Hello, caregivers,

With cold weather quickly approaching. please be advised that students must wear clothing appropriate for cold and wintery days in order to participate in outdoor recess. Students need to have access to sweatshirts, sweaters, coats, hats, gloves or mittens to play outside. Students without these items, or who wear shorts to school will need to have inside time to support their safety and health. While the nurse and lost and found is often available for students to access a 'shared' coat, these items must be returned if used. Note, that often, the lost and found and nurse does not have specific sizes to fit all students. As the weather increasingly gets cold, please see the charts above and below to help guide your own decision-making.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mrs. Flanaghan

Principal

First, a big thaank you to all caregivers for following our safety guidelines when dropping off and picking up students in the parking lot area.

Second, because safety is always first, we have reviewed our procedures and find that in most cases things are working very smoothly. A few reminders and simple changes you may want to note:

• One way traffic only
• Students will be called to vehicles by the staff to ensure monitoring adults see them safetly to the vehicle
• NO PASSING other vehicles for any reason on the left or right.
• New NO PASSING signs will be posted on the right, while adult monitors are stationed on the left.
• Children should enter the left (Diver's) side of the car whenever possible. This allows us to make sure the child is in the car before the car begins to move. Entering the vehicle on the passenger side limits our ability to ensure your child's safety.
• If you are asked to pull up, please stop at the cones or where directed. This will help students remain safe while walking to your vehicle.
• If you are asked to park, because your child has forgotten something, please understand that this allows them the time to get their item from the school, while allowing the flow of traffic to occur without the need of passing. A staff member will walk your child to your car if you are asked to park.

November: Food Drive 11/13-17

• 11/20 Conferences afternoon and evening- Early release
• 11/22 Early release
• 11/23-24 Thanksgiving break- No School
• 11/25 Wolf Pack Fundraising Night- Thunderbirds Hockey Game Night
• 11/29 Room 8 library visit
• 11/29 Conferences Afternoon and evening- Early release
• TENTATIVE: 11/31 5th grade parent night for all 5th grade familes at Crandall School, Technology Safety

• 12/1 Winter Gala @EHS
• 12/6 Winter celebrations and sing-a-long, 5:30, EW Library
• 12/6 Early Release @ 1:30pm PL Day-
• 12/6 Family bookshop and sing-a-long @ 5:30
• 12/25-1/2 Winter Break-No School Revised
• TENTATIVE: TBD 5th grade Technology Safety w/EPD
  • TENTATIVE: TBD 5th grade parent night for all 5th grade familes at Crandall School, Technology Safety

January:

• 1/1 No School, New Years Day 1/2 return to school. Revised
• 1/3 VIRTUAL PTO MEETING
• 1/12 Berkshire Theaeter, The Magic Tree House 1:30pm, APR
• 1/15 No School, MLK Day
• 1/24 Early Release@ 1:30pm, PL Day

• 2/23 Berkshire Music, 9:45am, APR grades 3-5
• 2/26 No School, PL Day
• 2/19 No School President's Day
• 2/20 No School PL Day

• Smarter Balance Assessment PEP Rally, TBD
• 3/13 Early Release @ 1:30pm PL Day
• 3/29 No School Good Friday

April:

• TBD One Book Three Schools- Kick-off 6-7, APR
• 4/08-4/12 Spring Vacation
• 4/24 Early Release @ 1:30pm, PL Day
• SBAC

May:

• One Book Three Schools
• SBAC
• 5/22 Early Release @ 1:30pm, PL Day
• 5/27 No School, Memorial Day
• 5/29 Field Day, Rain Date 5/31

• 6/3 EW Awards Assembly
• 6/10- Scheduled last day of school
• 6/19 Juneteenth Celebration

http://www.mindsetmission.com/yoyos.html

Students recently finished up their soccer skills unit in P.E.. Our most recent unit is on throwing and catching skills. Students are working on using both underhand throwing and overhand throwing to work with partners and complete different tasks based on various sports and fitness activities that might use throwing and catching skills. Our main focus in class is to use correct form when throwing to enhance students’ performance and understanding of the skill. REMINDER: with colder weather arriving many students are showing up to P.E. with boots or shoes that are not appropriate or safe for activities with a lot of running. Please try to remember the days your student has P.E. so they will have the appropriate footwear to participate in all activities in class that day.

Mr. Crandall

Eli Whitney

Physical Education

Math Moving on to Multiplication Practice addition and subtraction fluency at home. Flashcards are a great way to practice! Also, write 3 digit addition and subtraction problems for your child to practice.

Reading Reading to Learn Read every night at home with your child. Have them read non-fiction texts- it could even be the newspaper or a magazine. All 3rd graders are bringing home a non-fiction book this week! Ask them to help you find text features.

Writing Expert Topic Help your third grader with their weekly spelling lists.

Social Studies Indigenous People of Connecticut

Math - we are finishing up our Unit 1 unit now. Our next unit will be multiplication and division, factors and multiples, patterns and multi-step problems.

Reading we are working on notetaking for non-fiction books focusing on different weather storms. They love learning about the storms! We will do a culminating activity where students present their “graffiti board” to the class and share their subtopic about their storm.

Writing - We just completed Narrative writing and we are just beginning to learn about opinion writing. Currently we are focusing on the elements of a good opinion piece, soon they will be writing their own opinion piece.

Social Studies / Sci - We just finishing the Northeast Region soon, and then we will move on to our first Science Unit. Then back to Social Studies and the Southeast region.

How can you help your child? Please practice multiplication facts constantly. They will need this their whole life and they need to get them memorized. Even if you are driving in the car, shout out “what’s 4 x 7”. Multiplication is the building block and an integral part of their entire school/college/life career. Also, please check REMIND or e-mail often, that is where we post upcoming tests that you can help your child study for.

Grade 4 Team -

ELA

Interpretation Book Clubs

Small Moment Narrative Writing

Social Studies

Early European Explorers

Science

Earth Spheres

Math

End of Unit 1: Multiplication and Division of Multi-Digit Numbers

Grade 3 music classes are beginning to write rhythms. Grade 4 and 5 students are focusing on note naming and writing notes. Instrumental students are focusing on learning to read and play notes and rhythms on their instruments.

Band students have begun working on playing 3 note melodies and sre starting or about to start learning their 4th and 5th notes .

STEAM Newsletter November 2023

Stability and Motion: Science of Flight

In this Grade 3 module, students learn about the forces involved in flight. They design, build, and test an experimental model glider to find out how air and other forces affect its flight. Currently, students have been testing their planes and making modifications to make them more balanced and fly a further distance. In our next Science of Flight activity students will collaborate with each other to build a plane that is able to carry a large amount of weight on it. Grade 3 students have been so engaged and having so much fun throughout our Science of Flight Module.

Energy Exploration

The 4th grade students have been exploring different forms of energy in the STEAM Lab. They make observations, pose questions, and make connections as they investigate energy transfers. Throughout the module, students explore connections to careers and to the necessity of energy in real-life as they visit multiple business owners through the Main Street interactive experience. In this unit, we have done many hands-on experiments such as a potato battery, solar panel simple circuit, hand generator, marble experiment, glow stick and hand warmer activity. Please ask your student about all the fun and learning that has been happening in the STEAM lab this year.

LEGO Mindstorm Robotics

The 5th graders have been using the EV3 LEGO robots to program and control fully functional robots. As a team they plan, test and modify sequences of code instructions to make their robots complete challenges. In our current Orchard Challenges 5th graders imagine that their autonomous self-driving robot tractor must water all the crops located on their imaginary farm. While using the robots’ students collaborate and communicate as they design a solution for the robots. As you can see from the picture students are enjoying using their critical thinking skills to solve problems.

Please note the change in our PTO website name.

PTO Executive Board:

• Cindy Kinney- President

All families are encouraged to join the Eli Whitney PTO. Meetings will be held on a Wednesday of each month. Times will be announced

We look forward to collaborating with our Whitney community.

The next meeting will be held on 1/3/24, TEAMS link will be provided to all for virtual attendance.