ParentInfo, June 15, 2007

Last Updated on Saturday, June 16, 2007 at 10:00 PM

In this issue:

*Kentucky Private College Week

*Higher ACT Scores Needed for College

*Summer Learning – Part II

*Special Education Services Parent Survey

*"Keep Kids Drug-Free” Tags

Kentucky Private College Week will be held June 18-22. Twenty private colleges and universities across Kentucky will open their doors for campus tours and information sessions at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. (local time) each day. Student will be able to talk with admissions counselors, research academic and extracurricular programs and see which campuses fit their needs and styles. Students receive an automatic application fee waiver to every school they visit during the week. Information about each of the schools as well as maps are available online so you may plan your trip before you travel.

Higher ACT Scores Needed for College

The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) has approved changes in minimum statewide admission requirements that will require higher scores on the reading and mathematics sections of the ACT college entrance exam.

Effective in fall 2009, incoming freshmen will need a score of 19 in math and 21 in reading on the exam to be placed into a credit-bearing course. The current math and reading score is 18.

Students who score below those benchmarks will be required to take remedial courses until they demonstrate they have college-level skills in those areas.

CPE officials project that the increase in score requirements may affect 4,000-5,000 students. While more students will require developmental education or supplemental instruction at least initially, students who receive the help will have a much better chance of actually leaving with a degree.

CPE’s previous reports show that students who fall below the state readiness standards are twice as likely not make it to their second year.

The changes are subject to review by two legislative committees.

Summer Learning – Part II

Over the summer months, our students can lose up to 60% of the math and reading skills that they learned during the year. Here are some ideas from Scholastic’s “Instructor Magazine” for keeping your kids learning over the summer months.

Summer math activities

For Grades K–3:

Shopaholic: What can you buy for $5 at the corner store? From the ice cream truck? In a hardware store? At the beach?
Change it up: Start collecting change in a jar on the first day of summer. On the last day, estimate your change, count it, and plan a special purchase.
Summer patterns: Create patterns using summer items (popsicle sticks, shells, flowers). Or, draw patterns in the sand or dirt using a stick or your hands. See how long you can carry out your pattern—along the length of the sandbox, or across the grass.
Napkin fractions: Fold paper towels or napkins into large and small fractions, from one-half to 1/16. Use markers to label and decorate the different fractions.
Design hunt: Keep an eye out for shapes, patterns and designs when you’re out and about. You never know what you’ll find in the architecture at the airport, the shopping mall or even the grocery store.
100% delicious: Use ice cream to make fraction sundaes. Can you make an ice cream sundae that is one-half vanilla and one-half chocolate? What about one-third chocolate, one-third vanilla and one-third strawberry? Can you cover a scoop of ice cream with one-quarter each nuts, sprinkles, cookie crumbs and gummy bears? Or can you eat a bite of ice cream that is one-half chocolate, one-half vanilla? For older children, calculate the percentage of each ice cream flavor in the sundae.

For Grades 4–8:

Record-breakers: Use a stopwatch to time yourself running, roller blading, swimming or biking. Then try to beat your time. Be sure to keep the distance you’re moving the same for each trial. Graph the results. (You may need a partner for this.)
Where will you be? Using a map, calculate where you will you be if you travel 20, 50, 100 or 1,000 miles from home.
How many ways? As you’re exploring your neighborhood during the summer, how many routes can you take to the school, the grocery store, the mall or your friend’s house?
What’s the catch: No backtracking and you must take a new route each time.
Let’s eat: Prepare a meal or dish for the family. Before you go to the supermarket, find a recipe, write what you need and how much. At the supermarket, choose the best-priced option.

Summer reading activities

These ideas will keep kids engaged in reading, writing and thinking creatively even on the hottest days.

Water writer: Using a pail of water and a brush, have kids write words on the blacktop or sidewalk.
Sell summer: Tell kids: Try a new product or activity and write about it. How would you describe it? Would you recommend it? Create an advertisement to sell it to others.
Plan a trip: Have kids use the Internet, travel guidebooks, brochures and maps to plan a dream day, weekend, week- or month-long trip.
Summer sleuth: Have kids follow a story in a newspaper during the summer or investigate a local story (e.g., an upcoming fair). Tell kids: Write about the event as it unfolds so that you have it documented from start to finish.
Play it: Take an adventure book with a clear plot (The Phantom Tollbooth, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc.) and invent a board game based on it.
Comic strip: Write a comic strip about a fictional character or yourself. See how long you can keep the strip going. Read classic comics for inspiration.

Summer science fun

Summer is the perfect time for children to explore their extracurricular interests, like science. Here are some activities that will have children hypothesizing all the way to September.

Map the weather: Keep a running log of the weather. Include temperature, humidity, clouds, precipitation, wind and air pressure. Can you predict what the weather will be tomorrow?
Invent a recipe for a summer drink and share it with your friends. For example, the Citrus Sizzler: 1/2 cup Sprite, 1/2 cup pineapple juice, 1 spritz lime juice.
Museum gallery: Collect pinecones, rocks, shells or other natural objects to organize, categorize and label. Present your own natural history museum.
Hot-weather inventor: Design an invention that you can use during summer. Some ideas: sunglasses that change color from red to yellow to blue, or a new beach toy.
Answer a question: How long does it take an ice cube to melt outside in the summer heat? In the refrigerator? In an air-conditioned room?

Float or sink: In a pool or the bathtub, hypothesize which items (soap, dry sock, bottle of shampoo, rock, etc.) will float or sink. Test your hypotheses.

Special Education Services Parent Survey

Parents of students receiving special education services are being asked to fill out an online parent involvement survey.

The survey is an attempt to find out if schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities as stated in Kentucky’s State Performance Plan.

The deadline to complete the survey is June 30, 2007.

“Keep Kids Drug-Free” Tags

Before long, you may have the opportunity to promote anti-drug efforts with a new Kentucky license plate. Organizers hope to have the “Keep Kids Drug-Free” tags out by mid-October. Nine hundred orders must be received before it will be produced. Cost for the tag is $38, with $10 being split among three charitable agencies: Operation UNITE, WestCare Kentucky and the Children’s Alliance. The rest of the money goes to the state. The plate’s design is being selected through a contest open to all elementary, middle and high school students across the state. It will be unveiled in October. Applications to order the special plates can be downloaded from any of the agency’s Web sites: www.operationunite.org, www.westcare.com or www.childrensallianceky.org.