Fond du Lac Education Division

Elementary School Newsletter

Welcome to the Fond du Lac Elementary School newsletter! Click on the links below to jump to the appropriate section.

Early 5's
Kindergarten - Michelle Blanchard
Kindergarten - Sherri Johnson
1st Grade - Breekin Sheldon
1st Grade - Joy Jones
2nd Grade - Ms. Robin
2nd Grade - Mrs. Martin
3rd Grade - Mrs. Ojibway
3rd Grade - Mr. Anderson
4th Grade - Tara Graves
5th Grade - Ms. Koivisto
6th Grade - Kathleen Garsow
Physical Education
Elementary Art
Computer Lab
Media Center

Early 5's
Ms. Dawn, Ms. Cheryl, Mrs. Palkie

We are counting down with ten days of school left! We finished up our unit on farm animals called Baa-baa, Moo, Cock-a-doodle-doo. The Thematic Concepts were:

Some types of animals are kept on farms.
Farm animals provide us with products that we use in our lives.
Chickens live on farms and provide us with eggs.
Cows live on farms and provide us with milk.
Sheep live on farms and provide us with wool.

We finished up with the letter T book and we are moving along with the rest of the letter books. We are trying hard to get all the alphabet letter books finished. With the SFA curriculum the alphabet letters are not introduced in sequence so we may send home the books we don’t finish.

On Tuesday we went to Brighton Beach in Duluth for a field trip. We picked up our lunch at McDonalds and ate at the beach. The weather was great for the day. We all seen an eagle sitting nearby in a tree and it stayed there for the longest time.

Our next field trip is to the zoo and we are now studying the unit Zoo Clues so the timing is right on!

In closing, we are practicing daily for our end of year celebration. Remember this is on Friday, May 30th at 10:00am.

Kindergarten
Mrs. Blanchard

Boozhoo Families, We are now nearing the end of the school year although the weather is telling a different story! We are on our final Unit called Earth Day is Every Day. Our final theme centers on the natural world and our social communities. We will learn about the importance of keeping our earth clean, sharing our natural resources, recycling, and how important our water is.

In Math we will name and identify objects in order, continuing practice on our numbers 1-20, estimate and count quantities and telling time.

In Reading we are on book #20 A Day at the Farm. Please practice reading with your son/daughter. Thank-you to those parents who are doing a great job reading everyday and returning the read and respond slips. All students who return them receive a prize at the end of the week.

We have planned our end of the year field trip on May 29th. We are going on the Pizza Train at the Depot in Duluth and Bayfront Park. We will leave about 10:00 and return to the school around 2:00. We are also planning a Kindergarten Graduation; I will inform you of the time and date next week.

Reminders:

No school May 9th ( School Pow-wow/Peter Dufault Day)
No School May 26th (Memorial Day)
Last Day of School is June 6th

Have a great week! Mrs. Blanchard & Miss Ashley

Kindergarten
Sherri Johnson

Dear Ms. Sherri’s Kindergarten Families, 5/23/08

We do not have school next Monday the 26th, as it is Memorial Day.
Next Tuesday the 27th, we are going to the Zoo in Duluth. We will leave after lunch at 11:00 a.m. and return at 2:30 p.m. Let’s all hope for nice weather! Please have your child wear socks and tennies on this day, as we will be doing a lot of walking. Also, be sure that your child wears sunscreen and brings a hooded jacket or sweatshirt, as we will be outdoors all afternoon.
We talked about Dinosaurs this week. We are learning much about all of the interesting creatures that roamed the Earth so long ago. We will continue with our Dinosaur unit next week.
Shep, the Sheep is our last take-home book. Please return it to school with your completed Read & Respond bookmark next Tuesday. Please continue to review the practice pages and then to read these books until the end of the school year and over the Summer. Doing this will help your child get ready for 1st Grade.
We will be having a brief and informal End-of-the-Year celebration on Tuesday, June 3rd, at 2:00. Families are welcome to come to our classroom for songs, certificates, and refreshments.
The school year ends on Thursday, June 5th, at 12:30 p.m. with an early release.

Miigwetch

1st Grade
Ms. Breekin Sheldon

The count down is on. School will be over soon and summer vacation will begin. Please make sure your child is dressed properly for the changes in the weather.

We have learned many great things in the past two weeks. How about we take a look at some of the topics that we have focused on:

Math:
We have been learning about money. We learned how to combine pennies, nickels and dimes. We have also learned about change. Ask your first grader to show off what they have learned. Please keep practicing skip counting (5’s, 10’s, 2’s, 3’s, 25’s, 4’s) and joining/taking apart numbers at home every night. Please continue to do homework on a nightly basis.

Social Studies:
We have learned how to find a route on a simple map. We have also learned how to conduct an interview.

Reading:
I am very excited for our new reading program, Success For All. This program is designed to allow all of your students to be challenged, but still progress to become great readers. Homework is required. Please read with your child for 20 minutes a night. My reading group has learned 65 different sounds (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z, ck, ng, sh, ch, th, _ing, _ed, a_e, ee, i_e, o_e, oo, ar, soft c, ou, ay, ea, or,-y, oy, er, ue, ai, igh, ow, aw, oi, oa, ur, ow, oo, u_e, ir, _y, ph, ge, dge, tch, ew ) and we have been working on shared story number 46.

Spelling:
Keep an eye out for the spelling lists to come home on a weekly basis. Please spend a few minutes a night practicing the new words.

1st Grade
Joy Jones

Friday, May 2nd is a ½ day for students. Students will be dismissed at 12:30. It is already mid-quarter. There is no school on Friday, May 9th in observation of Peter Dufault Day.

Grammar- adjectives: number words

Spelling- ir, er, and ur sound

Spelling Words- bird, burn, girl, serve, hurt, first, from, sister, mother, brother

Math- centers and measurement test, making 10 to add, and applying addition strategies

Happy Birthday Kaila on May 3rd.
Happy Birthday Brian on May 20th.

Ms. Robin's 2nd Grade weekly letter
June 2 - 5, 2008

Happy Summer to all our friends and family
I hope all of you have a fantastic summer!

Aaniin. This will be our last news letter, how sad!!! It has been such a fun year with our many projects that I hate to see it end. But, honestly I am looking forward to summer and days that will be filled with sleeping in until I want to, going for swims in the lake, saunas, shooing mosquitoes away, visiting with family and friends, and whatever else I find to do that is fun in the summer!

Happy Summer………

Ms. Robin’s classroom schedule for the last week of school

Monday June 2 our classroom will be going on an all day field trip to the NW Fur Trading Post in Pine City.

Tuesday June 2 finish projects/School Store (money game)

Wednesday June 3 finish projects in am, race day @12:30.

Thursday June 5 (LAST DAY OF SCHOOL), half-day.

Have a spectacular summer!!!

Be Safe and Have Fun!!!

Miigwech. Thank you. See you later, Ms. Robin

Mrs. Martin’s 2nd Grade News
May 26 - 30, 2008

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day with family and friends. This will be the last newsletter that I will write for the year. I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with your child and for trusting me with their education. I have truly enjoyed this group of kids and will miss them all very much. I am excited for them to come back in the fall as third graders. Report cards will be sent home at the end of next week. If you have questions or concerns, please contact the school and I will call you back. Here’s how we spent our week…

SFA Reading: This week in Reading we worked on our last story for the year. It was called Jamaica Louise James. Our team cooperation goal was “characterization”. We learned that good readers study characters to learn about their thoughts, actions, and words. Please remind your child to spend time reading over the summer. I would hate for them to lose what they have learned and accomplished this year in reading. Hats off to our Wings 2.1 Readers! They are awesome!

Writing: This week we got our yearly writing pieces together for our Author’s Tea. We are so excited to share how we have grown as writers.

Math: This week in Math we reviewed adding two digit numbers with and without regrouping.

Special News

We will celebrate our summer birthdays next week. Happy birthday to Muri Goseyun, Bryson White, and Josh Pigeon. We hope you have special summer birthdays.
Our end of the year field trip is scheduled for Monday, June 2. We will be traveling to the Northwest Fur Trading Company in Pine City.
We will be shopping at our school store next week. We had to postpone this activity because we continue to get wonderful donations from staff at our school. We are so thankful to them. Also, we want to thank Mrs. Garsow’s 6th grade girls for helping set up the store.
Our Author’s Tea is scheduled for Tuesday, June 3 at 1:30. It will be located in our classroom. If you are unable to attend please find someone from your family to represent your child. The children are very excited for this and we don’t want any hurt feelings. Everyone is welcome – hope to see you there. Another invitation is attached.
Track & Field Day is scheduled for Wednesday, June 4 in the afternoon.
The last day of school is Thursday, June 5th. Students will be dismissed at 12:30.

Again, thank you for all of your support this year. Have a wonderful summer!

Take care,

Mrs. Martin

3rd Grade
Mrs. Ojibway

Dear Families,

Our butterflies have arrived! Mike was the first one to emerge from his chrysalis on May 13th at 8:10 am. Isabella, Sam, Joe Junior, and John came on May 14th. It is so exciting to see Mother Nature work her miracles up close. We will be giving them back to her on Tuesday the 20th. We hope by then, it will be warm enough for them to make it on their own.

When we come back to school on Monday, we will be having our final unit test in spelling. Please review all of our spelling words from this quarter for the final. Everyone is excited to be finalizing our subject standards. This does not mean we won’t be doing any more learning. We will be learning a lot, in fact! We are just going to be learning in a creative, exploratory way. Stay tuned for highlights!

This past Tuesday, we went outside to explore features of light with Ms. Shannon. She has been wonderful this year, taking time out of her schedule to teach us about Phenology and Natural Resources such as solar and wind energy. Thank you, Ms. Shannon!

We have our final field trip planned for May 29th. We will be going to Wells Fargo, The Depot, and Playfront Park. The weather should be treating us well by then, so we will be enjoying some cool Dairy Queen treats. This trip is a “rewards trip” for good behavior. Any students receiving write ups between now and then will be staying back at school. Let’s all make good choices and enjoy the rewards!

Reminder: There is no school on May 26th for Memorial Day.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Miigwech,

Mrs. Heidi

3rd Grade
Mr. Anderson

"Hulk sad, Hulk want more school"

Dear Parent(s) & Guardian(s),

One more week! I bet deep down inside the kids are wishing for school to continue throughout the summer. How about you?

As I mentioned last week, we will be reviewing the years concepts with the addition of a few measuring elements. I’d also like to end the year the same way we began it; by creating, flying, and measuring paper airplanes. I’m hoping for some real gliders!

The one thing we, as the whole staff, are concerned about is the continuation of your child reading throughout the summer. Please don’t let this slip. Designate a time or place for your child to just drop everything and pick up something to read. This will help your child retain what he/she has gained throughout the year.

Hey…since it is suppose to rain this weekend, this would be a perfect excuse to have them sit and read!

Mr. Anderson

Please feel free to download and play this game with your kids/family. Once you download and open it up, press the F5 key to get it started. Move the mouse over one of the money squares and click on it. A screen will pop up with a question. Click on the space bar for the answer. To go back to home, click on the roof of the house in the bottom left hand corner. Choose another square.

If you would like help creating your own game, please contact me and we can set one up...and it doesn't have to be about Math.

Money Game (requires Microsoft PowerPoint to open)

4th Grade
Tara Graves

Aaniin 4th Grade families,

Ziigwan is right around the corner, and you can feel it in the air!! Please continue to make sure you child is dressed appropriately and even have extra clothing as they tend to get very wet during recess time. We would like to welcome back Ms. Amanda. She will be with us until late April early May. Our classroom is part of Project Intersect which helps us better understand and appreciate the visual and performing arts, language arts, math, science by integrating American Indian arts and culture in those content courses.

We will be finishing up on our Broken Blade book and will be planning a field trip to the Northwest Trading Post in Pine City!! If any parents have any fur trading items that they would like to bring in and share with us that would be great. Just give me a call. Our students are working on their beading projects. They are doing very well.

Math- We are continuing working on Fractions. We are planning a Fraction Party the end of March, based on student behavior and assignments!!

Science- The end of the month we will start focusing on the Sugar Bush.

Lang. Art- Pronouns

Please call or email if you have any questions or concerns regarding your child.

Mino-Ziigwan

Mrs. Graves

218-878-7551 ext. 1415 or taragraves@fdlrez.com

5th Grade
Ms. Koivisto

Boozhoo Family and Friends! As we begin the month of March, there have been some changes in the after school schedule. Every Wednesday there is 5th grade MCA tutoring. I would like to see every student attend and take advantage of this opportunity. We brush up on our MCA skills and have some fun while learning. Students attending regularly will be at an advantage at test time.

We are currently writing and solving algebraic expressions in math. The students are really putting in a lot of effort. They are comfortable working with variables and writing their own expressions as they solve story problems. Soon we will be moving on to geometry!

We are currently reading a great story about guide dogs in SFA. We have been discussing the process humans and canines must go through to have a successful guide dog experience. In addition, the story has generated great discussions.

We have completed chapter four in social studies. The students will begin to learn through chapter five the government structure that still drives the country today.

We will finish up our plant unit is science and begin investigating animal structures and behaviors. Ms. Nicole, our Block student from UMD will be teaching some great activities during this time.

The students are spending more recess time outside as the weather turns warmer. Please remind them to bundle up! That fresh air is refreshing, but still a bit chilly!

Success For All Reading is showing significant results in our classroom. The students staying for MCA tutoring have demonstrated their skills in reading comprehension! I am thrilled with their performance on their reading activities. Way to go!

6th Grade
Ms. Garsow

March News

MCA Test Prep after school classes held on Wednesday evenings from 3:00 to 5:00 provides an opportunity for sixth grade students to hone their skills in math and reading in order to pass the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments in the month of April. Classes may also be used as a make-up time for students who have been absent during the quarter. I strongly encourage sixth graders to attend these classes each week.

Educational Opportunities This Month:

Spelling/Phonics- We will begin Unit 6 soon. This will be the last unit we will work on this year. Students will learn the words used in the areas of Foreign Languages and Social Studies, as well as using words with prefixes and Latin roots.

Reading- The students in Success For All Reading will enter grade level 6.2 this month with lessons that involve learning how to use questioning strategies while reading narrative and expository texts.

Language Arts- We will begin Unit 6 in Language Arts. Students will work on assignments that deal with using Adverbs, Prepositions, and Interjections.

Mathematics- We will begin the month by continuing our exploration of using fractions. We will work on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions as well as working with the relation between decimals, percents, and fractions.

Social Studies- Students will be given the opportunity to learn about the eras in which the world was opposition. They will learn about the times in which our nation was expanding and undergoing expansion. We will also explore our nation at war which will include WWI, WWII, the Korean conflict, and the conflict in Vietnam.

Science- We will study the areas of Astronomy and Physics through out the rest of the quarter.

Kathleen Garsow
Grade 6
(218) 878-7551

Physical Education
Ms. Marsolek

E5 & Kindergarten: We are just finishing up letter N with a focus on exploring locomotors with a newspaper. We will moving on to letter P with a focus on parachute skills and next letter Q with a focus on moving quickly and quietly. We will be doing a special track and field day modified just for the little ones at the end of the month.

1st & 2nd: We are just finishing up a unit on the new speed stacking cups. We will next do a Yo-Yo unit and then on to a T-ball unit. We will end the month with a track and field day with special awards for all.

3rd & 4th: We are just finishing up a unit on speed stacking and starting a Yo-Yo unit. The next thing will be a unit on T-ball/softball. We will end the month with a track and field day.

5th & 6th:We are just finishing up a unit on speed stacking and starting a Yo-Yo unit. The next thing will be a unit on softball. We will end the month with a track and field day.

Elementary Art
Karen Savage-Blue

Greetings from the Art Room.

During the month of March our:

6th grade
Students will be studying the artist Frida Kahlo you can find information on this artist on the internet. Students will be focusing on the various themes of this artist paintings. They will be doing a piece in the style of the artist. They will use tempera paint on paper.

5th grade
Students are having a series of drawing lessons. They will be going through the elements of art. We will be working on perspective drawings utilizing the landscape as subject matter.

4th grade
Students will be working on large and small drawings. Fourth graders have great imaginations and drawing skills to portray their ideas with some accuracy. The drawings can be very interesting.

3rd grade
Third graders will be working on several different mediums. They will be drawing with oil pastels and applying paint to their works.

2nd grade
Second grade will continue working on the human form. They have been working on the head and will proceeding to adding the body. We will be focusing on correct proportions. Students this age especially enjoy making characters.

1st grade
First graders will be experimenting with stamps and paint.

Kindergarten
Kindergarten is working on manipulation of various materials.

Computer Lab
Carol Smith

May 2 marks our mid-quarter. If you should have questions or comments regarding your child’s progress please call or stop by as I would be happy to discuss it with you. The 5th, 8th and 10th grade students will be taking the MCA II online science test this month. Our last day of school is June 6. Have a great summer!

Early 5’s – 2nd Grade
Early 5’s and Kindergarten students continue to locate upper and lower case alphabet letters. They are using the shift key to capitalize the first letter of their names. They have also been using the enter key to return the cursor to the next line. We will continue to be looking at various keys on the keyboard and their function, along with using the mouse. First graders continue to practice various mouse control skills and review reading skills with Reading Blaster. They will be locating letters on the keyboard to type different words. Second graders are using Word to write an earth/nature poem and adding clip art to it. They are learning how to save their work in their document folder and also print their work. They have also been practicing the seven continents and learning about them with Trudy’s Time and Place. Second graders will be reviewing home row keys and practicing beginning keyboarding skills with the Type To Learn Program.

Third – Sixth Grade
Third-Sixth graders wrote about how they could help keep the earth healthy. We will review science themes during May. Fifth graders will use Study Island to review for the MCAII Science online test. We continue to review appropriate use of computers. Students are reminded not to go to music or game websites while they are in class. We have discussed not sharing personal/private information and to be aware when sites are asking for this type of information. Students will focus on practicing their keyboarding skills, reviewing home row hand placement and good posture as well.

Media Center
Melissa Walton

Wow! During the 2007-2008 Book It (October – March), Kindergarten through sixth grade students read and reported to me a total of 55,493 minutes! For meeting the goal each month, students who turned in their completed calendar earned a free personal pan pizza. Remember there is also next year.

The Scholastic Book Fair was held on Thursday, April 3 during the school day and also during conferences. Although we were hesitant with the change to only one day this year, we were pleasantly surprised that we still had about as many students purchasing books as in earlier years. We also were very happy to see the larger number of families coming in during conferences. Enjoy those books!

The library/media center has benefited tremendously from the contributions and volunteerism of many people who work or attend our school as well as many community members. We are all very grateful for your time and effort. A special thank you goes to our Reading Buddies, who read individually with each first through third grade student. It is a pleasure to see the positive interactions that occur and to hear a “murmur” of reading.

We are in the process of converting from our current Circulation/Catalog Plus software to Destiny. It should be more user friendly for all patrons. You may see some changes yet this year, but look for more information for next school year (especially a new library/media center website).

Please be watching for overdue notices. The library will be closing early to take inventory so it is very important that overdue books are returned or paid for by May 16. This will allow students to start the school year fresh and take out the maximum number of books. Items can be returned, even if they have been slightly damaged (a torn page can many times be repaired). If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at 878-7556. Thank you for your help in maintaining a terrific library/media center.

Have a good summer, and keep up the reading!!