The Wallace Wildcat
March 22, 2024- Hoboken, NJ
Dear Wallace School Parents and Guardians,
Kindergarten
Our kindergarten mathematicians continue to practice their adding and subtracting skills through number stories. They are using a variety of strategies such as drawing pictures and using counters to identify visual representations and corresponding equations to help solve problems.
In Social Studies, students have continued to identify problems and solutions while learning about the inspiring stories of women in history during Women’s History Month. Our essential question for this week is “How do our families change and grow?”
On Monday, the leprechauns of Hoboken took one last visit to some Kindergarten classrooms as they finished up their St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans. Officer Will was as hard at work collecting clues to track them down!
First Grade
ELA: This week for ELA, we were able to spend time reviewing Unit 4 Week 4 of Wonders due to the testing. This gave us a chance to dive deep into texts about insects. Our essential question for the week was "What insects do you know about? How are they alike and different?" We continued with long i through our Orton-Gillingham resources.
Math: We are continuing with Unit 5 of Savvas. This week, our focus stayed on combinations of 10. We were able to incorporate Go Fish! throughout the week. We also reviewed time using analog clocks within the classroom.
Social Studies: We continue to complete activities for Women's History Month! We have spent time researching about women who have accomplished amazing things! We will continue to create projects for the month of March.
Second Grade
We are continuing to work on different types of graphs in second grade like line plots, pictographs and bar graphs. The children are surveying their classmates for different topics. One example is the children asked their classmates what was their favorite food and then graphed the results. Pizza was their favorite food!
We are continuing to celebrate famous women that have influenced others and have inspired many people. The second graders are learning about character traits. The students then come up with character traits to describe women like Sacagawea, Bessie Coleman and Helen Keller. They have noticed that some of these women have similar character traits like smart, determined, courageous and many more. The second graders are excited to learn about more influential women for Women's History Month!
Third Grade
Another week of third grade in the books! Students enjoyed their last FULL week before Spring Break by concluding their ELA unit and diving deeper into fractions! We are beyond proud of our third graders for ROCKING OUT their FINAL Link It of the school year! Check out more about what this week had in store below.
In ELA, students prepared for their end of unit 4 assessment. Through studying poetry, expository texts, and realistic fiction, students were able to solidify the concepts of comparing & contrasting, imagery, and figurative language. We are SO CLOSE to finishing our core novel, Charlotte's Web. With only a few chapters to go, we are all on the edge of our seats! As a reminder, students will be taking their end of unit 4 assessment next week before break!
In Math, students continued studying fractions. They are engaging in rich discussion about all aspects of fractions... What is a numerator? What is a denominator? What strategies exist to help me compare fractions? How can I plot this fraction on a numberline? What makes a fraction larger than 1? We will continue to study Unit 6 topics when returning from break! Be on the lookout for our next math quiz when we return from break.
In Social Studies, Women's History Month was celebrated! Our students are loving learning about influential women in history. Some women that we have spoken about include Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, and Eugenie Clark. We will close out the month of March next week by learning about a few more women!
Fourth Grade
ELA
Our 4th grade readers continued the novel, “ Wonder.” The book Wonder centers around August, born with facial differences and a genetic condition that required him to have twenty-seven surgeries. Because his health was unstable, his mother home-schooled him through fourth grade. During August's first year at Beecher Prep, he has many new positive and negative experiences.
This week our 4th graders continued with Unit 4 Week 5 in Reading Wonders. Our focus was on the theme and finding the theme in a poem and story. Students had to Identify a theme and write an essay that explains how the theme of the story is shown through the characters and how the theme of the poem is shown through the speaker. The 4th graders also completed Linkit! Form C for the last time this year. We were very impressed by their progress since September! Great job by all!
Math
Our 4th grade mathematicians are doing a wonderful job working through the Geometry and Measurement unit. This week the children learned how to measure and create angles using protractors. They had a great time learning how to use the measurement tool.
The hit of the week was learning how to identify and create symmetrical figures. The children teamed up with their peers to create symmetrical figures by using Power Polygons and geoboards. They made some great designs and had some fun as well. We are very proud of their progress.
Social Studies
Our 4th grade historians started working on their Women’s History project. This year's theme is: “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.” This theme recognizes women throughout the country who understand that, for a positive future, we need to eliminate bias and discrimination entirely from our lives and institutions. We asked the students to consider four women they would select to be carved into Mount Rushmore as if it was a monument dedicated to women. The students chose women from various walks of life and explained why they would select each of them as part of their “new” Mount Rushmore. The presentations were phenomenal. Great Job!
Fifth Grade
Math:
Our Mathematicians were engaged in understanding the meaning of points on a coordinate graph by interpreting the shape of the graph.
Language Arts:
Our readers were identifying the character’s perspective by applying close reading skills to write a minimum of 3 details on a graphic organizer. Students were also engaged in practicing the “Visualize” comprehension strategy by discussing and engaging in this week’s “Shared Read.”
Social Studies:
Our Historians were engaged in understanding what life was like for people of color during the Civil War by analyzing primary sources and reflecting on previous learning/knowledge. They also engaged in understanding what life was like for soldiers during the Civil War by analyzing primary sources and data.
Wallace's Music Department
Students were then grouped together by boomwhacker color and performed various song selections including Keepy Uppy from the popular cartoon, Bluey, as well as traditional songs such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and we lastly voted on what big song we wanted to perform at the end. Options were between Shake it Off from Sing by Taylor Swift and A Sky Full of Stars from Sing 2 by Coldplay.
Students completed a Listening to Music survey where they picked one of the songs l covered in class and wrote down what boomwhackers they heard being played and drew a picture of how listening to and playing the song made them feel. We had so much fun Boomwhacking along to the steady beat! Have a great weekend Wildcats!
The Reading Specialist Corner
The Reading Specialist Corner
The Hoboken Public School District is proud to have a certified Reading Specialist in each of our three elementary schools and Hoboken Middle School. Teaching children to read requires that every child receives excellent reading instruction and that children who are experiencing reading difficulties receive early intervention and additional instruction from professionals specifically prepared to teach them. The role of the district Reading Specialist is to provide research-based, small group reading instruction using the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education’s (IMSE) Orton-Gillingham (OG) methodology.
The purpose of the Reading Specialist Corner is to provide families with at-home literacy tips to ensure strong home-school partnerships. This week, the Reading Specialist Team is excited to share creative ways to practice spelling words at home.
The Importance of Spelling
According to the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education (2020), “Spelling is one of the most important and most forgotten aspects of literacy development.” Furthermore, the article goes on to express, “learning to spell enhances reading, writing, and literacy skills for young children in elementary school.” Therefore, to continue to build spelling concepts, students should be practicing at home as well. Students do not need to practice with just a paper and pencil; but rather they can have fun while practicing spelling words! Use the link below to find creative ways to practice spelling. For students in third grade and above, these creative ways can be used to build students’ vocabulary and high frequency word knowledge.
CTY
Fourth Grade CTY Dream Flags Project
Fourth grade CTY students created dream flags for the annual, nationwide Dream Flag Project, which was inspired by the poems of Langston Hughes. Our students wrote beautiful, heartfelt poetry about their personal dreams and their dreams for the world. They added the poems to “flags” and decorated them in the tradition of Nepalese Buddhist prayer flags, which are inscribed with important symbols, prayers, and mantras. For centuries, Buddhists have planted these flags outside for the wind to carry the good vibrations across the countryside.
On April 11th, students will partake on a field trip to the Hudson County Gifted and Talented Consortium’s Dream Flags Project celebration at which they will enjoy a variety of poetry and art activities and where their dream flags--along with those of other Hudson County students--will be proudly hung. Since the dream flags will “only” be displayed indoors, the good vibrations may not quite reach the countryside, but they will certainly be felt by everyone at this wonderful event!
Ms. McGeehin's Art Class
Counselor’s Corner
Dear Wallace Families,
We have entered a new month- March! During the month of March, Wallace School will be focusing on the character trait, empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand how someone is feeling and providing care or concern.
Here are some ways to show empathy:
Show care and concern
Acknowledge the person’s feelings
Ask questions
Show emotional support
We have created a new award here at Wallace School. Every week we will celebrate students who show their ROARing qualities! They will be named our Wildcats of the week and they are students who demonstrate ALL the of the qualities found in our ROAR Pledge every day and everywhere:
Respectful - cares for the feelings and rights of others
Open-minded - learns from others and trying new things
Achieve - works toward goals, challenges themselves, and asks for help when needed
Responsible - controls thoughts and actions
Congratulations to our Wildcats of the Week! I encourage everyone to put these qualities into their everyday practice.
Wallace School has partnered with the Hoboken Public Library and is hosting a monthly Pop-Up Library! Students will require a library card to take out books and will have an opportunity to return books when the Pop-Up Library returns, or to any Hoboken Public Library Branch, or to Frank Cagiao, the School Counselor.
The upcoming dates for the Pop-Up Library visits:
April 8th-12th
May 6th-10th
June 3rd-7th
Kindergarten and 1st grade will have the opportunity to visit the Pop-Up Library on Mondays
2nd and 3rd grade will have the opportunity to visit on Wednesdays
And 4th and 5th grade will have the opportunity to visit on Fridays
To register your student for a Library Card please use this link: https://forms.gle/4CffPjBJW2dET1dB7
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