February Newsletter
Westwood Elementary
News from the Principal
Westwood Families,
It is hard to believe that we only have four months of school left before we roll into summer. Our students and staff have been working extremely hard academically and we are proud of the progress our students continue to make.
In April, our 3rd 4th and 5th grade students will take their state assessments. These tests are designed to support educators and policymakers in evaluating student learning, as well as to meet the requirements for federal and state accountability. Our students have been rigorously preparing and it is extremely important that your child is in attendance each day to ensure they are engaged in the daily instruction.
Teachers will be sending home 5-week progress reports on Wednesday, February 15th. If you have any questions regarding these reports, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s teacher.
As a reminder, school will NOT be in session on Monday, February 13th. It is a professional development day for teachers.
Thank you,
Kimberly Dressman
Preschool
In February, we will be continuing our unit on community helpers and our neighborhoods. We are finishing up our counting to ten unit in math and will be starting a new unit towards the middle of the month. In science, we have talked about soil and planting. We just started talking about insects which is something the kids really like. We are also going to be planting some herbs and flowers for our upcoming plant sale! We have our lettuce growing in the classroom right now and it is amazing how fast it has grown! We can’t wait to start our flowers and herbs to see if they grow as well!
February also brings Valentine’s Day. We will be having a Valentine’s party and exchanging Valentine’s on February 14. More information on that will come out in our weekly classroom newsletter! Be watching for that!
Kindergarten
Reading: During the month of February, we will be learning and working on the following:
● Letters: Ee, Ff, Rr, Bb, Ll, Kk
● High Frequency Words: are, with, he, is, little, was
● Reading Concepts: How do living things change as they grow? What kinds of things grow on a farm? How are the seasons different? What happens in different kinds of weather?
● Writing: various informative/persuasive/narrative pieces
Math: During the month of February, we will be learning and working on the following:
● Make 6, 7, 8, 9
● Name Shapes
● See Position and Shape
● Compare/Build Shapes
2nd Step: (social emotional lessons)
● Show Kindness in School
● Performance Task: Demonstrating Kindness
● We Can Say the Problem
● Ready to Solve Problems
Kindergarten Celebrations in February:
● BLACK HISTORY MONTH - all of February
● Groundhog’s Day - Thursday, February 2nd
● 100th Day of School Celebration - Friday, February 10th
● NO SCHOOL - Monday, February 13th
● Valentine’s Day Class Parties - Tuesday, February 14th
● President’s Day - Monday, February 20th
Ms. Sowell & Mrs. Harmison
First Grade
First Grade families,
Welcome to February in First Grade. February is an exciting month for us. We have a few upcoming dates to mark in your calendar:
· Friday, 2/10/23 is our 100th day of school. Your child can come dressed as a 100-year-old if you’d like them to!
· Monday, 2/13/23 teachers will have their in-service day, so elementary students will NOT have school
· Tuesday, 2/14/23 is our Valentine’s Day celebration. Your child can send a Valentine’s treat for their classmates if they choose. We will create Valentine’s bags where they can collect their treats. You and your child are more than welcome to create your own Valentine box or bag if you wish! Treats for the party (ex: cupcakes, crackers, juice boxes, fruit, etc) are welcome but not expected.
o Mrs. Bascue’s class has 17 students
o Mrs. Mills’s class has 18 students
o Please refer to your child’s teacher or school nurse to check with any possible food allergies
Social Studies: On January 27th we celebrated Kansas’s Birthday (Kansas’s real birthday is January 29th)! Did you know Kansas is turning 162 this year? Pretty cool! We spent the week of January 23rd learning about the state symbols, taking part in Kansas trivia, and we even watched an Agricultural Presentation, where we learned all about CORN. Don’t be surprised if you child comes home and says, “We have ‘corn (syrup)’ in our toothpaste!”
Math: This month we are diving into place value (ones, tens), collecting, and comparing data, counting to 120, comparing numbers, and telling time. Although we are used to checking the time on our cell phones, we highly encourage you to point out analog clocks around. Students will primarily focus on telling time to the hour and half hour.
Reading: We’ve made it to unit 4! The essential question for unit 4 is: How do animals’ bodies help them? Here are the focuses per week in February-
· Week 3: Animals Together (new sounds-long o: o, oa, ow, oe)
· Week 4: In the Wild (new sounds-long i: i, y, igh, ie)
· Week 5: Working with Animals (new sounds-long e- y, ey)
Please continue checking your child’s folder to find the weekly handout for what we are learning in reading and math! Read nightly and ask open ended questions to build on your child’s comprehension skills.
Social Emotional: Our students are learning ways to be kind and noticing kind choices.
Don’t forget to mark your calendars for our upcoming music program (1st and 2nd grade) that will be on Thursday, 3/2/23 at 6:00 pm!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Bascue & Mrs. Mills
Second Grade
Hello parents & guardians! We have had so much happen this last month since Winter Break and we are ready for what the month of February will bring! We will be having our Valentine’s Day party soon so make sure to reach out to us if you have any questions. We just started a new genre in reading and are learning all about Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Firefighters in our Informational Text unit. We are continuing practicing our fluency and comprehension by reading for 20+ minutes a day and taking quizzes about what we read. In math, we are really focusing on adding and subtracting three digit numbers. The students are learning lots of different strategies in math so make sure to ask them about them! In science, we are wrapping up some experiments with rocks and water. We are working with sand next. The students really enjoy the fun experiments we do and they love how hands on it is.
As always, don’t forget if you are able to read with your student(s) at home, reading 20 minutes a day helps them so much! If you are able to donate snacks or other supplies, please let us know on Clever or ClassDojo. We would really appreciate it!
Ms. Riley & Ms. Witt
Third Grade
3rd Grade Wildcat Families,
The new year is in full swing!
In Reading we have read some more realistic fiction stories and discussed how we can use what we know to help others. We compared our point of view to that of the author’s and practiced identifying the meaning of words with prefixes un-, non-, im-, and pre-. After that we read about the Mojave Desert and how animals have adapted to survive there. We have been practicing comparing and contrasting the body parts and behaviors of the different animals in that habitat. In the coming weeks, we will read some more poetry and discuss how others can inspire us. We will also be identifying the meaning of metaphors in our poems. In writing, we are researching about overfishing and using that information to form an opinion on the topic. Then, we will write opinion paragraphs with supporting details from our research.
We just finished our Unit 3 test in Math all about area and word problems, we moved on to Unit 4 which is all about fractions. We will discuss wholes and equal parts, place fractions on a number line, and explore equivalent fractions. Then we will do some more work with comparing different fractions and creating line plots with data. Please continue practicing multiplication facts 0-10 with your student because it will make the higher-level math easier for them when they have those memorized.
In Science, we are still in our life science unit, and we just received our live crayfish that students will be able to observe. We will discuss the structure and function of various body parts and how to provide what they need to survive. We are also going to plant some more seeds to prepare for our second annual plant sale courtesy of our greenhouse; be on the lookout for more information in the next couple months! In Social Studies, we are focusing on economics. We discussed the difference between wants and needs and how to make the best choices depending on the situation. We will also explore the relationship between producers, consumers, goods, and services.
Since we are now in the second half of the year, we are quickly approaching state testing time. We are working very hard in both reading and math to learn the new things we need to learn and review previous concepts, so attendance and best effort are more important than ever! We will be able to talk with you all more at Spring Conferences, but feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns in the meantime. Thank you for everything you do!
Miss Staley and Mr. McCallister
Fourth Grade
We are cruising right along this quarter. We are continuing fraction work in the 4th grade. We are comparing, adding, and multiplying fractions and your students have been doing such a great job! We are also still working at memorizing multiplication facts and attacking story problems without giving up.
In reading, we are working hard in both whole and small groups on opinion writing, narrative writing, and heading into some poetry. Please as a reminder have your student read for at least 20 minutes every night.
In social studies, we are working hard on our Influential Kansan presentations and are excited to present those at the end of this month. In science, we are still studying soil, rocks, and landforms, and towards the end of the quarter will dive into different types of energy.
We lastly are starting some State Test preparation with goal setting and mini-tests. The students are working very hard at these tests and goals; we know the state test will go great!
We are excited for the rest of the quarter and year! We thank you for all your hard work and your support!
Miss Dill and Mr. Hall
Fifth Grade
Hello Bestwood families!
We are so proud of how hard these students have been working these past couple of weeks. We have a lot of things coming up in February that will help prepare our students for state assessments and middle school!
In reading, students are continuing learning about different genres of reading, like poetry and argumentative texts. We encourage all students to continue their reading at home for at least 20 minutes each night in order for them to become better readers. In math, students are working hard to understand how to multiply and divide decimals and fractions. Something that would help these students be successful would be to practice multiplication and division of multi-digit numbers and quizzing them on their multiplication and division facts. In science, we are continuing to understand mixtures and solutions as well as develop our understanding of living systems. Lastly, in social studies, we are working hard to understand scarcity and how it affects the events leading to the American Revolution.
We were so happy to see these students work hard to complete their wax museum presentations, and we were so happy to see some of you join us! We hope to continue to have more events like this in the future for parents to get involved and come in and see their progress. Please be on the look out for Valentine’s Day class activity information and class newsletters. Thank you for supporting us and your students!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Ramos and Mrs. Mackay
Library
Happy February, Wildcats!
There has been a lot of reading going on this past month! We also had a great presentation from Shelly Robinson, Kansas Corn Stem. She talked to every class about the importance of Kansas agriculture and corn. Did you know that our Walmart has over 4,000 products made from corn?! Wow!
We have seen an increase of students saying they lost their books. Please remember to be responsible with your library books at school AND at home. Books are expensive and Mrs. Stanton hates to give out book fines!
The students have been doing a wonderful job taking and passing Reading Counts tests. Can you guess what our mystery picture is this time? We are SO close to getting it filled up! Be sure to come to the library to see the new displays and to make a guess in our guessing jar! Congrats Bently Keith- he was the guessing jar winner for January.
Keep up the good work, Wildcats!
Mrs. Stanton & Mrs. Houck
PE
In PE this February we will be doing a few sports (bowling), a few activities (Luna Stix, Risky Business), and our third quarter skills testing (throwing, kicking, skipping, jump rope, etc.)
STEM
Hello Westwood Families!
In STEM we have been learning about renewable and non-renewable resources. Our younger kids had the opportunity to deconstruct old paper and mix it with glue and water to make new paper. Our older kids have been learning about how internal structures support survival and growth. They’ve been able to see different bones, muscles, organs, and what happens when you get a cavity in your teeth.
Mr. Harman