M EADE P ARK E LEMENTARY S CHOOL
M USTANG N EWS
M ARCH , 2016
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Teachers, parents, and students across Illinois now have an opportunity to
participate in the fourth annual statewide Illinois 5Essentials Survey. This survey
is designed to generate a detailed picture of the inner workings of your child’s
school. As a parent, this opportunity will allow you to share your thoughts on the
important elements of school effectiveness in a survey about your child’s school.
These five indicators that affect and predict school success are:
* Effective Leaders
* Collaborative Teachers
* Involved Families
* Supportive Environments
* Ambitious Instruction
All teachers and 6th through 12th grade students will be responding to this
survey. 5Essentials Reports will be generated for schools if their teachers and/or
students meet the response rate threshold of 50 percent. These reports will be
sent to schools and districts in May 2016 and will also be included in the State
School Report Card.
Your participation in the parent portion of the survey will help us guide
improvement for your child’s school. Your identity and survey responses will be
kept completely confidential and will never be connected to you or your child.
The Illinois 5Essentials Survey will be open until March 11, 2016. To take the
survey please visit https://survey.5-essentials.org/Illinois/ and select the
appropriate survey to begin.
Thank you for your support, cooperation, and participation!
March Calendar
Board of Education
meeting at 6:30 PM
on Wednesday,
March 9th at the
Jackson Building.
5th Grade Basketball
Tournament at Mark
Denman Elementary
School on March
12th. Games begin at
9:30 AM.
Parent/Teacher
Conferences on
Tuesday, March 15th.
Early dismissal at
1:30 PM.
Parent/Teacher
Conferences on
Thursday, March
17th. Early dismissal
at 1:30 PM.
Spring Break for
students begins on
Friday, March 18th.
Students return to
school on Monday,
March 28th.
P AGE 2
M USTANG N EWS
Kindergarten has been working hard at earning Mustang Money by
following the Basic Be’s. Be Safe! Be Responsible! Be Respectful! Please
continue to check students’ yellow folder every night for their behavior and
important information from their teacher. Also, please read your child’s
library book with them each evening and make sure it is returned to school
every day. Coming up, we will discuss Dr. Seuss, butterflies, Spring, and
Easter. PARCC is fast approaching! While we don’t take the test, we need to
be respectful of those students who do take the test. Please remind your
students about being quiet during testing days! Don’t forget parent/teacher
conferences are March 15th and 17th.Spring Break is right around the corner!
The first grade classes are continuing to work hard on reading, writing, and
math facts this semester. Keep practicing weekly sight words, complete
sentences, and math facts with your child. We are also working toward
better attendance and awesome behavior. Please make sure your children
are at school every day, on time, and following our school rules. Each month
the children who earn at least 8 Mustang Dollars have a school wide
celebration. We had so much fun playing mini-golf in February, and are
looking forward to the March Celebration! Also, be looking for parentteacher conference forms. Please fill out the information and send the
notes back with your children. We look forward to meeting with you on
March 15th or 17th. See you soon!
Our 2nd graders have been working hard at building
math and reading strategies. We are introducing new
math skills and reinforcing previous skills with our students. Students who are struggling with their facts may
have difficulty mastering them. We encourage our parents to practice math facts at home with your children.
IXL.com is a valuable tool that can be accessed at home.
We are also working on proper sentence structure and
writing paragraphs. As we culminate the school year, our
classroom supplies have become low. We are in need of
hand sanitizer, tissue, pencils and crayons. Thank you for
your support.
M ARCH , 2016
P AGE 3
Third grade completed
amazing biographies
this month, complete
with life-size replicas!
Fourth grade has a very busy March ahead of us. We will continue test prep for PAARC testing
coming up in April. We will go over sample questions and learn how to better use the software,
as this test will be given on the computer. We have been using lab time and laptops to practice
typing skills; if you have access to a computer, please allow your child to practice their typing
skills because our tests will be timed. We have also continuing our math units on fractions. We
will be covering ideas like equivalent fractions, simplifying fractions, and addition and subtraction of fractions. Both classrooms are working on our novel studies and applying our fourth
grade reading standards to what we read. Miss Cerne's class has begun using Class Dojo to
track our behavior; students have taken home a passcode for parents to access their child's
points through the day. If you did not receive the passcode, please contact Miss Cerne. Finally,
we have parent teacher conferences right before spring break. To ensure you get the day that
works best for you, be sure to return the conference slip to school as soon as possible. We are
looking forward to conferencing with you on your child's progress!
Fifth grade has had a fun and successful third quarter! We completed our work
with fractions and will be working with measurement and volume in the coming
weeks. Each student also chose an important African American leader to research and write about for Black History Month. Both classes have recently started using Class Dojo, an online behavioral tracking system. We encourage parents to log on to see how their student is doing each day, as well as chat with
the teachers through the messaging system. We are looking forward
to a busy and exciting spring!
Meade Park’s student
attendance for the month of
February was 91.5%
Our February Celebration was Meade Park
Mini-Golf. Our students are really “on par!”
Congratulations to Mariah Tyler and Amilian
Cobbins—our 5th grade IPA Breakfast Citizens!