Red Ribbon Week- October 28th-31st

Dear JES Family and Friends,

October as always is shaping up to be a busy one! Our character value for this month is COURAGE defined as: being brave enough to do what you should do even  when you're afraid .  I hope you continue to use the Core Essentials home link to spark discussions that lead to reinforcing what we are sharing at school about COURAGE. The link will come to you from your classroom teacher.

DRAGONS Go Blue on October 7^nd as we celebrate World Day of Bullying Prevention. All throughout Dragon Country, we ask that everyone wear blue to bring awareness to the issue of bullying. We will be participating in activities that raise awareness of being kind and standing up for others. 

CogAT and ITBS Testing

On the 1st of this month, our fourth graders will be taking the CogAT test. The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) measures students’ learned reasoning abilities in the three areas most linked to academic success in school: Verbal, Quantitative and Nonverbal. On October 16^th and 17^th our fourth graders will be taking the Iowa Test of Basic Skills or ITBS. Although the primary goal of CogAT is to assess students’ reasoning abilities, it can also provide predicted achievement scores when administered with The Iowa Tests.

There is no special preparation you need to do at home for these tests. What you can do to help your student is make sure they are rested, well fed, and present at school on time on testing days. Please check your calendar and make sure that you have not scheduled doctor appointments during these days. The CogAT will be administered in three different sessions on the testing day. Testing for ITBS will take place in three sessions on the morning of the testing days.

A parent letter went home a few weeks ago about the upcoming tests that should address any questions you might have about the actual test and its purpose.   Of course, as always, if you have additional questions, please contact me at Elizabeth.Johnston@southlakecarroll.edu.

Red Ribbon Week will be celebrated the last week in October. This is a district wide drug awareness celebration.  We will kick off the week with a fun theme for each day! We will emphasize the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle. Please take advantage of this opportunity to talk with your children about making good decisions. It’s never too soon to start that conversation.

If I can help in any way, please don't hesitate to contact me at Elizabeth.Johnston@southlakecarroll.edu or 817 949 4500.

Kind regards,

Ziba

Elizabeth Johnston

JES School Counselor

Link to Dragon's Breath - K-6th grade Mental Health and Wellness Newsletter   https://www.smore.com/qkszt