Hawk Newsletter

Calendars Subject to Change

March 5: Parent Teacher Conferences - Dismissal at 11:15 AM

March 6: Last day of 3rd quarter: Early Release at 12:15

March 9 - 13: Spring Break - No School

March 19: Music Through the Ages 4/5 grade musical performance: 4 - 5pm

3rd Quarter Awards Assemblies K-2 8:15 - 9:15, 3-5 9:15 - 10:15

March 23 - 27: Book Fair

March 24th Family Night 3 - 5 pm

AzSci Testing 5th Grade: March 26

AASA testing begins March 30 testing continues through April 24

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As we move further into the spring semester, our students are preparing to showcase all the incredible growth they’ve made this year. We will soon begin our annual state testing, AzSci for 5th graders, Oral Reading for 3rd graders, and Math, ELA and Writing for grades 3-5.

These assessments provide us with valuable data to help tailor our instruction and celebrate your child’s academic milestones. Our goal is to make this experience as low-stress and positive as possible.

📅 Our Testing Schedule

• AzSci - 5th Grade: March 26

• Writing- 5th Grade: March 30

• Writing - 4th Grade: March 31

• Writing - 3rd Grade: April 2

• Oral Reading Fluency - 3rd Grade April 7

• ELA and Math Part 1 - 5th Grade: April 9

• ELA and Math Part 2 - 5th Grade: April 10

• ELA and Math Part 1 - 4th Grade: April 13

• ELA and Math Part 2- 4th Grade: April 14

• ELA and Math Part 1 - 3rd Grade: April 16

• ELA and Math Part 2 - 3rd Grade: April 17

💡 How You Can Help at Home

Your support is the biggest factor in helping your child feel confident. Here are a few ways you can help them shine:

• Rest is Best: Ensure your child gets a full night’s sleep (8–10 hours). A well-rested brain processes information much faster.

• Fuel Up: A healthy, protein-rich breakfast on testing mornings helps maintain focus and prevents the "mid-morning slump."

• On-Time Arrival: Arriving at school a few minutes early helps students settle into their environment calmly rather than rushing to their desks.

• Attendance: PLEASE avoid scheduling doctor or dentist appointments on testing days.

• The Power of "Yet": Remind them that if they hit a hard question, they just don't know the answer yet. Encourage them to do their best and move on.

• Electronics Policy: Smartwatches and cell phones are prohibited in testing rooms.

We are so proud of the hard work our students have put in this year.

Thank you for being such an essential part of our learning community.

Dear AJ Mitchell Families,

Can you believe it is already March? There is a distinct shift in energy this month as the days get longer and we catch those first glimpses of spring. At [School Name], we are leaning into that energy to power through one of our most productive months of the year.

🌱 Growing Our Minds

This month, we are focusing heavily on Growth Mindset. We often tell our students that their brains are like muscles—the harder the task, the more they grow!

As we approach state testing, we aren't looking for perfection; we are looking for persistence. We want our students to view these assessments not as a "scary test," but as a chance to show off how much they’ve learned. Please join us in telling your child: "I don’t expect you to know everything, but I do expect you to try your best and never give up on a hard problem."

🗓️ Important Dates & Reminders

• Parent-Teacher Conferences (March 4th & 5th): Collaboration is the key to student success. We strongly encourage all families to attend. This is a wonderful time to discuss your child’s progress and set goals for the final quarter.

• Spring Break (March 9th – 13th): School will be closed for a well-deserved break! We hope you enjoy this time to relax and recharge.

• Back to School: Students return to the classroom on Monday, March 16th.

🍀 March Fun Facts

While we stay busy in the classroom, here are a few fun things to chat about around the dinner table this month:

• The Name: March is named after Mars, the Roman god of war—traditionally, this was the time of year when the weather broke enough for armies to begin marching again.

• Equal Parts: The Vernal Equinox occurs around March 20th, meaning day and night are approximately equal in length all over the world!

• Flower Power: The birth flower for March is the Daffodil, which represents unequaled love and renewal.

Thank you for your continued support of our students and staff. Let’s make it a great month!

Warmly,

Christina Dang

AJ Mitchell Principal

Anger Management
Learning to manage anger is an important life skill that needs to be taught to and practiced by all students. Discussing and modeling appropriate ways you as parents handle anger is a great way to help kids manage their own anger. There are many ways you can practice managing anger with your child, including

Take a break (moving away from what makes you angry)

Do a physical activity (shoot hoops, do jumping jacks, or run the track)

Take deep breaths

Count to 10

Squish Play-Doh

Color your feelings

Write your feelings in a journal entry, story, or poem

Read a quiet book to yourself (When Sophie Gets Angry is a good one!)

Positive self-talk (I can control my anger...)

Math main objectives for Kinder/Math, in March:

1. Place Value Foundations: Represent Numbers to 20.

- Compose Ten Ones and some More Ones to make: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19.

-Represent Numbers to 20.

2. Place Value Foundations: Represent Numbers to 20 with a Written Numeral.

-Count and Write 11 to 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

3. Length and Height

-Describe Attributes of Length and Height.

-Compare and Describe Lengths and Heights.

Module 6

Over the next month, our class will explore our country to find out what makes the USA so special. Through books, children will meet some of our greatest leaders, sing our songs, experience our traditions, and explore our different landscapes and diverse people.

BIG IDEA WORDS: Reinforce these important topic words when you are reading or talking with your child: belong, country, right.

WORDS TO KNOW: Practice reading and spelling these words that children will see a lot in books they read: as, come, cut, from, get, hot, if, must, or, our, red, said, stop, that, when, where.

Module 7

Over the next month, our class will find out what we can learn when we take a closer look. We will read books that “zoom in” on ordinary experiences and objects. We will learn about Jane Goodall, who made a career out of studying chimpanzees, and we will look at the world from an ant’s perspective.

BIG IDEA WORDS: Reinforce these important topic words when you are reading or talking with your child: watch, wonder, world.

WORDS TO KNOW: Practice reading and spelling these words that children will see a lot in books they read: back, could, down, let, now, off, so, tell, then, this, well, were, what, who, will, your.

Our amazing first graders have been working hard and learning so much!

In Math, we are building strong number sense by exploring tens and ones, working with bigger numbers, and comparing them using symbols such as <, >, and =.

In ELA, students are becoming confident writers as they practice writing opinion pieces by comparing places, activities, animals, and many other interesting topics.

In Science, we are discovering the world of plants by learning about their different parts and understanding the important functions each part has.

We are so proud of their growth and enthusiasm for learning!

In ELA, we are on the theme Time to Grow where we explore the reading-science connection with plants in our text study. In this unit, we learn that plants are living things, just as people and animals are. They need air, water, and sunlight in order to grow and to retain their vibrant green leaves and healthy stems and branches. Learning about plants and how they grow ignites a spark of curiosity in our students' minds to explore the world we live in.

Math - This is an exciting time because our classes are learning algebra. In this unit, students are going to use bar models to represent and solve addition and subtraction problems. They will also write equations, as well as use drawings to represent addition and subtraction situations. This might be challenging for some students, your support at home is much appreciated.

Science & Social Studies - In our previous science unit, students observed patterns in landforms and bodies of water and made maps to model them. Moving forward, students will make observations to identify evidence that patterns in landforms and bodies of water are a result of changes to the Earth's surface that can happen slowly or quickly. As a culminating activity, students will design solutions to prevent wind and water from changing the land. In social studies, we are learning about economics. This covers topics of study such as goods, services, wants, needs, consumers, as well as, producers.

For the month of March we will be focusing on preparing our students for their AASA State Testing. We ask that you support us at home by going into the website attached and praticing some of those tests with your children. Another important way you can support your child is by reading and timing your child for one minute to see how many words they read. This is an important skill that is tested and that is why we have been sending weekly homework fluency practices. If you have any questions please reach out to your child's third grade teacher.

This is the website you can go into to practice for the AASA test:

https://home.testnav.com

Hope this message finds you well. We are grateful for your continued partnership and support. A lot of our students demonstrated measurable growth on their recent Galileo benchmark tests. This is a credit to their effort and the support you provide at home. We are continuing to work on reading comprehension and fluency. Please encourage your child to complete the monthly reading log to build steady practice at home. Have your child read at least 20 minutes most nights and record it on the monthly reading log. Students need to be more consistent with homework completion. Please check your child’s planner each evening and reach out if your child is having difficulty completing assignments. We highly encourage students to complete the lessons assigned in MyPath Math and MyPath Reading through the Clever app. We’ve had many hands-on science activities in class. These experiences are designed to make learning engaging and concrete.

Thank you,

4th Grade Team.

We continue to prepare students for the AASA upcoming tests in our regular and targeted classrooms.

In ELA, we are learning about new homes and how people are able to adapt to new places and situations. We are studying about the different text structures, figurative language, and elements of poetry.

In science we are learning about Arbor day and creating posters to demonstrate the understanding of this special day, as well as how to take care of our earth throughout the year.

In social studies, we are learning about presidents, thinking about what changes we would like to see in a writing assignment called, "If I were President", and working on a schoolwide project to tell what it means to be an American.

In math we are learning more about how to use the different operations to solve real world problems using decimals.

In Writing we are working on our D.A.R.E. essays and continuing to learn more on how to write informative essays.