The Leader In Me

You may have heard your child come home using seem new vocabulary in the last few weeks: proactive, reactive, carry your own weather, make a plan, goals, think win win and more. This is from our school wide pilot of the Leader In Me and the 7 Habits For Happy Kids. Today's blog post focuses on Habit 1- Be Proactive.

Through discussion, instruction and proactice we are supporting students awareness of the choices they make. Students are encourages to make positive choices that will help them be successful at school and outside of school. We stress being proactive and the choices we have in reactions to others. Choosing to be happy ,excited, joyful, satisfied etc is all in our control when we carry our own weather. The ability to focus on the things that are in our circle of control helps us reduce stress be more effective and influence others in a positive way.

Be Proactive

'These students received awards for demonstrating Habit 1 at our last Celebration.

New Newsletter Format

The Squawk has a new format. I hope you like the new format.

The Squawk

Art Center Field Trip

Hanawalt's fourth graders visited the Des Moines Art Center Wednesday morning. This was an exciting trip trip as the students are midway through a research project of various artistes, their styles and mediums.

The students showed of their leadership skills and wowed the docents with their questions. The fourth graders will continue their cooperative research by presenting a Living Museum in the future. 

PTA Family Night and Fundraiser!

Hawk❤️

To our Hawk families, friends and community:

                Happy Valentine's Day 

The staff @hanawalthawks send you our love and thanks for allowing us to be part of your lives! 

#hanawaltcares

FAST Assessments

 FAST is the test which stands for Formative Assessment System for Teachers. FAST is given to every student  in grades K-3 three times a year to identify students who are reading on grade level and those students who need additional help in reading. We have just completed the Winter screener for the FAST assessments and the teachers will be going over that data with you at conferences nest week. Below you will see the various foundational reading skill assessed at each grade level K-3. 

KINDERGARTEN

Throughout the school year, Kindergarten students are assessed on a variety of skills that are essential to reading. The FAST assessment screens on the following skills:

● Reading letter names and identifying letter sounds

● Understanding concepts of print (eg. We read from left to right on a page.)

● Identifying individual sounds they hear in a word (eg. “at” has two sounds:  /a/ and /t/)

● Reading commonly used words by sight (eg. "the”)

● Blending sounds together to read simple words

FIRST

Throughout the school year, first grade students are assessed on a variety of skills that are essential to reading. The FAST assessment screens on the following skills:

● Reading simple sentences

● Number of words read correctly in one minute—related to decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension

● Identifying individual sounds they hear in a word (eg. “at” has two sounds:  /a/ and /t/)

● Reading commonly used words by sight (eg. "the”)

● Blending sounds together to read simple words 

SECOND and THIRD

Throughout the school year, students in grades 2 & 3 are given the CBMReading test.  This is an overall measure of reading skills where the student reads aloud a story for one minute.  The teacher records the number of words the student reads correctly along with reading accuracy.  CBMReading provides an overall indication of how well the student is reading and is related to other reading skills like decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension.

For more information about FAST, please visit the Iowa Reading Research Center’s website at www.iowareadingresearch.orgunder the “Parents” tab. If you would like to see what the assessments look like feel free to contact me.