• This week certainly had some weather challenges! I wanted to thank you all for your understanding and flexibility as we navigated an ever-changing forecast. I just want to remind everyone that when considering whether or not to close school or have a delayed opening, the Superintendent has to keep the entire district in mind, especially those far-reaching places with secondary roads. As any of you who have traveled up on Christian Hill or up in Heath know, the weather can be entirely different up there! The decision to close schools or put buses on the road is rarely an easy one and those responsible for making it have the safety of our students, staff, and bus driver as their top priority. I also appreciate everyone's flexibility with the necessity some days to put the students on Joanne and Cindy's buses on the high school run. Often that hour between when high schoolers are delivered and when elementary students get home is when things can get dangerous quickly. Everyone has done a great job communicating with us when we've needed to do that and I thank you for that. Please remember our priority is always to get everyone to and from school safely.
• We are still working on finding a new date for the 5th and 6th grade "Winter Wonderland" dance. As soon as we have that, we will let you know.
• Please see the flyer below for more information about a district camp being held over February break.

COVID tests: Covid tests are available at the Griswold Memorial Library, the town office, and by mail at http://www.covidtests.gov for those who may be looking for them.

Repeated Readings for Fluency

The number one indicator of a fluent reader is rapid, or automatic, word recognition - however, many lack automatic word recognition. While there are many activities that can boost automatic word recognition, research has shown to improve automatic recognition the most is re-reading practice.

Based on the article REPEATED READING ROUTINE FOR FLUENCY by Marnie Ginsberg (https://readingsimplified.com/repeated-reading-routine-for-fluency/), the research-based re-reading routine will also help develop students' decoding skills, fluency, and comprehension.

Repeated reading helps students build confidence and motivation to read fluently and process words automatically. Further, the research shows that repeated reading with proper guidance and feedback from peers, parents, or teachers are effective in improving reading skills.

This simplified routine below can be found in video form using the link above.

Small group instruction - teacher models reading with expression and students practice

Independent reading - students work to master the reading

Next day group instruction - choral reading and some independent reading

1/27: Lasagna Dinner~Dine in or Take out

2/9: Report Cards go home

2/9: Hillside Pizza Pickup

2/20-2/24: No school: February break

February early release dates:

1:50 dismissals: 2/1, 2/8