Mr. James Goske, Principal Mrs. Amy Smth, PTA President Mrs. Kara Riccitelli, Spotlight Editor

SpotlightMarch 2015

Stadium Drive

Find us on !Drund !!Facebook !!and Twitter !!!to stay up to date!

MARCH EVENTS

2 PARCC 3rd Grade Math Test 3 PARCC 4th Grade Math Test 4 Statewide Tornado Drill 4th Grade Gym Night 6:30 p.m. 10 4th Grade State Social Studies Test 20 Pride & Spirit Day Boardman Park in 1st Grade 27 End of 3rd Grading Period Ice Cream Social April 2 Report Cards Mailed Home April 3-10 Spring Break April 13 Classes Resume

STATE TESTING !Round one of state PARCC Testing wraps up this month. Round two is the End of Year Assessments, which take place at the end of April.

A Message from Mr. Goske

SAFETY We will take part in the

annual statewide tornado drill on

Wednesday, March 4th, for Severe Weather

Awareness Week. Tornado drills mean

warmer weather is on its way!

KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION !If you have a child starting kindergarten in the fall and have not registered yet, please call the school office and make an appointment to do so as soon as possible. Registering early ensures your child will attend the school where you live.

GYM NIGHTS !Our annual gym nights are February 25th (2nd grade) and March 4th (4th grade). Both begin at 6:30.

* Right to Read week will be held May 11th-15th

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STADIUM  DRIVE  SCHOOL  PARCC  TESTING  SCHEDULE  

2014-­15      

 

All  tests  are  paper/pencil.  

 *ELA  =  English  Language  Arts  

 

 

PARCC  Performance  Based  Assessments  (PBA)  

Grade   Content   Date  

4   ELA  -­1   Feb.  23  

4   ELA-­2   Feb.  25  

3   Math-­1   Feb.  26  

4   ELA-­3   Feb.  27  

3   Math-­2   March  2  

4   Math-­1   March  3  

4   Math-­2   March  4  

4   Social  Studies   March  10  

   

   

   

 PARCC  End  of  Year  (EOY)  Assessments  

Grade   Content   Date  

3   Reading  OAA   April  21  

4   ELA  -­  1   April  22  

4   ELA-­2   April  24  

3   Math-­1   April  27  

4   Math-­1   April  28  

3   Math-­2   April  29  

4   Math-­2   April  30  

4   Social  Studies   May  5  

 

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$150 IN DONATIONS: WACKY WHITE WIG!In addition to everything you’ve earned!

$250 IN DONATIONS: WIPER GLASSES!In addition to everything you’ve earned!

$350 IN DONATIONS: SHOUT-IT-OUT MEGAPHONE!In addition to everything you’ve earned!

$500 IN DONATIONS: WACKY TUTU & STOCKINGS!In addition to everything you’ve earned!

AMAZING REWARDSJUST ADD COLOR!The more donations you collect, the more color AND amazing rewards you receive!

YOUR FIRST DONATION You Give...We Give!A donation will be made to Humankind Water to provide clean water for 1 person for 1 year. Let’s give back together. Find out more, visit www.schoolathon.org.

$50 IN DONATIONS: COLOR DYE PACK PLUS DRAWSTRING BAG!In addition to everything you’ve earned!

$100 IN DONATIONS: ADDITIONAL COLOR DYE PACK!In addition to everything you’ve earned!

Now you have 3 packs!

That’s a total of 4 packs!

You’ve got 5 packs of color!

$30 IN DONATIONS: PARTICIPATE IN COLOR-A-THON, GET A T-SHIRT PLUS

get a *BONUS COLOR PACK WHEN YOU REGISTER ONLINE!

That’s 2 packs!

$125 IN DONATIONS: ANOTHER COLOR DYE PACK PLUS WACKY SUNGLASSES!

In addition to everything you’ve earned!

Raising money, having fun & making friends in

FULL COLOR!

$75 IN DONATIONS: ANOTHER COLOR DYE PACK PLUS HEADBAND!

In addition to everything you’ve earned!

PRESIDENT’S PEN

Amy Smith

!Wow! What a freezing cold winter we are having! I’m ready for spring and all the activities that come along with it.

I’d like to take a moment to thank more of our volunteers. First, Debra Warhol, who organized our staff dinner. The teachers and faculty were very appreciative and you do an amazing job every time. For those families who sent in donations to make this dinner possible, thank you! Next, thank you to Heather Elder and Mrs. Daltorio for organizing our 2nd and 4th grade Gym Night with Dad. This is one of the students favorite nights and a great time for the dads to be involved at the school.

Our annual Ice Cream Social will be held March 27th at the Boardman High School in the cafeteria. This is one of our greatest events sponsored by the PTA. There will be dancing, games, a raffle and of course ice cream for everyone! Look for information to come home soon and make sure to get your reservation form sent in. If you are willing to help in any way for this event, please email stadiumdrivepta@gmail.com. Thank you Leslie Blevins and Robyn Wolfe for chairing this event. We know it’s a lot of work!

At our last meeting we presented our nominations for next year’s executive committee. The following members have been nominated:

Amy Smith: President Leslie Blevins: 1st Vice President Myrande Diroff: Recording Secretary Erin Vondran: Corresponding Secretary Candace Rivera: Treasurer Debbi Beeman: Historian Joelle Steinhoff: Delegate to Council Melanie Angiuli Christie Sweder !Officers will be voted on at our next PTA meeting, March 17th at 9 a.m. in the Science Lab. I hope to see you all there.

March is here and it is full of fun and exciting learning in Kindergarten! We have been discussing weather in our morning meetings throughout the year, but in March will be taking two weeks to look at weather more in depth. !Our Kindergarten students will be taking a look at Dental Health, and all the do’s of awesome teeth care. !We will be celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday by reading a few of our favorite Dr. Seuss books, maybe even Green Eggs and Ham! March also brings great Spring holidays that we will be discussing and fun new activities we will be taking part in. !Our word family for this month will be in the –ing family, see if your child can name any words that end with –ing. Lastly, we will be adding the finishing touches to our pictures and sentences for our classroom books.

Thank you to all parents who attended conferences! It’s hard to believe that we are halfway through the year!

In March we will be looking for leprechauns and pots of gold! Students will be learning about chocolate and the steps in making a candy bar, Australia, Ireland, and Italy. Making inferences, using context clues, and inflectional endings will be a main focus during reading. Our first graders will continue to work on long vowels as well as word families. Please continue reinforcing these skills at home during reading and spelling practice.

In math we are working on addition and subtraction. We will learn about fractions and review non-standard units of measurement and telling time to the hour and half hour. We are working hard to master our addition and subtraction facts. Please work on flashcards to reinforce math facts daily. Thank you again for all of your support!

It is hard to believe that we will begin the month of March. We will continue to work hard learning important content. In Math, we will begin a unit working with fractions and time. Once students have the understanding of fractions, they will be able to relate their knowledge to time. It is very important that you continue to revisit addition and subtraction facts. If your child does not have them memorized, it is important to work nightly to achieve this goal.

In math, students have taken the PARCC Ohio Third Grade Math Tests which assess their math application and math calculation skills. This was the first year students have taken this statewide assessment.

Instruction will continue introducing multiplication using numbers with multiple-digits, long division, and metric/standard measure of capacity, temperature, and weight. In Social Studies, we will be studying economics which covers concepts such as wants/needs, budgeting, and marketing. Students are working on invention projects. In science, a matter unit will include instruction on energy, different types of matter, and changes in matter.

In Language Arts we will continue to explore and practice verb usage. In writing we will start comparative writing. Please continue to read at home and record your miles read on your reading for miles sheet. In March our reading party will be the "Ocean". Please continue to have your child be reading a chapter book at home that they enjoy reading. Thank you for your continued help at support at home. Your help makes sure your child continues to have success in third grade.

Hats off to the students that have begun to work in second grade on multiplication and division facts. In Reading, we began Transitional Guided Reading and finished our first chapter book. Students are engaged and eager to discuss in group. We will continue to focus on reading comprehension skills. In English, our district has adopted Writer’s Workshop for English. We have begun to transition into this approach, and learning a lot along with our students. We have been very happy with the results. In Social Studies, we will continue with economics. In Science, we will look at habitats from animals that lived long ago.

Mrs. Jacobs !In math we will continue working on fractions and reviewing all the concepts from the beginning of the year. This will include working on projects and playing math games that reinforce all the 4th grade skills. !Mrs. Hughes !In March, we will be leaving our Reading PARCC Assessments behind at least until the end of April. We will be taking a look at traditional literature especially Greek Mythology. Along with our study of Greek Mythology, we will be building our vocabulary while learning about Greek and Latin word roots. In English we will begin a unit on Persuasive Writing. !Mrs. Soles !We will be back to Science for four weeks! Our focus will be on Science, but we will also need to practice and review for the Social Studies PARCC test on Tuesday, March 10. By this time, our fourth grade students will have powered through the Language Arts and Math parts of the PARCC with just this one to go until the next round in April and May. Practice packets will be sent home as homework the first week of March and reviewed briefly in class.

Our science studies will have us quickly reviewing ecosystems and taking a closer look at ecosystems specific to Ohio and areas of interest that can be visited here in Ohio. We may also get into learning about fossils.

!MARKET DAY: March will be our last order for Market Day. We have decided to discontinue this due to lack of participation. Many other schools in Boardman are still selling Market Day. If you would like more information on that, email us at stadiumdrivepta@gmail.com

In Kindergarten, the kids have been working on learning the keyboard and recognizing lower case letters when typing. We have played keyboard bingo, (everyone wins), and used www.ABCYa.com which has several games that help with learning letter locations on the keyboard. The games include Cup Stacking and Type Rockets Jr in the Kindergarten section. Mouse practice is another area that the students need. Any of the games on ABCYa will require them to use the mouse accurately. The website http://www.minimouse.us also provides practice using the mouse.

In First Grade, the students have begun using word processing to practice typing their spelling words. Soon they will begin typing dictation sentences using spelling words. Although their hands are too small to span across the Home Row (A, S, D, F, J, K, L and ;), I emphasize “ten finger typing” also known as Touch Typing. We have also talked about being able to change the size of the font and how the font looks. Websites for the kids to practice typing skills include www.ABCYa.com, and BBC Dance Mat Typing http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3c6tfr . The kids will begin typing and saving their work on the computer in the coming weeks.

In Second Grade, the kids have been typing letters to pen pals and their family using word processing. We have talked about how to change the size and style of the font. They have also learned how to insert a picture from ClipArt. Using a donut survey and flashcard goals, the students will use a spreadsheet to create bar and pie graphs. We have also talked about what it means when there is a red, green or blue squiggly line in the document and how to correct them. Emphasis is on “ten finger typing not two” in addition to proper finger placement on the keyboard and good posture.

In Third Grade, the students completed research on a famous person using a graphic organizer. When typing the report, emphasis was on format of the report, correcting errors, (Why are there squiggly lines?), and flow of the report, (beginning, middle, end). They should be using complete sentences and proper punctuation. There was discussion on how to know if the information is true when researching on the internet. Can you find

the same information on different websites? Would Mozart be listening to music on headphones? We also discussed using pictures from the internet and whether or not you can legally use the pictures. The kids have also been Touch Typing with the goal of not looking at the keyboard. Many of the kids can type quickly using less than ten fingers but cannot watch the screen to see what they are typing at the same time.

In Fourth Grade, the students have been working on a PowerPoint on the ecosystem that they had researched in science. They must have a total of ten slides which include a title slide, location in the world of their ecosystem in addition to a visual effect on each slide. They must also include where they got their information. Discussion has been about designing the slides, what information to include, using bullet points to cover the information. They will also use transitions when switching slides. This is preparation for their future middle school years….