.

May 2016 Volume 3, Issue 7

BERNARD/CASCADE ELEMENTARY NEWSLETTER

Principal News

Western Dubuque Schools “Better Every Day”

Happy May! Spring has certainly sprung and students are enjoying time outdoors. We are quickly closing the year out. As we close out the school year, I want to take this opportuni-ty to thank you making my time at Bernard and Cascade memorable and rewarding. We truly have wonderful families, students, and staff! You have been great to work with and I find myself bragging to others about what great people I get to work with. Thank YOU for your working partnership the past six years. I will miss everyone tremendously as I transition into my new position and will need to come back and visit. I am grateful and honored I had the opportunity to serve as principal in the Bernard and Cascade Elementary buildings!

Summer is quickly approaching. Therefore, I wanted to share a few ideas to keep your child reading over the summer. This has been adapted from: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/get-ready-summer-ideas-teachers-share-families

Offer recommendations for active learning experiences. Check with your local department of parks and recreation about camps and other activities. Find out what exhibits, events, or concerts are happening in your town over the summer. Create a directory or calendar of lo-cal summer learning fun to share with your students and their families. (Be sure to note any costs involved.)

Encourage parents to build reading and writing into everyday activities. Some ideas to pass along: (1) watching TV with the sound off and closed captioning on, (2) reading directions for how to play a new game, or (3) helping with meals by writing up a grocery list, finding things in the grocery store, and reading the recipe aloud for mom or dad during cooking time. More ideas at PBS Parents(in Spanish, too).

Summer trading cards. Kids can dive deeper into summer reading by exploring characters with the Trading Cards activity from ReadWriteThink, which provides students with the op-portunity to expand their understanding of the reading by creating new storylines and char-acters. A nifty Trading Card interactive tool provides additional support.

Encourage writing. Give each of your students a stamped, addressed postcard so they can write to you about their summer adventures. Or recycle school notebooks and paper into summer journals or scrapbooks. Another way to engage young writers is to encourage your students to spend some time researching and writing community stories — not only does it build research and writing skills, but helps kids develop a deeper sense of place. And check out the pen pal project at Great Schools. Find more good summer writing ideas from Start with a Book: keep a nature journal, create a poetree, share a recipe, or keep a scrapbook of reviews of summer adventures.

Continued on page 2

BERNARD/CASCADE ELEMENTARY

NEWSLETTER

Bernard/Cascade Elementary

Volume 3, Issue 7 Page 2

Continued from Principal News on page 1

Kids blog! Arrange for a safe, closed community so that your students can blog over the sum-mer. Edublogs and Kidblog offer teachers and students free blog space and appropriate se-curity. Free, disposable e-mail accounts are available at Mailinator. Students can create an account there, use the address long enough to establish the blog and password, and then abandon it.

Be an active citizen. Kids who participate in community service activities gain not only new skills but self-confidence and self-esteem. Help them zoom into action! Resources from ZOOMcan help them get the most out of helping others this summer.

Real world reading. Newsela builds nonfiction literacy and awareness of world events by providing access to hundreds of leveled news articles and Common Core–aligned quizzes, with new articles every day. The bloggers on The Uncommon Corps are enthusiastic champi-ons of nonfiction literature for kids and young adults, and offer many ideas for integrating nonfiction into the Common Core classroom (or any classroom).The Nonfiction Mi-nute offers one-to-minute nonfiction pieces that explore history, technology,science, natural science, literature, art, music, and sports. For more book ideas to share with parents, check out the Orbis Pictus Award winners — outstanding nonfiction for children, presented by the National Council of Teachers of English. Share these tip sheets with parents (available in English and Spanish):Getting the Most Out of Nonfiction Reading Time and How to Read Nonfiction Text. And don't forget to check out our Nonfiction for Kids section

Active bodies. Active minds. First Lady Michele Obama is leading the national Let's Move initiative — with the goal of raising a healthier generation of children. Let's Move Out-side has lots of ideas to help kids get the 60 minutes of active play they need every-day. ilovelibrarieshas suggestions for staying fit and having fun that start at your local library.

Get into geocaching. Everyone loves a scavenger hunt! Get in on the latest outdoor craze with geocaching, where families search for hidden "caches" or containers using handheld GPS tools (or a GPS app on your smart phone). Try a variation on geocaching called earth-caching where you seek out and learn about unique geologic features. Find more details about geocaching plus links to geocaching websites in this article from the School Family website,Geocaching 101: Family Fun for All, in Every Season. Or follow one young family on their geocaching adventure: Geocaching with Kids: The Ultimate Treasure Hunt.

Look Out Summer Here We Come!

I can’t believe we have less than 30 days of school left….Time flies when you are having fun! During the last month of school, we will be doing a mini unit on BUGS and

talking about ALL THINGS SUM-MER!!! Mark your calendars Pre-K Graduation is slot-ted for Wednesday, June 1st! More infor-mation will be com-ing soon. We have learned so much this

year and I look for-ward to celebrating with you and your child

Mrs. Balster’s class has been working on writing their names and tracing letters in books. Our goal is to be able to write our first name and start working on

Mrs Nothdorf we are out of chapters

Chapters=bookmarks

Kids say the darndest things:

our last name by the end of the year. We have and been doing lots of fun tracing and let-ter recognition games.

Mrs. Balster, PreK CES

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Mrs. Kamp, PreK CES

Volume 3, Issue 7 Page 4

The Kindergar-teners just fin-ished learning

about plants! We discussed differ-

ent kinds of plants, their parts and how they help

our planet.

Mrs. Knepper and Mrs. Weitz, Kindergarten CES

Mrs. Nothdorf, Kindergarten BES Wow did time fly! This is the last newsletter for the school year. It seems like just yester-day I had 15 very active kindergartners and now they are (almost) first graders. We will have a very busy rest of the year in kinder-garten. In math we are learning about number stories, skip counting, place value, and coins! These are all concepts that we

will be learning more about in first grade and we are getting a jump start on them already! For our writ-ing unit we have been working on persuasive writing. The students are doing a great job of learning words/ways to make others think about some-thing their way. We are finishing up our end of the year test-ing. We have reached

our class goal of all kin-dergartens recognizing all their letters and counting to 100! On top of all the fun academic things we are finishing we will get to partici-pate in a Read and Run with Cascade Elemen-tary students, our final ROAR celebration, and of course we can’t for-get about Fillmore Fun Day!

The Kindergarteners just finished learning about plants! We dis-cussed different kinds of plants, their parts and how they help our planet. This tied in perfectly to Earth Day, which we celebrated on April 22nd. Both classes talked about the dif-ference between trash, recycling and composting. We also

went on a nature scav-enger hunt to look for animals and the differ-ent signs of spring. We read books and con-nected with our 4th grade buddies to plant grass with them. The Kindergartners are so excited to watch it grow! Ask them about what was put on the front of the cup they planted grass in.

Miss Rutz, Second Grade BES

Respect

On Your Honor

Accepting

Responsible

unit and have even done a little practice with writing some different poems already. To cele-brate April being poetry month, the students wrote two different cinquian poems, with one being about spring. Then they wrote an acrostic poem using the word spring. All of their wonderful writing is dis-played on their lockers, hanging in the hallway, and in the classroom for everyone to enjoy.

The first graders at Cas-cade Elementary have been working hard in math to build their fact power. Students have been learning that math facts are kind of like sight words because if we practice them often and get used to seeing them a lot they will be-come very easy, just as sight words did. They are also similar to sight words because knowing sight words makes read-ing much easier and learning math facts can help make math work easier too. Students have found this to be a fun unit because there

Mrs. McElmeel and Mrs. Gibbs, First Grade CES

Wow! This school year really went by fast. Look-ing back at the start of the school year to now, it’s amazing how much the second graders have learned and accom-plished. From writing in-formational chapter books, to working on fractions in math and using a variety of strate-gies in reading, the stu-dents worked hard.

We will finish out the year working on poetry in writing. I think the sec-ond graders will enjoy the

As the school year comes to an end, please keep your child learning throughout the summer. Reading, writing, and practicing their math facts will keep your child prepared for the upcom-ing school year and help him/her to retain what was learned in second grade. I look forward to seeing them next year at Bernard Elementary!!! Have a safe and enjoya-ble summer!

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are so many games and activities that can help us build our fact pow-er. One of their favor-ites is a game called Beat the Calculator where one person has to solve a math fact in their head and the oth-er has to use a calcula-tor. Whoever solves the problem first gets the point. Kids are ex-cited when they start realizing that they can be faster than the cal-culator! Try an activity like this at home with your child and see if they can beat the cal-culator! Learning math

facts has prepared the students for yet another big step in their math learn-ing. First graders re-cently started doing Rocket Math where they practice facts with a partner and then take one minute quizzes on their math facts. Each student has their own goal as they work through the different levels of Rocket Math. Feel free to practice math facts at home to help stu-dents build their math fact fluency!

The Second Graders are on their last unit in writing, Poetry. The students are loving this unit, because they are able to write about what they feel passionate about. Every Monday students go on a website to write a new poem to hang on their lockers. They use everything that is taught the previous week to help write the poem. We will see the progression of their poems at the end of the year! Below are some exam-ples of the poems that were done in class.

Western Dubuque Schools

“Better Every Day”

Mrs. Roller & Ms. Hoeger Second Grade CES

Volume 3, Issue 7 Page 6

Mrs. Tara Noonan, and Mrs. Josey Noonan, Third Grade CES Mayor Marcus Behnken

Visits Third Grade

Third graders completed a three week unit on our national, state, and local government. They stud-ied all three branches at each level. Students learned specifics about jobs and responsibilities at the city level.

At the end of the unit students were to answer the driving question, “If I were the mayor what would I do to make Cas-cade better?” They were given laptops to research Cascade’s city website to see what jobs they might want to focus on. The students were put into groups to collaborate and come up with an idea. For our closing, the students needed an authentic audi-

ence to present their cam-paign ideas to. We were able to get the mayor of Cascade, Marcus Behnken to come and speak to the students. He spoke on how he got elected and what he does in the position. He printed a nice certificate for each student with their name printed on it deeming them honorary junior mayors. He swore them all in. Then he listened to their campaign talks cover-ing topics like having local theater productions on the weekends that would pro-vide family entertainment, a dog park in town, city clean-up, and repairs for our city pool. Mayor Behnken was very impressed with the ideas students presented to him. Having the mayor visit our classroom gave a

very meaningful ending to our project.

On Friday, April 22nd the third graders enjoyed a celebration to end our persuasive writing unit. Some of the students gave their speech to their class at the amphitheater at the Cascade River Park. The students enjoyed sharing their speeches with their audience and we all en-joyed the art of persua-sion! After listening to the speeches we enjoyed a walk to the Cascade City Park and enjoyed some time to celebrate being "O-Fish-Ally" done with Iowa Assessments and Mrs. Montag's last day of stu-dent teaching in Mrs. Tara Noonan's classroom.

Pool Day Bianca

Perfect day to go to pool Splish, Splash, Sploosh Water everywhere Blue sky, clouds, birds I play on the slide, Curvy slide Straight slide Time to go go! This is my favorite day!

Rain Puddles Kiley

What do you get with me and my sister Out in the rain on a rainy day? Rain boots on and umbrella up Jump Jump in the puddles Splash Splash! We get wet Uh-oh I’m soaking wet Oh No What’s Mom gunna say?

My Brother Had a Bull Shark Patrick

My brother had a bull shark We didn’t name him We brought him to the river To feed him He head-butted the birds and ate the buoys When he tried to swim he had a turtle in his throat.

Science has been a big part of our afternoons this quarter. We are learning about soils, rocks, and landforms. Our investigations take us outside to collect soil samples, and we also set up vials to observe the different soils and rocks in water and vinegar. We will be going to the river to collect as many differ-ent types of rocks that are on the river’s edge.

Our kindergarten bud-dies are studying soil and plants also. On Earth Day we gathered togeth-er and created cups filled with soil and dirt. We placed a photo of ourselves on the cups so

when the grass grows, it will look like our hair!

We finished our infor-mational books on The American Revolution. Now we are going to be writing opinion essays. We are collecting ideas about subjects that mean a lot to us so we can support our essays with strong opinions and evidence.

Alyssa McDermott, our high school mentor has been a welcome addi-tion to our afternoon reading and science classes. She has helped us set up our science investigations and pro-vides support for all

times a week will help to minimize or prevent this loss of skill often called the “summer slide.” Stu-dents benefit from regular trips to the library or to online sites like Epic! www.getepic.com/promo for reading and to sites like Sumdog www.sumdog.com for math. Many teachers, my-self included, also send summer work students may use to keep skills sharp for the upcoming school year. Stay strong and well rested throughout the rest of the school year and enjoy a fantastic summer!

Mrs. McLaughlin, Fourth Grade CES

As summer rapidly ap-proaches, finding time to complete daily homework and get to bed on time for that oh-so-important sleep can be difficult, but continues to be nec-essary. Bernard’s 4th graders have worked hard to learn this year, and there is still much to learn before summer ar-rives! Our 4th graders worked hard on their recent unit 4 ELA (Reading) Assess-ment, earning a class cel-ebration with their 90% class average score. Yeah!! Big ideas in our next unit include learning the differences in figura-tive language like similes (comparing two different

things using “like” or “as”), metaphors (comparing different things by saying one thing IS the other), and onomatopoeia (words that make the sounds they stand for, such as crash, bang, and boom!). We’ve been learning about fractions, decimals and percent's in math. Reflec-tions and symmetry take center stage as key con-cepts in our present unit. Our upcoming math unit deals with weight, volume, and capacity.

During summer, many stu-dents nationwide lose aca-demic skills through lack of use. Spending a few minutes reading, writing, and doing math several

the fourth graders. We think she is awesome!

We just earned our fourth Classroom Re-spect Goal on April 25th! We have earned a total of FIVE Classroom Respect Goals! We will vote on our celebration which will take place on Thursday, April 28!

We set a goal for our Io-wa Assessment Scores. The fourth graders were very focused and showed responsibility for doing their best. I am very proud of them.

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Stay strong and well rested

throughout the rest of the school year and enjoy a

fantastic summer!

Mrs. Foust, Fourth Grade BES

Sadly, the school year is winding down, but that isn’t true of our

learning progression!

chalk and make a character sketch or practice math facts, or write a story on the sidewalk for all the neighbors to read. Turn into Sci-entists for the day and explore nature or perform an experi-ment. These are only some ideas to keep your child’s body and mind active. Creating a summer calendar together will get your child involved and

interested in the ac-tivities that you have planned for them. Thank you for sharing your wonderful, car-ing, and enthusiastic children with me this past school year. It’s been a true joy to grow and learn right along with them! Now, enjoy summer break!

Fifth grade is doing great! Please encour-age your child to keep reading, and to bring their reading logs back each day. As of now, eight students have completed the 40 Book Challenge. Awesome Job!!! Keep up the great work.

On May 17th, we will be taking a field trip to Swiss Valley. There will be more information coming later. Cross your fingers for nice weather.

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Mrs. Bockenstedt, Fifth Grade CES

Volume 3, Issue 7

Mrs. Knepper, Fifth Grade CES

Sadly, the school year is winding down, but that isn’t true of our learning progression! Fifth graders continue to grow in the areas of Reading, Math, and Writing. Although, summer is thought to be a time of fun and relaxation, be sure to include education in your activities, as well! Encourage your child to grab a book and read outside. Grab a piece of sidewalk

In reading, we are starting a poetry unit. I have students reading different novels that are written in poetry. We will also be writing different forms of po-etry in honor of Poetry Month.

Math is great! We are working on plotting co-ordinates. We also are working on area and perimeter. So far, it is a piece of cake.

In social studies we are

reading about Manifest Destiny. This is an ab-stract topic for stu-dents. Ask your child what they think this means.

The year is winding down, but it is important to keep a routine as much as possible. Make sure you are still encour-aging your child to read every night. Thanks for everything you do.

Mr. Blakesley, Sixth Grade CES

BERNARD/CASCADE ELEMENTARY

We will continue to read, read,

read!

Mr. Meyer’s 6th grade class recently finished up their Informative Essays. In these es-says, students includ-ed information on the topic of Teen Activ-ism and why it is so important. The stu-dents did a great job of using their re-sources to find worth-while ideas on this topic. Various topics covered in these es-says were the environ-ment, girl’s rights, pol-

lution, and animal safe-ty, to name a few.

Our next task is to tack-le the objective of Liter-ary Essays. The first step is Character Es-says. We are currently working on reading short stories, and analyz-ing the characters that make up these stories. The students are focus-ing more on the charac-ter traits and manner-isms as they progress

through their writing tasks. One of the short stories we have used is “The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf”. We chose to focus on the Third Little Pig, and analyze the various qualities of this charac-ter. Our writing has been very strong throughout the year, and we hope to finish it off in a great way!

The sixth grade stu-dents have been very busy these past two weeks with Iowa As-sessments. The stu-dents have been pre-paring themselves throughout the week with activities, brainteasers and chal-lenging concepts. We are both relieved and excited to be done with assessments and are awaiting the re-sults. In class the sixth grade is currently read-ing the book, The Giv-er, by Lois Lowry. This

is a difficult book that requires a large amount of discussion and small group work. The stu-dents have been dong comprehension book tags to help with dis-cussion and also com-pleting a section enti-tled My Thoughts, My Questions. In this the students write down inferences, guess or their own thoughts in-to the crazy happen-ings of the book. We are working towards completion of the book

Page 9

Mr. Blakesley, Sixth Grade CES

Mr. Meyer, Sixth Grade CES

and will be watching the movie to compare and contrast differ-ent forms of media and how they change. The students will also be making a “Book of Memories,” in which each student writes briefly about their 10 best memories in their life. They are categorized to go with the theme of the book and to have some fun and put a spin on a project based activity.

BERNARD/CASCADE ELEMENTARY

A BIG thank you to the student body at Cascade Elementary for celebrating Earth Day on April 22 by tidying up the school grounds!

Our 6th graders will be touring Cascade High School on May 19. A note will be sent home with details closer to the date.

As the year is coming to an end, your child will be participating in some school-wide activities and celebrations for their accomplishments! This will allow your child to gain a sense of closure and realize how proud our staff is for each and every stu-dent’s accomplishments including our building wide goals! We have met goals due to your child’s individual efforts and responsibility for learning which brings me to his/her individual report card which will be sent home at the end of the year. Remember that however your child does on his/her report card, it is important to praise and en-courage all he/she has learned and how he/she has changed over the year! Have a safe and wonderful summer with your family!

Volume 3, Issue 7 Page 10

Mrs. Boffeli, Counselor News

KEYSTONE-FREE DEVELOPMENTAL SCREENING

Do you have questions or concerns about how your infant or young child is talking, hearing, behaving, moving or learning? Keystone Area Education Agency can help. Call the Key-stone AEA office at 563.556.3310 for assistance and a free developmental screening.

PBIS Report for Bernard Elementary

Congratulations to our ROAR students! Each one of these students were recognized at our monthly ROAR celebration for being and a role model student. They also were able to pick their own reward! Here is what each student chose:

Payton chose to have lunch in the classroom with a friend.

Dale chose to have lunch in the classroom with a friend.

Aubree chose to have lunch in the classroom with a friend.

Sumerlin chose to have lunch in the classroom with a friend.

Grace chose an extra recess for the class.

Baleigh chose to have lunch in the classroom with a friend, Miss Storm, and Mrs. Foust.

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Mrs. Recker, TAG News

Math Olympiads On Thursday, April 28, eighteen Cascade Elementary school students participated in Drexler Middle School’s Math Olympiads.

Those students included: Brad, Keagan, Davis, Morgan, Devin, Ella, Rebecca, Halana, Avery, Lillian, Tabby, Laura, Brennan, Harley, Levi, Cody, Luke, and Evan. The students had great success!

Davis was the second place individual winner. Team Winners included: First Place - The Multipliers- Avery Second Place - Ninjas- Ella and Davis Third Place (tie) - Math Machines 2- Lillian and Levi Third Place (tie) - Masters- Keagan and Halana

Volume 3 Issue 7 Page 12

Fechas Importantes: Dates to remember:

May 13—4th Grade Field Trip May 17 – 5th Grade Field Trip May 19—CES KG Field Trip May 19 – CES 2nd/3rd Grade Field Trip May 19 – CES 6th graders tour CHS May 25 – BES & CES Read & Run/Color Run in Cascade May 27 – BES All School Read May 30 - No School May 31 – BES Fillmore Fun Day May 31-June 1 BOGO Book Fair June 1—CES PreK Moving On Ceremony at 6:30 in the GYM June 1 – Read & Run/Color Run RAINDATE June 2 – Fillmore Fun Day RAINDATE June 2 – 6th Grade Recognition at 2:00 June 3 – Last Day of School, 2 Hour early Dis-missal

13 de mayo – Paseo de cuarto grado 17 de mayo – Excursión por quinto grado 19 de mayo – CES Excursión por grados 2-3 19 de mayo – Paseo de kindergarten 19 me mayo – CES Sexto grado visitan la escuela se-cundaria 25 de mayo– BES & CES Día de “Leer y correr” en Cascade 25 de mayo & 1 de junio – “Corrida de Colores” 30 de mayo – No escuela 31 de mayo – Feria de libros 1 de junio – Ceremonia de PK a las 6:30pm en el gimnasio 1 de junió – (Día de Leer y correr en caso de llu-via en 25 de mayo) 2 de junio – Reconocimiento de sexto grado a las 2:00pm 3 de junio – Ultimo día de la escuela, Salir 2 horas temprano

HOMELESS CHILDREN AND YOUTH [Board Policy 501.16] The board will make reasonable efforts to identify homeless children and youth of school age within the district, encourage their enrollment and eliminate existing barriers to their receiving education which may exist in district policies or practices. The designated coordinator for identification of homeless children and for tracking and monitoring programs and activities for these children is the Director of Student Services. A homeless child or youth is defined as a child or youth from the age of 3 years through 21 years who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence and includes the following:

1. A child or youth who is sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a simi-lar reason; is living in a motel, hotel, trailer park, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommo-dations; is living in an emergency or transitional shelter; is abandoned in a hospital; or is awaiting foster care place-ment;

2. A child or youth who has a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordi-narily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;

3. A child or youth who is living in a car, park, public space, abandoned building, substandard housing, bus or train station, or similar setting;

4. A migratory child or youth who qualifies as homeless because the child or youth is living in circumstances de-scribed in paragraphs “1” through “3” above.

Please contact the building school counselor for questions and to support education of the homeless. You may also contact Tina Brestrup, the District’s liaison for homeless children and youth, to find out what services and supports may be available at 563-744-3885 x 6010 or tina.brestrup@wdbqschools.org.

BERNARD/CASCADE ELEMENTARY Page 13

It is the policy of the Western Dubuque County Community School District not to illegally discriminate on the basis of race,

color, national origin, sex, disability, religion, creed, age (for employment), marital status (for programs), sexual orientation,

gender identity and socioeconomic status (for programs) in its educational programs and its employment practices. There is a

grievance procedure for processing complaints of discrimination. If you have questions or a grievance related to this policy

please contact the district’s Equity Coordinator, Tina Brestrup, Director of Student Services, 310 4th Street SW, Farley, Iowa

52046,.

563-744-3885 x 6010, tina.brestrup@wdbqschools.org

All Western Dubuque County Community school grounds and vehicles are weapons free zones.

Bullying

Bullying is an issue that affects many people regardless of their age, race, ethnicity, socioec-

onomic status or where they live and go to school. Western Dubuque School District has

policies that address bullying and harassment as well as ways to report it. The District has

also developed a SAFE (Students and Staff Advocating for Everyone) Committee to build

awareness with students, teachers, and the community. For more information and re-

sources related to bullying prevention and appropriate technology use, please visit the fol-

lowing website: http://key.aea1.k12.ia.us/drexler/BullyingTechInfo.htm. This website can

also be accessed on our district or school website under the “Parent Links” on the left side

of the web page.