Theodore Robinson Intermediate
March 2019
Principal News
Hello Theodore Robinson Families,
February was a crazy month! It is hard to believe that we are in the final three months of school. We see a lot of growth during this time of the year. Our Hoops for Heart Celebration was a great success. A big thank you to Mrs. Kostroun and all of the staff and parent volunteers that helped her with this event. We were finally able to have our 5th grade concert even though the weather wasn’t great. All of the kids pulled together to make it a success. Thank you Mrs. Zblewski for always putting together concerts that feature the talents of our students. I’m sure that the 3rd grade concert on the 28th will be fantastic!
Family/Teacher Conferences: Family Conferences will be held on March 12th and 14th at TRIS from 3-8pm You should have received information from your child’s teacher about signing up for our second set of conferences. Our goal is to have all families participate in conferences so that we can strengthen our partnership with you. Please remember there will not be another report card until the end of the year. We really appreciate your attendance and look forward to sharing your child’s successes with you!
Forward Exam: Wisconsin Students in Grades 3 – 8 will be participating in the FORWARD Exam during the upcoming testing window. The FORWARD Exam evaluates student performance in the areas of English Language Arts and Math. In addition, students in grade 4, and 8 will take tests in Science and Social Studies. One or more subtests may be administered daily during the identified time frame of March 18 – May 3. Therefore, it is very important that your son or daughter be in school during this time. Students not in school on the scheduled testing days will be scheduled for a make-up test. The FORWARD Exam measures the knowledge and skills your student(s) should have acquired by the time they reach each grade level. Their performance on the assessment will not affect any of their current grades. Please encourage your son or daughter to take the test seriously and do the best they can. The results of these tests will be used to help school staff evaluate the effectiveness of our curriculum and to determine the best way to support your child’s learning. Here is the link to the informational brochure https://drive.google.com/file/d/19qd5P2OFGg22EhEUKpBe9UqbYWrHYFU2/view
. It gives more detail about the exam including its purpose, what scores will be provided, and how the scores will be used. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
At TRIS, we will spend some time during the month of March getting ready for the exam by working through some practice questions and familiarizing students with the computer format of the test. Our goal is to help students feel comfortable with the exam ahead of time so that they are not stressed when taking the exam. We will not begin testing until after Spring Break. Once we have the testing schedule developed, your child’s teacher will let you know the specific testing times.
Thank you for supporting TRIS in so many ways! Please email or call if you have questions, concerns or ideas.
Hang out with us, learn with us, laugh with us, grow with us, work with us and celebrate with us!
Together we can strengthen relationships, build connections and create a learning community at Theodore Robinson that is a wonderful place to be for all staff, students and families.
Barb Dorn, Principal
Save the Date: Family/Teacher Conferences
Tuesday, March 12th
3:15 – 8:00 p.m.
Thursday, March 14th
3:15 – 8:00 p.m.
Watch for upcoming Information from your student’s teacher!
TRIS Students Raised over $6000.00 for the American Heart Association!
March Calendar of Events
12th - Family Conferences
14th - Family Conferences
15th - Popcorn Day
19th - Fourth Grade Fieldtrip (Miller, Fitzsimmons, Schultz)
20th - Fourth Grade Fieldtrip (Pickering, S/W, Forster, Jerstad)
22nd - Wacky Olympics
22nd - End of 3rd Qtr - Early Release at 12:00 Noon
25th - Start of Spring Break
April 1st - Students Return to School
Medical Minute Guidelines
*If your child needs to stay in from recesses due to illness/injury you need to have a written doctor’s excuse.
*All medication that needs to be taken at school will need a Medication Consent Form filled out and on file. Medication needs to be sent in the original medication container.
Families please remember to inform the school if your child has any of the following:
Headlice, strep throat, pink eye, impetigo and chicken pox. It is very important to let us know of these contagious diseases, so we can check the other children in the classroom.
*Please make sure your child does not have any type of medication or vitamins with them as it is a safety concern to both your child and others.
Students Lend a Hand!
Three Fifth Graders at TRIS launched a school-wide fundraiser at our last Celebration. Felicity, Travis and Breigh came up with the idea to create a more inclusive playground at TRIS and they are leading the charge! Lend a Hand is a fundraiser for new equipment for the TRIS playground. We want all of our friends to be able to enjoy our playground with wheelchair accessible swings and low to the ground monkey bars. So far, we have collected almost $300.
Congratulations to our local Math 24 4th & 5th grade winners!
Fourth and fifth grade students had the opportunity to participate in the Local Math 24 tournament. Math 24 Challenge is a student competition for grades 4-8. The fourth grade local winners are: Adrianna Bergh, Jordy Bigelow, Langdon Dobbs, Ethan Gray, Adam Walters, and Matthew Wickersham. Fifth grade local winners are: Daniel Harnack, Race Howlett, Brady Jarstad, Lincoln Keller, Faith Mohrbacher, and Nathan Scarmon. Local winners have been practicing diligently every day until the regional tournament. Our participants are eager for the March 19th regional tournament held at UW Madison Union.
Notes from the Art Room:
Art to Remember ordering is coming up soon! In the month of January, students created their awesome artwork for the Art to Remember Fundraiser and in the next couple of weeks your students should be bringing home an order packet with their artwork on the front. All the information about ordering, as well as the order due date will be on the packet. Thank you in advance for any purchases you decide to make as a portion of that money goes back to the art program here at TRIS. If you have any questions about ordering when you receive the packets, please contact me at marshallk@evansville.k12.wi.us.
Kimberly Marshall
TRIS and High School Art Teacher
“Every child is an artist… the problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up.” ~Picasso
Guidance Corner
Dear TRIS Families,
Throughout the month of February students have been engaged in their Second Step lessons. We have been playing a bit of catch up due to snow/cold days but students are doing so well with this faster pace! Students are continuing to discuss our previous topics of empathy and being respectful learners while adding in some new topics and activities.
Students focused on understanding different perspectives this month and talked about conflict resolution in situations involving different perspectives. Students are also learning to recognize facial and body cues of others in order to understand how someone is feeling as well as learning different feeling words.
Our 5th grade students have also started to discuss what the word "prejudice" means. Students have engaged in some very interesting conversations and have been able to provide a lot of examples in their own lives in which they have experienced or witnessed someone or a group of people being prejudice. I encourage you to continue to talk to your students regarding this topic as many students had a lot of strong feelings regarding this topic.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions, comments or concerns. I can be reached by phone at 882-3847 or by email at mcnamaras@evansville.k12.wi.us. Also, please check your email as this will be my primary way of communicating weekly guidance topics and home links. Thank you for supporting your child in learning the skills that lead to success in school and life!
Sammy McNamara
TRIS School Counselor
News from the LMC
The Scholastic Book Fair is coming to TRIS, March 4-15th. It will be open a ½ hour before and after school each day and during parent/teacher conferences. New this year is an electronic option to set up an account for your student so parents don’t need to send cash or checks with their student. Simply go to our school’s book fair website: http://www.scholastic.com/bf/theodorerobinsonintrschool1 and add funds. Your child will receive a code that they use at the book fair to pay for their purchases. We hope to see you there!