Havel Hawk News
v. 5.2
Havel Elementary
Our mission it to educate students, promote life long learning and encourage students to become productive citizens within a positive and safe learning environment.
Email: kristina.tepper@uticak12.org
Website: havel.uticak12.org
Location: 41855 Schoenherr Road, Sterling Heights, MI, USA
Phone: 586 7975200
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HavelElementary/
Curriculum News
Kindergarten- January is another busy, yet fun month in kindergarten! In reading, our nonfiction units will be about penguins, and Martin Luther King Jr. We will also continue to work on retelling stories with key details with the help from the book The Mitten. In math, we will learn all about base ten and subtraction. During writing, we will be focusing on using our writing rubric to write 2 good sentences.
1st Grade- It's hard to believe we are almost at the half-way point of first grade! We will begin some assessments this month to track your child's progress in language arts, math, and writing. We will also be taking the winter NWEA math and reading assessment in the next few weeks. We recently began a new math unit this month which has to do with place value and learning about groups of tens and ones. New practice pages were sent home and we highly recommend setting aside some time each week to have your child review some of the concepts that we are practicing. We will be studying penguins over the next few weeks and reading both fiction and nonfiction stories about these unique animals. We will create an interactive notebook with facts that we learn. We will also be using the facts we learn to write information stories about penguins. We are trying to create stories with a main topic and several supporting details. Later this month we will also be learning about the importance of Martin Luther King, Jr. We have a very busy month planned!
2nd Grade- The new year is off to a great start in second grade. The students set some personal and educational New Years Resolutions and are excited to try to accomplish them. They are working hard learning how to regroup numbers in double digit addition and how to make proof drawings. We are very excited to see all of their hard work and growth in reading and writing also. Happy New Year!
3rd Grade- Third grade continues to build reading and writing stamina. We are studying a variety of reading genres and are currently completing our informational writing unit. In science, we are studying the life cycles of plants and recognizing the differences between seeds, spores, and cones. Next, we will study animal life cycles. In social studies, we are studying 'life on the frontier' and how the early settlers of Michigan contributed to Michigan's growth into a state. Place value and multi-digit addition and subtraction are our focus in math. We continue to perfect our multiplication fact fluency as well. Our next mathematical focus will be fractions.
4th Grade- In math 4th grade is finishing up a unit on division this week. Our next unit involves equations and word problems. Students will learn how to write equations to solve problems, explore the use of properties and Order of Operations to simplify expressions and solve equations, solve comparison questions about a pictograph and a bar graph, explore more two-step & multi-step word problems involving all four operations, identify factors, multiples, prime/composite numbers, and analyze/extend patterns.
If your child continues to struggle with math facts or math in general, please consider our list of free tutors from National Honor Society to help support your son or daughter in this rigorous curriculum. Please let me know if you have any questions. cori.horne@uticak12.org
Our 4th grade Political Scientists are finishing up our United States Government Unit this January. This was a huge unit for our Political Scientists! We learned about the 3 Levels of Government, 3 Branches of Government, Checks and Balances, and of course our Constitution. The Scientists also worked on a 2 1/2 week project on the 3 Branches of government where they earned "badges" for accomplishing each task. The last "badge" was called Government Guru and they were excited to finally receive this badge! We will be finishing this unit middle of January and then starting our Economics Unit and our Political Scientists will turn in their badges and become Economists.
In social studies, we are learning about early European explorers. We will soon discuss the explorations of Columbus and others who brought the Eastern Hemisphere in contact with the Western Hemisphere, and analyze the impact this connection made on the American Indians, the Africans and the Europeans themselves.
6th Grade- Science/Body systems- Within the body systems unit we are learning about how diseases are spread and affect the different organs in our bodies. We are breaking down the different systems to the cellular level.
In advanced math, the students are wrapping up their unit on algebraic expressions and inequalities. We have been learning 2-step algebra problems and solving for the variable. In regular 6th grade math, the students have been working hard and learning equivalent ratios and unit rates. Students have been using tables and double lines to determine the better price and percents.
In 6th grade Social Studies we are studying Population and the causes of population increases and decreases across the world.
Outdoor Recess
Dates to know:
15th- National Hat Day- Wear A Hat Today
17th- Snack Cart, 6th Grade SMART Moves Presentations, 6th Grade SMART Moves parent meeting @ 5:30 in Media Center
18th- Bagel Day- Pre-Orders
21st- No School
22nd- HVL Game Truck Reward Day
24th- 1/2 Day Of School 12:04 Dismissal
25th- 1/2 Day of School 12:04 Dismissal & End of 2nd Quarter
31st- Snack Cart