North Kansas City School District
April 2016
Volume 7, Issue 8
Extraordinary Educational Experiences
The Gashland Stars
Excellence in
Primary Education
Gashland Elementary School
“The Gashland School Community will provide a learning environment that is safe and productive to
promote development of the whole child.” (Mission Statement adopted 2005-2006)
Happy Spring!
2016
April
Calendar of Events
Individual Spring
Pictures
9:20am
8
Author Ann Ingalls
Visits Gashland
11
XLT and K2K
Forms Due
15
Kindergarten Learning
Express Student
Conferences 6:00-7:45
19
1st Grade Learning
Express Student
Conferences 6:00-7:45
21
Kindergarten Field Trip
KC Zoo 9:15am
26
Release Day
No School
28
All XLT (Summer
Learning) & K2K
Forms Due
Friday, April 15, 2016
The promise of warmer spring weather has excited our young learners that spring is here and they are ready to
enjoy the outdoors as much as possible. As I observe Mother Nature’s budding trees, blooming foliage, and
greening grass, I think about how much our students have grown and learned this year. To demonstrate this, you
will be receiving a special invitation to join us for the Gashland Learning Express later this month. . We’ve divided
the event into two nights: Kindergarten families attend on Tuesday, April 19; and our 1st grade families attend on
Thursday, April 21. This will be a time for your student to share what he/she has learned this school year in the
classroom as well as in PE, music, and art classes. We hope you will make every effort to attend and celebrate
your student’s achievement. Every Gashland student who attends may enter a raffle to win two free tickets to
Worlds of Fun!
We had a big celebration in March. When we returned from spring break we had 191 students return a list of at
least 10 books they read during spring break for our Buzz…Bee a Reader program. This is the most students
we’ve ever had participate! WOW! Each student received a special Super Star pencil grip, certificate, and free
meal coupon at Ruby Tuesday to celebrate his/her achievement. A special thank you to our preschool parent, Mr.
Qaradagie, who provided the Ruby Tuesday coupons. Thank you!!
Finally, I’d like to share some “Big News” about our students’ reading achievement. For March, our reading
benchmark is that students are reading at level “C” or higher for kindergarten and “H” level or higher for first
graders. Below is our current reading levels data:
2015-16 MARCH READING LEVELS
Kindergarten
C or higher
% on track
# STUDENTS
88/115
77%
1st grade
H or higher
% on track
# STUDENTS
95/120
79%
We know that one of the best ways to help our students become readers is to practice reading every day.
Research abounds that substantiates this. This investment of time while your child is young will turn your child
from a student “learning to read” to a student “reading to learn.” Our students often hear me say “the more you
read the more you know-the more you know, the further you’ll go! This is so true. Thank you, parents, for
your continued support and trust as together we continue instilling and modeling the love of reading with our
students.
Happy Reading!
Cindy Lakin, Principal
Gashland Learning Express
Buzz Bee A Reader
Spring Challenge
Preschool=20
Kindergarten=84
First Grade=87
Total=191
Kindergarten- April 19, 2016
First Grade- April 21, 2016
6:00-7:45pm
Mark your calendars for a fun night. Students will be leading their families throughout the school
building, stopping at stations to share what they have learned this year in the classroom, media center,
music, art, and PE/health classes. Families will have an opportunity to sign-up for a time that fits their
schedule. Be looking for more information to come home soon.
BUZZ READER - STUDENTS IN 100+
BOOK CLUB
KDG
AGBAJI
BRYANT
KINGERY
KNOX
WATKINS
100+
still
working
17
11
20
16
13
7
12
4
8
11
1ST
GRADE
BOYER
KIMBALL
MARKOVICH
MINTER
ROBKE
100+
still
working
17
24
21
20
22
8
1
3
3
3
Remember, every class who has every
student reach the 100 Book Club level
will receive a cookie cake party! Please
help your child do his/her part in helping
the class reach this goal!
Nurse’s News
ELL NEWS
By Mrs. Akman, ELL Teacher
In April, kindergarten ELL students will learn about their five senses
of hearing, touching, tasting, smelling, and seeing. While learning
about these senses, students will be conducting research to learn
more about the home countries of their families. Students will write
a book about what they learn during this project that will include
complete sentences and detailed illustrations.
First grade ELL students will be researching about animals and
writing a question and answer book to inform readers about what
they learn. Students will also be researching the home countries of
their families. They will find information about the countries and
use it to write their own books. Throughout these projects,
students will practice writing complete sentences that are
grammatically correct to present the information they research.
Greetings from Physical Education and Health
Hello Gashland Families,
I first wanted to apologize for the misunderstanding in the
Field Day order forms. It was supposed to have said make
checks payable to “Gashland Elementary PTA”, but it didn’t.
Thanks for being flexible, and helping fix the error. Field day
is Friday, May 13th, and parent volunteers are always
welcome. I will be sending out a flyer at the end of April that
will be more detailed about field day. I look forward to
having another successful Field Day.
Stay healthy and keep moving!
Coach Heller
Music
We are back from Spring Break with exciting things
happening in music! Both kindergarten and first grade will
be diving more into using instruments this month to develop
our musical skills we’ve been building all year.
Mrs. Berman
By: Jan McSpadden, R.N.
With our busy schedules, getting enough sleep is often
difficult. A new study by the National Sleep Foundation
states that children 3-5 years old need 10 to 13 hours of
sleep each night and children 6-13 years old require 9 to
11 hours of sleep each night. Sleep is a critical
component to overall health. Your student will fight off
infection much more effectively when well rested.
He/she will have more productive and enjoyable days at
school when having adequate sleep the night before.
Please help your student stay healthy and successful by
making sleep a priority.
Art
April is an exciting time for the art room! We make sure
to have a work of art showing for each student at the
Gashland Learning Express art show! It’s a lot of work,
but so fun seeing the kiddos show off their artwork to
parents on those nights. Make sure to come say hi and
see some beautiful art!
Check out our Instagram @gashlandart!
Mrs. Harman
Mrs. Koester
Preschool News
It’s hard to believe we are down to the final two months of the
school year! March seemed to fly by, and we experienced so
many fun activities! We began the month with Read Across
America week. We spent the week reading Dr. Suess books,
making a Cat in the Hat out of a letter C, conducting a science
experiment with shaving cream and water to see how it rains,
and trying green eggs and ham. We finished up our number
books as we explored numbers 1-10. We learned how to write
these numbers, practiced one to one correspondence, and
explored these numbers with ten frames. After spring break,
we had a fun week learning about the letter N. We read The
Napping House and ended the week with a pajama day!
Mrs. Tapp, Preschool Teacher
Mrs. Settles, Preschool I.A.
Please get your preschooler enrolled for Fall Kindergarten and don’t
forget to also sign up for summer K2K
Kindergarten Kids~
March brought us some warmer weather. Yeah!
Kindergartners have enjoyed getting outside more. We
are learning about spring weather and how plants and
animals are affected by the change of the seasons. We
have discussed the saying, "March comes in like a lion
and goes out like a lamb" as we have discussed the daily
weather.
In preparation for the progress reports you recently
received, teachers assessed their students to see how
they have been progressing. Our Gashland
kindergartners have really grown in their skills. It's
amazing how rapidly they have learned. If you noticed
any areas of concern for your particular kindergartner,
please help your child in those areas. Contact your
child's teacher if you have any questions or need
suggestions of ways to help your child.
March also brought our restful week-long Spring Break.
We hope you were able to enjoy some extra time with
your child/children. Now that we are all refreshed, we
are back to work as we enter the final quarter of the
school year.
Please continue to read to and with your child daily. Talk
with your child about the story. Ask your child what the
story was about and continue to review the characters,
setting, problem and resolution. Also ask your child to
relate the story to his/her own experiences. Sometimes,
have your child draw and write about a favorite part of
the story.
We are looking forward to our spring field trip to the
Kansas City Zoo, more information to come soon. We
welcome volunteers to go along with us who have been
through the screening process. We are hoping for great
weather for the trip!
Mrs. Agbaji
Mrs. Bryant
Mrs. Kingery
Mrs. Knox
Mrs. Watkins
First Grade News~
April brings the beginning of Fourth Quarter. Students have
made such great progress this year. It is always fun to see our
first graders growing and learning throughout the year!
In phonics we continue to practice various long vowel patterns.
We will also be looking at y as a vowel. Students will be
practicing with prefixes and suffixes to change the meaning of
words they use in speech and writing.
We continue to develop writing skills in first grade. We have an
ongoing study of punctuation and sentence structure. Students
will use what they have learned about grammar and sentence
structure to begin writing Book Reviews. They will write an
opinion piece, in which they introduce the topic or name of the
book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for
the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.
In math, students will begin to practice geometry skills using
both 2- and 3-dimensional shapes. We continue our practice
with problem solving. Students have learned many strategies to
read and solve word problems of varying complexity. Practicing
their computation skills with addition and subtraction facts
to/from 20 helps them be efficient problem solvers.
Students have made great progress in reading this year! We just
wrapped up our focus on non-fiction books using text features,
questioning, and key details to grow their own learning while
reading. In April we will be learning how to retell stories to
demonstrate our understanding of the text.
Keep encouraging reading at home! Students can increase their
reading skills tremendously just by continuing to read at any
opportunity. If your child has not read 100 books, please
encourage him/her to reach this very important goal! We want all
of our first graders to receive a medal and school wide
recognition!
Mrs. Boyer
Mrs. Kimball
Mrs. Markovich
Mrs. Minter
Mrs. Robke
Literacy Launch
By: Darcy Gilbert, Reading Teacher
The park is a wonderful place for children to play and explore. At the park children can learn and practice physical and social skills as
they play with other children. They can also “do science” as they explore nature. If the park has a playground, children can also
explore science as they slide, swing, and balance.
Balls, Balls, Balls. Children love to play with balls because they can do so many things. Play a game of catch with your child, and
use words like bounce, roll, and fly to describe the ball’s movement. Use different forms of the words like bounced, rolled, and flew.
Invite your child to move the ball in different ways; throwing, hitting, punching, and kicking, and notice what happens. Invite another
child to play and talk about sharing and taking turns.
Balancing. Children first learn about the idea of balance as they use their own bodies. Use the word balance as your child runs
around and uses playground equipment. “Wow! You really balanced your body on the swing!” Then extend this idea to other
situations. “Did you see how the ball balanced on the basketball hoop before it fell through?”
Swing High, Swing Low. Encourage your child to use all of the playground equipment. You can introduce a lot of vocabulary that
describes movement and location. For example, when your child is on the swing, you can say “High, high, fly to the sky!” each time
you push her. As she comes down, you can say “Down, down, swing to the ground!” When she is finished, talk about how it felt and
use interesting words. “You were flying like a bird! How did it feel to soar?”
All Kinds of Trees. Children are curious about trees because they are so big. You can be scientists as you collect some information
about a tree. You can measure a tree by stretching your arms around it. “Can you reach all the way around?” Feel the bark of the
tree and use words like smooth, soft, rough, bumpy, and hard. Look at the leaves of the tree. Notice the veins. Ask your child to
describe the leaf’s shape. Compare the shape to something familiar. “It looks like your hand with fingers.” Compare the bark and
leaves from different trees.
Ball Games. Children need practice playing team games. Sometimes you have to be flexible about the rules. Try an easy game of
baseball with your child and some friends. Use a big plastic ball and a big plastic bat. Make sure that each child has a turn to hit the
ball and run around the bases. Introduce words like teamwork and sportsmanship. If your child has experience with team sports use
specific vocabulary like score, base hit, and homerun.
Balancing Act. As children get more practice controlling their bodies, they can balance more easily. They also begin to understand
the idea of balance in a scientific way. Encourage your child to notice and think about balance in many situations. “How can we move
the children on the see-saw so they will balance?” If your child has other experiences with balance make a connection. “Remember
when we weighed the tangerines at the market on a balance scale?”
Who Lives in a Tree? The park is a good place to learn about how plants and animals help each other. Look with your child for
evidence that animals live in the trees at the park. Maybe animals use the trees for food or shade. Look for birds flying near the
trees. See if you can find any nests. Look for animals like squirrels or chipmunks. “Why do you think they like the trees?” Tell your
child that it will be fun to learn more about trees. “We can look for a book about trees at the library or the bookstore.”
Source: http://www.pbs.org
March
Milk Contest
POP TAB UPDATE
The March totals are in:
Kindergarten students won this month’s Milk Contest with the most
milk consumed. They will each be receiving a coupon for a free ice
cream cone!
10 Gallons
64 Total gallons thus far
Our goal is 100 Gallons
Thank you families for helping support Ronald McDonald houses.
Ronald will be here May 5th to collect all the tabs we collected!
GASHLAND XLT 2016
Enrichment Summer Learning
“EXPLORERS Program”-First Graders
May 31-June 23
Are you looking for something fun for your child to do this summer? Does your student enjoy learning about new things, creating fun projects, and conducting
experiments? Then Gashland’s enrichment summer learning program – Explorers – is for you. The “Explorers” program will explore fun scientific concepts.
Students will create interesting projects, conduct experiments, learn about the scientific process, and enjoy testing predictions and hypotheses.
Students will also enjoy sessions for music, computer lab, and library. They will continue practicing important skills in reading, writing, and math. Students will have a
great time exploring all of these fun and interesting classes! Classes fill quickly, so reserve your child’s place by returning the XLT enrollment form by April 15 to
ensure a spot for your Gashland Star.
If you have any questions, please call the school office at 321-5100.
From The Counselor’s Office
By Angela Nakoulima
Hello Families:
I wanted to take a moment to update you on some of the upcoming counselor lessons and activities in the counseling
office. April counselor lessons will continue to focus on careers while small group lunch groups will focus on friendship
and social skills. Please feel free to contact me if you would like your child to join a lunch group or to discuss any
concerns you have.
Angela Nakoulima
(816) 321-5797
[email protected]
Library News
Tons Of Tabs!
Angela Nakoulima
School Counselor
Our Tab collection is
growing but we need
lots more to reach or
surpass last year’s
donation. We’re
currently trying to fill
our 65th gallon. Last
year we filled a total
of 142 gallons! Ronald McDonald and friends will
be here in early May to collect our boxes, so we
have just over 2 months to keep popping tabs
and asking for help from friends and relatives.
Your support is so appreciated! Please take a
look at the Ronald McDonald House graphic and
you will see the importance of this project.
March was a great month in the library! We celebrated
reading during our Read Across America week. Students
celebrated by dressing up each day, reading in their
classrooms, and answering Dr. Seuss trivia questions!
On April 11th we will have guest author, Ann Ingalls, visiting
us in the library during our school day! She will share her
books with us and explain the creative process she follows
when writing!
Ann Ingalls will be signing books while she is here. If you
missed the deadline for purchasing a book by her and would
still like a signed book, feel free to purchase a book by Mrs.
Ingalls on your own and send it to school on the day of the
visit. She would be happy to sign it!
A few of her most popular titles:
Biggety Bat: Hot Diggety, It's Biggety!
Biggety Bat: Chow Down, Biggety!
Ice Cream Soup
Check out her website! http://anningallswrites.com
Mrs. Bradfield, Librarian
March Perfect Attendance
Congratulations
Kindergarten
Yusuf Abdulaziz
Abubakar Abukar
Jamisen Allen
Dalton Alston
Joss Buchanan
Farrabella Butler
Cameron Carter
Nolan Cook
Jacob Cortes
Lucas Devine
Godhavi Dumbai
Dylan Eckles
Mikayla Fields
Jaylen Harris
Hayden Heathman
KayLeah Hill
George Hofstetter
Brayden Hunsinger
Cory Iverson
Demir Karabulut
Scarlett Kirby
Nuriakhmad Kurbonov
Caleb LaFever
Sidney Larson
Gordon Lewis
Dario Morris
Jakobi O’Dell
Miles olmedo
Landon Pearson
Linnabell Pine
Chase Redwing
Levi Salyer
Landon Schneider
Gage Smith
Mya Spoor
Samantha Swierski
Yazmin Tate
Ariel Valdivia
Lilyann Walker
Brennan Williams
Kennedy Williams
Freya Young
Preschool
Khloey Collins
Elijah Foster
Levi Foster
Jacob Moreno
Addison Oakden
Ryder Phelps
Skylar Pulliam
Jackson Roberts
Ryan Rogers
Jaxson Sorenson
Felix Uland
Kalli Williamson
First Grade
Nali Ahmed
Mason Baines
Collin Bransfield
Jade Burden
Knox Burns
Jayden Burton
Rivey Butler
Aariel Chavez
Atem Deng
Henry Earnest
Tiffany Eckerley
Graham Gehrke
Ethan Gillespie
Luis Gonzalez
Jackson Gosney
Antwan Harris Jr.
Mattie Henson
Makayla Ilon
Vebi Karalija
Aurelia Keeton
Karlee Koenegstein
Ben Kuykendall
Shayne Lewis
Gage Lloyd
Myles Martin
Autumn Mayo
Ty McKinnis
Raphael Murphy
Adrian Paliza
Kimiko Paul
Jude Salame
Ainsley Scheib
Brody Taber
Randal Thompson Jr
Deng Tong
Emily Vu
Seneca Walker
Steven Tristan Walker III
Karyme West
Noah West
Hayley Wilson
Tyr Young
Perfect Attendance for the Year
Gage Smith
Brennan Williams
Luis Gonzalez
Benjamin Kuykendall
Ty McKinnis
Jude Salame
Attendance
Thank you parents for reinforcing with your child the importance of school attendance.
It really makes a difference!
Please remember our overall goal is for every child to be at school more than 90% of the school year.
Overall school attendance for March 92.6% This is down from last year. Please help us get this
back up around 94%