Read Across America Week

Feb. 26-

Mar. 2

KC Zoomobile Kindergarten Classes

6-7

Kindergarten Roundup 6 p.m.

7

Cultural Arts Assembly David Nieves-“Reptiles

Up Close” 9

Daylight Savings Time Begins Set Your Clocks

Forward One Hour

11

Kdg. Music Programs

@ Clardy 6:30 pm Kingeryi/Knox

7:30 pm Agbaji/Bryant/Settles

14

Fuel Up/Play 60 Assembly

3rd Quarter Ends

16

Spring Break No School

19-23

School Resumes 26

North Kansas City School District

Gashland Elementary School

March 2018 Volume 9, Issue 7

Excellence in

Primary Education The Gashland Stars

March

Calendar of Events Read Across America Week

“The more you read, the more you know; the more you know, the further you’ll go!”

Read Across America Week beginning Monday, Feb 26. This week coincides with the birthday of one of the greatest authors loved by children and adults alike – Dr. Seuss. We all have our favorite Dr. Seuss book, but one that I think teaches some of the best lessons for life is Oh, the Places You’ll Go! This is a great book that inspires us that we can “move mountains” and that life is what you make of it. Here are some of the other life lessons we can teach our young learners about from this book: 1. Be a thinker of great things. Dr. Seuss teaches us, “Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!” Take a moment and just listen to your child talk about the world. They are fearless dreamers, invincible and amazingly creative at this age. 2. Be your best “you.” In the words of Dr. Seuss, “There is no one alive who is You-er than You.” Make the most of what you’ve got. 3. Dream it and do it. “You have brains in your head; you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” Isn’t it wonderful to know how many opportunities there are and will be in the future for our young learners? What a time to be alive! 4. Life is about choices, so make them good ones. “You’ll look up and down streets, look ‘em over with care. About some you will say, ‘I don’t choose to go there.’ With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.” Such an important lesson and one we as parents constantly worry about no matter how old our children are! 5. Be decisive. My grandfather use to say to me when I was trying to make decisions, “You can’t move a parked car.” So, once you’ve weighed your options, make a decision, get out there and “just do it!” 6. Face your fears and usually your fears will flee. “And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance, you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants…On and on you will hike. And I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.” 7. Keep balance in your life. “You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.” 8. You will succeed (most of the time.) “And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)” Life sometimes gives us lemons, but it is when we turn whatever comes our way into lemonade, then we truly succeed. Success is a journey and we all have our own paths. Make your journey count. Don’t let fear stop you. Don’t let conventional wisdom stop you. Lead the life you want to live, and when there’s no path, make one. Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So…get on your way. There is nobody you-er than you, and remember the more that you learn the more places you’ll go. Happy Reading!

Mrs. Lakin

2018

Summer School & K2K

Forms Due Friday,

April 6, 2018

The mission of Gashland/Clardy Schools,

two schools united as one in full commitment to

excellence in elementary education, is to develop each student’s sense of agency as learner and

citizen by providing: * Engaging, authentic

experiences that nurture unique strengths;

* Meaningful partnerships among students, faculty,

parents, and the community.

Student Attendance Please remember our overall goal is for

every child to be at school more than 90%.

Overall school attendance as of February is 87.8 %.

MISP (Missouri School Improvement Plan) school accreditation requires

school attendance to be 90% or higher. Hopefully the flu season is over and we

can get our students healthy and in

school everyday again! 😊

Last Chance to Order Your 2017-18 Gashland/Clardy

Yearbook $15.00

ORDER DEADLINE Friday, March 9, 2018

Don’t miss out!

There will be no yearbooks sold at the end of the year.

In March, kindergarten ELL students will work in a unit titled “Animals in the Zoo.” In this unit, students will identify animals and parts of their bodies. Students will use the word “which” to ask questions about animals. Kindergarten students will continue to work on reading sight words and writing sentences as well. First grade ELL students will continue working in their new unit titled “Animals and Plants.” Within this unit, students will speak, read, and write about how living things can help each other. In March, students will be specifically reading and learning about plants and other living things. Students will practice finding the main idea, using the long a sound, and using various transition words such as first, next, then, after, after that, and finally to tell and write about the steps to do something.

ELL NEWS By Mrs. Akman, ELL Teacher

Nurse’s News By: Theresa Keaveney, R.N.

As we look forward to warmer weather, Gashland students will be able to go outside for recess most days. The winter thaw brings muddy conditions on the playground. Please include a change of clothing in your student’s backpack when possible, “just in case”. Allergy season is here. If your student suffers from allergies and requires medication at school, please contact me. A parent will need to fill out an authorization for medication form for over the counter medication. If the allergy medication is prescription, the doctor will need to complete the authorization form. A parent will need to bring the medication and form to the nurse. Students are not to carry medications to school. I am glad to help your student with allergy relief so he or she has a more pleasant, productive day. We are in the process of welcoming and enrolling Kindergartners for next school year. Please remember that each student must be up-to-date on their immunizations before starting the K2K program in June and/or school in August. A current record of immunizations is required and can be turned into the school office. Please call me at 321-5103 if you have questions or need more information.

Gym-NEWS-ium By

Coach Schottel Every day, your physical education teacher, Coach Schottel, uses the National Standards for K–12 Physical Education to help you become a physically literate person. Being physically literate is a fancy way of saying that you know how to be physically active and that you enjoy being physically active. Learning to be physically literate in physical education class now will help you continue to be healthy and active when you grow up. A physically literate individual:

1. Demonstrates competency in a variety of motor skills and movement patterns.

• I have the skills to move and play. 2. Applies knowledge of concepts, principles, strategies and tactics

related to movement and performance.

• I show that I know how to move and use a plan when I play games.

3. Demonstrates the knowledge and skills to achieve and maintain a health-enhancing level of physical activity and fitness.

• I show that I know how to get fit and stay fit. 4. Exhibits responsible personal and social behavior that respects

self and others.

• I act fairly and respectfully when I play. 5. Recognizes the value of physical activity for health, enjoyment,

challenge, self-expression and/or social interaction.

• I know why it is important to be physically active.

Art As the colors of spring begin to pop up outside, they also make their way into our kindergarten and first grade artists’ paintings! Kindergarten and first grade have been practicing mixing the primary colors to create the secondary colors consistently throughout the month of March creating bright and cheery works of art to usher in the season. Mixing colors also helps our artists practice control with their paintbrush—holding it like a pencil, keeping it clean between color changes, and preventing “bad hair days.” Gashland artists continue to focus on how artists’ lives influence their work by making artistic choices that show their own uniqueness. Our artists’ personalities really shine through! Mrs. Harman Ms. Mascal

Pre-School News The months are just flying by in preschool, and we are so proud of all the hard work our preschoolers have been demonstrating! We have now been introduced to the following letters: Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ff, Gg, Hh, Jj, Kk, Mm, Oo, Pp, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, and Xx. We also have focused on numbers 0-10 with our Number of the Week routine. We spent time learning how to write these numbers, using one to one correspondence to count out objects, and explored these numbers while using a 10-frame. Our preschoolers are developing great number sense that will help them be successful next year in kindergarten! We had a fun bear theme to go with our letter Bb, and had fun with our stuffed bears. We also celebrated the 100th day of school, Valentine’s Day, and Dr. Seuss/Read Across America week. Thank you to everyone who helped us with our friendship party! The kiddos had so much fun! We are excited to dive into March. We will have a lot of learning with a week of spring break thrown in!

Mrs. Tapp, Preschool Teacher Mrs. Messersmith, Substitute Teacher

Mrs. Hensley, Preschool I.A.

Kindergarten Kids~ February has been a fun month in kindergarten. We had our Valentine's Day parties on February 14. Children enjoyed games, crafts and treats thanks to our room parents. They also enjoyed giving and receiving Valentines. Thanks to all the parents who have planned and helped with parties this year and to those who sent party items! The children appreciated all you did. February brought another holiday to learn about, too, with President's Day. Students have been interested to learn about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln this month. We are learning about money and now we can identify Washington and Lincoln on both coins and bills. Are you reading daily at home to and with your kindergarten student? Please do your best to accomplish this as much as possible. Encourage your child to practice reading our sight words often. Your child should be confident in reading first, second and almost all of third quarter words. Please practice these words at home and have your child try to write sentences using some of these words, too. Remind your student to add an end mark (period, question mark or exclamation mark). Kindergartners are bringing home daily a just right book for reading practice. Please encourage your child to read this book to him/herself and to a parent. Record the book title on the log and fill out the other information. This will help your child’s teacher in providing “just-right” books for home—not too easy and not too hard. We appreciate you taking good care of these books, so that they are available for all students. Books recorded on the log will also be counted for our “Buzz. . .Bee a Reader” program! Students are working hard in Writer’s Workshop writing personal narratives. This is a memorable moment from their life. In Reader’s Workshop, we are wrapping up Unit 4-Readers Make Meaning When They Ask and Answer Questions and will soon begin Unit 5 Reader’s Identify Main Topic and Key Details. 3D shapes have been introduced in math (sphere, cylinder, cone, cube, rectangular prism, pyramid). See if your child can identify some of these shapes in their environment. As always thank you for your continued support at home!

Mrs. Agbaji Mrs. Bryant Mrs. Kingery Mrs. Knox Mrs. Settles

First Grade News~ Springtime is always an exciting time in first grade! This is when we really start to see our kiddos grow in their learning. As teachers, we enjoy seeing our students progress; making leaps and bounds from where they started in the beginning of our school year together. Thank you to our families for continuing to support your students at home. Filling out Buzz Bee A Reader lists, reading those Just Right books, finishing homework, and exploring math concepts at home are all a huge help in their learning progression! March brings even more learning for our students. In Readers Workshop students, will spend time focusing on non- fiction materials. Students use text features and illustrations to help make sense of informational texts. Students will deepen their comprehension skills by comparing and contrasting two texts. Students will also practice retelling fictional stories that they read. Retelling is an important skill to help students comprehend the things they are reading. In Writers Workshop students, will spend time writing informational books using a question and answer format. Students will also use their deepening comprehension skills to begin to write book reviews. Students will learn to express their opinion and support it with reasons during this fun unit! In Math Workshop, we will be working on subtraction fact strategies, attributes of shapes and telling time to the hour. We will continue to add and subtract within 20 and understand and apply properties of operations and the relationship between addition and subtraction. During Science, we will be recognizing some objects occur in nature and others are made by people. We will also be measuring and comparing the mass of objects using an equal arm balance and various objects. During this time, we will also observe physical properties of solids, liquids and gases. As always, thank you for being part of your child’s education! We thank you for your continued support at home! Ms. Boyer Mrs. Kimball Mrs. Minter Mrs. Robke Ms. Vaughn

Literacy Launch By: Megan Markovich, Reading Teacher

When helping your child read at home, several strategies may be used to assist in solving unknown words.

1. Tell your child to look at the picture. 2. Tell your child to look for chunks in the word, such as it in sit, all in small or and ing in standing. 3. Ask your child to get their mouth ready to say the first sound by shaping their mouth for the beginning letter. 4. Ask your child to stretch the word out by saying it slowly and connecting all the sounds together. 5. Ask your child if the word looks like a word they already know. Does could look like should? 6. Ask your child to skip the word and go on and read to the end of the sentence. Often by reading the other words in context,

they will be able to figure out the unknown word. 7. Ask your child to flip the vowel sound. If they read the word with a short vowel sound and it didn’t make sense, try using the

long vowel sound, and vice versa. 8. If your child says the wrong word while reading, ask questions like:

• Does it make sense?

• Does it sound right?

• Does it look right?

February

Milk Contest

Kindergarten students won this month’s Milk Contest with the most

milk consumed. They will each be receiving a mini Tootsie Pop. Congratulations Kindergarten

POP TAB UPDATE The February totals are in:

Mrs. Tapp-2-Gallons Bryant-1-Gallon Knox-2-Gallons

Settles-2-Gallons Minter-1-Gallon

Year to date total is 31 Gallons

Our goal is 100 Gallons

Thank you families for helping support Ronald McDonald houses.

Music

This is a big month for our kindergarten friends at Gashland! Their first concert as Gashland stars will be March 14th at Clardy Elementary (Kingery and Knox – 6:30 and Agbaji, Bryant, and Settles – 7:30). They are so excited to show you all they have learned in their program, “Music Makes Us Move!” In first grade, we are continuing to work on the musicians’ code and music reading skills. We have been working hard on rhythm reading and melody reading with our code words! Be sure to ask them all about the different musician codes they have learned so far! It’s a great time to be a Gashland star in the music room!

Keep Singing! Mrs. Zimmerman

Spring is right around the corner! Our weekly counseling lessons continue, with the focus on Careers and

Academic Development. We explore various careers and the skills they require and make connections to our

‘job’ as a student. My consistent reminder to students regarding their two big jobs: 1. Be the best student you

can be...and, 2. Have fun being a kid! ☺

From the Counselor’s Office By Nancy Muller

Library

Dear Gashland Families, Spring Break will be here before we know it and with it perhaps some extra time to read with your children. In the library, we will be encouraging students to checkout great books to read before they leave for break! You may have been noticing that your child is starting to read. How exciting! But even though they are reading more and more to you, we should never stop reading aloud to our growing children. Looking Ahead: Spring is coming, and our Scholastic Book Fair is just around the corner. Our fair will be during the week of April 16th – April 20th and will be open during our Gashland Learning Express evenings! Happy Reading! Nova Bradfield, Librarian

GASHLAND Summer School Enrichment Summer Learning

“EXPLORERS Program” June 4-June 28

Are you looking for something fun for your child to do this summer? Does your student enjoy learning about new things, creating fun projects, and exploring the world of children’s authors? Then Gashland’s enrichment summer learning program – Explorers – is for you. The “Explorers” program will explore children’s authors like Eric Carle, Mo Willems, Leo Lionni, and Kevin Henkes and create fun projects from our learning. Students will also enjoy sessions for music, technology, and library. They will continue practicing important skills in reading, writing, and math. Students will have a great time exploring all of these fun and interesting classes! Classes fill quickly, so reserve your child’s place by returning the Summer School enrollment form by April 6 to ensure a spot for your Gashland Star.

If you have any questions, please call the school office at 321-5100.

February Perfect Attendance

First Grade Kindergarten

Congratulations

Maddox Abott Alpha Bah Danyka Bookout Faith Brancato Aspen Brown Sawyer Clemmer Kenya Cramer Chase Day Autumn Enfield-Brown Alan Estala-Alarcon Katherine Hofstetter Daniel Ijeh Xavier Jimenez Lily Jinks Dean Johnston Henry Larson Jude Larson

Olivia Mayberry Khaalid Mohamed Brandt Neitzel Jordyn Newell Abbigail Noble Nur Nuur Liem Phan Audrey Steenstry Mateo Valencia Brecken Vaughn Scotty Walter Connor Weicken

Abubakar Abukar Hudson Baines Matthew Bartlett Naomi Bartlett Isaiah Brancato Sawyer Chwojko Xden David Marshall Day Elaina Edinger Ausstin Estala-Alarcon Alyson George Maylie Gonzalez Kale Harper Lian Hatfield Macie Healy Alaina Henson Bentley Hirst Bryson Horn Jacob Kalcic Yousef Khan Aaron Lee Natalie Lovenduski

Jacob Masenthin Owen McNellis Allana McQuillen Jacob Moreno Dunya Osman Madison Paul Lilly Sticken Isaac Telles Pawil Tong Evanne Williams Hayley Winkler Graham Wright

Pre-School

Anthony Flores Maebelle Hatfield Jeremiah Moise Chloe Montoya Hanna Phommachanh Noah Stefek Niabari Tanee Perfect Attendance

August 16, 2017 – February 28, 2018

Hudson Baines Lilly Sticken