PAWS
Oley Valley Elementary School - November 2017
Principal's Update
It has been a busy past month and things do not slow down in November at OVES. Thank you to the PTO and everyone who donated money towards the Fun Run. Our goal of $18,000 was reached! As a reward for reaching the goal, Dr. Broskey will be dying his hair blue and white and shaving OVES in the back of his head.
The elementary school hosted approximately 115 Veterans on Friday, November 10th for the annual Veterans Luncheon. We are grateful to have the opportunity to honor all those who served our country. Students will be viewing portions of the Nutcracker performed by the Kutztown Dance Center on Friday, November 17th. OVES parent-teacher conferences will take place on November 20, 21, and 22. Please contact your child's teacher if you have not scheduled a conference.
The annual School Performance Profile (SPP) score was released at the end of October. OVES earned a score of 76.5. This was an increase of over 9 points from last year. More information on the SPP score can be found by clicking HERE.
Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for the cooler weather. Students will continue to go outside for recess until winter temperatures become the norm. Students should have a jacket or sweatshirt when the temperature is cooler. Students not wearing the appropriate clothing will have to stay indoors during recess.
As always, if you have any questions, concerns, and/or celebrations of OVES, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Respectfully,
Dr. Matt Broskey
Principal
OVES Fun Run
Oley Fire Firefighter's Visit OVES
2017 Halloween Parade
What's Happening at OVES...
Kindergarten
Rocking and rolling through the first fifty days of kindergarten! We celebrated the 50th day of school with lots of counting, hand jiving and root beer float tasting. We look forward to parent teacher conferences the week of November 20th.
First Grade
First grade students are looking forward to thanksgiving stations and holiday stations. Learning about how chocolate is made and where it comes from during the agriculture lab experience. We would also like to thank all the parents who have donated items to the classrooms during these events. We greatly appreciate it.
Third Grade
Our third graders recently finished reading historical non-fiction/biographies about the building of the Golden Gate Bridge, and the life of Roberto Clemente. They are learning parts of speech and comprehension skills that are represented throughout the stories. Narrative and descriptive writing projects have been our focus. Our students are also studying various graphs in Math class, and creating their own picture graphs and bar graphs. Problem solving skills relating to the graphs are also a focus. Science class has focused on the Design Process and Engineering, which related nicely to the building of the Golden Gate Bridge. Map skills are also a focus in Social Studies class. Our third graders thoroughly enjoyed the Halloween festivities last month, and we appreciate the parent support that was generated. We look forward to meeting many parents at our November parent-teacher conferences.
Fourth Grade
ELA
Students recently finished the second lesson of Unit 1 in their Journeys series. We read the nonfiction story “My Brother Martin,” which focused on author’s purpose. Students responded to the story using their Schoology accounts and shared many interesting facts learned about MLK Jr’s childhood. We also learned about idioms and created a comical image of what happens when this type of figurative language is interpreted literally. We are finishing our descriptive paragraphs and starting our next mini-project to review the 4 kinds of sentences.
A reminder that the second trimester AR requirement is to read 2 chapter and 2 nonfiction books. Students’ levels will be revisited and adjusted to hopefully show growth in their independent reading. Check out their new AR stickers placed inside agenda books after the Thanksgiving break. Any questions, please contact your child’s ELA teacher.
Math
Students will be working in Chapter 3 on 2-digit multiplication and begin Chapter 4 on division. Students need to continue to practice facts on Xtra Math. Reminder that students can access the math book, homework, and digital lessons through Think Central.
Science
We are learning about Earth and Space in Science class right now. We will be finishing up this unit right before Thanksgiving break. Our next unit will be Weather. We will be using iPads to create a stop motion animation video of the water cycle!
CBL
We just finished our unit on the regions of the U.S. and now we are focusing on the geography and history of Pennsylvania. We will be celebrating Pennsylvania’s “birthday” on December 12. Our state will be 230 years old this year!! Please look for more information about this after Thanksgiving break.
Fifth Grade
October flew by in 5th grade, especially with assemblies and as projects and deadlines are nearing their end! Our first official trimester ends before conferences, so again make sure you/your student keep up to date with any upcoming homework, projects, or technology driven opportunities on our 5th Grade webpage (found under “Elementary,” “ES Homework Pages” on our district website). Also, newly this year, we will be distributing report cards at conferences (or sent home afterwards if you do not need to schedule a conference).
English Language Arts, with Mrs. Parson and Mrs. Muriel, have finished the novel "Wonder" (yes, it is nearing its movie theater release on 11/17/17). Most recently they worked with the classic Tarrytown tale of “Sleepy Hollow.” In addition to the novel reading, we are still continuing with spelling lists, and fluency poems (keep an eye out for these in your child's ELA folders for studying purposes and signatures). AR (Accelerated Reader) books have been chosen and tests are available to be taken online in school; our first trimester goal is 1 Fiction Chapter book, 1 Non-Fiction book, and 1 of their choice. Please ask your children about their selected titles, and encourage them to read and share the stories with you. MANY have yet to make their goal with the deadline approaching on the 10th!!!
In Math students have accomplished chapter 2; long division. Please encourage your students to keep practicing at home with any of our shared resources. We have been utilizing our 1:1 laptops to reinforce math skills and challenges (between both teachers Extra Math, Khan Academy, First in Math, and Prodigy have all been introduced and can be accessed at home, too). Chapter 3, which will continue through November, switches gears to place value and decimals (reading, comparing, ordering, adding/subtracting).
Science has completed their unit on Scientific Method and Tools, and is now focusing in on the Periodic Table and atoms. Personal inventions posters are also being completed and will be on display soon.
Lastly, Ms. Gardecki’s Social Studies classes wrapped up their unit on Geography with students completed the “State in a Bag” project. Each student chose one of the 50 states to research. Through their research they learned about the history of the state, the land, the economy & commerce, the culture & lifestyle, and notable people from their state. They used their research to complete the project and present their information to their classmates. Currently in S.S. class we are completing a Crime Scene Investigation on what happened to the Lost Colony at Roanoke.
Second Grade
October was a very exciting month. The second grade students were able to enjoy a visit from the local firefighters, participate in Halloween activities, and learn about scarecrows with their 5th grade friends. A special thank you to Ms. Hoffman (our I.T. teacher) and Mrs. Conrad (our librarian), for helping to organize the scarecrow research information on the schoology account for the students.
Oley Valley Breakfast and Lunch Information
http://www.oleyvalleysd.org/administration/food-nutrition-services/
Parent Resources
Important Dates
November 10 - Veteran's Day Luncheon
November 13 - 17 - Ag Lab
November 20 - 22 - No School for the Elementary School / Parent-teacher Conferences
November 20 - November 27 - Conferences / Thanksgiving Break - No School
December 7 - 5th Grade Chorus Concert at 7PM / Middle School
December 14 - Band / Chorus Concert at 7PM / Middle School
December 22 - Early Dismissal (12 Noon)
December 23 - January 2nd - Christmas Break
January 15 - School Closed - Martin Luther King JR. Day
January 18 - Second Grade Chorus Concert 10AM and 2PM
January 18 - Parent Discussion Meeting at 6:30PM / ES Library