October News at SPMA

Hello SPMA families, I’m your new clerk, Teia (tee-yah). Please contact me with any questions you may have about your students enrollment, transportation, and more. I look forward to getting to know all the families and having a great year with you.

Some friendly office reminders:

• Call before 1:00pm if you’d like to pick your child up at the end of the day.

• Leave a message on the office attendance line for daily absences

Always update the front office with new contact information

Hello! My name is Hoa Trinh, and I am the nurse at SPPMA. Maya Tmoo is my health assistant. She works with me three days a week and speaks Karen.

• October marks the beginning of flu and viral respiratory illness season. We encourage preventative measures such as good hand washing, covering your cough, wearing a mask, and getting the Flu and Covid vaccines to prevent severe illness or spreading it.

• A reminder that children should not come to school if they have a fever >100 degrees Fahrenheit, vomiting, diarrhea, or are moderately ill.

• Please call the school each day your child is absent from school and the reason (illness, doctor’s appointment, vacation, missed bus and no car to take them to school, etc)

• We ask for a doctor’s note if your student has been sick and absent from school for 5 days or more.

• Please call my office if you have any questions 651-888-7663.

Unity Day is Wednesday, October 22nd! Wear orange and spread kindness!

Pre-k is adjusting to the rules and routines of school. We have been practicing how to be in the classroom, solve problems with friends by sharing trading and waiting our turn. We have been learning about the “Three B’s” of our school. Be Safe, Be Respectful and Be Responsible by watching videos with our school mascot Rocky the Rockin Eagle. We practice the three B’s everyday as we play, and learn about each other. Coming up in October we will be finishing up our theme of “Welcome to our School Family” and begin “Exploring Changes in My World.” Pre-K students will use observation skills to see changes in the seasons, and themselves.

We are doing it - and moving right along in Kindergarten!!

The first few weeks have been packed full of a lot of learning and a lot of fun. Each day everyone has been working hard at being RESPECTFUL, RESPONSIBLE and SAFE while at school- and focusing on making super choices as well as LISTENING during LEARNING times- so we can get the most learning in each day. With such a caring, curious and eager group of learners in our classes this year, we’re super excited to spend our days together, learning and having fun!!

We are learning about what an author and illustrator do. In writing we started identifying nouns and verbs. In math we will learn the many different ways to add to numbers.

We have had a great start of the year!

We have focused on building our classroom communities as well as learning our classroom procedures. Additionally, we have learned our reading routines, began working on our mental addition and subtraction skills, and examined writing structure and the parts of speech.

It has been a wonderful start to the school year in third grade! In our third grade classrooms, we have focused on building a strong classroom community by learning and practicing our morning meeting routines and working hard at being respectful, responsible and safe while at school. Third graders also began African drumming lessons during the first month of school. Students have been practicing being an independent reader, working and talking with others in math and writing a morning journal entry every day.

Fourth Graders are going to be starting opinion writing using multiple sources of information to support their opinions. In their writing, they will learn how to use graphic organizers, write topic and conclusion sentences, and use transition words to connect their ideas in order to make them clear to their readers.

We have finished up our unit on Ourselves and Our Strengths. Your student created a self portrait. We also read the book, The Dot. Students then were encouraged to get creative and make their own dot. As the book says, “Just make a mark and see where it takes you.” Our next unit will be social studies related. The focus will be on geography for most grades.

Hello! My name is Mx. Forest, and I am excited to be the guest Music Teacher at SPMA through December! So far this year, we have been working on singing, vocal exploration, and musical improvisation with our instruments. Our PreK-2nd students are learning American Sign Language to build dexterity and communication skills, and our 3-5th graders are learning to improvise together on a variety of instruments like xylophones, ukuleles, and percussion. I look forward to a wonderful semester!

Band and Orchestra lessons have begun at SPMA! Students are receiving their instruments and are learning how to take care of their instrument to make sure it stays in working order. If your 3rd-5th Grade student is interested in playing an instrument, please contact Mr. Englin at nic.englin@spps.org.

This first month has been all games all the time, getting students back into the groove of gym. Next month we will be doing our first units with everyone. PreK, Kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade will be starting on ball skills! Exploring how to do various ball skills such as kicking, catching, and shooting! For 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade students will kick off the year with soccer! Everyone’s been on top of their game bringing tennis shoes, keep encouraging students to do so!

What a great start of the school year! Students have been busy practicing science expectations in the science classroom and starting our first units. Pre-K students have been practicing how to move around and use learning centers. They will also start a unit on plants. In kindergarten students will be learning about plants and animals out in nature. First grade students will also be learning about plants, including how seeds disperse and plant parts. Second grade students are exploring different landforms and maps, while third grade will be focusing on lessons about motion and force. Fourth graders are starting a unit about energy. Lastly, fifth graders are learning about materials and properties of materials.

We have been so excited to meet all of our students this year. The EL team has been working hard to get to know our students and build strong relationships. We want to wish everyone a Happy Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15th-October 15th)! There are about 5,000 students at SPPS that either speak Spanish at home or have families who come from Spanish speaking countries.