Gashland News
February 2020
No School Wednesday February 5th
2020-21 KINDERGARTEN AND 2020 SUMMER LEARNING
With the start of February, our thoughts shift to spring enrollment for both our incoming kindergartners AND summer school plans for our current kindergartners and first graders. The following information will help your family as you plan for these events.
KINDERGARTEN ENROLLMENT – All families who have a child who will be 5 years old before August 1, 2020, may enroll for the 2020-21 school year. Our Kindergarten Roundup event is March 5th from 6:00-7:30 p.m. Gashland staff will provide parents with important information about the school year, while our incoming kindergartners will visit kindergarten classrooms and enjoy activities with our kindergarten staff. Parents and students will also have an opportunity for a short ride on a school bus that evening. Even if your child will be a car rider, he/she will ride a bus for our field trips, so allowing our new students to experience a bus ride early helps alleviate any fears. Enrollment packets will be available that evening. So, if you have a child who will be enrolling for kindergarten this fall, we hope you will make plans to attend this meeting.
KICKOFF TO KINDERGARTEN, also known as K2K, is an opportunity for our incoming kindergartners to experience “school” during the summer before the fall term begins. We will offer an opportunity for our kindergartners to attend a two-week session to experience school while our older students attend summer school. K2K hours will be the same as summer school – 8:05-2:05 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Parents may choose which session they would like their child to attend: Session 1 – June 1-11 OR Session 2 – June 15-25. All students who wish to attend K2K must be completely enrolled for the fall with up-to-date immunizations. K2K enrollment forms will be available at Kindergarten Roundup, March 5th.
Summer School – Summer school will be June 1st-25th. Gashland summer school is for our current kindergartners. Our current 1st graders will attend summer school at Clardy. It will be four weeks, Monday through Thursday, from 8:05-2:05 p.m. We will offer two programs based on your child’s academic needs. All students will have opportunities to practice literacy and numeracy skills, as well as enjoying art, science, and the library. If your child is being recommended by his/her teacher to attend summer school for extra practice on basic reading, writing, and math skills, it will be noted on the form. We can only accommodate 80 students for summer school. Stay tuned for forms to come home in the coming weeks. These slots will be filled on a first-come-first-served basis. We will also send home the Clardy summer school form for current 1st graders. Summer school and K2K are free and bus transportation will be provided free of charge as well. So, if you have a brand-new future kindergartner, or a current kindergartner, we hope you will make summer plans to have your Gashland Star join us for a fun-filled June in our summer learning program.
~ Mrs. Lakin, EdS
*Birthday Treat Reminder*
Party treats and birthday treats are restricted to commercially prepackaged items and must have label with ingredients listed. This is required for the safety of our students. The nurse must check all treats before students can enjoy them. If possible, please provide all the same flavor of cupcakes or cookies to make them easier to pass out to the class. Thanks for your cooperation and understanding.
Kindergarten Round-Up
Gashland/Clardy Booster Club has a new Facebook Group!
Creating a group instead of just a page allows the booster club to share forms and files easily which improves transparency and makes it easier to find the information you are looking for.
Please click on the link below to join:
2 Hour Delay Start Option for Potential Inclement Weather
NKC Schools has a safe option for inclement weather days that could reduce the need for makeup days. Essentially, the school day will be two hours shorter. On a two-hour delayed start day, all buses will pick up students two hours later than the regular pickup times, but the drop-off times will NOT change. All schools will end their day at the regular end time including, Thursdays. If the District activates the two-hour delayed start, the early release would be canceled.
Alternate stops for buses (aka Snow Routes) will be in effect on two-hour delayed start days. Transportation Services communicates directly with all families affected by alternate stops. NKC Schools will use a full complement of communication channels to announce two-hour delayed start days just as they do for school closings. Those include: School Messenger phone, email and text alerts; www.nkcschools.org website; Twitter; local radio and TV.
See the district website for additional information about inclement weather plans:
Kindergarten News
In January, we celebrated Martin Luther King Day and learned a bit about this leader. A number of students have now become members of the 100 Book Club and others are in the 200 Book Club or higher. Thank you for reading! Keep it up. We would like all children to be in the 100 Book Club! Every time you read a book to or with your child, please write down the title on the lists in your child’s folder. Also, when your child reads his/her just-right book to you and you record these books on the special form, they will also count in the “Buzz. . .Bee a Reader” program.
Our students are continuing to make progress in reading. We are learning more and more words. Remember to encourage reading and writing at home. You can check your student’s take home folder for our kindergarten sight words. We have also worked on beginning sounds, ending sounds, and now middle sounds beginning with short ‘a’ and short ‘o’. We are continuing to practice blending sounds to make words and segmenting words into their individual sounds. For some kindergartners these skills are quite difficult and require much practice, at school and at home. Having your child read his/her just-right book every evening is very helpful to your child’s reading progress.
When reading to your child, please encourage your child to retell the important events of the story in order. Help them to briefly summarize the story, as well. We are continuing to practice identifying the title, author and illustrator of books, as well as the characters, setting, problem and resolution. Students are also practicing asking questions before, during, and after reading to better understand a text and build comprehension skills.
This quarter we will be working more on having the students compose and write simple complete sentences. Some students are able to do this on their own already; others will be able to after more practice.
Besides practicing counting to 100, counting up to 20 objects and learning to recognize and write numbers through 31 in math, we are beginning to learn about the instruments use to tell time (digital and analog clocks) as well as 3D shapes.
Kindergarteners were excited to celebrate the 100th day of school on January 29. Thank you for your continued support at home!
-Mrs. Agbaji, Mrs. Bryant, Mrs. Kingery, Mrs. Lansangan and Mrs. Settles
First Grade News
This is an exciting time for first grade students and their teachers. It is both encouraging and rewarding to witness the tremendous growth we are seeing in our learners. The time and effort families give in the evenings to make their child a better reader is the critical piece to making the “Bee A Reader” program such a huge success! Please know that all you do at home is appreciated by your child’s teacher and more importantly, the most important person ever... your son or daughter.
February is a busy time in first grade. Our last class party will celebrate friendship and kindness in the form of Valentine’s Day.
Read to find out what we are learning:
Readers Workshop- Children will use key ideas and details to understand a text at a deeper level. (characters, setting and major events). Readers will compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters. Readers identify individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in informational texts.
In Writers Workshop, students will spend time writing informational books using a question and answer format. Students will research a topic that is interesting to them and they will teach us about this topic using the Question and Answer format.
Math- In Math, we will continue learning Addition Fact Strategies. These strategies include: represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction and add and subtract within 20. We will also continue to work on place value and comparing numbers.
Social Studies- This month will find first graders exploring the national symbols of our country. They will learn the significance of George Washington and Abe Lincoln, the meaning of democracy, and how to be a responsible citizen.
Science- Students will investigate the properties of matter: solids, liquids, and gas.
Thank you for your continued help and support at home
-Mrs. Kimball, Mrs. Minter, Mrs. Robke, Ms. Roddy & Ms. Vaughn
Pre-K News
Our preschoolers have been diving into learning second semester! We came back from winter break ready to pick up where we left off. The month of January was spent in our Community Helpers unit of study. We spent these few weeks focusing on our classroom community, our school community, and the community around us. We focused on various community helpers such as doctors, dentists, nurses, firefighters, police officers, and garbage collectors. We read a combination of fiction books and informational texts. We spent the last day of this unit brainstorming what we might want to be when we grow up! The last week of January began our Building unit of study. We spent the week learning about lines and shapes and looking for various lines and shapes in our environment. We are looking forward to this very hands on unit! Our winter assessment was administered in January and we are celebrating the growth our students have made! In February, we are looking forward to our friendship party and the 100th day of preschool!
-Mrs. Tapp & Mrs. Hensley
Nurse's News
February is National Children’s Dental Health Month. Dr. Bob Marx is offering FREE cleanings and exams for your children on Saturday, February 1, 2020 from 9 am until 12pm. Children will be seen at Dr. Marx’s office, located at 5708 North Broadway, Gladstone, MO 64118. You must make an appointment in advance by calling 816-452-2000. The contact is Tacie Diehl, Community Relations Director for the office. Call NOW to get your child’s name on the list, space is limited.
Please let me know if your student has the flu. The school district tracks the episodes of flu. I will need the following information including the type of influenza, date when tested, if your child received the flu vaccine this school year and whether Tamiflu or another medication was prescribed. Thank you for your help!
Thanks,
Theresa Keaveney, RN
Counselor's Corner
Happy Valentine’s Day! Happy President’s Day! Lots of fun & excitement coming for the month of February, in spite of the cold, snowy January weather! During February counseling lessons, we are reviewing technology guidelines and how to stay safe online and on social media.
Students are starting out on devices and screens at an earlier age, so it’s very important that we prepare and teach them how to manage privacy and their screen time. We will also start exploring careers & occupations….that topic will continue into spring, culminating in April with our Career Day.
As always, we are here for your child and want them to feel safe, respected and productive at school. Please don’t hesitate to reach out, should you need anything: Nancy.Muller@nkcschools -or- 816.321.5782
Library
Dear Gashland Families,
In the library, we have been focusing on using information from a non-fiction text to answer our research questions. Now, that we have become more comfortable using the pictures and text features of a book for research, we move on to digital resources. Our Gashland Stars will learn to access Mid-Continent Public Library Databases – such as World Book Kids, Pebble Go, and Kids Info Bits. They will learn to use these powerful educational tools to answer research questions.
Looking Ahead: Our Scholastic Book Fair will be the week of April 13th – April 17th. The book fair will be open during our Gashland Learning Express Nights.
Contact Information:
Gashland Library Circulation Desk – 321-5106
Or call Mrs. Bradfield directly at 321-4212
Happy Reading!
Mrs. Bradfield, School Librarian
Encore
Art
January was packed with tons of art fun and learning.
The First graders have been learning about Piet Mondrian and using the same elements in his work: primary colors, squares, rectangles and lines. I challenged students to design their own work of art using these elements WITHOUT looking at the artist images first. After their masterpieces were complete, I showed them how Mondrian organized his elements. It was fun to watch. Looking at other artists works help us define and understand the art world around us. Students observe what other artists do, even the artists in their class, to help define their own style.
The Kindergarteners have also been learning about artists and artistic movements this month. We looked at animals in art, and how a variety of artists created works using animals. We painted a lion’s face by layering paint and creating texture, which they did amazing on, and then curled and glued construction paper around the face for the mane. We have also been looking at abstract artists and will be creating out own abstract pieces soon.
-Nichole Peacher
PE:
Hello all!
In PE for Kindergarten and 1st grade we are finishing up our Cooperative Learning unit and will start our Movement Concepts unit very soon! Some objectives for this unit are “I can successfully jump one jump with my jump rope”, “I can stay on my feet while doing different locomotor skills”, and “I can follow rhythm to music while doing different locomotor skills.”
For Health we have begun Unit 3: Disease and Hygiene. Some objectives for this unit are
“I can explain the steps of proper brushing and flossing of teeth”, “I can explain the steps of proper handwashing”, “I can identify different ways germs are spread” and “I can identify different ways to prevent germs from spreading.”
We will be doing lots of new and exciting activities for PE and Health! Can’t wait to get started!
Any questions feel free to email me! justice.lozano@nkcschools.org
Follow on twitter for PE/Health updates @CoachLozanoNKC
-Coach Lozano
Music
Happy February from the Gashland Music Room!
During the month of February our Gashland Singers will be practicing singing songs of friendship! Ask your Gashland Star if they can sing this song!
Make new friends but keep the old.
One is silver and the other’s gold.
A circle’s round. It has no end.
That’s how long I want to be your friend.
Grade 1:
First Grade musicians are starting to learn about special names for our notes including Sol and Mi. They will be learning how to read these notes on the music staff as well.
Kindergarten:
Mark your calendars for our concert! We will be preparing for our concert which will be held on Thursday, March 12 at Clardy Elementary. Please note the times for each performance.
6:30-7:00 p.m. – KINGERY and LANSANGAN
7:30-8:00 p.m. – AGBAJI; BRYANT; SETTLES
-Christy Lovenduski
Literacy Launch
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than by doing some fun reading and writing activities! Here are some simple ideas you can do at home. If you are interested in printing any of the downloadable documents, visit the scholastic website at https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/genia-connell/2017/5-Fun-Learning-Activities-for-Valentines-Day/ where many of these ideas came from!
Use the following story starter prompts to write a sweet story or letter!
- Write a friendly letter to someone you love. In your letter, give that person at least three reasons why they are special to you.
- What do you love more than anything in the world? Write a narrative that tells about something or someone you love.
- You just got a job writing new phrases to put on the candy at the conversation heart factory! What ten phrases would you add to the candies this year? Write out the phrases then explain why you chose those ten.
Visit your local library and check out some great books with love as the theme.
World Culture Corner
This year we will feature a different country each month, highlighting home countries of some of our Gashland families. If you would like to share information about your family’s home country, please email Elizabeth Thompson--- elizabeth.thompson@nkcschools.org
Let’s get to know each other better!
People’s Republic of China
Location: East Asia
Size: 3,705,405 square miles –fourth largest country in the world—slightly smaller than the U.S.
Climate and Land:
· Ranges from sub-arctic in the north to sub-tropical in the south
· Mountains and deserts in the west; plains and rivers in the east
· Monsoons cause frequent summer flooding
· Sandstorms becoming more common in the north
Language: Mandarin is the official language, with many dialects throughout the country. Knowledge of 1,500-3,500 written characters is required for basic Chinese literacy.
Population: 1,384,688,986—largest in the world (4 times the population of the U.S.)
Currency: Yuan Renminbi
Fun Facts:
· Soccer, table tennis, badminton and swimming are among the favorite sports in China.
· Chinese music is based on a five-tone scale and is distinct in rhythm and tone.
· Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) lasts for fifteen days.
China (2020). CultureGrams Online Edition. ProQuest. Retrieved from http://online.culturegrams.com.mcpl.idm.oclc.org/world/world_country.php?cid=34
Next month’s country: Peru
About Us
Fax: 816-321-5101
Attendance: 816-321-5102
Nurse: 816-321-5103
Cafe: 816-321-5104
Email: cindy.lakin@nkcschools.org
Website: www.nkcschools.org/gaes
Location: 500 Northeast 83rd Street, Kansas City, MO, 64118
Phone: 816-321-5100
Twitter: @gashlandstars
Gashland Clardy Booster Club
Email: gashlandclardybooster@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/GashlandClardyBooster/
Twitter: @GaClBooster