January News at SPMA

Help us keep our school day running smoothly by following these updated guidelines:

• 1:00 PM Deadline: All transportation changes must be called in before 1:00 PM. Late calls lead to confusion and potential dismissal errors.

• Pick-Up Protocol: Parent pick-up is at 2:00 PM. If you are running late, please extend the courtesy of a phone call to 651-293-8795.

• Attendance Policy:

• Vacations are not excused absences.

• Absences of 3+ days require a doctor's note to be marked as excused.

• Stay Connected: Please ensure the office has your current working phone number on file at all times.

Why Your Child’s Vision Can Cause Learning Problems

80% of learning in the classroom is with our eyes

• Early identification of a vision problem and treatment with glasses will predict success in school with reading, writing and comprehension.

• 60% of students with difficulty learning may have an undetected or untreated vision problem with their eyes

• 40% of students diagnosed with a learning disability may have a vision issue rather than a learning disability.

When should a child have their vision checked by a doctor?

• Infancy to age 2 (one time)

• Age 3-5 (at least prior to starting school).

• Age 6 to 17 (should be seen every year if they wear glasses or at least every two years if NOT wearing glasses).

• Anytime you think your child can’t see things up close or far away.

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Students at school should wear their glasses to help them see and learn.

If you need help scheduling an eye exam for your child, getting a new pair of glasses, or would like to have their vision screened at school. Please call the health office at 651-888-7663.

Attention Pre-K and Kindergarten Families!

Tuesday, January 27th is SPMA CollegeBound Deposit Day!

Students in Pre-K and Kindergarten will participate in a fun activity with their teachers and school counselors where they will learn about saving money. Students will practice saving for a classroom toy. Your child will bring home a worksheet with questions you can ask them about their experience.

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.

Questions about CollegeBound? Reach out to your school counselor or

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

In Pre-K, the students have been learning about adapting. We have been reading about and observing the changes in the weather, plants, and animals. We shared our wonderings and how our families and friends at school are adapting to changing weather from fall to winter. We ended the month by reading many well-loved gingerbread stories and retold the story using story props. In math, we have been working on subitizing, counting, and sorting objects by attributes.

During the month of December Kindergarteners have kept busy with a lot of extra fun learning activities, in addition to our regular learning. Spirit Week was a BLAST, starting with wearing our pajamas to school. On Cozy Camping Day we celebrated with special readers, tents and marshmallow treats. For Mismatch Day we mismatched our classes and did fun activities rotating rooms, including BINGO, Deer headbands, a Dance Party and Evergreen Treat Trees. For TWINS DAY we wore BLUE so we could all be twins with someone- and the last day before Winter Break we celebrated by Dressing to Impress and showing everyone our BEAUTIFUL 2025 Kindergarten Smiles!

First graders have been writing about their opinion. We learned about the many different digraphs in phonics and completed an author study on Mo Willems. In math, we focused on using different addition and subtraction strategies to help solve word problems. We also attended our first field trip to the Como Planetarium!

Second graders have been working hard in math. We are using our understanding of place value to help us with our addition and subtraction skills. We have also been working hard in literacy. We continue to focus on ‘magic E’ words in phonics. In writing we are working on telling stories as we begin to write our own narratives. However, we are really looking forward to the conclusion of our comparison unit in reading, when we will get to make our very own gingerbread houses!!! Thank you to everyone who helped make our gingerbread houses a success.

We had a great time celebrating Spirit Week! We continue to focus on our math and reading skills as well enjoy our time in our classrooms. Students are busy gaining skills. We look forward to a great January!

Fourth Grade had the good fortune of visiting the Minneapolis Institute of Arts last month. Students toured the museum’s extensive Asia and Africa collections and participated in the Creativity Academy program by creating their own watercolors. M.I.A. gifted each student with a new set of watercolor paints as a parting gift. Fourth Grade students also traveled to the Como Planetarium, where they learned about constellations and their seasons from an Indigenous perspective. In the classroom mathematicians have been busy building upon their long division skills, authors have been drafting opinion essays and readers have been consuming fiction and non-fiction texts while learning their different features.

This year during the month of December, students learned about 3 different winter holidays; Diwali, Yalda Night and Chinese New Year. They made 3 different art projects to go along with each holiday.

During the month of January, grades K-3 will focus on economics. They will learn about wants & needs, supply & demand, and consumers/producers. Grade 4 will focus on Minnesota and grade 5 will focus on European Settlement and Colonies.

We are excited to have our music teacher starting this month. Darren Jackson is joining us as our general music teacher. Please look for information from him as he will share about himself and what will happen in music for the remainder of the year.

Welcome back to instrumental music! I hope your winter break was restful and full of the sounds of practice! Coming up on February 19th, 3V, our 3rd Grade Violin Ensemble, will be performing some songs that they’ve been practicing for the last few months

For band and orchestra, we started passing out music for our SPMA Instrumental Music Showcase (early May) and are working on our Lunchtime Chamber Concert series happening throughout the whole month of March. Be on the lookout for details about these performances from your student musicians in the coming weeks.

Thank you for the Music!

As we return from winter break, 2nd grade will get a mix of playing basketball AND with equipment (paddles, scoops, and jump ropes). 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders will move on to Volleyball and develop their individual skills. As PreK, K, and 1st will start their dance and team game units!

All grade levels have either finished or are finishing up their first units. Grades 1-5 will take a test to check for understanding of the content. Students have been asked to bring these home to show family members. The next units of study will include Animals in Winter for our pre-K students. Marble Run Engineers in kindergarten. First grade will be learning about Indigenous Communities and Ecosystems. Second and third graders have started Master of Materials and Weather Warning Headquarters. Fourth grade will start Sparks Energy, Inc. and fifth grade will begin a unit called Yellowstone Uncovered.

Happy New Year! We are excited to be back to school after a relaxing winter break! At school English language teachers help students with their English. We also provide space for students to connect with each other. SPMA currently has three language based groups that meet monthly. The groups for this school year are for our Swahili, Hmong, and Spanish speaking students. During these group times students connect, learn, and have fun while speaking in their first language. Students love these group times and so do we!