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Kindergarten
     We are beginning the second quarter of our school year and the students continue to improve their oral language, concepts about print, phonemic awareness and phonics skills as well as read and write their high frequency words. During this quarter we will be reading for literary experience. We will read stories and poems to expand your child’s experience with literature. We will continue with our guided reading groups supporting your children as they make progress through the varying levels of text. They will continue to use reading strategies taught to them and learn new ones. One example of a strategy is to re-read the text when it doesn’t make sense with the picture or when it doesn’t sound right.
     In the area of writing we will continue to write to express our personal ideas using drawings, symbols, letters or words. We will also begin to write to persuade and inform others. We will revise and edit our work. We will use our writing rules. Writing rules include using a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence, ending our thought with a period and putting space between our words.
     We have just begun our second math unit. The students will count and compare quantities. They will compare groups with more, less and equal quantities and demonstrate the concepts of odd and even. The students will represent numbers in different ways and develop their number sense. They will also further develop their understanding of ordinal numbers.
    In the area of science and social studies we are extending our understanding of the Fall season and the weather and climate changes as well as learning about our different family units and how we work, share and play together.

1st Grade

Mrs Parker, Mrs. Hyacinthe, Mrs. Brewer, Mrs. Carter First Grade       Our first graders just finished up a great quarter!  Classroom routines are established and students are focusing on following our class rules.  IMPORTANT:  Please note that your child’s red homework folder goes home every day with papers inside.  Please take out all the papers that are on the “leave at home” side and complete and return the papers on the “bring back to school” side. Homework will be assigned to your child most days except for Fridays.  Please help them with their homework, if necessary.  If they are having a particularly difficult time with it, please leave it uncompleted with a note for the teacher.       Looking ahead in reading, we will continue working on story elements, vocabulary development, and before-during-and-after reading strategies.  By the end of this quarter (in late January), the on-grade-level target in guided reading groups is level 8 or above.  As you know, your child has a reading folder that they bring home every night except Fridays.  Besides reading the book that is sent home in the Yellow reading folder, other worksheets related to reading and writing are sent home on some days to be completed as part of the homework assignment.  Continue practicing words and reading every night!      In addition to the fiction books, we will be reading information books and writing to inform. We will be discussing ways we can organize the information in our writing.      In math, we are beginning Unit 2 – there are a lot of new concepts to learn!  We will focus on measuring time, length, width, height, and weight. We will also continue to work on number sense; ordinal numbers, “turn-around’ facts, solving number stories, basic facts, and place value.  Please continue to work with your child in these areas.      In science, we will start a new unit on constructions.  We will also begin to study geography and map skills in our 2nd quarter social studies unit.      Here is an important thought to keep in mind as we continue through the school year. As the weather gets colder, please dress your child in layers. It’s going to be cold outside for recess, but warm in the classroom.  Putting your child’s name on his/her warm clothing will help prevent items from getting lost or misplaced.

Third Grade
     Third graders have been busy at work as we wrap up the first marking period.  They just finished their first math assessment.  Results have been sent home with the children. Please review these with your child. Our second math unit, measurement, is well underway now. Children have been busy measuring objects in the room, as well as at home. They are learning to estimate their measurements using their bodies to estimate inches, feet and centimeters.
     We have completed our science unit on plant life and bees and are awaiting the arrival of our next kit – Crime Lab Chemistry/Chromatography. This is always a fun unit for the students.
     We have a field trip coming up on December 18. We will be traveling to Baltimore to visit the Baltimore Museum of Industry to tour and study how technology has changed over time. Students will have an opportunity to participate in a variety of activities, including specialized jobs along an assembly line. This is a wonderful trip, so be sure to mark your calendars now! More information will be coming after Thanksgiving.
     Report cards are coming home, and you should have had a conference scheduled with your child’s reading teacher.  Notices have been sent home. If you are unable to make your scheduled conference, please contact your child’s teacher to make other arrangements.
     Our Fall Festival party was a great success. Thanks to all of you who helped make it a fun time for all of the children. If you have not yet had a chance to send in the $5.00 to cover the cost of the party for your child, please send it in as soon as possible. Also, if you have not yet sent in your money for your child’s subscription to Time for Kids and National Geographic, please do so at this time. The cost for TFK is $5.00, and National Geographic is $6.00.
     Thank you for your continued support and help this year.  We look forward to seeing you at the conferences.

4th Grade

Ms. Collins, Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. VanLieshout, Mrs. Verghese, Ms. Milne & Ms. Mihalich

Fourth Grade
We will be closing out our Non-Fiction genre study from the 1st marking period and beginning our study and appreciation of Realistic Fiction during the 2nd Quarter. Within this genre study, we will investigate how character traits impact story elements and comparing themes within each story. Our Author study in the last marking period focused on Patricia Polacco. We will now begin an inquiry into Eloise Greenfield’s life and talents. Grammar is our next focus in Language Arts. This will allow us to see the benefits of adverbs and adjectives, as we continue to discover how to bring our writing to a greater level of detail. Within the writing curriculum, we will begin writing to inform. This effort will be integrated into the Social Studies content. Social Studies will allow us to investigate how geographical characteristics affect migration. Along with migration, we will learn about Native Americans and their cultures within Maryland’s history.
     In our Everyday Math Curriculum, students have just completed the Unit 1 Assessment.  Assessment scores will be shared at parent-teacher conferences.  Also, be on the lookout for the summary sheet for the assessment within the next couple of weeks.  We have dived into Unit 2, which covers number computation, number patterns and relationships.  In the first part of the unit, students will be able to write numeric expressions in equivalent forms using the commutative and associative properties and simplify numeric expressions involving parentheses.  They also will be able to find multiples and factors of numbers.  Students will demonstrate mastery of multiplication and division fact families as well.  This unit will last about 6 weeks.
     Within the Science curriculum, we are still in our study of life science/ecosystems.  We went on our fieldtrip to the Brookside Nature Center and learned a lot about food chains and primary, secondary and tertiary consumers.  We are finishing up with how organisms interact and will begin learning about what affects the survival of an organism. 
     A parent conference confirmation slip has been sent home with your child.  Please return it as soon as possible so that we can make any arrangements that might be necessary.

 

5th Grade

Mrs. Thai-Jenkins, Mrs. Castillo, Mrs. Verghese, Mrs. VanLieshout Mrs. Rothberg, Ms. Mihalich & Mr. McNaboe Fifth Grade      Welcome to the second marking period.  Parent conferences will be held on November 11th and 12th in the afternoon.  Please check with your child’s teacher for a parent conference date.  We look forward to meeting you and discussing your child’s progress. Also, there will be an in-house field trip on November 18th to enrich the students knowledge in the area of electricity and magnetism. Also, the weather is changing. Please dress your child in layers so they can keep healthy and warm. We look forward to the next quarter. The following is what we will be covering for the various subject areas for the next marking period:      Reading and Language Arts: The focus for this marking period for whole group and small group reading will be poetry, for vocabulary will be analogies (relationships between words), using context to determine word meanings, introduction to the vocabulary web, connotations of words. The author study will focus on authors Langston Hughes and Ralph Fletcher. For reading to be informed, the focus will be on areas such as literature circles using informational text, inferring with informational text, reading challenging texts, navigating the internet and website reliability. There will be exposure to also test taking strategies and written responses to reading.  The writing area will be writing for personal expression (using poetry) and writing to inform.      Social Studies: This unit will be on Economics: creating a new nation. Please discuss with your children current economics in our changing world today.      Math and Science: Students will be learning geometry (angles) this marking period for math. The science unit will be electricity and magnetism.