HERMAN E. DUMMER
March 2024 Newsletter
A Message from our Principal, Mrs. Ford
March is a transition from one season to the next. Just as seasons change, so does our growth and development. Fourth and fifth grade is a huge transition from the young-child-stage to the more-independent-stage where students are testing boundaries wanting to spread their wings, of course all the while thinking they are much older than they are! Structure, limit-setting, and consequences (good and bad) are so important during this time. Children need to learn from their mistakes, even as hard as it is to watch sometimes. But, they also need to celebrate the hardships they work through by using their determination and perseverance, because that intrinsic motivation goes much deeper than any monetary or physical reward could ever do. It is not easy growing up, but it is also not easy watching and helping our children and students grow up. Thank you for being a part of our team. We will do our best while our students are with us and we thank you for your support and guidance while your children are with you. We all want the best for our young ones as they maneuver through this difficult, yet rewarding, season of life.
Treats & Foods Policy:
Celebrations and positive reinforcement are an important part of our district’s culture of supporting students. Often students bring treats or snacks to school to share on special occasions, such as their birthday. Due to food allergies and other health concerns we do not permit students to bring in food items or treats to school to share. We would like to encourage healthy eating habits and promote non-food items such as pencils, stickers, bookmarks, or other small items in place of food treats. Curricular activities or classroom celebrations involving food will be dealt with individually and require approval from the building principal. Safety provisions will be set up for food or environmental allergies on an individual basis.
Nurses Notes:
March is National Nutrition Month!
These websites have fun recipes, games, and ideas to help your family celebrate National Nutrition Month by eating healthy!
https://www.choosemyplate.gov/
https://www.eatright.org/for-kids
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/index.htm
Fabulous Fourth Grade:
Fourth grade has been extra busy the last few weeks! In reading, we have started reviewing for IAR. Our review started by looking at the practice tests available online, and we are currently reading multiple passages on the same topic. The students are then responding to a question using evidence from both texts that we read. Recently, we read both fiction and nonfiction texts about earthquakes. We will continue to learn about natural disasters through our reading in the near future.
In math, we are working with fractions. The students have learned how to add and subtract fractions with like denominators, add and subtract mixed numbers, and now we are working on multiplying fractions by a whole number. Pretty soon, we will start to review for state testing in math as well.
In science, we will also be continuing to learn about sound and how it moves through objects and the air. We will be conducting experiments and analyzing what happens to learn about sound as energy and waves.
The students were very excited to hear that we will be hatching baby chicks in each of our fourth grade classrooms. Our eggs and incubators arrived last week and our chicks are expected to hatch on or around March 12th. This is always a wonderful time to learn about the development of an embryo and what function each part of the egg plays in that development. When we are done, the chicks will head off to live on a farm in Iowa.
Fantastic Fifth Grade:
Our 5th graders have finished our winter benchmark assessments and we are diving further into our individualized WIN time and curriculum.
In Reading/Language Arts, our students will focus on an “Essential Question” for each unit. Unit 2 focuses on the topic Understanding Our Universe. During this unit we will ask ourselves, How do readers use chapters and sections to understand the structure of a text?” We will also ask, “How do writers create a developed and focused narrative?” Our students are reading science fiction texts as well as nonfiction texts about space.
Our current unit in science is Watery Planet. We will be wrapping up that unit with a lesson on how to save a town from a hurricane. We will be moving into our next unit on Space with lessons regarding sun/planet positions, seasonal changes, moon phases, gravity, and life on other planets.
In Math, our students are wrapping up their fraction units. We have learned how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. We will be moving on to interpreting data, volume, and geometry in the next few weeks.
It is important for 5th graders to demonstrate respect and responsibility at school. Please take the time to discuss these traits with your child at home as we continue to work on those skills at school. Also, please check with your child about their school supplies. Many students are already missing scissors and headphones from their desks. We will need those headphones and a computer mouse for the IAR testing coming up!
Monthly Band Notes:
During the month of February, both fourth and fifth grade students have been learning about the guitar. The school has over 30 guitars which students have used to play melodies and chords. Songs such as “Malaguena” used single notes to form the melody. One and two chord songs such as “Shake Your Body (down to the ground),” “Haiti,” and “Paperback Writer” required strumming chords.
We segued from playing guitars to preparing for our Spring concert. This year’s spring concert will be a “Creature Feature” concert and will be on Thursday, April 11th at 6pm in the high school gym. As the name implies, songs will be about animals, zombies, and mythical creatures. More information will be sent home soon.
Fifth grade band is now working on songs that have 6 notes and percussion has begun to learn keyboard instruments. The band has been doing a great job of playing and working together as we prepare for our next concert. Fifth grade’s second band performance will be on Thursday, February 29th at 6:30pm in the high school gym.
State Testing is On the Horizon
Illinois Assessment of Readiness and Illinois Science Assessment
State testing gives us a glimpse of how our students compare to other students around the state of Illinois. These scores also show how our students are progressing individually, how our grade-levels perform, and how the whole school progress transpires from year to year. It helps our school and district to plan accordingly to meet the needs for all our students. We would appreciate your help in encouraging your child(ren) to do their best and to get plenty of sleep prior to testing days. The testing schedule for Dummer can be seen below. We appreciate your help!
5 Essentials
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Our school district, and the individual schools within this school district, strive to provide the best possible education for our students. We gather data through various means to help guide us to improvement. You should have recently received a letter home with your child letting you know about a survey that you can take that will give us valuable information in this endeavor. It is called the 5Essentials and it is totally anonymous. Students, staff, and parents/guardians take this survey, and the data is then made available for all to see on our Illinois State School
Report Card. You may click on the link below to access this survey and then click, “Parent Survey.” We ask you to do your best, but if you are not sure of a question one way or the other, there is a “neutral” option. We appreciate the collaboration between home and school and this is just one way we can work together for the betterment of our students, and of course, better schools also create better property values. 🙂 This data helps our school to know what we are doing well and what we can improve on. Thank you for your support!
https://survey.5-essentials.org/Illinois/
*As an incentive, the class with the highest response of parents taking this survey will be rewarded with a pizza party! All you need to do is take a screenshot of the last page that thanks you for taking the survey…and email it to your child’s teacher.
Registration for the 2024-2025 School Year
Registration for the 24-25 school year is now open. Returning families to the school district can complete the online application process in a few short minutes through their TeacherEase account. This will be a very similar process to last year. Please be sure that all information is entered correctly.
If you have an incoming kindergartener or a new student to the district you will follow a different process in which you verify your residency before registering on TeacherEase.
Student fees for the 24-25 school year are not due at this time. We ask that you complete the registration process by Friday, April 19. Please use the link below which will walk you through the process of registration.
Always Looking for Great Ideas and Help
If you or someone has a great idea for our school, such as something you would love to partner with us on, teach, showcase, or whatever it may be, we would love to hear it! Also, there are many opportunities to come and help in our school. We would love to see parents, community members, and families be a part of our every day process. You are all a part of our team and we would LOVE to have you! No teaching experience needed, we promise. :) Please see the link below:
4th Grade January Students of the Month
Back row: Paisley Meinert, Jonathan Rinehard, Aiden Satterfield, Owen Futrell & Violet Towne Front Row: Kamila Arriola, Cami Urbanski, Grace Kelley and Vera Pastion Not Pictured: Maddox Yates-Benter
5th Grade Students of the Month
Back row: Brantley Green, Isabelle Kirk, Sam King, CJ Perez, Adeline Bell, Audrey Swanson Front row: Allie Hernandez, Addy Aguirre & Ruby Kempf
January Character Counts
Ryan Skulski, Rowan Krisch, Melody Carroll, Ashland Gibbs, Elizabeth Agajanian & Kamden Bland Not pictured: Mia Monjaraz
Lunch & Breakfast Menu
Important Dates:
3/1: Grandparent Bingo Notes Go Home
3/5: Club Challenge 3-4
3/6: IAR Testing Starts - Blacking Out Bad Scores: Wear Black
3/6: Parent Group Meeting 6:00
3/7: Homework Club 3-4
3/8: Early Dismissal 11:10 a.m. - Report Cards Go Home
3/12: Character Counts Club 3-4
3/12: Club Challenge 3-4
3/13: IAR Testing - Crazy High Scores: Wear Crazy Socks
3/13: Staff Meeting
3/14:5th Grade to the Opera House
3/14: Homework Club 3-4
3/15: Grandparent Bingo Notes Due
3/18: Culver's Night
3/19: IAR Testing - Dreaming of Good Scores: Wear PJ's
3/19: Board Meeting 7:00 p.m.
3/19: Club Challenge 3-4
3/21: Homework Club 3-4
3/22: Cinderella at the High School
3/25 - 3/29: SPRING BREAK
3/29: 5Essentials Closes
4/1: School Resumes
Kate DiCamillo!
Author's Breakfast
Terri Clemmons - HED Former Teacher, Now Author