McKinley Families,
It is hard to believe we are now entering the month of May and the final month of the school year. Through both the dedication of our staff members and you as parents, our students have grown in many ways throughout this year. Please support and encourage your child to continue reading over the summer to maintain the skills they have acquired this school year.
We have many fun activities planned for students in the month of May and look forward to celebrating as we conclude this school year. Thank you to PTO and all of the parents volunteers who have helped with our various activities throughout the year along with fundraising efforts.
If any parents have not completed registration we ask that you complete this process as soon as possible. This will allow office staff to have everything prepared for next school year in a timely manner. We appreciate your assistance in this effort.
We look forward to an enjoyable month of May and reflecting on our students' growth and success throughout the year!
Calendar Dates
May 7
-PTO Meeting (5:30 p.m.)
May 8
-Kindergarten Music Concert at Central (2:00 p.m.)
May 14
-Incoming Kindergarten Assessments (4:00-6:00 p.m.)
May 16
-Half Day (dismissal at 11:30 a.m.)
-Incoming Kindergarten Assessments (12:45-2:30 p.m.)
May 20
-OES Board Meeting at Central School (6:00 p.m.)
May 26
-Memorial Day (No School)
May 28
-Field Day
May 29
-Field Day (rain date)
May 30
-Tropical Sno Day
-4th Grade Celebration Day
June 3
-Last Day of School
-Half Day (dismissal at 11:30 a.m.)
May Lunch Menu
*Correction - May 16th is a Half Day and lunch will not be served
PTO
It’s hard to believe that this school year is almost over! We still have lots of fun planned for the rest of the year!
We’d like to start off with thanking Casey Clemens for all her work with our PTO. She is stepping down and we welcome Kelsey Tomano as our new Treasurer. We are happy to have you!
The bookfair was a big success! Thanks to all the families for supporting that! We don’t make any money on the BOGO usually but it’s nice for the kids who get to stretch their money a bit further!
The month of May will be pretty busy! We will be starting with Staff Appreciation week May 5-9th.
•The week will start off with Chalk the Walk. That will be on Sunday May 4th from 2:00-4:00 p.m. If you’d like to donate chalk, it can be sent to the office by Friday May 2nd. Or you can bring some that day! Anyone can come but an adult must accompany your kids. You cannot drop them off!
•On Monday, we will start providing lunch daily for the staff.
•We will also be doing daily drawings for the staff and students too.
Our Field day will be coming up on May 28th with a rain date of the 29th (if we get enough volunteers!!) We will have stations with different games for the kids to enjoy. We need a lot of volunteers for this event so be on the lookout for the sign up!
On field day we also have 2 food trucks. Didoughs pretzels and Aussem dogs will be available for the kids. This will be pre pay. The free school lunch will also be available. More information will be sent home about that.
May 30th will be our 4th grade celebration. The 4th graders get pizza and have fun outside signing yearbooks. They also get a chance to dunk some staff in the dunk tank which may be the highlight of the day!!
May 30th will also be our Tropical Sno day. Every student will get a sno cone at no cost to them.
Our next PTO meeting will be held on Wednesday May 7th at 5:30 in the gym! Anyone is welcome to attend.
If you have any questions you can reach out to any of our board members or send us a message to the McKinley PTO Facebook page
DON’T FORGET…
-Like our Facebook page McKinley School PTO
-Save your Handy Foods receipts and send them into school. We can redeem these for gift cards to use for school events
-Join Kroger Community Rewards if you haven’t already. Select McKinley school as your organization to support and you can help our school just by grocery shopping!
Free Kids Fishing Events
Champion of the Charter
Congratulations to our April Champion of the Charter students! All of our Champions are invited to attend the May board meeting to be recognized.
Kindergarten
Everly B., Crosby T., Fauna N.
1st Grade
Noah S., Emerson H., Beau B.
2nd Grade
Roen S., Jacob S., Evelyn A.
3rd Grade
Caleb S., Wayne A., Owen D.
4th Grade
Ben W., Piper S., Cierra G.
Life Skills
Za'Kiya W., London G.
D/HH
Emma L-E.
Kindergarten
Students have been studying living and nonliving things. Our special focus in April was learning about and reviewing the needs of plants, as well as how to tend to and take care of plants.
The kindergarten classes learned about Earth Day. Students listened to books, both in class and during their library times. The children also created an art project, had group discussions, and displayed their understanding of the importance of taking care of our environment.
McKinley School had a couple of drills during the month of April. Our students were able to practice proper routines and behaviors in order to stay safe. We learned that it is important to be prepared in the case of an emergency.
-Kindergarten Team
1st Grade
1st grade is cruising along. All the first grade classes had the chance to visit the one room schoolhouse this month. It was fun to go back in time to see what it was like to go to school so long ago. Students had the opportunity to use slate chalk boards and other historical features to experience schools of the past. In science we studied weather. We learned about the different types of clouds and how they can help us predict the weather. Students made cloud viewers to help them name the types of clouds they see in the sky.
-1st Grade Team
2nd Grade
2nd grade has been diving into all of the spring activities! From adopting peeps, to creating the planet Earth, and even hunting for eggs. They've been busy gaining skills to become successful in third grade.
In math, students have been working through money. This has been a difficult concept for most, but recognizing and counting coins is a necessity for life! Students are writing friendly letters to their pen pals in 4th grade. Students are also continuing to learn how to form good friendships through sportsmanship, cheering on others, and team building. Friendship Fridays are coming to an end, but we are celebrating while we still can!
Students will be partaking in an ABC countdown to summer! Something little each day to keep the count on and students engaged in learning. They are really looking forward to their field trip in May! We can't wait to see the growth and skills learned before sending them off to third!!
-2nd Grade Team
3rd Grade
It has been a fun and busy month in 3rd grade! Students have been working hard to become math masters through our Xtra Math desk pet challenge. It has been really exciting to add new students to the list each week! We had a lot of fun visiting city hall, meeting the mayor, and doing our mock city council meetings there. We also wrapped up our multicultural reading unit with a trip to B.A.S.H. where we learned how to eat with chopsticks, watched sushi being made, and even got to try sushi! We read and watched The Lorax for Earth Day and had dirt worm cups. We are looking forward to another fun month in May!
-3rd Grade Team
4th Grade
It’s hard to believe we’re just a few weeks away from the end of the school year—it’s such a bittersweet time! We’ve watched our fourth graders grow tremendously, and we couldn’t be prouder or more excited about all they’ve accomplished.
Although the year is winding down, we still have plenty of learning and fun ahead! In May, we will jump into some hands-on science by investigating owl pellets. In social studies, we’ll wrap up our study of the United States by exploring the Midwest region. In math, we are beginning to shift our focus on decimals and measurement. Our reading lessons will center around traditional literature and folktales. For writing, students will work on some poetry, as well as research-based essays.
We’re also looking forward to some exciting end-of-year events, including our fourth-grade field trip, field day, and the always-popular student vs. teacher kickball game!
-4th Grade Team
Life Skills
The McKinley Life Skills Classes have had a great month of April. We have learned all about weather, spring animals, and plants and seeds. We were very lucky to have had a visit from someone special before going home for our holiday break! We have a lot of fun coming up in May including Warrior Games, field day, our field trips, and our park trip with Ms. Hendrickson's class. We cannot believe how far the kids have grown this year and look forward to one more month of fun together!
-Life Skills Team
D/HH
April has been a great month. We went to "Darcy's School" (LEASE) All of the kids did a wonderful job. We were guest speakers at Jefferson School, where we taught the second grade classes American Sign Language. We enjoyed the Shepherd Band concert and the Easter Bunny stopped by our room. We ended the month with a birthday celebration for everyone in our class.
-D/HH Team
Art
It’s late April here at McKinley Art and we are still hard at work on our awesome art projects and getting ready for the big Art Show!
In class our kindergarteners are working hard on starting their weaving paper weaving projects. We are focused on pattern and fine motor skills. Our first graders are wrapping up their Monochromatic paintings. This project has students learning that you can make a picture using only one color by using its lights and darks versions. The second grade classes are working on a fun project based off of the artist Pop Artist Keith Haring bubble people. In third grade our students are working on cereal boxes. Their focus is to create a cereal box that would appeal to kids. Fourth grade classes are starting on Shattered Painting. This project focuses on the concept of mixing colors with paint and using them to make a monochromatic painting.
Have a great rest of the year and keep on making ART!
-Mr. Sanders