Lansing Intermediate Roar
Volume 2, Edition 6, 02-01-2024
Principal's Message - Mr. Altieri
January started out cold and snowy, but ended with sunshine and warm temperatures. Students and staff are happy to be back at LIS as we started the third quarter off with a bang. In addition, we are excited to celebrate the Chiefs road back to the Super Bowl and we are all rooting for another Lombardi Trophy!
Our winter assessment data (displayed lower in this report) looks great and it reflects the hard work students and staff have put into academics the first half of the year. We will strive to continue that success, in addition to celebrating students that are knocking it out of the park. Our PRIDE assembly in January focused on integrity and teachers will be nominating students for Mufasa Leadership Awards in the coming months. In a new twist to the award, LIS will hold an assembly near the end of the school year to celebrate students nominated for an MLA by our staff members.
Upcoming Events:
2/14 - Parent Teacher Conferences (4 - 8pm)
2/15 - No School - Parent Teacher Conferences (7am - 3pm)
2/16 - No School
2/19 - No School
2/27 - 2/28 - 5th Grade Coterie Theater Field Trip
2/29 - PRIDE Assembly - Diligence
Front Office Dispatch
Ride Changes: We will not send students home a different way than normal without hearing from parents/guardians BEFORE 2:45 p.m.
Attendance: If your student is going to be absent, please notify the office before 9am on the day of the absence. Office staff arrive at 730am, but the building opens at 8am. Absences can be reported by calling 913-297-0990 or by emailing lisattendance@usd469.net.
Fees: Please check your Skyward account and pay fees that are due. If you feel you may qualify for free/reduced and have not already applied, please do that. You can find the application on our website:
You can also come into our office and fill one out in person. If you have any questions please contact Jennifer Grant, bookkeeper at 913-297-0990, option 3.
Nurse News
February is National Heart Health Month.
Modeling heart healthy behavior is the BEST way to help kids develop life-long, heart healthy habits.
1. Keep moving
Exercise as a family; ride bikes, take a walk, go swimming or play games outside.
2. Limit screen time
Excessive screen time leads to a sedentary lifestyle and constant snacking, which increases the risk for obesity and cardiovascular disease. Limit TV, computer and phone time to two hours each day.
3. Go to the grocery store together
Learn more about reading nutrition labels and make it fun for your child. Staples in your kitchen should be 100 percent whole wheat or grains, low-fat dairy products, poultry, fish and nuts.
4. Keep healthy snacks on hand
When your child gets home from school, give them healthy snack options such as whole grain crackers and string cheese, hummus dip and vegetables, Greek yogurt with apple slices, nuts and dried fruit.
5. Make dinner a family affair
Involve your child in cooking and planning meals.
6. Check salt intake
Avoid processed foods and keep salt shakers off the table.
7. Stay involved
Be an advocate for your child. Encourage good food choices at school. Make sure your child's pediatrician is monitoring cardiovascular indicators like BMI, blood pressure and cholesterol.
8. Be realistic
Set realistic goals and limits. Small steps and gradual changes can make a big difference in your child’s health over time, so start small and build up.
Happy ❤️ Health to all,
Nurse Chris
Counselor's Corner
Hello families!
We are finishing up our Social Thinking lessons in Counseling lessons. Next we will be starting our Second Step Child Protection lessons. These lessons use the same language as the Bully Prevention and the Second Step lessons that are done weekly in the classroom. Additional information will be sent through Skyward. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Our Kindness Club shirts/sweatshirts were a hit! They should be delivered before parent teacher conferences. We are working on ways to spread kindness this Valentines day, and are anxiously awaiting spring for our Earth Day clean up! Thank you all for your encouragement and support with Kindness Club. We have a great group of students participating this year!
Social skills groups during pride times will start again for this spring. You will receive an email from me if your child has been chosen to participate in groups for the spring semester.
Hope you all are enjoying the sun and warmer weather!
Janet Farrar, LMSW
Social worker/counselor at LIS
Fourth Grade - Laurie Holden
Welcome to the board Kirstin Workman, Kerry Brungardt, and Pete Im. Welcome back Aaron Yoakam.
KITE mini tests have opened. These are practice tests for state assessments. Our IC, Caroline Reynolds, came into every class and taught all things KITE to our classes. We will be implementing one test per week in both ELA and Math until state assessments. The more familiar the students are with the tests and how to navigate them on their ipads with all the different tools available to them only helps reduce the stress of the actual tests.
iXL - It will take more than this year to figure out all the things that iXL has to offer, but we are thrilled when we find a new thing to implement in our classrooms. Miles was able to get a trial of the Social Studies program and it is awesome! We also had a trainer from iXL come in and show us new aspects of the platform for our latest PD. We were thrilled when he showed us lessons that correlate with the Kansas State assessments. We have created an iXL challenge for these specific lessons with our classes leading up to state assessments.
State Assessments - The testing window is extremely early this year and when we received the dates panic set in with the amount of information we needed to cover before April 3rd! Math was our primary concern since ELA is more cyclical in nature than math. Our admin tasked our team with revising our scope and sequence to ensure that we cover all standards needed before state assessments. We have completed which has eased the stress since we know we will cover what we need to before the tests. Fingers crossed for NO more snow days.
Math - We have finished our first chapter on fractions and moving on to the next 3 chapters of fractions. Because of the early testing dates this year, we have consolidated lessons where we can but fractions are a major standard for 4th grade. We have moved all our fun project based learning lessons until after testing.
ELA:
Writing - We focus on one large writing project per unit. Our project for Unit 4 is a biography book report. All students chose a Who Was/Who Is book to read and complete the book report and written report. These are really interesting and we will include pictures in our next board report.
Reading - We are in the middle of Unit 4 in Wonders. This resource is unique in that it covers all standards in the first 4 units. This helps with our timeline for state assessments and gives us freedom to re-teach standards leading up to testing.
Social Studies - We started the semester with a government unit that coordinates with our Wonders unit and then have moved on to teaching our last 2 regions of the US, the Southeast and Northeast. We do have a Project Based state assessment that we will complete after we take the formalized tests.
SEL & BIST - We are still working on Unit 2: Emotion Management. Skills covered in this unit are: introduction to emotion management, managing strong emotions, calming down anger, managing anxiety, avoiding jumping to conclusions, and handling put downs.
BIST - having a fully staffed Focus Room is really helping with those students on plans that need check ins and practice with the missing behavior skills that are impeding their learning. We have held mid-year meetings with the focus room staff, teacher, student, and admin with all students who are on a BIST plan. We talked through where each student is and worked with the student and teacher to make adjustments in the protective plan.
Fifth Grade - Sara Martin
Fifth grade is looking forward to the upcoming Parent -Teacher Conferences. They will be held February 14th and 15th. Valentine’s Day parties will be held February 14th from 2 to 3.
Reading: Students have been reading argumentative texts. Summarizing and explaining how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text have been a focus. Students have also been using IXL to review grammar skills. Quizzes and group jams are used to review. A focus on grammar has been types of nouns, types of verbs, and pronouns.
Writing: Opinion writing is the focus this quarter. Some students have been writing in their journals – answering opinion questions and defending their choice.
Math: Chapter 5 – Dividing decimals has ended. Students will continue practicing through spiral reviews and IXL. The next chapter we will be completing is chapter 6 – adding and subtracting fractions. Students use fraction strips to find common denominators. Models are also used to explore fractions.
Science: Students have been completing lessons on The Watery Planet. Tiny oceans were made to discuss salt water. Graphs were also created to show the difference between the amount of salt water, fresh water, and frozen fresh water on the Earth.
STEM - Suzanne Phillips
Happy New Year! As the students started back to school we eased into STEM with a team project of “Can you design a working sled?”. The students worked amazingly in their teams to produce some pretty creative sleds.
After the first week back we continued with our PLTW Unit Organisms: Structure and Function with an activity helping students make the connection that all of the systems in bodies work together.
The students were taken through 3 activities changing one factor at a time to show them this correlation. The first activity was to place 3 books end to end, then stack them in a pile, then place them on the floor, and then finally pick the pile up and place it on the table. The second activity was to do the same steps but with your hands in fist with socks over them. THey had to keep their hands in fist the whole time. This took away the use of the fingers and sensation of touch. The last activity was to repeat the steps from 1 and 2 but this time also while blind folded. This took away the use of our sight. The students quickly realized the importance of all of our bodies systems.
Art - Dawn Blankartz
4th and 5th grade artists continue to work in a studio format. Currently they must create an original work of art based on winter holiday themes: Portraits based on presidents day or MLK day, or a number of projects based on the Lunar New Year. There are also art contest projects students can choose from. Half the students played with their finished ceramic tic tac toe boards they made. The other half of the students are waiting for theirs to be fired, as we continue to work 1 kiln for all 4 rooms at both schools since 2 kilns remain unfixed.
1st and K students have created original works of art based on their knowledge of penguins and horizon lines. We watched a video of the Kansas City Zoo penguins waddling through the Nelson Atkins art museum. We are now learning about Keith Haring and how his happy art changed the climate of the New York subway system.
Two-thirds of students are finishing their Kansas State Symbols posters and are also learning about Keith Haring and the power of positive symbols.
PE - Chris Fine
We started the bowling unit for 4th and 5th grade classes after Christmas break. We do some kind of warm-up game such as pin-knockdown, or Ga-Ga Ball for a few minutes, then get into bowling for the last 30 minutes of class. We had a good time celebrating strikes with the kids!
Music - Ryan Rothmeyer
4th Grade is preparing for their musical next week. It is called, "Kidflix”. 5th Grade is working on reading treble clef notes on the staff.
Mr. Rothmeyer's student teacher, Isaac Florez, has been helping out in music and leading the students in activities this month.
Library Log - Tina Silva
The new year started off well.
Fourth graders wrote stories about being a snowman before the winter break. They got very creative about what they would do if they were a snowman.
We will be working on different types of poetry writing and creating our own poems.
Fifth graders are learning the different kinds of book genres and the Dewey decimal system. Knowing these parts of the library will help them when looking for a book or deciding on what kind of book to read.
I always encourage students to ‘read outside their box’ or comfort zone. They will not know what they enjoy reading if they do not try different genres. As of January 29th, our reading book chain has 1031 links. I am so proud of all our students.
Happy Reading!
Instructional Insights
Staff Spotlight - Darrel Denney
Mr. Denney is a member of our afternoon/evening custodial crew. He takes great pride in our building and is a huge part of why LIS looks great every morning when students and staff return. Mr. Denney always comes to work with a positive attitude, is willing to go above and beyond his assigned duties, and loves to interact with our students. LIS could not operate properly without the hard work of our awesome custodial team!
Standards-Based Grading
Morning Student Drop-off Procedures
LIS Parents,
We want to ensure our students arrive at school safely. Please help us by reviewing our car drop off procedures.
Do not back up traffic by turning left from Ida. Cars have been swerving around backed up traffic and it is dangerous for everyone involved.
If you plan to sit in the car with your child, and not immediately drop off, pull forward to the end of the cones to prevent traffic backing up to Ida.
Circle around the parking lot back to Ida after dropping off.
Be patient. Saving thirty seconds of time is not worth endangering our students.
Reach out to school staff if there are issues you see that need to be addressed. We are always looking to make drop off more efficient and streamlined.
Cell Phone Policy
If you need to get a message to your child, please contact the office and we can make sure your message is passed along to them. Students caught using their phone will receive a warning the first time. Future violations may result in a discipline referral for inappropriate use of technology.
Thank you for doing your part to help foster a strong learning environment at LIS!
High School Sports Attendance Policy
We're excited for the community to come out and support our band, cheerleaders, and athletes. We have a few reminders for Lansing High School events:
- Student performances are the focus of the event. No one should be on the practice football field, soccer fields, or other areas away from the stadium
- All elementary, intermediate, and middle school aged students attending this season's high school home sporting events and activities must have a parent or guardian with them for the entirety of the event.
- The middle school cheering section is on the south side of the stadium near the concession stand
- Students cannot enter the stadium from the tailgate area
- Please do not bring balls, frisbees, or other items to the game
- Spectators who are disruptive will be asked to leave.
Thank you, and we look forward to a fantastic year!
https://usd469.socs.net/vnews/display.v/ART/6310fd6b46368?in_archive=1
PTA News and Links:
December
2/17 - Skate Night @Skate City WyCo (6-8pm)
2/14-15 - Book Fair @LIS
2/22 - PTA meeting @LES (6:30pm)
Yearbooks can be purchased online at http://www.yearbookforever.com (use the search bar to find our yearbook - Lansing Elementary and Intermediate School). They cost $20 but that price will increase to $25 on May 3.
Spring Parent/Teacher Conferences will be February 14 & 15. Lansing PTA K-5 will once again be providing meals for our teachers over these two days in an effort to show our appreciation for all that they do for our students.
These meals and treats really go a long way in showing our teachers just how much we love them! Our teachers are always so appreciative and thankful for all of the support shown. Please consider sending in a donation if you are able. Thank you!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0D44AAA62AA1FE3-47529563-lisspring#/
We need volunteers! Please consider joining PTA to make our events successful! Many hands make light work!
Email : LansingPTA.K5@gmail.com
Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lansing469pta/
View our webpage: https://lansingpta.blogspot.com/
Lansing Intermediate School
Website: https://www.usd469.net/vnews/display.v/SEC/Lansing%20Intermediate%20School%20%28Grades%204-5%29
Location: 509 Ida Street, Lansing, KS, USA
Phone: (913) 297-0990
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisusd469