Spotlight
Four Seasons A+ Elementary Newsletter May 2022
Calendar
May 12, 5:00-7:00 pm - D/HH Family Picnic & Transition Day
May 23, 5:00-6:00 pm - Makerspace
May 30, NO SCHOOL Memorial Day
June 10, Last Day of School
A Message From Our Principal
Dear Four Seasons A+ Families,
We've all learned a lot of lessons during this global pandemic. One lesson is the importance of being flexible in both our actions and in our thinking. Our school year is coming to an end and as we approach our last day, June 10th, we will likely have many more opportunities to practice our flexibility. Everyone knows we are constantly short staffed due to illnesses and lack of substitute teachers. This means we have to be creative in how we cover staff absences. We utilize several models depending on the situation. Sometimes we pull teachers during their prep time to cover an hour in a classroom and we rotate teachers through the day. Sometimes we utilize our Learning Lead and/or WINN teacher to cover classes which means they give up their job for a day. Most recently we've added the option of dividing up classes. So, if your first grader comes home and tells you they spent the day in a third grade classroom, it is likely the case that their class was divided up amongst all of our classrooms. Even if it doesn't sound ideal, it provides several positive opportunities. First of all, it is a collective approach in which we work as a community to solve a problem. Secondly, it prevents our teachers from having to give up their prep times to sub. Finally, it promotes a positive community as our students get to know even more students and staff in our building. It is a perfect example of "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!" We appreciate all the support you've given our learning community during this most difficult school year. Let's keep working collectively to be flexible in our actions and in our thinking to make the most of our final weeks of the 2021-2022 school year for our students!
Kindergarten Portraits of Eric Carle
Thank You!
Mrs. Manor's Pre-K Family Day
Tuesday, May 10, 2022, 08:15 AM
318 North Moore Street, Saint Paul, MN, USA
In Our Classrooms
D/HH Preschool
Pre-K
Pre K has just finished the area of study, "Cycles in our World." We had lots of fun discussing various life cycles. We talked about the life cycle of a flower, butterfly, and frog. We are also having fun observing our live caterpillars. They have been busy eating and soon will be forming their chrysalis. When they hatch into butterflies, we will release them outside in our school's flower garden. Last week, we also delivered May Day baskets to neighbor's houses. We had a great walk and were so happy that the weather held off. Next week, we will start our last area of study of "Water!" This is a fun unit! We will learn about many animals that live in water.
Our Pre- K spring family day will be held next week on Tuesday from 8:15-9:15 a.m.! We hope all Pre K families can join us for this event. Hope to see you there!
Kindergarten
Kindergarten students have spent a wonderful year learning about themselves, others, and the world around them. We are now beginning our last K DOW Unit: Cycles in Our World. We will be observing predictable patterns and developing inquiry skills as we look at different life cycles and learn about animal migration, habitats, and wants versus needs. This month our most popular centers seem to be the Theater area and the new Flower Shop.
- For Literacy, we are still focusing on learning all our letter sounds and using this knowledge to say, read and write new words. We are reading beginning sight word and See and Say beginning level reading books. We are learning about Eric Carle with his author study and focusing on learning about characters and setting. Eric Carle has written so many beautiful books and we are exploring our own artistic abilities as we enjoy his work.
- During Math, we will continue to identify our numbers, to count up by 1s, 5s, and 10s to 110 and to count backwards from 20 – 0, to recognize 2d and 3d shapes, to sort items by size, color, shape, and other attributes. Our new exploration will be measurement and sorting by attributes.
Every day our Kindergartens use their creativity as they explore their world and the world around them.
May APTT
Our final APTT (Academic Parent and Teacher Team) Conferences were held for Mrs. Gaslin’s and Ms. Nelson’s K classes on April 28, 2022, and on May, 4, 2022, for Grades 4 / 5 with Ms. Becker ‘s and Mr. Taylor’s classes. These APTTs were a huge success and we want to thank all of you who were able to join us for these conferences. We were all so excited to celebrate your child’s academic growth and to share some ideas for continual academic growth for the rest of the year and this summer. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Together, we got this!!!!
Kindergarten Students Enjoy APTT Activities at Home
Grade 1-2
In our 1/2nd grade classrooms we are working on:
- In Literacy we are working on imagination, oceans, standing up for yourself and celebrating family and community in our read aloud and journaling. We are continuing to work on our sight word fluency and growth in our reading small groups.
- In Math we are continuing to work on addition and subtraction, numbers and operation and we will begin a unit on geometry and measurement.
- In Science we continue to discuss and explore the weekly Mystery Doug questions. We have also been discussing the 3 R’s Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and the impact we can have on helping our beautiful planet Earth.
- In Social Studies we will be exploring needs vs. wants and will be exploring the past by creating timelines and comparing and contrasting the past and today.
Grade 3
Grade 4-5
In the last month, our 4th and 5th graders spent about 3 weeks working hard to complete the MCAs in math and reading, and the 5th graders completed the science MCA. In math we focused on geometry. Specifically, Quadrilaterals, Area, and Perimeter. We are moving into Transformations to wrap up the school year. In Literacy we learned about author’s purpose and we’ve continued our Words Their Way word study to strengthen understanding and use of 4th and 5th grade vocabulary. Finally, we had school visits from the University of Minnesota to learn about the profession of Arborism, and we attended a field trip at Fort Snelling to learn about the Indigenous peoples of Minnesota.
Please keep an eye out for communication from your child’s teacher about end of the year events. We have a lot of fun stuff coming up!
Multilingual Learners (MLL)
If you have not signed up for summer school, there is still time to apply. You may contact your school or apply online at https://www.spps.org/summer.
3rd-5th grade students are working on art projects.
If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know and we will do our best to help you.
Mechele Rodefeld (Spanish)
(651) 321-8140
Ama Xiong (Hmong)
(612) 548-1550
Mary Moga
Jenn Edwards (Spanish)
(314) 724-4471
Naw Hara (Karen)
(651) 290-7595, ext. 45137
D/HH Family Picnic
- visit with families of D/HH students
- meet D/HH teachers and staff
- get ready for the transition to the next grade (2022-2023)
For more information, contact your child's teacher.
Thursday, May 12, 2022, 05:00 PM
318 North Moore Street, Saint Paul, MN, USA
Social Worker's Corner
Hello Families-
As we start to think about summer break and warmer weather there are a number engage in. Classroom teachers are sending out information about signing students up for summer school. Summer school offers opportunities for your student to progress and learn new skills while meeting new friends.
Many community programs such as the YMCA, YWCA, HGRA, and area colleges offer camps for students. Many offer scholarships for students who qualify for free and reduce lunch.
I am happy to help and provide additional resources for your student this summer.
Thanks,
Ann Elenbaas, LICSW
School Social Worker
Four Seasons A+ Makerspace
- ASL (American Sign Language)
- Crafts
- Cooking
- and more...
We will review this past year and plan for 2022-2023. Provide input into our Family Engagement Plan (FEP), SCIP (School Continuous Improvement Plan), and Compacts. These documents are the roadmap for academic success and partnership between home and school. Take our Wonderings & Wishes Survey now to let us know what you think.
Meet link will be shared closer to the event.
Monday, May 23, 2022, 05:00 PM
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Four Seasons A+ Elementary School
Email: karen.shanahan@spps.org
Website: spps.org/fourseasons
Phone: (651) 290-7595