January 29, 2010

Dear Parents,

I hope you had an enjoyable weekend.  Last Friday our teacher in-service began with a state of the school with Mr. Hughes.  As you are well aware these are tough times with the economy.  The future funding of our Michigan’s schools is bleak.  Regardless of the tough times our students are succeeding well in the classroom.  Our test scores are among the top achieving in our area and even the state.  Mr. Hughes also discussed the progress of the construction of our school.  We are hosting ribbon cutting ceremony for the new walking track on Sunday, March 7^th from 1-3 p.m.  If all goes according to plan, the proper people (Leaps & Bounds Daycare, Mrs. Joseph, and Ms. Woolman) would move into their classrooms the last week of February.  Also I’ve learned that we have two snow days left. 

Enclosed is your child’s report card. Please look it over carefully.  If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at 889-9674 ext. 436 before or after school or via email sniederstadt@manistee.org 

Last Tuesday students took Unit 4 Written Assessment.  You’ll find two copies of your child’s test.  The first paper is a copy of your child’s test.  It was graded according to their abilities without support.  The second is your child’s test that was corrected together in class. Students did very well. The class average was 76%.  The most missed question was number 4 about money.  This is a new and challenging skill.  We’ll continue to practice throughout the year.  Our new unit is Place Value, Number Stories, and Basic Facts.  Students are beginning to use larger numbers.  They will begin to explore the system we use for writing larger numbers by focusing on the idea of place value.  Students will use base-10 blocks to represent numbers and to find the sums of two numbers.  They will also use place value to determine “greater than” and “less than” relationships.  Later in the unit, students will continue to work on addition facts.  Shortcuts for learning facts will be introduced.  Enclosed is a parent letter that gives more detailed information.

For “Label Wars” we are in second place!!  Currently we have 5,893 points.  Here are the totals:

•  Kindergarten – 1,015

• First – 5,893

• Second – 2,412

• Third – 5,888

• Fourth – 8,620

• Fifth – 4,875

Next week the Onekama Public Library is hosting Valentine crafts from Monday, Feb. 1^st to Thursday, Feb. 4^th.  The library hours are Monday and Tuesday from 11:00 – 5:00 and Wednesday and Thursday from 12:00 – 6:00.  Speaking of Valentine’s Day, I still need (12) packets of flower seeds, plastic jewels (heart-shaped preferred or circle), and beads for our party on Thursday, Feb. 11^th.

The following are dates that you may want to add to your calendar:

• ¨      Book order due – February 1

• ¨      School Store – February 5

• ¨      Good Behavior Ski Day – February 9  (1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd)

• ¨      PJ Day – February 11

• ¨      Valentine’s Day party – February 11 at 11:45 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

• ¨      Winter Break (No School) – February 12 & 15

• ¨      Onekama Public Library – Feb. 18

• ¨      Pizza Hut/ Manistee Public Library – March 11

• ¨      Substitute (Mrs. Wurstner) – March 25 & 26

• ¨      Spring Break (No School) – March 29 – April 5

Warmly,
Mrs. N