March News at SPMA

1:00 PM Cutoff: If you have a change in dismissal plans, please let us know before 1:00 PM. It gets pretty hectic at the end of the day, and we want to make sure your child gets the message!

Stay & Learn: We want to keep kids in the classroom for as much learning as possible. Because of this, we won't call students down to wait in the office until you are actually on property.

Quick Pickups: Once you hop out of the car and check in at the front desk, we’ll call your student and have them come right down to meet you.

Spring will be here soon, but the weather remains unpredictable throughout the day and week. Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately at the bus stop in the morning==winter jacket, warm clothes, mittens, hats, and boots.

Students are still getting sick with viral respiratory infections like Influenza and Covid. Please continue to keep students home if they have fever, severe cough, vomiting or diarrhea. Call the school attendance line or the nurse to report absences.

Reminder that if a student is home for 5 days or more due to illness, we request a doctor’s note to excuse their absences.

If your student needs to take medication at school, has surgery, or has an injury that will affect them at school—please talk to the nurse to make a plan to keep your child safe and healthy.

Please call the health office at 651-888-7663 or text us at 651-744-1414 to speak to the nurse Hoa Trinh, or Ms. Maya Tmoo, health assistant speaks Karen)

On Tuesday, February 10th Pre-K and Kindergarten students participated in CollegeBound Deposit day!

Students learned about the importance of saving money. They learned that some things cost a little bit of money and some things cost a lot of money. They also learned that after high school, they will do more learning to prepare them for their careers. That learning costs a lot of money!

CollegeBound savings accounts help students save for learning after high school. Those students who have signed an SPPS consent form will have $20.00 deposited into their CollegeBound accounts at the end of the school year. Not sure if you’ve completed the form? Ask your school counselor. Ms. LaQua: paige.laqua@spps.org

Questions about CollegeBound? Reach out to your school counselor or

Sue Arvidson, Counselor on Special Assignment at sue.arvidson@spps.org

February was interesting. Some pre-k friends learned from home while the ones learning in school were either able to stay in their own classroom or spend time with new friends in a different classroom. What a way to celebrate Valentines with making new friends and spreading kindness. Our theme was healthy in our world and we talked about not only being healthy with food and exercise, but also being healthy with our brains by resting and sharing our emotions. At the end of February we started our Helpers in our world unit. We started and will continue to talk about helpers in our community like doctors, or mail carriers. We will also learn and practice being helpers and how we can be helpers at home and in our classroom. It has been a month of changes and a great way to practice flexibility.

💖 FEBRUARY FUN in Kindergarten 💖

We packed a lot of learning and laughter into February!

🔤 Alphabet Stars!
We finished learning all our letter names and sounds — wow! We’re now putting sounds together to read and write words, words together to make sentences, and we’re growing our sight word power every day.

🖤 Black History Month
We read inspiring stories and learned about important leaders who made a difference.

💌 Valentine’s & Friendship
We celebrated friendship with Valentine’s hearts and focused on being kind, caring classmates.

🔢 100 is a BIG Number!
We celebrated the 100th Day of Kindergarten and learned that 100 is a BIG (and fun!) number! We counted, created, and celebrated being 100 days smarter!

In first grade we had a busy February. Black History, Groundhog’s Day, Friendship Day, Presidents Day, and we even celebrated the 100th day of school, super fun. We are practicing counting from any given number up to 120 in math. We continue to work on the long vowel sounds in phonics and practice writing sentences.

We spent most of February being in a newly mixed classroom and we’re so proud of how well our students handled it. We will begin March back in our original classrooms. In class, we continue to work on finding a strategy in addition and subtraction. Using fingers, drawing a picture, using a ten-frame, knowing doubles or combinations of tens are just a few we’ve learned. In phonics, we continue to review long and short vowel teams. This month, we will be starting a nonfiction writing unit where each of the students will choose a topic to learn about and then report their findings in a written report.

Third graders handled the change of classrooms and mix between in-person learning and virtual learning like true rockstars! The third grade teachers are proud of every student and the effort and resilience they all showed through the month of February. Students in third grade have been working hard at reading, writing and representing fractions in math and also making equal groups in order to express multiplication and division problems. In writing, students have been learning how to write narratives by brainstorming events from their own lives. In reading, third graders spent the month of February reading books about influential black men and women who inspired people by their unique talents and abilities. Lastly, third graders did an amazing job at showing off their violin skills and all they’ve learned at their concert earlier in February. We look forward to all of the learning the month of March brings!

Like the other elementary grades, 4th Grade had a February with lots of movement and change as 29 learners went online for most of the month and many others moved to a new classroom temporarily. Whether in-person or virtual, students spent these weeks tackling key fraction concepts, drafting narratives and reading both fiction and non-fiction texts. In-person students enjoyed visits by both the DNR’s Bird-by-Bird program and Taiko Drumming and also celebrated Valentine’s with exchanges of cards and candy and a dance party.

We just wrapped up an extended painting unit for 4th & 5th grade, the canvases look amazing! When you come to conferences, look for them on display in the library. 10-15 of them will also be displayed at the SPPS Art Show at the Landmark Center in April. More details to come!

This month, the younger grades will be learning about Community & Citizenship. 4th grade will be doing state reports and 5th grade will continue with European Settlement and Colonies.

Thank you to everyone who came and supported our 3rd Grade Violinists at their very first instrumental music concert! They did a great job demonstrating everything they’ve learned so far. If you missed the concert, you can watch it by following this link here.

This month, 4th and 5th Grade students are performing again, this time in small groups. They will be playing some short songs during their grade’s lunchtimes. Make sure to ask your student when they will be performing. We’d love to see you there as well!

All students are also gearing up for our first ever SPMA Fine Arts Night, which will feature performances by all of our Instrumental Music students on Thursday, May 14th. More information to come.

We have wrapped up our floor hockey unit with the older kids! Mrs. Abbey’s class had a floor hockey tournament where they played in a round robin, single elimination bracket - pictured below are the winners of the tournament. Team “Chicken Butt”.

In PE this upcoming month, everyone who comes to gym will get to take a trip into some amazing movies and TV shows! We will explore and play games from a bunch of different shows! Topped off with our famous Ninja Warrior Stations!

Hello from the science department! We have been busy learning about many concepts and depending on the grade level are either finishing up current units of study or starting new ones. The pre-k classes have just finished learning about what animals do to survive the winter and focused on hibernation, migration and adaptation. Kindergarteners are learning about forces and how things move: push, pull, and gravity. First graders are practicing being animal reporters and what animals have and use to survive: different body coverings, movement, defenses, food, etc. In second grade we just finished out second unit on materials and properties. At the end of the unit they melted crayons and poured the liquid into molds to see if it was a reversible or irreversible change. Third grade is in the middle of their weather unit and studying local and worldwide weather and climate patterns. Fourth grade is learning about energy and will be investigating circuits as well as the different ways we get energy. Finally, fifth grade started a unit called Yellowstone Uncovered where they will be learning about how living things make matter, food chains and ecosystems. These students will be creating a project on the Keynote app to help organize what they are learning about.

Jambo! ¡Hola! Nyob Zoo! Hello!

Multilingual learners in the English Language (EL) program have been busy! Students have been showing off their English skills on the WIDA Access tests. These tests are given yearly to show how students are progressing in listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills in English. This is not a pass or fail test. Reach out to your student’s English language teacher if you have questions.

Pictured below: English Language Learners (ELLs) celebrated with donuts after finishing the WIDA Access tests.