Grundy Ave Newsletter
~ February 2017 ~
Dear Grundy Ave Learning Community;
Grundy is planning an exciting event for the beginning of March, called Readers Are Leaders day. Leaders from our community will be coming to Grundy to tell a little about themselves, read a book to a class and answer questions from the students about their jobs. This event goes along with the district’s initiative of instilling leadership in our students through the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey and our requirements for our Civics curriculum. We have confirmations from our Superintendent Dr. Graham, Ed Romaine Town Supervisor, a police officer, animal therapy dogs, a sense, a children's librarian from Sachem Public Library, and many more. It should be a fun and informative day.
The 5th grade Grundy Spelling Bee was held on January 27th and the winner was Dylan Nuzzi and runner up Justin Velez. The winning word was LIBERATE! The district championship will be held February 8th at 4:00 at Waverly Elementary School. World Read Aloud Day is February 16th where all of Grundy will spend some time reading aloud some great books. Make some time to read to your children as well. Random Acts of Kindness Day is February 17th. Let's choose kindness and make a difference! Kindergarten registration begins on 2/1. Information can be found on the website. Look for information about these events and more to be coming home soon.
If you have not signed up for our email list for important information from the district, PTA and Grundy, please call the school and do so. Grundy is now “Green” and no hard copies of any notices will be sent home. All information can also be found on our website by going to www.sachem.edu and clicking on the schools tab and then finding Grundy.
The PTA has many exciting activities happening! The winter Box Tops contest is still going on so send those Box Tops in! The Father/Daughter Dance is on 2/6, and Sport’s Night is on 2/3. I hope you already purchased your ticket to come and root for Grundy Ave! All money collected from this event go to Scholarships for graduating seniors. The next PTA meeting will be on 2/9. Also, McTeacher Night will be on 3/1 at the McDonald's on Portion Rd. This is always a fun night for our Grundy Family. Come out and support Grundy at these fun family events!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Amato
Parent Portal...Important Information!
It has been brought to our attention from the Office of Information Services that many of our Grundy families have not yet logged into the Parent Portal of eSchool. This is a reminder that the Parent Portal has important information about your child’s school experiences. This includes report cards, attendance, transportation, and your child’s classroom teacher.
As the Sachem School District continues to ‘go green’ more information will be available on the Parent Portal rather than sent home in a hard copy. To assist you in logging in to view this important documentation, directions can be found on the home page of the Sachem website at www.sachem.edu. This can be accessed from any computer, tablet or smartphone.
The home-school connection is a vital component to your child’s success. If we can be of any assistance, please call our office at 631-471-1820.
Kindergarten News
The Teddy Bear Clinic came to Grundy! The Teddy Bear Clinic is a free injury prevention program for children sponsored by the Trauma Center at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. Nurse Christine from Stony Brook Hospital came to visit each Kindergarten class to teach about car and helmet safety. The students learned answers to 3 important questions!
1. Whose job is it to keep our bodies safe? Ourselves!
2. What’s the first thing we do when we get in the car? Buckle up!
3. Where’s the safest place for kids to sit in the car? In the Back!
Nurse Christine even demonstrated the importance of helmet safety with an egg drop. One egg wore a helmet and one did not! Then each kindergartener took the time to care for their injured stuffed animal. It was great fun and we learned a lot!First Grade News
Our new year has brought many exciting learning opportunities for our first graders! In Writer’s Workshop we are studying a famous author named Mem Fox. We have read many of Fox’s books. Some of our student’s favorites are Harriet, You Drive Me Wild and Koala Lou. Through our author study we have learned to write about our own experiences and things that we care about, just like Mem Fox does! We are writing wonderful stories about the important people and events in our lives. In math, we are learning about place value and how to compare numbers to each other using words like “greater than” and “less than”. In science, we are learning about the Earth and all of its important features. We are learning about rivers, mountains, valleys, plains and different types of soil. In social studies, we learned about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We learned about his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. Our first graders worked very hard to write about their own dreams to make our world a better place. We had an awesome time on our first out-of-school field trip this year when we went to see the play called Junie B. Jones. The students had a great time watching one of their favorite book characters come to life on stage in a fun and exciting way! We had a great time in January! We look forward to more fun and learning in February!
Second Grade News
Greetings from Second Grade! We have been studying hard to master subtraction with regrouping. We have been using a little poem to help us remember the steps. In writer’s workshop we are creating personal narratives and focusing on adding descriptive details to our pieces. On January 27th we saw the musical Junie B. Jones at the CM Performing Arts Center in Oakdale and we would like to thank our PTA for helping us organize the trip. Finally, our “Souper Bowl” Service Project is underway! Please donate any canned goods by Friday, February 3rd and show your Grundy Spirit! Enjoy Super Bowl Weekend and Go Grundy at Sports Night!
Third Grade News
Third graders started the New Year off by talking and writing about our goals and resolutions for 2017. In math we are working hard to master their multiplication and division facts. We’ve had some friendly competitions and practice daily. We are finishing up with our fiction unit in reading and beginning our nonfiction studies. Our social studies unit focuses on the United States. We will learn about the economy and the government as well as some important symbols of the United States. We had a very special guest from our local community in to talk to us about her job as a crossing guard. Mrs. Campo met with our third graders in the multi- purpose room. She spoke to the students about her job and answered many students’ questions. The children really enjoyed the presentation and received information sheets to bring home and share with their parents as well as coloring books. Thank you Mrs. Campo for taking time out of your busy schedule to come in and talk with our third graders about the important job that you have in our local community.
Fourth Grade News
The fourth-grade students enjoyed a full-day Native American program. The children had the opportunity to listen to folktales, play Native American games, walk through a longhouse, touch animal skins, turn corn into flour, make clay pots, and walk through a “museum” of Native American artifacts. What a great way to close out our Native American unit. We are so impressed with the time, effort, and creativity displayed by the students who created longhouses. Thank you to our wonderful parents for their support!
Fifth Grade News
It has been a very eventful month in 5th grade. The annual fifth grade spelling bee was held on January 27th. We would like to congratulate all the finalists that got to represent their class on stage. After seven tense rounds in the finals, Dylan Nuzzi and Justin Velez emerged as this year’s 5th grade champions. We wish them the best of luck as they move on to the District Spelling Bee on February 8th. We continue to be busy in the classroom as well. Our latest nonfiction writing unit is biography and each student got to choose a contemporary or historical role model. We are looking forward to doing research to learn more about the lives of these inspirational figures. In Health, we began the Too Good for Drugs program. So far we learned about setting goals, making good choices, and managing emotions. All these tools are important building blocks that will help us lead a healthy and drug free life.
Winners
Grundy's contestants
Alternate
News from the Resource Room
Children benefit when teachers and parents reinforce the same concepts and ideas. The following are strategies for parents to engage in their children’s reading acquisition, by doing this; it can help children find greater success in school.
At home support phonics instruction, parents can • Talk with the teacher about their child’s phonics progress, • Encourage their child to point to words and say them out loud when writing, • Listen to their child read, • Help their child sort words by long- and short vowel sounds, • Help children define larger words by breaking them into smaller chunks, and • Play spelling and word games like Scrabble and Hang Man.
At home To support the development of vocabulary, parents can • Read aloud a variety of genres, • Talk with their child about daily events and about books they read together, • Talk about how the illustrations and text in a book support each other, • Use word lists provided by their child’s teacher in natural conversation, • Search for new words in texts with their child and look them up in the dictionary, and • Help their child learn new vocabulary based on hobbies or interests.
Spirit Week at Grundy!
News from the Nurse's Office
National Wear Red Day is on Friday February 3, 2017. It will mark 15 years of bringing national attention to the fact that heart disease is the #1 killer of women, and to raise awareness for women’s heart health.
5 IMPORTANT CHANGES FOR OPTIMUM HEART HEALTH:
Avoid tobacco. Smoke from cigarettes, cigars, and pipes is as bad for the heart and arteries as it is for the lungs. If you smoke, quitting is the biggest gift of health you can give yourself. Secondhand smoke is also toxic, so avoid it whenever possible.
Be active. Exercise and physical activity are about the closest things you have to magic bullets against heart disease and other chronic conditions. Any amount of activity is better than none; at least 30 minutes a day is best.
Aim for a healthy weight. Carrying extra pounds, especially around the belly, strains the heart and tips you toward diabetes. If you are overweight, losing just 5% to 10% of your starting weight can make a big difference in your blood pressure and blood sugar.
Enliven your diet. Add fruits and vegetables, whole grains, unsaturated fat, good protein (from beans, nuts, fish, and poultry), and herbs and spices. Subtract processed foods, salt, rapidly digested carbohydrates (from white bread, white rice, potatoes, and the like), red meat, and soda or other sugar-sweetened beverages.
Drink alcohol in moderation (if at all). If you drink alcohol, limit your intake — one to two drinks a day for men, no more than one a day for women.
New from the Reading Room
Reading familiar books at home helps supports a child's fluency!
Support-
Model expressive reading & have your child echo read.
Encourage just-right pacing (not too fast, not too slow).
Demonstrate how to attend to the punctuation (pausing at the end of sentences, adding expression based on the punctuation mark).
Compliment-
You sounded just like the character would sound!
I could hear you take a break after the punctuation marks!
You are reading in phrases, not word-by-word!
Your speed is just right! Not too fast or too slow!
Random Acts of Kindness Day
News from the Art Room
The Kindergarten and first grade students are working on projects based the books There’s a Wocket in My Pocket and McElligot’s Pool, by Dr. Seuss. These lessons are in preparation for Dr. Seuss’ birthday, as well as Grundy’s Read-aloud Day. Both grade levels are creating themed based art project based on each story. Also, the students are working on some writing that goes along with their artwork in Library, with Mrs. Lawler. Stay tuned to the hallways to see their creative masterpieces!
The second through fifth graders are also busy being creative, each doing lessons based on different artists and elements of art.
The second grade is busy creating their own Mona Lisa. The students created a landscape that shows perspective. Their landscape will be adorned with a portrait (photograph) that was taken of them, as if they are the “Mona Lisa” in their own landscape.
Third grade learned about the American Pop artist, Andy Warhol. They are bringing their Pop Art into the year 2017, having the subjects of their work be things that are “POPular” to them, just as Warhol did during his life.
Fourth grade is completing a lesson based on the elements of color and value. The students created a monochromatic painting with a twist! Once they completed their landscape, that had a tree, the students created owls out of clay that will also be part of their pictures.
The fifth graders studied the American, abstract artist, Georgia O’Keeffe. The students used her style of magnifying a portion of an object of nature, such as flowers, leaves and sea shells. The students were also, involved with a lesson on color theory, learning to blend colors and use oil pastels to complete their work.
All of the projects that the students are working on can be viewed at our annual Art Show, which will be May 16th!
News from the Library
There has been a lot of activity in the library lately! Kinders and first graders are getting some writing together for Readers are Leaders Day on March 2nd. Second grade has been starting to share an original fairy tale, choosing their own characters, round robin style. We have been researching different cultures in third grade and our own government in fourth grade. I am proud of my fifth graders who have been presenting their google slide presentations on famous and notable people of their choice! They have worked hard and have done excellent work. Here is a snapshot below of some of the work they did:
News from PE
The kindergarten class and first graders have started a catching & throwing unit. We began with tossing underhand and have now progressed to throwing overhand. All students have been focusing hard on stepping with their other/opposite foot, as well as throwing to a target from various distances. Students have also been working to improve their catching skills. Our focus has been on getting into a good ready position, moving to the ball, and using correct hand position when catching a ball that is either at a low or high level.
Grades 2-5 have begun a volleyball unit. Last week, we introduced the forearm pass. Our focus has been on proper hand position, moving to the ball, and using legs for power (not swinging the arms). All classes will be moving towards the overhead pass (set) by either this week or next. We hope to move into serving and some basic volleyball games towards the middle of February.
Feel free to check out Mrs. Malley’s website on the Grundy page.
News from the Math Room
Most of our students are learning about fractions. A fun book for younger students is Eating Fractions by Bruce McMillan. Children are introduced to halves, thirds, fourths and eights. Funny And Fabulous Fraction Stories by Dan Greenberg is suitable for children in grades 3 – 6. Reading these books will help students become more familiar with fractions while reading an enjoyable story.
An enjoyable interactive web site www.aplusmath.com website has information for all ages. There are games and flashcards you can print and a fabulous section on fractions for your children to play. Please remember to encourage your little one to practice his or her facts!
News from the Music Room
In December, our fourth grade music students began researching important artists and groups in the history of Rock and Roll. The students were paired up and assigned influential figures such as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Bono from U2, Chuck Berry, The Beach Boys, Nirvana, Alanis Morissette, Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash and Janis Joplin. Using their research, the students created Google Slide presentations and will be presenting to one another in class. As the students present, they will listen to and discuss the importance of each artist.
Grundy Ave Elementary School
Email: lamato@sachem.edu
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/grundyavenueelementaryschool/
Location: 950 Grundy Avenue, Holbrook, NY, United States
Phone: 631-471-1820
Facebook: facebook.com/GrundyAvenueElementarySchool
Twitter: @GrundyAve