Walking the Halls
By VANESSA PHILLIPS Few Primary Principal

This school year seems to be going so fast. Our parent involvement has been wonderful.

There was an excellent response to the second district wide Parent Conference Day, Feb. 26. We also sponsored two parent Make-N-Take workshops for Reading and Math.

The day was a success with over 300 parents or guardians signing in.

Public School Week was March 5-9. Throughout the week over 350 parents signed in to take part in one of these many activities with their child.

t Our librarian, Mr. Emfinger, had a scholastic book fair in the Multi- Purpose Room that was a success.

t Mrs. Ivey and Mr. Bryant, our physical education teachers, organized our Walk Across Texas. Parents and family members were invited to walk with their student in order to add laps to their class count.

t On Wednesday parents were invited to visit their child's class and tour the building with their son or daughter.

While enjoying all of the spring activities and the wonderful weather, the students are working hard to do their best and learn all they can.

Faculty and staff are working to make every moment a learning experience and to expose each child to everything he/she will need to be successful next year.

Even though we do not take the state administered TAKS test, we will be assessing our first and second grade students with TAKS formatted reading and math assessments.

This will give us a benchmark as to their academic needs for next year. Another tool we use is the end-of-year Texas Primary Reading Instrument (TPRI) which will be administered individually to all kindergarten, first, and second grade students the week of April 30 to May 4.

This will allow us to see how each child has grown academically throughout the year. During that same time period, pre-kindergarten teachers will be testing their students with the Kindergarten Readiness Test.

Each of these assessment tools are used to gather academic data and provide teachers information on how to individualize each child's learning experience.

When you walk the halls of Few Primary you see learning occurring everywhere; our parents, teachers, staff and administrators are all partners in the education of each child.

Few Primary is "Building a Foundation to Excellence" in all of our students.

Kindergarten Roundup for five-year-olds who plan to attend kindergarten this next school year will be held Monday, May 7, from 4 to 7 p.m., and Tuesday, May 8, from 8 to 11 a.m. in Few Primary's Multi- Purpose Room.

Kindergarten students must be five years old on or before Sept. 1.

P r e - K i n d e r g a r t e n Roundup for four-yearolds who plan to attend pre-kindergarten this next school year will be held Thursday, Aug. 2 from 1 to 6 p.m., and Friday, Aug. 3 from 7 a.m. to noon at Few Primary in the gym.

Pre-Kindergarten students must be four years old on or before Sept. 1, 2007 and must qualify for free or reduced-price school meals or be unable to speak and understand the English language or be homeless.