Valley Cottage School

Dear VCE Families,

Although March may seem to be a long and cold month, we have a great deal happening at VCE!

While many are anticipating college basketball March Madness, we will be starting our very own March Madness here at VCE, and it will run through the month of May! We have been using a website called IXL in our classrooms this year. IXL is a comprehensive learning program offering unlimited math practice across thousands of skills—all of which are aligned to State Standards. One of the best things about IXL is that your child can access it from home and school, so you have a chance to see your child's progress! IXL is designed to help your child learn at his or her own pace. The program is adaptive and adjusts based on your child's demonstrated understanding of the material. All of your child's results will be saved for you so you can monitor his or her progress anytime by clicking on Analytics. For on-the-go practice, you can download IXL’s free tablet apps for iPad, Android, or Kindle and sign in with your child’s username and password. Your child can also access the program from a local library computer. VCE will be holding a “March through May Math Madness Challenge” to see which class can master the most math skills on IXL, between March 1 and May 6, 2019. Over 8 weeks, we will have 5 rounds, with classes advancing until the class with the highest number of skills mastered remains. We will keep track of the progress on a large chart located in the hallway just outside the cafeteria. The children are already buzzing about this and additional information will be sent home in back packs. We encourage all of our students to participate. Please note that this is not homework and is totally voluntary.

Additional events in the month of March include:

• March Forward Day on March 6^th will promote movement and exercise
• VCE All-Star spirit day on March 8^th (Wear your favorite sports attire)
• PTA sponsored Dance-A-Thon on March 8^th at 7:00 pm- (Wear your favorite sports attire again!)
• Spring pictures on March 12^th (snow date March 13^th)
• 4^th Grade Chorus Day on March 27^th
• Our Second Annual International Night on March 28^th
• Assembly programs from Uncle Brothers Band and Story Pirates

Who said that March is a dull month? Certainly no one at VCE!

Thank you for sharing your children with us each day.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Gina Cappiello, Principal