Straford Farm Field Trip

What a wonderful day we had at Stratford, we collected fresh eggs from the chicken coop, planted carrots and beets, picked and ate veggies in the greenhouse, held baby chicks and lambs, played in the hayloft, made face paint with sandstone from the creek, found salamanders in the swamp, watched swallows making nests near the pond and hiked through miles of mud!

Statford is a special place and worth a family field trip. The ecological farm is especially fun when you have friends or cousins visiting from out of town. You will participate in whatever is happening on the farm  on the day of your visit.

Stratford operates with three goals:
To preserve the natural ecosystems of existing woods, stream-sides, meadows, and swamps on its property. To manage a diversified, working “family farm,” demonstrating the lifestyle, techniques, and principles of sustainable agriculture, horticulture, and forestry; and to promote agro- ecological research. To provide a hands-on, experiential educational center for individuals to learn ecological concepts, understand human ecology, and gain a reverence for the diversity, complexity, and beauty of the natural world. 

On Tuesday's pre-visit, Stratford intern Emily visited and with the help of a few students,
  demonstrated the cycle of cow-manure-worm-soil-hay-farmer-milk!

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Walking Wednesdays

Hello Wickliffe Families, 
Just a heads up to let you know that I am putting the Walking Wednesday passports in your mailboxes today.  Just so you know, this is different than walking club!  Kids should attach them to their bags and when they walk or bike to school cards will get punched by a volunteer on their way in.  We start next Wednesday 
Have a great weekend and happy spring! 

Thank you for your help 
Nikki 
Nikki McCarthy 
nikkimc1@me.com 
614-619-4957 

Progress Reports/Portfolios

This Tuesday your child will bring home their third quarter progress report and portfolio. Enjoy your child's work for a few days and try to return their portfolio by next Friday.  

Standardized Tests

The Ohio Department of Education recently extended the window during which school districts may 
administer the Ohio Achievement Assessments (OAA) to students in grades three through eight.  After careful consideration, we have decided to take advantage of this opportunity and push back our OAA schedule by one week.  This change also requires an adjustment to the schedule for TerraNova testing.  The new OAA and TerraNova schedule is as follows:

• Tuesday, May 6 - OAA in reading for students in grades three through eight;
• Wednesday, May 7 - OAA in math for students in grades three through eight;
• Monday, May 12 through Friday, May 16 - TerraNova testing for grades two, three, five and seven.

While a change to this very important part of the school-year calendar will be challenging, those challenges are outweighed by the benefits of providing additional instructional days in advance of the assessments.  This change will allow the results to provide a more accurate picture of student achievement during the 2013-2014 school year, something that is especially important in light of the new third-grade reading guarantee.