna, Principal

mckennak@freelandschools.net

Lauren Hall, Secretary

halll@freelandschools.net

Meghan Maxwell, Secretary

maxwellm@freelandschools.net

Annette Moore, Secretary

moorea@freelandschools.net