Lunchroom Expectations

Last Friday we assembled as a building to reflect on our first 6-7 weeks and focus on what has gone well and where we want to continue to grow. We shared a video with our students that incorporated some humor to help demonstrate both the appropriate and not so appropriate behaviors that we see from time to time in our lunchroom. Special thanks to staff members Lori Wooten, Donna Dols, Sharon Skluzacek, Kellie Frey, Erin Boyer, Katie Herrmann, Sam Blank, Dan Wagner, and director/producer Kellie deNeui for their efforts. Check out our video here:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-kywTGVry4

Conferences-PAC Meal

Last week we held our Fall Parent/Teacher Conferences.  A very good showing was had - 96% of our families were represented, which is an outstanding percentage. We are very fortunate to have the parent support that we have here in the New Prague Area Schools!

Additionally, the Falcon Ridge staff was treated to a fantastic meal served by our Parent Advisory Committee (PAC). Attached below are some of the pictures. Our entire staff was very grateful for the meal and for the support shown by our parents!

ECFE News

Early Childhood Family Education is sponsoring a Halloween Fun Night on Friday, October 25, 6-8 p.m., at the Central Education Campus Gymnasium in New Prague.  It is a safe, non-scary evening of games, treats, storytelling, and other fun.  Costumes are welcome for all parents and children up to kindergarten age.  You can register at the door! The cost is $5 per child.

5th grade fish

Take a look at the 5th graders proudly displaying the fish that they created and have recently been studying in Science. Each student learned about animal adaptations, and chose four specific adaptations to help them in creating an imaginary fish. They researched how those adaptations would affect the fish in the areas of feeding, reproduction, shape and coloration. Students then created a speech they presented to another grade level classroom. Nice work 5^th grade!

How to praise a child

One of the best things that adults can do for kids is to give them meaningful feedback when they have genuinely accomplished something. The short video below gives some great advice on both the right and wrong way to praise a child. Thank you to Amy Hennen, our Falcon Ridge Social Worker who forwarded this on. Take a look, and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV3KzICK6G8

Fire Prevention Week

This past week everyone at Falcon Ridge spent some time talking about the importance of being safe around fire, and practicing evacuating our school if there was an emergency. From the picture below you can see First grade teacher Ms. Pietsch read a book called "Sparky the Firefighter" with her class on Tuesday. We had members from the New Prague Fire Department join us with an evacuation drill on Monday, and we even had a "real/unplanned" drill occur on Thursday.

In addtion all of our First graders also had the opportunity to visit the New Prague Fire Department building on Thursday. The tour was led by our very own Mr. Wagner-physical education teacher at Falcon Ridge. Our students were excited for the opportunity to visit a real firehouse, and to see the big trucks.

MMR Scores

This past week, we received some great news from the Minnesota Department of Education, as it relates to last spring's MCA test scores. The MMR (Multiple Measurement Rating system) scores were released to school districts across the state of Minnesota. The MMR is a system that takes into account a) student proficiency on the Math and Reading MCA tests, b) student growth in these tested areas from one year to the next, and c) closing the achievement gap on the Reading and Math MCAs for sub-groups in special education, free and reduced lunch, race, and English language learners.

The formula that computes these measures are fairly complex, but I'm happy to report that our test scores grew substantially at Falcon Ridge from 2012 to 2013 (49% to 74%). Attached is some trend data that tracks the previous four years of MMR data. Our test scores reinforce the belief that we have a great deal to be proud of here at Falcon Ridge!

Kindness retreat

Each fall we welcome Youth Frontiers to Falcon Ridge to help in leading our 4th graders through a 'Kindness Retreat.' This is a day filled with movement, laughter, reflection, and the opportunity for our students to think about how they treat each other.

Today was the big day for our 4th graders. We were fortunate to have a handful of parents give of their time to help in facilitating this event. In describing this event, I heard students talk about today as "powerful," and tell others that "this will change the way I treat people from now on." It was a great day for all involved!

Math Mania at Falcon Ridge

This afternoon we welcomed 25 New Prague Trojan Football players who visited ten classrooms to play a math game titled "Math Mania." The players came decked out in their game jerseys and were ready to work with excited groups of students. This was a great opportunity for our Falcon Ridge students to positively interact with older role models whom they get to watch on Friday nights.  It was also an opportunity for our varsity student athletes to give back to the community. Truly a win-win for everyone involved! A special thanks goes out to staff member Barb Zweber for helping to organize and set up this event for the second year. We couldn't pull this off without her help!