McCarter Mustangs Principal: Katherine Cooney Contact Information 5512 SW 16th Street Topeka, KS 66604 Phone: 785-438-4660 Absent Line: 785-438-4667 Spanish (ELL): 785-438-4668 School Information: 785-438-4669

May 2017 Message from the Principal

Recently, all Kansas students in grades 3-5 took state assessment tests in reading and math. 5th grade students took state assessments in reading, math, and science. The Kansas Assessment Program (KAP) tests and tools are designed to support educators and policymakers in evaluating student learning, as well as to meet the requirements for federal and state accountability. The new assessments gauge how well students are mastering state standards in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics—and ultimately how ready they are for the next grade and for college and careers after graduation. The state assessments for English language arts and mathematics enable us to deepen our understanding of student progress from grade to grade—and just as importantly, identify any gaps in progress so we can address them well before students enter the next grade level. ELA assessments demonstrate: ■ Whether students can read and comprehend texts of varying complexities. ■ How well students can integrate information across sources to make a persuasive argument. ■ The degree to which students can use context to determine the meaning of academic vocabulary. Mathematics assessments demonstrate:

Fax: 785-271-3760

Important Dates May 23 Music Programs Pre-K, KDG, & 1st May 24 5th Gr. Promotion May 25 Last Day of School 11:30 Dismissal No lunch served

■ Whether students understand and can use important math ideas, including number sense, algebraic thinking, geometry and data analysis. ■ The extent to which students can use math facts and reasoning skills to solve real-world problems. ■ How well students can make math arguments The Student Test Score Report is designed to:

■ Help you understand your child’s test results level as defined by the state of Kansas in English language arts and mathematics. ■ Compare your child’s performance to other students in the school, district and state. ■ Help identify your child’s relative strengths and areas for improvement in each subject area. Preliminary results are in for the 2017 KS State Assessments in reading and math. I am very pleased to announce that every grade level in Topeka Public Schools increased in both reading and math on the recent state assessment. McCarter Elementary School students had the highest average scores in both reading and math compared to all other TPS schools. In addition, at McCarter, on the ELA assessment, grade 3 tied the state average. Grade 4 was only ONE point away from the state average. At McCarter, on the math assessment, grade 3 exceeded the state average by 2 points. Grade 5 exceeded the state average by 10 points!! We are very proud of the efforts that our students made on the state assessment and we’d like to thank all of you for your support throughout the year! We know that it takes the parents, students, and teachers all working together in order for students to achieve their full potentials! Have a safe and enjoyable summer! We all look forward to seeing you in August for the 2017-2018 school year!

McCarter Library News On Friday May 12th, ALL books will be due back to the library. Since fines for lost or damaged books stay on student accounts, please pay for any lost/damaged books before the year ends. From May 2016 to today, McCarter has been extremely blessed. Four Donor’s Choose projects have been completely funded. These projects have totaled approximately $1,260 and we have gained about 55 new books for our collection. In addition, we were awarded a 2016 Kansas Book Festival grant of $2,500. This grant allowed us to purchase about 120 new biography books and about 250 headphone adapters. The new adapters will allow students to use headphones we already have for individual iPad and Chromebook devices. We are working on providing headphones for all students for the 2017-2018 school year. However we are short about 150 headphones. A Donor’s Choose project has been created to generate financial support. Please check out our project and feel free to pass the word along to friends and family, every little bit helps! https:// www.donorschoose.org/project/new-headphones-for-new-devices/2526720/ Thanks so much for all that you do to support the McCarter Library!!!

Band & Strings Band and string families: If you own your instrument, summer is a great time to have it checked over & professionally adjusted or cleaned, if needed. This will prolong the life of the instrument. If you rented from TPS, consider renting from a music store, or purchasing a pre-owned instrument from a reputable dealer. We recommend Manning Music in Topeka, G Clef Music in Silver Lake, and KC Strings in Merriam Kansas. Current 4th grade families: We hope you’re considering a musical instrument for next school year! Music makes you smarter & we encourage you to give band or strings a try! Visit the music stores early when inventory is high. Many businesses have affordable school year rental programs with quality instruments to use. Enjoy free local community concerts, throughout the summer months, especially the Sunflower Symphony at WU, outdoor concerts at Gage Park on Sunday evenings, and diverse programs at the public library. Promote and support music in our city!

Physical Education Here it is May already and everyone is getting ready for summer. Field Day went well thanks to all of volunteers. We had twenty two people give up their time to make field day special. Now that is what I call school spirit! I hope you all have a great summer and I will see you next year. Counselor Corner We can't believe summer time is already here! In our classroom counseling lessons we are wrapping the year up by exploring the wonderful world of careers! Third through fifth grade were able to complete a career interest inventory and are now researching potential career paths that correlate with their results. Kindergarten through second grade are learning about the diverse careers that will be available to them in the future! Ms. Mary and I wish you a happy and safe summer break. See you next Fall!

Music The month of May is a busy time for the music department. The Preschool, Kindergarten and 1st grade students are working really hard on their music program songs. 4th grade is finishing up their instrument family unit, and will get a chance to meet with Mrs. Anderson (Band) and Ms. Snell (strings) to discuss playing instruments next year in 5th grade. 5th grade is working on their promotion song (graduation) that they will sing at Topeka West on Wednesday, May 24 at 7 pm. I will be very sad to see this group of student move onto middle school. 5th grade will also be working on writing a song of their own before the end of the school year. Who knows, we might have a future Beethoven at McCarter.

Kindergarten Wow! This school years has gone by fast!!! This month in reading we will be studying different habitats and the animals that live in those habitats. In math we will be reviewing the math skills that we have learned this year to prepare for first grade! Save the date, May 18th at 7pm will be our music program and Kindergarten graduation. We look forward to seeing the kids dressed to impress! Please continue to check planners and folders as well as your teacher's weekly newsletter. 1st Grade Hard to believe it's the end of the year already! We have had a blast. This month we will be doing a lot of testing for the end of the year and report cards. We are studying 2-d and 3-d shapes and fractions. There will also be fun activities and celebrations to wrap up the year. The next purple perk is a field trip to the purple park, so tell your kiddos to be extra good and earn those tickets! It costs 150. Remember, the last day of school is a half-day and school will be dismissed at 11:30. There will be no lunch. If your child is going home a different-than-normal way on the last day, PLEASE make sure you tell their teacher. We want to avoid mix-ups and kids being left behind. Hope you have a wonderful summer! See you next year! 2nd Grade 2nd Grade is finishing up the year in math with graphs, shapes, and arrays. We are starting our last round of Scantron testing in reading and math. As your student goes into the summer, please continue to keep daily reading and math fact practice of part of your routine. The payoff will be tremendous. Thanks for supporting your students in their education this year. Have a great summer! 3rd Grade Third grade is wrapping up the year with many fun activities. Our classes will be attending Washburn University's Fitness Day on May 12th. Students will have fun making tie-dyed shirts the week of May 15th. Then, 3rd graders will top it off with a picnic at the purple park on May 19th! It has been wonderful watching this group of students become friends with one another. They have learned so many new skills this year. The third grade teachers hope that our students continue to read, write, and study math skills over the summer months to avoid the summer slide. 4th Grade So much is going on in the month of May! We have successfully completed our Kansas State Assessments, now we are focusing on our end of the year Scantron tests. These tests tell us how much we grew academically as 4th graders this year. We also have lots of fun things to look forward to. First, on the 4th of May we have our Field Day scheduled. We will be participating in a variety of athletic activities. Then, on the 11th we have a field trip to our State Capital. We are still looking for some parent volunteers to help make that an even better experience. Since we have been learning about energy this year, we get to go to the Kanza Energy plant on hosted by our school district. This will be a great way to wrap up and extend what we learned at the beginning of the year. Finally, our 4th grade classes won a trip to one of our National Parks. We choose to go explore Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. This wonderful trip will be on May 22. A very busy month to end our school year. We are hard working and look forward to new ways of learning. Parents we remind you to keep having your students read 20 minutes each night so they are better prepared for 5th grade. 5th Grade The end of the year is quickly approaching. We are trying to remind the kiddos that school is still in session until the very last day. We have some fun things scheduled and would hate for anyone to miss out on the activities. On Wednesday, May 17, we will be taking our 5th grade trip to Science City. Students are allowed to bring their cell phones to take pictures but they are responsible for their own device. Teachers will not be keeping track of them. Promotion will be held at Topeka West High School on May 24. Look for flyers to come home within the coming days. The Topeka Public Schools, Unified School District No. 501 is committed to affirmative action and equal opportunity. No person shall, on the basis of age, race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or expression, disability, national origin or ancestry be denied lawful access to any appropriate education service, program or activity provided by the school district. The Tile VI and Title IX compliance coordinator is the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching/Learning/Administration. The Section 504/Title II compliance coordinator is the Coordinator of College and Career Ready Services. For employment, the EEOO/AA officer is the General Director of Human Resources. All compliance coordinator may be contacted at 624 SW 24th Street, Topeka, KS 66611-1294, (785) 295-3000. The clerk of the Board of Education has been designated to receive and redirect or handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies, regulations, and procedures. The clerk may be contacted by calling (785) 295-3045 or be writing to 624 SW 24th Street, Topeka, KS 66611-1294.