April Monthly Newsletter
Montgomery Elementary School
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From the Principal
Assistant Principal
Happy April Bearcat Families!
It is hard to believe that April is here and the 2021-22 school year is close to ending. This time of the school year is always busy and seems to move so quickly. As a reminder, school hours are from 8:15 until 3:40 each day. Students arriving to school after 8:15 will be marked tardy for the instructional day. Did you know that getting your child to school on time each day sets them up to be successful in their learning, as well as helps them develop habits of arriving on time at an early age? When student arrive 10 minutes or later to school it can cause a disruption to the entire class and the learning environment. In addition, when students arrive late to school they lose valuable instructional time. Having a daily morning routine is one way to help get your child to school on time each day. Some tips to help establish a more efficient daily routine are: wake up earlier, layout clothes the night before, pack backpacks and lunchboxes the night before, and put items needed in the car the night before. Being on time is a habit students will need to successful during school and into adulthood. Thank you for all that you do to support your child and the school!
Counselor's Corner
Please know that I am here for you and your families. You can click on my virtual office below to find my contact information and family resources. We will have STAAR testing approaching so if you notice any test anxiety or worry, I have tools to share with you that can help. I will also have small groups for students who need to learn tools to cope with this. If you are interested, please email me so that we can discuss details on joining.
I will be sending out letters for students that completed final round of GT testing the second week of April. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Click the link below for our lunch menu
Camp Invention is Returning!!!
Pre-K
We will be studying about Farms and Food Sources. Cows, Pigs, Goats and many more! PREK students will continue to learn the letters and sounds!! We are also learning beginning sight words! PREK math is counting, sorting and joining sets!! ‘Counting on’ gives the kids practice to predict what one more means! We will also continue to practice the teen numbers.
Kindergarten
Kindergarten is in full bloom in the month of April! We are becoming Expertise Writers and digging deep into the stages of generating, developing, drafting and revising, while working to produce and expand complete sentences. Focusing on Drama and Informational Texts in Reading, we continue to identify the main topic and supporting evidence, describe how illustrations support text, determine author’s purpose, and compare and contrast characters. We are blending, isolating, adding, and substituting sounds in Phonics, helping us to become better readers. In Math, we dive deeper into identifying, counting, representing, composing and decomposing with teen numbers. Science will include plant and animal characteristics. In Social Studies, we will learn about jobs and money.
First Grade
April is here and we are excited for the warmer weather!
In reading, we will be learning how to use text features to locate information in a how to. We will also be sequencing events and using illustrations to determine important information.
In Phonics, we will learn the sounds of /ur/, /ou/, /oi/ and /oo/. We will also be learning and practicing word families and new sight words.
In Writing, we will wrap up writing poems and begin learning how to write a How-To.
In Math, we will work on telling time to the hour and half hour, and start learning about coins.
In Science, we are excited to start exploring animal characteristics and plant parts!
In Social Studies, we will be learning about Texas symbols, jobs as well as money and trade.
It is so hard to believe how quickly this year has gone by. As we get down to our last 2 months in school, we want to remind you to keep practicing sight words, reading and math at home.
It’s important that we finish this year strong! Our students have put in so much hard work, and we are so very proud of them!
Second Grade
Hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Spring Break!
In Math, we will continue Module 6 with arrays and area and begin Module 7 on Financial Literacy.
In Language Arts, we are still reading and analyzing informational text and using text features to find information. We will continue learning how suffixes change words and learn to combine subjects and predicates in sentences. In Writing, we are working on procedural text.
In Social Studies, we are learning about different resources and how the choices we make affect our economy.
In Science, we will explore food chains and animal characteristics.
Please continue to read each night with your child!
Third Grade
Welcome to April! This month we are going to be busy learning, and applying knowledge. In Reader’s Workshop we will continue to be explore texts, and apply our reading strategies. In writing we will continue to learn word patterns, decode words, and use strategies to attack words that are difficult. We will also explore poetry, and even write a few pieces of our own. In math we will explore measurement and capacity. We will apply these to real life situations. In science we will explore environments and food chains. In Social Studies we will review map skills. We look forward to seeing you each day!
Fourth Grade
MES 4th graders have continued growing, working hard and celebrating successes through our STAAR tournament! It’s been a joy watching these students learn so much & encourage one another.
This month in Science we will continue to investigate that most producers need sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to make their own food, while consumers are dependent on other organisms for food. Students will be able to describe the flow of energy through food webs, beginning with the Sun, and predict how changes in the ecosystem affect the food web. We will also explore how structures and functions enable organisms to survive in their environment.
In Math we will be wrapping up our Geometry unit & start talking about data analysis. Students will represent data on a frequency table, dot plot, and stem-and-leaf plot using whole numbers and fractions. We will also practice solving one- and two-step problems using data in whole number, decimal, and fraction form in a frequency table, dot plot, or stem-and-leaf plot.
At the end of the month we will take an in depth look at Financial Literacy. Students will learn about expenses, profit, financial institutions & savings options. What great information and skills to obtain at a young age!
Our 4th graders will be immersed in rich informational texts this month. We will practice identifying main idea, text and graphic features, and using context clues to build our vocabulary. Please, keep reading at home! In Writing, students will practice drafting informational articles. Be on the lookout for a class newspaper!
Fifth Grade
In Science, we have been very busy and will finish off our curriculum with a look into adaptations of plants and animals that help them survive in their environment. Then we will research specific traits of plants and animals, and if those traits are inherited or learned behaviors. The last week of April, we will begin reviewing the curriculum from this year to prepare for our yearly STAAR Assessment.
In Social Studies, the students will take a look into the United States role in the Space Race. Then move into how the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War changes America. We will spend time learning how America becomes a super power with the beginning with the Watergate Scandal, then into our relations with the Middle East over oil, the creation of Supercomputers, and the election of Ronald Reagan as president. Then we will take a look into the onset of the Information Age with the invention of the television, computers and cell phones allowing for communication across the globe. We will wrap up our Social Studies curriculum with a look into September 11th, the War on Terror and the election of Barack Obama. April looks to be a busy month in history. Many of these topics our student’s parents and grandparents will be able to relate to. Share your amazing stories with your children. They will love to hear history from your perspective.
In Reading, we are kicking off our ninth unit out of ten in the Reader’s Workshop! In this unit, we will read and compare selections about the development of cities to analyze how economic changes impact society. We will be reading texts in a variety of genres, including informational texts and realistic fiction. This unit will promote some interesting discussion about economics and how it impacts societies.
In math, we will be learning about personal finances. They will learn about different kinds of taxes and the difference between gross income and net income. Your student will also learn a system for keeping financial records and how to use it to balance a budget. After our financial literacy unit concludes all the 5th grade math TEKS will have been taught. We will then start reviewing for our STAAR test.
Nurse's News
Physical Education
April is here! In Physical Education, we will be continuing with all of our fun activities.
Our focus will be on “physical fitness” and the different components involved in being “fit”. We will be improving our cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility through a wide variety of games!
We will also be continuing with our Jump rope ninja,” challenges. If your child reaches the black belt level, they will get certificate for their achievement!
Art
Dear Parents,
Today, I’d like to provide you with some strategies and resources to help foster creativity in your children. They’ll not only help get them away from digital media for a moment, they’ll also help develop their fine motor skills and imagination!
- Create a display area for your children’s artwork – you will demonstrate that you value their efforts and demonstrate encouragement and interest in their creative work!
- Storage solutions – finding room to display and save all of your children’s artwork can be quite cumbersome. Take digital photos (or let Artsonia do that for you) of your student’s favorite works of art and store on a computer or digital frame. I suggest organizing it by year. It’s fun to look back see the growth they have achieved over the years.
- Supplies – Fancy art supplies and new gear is exciting to have, but masterpieces can be created with just the basics! Because I was often drawing as a child, my mom would often run out of art supplies for me. In a pinch, I used the back of school notices, scrap paper, and junk mail, even the blank part of a brown paper bag! If you’d like to invest in simple, quality supplies – Crayola watercolors are available at Kroger and Walmart for around $3.
- Cooperative Learning – here are a few ways to draw along with your child. It can be a great motivator and foster a great bond between you and your kiddo!
- Draw/Swap – A parents makes a quick line of a piece of paper. Then the child has 15 seconds to add to the line to create an image. Then the parent has 15 seconds to add more. The give and take fosters creativity, problem solving and flexibility.
- I’m Thinking of a Shape – A child draws one line. The parent tries to guess what they’re drawing. If incorrect, the child draws another line. Parent takes a second guess. The process continues until the parent correctly guesses the subject. Then try reversing roles.
- Family murals – Try collaborating on a piece of artwork together possibly depicting a special season, holiday, or sports team. Display it somewhere in the home.
Your children will really enjoy and cherish the time that you have together enjoying a creative activity. The time goes by too quickly. Soak in the sweetness every chance you can!
Sincerely,
Miss Petty
Art Teacher
Music
Happy April from the music room!:-)) Spring is such a busy and wonderful time! Our Fifth Graders are continuing to learn to play their ukuleles, as they feel the expressions and emotions of the Impressionist Period of music. Fourth Graders begin their study of orchestra, concert band, and fretted instruments, while working hard to master the recorder and earn their Recorder Karate belts! After completing their study of the woodwind family, Third Graders will discover the amazing genre of Blues music. They will also join Second Grade, First Grade, and Kindergarten in exploring and playing our Orff instruments. Congratulations to our Second Graders for their awesome performance of "Go Fish"! Now they begin their study of written music and bringing notes to life through dynamics. First Graders are busy rehearsing for their upcoming production of "Pajama Party" which will be performed on the MES stage on Thursday, April 21st at 6:30pm. Learning about dynamics and tempo brings music to life for our Kindergarteners, while Pre-K works on listening through a study of instruments and voices.
A special congratulations to our amazing MES DI Team, Seven Steps Forward! These awesome kiddos placed first in Instant Challenge and second in Team Challenge at the Regional Tournament. We are super proud of their talent, creativity, collaboration, and hard work! Way to represent MES Madison, Reece, Luke, Pablo, Evelyn, Gavin, and Henry!!
Congratulations as well go to our amazing Bearcats who showed off their incredible talents in our MES Talent Show! What a wonderful evening full of everything that you could imagine! So much courage, passion, and hard work goes into sharing what you can do with an audience. These talented kiddos had all of that and more!
Our MES Bearcat Choir is awaiting confirmation on several performances in April, including Minute Maid Park for the Houston Astros! Our opening weekend date was cancelled due to the MLB negotiations, but we are anxiously awaiting our rescheduled date. Performances at the Woodlands Waterway Arts Festival, KidzFest, and a few other baseball games (both college and high school) are in the works as well!
Lastly, I want to thank you so much for all that you do to support our music and arts programs at MES. Did you know that music increases brain development in children? Research proves that music education enlarges the mind, providing real and concrete educational benefits, including better thinking skills and higher test scores . "Music improves the reading, math and science skills of children, giving them an increased propensity to succeed in life." Many different subjects are integrated into one music lesson! Music also teaches discipline, patience, and grit. It relieves stress and tension. Best of all, music brings people together and helps them to connect to each other... something we need more now than ever before! And of course, music is also lot of fun!!! We all need a little... or even a lot!....of music in our lives!!:-)) -Cindy Siple
Library
The book fair was a huge success! Approximately, 1500 books were purchased for students! Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift. —Kate DiCamillo
I love this quote from author Kate DiCamillo. It is a wonderful treat to be able to see the joy our MES students exhibited when not only buying books from the book fair but also checking out new books each week.
During the month of April, students will be researching different topics within grade levels and learning about finding and using reliable sources for gathering information. Sharks, roller coasters, legends, myths and biographies are just a few of the topics students will begin to research.
MES Parent Teacher Organization
Please click the link below for the PTO Newsletter
Montgomery Elementary School
Website: https://montgomeryes.misd.org
Location: 13755 Liberty Street, Montgomery, TX, USA
Phone: 936-276-3600
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mesmisd/
Twitter: @mesbearcats