On February 12, Dr. Mary Ehrenworth, Senior Deputy Director of the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project, presented on the topic, "What you do at Night, on the Weekends, and on Vacation Can Make a World of Difference to Your Child's Academic Success: Practical Advice for Families from a Leading Literacy Expert."

The achievement gap happens in the summer. Summer slide in reading levels can easily happen. For every 5 weeks of not reading, a student drops a reading level. Students who read in the summer go up a level. The shorter vacations are dress rehearsals for how the longer breaks will go. Start planning now for how to build in a rich reading life for your family at home this coming Spring Break in rehearsal for summer.

Students who read succeed. Families need to create experiences that celebrate reading. You certainly can’t discipline a student into reading, rather you have to love them into it by providing them with books that they find fascinating. Even with sports and other summer activities, make sure that students are reading throughout the summer months.

Mary acknowledged that graphic novels are sometimes viewed negatively by parents. Graphic novels are now the fastest growing area in publishing. Research shows that students who begin reading comics become avid readers over time. Mary’s advice was to not interrupt your student’s passion, instead, channel it.

Mary also commented on the importance of reading aloud. Advanced language comes from reading aloud to your student. When reading aloud, refer to pictures if any and provide students with meaning and context of new vocabulary. Don’t forget to make predictions along the way. Look for books that are mirrors and windows for your child by making sure that the authors and illustrators match the culture they’re writing about. Read series books that are above your student’s level multiple times so they’re almost memorized by the time your student reads them.

I hope these notes were helpful to you in supporting the reading habit at home. Please also find notes taken by a BSD staff member attached below (download the pdf) if you would like more information as well.

Working with you for kids,

Dear Scholls Heights Community,

I am happy to announce that Andrea Bonard is our March Walk + Roll Champion! Each month Safe Routes to School awards one person/group/school with a Walk + Roll Champion to recognize the work they are doing to promote safe, active transportation for their school community. We are so impressed with Andrea’s dedication to providing not only a monthly Walking School Bus, but also coordinating encouragement events, anti-idling signs and a SRTS Action Plan. What a Rockstar!!! Scholls Heights is 1 of 3 schools in our District that have a Walking School Bus and we will continue to collaborate on how to grow the number of students participating. One of the proven methods is consistency (it takes time for these programs to build) and I am so impressed with Andrea’s commitment over the past 2 years to continue to show up and not get discouraged!

Andrea will be recognized at the April 1, PTO meeting.

Leah Biado-Luis

Beaverton Safe Routes to School Coordinator

Beaverton School District

Please remind your child that Pokemon cards need to remain at home. We are having problems with students trading them at school and on the bus. Thank you for your help with this.

Vacation Day (Hawaii, Hiking, Fishing attire, etc.)- March 20

Crazy Dress Day (Inside Out/Backwards)- May 1

Celebrate Your School Day (College, High School, Scholls Heights)- May 29

Our past practice has been to interrupt the classroom when parents call to change their child's dismissal. As you can imagine, this is frustrating to teachers. Starting mid February, the office is recording changes in dismissal and delivering the information to classrooms at 2:30 daily. If you need to change your child’s normal dismissal plan, the best way is to send them with a note in the morning that is recorded by both the teacher and the office. If there is an unexpected change and dismissal plans must be changed, please call the office prior to 2:30. Thanks!

Health Information, including each grade level's scope and sequence, can be found on the Beaverton School District's website. Here is the link. Individual teachers will be letting parents know when they will be teaching Erin's Law and specific Great Body Shop Lessons.

Current totals for our coin drive are as follows:

1st place: 2nd grade with $ 78.84

2nd place: 1st grade with $ 75.01

3rd place: Kinder with $ 71.96

4th place: 5th grade with $ 58.62

5th place: 4th grade with $ 57.79

6th place: 3rd grade with $ 45.19

Total donations to date: $ 387.41! Reminder that the Coin Drive continues through next Friday, March 13. Keep those coins coming in!

Join other parents at the Gala Fundraiser. There are only a few tickets left. Here is the link for more information.

We’ve distributed all the Youth Access Cards to every school in Beaverton School District, and are starting to see an increase in students using their library! As of the end of January BSD students have used their new Youth Access Cards to check out over 15,000 books!—at least 5 Scholls Heights students have used their new Youth Access Cards to check out 18 books!

Spring Break is just around the corner—this year we have activities every day for kids in grades K-5 with their families all about animals From Aardvark to Zebra! Visit www.BeavertonLibrary.org/SpringBreak

Here are some other activities happening March:

Main

· Dr. Seuss’s Birthday Party

· Parent Education Night: Growth Mindset

· St. Patrick’s Day

Murray Scholls

· Can you break a Guinness World Record?

· Minecraft Wall Art

Most Requested kids’ books this month:

1. Dragonslayer: Wings Of Fire: Legends by Tui Sutherland

2. Warriors: The Broken Code #3 Veld of Shadows by Erin Hunter

3. Edge of Extinction #2 Code Name Flood by Laura Martin

Most Requested kids’ movies this month:

1. Frozen 2 (2019)

2. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019)

3. Abominable (2019)

Dinning for Dollars this month is at Greenway McMenamins on March 10. Please consider participating in this dining for dollars as they are generously donating 50% of sales to our PTO.

Below is a screen shot from the first page of the link below. The link has Information about why we take the test and the opt out procedure. Third-Fifth grade students usually begin testing around spring vacation. Teachers will be communicating with parents as it gets closer.

https://www.oregon.gov/ode/educator-resources/assessment/Documents/Opt-Out_Form_2019-20.pdf

Below is the link to approved flyers for After School Activities.

https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/departments/communications-community-involvement/after-school-activitiesflyers.