Wednesday, March 7th, 2018
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A Greeting from the Principal, Sr. Moncada
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Dear EHSI Families,
It was so nice to connect with many of you during conferences last month. I trust you are enjoying today's sunshine and thaw as we press on toward spring in Minnesota. (Our interns are especially excited!) We have some exciting events coming up this month and I also wanted to feature some of the great extra-curricular work that's happening in our school so please check it out below.
I am continuing my math series this month by sharing more around what we refer to as the "5 Strands of Mathematics".
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For decades, the major emphasis in school mathematics was on procedural knowledge, or what is now referred to as procedural fluency. Rote learning was the norm, with little attention paid to understanding mathematical concepts. We now know rote learning is not the answer in mathematics, especially when students do not understand the mathematics. To continue reading, please
click here
.
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Supporting Readers: Ideas for Families of Immersion Students, Part 2 of 2
by Jennifer Bowers, EHSI Q Comp Coach/Observer
Last month we shared some ideas for supporting your reader at home in the areas of
reading accuracy and reading fluency
. Follow the link if you would like to look back at them. This month we will share some parent-friendly ways of supporting your reader’s comprehension at home.
Reading comprehension is harder to “see” than simply listening to a child read because it involves how the child thinks about what they read before, during, and after reading a text. So, the way to support a reader is by having a conversation with them about what they read. This means that
all
families of immersion students can support their readers, even if they don’t speak any Spanish, because the conversation can be in English no matter what language is being read.
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As we mentioned last month, the strategies described here are general, and will be useful with most students. However, if your student’s teacher has recommended more personalized ways for you to support your child, those are the most important things to do. Basically, these strategies are conversations around texts, not comprehension quizzes. Think about the ways you talk about your own adult reading with friends and family—you’re aiming for a kid-friendly version of that. The conversation should only be a few minutes each time. You will want to practice one strategy every day for a few weeks before switching to a new one.
Before reading, talk with your child about what they think the text will be about, and why they think so
. Encourage them to use pictures, subtitles, chapter titles, etc. as well as their own knowledge about the topic to help them make these predictions. Looking through the book before reading is something good readers do to help them understand! To continue reading,
click here
.
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PTO Updates
Please join us for our 10th annual
EHSI Family Fun Night
on
March 23rd, from 6:30 - 8:30pm.
Enjoy a fun filled night of dancing with a DJ, activities, food, photo booth, hanging out with friends and so much more! This is a free event to thank all Eagle Heights families for their ongoing support through giving, volunteering, and supporting our awesome school!
This exciting event relies heavily on volunteers so please
sign-up to help
; shifts are only an hour long and a great way to meet fellow EHSI parents!
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STEM Night
is coming up on April 26th with the Spanish Only Book Fair on April 26th & 27th -
Click here
to see more details about these exciting PTO sponsored events.
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EHSI Volunteers are amazing
and do so much, often behind-the-scenes, to keep our school running smoothly. We appreciate you sharing your time, talents and other resources to make Eagle Heights such a special school community. We can not say it often enough, THANK YOU, Volunteers!
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We'd love for you to get involved with our EHSI PTO!
To stay current please feel free to:
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Spotlight on EHSI Unified Club
Our EHSI Unified Club (Club Unificado) is made up of 5
th
& 6
th
graders who meet throughout the school year to discuss and work towards acceptance, equality, and respect for others. The club convinced some of our staff members, interns, and fellow students to do the Polar Plunge this weekend to raise money for Special Olympics. At our last meeting, students cut and tied scarves to wear at the Plunge. Feel free to join us as a spectator or participant at the Polar Plunge this Saturday, 10am at Lake Riley!
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Club Unificado students have been working to inform the school about “Leading with Kindness, Uniting with Respect" and today our whole school is signing a banner to pledge support to this cause. EHSI is proud to have been the first elementary school in Minnesota to become a Unified Champion School. To achieve this, school leaders and educators must foster a socially inclusive school climate that emphasizes acceptance, respect and human dignity for all students.
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Essay Contest Winners
EHSI would like to congratulate Vaughn Feely and Madeline Frantz for placing in the Eden Prairie Optimist Society Essay contest! This year’s topic was: “Can Society Function without Respect?” Vaughn (5th grade) and Madeline (6th grade) competed against more than fifty essays submitted from surrounding schools and district; we are so proud to have these scholars representing EHSI!
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Spotlight on EHSI Yearbook Club
These 5th and 6th grade scholars meet twice a week from January to April and are responsible for creating each part of the Eagle Heights yearbook. The pages are divided among students and they work together using a Lifetouch program to design and edit the pages. They use creativity, teamwork, and time management to make sure that the yearbook is accurate and enjoyable for all students. They are extremely hardworking and creative kids!
Our school is so fortunate to have the leadership of Yearbook Club Advisor, Sra. Gebhart (EHSI 6th grade teacher) and parent volunteer Co-Coordinators Kelly Weinblatt and Sandi Lindquist. Yearbook orders will be sent home with scholars in early June.
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Calendar of Upcoming Events
March . 8th --- Spanish Conversation Group with Sr. Moncada, 5-6pm in the Library
March 9th --- 4th Grade Field Trip to The Works
March 10th --- Polar Plunge, 10am at Riley Lake Park
March 11th --- PTO & SEF Board Meetings 5:30pm & 7pm, Piper's Burger Bar
March 12th --- 4th Grade Music Performance, 6pm & 7pm in the PAL
March. 22nd --- Spanish Conversation Group with Sr. Moncada, 5-6pm in the Library
March 23rd --- Family Fun Night, 6:30 - 8:30pm in the Gym/Cafeteria
March 30th - April 6th --- No School (Spring Break)
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Eagle Heights Spanish Immersion
13400 Staring Lake Parkway
Eden Prairie, MN 55347
952-975-7700
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