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Dear Parents,

First of all, I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable spring break. We just completed our State Reading Assessment for the 3rd and 4th graders before the break. Their preliminary scores look very good. Thank you parents for helping to ensure your child had a good night’s rest and breakfast before testing each day. We plan on completing the State Math Assessment on March 31st -  April 2nd and April 6th-8th. Fourth graders will complete science on April 15 - 16th. We would like to ask for your help again with making sure your child gets breakfast and plenty of rest before these testing days.

Fun Night – I would like to personally invite you to join us in a fun night of activities on April 3rd from 6:00-8:00 p.m. A flyer will contain more details, but we will have food, a basket raffle, and other activities such as a lunar lander, car roll over demonstration, police canine unit, bingo and other games and activities to enjoy. We hope you can join us!

As I often like to do, I want to share an education tip with you. This one concerns reading with your child and comes from the Reading Connection.

Does your child listen actively when you read aloud? It’s a key to understanding what is happening in the passage. Try these simple tips to build listening skills:

Ask your child to retell small parts of the story to you. Or ask him questions while you read. Examples: “What will happen next?” “Why do you think she did that?” Find the answers together.

After you read a story together two or three times, skip a word or two. Ask your youngster to fill in the missing word or words.  Hint: This works especially well with rhyming stories.

Thank you again for your support of our students, staff and activities at CDS. As always, if you have comments, concerns, or questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at 794-4260 or by e-mail at rwood@goddardusd.com.

Ruth Wood, Principal