Horizon Elementary
October 2021
Thank You
Staff Enjoyed a ton of options to suit everyone's coffee needs!
A lot of add ins & flavorings too!
We NEED YOU!!!
Horizon is still looking to fill spots! We are in need of 2 permanent substitute teachers & also 2 lunchroom monitors! If you or anyone you know of might be interested, please apply! Thank you!
Visit our HR website at: https://www.smithvilleschooldistrict.net/domain/67
Dear Horizon Families,
Morning Drop Off-The preferred method of drop off is traveling through campus in the mornings. Gate 92 is open, primarily for busses to utilize quick and efficient drop off.
No School Monday-Don't forget we do not have school this coming Monday, October 4th for a Staff Professional Development Day.
Parent Teacher Conferences- Teachers will email home a link to sign up for Parent-Teacher Conferences next Friday. Conferences will be held on Thursday, November 4th between 8 am - 8 pm. Conferences are by appointment only and are a very important time for you and your child's teacher to discuss progress. Please be looking for that email this next Friday, October 8th after dismissal.
Bus Appreciation Week- October 18th-22nd is National Bus Driver Appreciation Week. Tell your bus driver you appreciate them this week!
Dental Screening-Horizon will offer dental screening and fluoride application on Tuesday, October 26th. Please look for paperwork coming home to opt in or out of this.
Fall Parties- Fall parties are scheduled for Friday, October 29th. PTO does an amazing job coordinating, hosting and celebrating with students that day! Look for more details on the PTO Website or teacher newsletters soon!
Tailgating Event before last home football game:
Please consider volunteering your time or donating one (or more) items below to help make the PTO Tailgate Party in Horizon Elementary's parking lot a success. The Tailgate Party is FREE and open to all families in the district on Friday, October 15th from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm.
After the party, stay and cheer the Varsity Football Team as they play at the High School Stadium- the game starts at 7 pm.https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c054babae2ba2fb6-ptotailgate
October Events:
October
Oct. 1: National Custodian Appreciation Day
Homecoming- Early Dismissal at 1:15 pm
Oct 4: No School- Staff Professional Development Day
Oct 5: Fire Drill
Oct. 6: Late Start Wednesday, K-6 students may arrive at 8:50 am, School begins at 9:05 am, No EC Classes
Oct. 13: Late Start Wednesday, K-6 students may arrive at 8:50 am, School begins at 9:05 am, No EC Classes
Oct. 15: First Quarter Ends
Intruder Drill
Tailgating at Horizon from PTO
Oct. 18-22:National School Bus Safety Week & Bus Driver Appreciation Week
Oct. 20: Late Start Wednesday, K-6 students may arrive at 8:50 am, School begins at 9:05 am, No EC Classes
Board of Education Meeting 7 pm
Oct 21: PTO Meeting 6:30 pm
Oct. 22: Dental Screening
Oct. 27: Late Start Wednesday, K-6 students may arrive at 8:50 am, School begins at 9:05 am, No EC Classes
Oct 28: Major Saver Kickoff
Oct 29: Fall Classroom Parties
Kindergarten News:
1st Grade News:
In Math we will continue to work on addition strategies and building fluency within 10. We will begin subtraction strategies and word problems.
In Readers Workshop we are focusing on story elements. We are identifying characters and their traits. We will learn about how to identify the setting, problem and solutions in our books.
In writing we will be finishing up a unit on how to illustrate our books by using details in our pictures. We will then move on to writing a personal narrative.
In Science we will be learning about plant and animal needs. We will focus on what animals and plants need to survive and protect themselves.
In Pathways we have built vowel town and are working on using it to help us read and write words. When we start second quarter, we will begin spelling instruction that will include weekly spelling words.
2nd Grade News:
In second grade we have been solidifying our daily routines and expectations. In writing, we are continuing the unit called Where Writers Get Ideas. In this unit, we will learn from real authors where they got their ideas, look at a variety of books to borrow their ideas, and write about things they love! In reading, we are continuing the unit called Reading Foundations. During this unit, the students will learn decoding strategies, how to determine the meaning of vocabulary words, fluency skills, and how to close read. Pathways small groups include identifying vowels and their sounds. Then segment and write words with a specific pattern for each lesson. For example words with th/sh, ck, ng, e at the end. In math, Students are working on making sense of word problems. They have learned these three steps. 1.Read the problem out loud. 2. Circle the numbers in the problem. 3. Underline the important words to decide whether to add or subtract. In social studies we continued learning about National symbols. The symbols we are learning about are the flag, Statue of Liberty, Bald Eagle, Mount Rushmore, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and National Parks like Yellowstone. Our next unit is Government and how the three branches work together.
3rd Grade News:
Third grade has really started diving into our content this month. In math, we have covered place value, rounding, 3 digit addition and now we are currently working on 3 digit subtraction. After this unit’s test we will move into multiplication. We have just wrapped up our introductory unit in both reading and writing. Now we are focusing on characters and providing evidence of their traits in our reading unit. In writing we are moving on to realistic fiction. For science we are continuing our unit over forces and motion. When we finish this unit we will move back to social studies with a unit on the American Revolution. We have loved getting to know your third graders so far and we can’t wait to see all of the amazing things they will accomplish this next month!
4th Grade News:
We’ve had another productive month in fourth grade! We are wrapping up our first math unit by adding and subtracting whole numbers up to one million. We will focus on multiplication and operations in our next unit. Students are still learning about our great state! We are currently focused on the regions of Missouri. Following this unit, we will begin our first science unit, Earth’s Features. We finished up our unit on Readerly Life and just began our second reading unit, inferring, which we will continue for the next few weeks. Students are still learning how to be an agent of their writing. They are currently working on generating ideas. We are so impressed with their hard work.
5th Grade News:
It's hard to believe, but we are almost to the end of the first quarter! We have been learning and growing in 5th grade! Students are now well acquainted with switching classes and the general logistics of our day. We have all established a good routine and are excited to see where the rest of the year will take us. October is a busy month between homecoming, the end of the quarter, fun incentives, etc. so please make sure your students are here as much as possible! Also, don't forget to sign up for parent teacher conferences! We are so looking forward to meeting with you and discussing the progress your student has made!
ELA: In October we will finish our first unit of readerly life, including our mini figurative language unit. We will also be completing our first book report! In writing we will finish editing and publishing our narratives. I can’t wait to see their finished products! We definitely have a creative bunch here in 5th grade. Don’t forget to keep reading at home!
Math: We will be extremely busy here in Room 113 during the month of october. We jump into the world of fractions. We will be discussing the size of fractions, We will estimate sums and differences, as well as find exact sums and differences of two fractions with unlike denominators. We will draw upon all of our current knowledge of equivalent fractions to assist us! Should be a fun month of growth and learning.
Science: In the month of October, students will continue to focus on our How To Be a Scientist Unit. We are off and running with this idea at this point, and we will continue to dive in deeper. There are so many ah-ha moments happening already and it makes my 'science nerd heart' very happy to see! Keep up the good work, kids!
Social Studies: In October, we will continue on with our Map Skills Unit, which includes our State Project. Students are so excited about this project! These kids are definitely project based learners, which is great, because that's right up my alley! Continue to be on the lookout through my newsletters on where we are at within the project itself, as well as what concepts related to Map Skills are being covered each week.
6th Grade News:
Sixth Grade: ELA - Students are drafting, editing, and publishing their personal narratives. We are working on including figurative language, writing engaging lead paragraphs, and checking our conventions (spelling, grammar, and punctuation). Each student has chosen and reviewed his/her first quarter reading goal; in addition, we have had individual conferences with Mrs. McGuire about our NWEA scores and reading goals.
Science- We have started our Rock transformation unit, where we will break down rocks and minerals and understand how to think like a geologist. We will be learning how to identify rocks, test rocks, and how rocks make up the Earth.
History- We are diving deep into our Ancient civilization of Mesopotamia. Students will be able to understand the important factors that help create a civilization and how they were still able to influence how we do things today. Students are currently becoming experts on one aspect of the civilization and will present their findings to the class next week. Our next unit will be Ancient Egypt.
Encore News:
Technology and Innovation -
Hello there! Thank you to those who have dropped off donations in our new bin outside of the front office. Your donations have already been put to good use across all grade levels. In Kindergarten through 5th grade, we have been working on strengthening our brains and talking about what having a growth mindset means. Students have participated in challenges, created solutions to problems, and have failed maybe a time or two...which is okay! When we fail, we have the opportunity to pick ourselves back up, reflect, reassess, and grow from it. We will continue this conversation all year but we will be moving into learning about being an innovative designer. In K-2, students will be given a task and will need to create a solution or a method to make that task easier. Third grade students will be learning about Rube Goldburg simple machines, 4th graders will be designing and competing in a Battle Bot competition, and 5th graders will be designing and building tiny homes for veterans. In 6th grade robotics and programming, students are learning how to code accurately through a maze while keeping a tower on top of their moving robot. This means they need to have control over their code to ensure their robot doesn’t throw their tow.er off. Thank you for the continued support!
Art:
We have been very busy in the art studio!
Kindergartens artists have learned about the shape family, (circles,
dots, straight lines, angles, curves), and lines, (horizontal, vertical and
diagonal). Artists learned painting basics to create beautiful painted
lines. Look for our shape family “Caterpillars” to be completed soon.
“A” is for Alligator. Grade one artists created these reptiles using their
shape family and tempera paints. Students learned how to mix colors
with their crayons creating yellow-green and blue-green to finish the
Project.
Do you know the difference between a toad and a frog? Just ask your
second-grade artist as they drew and painted their favorite creature.
Creativity was discussed as they gave their project great expressions.
Third graders were asked use the members of the shape family to draw
school busses. Techniques were taught to show shadow and highlights
on their assignment. Expression and creativity were used to show the
people on the bus. Basic painting techniques were reviewed to
complete the project.
Paul Cezanne, French Impressionist artist, was introduced to fourth
grade artists. We studied his work, “Still Life with Apples and Oranges”.
Students learned to combine colors to show shadows and highlights on
their apple basket masterpieces.
Zentangle, an abstract art form where students draw repetitive simple
patterns, was the subject for projects for fifth and sixth grade. Fifth
grade completed a zentangle initial representing the artists name. Sixth
grade designed a zentangle fish that contained the students name.
It has been my pleasure to be a part of the Horizon staff for the past
few weeks as Mrs. Way has been on maternity leave.
The talent of the students has delighted me as I was able to see first
hand how hard they worked on their “masterpieces”.
Mrs. Martens
Library:
Students have been busy learning their way around the library this month. All grade levels have been introduced to this year’s award nominees and have started working on reading their grade level’s list of books. PK-1 will be working on reading the Building Block Nominees, 1-3 will be reading the Show-Me Nominees, 3-4 will be reading the Great Kids Can Read Nominees, 4-6 will be reading the Mark Twain Nominees, and 6th will also be reading the Truman nominees. These are some great books that will introduce your children to new authors and give them common books to read with their classmates that they can share and talk about. Our goal in the library is to read at least 4 books off of their grade level lists so that they can vote for their favorite books in March. PK-2 will be reading their nominees during their library time.
3rd Grade Reading Incentive 4th Grade Reading Incentive 5th Grade Reading Incentive 6th Grade Reading Incentive
Horizon’s Fall Book Fair will be the week of November 15-19th! Be on the lookout for a volunteer sign-up. I appreciate all who are willing to give their time.
Music:
Hello Horizon families! Students have been buzzing in our music room learning different things such as steady beat, rhythm, and notes! Kindergarten and 1st Grade have been learning and singing everyone’s new favorite song, Bee bee bumble bee. While 4th and 5th grade have been playing rhythm sticks and other various instruments with this week's rhythm challenge. Our 6th grade Music in Entertainment class is moving from our Musicals unit into our Music in Movies unit where students are analyzing music using the 7 elements of music!
-Our 2nd and 3rd grade classes have been getting excited! We learned about the music program we will be preparing for a performance in December. In our performance the students will tell the story of elves that live in a place called Elflandia, who don’t believe that silly humans exist! This performance will be on December 7th at the Performing Arts Center. If you have a student in 2nd or 3rd grade please mark your calendars!
-The Sunset Singers, Horizon Elementary’s 4th-6th grade choir has officially begun! We have nearly 40 amazing students in this ensemble and I am so excited about the work that these students have done in just one rehearsal. We are hard at work preparing for our joint performance with the Maple Marvels from Maple Elementary. This performance will take place on December 14th at the Performing Arts Center!
Counselor
Our most recent counseling lessons have focused on understanding our emotions and being a good judge of when we need to ask for help, whether that is looking inside ourselves or seeking the help from an adult. With that lesson we reviewed expectations at our classroom calm corner, appropriate use of the tools there and how to calm so we can be ready to learn.
October we will start lessons on personal identity and diversity with will include: elements of personal identity; development of whole self; a healthy balance of mental, social/emotional well-being; a sense of belonging within the school setting and expressing pride, confidence; healthy self-esteem without denying the value and dignity of others; building empathy, respect, understanding and connection with others.
Our daily challenge/quote during morning announcements for September focused on cooperation. An example of one of the cooperation quotes “”Try to discuss problems calmly today”. October daily challenges will be about respect. An example of a daily challenge about respect is “With each person you meet today, think about his/her best quality. “
Title I-Reading Intervention:
Fall screenings are complete and reading invitation or dismissal letters have been sent home. Mrs. Balmer, Mrs. Ewald, and I have been pulling students into the Reading Room for additional support or further individualized testing. Parents often ask, “How can I help with Reading at home?” For all grades, K-6, parents can set aside 20 minutes each night for students to practice reading skills. Reading with your child is a great way to model what fluent reading looks like. Asking thoughtful questions about the text promotes vocabulary development and comprehension. For students in grades K-2, one of the most helpful investments in home learning is working on sight words. We are excited to work with your readers and help them grow this year!
Mrs. Hahn
Horizon PTO
Hello Horizon families.
Many of you may be wondering where your back to school apparel is and we promise it’s coming! Please know our partners at TW Print & Ship are working as quickly as they can to get our products delivered while managing current shipping/inventory delays that are nationwide. They will be emailing updates directly to you as soon as your items go to production. We appreciate your patience and support as we navigate these unprecedented times.
Your PTO is working hard to plan and prepare for the 2021-2022 school year. In doing so, we have asked our teachers and staff to create an amazon wishlist with both classroom and personal wants/needs. Whether it be Christmas, a birthday or "just because", please use the following link throughout the year when you are looking to give a special gift. Additionally, please make sure and sign up for AmazonSmile to continue supporting HES. Here is how:
1.) Visit smile.amazon.com
2.) Sign in with your Amazon.com username & password
3.) Choose "Smithville Horizon PTO"
4.) Start Shopping!
Reach out if you need help getting set up!
Marcy Richardson - PTO Hospitality