April 24, 2026

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Another great Talent Show is in the books!  What a fun night it was on Tuesday! The kids were so proud of themselves and also complementary to one another.  Thank you to the committee for making this happen for them, to all the staff that participated in the Staff Talent Act, and Brad for manning the lights and sounds.

• Shout out to all that worked so hard on our PD day on Wednesday. I got some great budgeting questions, the Digital Citizenship document is ready to go for next year and many of you already handed in the Cox Campus documentation too!  You were on FIRE!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, April 27
• Morning Duties:
• Blacktop/Playground: Fortmann, Caine-Arnes, Schulte
• Breakfast: Braunschweig, O'Toole
• 3K/4K Playground/Bus: Schuett, Chambers
• Lunch Duties:
• 12:00 - Ellefson
• 12:30 - Juech
• 1:00 - Neis
• Afternoon Duties:
• Blacktop/Playground: Juech, Klink
• Circle Drive: Jenkins
• Jenny in a meeting from 1-2pm
• School Board Meeting at 6:30pm

• Tuesday, April 28
• Social Media posts due to Jenny: Klink, Lucht, 4K Team
• Lunch Detention Supervisors: Braunschweig, O'Toole, Fortmann
• Jenny in meeting from 9-11am

• Wednesday, April 29
• Happy Birthday Taylor!
• Petting Zoo Day (Schedule)

• Thursday, April 30
• Pop-Up PD (Google Spring Cleaning) from 3:20-3:45pm in the IMC

• Friday, May 1
• Lunch Hero Day
• April Citizenship grades due in the gradebook
• Budget sheets due (can be shared as a google sheet or printed and handed in)
• May Support Staff Duties Start
• Elementary Musical @ 6:30pm

• Saturday, May 2
• Elementary Musical @ 2pm

Nitty-Gritty

• Breakfast Duty
• If you are on Breakfast duty during the week, please keep an eye on the breakfast line. If it is getting backed up, or there seems to be any redirection, please step in to assist so that kids can get their breakfast, eat and get to class on time.  Thank you in advance for your help!

• Last Day of School heads up
• The specific details will be out soon for the last day of school. However, I wanted to give you a heads up about some pieces for your planning.
• No specials (Art, Music, PE) that day
• Graduation Walk with our Seniors/5K students at 8:15. 
• Committee is working on a schedule that includes:
• 1 Hr movie for each grade 4K-5
• Special Snack provided for each student
• Extra recess for each grade
• Early Release Schedule for Lunch/Recess is from 11-12

• Testing Dates coming up
• The testing window for i-Ready opens on May 4 for grades 2-5.  For grades 5K-1, the Math AimsWeb assessments can be started at any time now.  Because these are 1:1, you may need more time to complete them.  For grades 2-5, the math fluency tests from AimsWeb can be done through TestNav whenever it works best in your schedule starting Monday, April 27. If you need assistance with this, please let me know!

• Concert Rehearsals
• The spring concerts are coming up very soon!  The concerts are on May 13 for grades 5K-2 and May 14 for grades 4K & 3-5.  The rehearsal schedule for each grade will be out very soon, but each grade will have 2 rehearsals on the stage between May 12-14.  Regular music specials will be replaced for each grade by the 30 min. rehearsal times so that Ms. Houk can be present for each rehearsal and still fit everyone in.

ML Information

Celebrate Accomplishments

As the school year winds down, it is the perfect time to pause and recognize the incredible journey your Multilingual Learners (MLs) have taken. Progress for MLs isn’t always measured in high-stakes test scores; it’s found in the newfound confidence to speak up, the mastery of a difficult phoneme, or the first time they wrote a complete paragraph in English.

Reflecting on the Journey

Take a moment to look back at where your students started in August. For an ML, "growth" often looks like:

• Moving from silence to social language.

• Increased stamina when reading grade-level texts.

• The brave use of new academic vocabulary during class discussions.

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Two Ways to Celebrate

To make this progress visible and tangible for your students, try one of these simple activities this week:

1. The "Growth Wall" (Low-Tech & High Impact)

Dedicate a section of your bulletin board or classroom wall to "Then vs. Now."

• Have students pair a sample of their work from the beginning of the year next to a current piece.

• Ask them to write one sentence (with sentence frames if needed) about what they are proud of: "In September, I couldn't ______, but now I can ______!"

2. The "Success Slide" (Quick & Digital)

If you prefer a digital approach, create a collaborative slide deck.

• Assign each student one slide.

• Ask them to upload a photo of a project, a screenshot of an improved score, or even a voice recording of them reading a favorite passage.

• Present these as a "Class Gallery Walk" to build community and pride.

Why It Matters

Celebrating accomplishments helps MLs develop a growth mindset. It reinforces that their hard work is paying off and validates their identity as capable, bilingual learners. Let’s finish the year by cheering for every milestone!

Recess Information

It is what it is

Unfortunately, finding trash (or whole pork chops) on the playground structure and turf is becoming more of an issue. While Kari and Virgil have added it as a weekly task for cleaning, we are often needing additional clean up. To that end, I have bags and rubber gloves inside the 4th and 5th grade recess doors. If there are students interested in helping clean up the playground at bus duty in the morning, the supplies will be available there. Please limit the “clean-up” crew to 2-3 students per morning to avoid going through the gloves too quickly/wastefully. There is not an official process in place for this, I just know we are finding trash and the kids want to help so please use your professional judgement in allowing students to help with clean-up.

TechKnow Tip

As you work through sorting, saving, and organizing this year’s materials for next year, be sure you are logged into iCloud! You may notice a red notification bubble on your settings app (iPad) or you may be prompted with a pop-up (laptop). These frequent logins with iCloud are set for security measures. Be sure to log into your Apple ID on your iPad or laptop whenever you see the notification or you get a pop-up notification. Being logged into your Apple ID ensures proper iPad backup of your files, photos, and apps. This is the same for students too, so feel free to encourage them to stop tapping “Later” and log in to ensure their priceless work is saved.

PD Spotlight

This time of year is hectic.  There is finishing off the year busyness, but also looking to the future and next school year at the same time.  There are a number of questions going through many of our minds every year, but this year, you may find yourself thinking even more about the "what if" scenarios. As I was listening to the Smart Thinking Podcast from this past weekend, I was struck by how accurate this can be in so many places in our society.  I also think it is very timely for this time of year in school systems as well.  The title is "The Danger of Assumptions in your Culture." Click HERE to listen to the episode. It is well worth your time. (It is about 25 min. long.)

Friday Funny

Not that it is funny that the little one is crying, but the whole event is exactly like something one of my kids would do!  Aaaand, we know that she is repeating a statement she heard from Dad during this "traumatic" event.  Anyone else have hide-and-seek fails?