Monclova Primary
Weekly Bulletin
Week of January 16- January 22
Monday, January 16
NO SCHOOL - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Tuesday, January 17
Star benchmarking begins - test between Jan. 17 - Feb. 3
MAPS Meeting - 7:00 pm - Media Center (virtual available, too)
Wednesday, January 18
Thursday, January 19
Grades due in PowerSchool
RIMPs/IEP Progress Reports sent home
Friday, January 20
Announcements
THANK YOU:
Mrs. Hodge for keeping the office decorated with student art! Many staff, students and visitors comment on the art. Your extra special "touches" are greatly appreciated!
Jamie, Brianne and Karen for helping promote the great things happening at Monclova and in your classrooms. Rebecca enjoyed being invited in for various stories this week!
Reminders:
With the start of the 2nd half of the school year, Mr. Buehrer will be doing some brief PBIS review during lunch. It would be a good idea to do this in settings you are in with students (classroom, hallway, bathroom.)
The winter benchmarking for Star assessments will be Jan. 16 - Feb. 3. Reminder that the parent report for ALL students taking Star (not Early Literacy) reading and math must be sent home. This is a districtwide requirement. The Star reports are also the progress reports for students identified as gifted in reading and served by the general education teacher, NOT LEAP.
Jim Conner will be visiting on January 23 to meet with each grade level team regarding the math curriculum and next steps. Feel free to bring other curriculum items, too. The building sub will be covering for the teacher that has technology on this day. The meetings will take place in the conference room. You can report there once your students have been dropped off.
MAPS is bringing back Imagination Station again this year. Classes will visit Imagination Station in the community room on their assigned day:
Wednesday, January 25th
9:00-9:50: Nachtrab AM, Steinke AM (missing NNI)
9:55- 10:45: Pfefferle, Drennan
10:50-11:40: Frederick, Rowe
11:45-12:35: Moser, Seitz
1:10-2:00:, Nachtrab PM
2:05-2:55: Harms, Dick
Thursday, January 26th
9:00-9:50: Frank, Brungard
9:55-10:45: Smigelski, Dilworth
10:50-11:40: Stroshine, Blaesing (missing part of NNI)
11:45-12:30: Black, Seeger
1:10-2:00: Soli
2:05-2:55: Warner, Lewis
February 1 is World Read Aloud Day. I know some classes participated in various activities last year. Please visit https://www.litworld.org/ to learn more about it. All ages loves read aloud time!
Mr. Black will be kicking off Kids Heart Challenge at the end of the month. Please assist him and put reminders about this event in your newsletters. It will run from Feb. 1 - 21.
Our next round of data meetings with take place February 16 and 17. February 16 will be whole grade level meetings, building sub will cover the teacher that has technology that day. On Friday will be for Tier III students and I will set up a schedule for those meetings.
January 16 - No School - Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 17 - Star winter benchmarking begins
January 17 - Fire drill
January 19 - Grades due in Power School, RIMPS/IEP Progress Reports go home
January 23 - Grade level meetings with Jim Conner
January 25-26 - Imagination Station
January 26 - Staff Meeting - 7:45 am
January 27 - Safety Drill
February 1 - Kids Heart Challenge Kickoff
February 1 - Wellness Wednesday
February 3 - MAPS Movie Night - Maumee Indoor Theater
Words of Wisdom and Action..............................
What a great reminder about the powerful effects of read aloud! I have observed the enjoyment of read aloud at all grade levels. Thank you for incorporating them.
Tip of the Week- January 13, 2023
Lori Sabo - Issue: #753
“What is your teacher reading to your class?” I posed this question to a young girl I met over our winter break.
“Nothing!” she said incredulously. “I’m in third grade!”
“Well, how about your librarian. Does she read to you?”
“No,” she replied, again in that distinctive tone. “Do you think I’m in kindergarten?”
If you have been here very long, you know that I place a high value on read-alouds in every grade. Hearing that no adults are reading to this third grader on a regular basis, or at all, caused my heart to audibly crack . . . Okay, that is an exaggeration, but you get the idea.
So, I am begging us to not let the ever-increasing demands placed upon us crowd this activity out of our days. The benefits are just too important.
Reading aloud will . . .
- promote a love of reading.
I have hooked more “I don’t like reading” students on books through joyful, hilarious, suspenseful, moving read-alouds than through any other activity.
- increase listening comprehension and skills.
A child’s listening comprehension is higher than their reading level (I don’t think it catches up until seventh or eighth grade), so a read-aloud provides access to books students can fully enjoy, even though they can’t read them independently yet.
- expand vocabulary.
An enthusiastic love of new words will benefit students in both speaking and writing. Additionally, once they’ve heard you pronounce words like ennui correctly (on page 3 of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo), they will be much more likely to pronounce them correctly when they meet them in print themselves.
- build background knowledge.
The more we know about a subject, the easier it is to read about it, understand it, and remember the information. A read-aloud helps build background knowledge that benefits everyone, especially our students who are learning English.
- develop classroom community.
A shared book is like a field trip that helps knit us together. It almost never fails after reading Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes that the rest of the year is sprinkled with “Wow, that’s just about all I can say—wow” when we are impressed by one another’s thoughts, work, and art.
- make us feel powerful.
You’ll probably never feel more powerful than you will when you stop reading a chapter book at an especially suspenseful moment and hear the astonished cries and begging to keep going a little longer.
As we stride into 2023, let’s commit to setting aside at least 6–10 minutes a day to read to students. It is a New Year’s resolution worth making and keeping, and will undoubtedly infuse your day (and your students) with a little more joy.