Lincoln's March Newsletter
Leading The Pack In Kingsport
Spring is Here!
Attendance is always a hot topic for our newsletters, and this month is no exception. State wide testing is just around the corner and teachers are working hard to provide positive learning opportunities for students to refine their skills and understanding of grade level math and reading skills. Our students need time at school to master grade level skills and they will have difficulty with this if they are late, leave early, or not at school at all. Truly, unless the child is contagious and sick, they should be at school.
We've got three weeks before Spring Break--let's collectively work together to make sure that students are here at Lincoln every day, on time, for the entire day! Thanks in advance for all of your help in this matter.
UPDATE: Science Fair Change of Date
MONDAY, MARCH 11TH from 6:00-7:00
Upcoming Events--Mark Your Calendars!
**March 11--6:00-7:00--Science Fair Open House**. THIS IS A DATE CHANGE Come and enjoy all of the science fair projects and some demonstrations from local robotics teams as well as other science based community members. Come and see the great work that our students have done.
March 15--No School for Students. The 15th is an in-service day for teachers.
March 21--Report card distribution
March 25-29--Spring Break--No School For Students.
April 1--Return to School after Spring Break
April 16th - 26th - TN Ready Testing for student in grades 3 - 5
Get READY for TN Ready!
Thank you in advance for your support and encouragement. This is definitely a time for our Lincoln Lions to shine!
Grade Level Updates
Kindergarten
Kindergarten is working on:
Literacy:
- Word family words - reviewing at, ag, ap & beginning the in word family
- Beginning blends - bl, br, cr, cL, etc.
- reading and writing CVC words - for example: cat, dog, mop, etc.
- Please keep reading to your child and listening to them read at home
- Please continue to work on the sight words for kindergarten (sent home earlier this year)
Math:
- recognizing & writing numbers to 20
- Recognizing and describing 2D and 3D shapes
- Counting by ones to 75
- Counting to 100 by fives and tens
Social studies:
Community Helpers
First
First graders will be learning the parts and structures of a plant. They will be able to explain the plant functions help the plant grow and how the plant’s parts and structures interact with its surroundings during its life cycle in order to survive. As we are learning about plant parts and structures, we will compare and contrast texts, use various text features, find evidence in text, and make connections between texts. Students will write an informational piece using text evidence to describe and explain the plants parts and the functions of the parts. Again, we will use a graphic organizer to help us plan our writing.
For phonics, we are focusing on r-controlled vowel patterns. Our language focus will be determiners (words that come before a noun) and the placement of commas in a sentence. We will continue to practice capitalization and punctuation of sentences.
In math, students will collect, represent, and interpret data. They will continue to understand, represent, and solve problems involving addition and subtraction. Counting by 10s from any number (ex. 24 + 20 = 44) and knowing that 20 is 2 tens, 50 is 5 tens, etc. Students need to practice reading analog clocks to the hour and half hour.
Second
Second graders will be learning about economics during March. We will investigate why budgets are important and how economics influences their culture. Ask your child about needs versus wants and what skills they need to work at their dream job. We will also work on understanding how life changes over time and identify some of the causes of those changes.
Toward the end of March we will shift our focus to study the works of Patricia Polacco and how her characters respond to challenges. The third nine weeks’ writing assessment will be given during the first week of March. The students will be writing an opinion piece. In March we will learn about conjunctions, compound sentences, and review previous grammar skills.
Students are continuing their investigation of measuring lengths and distances as well as solving story problems. Students will work with a variety of measurement units. Nonstandard units of measurement will include shoe-lengths, craft sticks, and paper clips. Standard units will be the traditional inches, feet, yards, centimeters and meters. Students should be able to recognize that when they are measuring the same length, larger unit will yield smaller counts. They will also be expected to estimate and measure length in inches, feet, centimeters, and meters. Towards the middle of the month, we will be beginning a new investigation that will lay the foundation for future work with multiplication. Students will explore even and odd numbers and work with equal groups. Second graders are still working with counting money and finding coin equivalencies. They will also be introduced to telling time to the nearest five minutes on an analog clock.
Third
Third grade continues to work hard on reading for meaning and using text for evidence in responding to questions. We are finishing up our unit on disasters, and will soon begin our next unit titled "Mysteries of the Deep." Please continue to work with your child on their word work practice that is being sent home ~ remember, no word work lists/quizzes through the month of March. And READ, READ, READ at home!! That is the #1 way to increase your child's vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency!!!!
For the month of March we will be doing test review and practice in math. This month the focus is solving problems involving measurement of liquid volume and mass, adding and subtracting fluently, and describing, analyzing, and comparing strategies for adding and subtracting whole numbers. Two step word problems are a main focus using the four operations during this unit. The students will be making sense of problems and preserve in solving them and construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Fourth
During math, we are shifting gears to a measurement and geometry unit. Students will learn about many new topics such as angle measurement with a protractor and new vocabulary words like line, line segment, vertex, ray, acute, obtuse, parallel, and perpendicular. In past grade levels, students have been exposed to different measurement units and systems. We will be extending their understanding of perimeter and area and solving multi-step problems related to measurement in the real world. Please utilize your child's homework as a "study guide." This resource features review questions as well as current class topics.
In science class, we are continuing to study the earth. This includes describing renewable versus non-renewable energy sources; using research to determine how human activity such as mining, farming, and building can affect the land in positive and negative ways; interpreting patterns in the locations of land forms on a map; and analyzing data about the 4 layers of the earth.
Now that Chromebooks are coming home, please use them to utilize study and practice resources such as the Discovery Education Science Techbook, Study Island, and other technology based programs. These are sites students use at school, and would be very helpful to visit prior to using the Chromebook for "leisure" activity. Help us reinforce that the Chromebook is a tool with the first priority of use being learning.
In Literacy, we are continuing to focus on main idea (what the text is mostly about), common themes within two texts, Greek and Latin roots, and points of view. In writing, we are focusing on expository opinion writing.
In Social Studies, we are continuing to focus on Early American Government. After discussing the Constitution and our branches of government, we will move on to learning about Westward Expansion.
Continue reading 20 minutes each night. Utilize websites via the Chromebook such as www.getepic.com or www.storylineonline.net. Be sure to sign the reading log each night for your child.
Fifth
Math/Science
Fifth grade math is finishing our unit on decimals. We also preparing for end of year testing, taking time to review topics from throughout the year and strengthen our understanding! In science, we are learning about the tilt and rotation of the Earth and its place in the solar system.
ELA/SS
We have started the point of view unit. We’re going to take some time to review fifth grade skills in preparation for our upcoming assessments. We are also preparing for our quarterly writing assessment in the coming weeks. Be sure your child continues reading 20-30 minutes each night to further develop comprehension skills!
Helping teach perseverance with your child
We are having lots of conversations at school around this topic and would love it if parents joined in the conversation too. Below are two short videos that you can watch with your children to help spark conversation about perseverance or what is often referred to as grit. After watching the videos with you student, here are a few questions that you could use to start the conversation:
- What do you do when something at school is hard?
- Have you ever failed/not finished something at school because you were frustrated or you felt it was too hard? What do you think you could have done differently to help you finish the task?
- How does perseverance help you not only in school but out of school? What about when you are playing sports? How does it help you when you have perseverance? How does it help your team?
- While this is not a question, share a time with your child when you failed at something and then got up and tired to reach the goal again. Let your child know that you have learned about and used perseverance in your life too.