April Scholls Heights Knights

Spring Conferences

Spring Conferences are Wednesday, April 10 after early release from 4-8 PM and all day on Thursday, April 11. Please note that students do not have school on Thursday, April 11 or Friday, April 12.

We hope that everyone has been able to schedule a conference with their child's teacher. We had a problem with our system that has since been resolved. If you are still having trouble signing up, please contact your child's teacher.

Conferences are a great time to connect with your child's teacher about your child's growth academically and socially. Time is limited, so it is helpful if you come prepared with questions you would like to ask if they are not already covered within the conference. We look forward to meeting with you!

Here is a link with tips for a successful parent-teacher conference.

Volunteers

Volunteers are essential in helping teachers and students succeed. We are very fortunate to work with such fabulous volunteers. We have been asked to remind volunteers that they are not able to bring younger siblings with them when they are volunteering within the classroom, classroom party volunteers, or field trip volunteers. We appreciate your support in this school and district policy.

Please mark your calendar for our Volunteer Appreciation Tea on May 10th, 8:45-9:45AM. We sincerely thank you for all you do for Scholls Heights! You are wonderful and we greatly appreciate you! We hope to see you at our tea!

Parent Resources and State Testing Information (Grades 3-5)

The Council of Great City Schools has published Road Maps for parents supporting their child in ELA (English Language Arts) and Math. These parent guides are below by grade level.

Grade 3 ELA and Grade 3 Math

Grade 4 ELA and Grade 4 Math

Grade 5 ELA and Grade 5 Math

In addition, 3-5 graders will begin taking the OSAS (Oregon State Assessment System) formally named SBAC. More information about the tests and links can be found on the Oregon Department of Education Website.

For more information about testing, please contact your child's teacher. Here is the link for information on opting out of the test.

Optional Parent Input Forms Now Available

When building classes, our goal is always to achieve balanced, heterogeneous classes where each child's opportunity for success is maximized. Your child's current teacher understands how your child performs in a school setting and therefore, is of great value when it comes to class placement. We also highly value input from parents and would like to provide the opportunity for parents to fill out an Optional Input Form. This form is a document that allows parents to write about their child's characteristics, strengths, and/or areas of concern. The forms will be available in the main office or you can request one to be sent home by your teacher. The Optional Parent Input Forms will also be available on our website next week.

School Spelling Champions

Students in grades 2-5 participated in a Class Spelling Bee. The students with the highest scores from each class moved on to a School Spelling Bee. Twenty eight students took part in our school Spelling Bee! Our winner was Sree from Mr. Jeffcott's fifth grade class. Second place was Dexter from Mr. Jeffcott's fifth grade class. Third place went to Kyler in Ms. Crenshaw's fifth grade class. Congratulations to everyone who participated!

New Garden Boxes

Cole Babin and Troop 870 built two new garden boxes for our school in March. This was Cole's project to earn his Eagle Scout Rank. The scouts spent several hours building the boxes which meet ADA compliance. We thank them for improving the accessibility of our garden and look forward to planting with our students in the spring!

Fostering Honesty and Responsibility in Children

In response to several inquiries regarding fostering honesty in children, we have found the following resources that we hope parents find helpful. The first information comes from the book "But It's Not My Fault!" by Julia Cook.

Lying is a normal, expected behavior in children. In fact, it is actually a sign of healthy brain development. Most often, children lie to cover up their mistakes or avoid getting punished.

There are things that parents and educators can do to foster honesty in children:

1. Don’t invite the child to lie by asking a question. Instead, make a corrective statement and move on. (i.e. Instead of asking “Did you leave the door open?” say “I know you left the door open, try to remember to shut it next time.”)

2. Before questioning a child about an incident, ask them to promise to tell the truth. Making a promise to someone you care about makes telling a lie more difficult

3. Help children understand that mistakes are learning opportunities, and if they blame others for their mistakes, they give away their opportunity to learn. Making mistakes does not make you a bad person, so you don’t need to lie to cover them up.

4. Change your “buts” to “ands”. For example: “Today you had a rough day, and tomorrow is a brand new day! I can’t wait to see what you can do with your tomorrow.”

5. Focus on building trust and communication with children instead of focusing on the behavior problem. Teach children that it’s not about the mistake you made, but what you do to make it right that matters more.

Here's a link to an additional article by Parent Magazine:

https://www.parents.com/kids/development/behavioral/age-by-age-guide-to-lying/

Earth Day- Recycling it Right!

Earth Day is on April 22nd. To celebrate Earth Day our student green team, the Green Knights, have been hard at work creating messages to share with students on Recycling it Right! Our goal is to make sure students are recycling the right items and keeping our recycle bins free of trash. To support students in recycling at school and at home please review these resources:

City of Beaverton residents can find recycling and composting resources at: www.beavertonoregon.gov/397/Recycling-Composting-Garbage.

City of Tigard residents can review resources and download a Garbage and Recycling App at: www.co.washington.or.us/hhs/swr/.

The Trex Plastic Bag and Film Recycling Challenge ends on Monday, April 15th. This will be the last day to bring in your plastic bags and film at school. Please see the PTO's newsletter or Facebook page for updates or contact greenteam@shpto.org.

Thank you for recycling with us!

Cell Phone Reminder

It is a parent's decision when and if a child should have a cell phone. If your child has a cell phone, it must be off and in their backpack while they are at school and on the school bus. We have been experiencing students using them at school and on the bus. Please remind your student to be responsible with their cell phone. If they have it out at school, it is a distraction, might get lost or misplaced, and may be confiscated for a parent to pick up from the office. Thank you for your help with this matter.

OBOB

Congratulations to Scholls Heights’ OBOB champs Peadexshwizs! Arnav Arora, Preslee Bay, Dexter Eiler, and Sree Sarvepalli from Mr. Jeffcott’s 5th grade class will be representing our school this Saturday in the OBOB State Championship in Salem. This team of amazing readers competed in the regional competition in March and went undefeated to earn an invitation to this weekend’s tournament. We wish them the best of luck. Congratulations on this fantastic accomplishment!

Kindergarten Orientation

Do you know any incoming kindergarteners? We will be having our Kindergarten Orientation on April 17 from 4PM to 5:30PM.

Mark Your Calendar

Grading Day April 5 (No Students)

Book Fair April 8-11

Conferences April 10 4:00-8:00PM (Students have school)

Conferences April 11 8:00-8:00 (No school for students)

PTO Movie 2:00PM April 11

No School April 12

Kindergarten Orientation April 17 (For incoming kindergarten students and families)

4th Grade Informance (Montague) 8:45AM April 22

4th Grade Informance (Oosterhof) 8:45AM April 23

4th Grade Informance (Fuller) 8:45AM April 25

MisMatch Day April 26

1st Grade Field Trip 9:30-2:00 April 26

PTO Spring Gala 6-10PM April 27

Walking School Bus

Students had a great time this past Wednesday walking to school together. If you live in the walk zone, join the walking school bus next month on Wednesday May 1st and on Walk + Roll day on Wednesday, May 8th. On both days students can meet parent chaperones at 8:05 am in the Sterling Park neighborhood at one of two locations: the corner of Blackbird + Whitebird or the corner of Turnstone + Pelican Way.

Message from Beaverton Library

Food for Fines is back! Do you know students who say they don’t use the public library because of overdue fees or lost books? Maybe have a fine from an overdue movie? Or a book that you found under the couch and now you’re too embarrassed to return? Food for Fines has you covered! Between April 6-14 you can bring in a can of food to waive $2 of library fines (up to $20), and you can return any long overdue item and the charges will be waived!

On Saturday, April 20 from 3-5 pm we’re thrilled to host our first ever Science Geek Out Fest! Kids and their families can visit the main library to meet with a whole host of STEM professionals and enthusiasts from astronomers, to beekeepers, to gardeners, and engineers. We’ll have science experiments, robots, engineering challenges and much more. I hope to see you and your students there!

Upcoming programs:

At the Main Library

· Open Studio: Claymation

· Marble Roller Coasters

· Día de los niños/ Día de los libros

At the Murray Scholls Branch:

· Beverly Cleary’s Birthday Party

· Recycled Crafts

· Spring Flowers