Mrs. Turners Tidbits
Whoa! Nelly! Time is flying by so quickly! There is no way this is the last of the newsletters for my career! The kids have made this an exceptionally great year. Thanks to all of the teachers, support staff, parents, and students for making this school such an amazing place for children!
I have to reflect on the past month as our year concludes. We have made it through one of the spring music programs, planned a few field trips and just made it through this incredibly strange year! I believe that the conclusion of the year will be an amazing one and, hopefully, a successful one! I personally feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to be in person for learning all year long! What a great thing for our children!
Thanks to all the parents who made it out, or plan to make it to our programs this Spring. It was an experiment to see if we could make it work. It may not have been as easy as in the past but at least we all got to be there in person. It is always so nice to hear our students sing. They really do have incredible voices and it’s just nice to get to see them in a more traditional way.
The students and staff have done an amazing job with all the new requirements for this different year. I have been impressed with how well everyone has done with them. In the midst of all the changes, we still did the required drills. The Primary kids request a “hide and seek” drill all the time. They love it when they get to hide from me in the building and sometimes, they even get to sneak away from the building! It is amazing to hear how quickly our building goes silent when we hold one of these drills. I have been impressed with how serious everyone is during the drills. Thanks to all of you for understanding when we cannot allow you into the building during a drill.
We have made it through all of the spring testing for the state of Kansas. You should receive the information about how your child scored in the fall. I am sure you heard all about the tests from your 3-6th graders. It was scary for me to read some of the questions they were asking our students to figure out. I was impressed with their efforts. Great job everyone!
We will finish our testing for MTSS soon too. We use the testing program called AIMSweb plus. It is a universal screening tool that allows for progress monitoring and data management throughout the year. This allows us to have reliable information to group students for RTi (Response to Intervention) that the state requires. We have seen tremendous growth in the past. We hope our students will show the effort they have given in their MTSS groups and show growth on the AIMSweb testing. This data will assist us on placement in groups when we return in August.
Just a few “mom” or “dad” reminders for these final weeks! I have had to remind more than a couple students that I am not on summer vacation and that I haven’t retired yet so they certainly can’t act like they are on break. I know these last few weeks have either been windy, cold or so warm it feels like summer, but we still have lots to cover to prepare for their next adventure in education! Please remind your student that school is still in session and we do have certain behavior expectations for each student. Also, please remind your child to let a teacher know if there is a problem. It is MUCH easier to resolve the same day that it occurs. When it comes home and must be addressed the following day, it often gets confusing and difficult to solve.
Now for the summer reminders…Please try to limit the time the children play video games. Brain research shows that video games can change the way we learn. When children (and adults) are watching TV and also playing on their phone or tablet, the brain cannot process so much information at once. The brain then begins to put information in the wrong spots and you are not able to quickly recall or even remember the information that should have been stored. You might find that is happening to your own brain as well. It also makes it harder for children to hear and understand directions as they begin to focus solely on the video game. Please have them spend time just playing outside. Let them claim to be bored. I know I hated going back home when the street lights came on when I was a child. I was young long before video games and cell phones were around. I believe there is so much to learn by being outside in nature, far more than sitting and playing a video game. You can blame me if they complain too much. They have heard it from me and will hear it again.
At my house we limited the “game time” to weekends only. When the games are put away, you may hear “I’m bored!” Don’t worry! Offer them many jobs to do around the house and I bet they will find something to do very quickly! It’s also good to get bored at times. I have learned to love those times and treasure them too. I don’t go and ask someone to find something for me to do. I figure something out or I just enjoy the moment. It does not hurt any of us to have a few moments with nothing to do.
Finally, try to get to the library as often as possible. Summer is one time you might try to have nightly family reads. You may also have one night designated as game night. These are great bonding times with your children and you do begin to build a different relationship with them. It is always fun when we do these things at my house!
Again, thanks for the wonderful year! It has been a blessing to work with all the children at the Circle Towanda Elementary Schools. Enjoy your time together this summer! I will cherish my memories of just how wonderful it was to be such a big part of your child(ren)’s lives for all these years. I have been blessed to have been a part of something so wonderful, rare and rewarding. Thank you for your support, love and kindness...
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This year has been full of hard work and determination! Students have not only perfected their reading and writing skills, but they have also become wonderful mathematicians! Some of these skills include quick recall of basic facts, addition and subtraction with and without regrouping, and lots and lots of problem solving! Students have also had a chance to explore several different countries around the world, while discovering how other cultures are the same and different as their own. To add some spice into the mix, students created many fun and meaningful crafts to go along with each country. They will also get to take home a Countries Around the World Book which includes a compilation of all the countries we visited this year. All in all, this year was absolutely amazing!!
Fun things have been happening in 4th grade recently! We have been hatching chicks in our classrooms! Five have hatched so far, and we have another batch ready to hatch in the next couple weeks. The students are also having fun creating our classroom book, expressing their creativity in writing and illustrating. They have titled the book The Cool Corona Kids. Students are also enjoying a step away from the reading series for 2 novel studies to end the year: The Chocolate Touch and The Lemonade War. To end the year in math, students will be completing a project creating their own “Extreme Playground Makeover”. They will be using the geometrical features of our school’s playground for inspiration. The 4th grade teachers are excitedly planning a couple days of learning outside the classroom, hoping to spend some time in nature.
As we’re wrapping up the end of the year, we are working on our Ancient Civilization Theme Park projects. The students have chosen one of the civilizations that we studied this year in social studies and will do some research and create a theme park. We are also constructing Popsicle Stick Bridges in Math. We will be building our bottle rockets to launch the last week of school. This year our DARE Graduation and sixth grade awards will take place in our classrooms. A previously recorded video of the awards will be posted to our Google Classrooms. This year has flown by, but we still have much to learn! We are thrilled that we were able to teach the students in person despite the logistical hurdles! Thank you for sharing your sixth grader with us this year!
