A Piece From The Principal's Puzzle

August

24 - DIBELS/mClass assessment window begins (Grades K-3)

28 - BES Spirit Night at Roller Time Skate Center

31 - iReady & STAR assessment window begins; Reading & Math - Early LIteracy

7 - Labor Day (No School)

9 - Progress Reports Sent Home

10 - Fall Picture Day (Individual Student Pictures)

24 - BES Spirit Day at Lola's Cocina Restaurant

Elementary schoolers of every age benefit from hearing books read aloud. Reading aloud to your child not only supports literacy development—it also demonstrates that reading is an important and fun way to spend time.

For maximum results:

• Create a daily routine. Choose a read-aloud time when your child will be most receptive, such as after playing outside or before bed.
• Preview books. Reading aloud is performing. You’ll do a better job if you are familiar with what you are going to read. Previewing a book can also prevent getting bogged down in a story neither you nor your child enjoys.
• Get dramatic. Emphasize the first line of the book to grab your child’s attention. Use voices and facial expressions to bring characters and situations to life.
• Prolong interest. Stop reading for the day at a point where you and your child are both eager to hear what happens next.

Copyright © 2026, The Parent Institute® , a division of PaperClip Media, Inc.

At the beginning of each year we administer a few different assessments to establish a baseline to plan for and monitor student growth. An easy way to think about our effort is to compare it to assembling a photo album as we attempt to get multiple "snapshots" of a student's academic status so we can develop an appropriate academic plan for each child. Our local ways of monitoring student progress and success includes: DIBELS, STAR, i-Ready, and ACAP (End of the Year).

Here is a brief overview of the assessments:

1) DIBELS (Grades K-3) - Beginning, Middle, & End of the Year

• DIBELS is an acronym for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, and it is a product from the University of Oregon. The DIBELS assessment is administered three times per academic year to students using a one-to-one individual format, and it takes less than five (5) minutes to assess each child. This assessment is not only used to evaluate your child’s level of proficiency, but it also helps teachers and parents to focus, monitor, and strive to improve area(s) of weakness.
• The DIBELS measures were specifically designed to assess three of the five "Big Ideas" of early literacy: Phonological Awareness, Alphabetic Principle, and Fluency with Connected Text. The measures are linked to one another and have been found to be predictive of later reading proficiency. Below are the assessments given. Please keep in mind that each grade’s assessment may not include all of these measurements.
  
• Your child's teacher will be sending this information home after Labor Day.

2) i-Ready (Grades 4-5) - Beginning, Middle, & End of the Year

• i-Ready is an online program that we use to monitor student progress in Reading and Math three times during the year (beginning, middle, end of the year).

• i-Ready allows your teacher(s) to meet your student where they are and provides data to increase your student’s learning gains. i-Ready consists of two parts: Diagnostic and Personalized Instruction.
• The i-Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment that adjusts its questions to suit your student’s needs. Each item a student sees is individualized based on their answer to the previous question. For example, a series of correct answers will result in slightly harder questions, while a series of incorrect answers will yield slightly easier questions.
• i-Ready Personalized Instruction provides students with lessons based on their individual skill level and needs, so your student can learn at a pace that is just right for them. These lessons are fun and interactive to keep your student engaged as they learn. Each student has a goal of using i-Ready for at least 45 minutes each week.

3) ACAP (Grades 2-6) - End of the Year Only

• ACAP is our annual, formal state standardized testing instrument given over multiple days in the spring for grades 2-6. It consists of the two content areas of English-Language Arts (including reading) and Math. Grades 4 and 6 also test in the are of Science.
• Our individual ACAP results from last Spring will be sent home this Wednesday in Blossomwood folders.

To help protect your child:

• Monitor your child’s online activities. Keep devices where you can see them and use parental controls.
• Establish rules—no playing online games with people not also known in real life, no underage social media use, etc.
• Tell your child to alert you to inappropriate content, messages or experiences online.

Copyright © 2026, The Parent Institute® , a division of PaperClip Media, Inc.

Don't forget ALL students at Blossomwood are welcome to a FREE breakfast and lunch from our cafeteria.

• If your child would like a breakfast, please remind them to come directly to the cafeteria upon arrival. We serve breakfast from 7:30 to 7:50 am which allows students to be in their classroom ready to learn at 8:00 am.
• If you have questions about your child’s account, please email our cafeteria manager Ms. Petty at mirtha.petty@hsv-k12.org.

If you would like to volunteer and become more involved at Blossomwood, please reach out to our parent coordinator, Ms. Chelsea Clay. She will be glad to help find a role just for you! In fact, part of her role as parent coordinator includes establishing a parent advisory committee, hosting parent events, leading parent trainings, building relationships with all parents in our school, and acting as a liaison between the parent community and the school.

Email - Chelsea.Clay@hsv-k12.org