Jackson Jottings
November 2019, Volume 2
November Calendar at a Glance
- 1st - Harvest Party Day
- 5th - Picture Retake Day (please let teachers know if you want your child to get retakes)
- 7th - End of First Quarter
- 7th - 2-Hour Early Release (please plan accordingly)
- 8th - NO SCHOOL (Teacher Planning Day)
- 18th - Report Cards Sent Home
- 19th, 21st, & 25th - Conferences, 3:15-7:30 each night (please sign up for a time slot)
- 27th-29th - NO SCHOOL (Thanksgiving Break)
2020-21 Middle School Attendance Areas UPDATE
We would like to thank all of you who have reached out with questions, comments, feedback, attended an information session or visited our information booths at conferences . Your feedback is important and will help the Shakopee School Board make a decision in December or January on middle school attendance areas for the 2020-21 school year. We want to continue to hear from you. Please mark your calendar for our second Information and Input Session. It will be held on Thursday, November 7, 2019 at West Middle School (Media Center) from 6-7 p.m. In the meantime, you can find information on our website: shakopee.k12.mn.us/Page/9929. We have posted maps of the proposed scenarios, frequently asked questions, and background on why attendance areas will be changing.
DROPPING OFF KIDS
Please drop off your kids by the lower area stop sign in the upper lot. For the safety of all of our students, please remain in the line of cars and let children out of the right side of the car onto the sidewalk. If you are dropping by upper entrance please stay in line of cars, have your child get out on the sidewalk side, and do no pull any further ahead than the last sign before the entrance (there needs to be enough room for our upper buses and school vehicles to pull in right by entrance). If you park in the lot, please walk your children across the driveway to the sidewalk. Students should not be walking from the parking lot through the crosswalk unaccompanied.
Please do not drop off before 8:10 AM. Thank you!
Would you like to be a volunteer?
Thank you to the many volunteers who have signed up to help so far this year at Jackson. We are looking for volunteers to help out in our workroom whenever it works for you. Please stop in and take a look at our project bin. You can even sign out a project and complete it at home and send it back to school.
If you plan to volunteer in a classroom or on a field trip please fill out the volunteer information online at at: https://apps.raptortech.com/Apply/MzIxNzplbi1VUw==
Thank you for all you do to help our staff and students!
Jennifer Klecker
Jackson Volunteer Site Coordinator
952-496-5802
Nurse Notes by Nurse Andrea
As the weather is getting colder, there are more students visiting the health office due to illness. It can be hard to decide if your child should stay home from school or not. Here are a few guidelines for children to stay home from school:
- A fever of 100, plus illness symptoms: The students needs to stay home 24 hours after the temperature returns to normal and symptoms are gone.
- A fever of 101 or higher with or without other symptoms: The students needs to stay home for 24 hours after the temperature returns to normal.
- Diarrhea: The student needs to stay home until 24 hours after last episode.
- Vomiting: The student needs to stay home until 24 hours after last episode.
- Red Eyes: The student should stay home and possibly see a health care professional if there is yellow drainage, eye pain, or crusty eyes.
- Rash and Hives: If the rash is itchy, painful, or has any drainage it may be hard for the student to be productive and attentive in school. Students may return after being seen by a health care professional or if itching, pain, or drainage as gone away.
- Contagious Illness: Students should stay home if they have anything that is contagious or spreadable to other children. Students may return when instructed by a health care professional or after 24 hours of treatment.
Please remember that these are guidelines. If there is ever a question if your child should go to school call your health care provider or school nurse (Nurse Andrea, 952-496-5804). Thank you!
Andrea Richards
School Nurse
952-496-5804
Art Lines from Mr. Olson
Greetings from the Art Department!
Warning!!! Art class can be messy! SEND AN ART SHIRT WITH YOUR STUDENT!
What a creative month of October we had! The students were very busy and have started taking home much of their awesome work!
The kindergarteners have been having a great time painting! They have created some fall trees and spent time learning the order of the rainbow/color wheel! Our First graders are completing the color unit with an introduction to the art of Claude Monet, the French impressionist!
Second graders are learning about the famous artist Vincent van Gogh and are creating a painting using his style. Abstract landscapes are the theme in third grade and they are also working on understanding where foreground, middle ground and background fit in an artwork.
The fourth and fifth graders have been learning about contour line drawing. They have also taken on the 50 color mixing challenge. It has been fun to watch them use their prior knowledge of color while they are mixing paint! We hope you all have a great start to winter and I look forward to seeing you around the building!
Sincerely,
Mr. Olson
AND
Mrs. Hall
Jackson Art Specialists
Music "Notes"
Some things to know about your child’s
music education at Jackson Elementary!
- Your student has music class 3 times during the 10 day school day cycle.
- I will be using Seesaw as much as possible to give you a glimpse into music class.
- Music Class is 50 minutes long.
- During a 50 minute music class, students experience music in a variety of ways: singing, singing games, playing classroom instruments, such as: xylophones, drums, rhythm sticks, hand drums and other classroom percussion instruments. Students also experience music through creating, reading music stories, listening and analyzing music and moving and dancing to a variety of music from around the world.
- Shakopee’s music curriculum is based off of the National Music Standards and can found by going to this website: https://nafme.org/wp-content/files/2014/11/2014-Music-Standards-PK-8-Strand.pdf
UPCOMING MUSIC DATES:
- Friday, November 15th - 3rd grade Veteran’s Day program, 2:00p.m.
- Tuesday, November 26th - 5th grade attend Native American Powwow at SHS
- Friday, December 6th - 2nd grade Nutcracker Suite program, 2:00p.m.
- Tuesday, February 4th - 4th grade attend Jack Brass Band concert at SHS
- Friday, February 21st - 1st grade Music program, 2:00p.m.
- Thursday, February 27th - 5th grade students to Ordway Performing Arts Center for Taiko drumming program
- Friday, March 13th - Kindergarten Music program, 2:00p.m.
- Wednesday, March 18th - 3rd grade students to Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis
- Friday, April 17th - 4th grade “Minnesota Musicians” program, 2:00p.m.
- Monday, May 11th - 5th grade Music and Band program, 6:30p.m.
- Wednesday, June 3rd - Jackson Talent Show at 1:30p.m.
By: Sari Flatness
A "Note" from Band
By: Diane Markovich
Each band student receives 3 band classes, and 2 small group lessons in a 10-day cycle. We have successfully played Hot Cross Buns together as a full band! In addition to our band playing, we are also incorporating Native American music and performing into our class time as well. See details listed under the 5th grade update above.
Band Grades: Band students will each be receiving band grades for the first quarter of learning. These grades are based on the following three areas: 1) knowledge of 8 music elements, 2) tone production; sound they are producing from their instrument, 3) knowledge of first notes and fingerings, and 4) attendance for band and lessons; with instrument and necessary materials. Please look for these to see how your band student is doing.
Ms Lund will be returning to Jackson the beginning of December, so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the students I’ve had the privilege to work with, as well as the wonderful staff here at Jackson Elementary. My last day at Jackson as the 5th grade band teacher/classroom music Long-Term Sub will be Nov. 26th. Thank you for these wonderful three months!
Please mark these scheduled concert dates on your calendars:
Saturday, March 21st — All District Band Concert at 4:00 pm (Shakopee Senior High) AND Monday, May 11th — Jackson 5th Grade Music Program at 6:30 pm (Jackson Gym).
I am looking forward to a great school year of music making!
Physical Education Fun with Mr. Casey, Mrs. Tanberg, & Mr. Koening
Students at Jackson Elementary School have been busy participating in their Fitness tests. Students are tested in 4 areas. Endurance (mile run), abdominal strength (sit ups), flexibility (sit and reach), and arm strength (pull ups). To prepare themselves for our fitness testing, students have been walking / jogging on the track and in the gym during PE. Class Students have also been very busy with activities such as soccer, football and the popular obstacle course. The obstacle course is designed to work specific muscle groups such as leg strength, upper body strength, balance, bilateral movement, endurance and most of all “IT’S FUN”
If you have any questions please call or stop by and visit our Physical Education Class, you are always welcome!
Mr. Jeff Casy (jcasey@shakopee.k2.mn.us)
Mrs. Susan Tanberg (stanberg@shakopee.k12.mn.us)
Mr. Dan Koenig (dkoenig@shakopee.k12.mn.us)
If anyone has some old tennis shoes that they would like to donate to the Physical Education Department it be greatly appreciated. We have students who do not have tennis shoes to wear for physical education and we would like to give them a pair. Please make sure the tennis shoes are clean and free of rips and tears.
Greetings from the Learning Commons!
Hello from the Jackson Media Center!
It is finally Book Fair month!
Our Scholastic “Arctic Adventure” Book Fair will be during conference nights:
November 19th, 21st, and 25th.
The book fair is a great way to expand your home library and foster those literacy skills. It is also a major fund raiser for our school and helps us purchase new books and resources for our school library. The book fair will run during all three conference nights from 3:30 – 7:30 pm. We can’t wait to see you there!
BOOK FAIR VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
We are looking for volunteers to help run our book fair. This is a fun way to connect with students and families by helping them find awesome new books! If you are interested, please email our volunteer coordinator, Jennifer Klecker at jklecker@shakopee.k12.mn.us
Media Classes:
Grades K-2: We have enjoyed reading new stories during each media class. We have been working to familiarize ourselves with the iPads and different apps on there. SeeSaw is a great way for students to use technology to share their learning with parents and teachers. We also began our digital citizenship lessons talking about internet safety and privacy.
Grade 3: – We have been working to get more familiar with our library and how books are
organized. Third graders have learned about the Dewey Decimal System, which is the number
system used to categorize all nonfiction books. Students have also been using SeeSaw to share
their learning with parents and teachers.
Grade 4: – We have been continuing to work on our library organization in 4th grade as well.
Students used their iPads to do a scavenger hunt throughout our library by finding books in
different categories and identifying the call number for each book.
Grade 5: – In 5th grade we started our digital citizenship lessons by talking about social media.
We have discussed both advantages and disadvantages of having social media. We also spent
time discussing the age 13 rule for social media website and apps. Finally, students worked to
discuss how to be safe and respectful in online relationships.
4th – 5th Grade Maude Hart Lovelace Challenge
Each year the state of Minnesota nominates 10 children’s chapter books for the MHL award.
Students in 4th and 5th Grade are invited to read as many of these books as possible during the
school year. Students who read 3 or more of the books will be invited to vote for the award at
the end of the school year. The unique thing about this award is only children may vote in this
contest. Students who read 5 or more of the MHL nominated books will be invited to a special
media celebration at the end of the year.
For more information about this award please visit the Minnesota Youth Reading Awards website at https://myrahome.org/. Here are this year’s nominees:
- Amina’s Voice by Hene Khan
- The End of the Wild by Nicole Helget
- Framed! by James Ponti
- Lemons by Melissa Savage
- The Losers Club by Andrew Clements
- The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
- Save Me a Seat by Gita Varadarajan and Sarah Weeks
- The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse by Briany Farrey
- Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes
- Wish by Barbara O’Connor
By: Betsi Arvin
Media Specialist
barvin@shakopee.k12.mn.us
Learning Commons: Digital Learning Highlight
Parenting in the digital world can be a great place to live. Kids have access to coding programs, learning platforms to extend education into the home, personal devices to explore 3D printing, video editing, green screen, and so much more. But with the advantages of technology also come the struggles.
I wanted to share a powerful resources with our Jackson families that may help you learn about how to parent your children through difficult 21st Century situations like online bullying, use of social media, quantity of screen time, and more.
Go to this link to see all of the topics available. It has been a helpful website as I raise my own 2 children. Many of the resources are also written in Spanish.
Natalie Weatherman (Digital Learning Coach)
PTO NEWS
Hello Jackson Families!
October was a busy and fabulous month for the Jackson PTO. I want to thank our entire Jackson community for helping us reach our goal of raising $25,000 during our Boosterthon Fun Run event to help us continue to support our wonderful school, our teacher grants, and our community building events.
Our next meeting is on November 12th at 6:30 pm in the Gifford Cluster. This is a grant meeting which means if teachers have applied for a grant for funding from us, they will present at the meeting and we will vote on whether the grant should be funded or not. Also, State Representative Brad Tabke will be there to discuss education issues. Child care will be available.
Our webstore through Valley Sports is open now through November 6th. It is a chance to order Jackson attire for you whole family with a portion of the proceeds going back to the PTO. For more info visit https://jackson19.itemorder.com/sale
Our first round of conferences are coming up this month and we will be helping feed dinner to our hardworking staff those three nights. When you are visiting your teachers during conferences, please look for our Blizzard of Wishes posters. We will be asking teachers to share any supplies they are in need of and if you wish and are able to help, you can choose a slip from a poster and purchase that item for that classroom. We are also hoping to get ideas from our staff on their personal likes or wishes in case families want to get teachers a personal gift.
Our no cook dinner night in November will be at Culvers on Wednesday, November 20th from 5:00-8:00. Our school will get 10% of sales during that date and time so please share the information with your family and friends. We will be looking for volunteers to help run food to tables and to vehicles in the drive-thru.
I’d like to thank everyone that has volunteered and/or attended our events so far this year. We’ve had a great start to our school year! If you have any questions about the PTO or one of our events, you can email me at jacksonPTO28@gmail.com.
As always thank you for supporting our Jackson Community!
Kjersta Hoffman
PTO President