Early Dismissal
Friday, May 17th is early dismissal. Students will be dismissed at 11:00 a.m.
MAP tests - I have been studying the MAP tests results and one trend I have noticed is that many student's scores go down in the fall after being away from school all summer. This doesn't have to happen. Providing children with fun but meaningful activities during the summer can help them to retain what they have learned. Some examples of ideas are to work on projects together which require reading and math. Baking can help their measurement and fraction skills along with reading and following directions. Making projects out of wood could require reading the directions and measuring accurately. Having your child plan and plant a small vegetable or flower garden where they have to read the directions about when to plant, how deep and how far apart can help them with their reading, and measuring. Maybe you want to teach your child about baseball averages and how they work. Planning your family vacation can be a very worthwhile learning adventure as the child figures out how far it is between stops, and how long it will take. They can research places of interest that your family might enjoy visiting. These examples will not seem like to school to your child, but will require them to do the same types of learning activities that we require of them. That is a win-win combination.
Summer Reading - It is not too early to begin thinking how you, as parents, are going to keep your child reading this summer. Many libraries have summer book clubs that help to encourage summer reading. If your child is a stubborn reader, it may help to hire an older student to come at a set time to read with your child each day. A junior high student would be perfect for this job, (maybe some budding teacher), and would probably be willing to work for a relatively small amount of money. Another idea is to have a set family reading time when everyone sits down and reads. This can be especially helpful if everyone gets a chance to tell the other members of the family what they have just read about or a favorite part of what they have read. So, I encourage you to be proactive about your child's summer reading program. Think carefully about what would fit into your family's schedule and plan ahead to make reading an important part of your child's summer activities.
