The Wallace Wildcat
Hoboken, NJ- December 17, 2021
Dear Wallace School Parents and Guardians,
SOTM
Kudos and congratulations are in order for our November 2021 Students of the Month. They are: Pre-K - Nalani Santiago (Ms. Skoller), Kindergarten - Edward (Teddy) Carleton (Ms. Casazza), 1st Grade – Stefano Bellingheri-Viera (Mrs. Mautone), 2nd Grade - Liam Connolly (Mrs. Shikhman), 3rd Grade - Nicolas Moreno (Mr. Fernandez), 4th Grade - Jacob Giannotti (Ms. Cocucci), and 5th Grade - Norah Block– (Ms. Leon). I am proud to say that we recognized Nicolas Moreno at this week's meeting of the Hoboken Board of Education as the overall Wallace School Student of the Month. Job well done by all of our grade level scholars, and as always, I challenge all of our young learners to earn this honor at some point during their time with us at Wallace.
GEOY
Kindergarten
It has been a busy and exciting week of learning in Kindergarten! In ELA, we completed the last week in Unit 3. We began the week by answering the essential question, “What places do you go to during the week?” During centers, we enjoyed working with the sight word “go” and the letter Cc. During Writers’ Workshop, we continued to work on our realistic fiction story by completing a beginning, middle and end graphic organizer. We are so excited to write our final drafts next week.
In Math, we have been busy measuring objects in the classroom using cubes and popsicle sticks. We enjoyed learning about measurement and working with our classmates. As the week progressed, we started counting to 20 using ten frames and objects.
In Social Studies, we started a new chapter by discussing what money is and what we use it for. It was fun learning the difference between needs and wants.
We had so much fun in Science class this week. During the week, we learned about living things and what type of habitat they live in.
First Grade
In math, we are learning how to add equations with three addends, finding different combinations to make a number, and playing fun math center games. This week we added subtraction into math centers, playing a true and false game. Students had to sort the true subtraction equations from the false subtraction equations. We also continued to play our favorite math center, five in a row!
In social studies we learned about the differences between goods and services. We made a list of types of goods and types of services we use/buy on a daily basis. We also discussed how these goods and services fell into things we want and need.
Second Grade
This week we were lighting up the season in Second Grade with our kindness challenge. Every day the children have undertaken a kindness challenge task. They really showed how festive and joyous their hearts can be.
LANGUAGE ARTS
As readers, students learned to think about what they already know about a topic to prepare themselves to read a new book. They use text features to help them determine what is most important about a topic and use their knowledge about how the information in nonfiction books is organized to figure out the big ideas of the text. They have used Raz-kids to level up on their reading skills and we are so very proud of them!
Home/School Connection
Ways to get your child enthusiastic about nonfiction! Have them think about what they arepassionate about and look for nonfiction books about their favorite things.
MATH
This week we are finishing up our math unit on number sense. The children are exploring how to compare and order whole numbers, round two-digit numbers to the nearest ten, and compute two digit subtraction with regrouping. It’s all adding up nicely!
SOCIAL STUDIES:
We are diving into “Holidays Around the World” through the use of an informative text lesson and several fun activities where the children learned the uniqueness of holidays celebrated by different cultures.
We have created:
• a menorah to celebrate Hanukkah
• a poinsettia to celebrate Las Posadas
• a kinara to celebrate Kwanza
• a tree to celebrate Christmas
Third Grade
In ELA, students continued to learn about the many ways characters’ points of view influence the characters’ perceptions of events and how characters’ points of view can also influence readers’ perceptions of events. Children saw the former on full display in reading The True Story of the Three Little Pigs?, written from the point of view of the Big Bad Wolf.
In math, students read, interpreted, and used the data displayed on pictographs to solve word problems. They also created their own pictographs, drawing small pieces of pizza as symbols to represent how many pieces of pizza classmates can eat in one sitting. (One student claimed he can eat 15 pieces of pizza!)
In social studies, students learned about the principles of Kwanzaa by, among other things, reading Seven Spools of Thread and then summarizing and sequencing the book’s major events on a kinara. Our study of Who Was Coretta Scott King? provided perfect context for students to understand Kwanzaa, born during the Civil Rights Movement.
A happy belated birthday to Mrs. Kutchma, who celebrated her special day on Tuesday!
Finally, we all wish our classmate, student, and friend, Aden Lund, the very best as he moves out of the district after three terrific years at Wallace!
Fourth Grade
ELA
Our 4th grade readers finished Wonder and are getting ready to read their new novel, “What Would She Do?” What Would She Do is a non fiction novel based on 25 trailblazing women throughout history. Our focus as we begin What Would She Do is nonfiction text features. Students created a chart in their ELA notebooks on nonfiction text features.
Math
Our 4th grade mathematicians continued to work on long division this week. Long division is a method for dividing large numbers into steps or parts, breaking the division problem into a sequence of easier steps. It is the most common method used to solve problems based on division. Students are dividing 3 digit numbers by 1 digit numbers and 4 digit numbers by 1 digit numbers. They are using multiplication to check their answer.
Fifth Grade
In Language Arts, the 5th graders worked on a lesson that served as the culminating task for our study of core novels Esperanza Rising, Love that Dog, and Number the Stars. Students shared their knowledge, as well as evidence from the novels, to engage in a Socratic Seminar revolving around the essential question; Is conflict necessary for growth?
Our scholars compared the three literary texts by responding and reflecting upon open-ended questions as an assignment, then shared and discussed these reflections during the Socratic Seminar. Kudos to all of our scholars, and BRAVO to the 2 students for facilitating the seminar.
In Social Studies our 5th grade Historians are identifying fundamental differences between the North and the South by analyzing how the disunion between the two only became worse over time by completing six out of eight sections of a graphic organizer stating the differences that set the foundation for war.
Congratulations to our very own 5th Grade Teacher Ms. Martinez for winning Wallace Teacher of the Year.
Ms. McGeehin's Art on a Cart
Wallace's Music Department
This week was our winter concert. Our band and chorus students performed at Hoboken High School on Wed. night in 2 performances. They did a wonderful job! Band students performed Jingle Bells, Jolly Old St. Nicholas, and Up on the Housetop with the Connors Band. We had a percussion section feature, and our advanced band did soli sections.
The Wallace Chorus performed “Dynamite” and “Winter Wonderland.” We had a surprise visit from Santa, and our district chorus sang “Santa Claus” and “Feliz Navidad.” It was so amazing to be back in person and see how happy the kids were to perform on stage. We are moving forward and excited to perform more soon!
Individualized Learning Pathway - Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth
Toy Drive
Wallace's extraordinary PTO collected toys for local children in need. Thank you for all of your donations. It just goes to show how strong our community really is. Happy Holidays!
Wallace Lunch Form
As always, please be sure to find some time to relax and enjoy the weekend. Until next time… Martin Shannon, Principal
Martin Shannon, Principal
Email: Martin.Shannon@Hoboken.k12.nj.us
Website: Hoboken.k12.nj.us
Location: 1100 Willow Avenue, Hoboken, NJ, USA
Phone: 201-356-3654
Twitter: @WildcatsWallace
Daily Covid Form
Prior to arriving at school each day, please complete the COVID-19 Questionnaire on Genesis for each student. At times it can be challenging to do so while at Wallace as there are many families using devices at the same time. For more information about access to this questionnaire, please review the Genesis webinar: http://drive.google.com/file/d/12IkwL7EICI0JNmjExsdgNffMNR-O8O50/view
If you do not yet have access to Genesis, please complete the Genesis Parent Portal Request Access Form: http://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeAUvfz30kaSZE4N3pTHB-BDz28ixSuJwjlhKSeM3SyCumDJQ/viewform?usp=sf_link