If you have a chance to walk through the halls of Harvest, you will notice students learning and celebrating Black History Month.  We hope students can learn both about the trailblazers who paved the way and those who continue to inspire change every day.

Did you know that the Foundation for Saline Area Schools is making substantial differences in our school?  I want to invite you to participate in its annual fundraising event, Blue Jeans & Bling, on March 9, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. at the Sheraton Hotel in Ann Arbor. 

The Foundation provides grants directly to our teachers, allowing them to better educate and reach every one of your children.  Last year one of our Harvest teachers wrote a grant that the Foundation approved for “JumpRope Readers” for our Harvest classrooms.  

At a district level, we’re certainly on a journey in the way that we teach reading. It’s the focus of almost all of our professional development at the Y5-3rd grade level. Teachers have done a lot of work this year understanding kids phonological awareness and phonics skills post pandemic. The Jump Rope Readers are a perfect fit to supplement books in the classroom. The titles in these series gradually and systematically introduce beginning readers to new letter-sound correspondences and high-frequency words. Along the way, the books also introduce memorable characters, exciting adventures, and the foundational elements of literary fiction and core curriculum standards. Jump Rope Readers are engaging and meaningful books that help beginning readers develop their foundational word recognition skills.  We believe beginning readers deserve books they both can and want to read. “A book is just right if the child can read it and wants to read it. Anything else is ‘just okay’ at best.” This grant supports the District Strategic Framework Goals and Compass Student Attributes because these books are interesting, comprehensible, instructive and representative. We want our students to meet or exceed state standards so we need to strengthen their reading skills with targeted practice. To build bridges between home and school, we need books that serve to represent our very diverse world and offer books that serve as “windows, mirrors and doors” for students. Students are more likely to be motivated and self directed if we have books in their little hands that they can and want to read.

The Blue Jeans & Bling event is a great way to support this wonderful organization. I hope you can attend or learn more about FSAS!

Sincerely,

Emily