Ross Rockets Newsletter - April 2026

Fast Facts about PSSA

• Most of the testing will take place in the morning
• If a student is absent, they will complete a make-up test

Reading Test:  Students will:

• Complete both fiction & nonfiction reading passages
• Answer multiple-choice questions and respond in writing to prompts

Our K4 friends will start the month of April talking about Spring and the changes we see around us as the weather starts to change. In this unit, we will talk about flowers and what they need to grow and survive. After our spring unit, we will end April by talking about animals around us. These will include animals we typically have as pets, farm animals, and animals we can find locally in the forest. By the end of April, we will have completed learning all the letters of the alphabet, finishing up our last few letters of the week. We will continue to expand our knowledge of letters by starting to work on identifying the beginning sound in words. In math, we will continue to expand our counting and number recognition skills and briefly introduce what it means to add numbers together. 

In ELA, K5 students are learning about the world of bugs while practicing reading and writing skills. Students are working on sounding out and blending CVC words along with building strong letter-sound knowledge. In math, we will be starting a new unit on Weight and Place Value. Students will explore weight, count by 10s and 1s, compare numbers, and solve addition and subtraction problems within 10. In science, we are finishing our weather unit. In social studies, we are continuing to learn about the past, present, and future, and how our experiences help tell our unique stories.

First graders will become botanists as they learn more about plants through their research and develop opinions about plants based on their research. They will examine solar and lunar patterns’ effects on changes in daylight and seasons in science. In social studies, students will continue to develop their understanding of their rights and responsibilities as citizens. In math, students will begin Unit 7, which focuses on 2-digit numbers: adding and subtracting and comparing them. Students will also continue to practice solving different types of story problems. Finally, students will continue to develop their emotional selves by learning more feeling words. Please continue to have your child read and log their steps. Thank you for all you do to support your child’s growth!

In April, 2nd grade will be starting new units in both English Language Arts and Bridges Math. In our final second-grade ELA unit, students will explore jobs in our community. They will research and write about a specific career, such as a firefighter, teacher, doctor, farmer, veterinarian, or police officer. As a culminating project, students will design a poster using the Canva app to showcase what they have learned.  In Unit 7 of Bridges Math, students will focus on fractions and fractional parts, as well as metric measurement, including the centimeter. and meter, and two and three-digit addition and subtraction. In science, we will explore environments for living things, including plants and animals. Finally, in social studies, students will expand their knowledge of their relationship to the physical world around us.  This will be a great marking period.