Points of P.R.I.D.E.
February 23, 2024
Who's Still Awake in Winter?
It was an amazing day for Outdoor Lions' Learning! Today students played animal games with Ms. R. and Mrs. Hill. They tried to escape a fast fox and played Bump It. They also visited Kara from the Harris Center to learn about the animals that are moving around in winter. Students then closely observed the mustelid family. It included an otter, mink, short-tailed weasel, and a fisher. It was amazing to get up close to see these animals. Finally, we made bird feeders for the birds that choose to visit us in winter. It was a great afternoon!
Child Check Clinic Ages 3 & 4
The ConVal School District Special Education Dept. will be holding a Preschool Child Check Clinic for 3 and 4 year old children living in the towns of Antrim, Bennington, Dublin, Francestown, Greenfield, Hancock, Peterborough, Sharon and Temple on March 14th, 2024 at Antrim Elementary School with appointments between 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Snow date is March 21st, 2024 (same time range).
The purpose of the clinic is to identify 3-4 year old children who may need further evaluation/consideration for special education services. Parents who have concerns about their child's development in the areas of speech, language, cognitive, motor, social, play skills, vision, or hearing should call 924-7503 X2032 to register for the clinic. Pre-registration is required. Child must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.
Each year, New Hampshire public and charter schools are required by state law (RSA 193-C) and federal accountability laws (Every Student Succeeds Act) to assess students using a standardized assessment. We utilize several assessments in order to comply with these requirements. The U.S. Department of Education is requiring states to administer a state assessment for all third and fourth grade students. Students will take the NHSAS in their classroom between May 9th and May 24th.
Statewide assessments are an important part of a student’s core educational program:
Provide an evaluation of student mastery of grade-level content and skills in the academic areas of reading, writing, and math
Serve as one tool for measuring the degree to which students are on track to graduate high school and be college- and career-ready
Help inform future instruction in the classroom
Along with student work on classroom assignments, projects, essays, and local formative and summative assessments, statewide summative assessment results provide teachers and parents with important information about where students are on their path toward academic success.
Exemption
Parents are allowed to exempt their child from participation in the statewide assessments (permitted in NH RSA 193-C:6). Parents must complete and submit an exemption form that is provided by the school or district. Please contact the school to receive a copy of the exemption form. Please understand that if you choose to exempt your child from the assessment, no scores or summary of individual student performance, based on the statewide assessment, will be provided for your child.
Note: Federal law requires 95 percent of students (and 95 percent of all students within subgroups) to participate in the annual statewide assessment. If a school has less than 95 percent participation, the number of students under 95 percent will be calculated as zeros in the school’s achievement and growth indicators. While the zeros will be included in the calculation, no one particular student will be identified with those zeros.
Results
Student results for the NHSAS are generally available immediately upon the student completing the test. The school will send a student’s Individual Score Report (ISR) home before the end of the school year. If you prefer to see the results once your child has completed the NHSAS, please contact your child’s teacher.
Average Testing Times Grades 3-4
English Language Arts/Reading: 2 hours, 15 minutes
English Language Arts/Writing: 2 hours
Mathematics: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Testing will take place Thursday, March 7 from 10:30-12:00. Time to finish will be provided on Friday, March 8 from 10:30-12:00.
Please reach out to me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Rachel Lunan-Hill
Writing with Famous People
We enjoyed Kara Reynolds' last two visits this week, delving deeper into fossils. We learned about the processes that create fossils, and what we can learn about our planet from fossils. Our Read-aloud this week has been a book about the early fossil work of a woman in Lyme Regis, England - Mary Anning. This book was illustrated with AI, so we have been looking at brand new technology while studying how paleontology came to be!
Mary Anning rose from poverty and obscurity in the early 1800's, becoming an expert on fossils in a time when the poor and the women were not supposed to be scientists. Until recently, she had been overlooked by the scientific community. Now her work is credited, and her writings and sketches are highly valued.
Whether you are traveling or not, I hope this school vacation is filled with fun times for all!
Mrs. Doell
This week in PE all grades completed their basketball unit with shooting games, with kindergarten and first grade trying to defeat a popcorn monster. We finished our week with life-size Hungry Hungry Hippo and two of our favorite tag games- Bump It tag and Star Wars tag.
In Health, second grade traveled through the digestive system with the Magic School Bus, fourth and third grade discussed nutrition and the different jobs of the five food groups. While Kindergarten and first grade drew examples
