Franklin Falcon Flyer
Aug. 30, 2018
Welcome to the 2018-19 School Year!
Welcome back to school! It was wonderful to see so many of you at our Parent Orientation this past Tuesday night. I hope you found the evening informative. The students are very excited to be back at school. There are lots of smiling faces in our hallways every day!
The Franklin staff has spent the last two weeks completing our benchmark assessments on our students to determine their instructional level and any additional support students may need to successfully access our curriculum. We administered the AIMs Web literacy and math probes for our kindergarten and first grade students. Our second through fifth grade students took the reading and math Measurement of Academic Progress (MAP) tests this week. On Tuesday morning, we began experiencing issues with the test and placed calls into NWEA support. NWEA engineers reported back that they were investigating these issues that districts across the nation were reporting in. In no way was our own network the cause or even contributed to these technical issues. This has been all on NWEA’s end.
Most of our students were able to complete the testing. There are a few students who will finish their test tomorrow or next week if the technical issues continue today.
NWEA has apologized for the disruption to students and staff. This continues to be their highest priority, and their engineers are working into the night to resolve the issue.
We are thrilled to have your children back and school and are looking forward to a great year with your children.
Sincerely,
Dr. Claire Kowalczyk
Greg Tang Family Math Night Sept. 20th
2 good 2 miss! Our first-ever Family Math Night on September 20th
Franklin School is excited to host our first-ever Family Math Night from 6-7 p.m. on Thursday, September 20th, in our gym thanks to a generous grant from the D64 Elementary Learning Foundation and our PTO. Noted math teaching expert Greg Tang, Jr. will be at our school that day to work with our first through fifth grade teachers and classrooms, and will be extending his visit to also include a special evening event for families featuring many fun and effective math games.
Over the course of the evening, students and their parent will rotate through five different math stations – targeting number sense, facts and procedural fluency, and reasoning skills – using Mr. Tang’s games to get excited about math. Best of all, these math evenings bring families together, and allow students and parents to think about numbers – and math – in new and better ways!
Due to space limitations and the nature of the presentation, we request that each family bring only one adult to accompany your student in grades 1-5. Also, every student and parent is requested to bring a pencil!
Learn more about Mr. Tang “through the numbers” --
Mr. Tang is on a mission to share his love of math with students, teachers and parents! Through his company Creative Smarts Inc, since 2001 he has done over 3,000 conferences, workshops and author visits throughout the U.S. and overseas, taught more than 500,000 children and adults, and accumulated more than 1,000,000 frequent flier miles on 4 different airlines!
Our Family Math Night is 2 good 2 miss! See you there!
August Franklin Falcon Celebration
PICTURE DAY IS THURS SEPT. 13th
REGISTER NOW FOR SESSION 1 of the 2018-2019 Lunchtime Chess Program!
Registration for the lunchtime chess program is underway! The 10-week program takes place on Wednesdays from 11:15-12:10 pm during lunch and runs from 9/19/18 to 11/28/18. The chess program is taught by Chess-Ed instructors and is open to ALL Franklin students, and students of all chess abilities, novice to advanced. Professional instruction will include the basics for novice players and build with opening theory, middle game planning, and end game combinations for continuing and advanced students. Playing chess improves memory, uses analytical and critical thinking skills, teaches problem solving, responsibility, sportsmanship, social skills and more! The benefits of chess last a lifetime!
To register, please go to www.franklinchess.eventbee.com. DISCOUNTED Registration Fee applies through 9/12/18; Final and Late fees begin 9/13/18. For more information about the program, please refer to the program flyer. Chess-Ed is looking forward to seeing your CHESS ENTHUSIAST this year!
NO DOGS ALLOWED ON SCHOOL PROPERTY
Tennis Unit in PE Sept. 4 -14th
Information about our Unit -
K-1st Introduce: striking with paddles/tennis rackets,using fleece balls, balloons, bean bags)
2nd-3rd Review KDG-1st grade skills
Introduce: safety, equipment management, grip, parts of racquet, terminology, scoring, racquet control, ground strokes - forehand & backhand
4th-5th Review 2nd-3rd grade skills
Introduce: tennis etiquette, the volley, the serve
Football PE Unit Sept. 17 - Oct. 5
Kindergarten
Introduce:
flag pulling
1st Grade: Review KDG skills
Introduce:
throw round ball
catch round ball
forward pass
2nd Grade: Review 1st grade skills
Introduce:
throwing/catching
forward pass
receiving
3rd Grade: Review 2nd grade skills
Introduce: centering, line of scrimmage, punting, understand pass patterns
4th Grade: Review 3rd grade skills
Introduce: reception game situation, hand-offs, downs, offsides, positions, scoring, kicking from a“T”,pass patterns,running play
5th Grade: Review 4th grade skills
Introduce: 5 on 5 football
Box Top Collection
Box Top collection is back! Let’s aim to exceed last year’s total and start clipping! Spread the word to family and friends to clip for us as well! We will hold four collections throughout the school year, each with a classroom contest winner for a special privilege.
IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES
Mon Sept. 3 - NO SCHOOL - Labor Day Holiday
Tues Sept 4 - Email blast will be sent to sign up for Parent Teacher Conferences in Oct.
Fri. Sept 7 - PTA Back To School Picnic on black top (rescheduled from Aug. 24th)
Mon. Sept. 10th - PTA Pizza Day starts at lunch
Thurs Sept. 13th - Picture Day!
Thurs Sept. 20th - Greg Tang Math Event for families in FR GYM 6:00-7:00 p.m.