Spotlight
Four Seasons A+ Elementary March Newsletter
Calendar
- March, Spring Conferences, Teachers will contact families
- Friday, March 25, NO SCHOOL, Spring Conference Day
- April 4-8, NO SCHOOL, Spring Break
- Monday, April 11, School Resumes
- Friday, April 15, NO SCHOOL
From Principal Mickelson
Dear Four Seasons A+ Families,
I've been meeting with a lot of families recently. During these conversations two things are clear to me...you love your children very much and you want what is best for your children. I have great news...we love your children very much and want what is best for them too! Something I keep hearing over and over from you is that social media, iPads, and phones can sometimes inhibit your child's success. You are not alone in struggling with this. Our children have access to anything and everything on demand! On one hand, this can be a good thing. On the other, it can make everything more difficult. So what can we do to set our children up for success?
Here are some suggestions:
- Set a time limit for devices and stick to it. Yes, at first your child might protest but if you stay strong and explain why the limits are necessary, they will eventually acquiesce.
- Talk with your child about the permanence of social media posts as well as the long term ramifications. You might also explain that just because something is posted on the internet, that doesn't make it appropriate for a child.
- Have a place to store devices when you do not want your child using them. Perhaps a locked cabinet or a place up high/out of sight. Again, stay strong and be consistent. Children appreciate boundaries and clarity.
- Monitor your child's devices periodically. If you see something inappropriate, have a conversation with your child about it. You can always reduce their access to their devices if they aren't being responsible.
- Set parental controls on your child's device. We are here to help you with that should you need assistance.
The website https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ is an excellent resource for families and students to learn about digital citizenship.
As always, we are here to support you and your child(ren). We value working in partnership with you to ensure the success of all in our learning community. Please reach out at anytime with feedback and questions. Take care.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Mickelson
5th Grade Heroes
5th Grade Student Work on Heroes Decorates the Hallways at Four Seasons A+
Spring Conferences
In Our Classrooms
Pre-K
Kindergarten
Kindergarten has just started enjoying our DOW unit: Helping In Our World. We have begun by focusing on the many people who help in our own world. We started with each Kindergartner’s own experiences of being a helper where they live (chores) and at school (cleaning, sharing, and caring for the room).
- For Literacy, we are still focusing on letter sounds, beginning level reading books, and learning about nonfiction texts (All About Books).
- During Math, we will continue to identify our numbers and 3D shapes while measurement and measuring tools are our new exploration.
Deaf and Hard of Hearing ECSE
In the next week we will be moving from our "Helping in our Community" Area of Study, into our Creating and Constructing in our World -- this unit will focus on building structures as well as expressing ourselves through art. As always, we will continue to build our language, our play skills, and peer relationships!
We look forward to connecting with each of you during our Spring Conferences!
Grade 1/2 Classrooms
Our 1/2nd grade classrooms have been working on personal space and learning to respect each other’s personal bubble space.
- Math: In Math, the class continues to practice and drill number sense: counting by 1's,10's, 5's, 2's, identifying numbers past 100, seeing patterns in numbers, place value, and representing numbers in different ways. This has led us to addition and subtraction; we are hard at work on adding and subtracting facts up to 10 and beyond!
- Literacy: In Language Arts, we have read books and poems from our reading curriculum and many stories in our guided groups. In phonics we’ve covered a variety of skills: short and long vowels, many word families, noun, verbs, adjectives, letter blends (th, sh, ch, qu…), capitalization and punctuation.
- Social Studies: Our strongest belief is that the children in our class understand how to function as a family. We've read and will continue to read books that lead to discussions about friendship, family, kindness, honesty, respect, and life choices and experiences. The class is learning to discuss problems and how to offer sensible solutions and feedback to each other.
- Science: We continue to ask questions about the world around us and how/why things work. Students have developed confidence in sharing thoughts and ideas on questions posed and have learned to listen to one another, even if they disagree. Students have been predicting patterns in weather and continue to enjoy our weekly mystery Doug video and voting on science question for the following week!
Grade 2/3 Classrooms
In 2nd and 3rd grade we have been working hard in math and reading. On top of academics, we have decided to focus on accepting responsibility. We will work weekly on the skill and really encouraging the students to be honest with mistakes.
In math class we have been focusing on a few different concepts. In 2nd grade we have been working on measurement. The measurement unit includes time, perimeter and learning how to use a ruler. In 3rd grade we have been spending time working on multiplication and division.
In language arts we have been working on mini lessons focusing on nonfiction and fiction literature. Students have learned key parts of both book types. In guided reading groups we have been focusing on skills that each group needs.
Grade 3 Classrooms
Third graders have been working on writing about what they are reading and reviewing lots of math skills that we have learned about so far this school year. Please continue to support your child at home practicing their reading, writing and math skills. We look forward to having conferences with you in the next few weeks.
Happy March!
Grade 4/5 Classrooms
Hello 4th and 5th Grade Families!
In February our students explored fractions in math, characters and poetry in literacy, and we wrote about our Black Heroes in writing. Our classes went to Belwin Outdoor Science Center for our first field trip of the school year! We also discussed and learned about Black History Month and friendship.
In March we are working on decimals in math, and we'll be focusing on biography and historical fiction in literacy. As always, we continue to support our students' individual needs as readers and mathematicians during small group learning. In our classroom communities we are discussing Women's History Month! We look forward to meeting with every parent and caregiver during conferences in just a couple of weeks!
Warmly,
Ms. Spear, Ms. Chelsea, Ms. Carissa, Mr. Taylor, and Mr. Poferl
Belwin Field Trip
multilingual learning (MLL)
Four Seasons A+ Elementary School
Email: karen.shanahan@spps.org
Website: spps.org/fourseasons
Location: 318 North Moore Street, Saint Paul, MN, USA
Phone: 651 2907595