Patriots Press
May 6, 2016 Issue 8
Patriots Night at the Kannapolis Intimidators
May 9th is Patriots STEM Elementary School Fundraiser Night at the Kannapolis Intimidators baseball game. Our very own PES Chorus will be performing the National Anthem before the game. The first pitch is at 7:05 and gates open at 6pm. Tickets are only $6 and Patriots will receive 50% of the proceeds.
Order Your Yearbook Today!
Our Patriots STEM Elementary School yearbook is filled with all the moments that have made our school year memorable. We have a few copies left, but not many. Buy today! The deadline to purchase yearbooks is May 16th, unless we sell out sooner. If we sell out online, we will NOT have yearbooks at school to purchase like in years past.
Art & Talent Show
Come join us for Patriots’ 6th Annual Art Show on Tuesday, May 10th. The show is from 5-7pm and the 5th Grade Talent Show will follow. See what creative and talented students we have! The event is free!
The Talent Show begins at 6:30 in the gym and features so many cool acts – everything from tumbling and dancing to singing and comedy. Come out and support our 5th graders as they show off their talent!
From the Principal's Desk
Parents,
I would like to thank all of you for your support in helping us reach our goal of being named a NC Model STEM School of Distinction. Our students and staff worked hard over the last three years, and this award is a testament to how well the Patriots community embraced STEM. While we will no longer accept “magnet” students outside of the Patriots attendance zone, we will remain fully committed to the STEM approach and will continue to provide our students with all of the benefits that are afforded through a STEM education.
I encourage all Patriots parents to review the recent magnet program changes introduced at the May 2nd School Board meeting. Some of the proposed changes could affect our students, and I urge you to stay informed of potential amendments to the current magnet options and plan.
On another note, as we begin to close out another successful year, I want to reiterate the importance of good attendance and promptness to school. Absences and tardies negatively impact our children, especially as we enter “testing season.” Please make every effort to have your child on campus prior to 8:10 am to ensure they get to class by the 8:15 am tardy bell.
Finally, thank you for all of the love and support this past week as we celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week. Your support fuels our teachers, who in turn, empower our students to achieve new heights.
Regards,
Steven Bookhart
Principal
Counselor's Corner
THANK YOU to those of you who have already sent in generous book donations for Give 5 Read 5. This program that is encouraged by the NC Dept of Public Instruction is one we’ve implemented for the past several years at Patriots. Research shows that students need to read at least 5 books over the summer in order to maintain their reading skills. Some Patriots students lack adequate reading materials and our goal is to provide as many as possible with the books they need.
We still need your help to make this year’s book drive and distribution a success! If you have any new or gently used K-5 grade books at home that you’re ready to pass along, please consider donating them to our book drive anytime through May 25th. You can send in books with your child (clearly labeled “Give 5 Read 5”) or drop them in the boxes in the front office. We appreciate your support.
Red Hawk Nature Trail
Thanks to all the volunteers who came out to help at our Red Hawk Trail workday. We were able to install a new bridge, remove many stumps and get more steps finished. The trail looks awesome thanks to our volunteers. One of the animals on our nature trail needs a name. The box turtle you see here lives on the trail, and he is distinguishable by the markings on his back - each box turtle has a unique pattern. As part of our Citizen Science project, we need to name this box turtle so that we can keep track of his comings and goings. Submit your name on our Box Turtle Name Form. We will select the name for our box turtle by the end of May and announce the name on PTV news.
Outdoor STEM Club
The 4th grade Outdoor STEM club built teepees in the woods alongside the Red Hawk Nature Trail this month. As you can see from the pictures, the students really enjoyed building these teepees. Some of them are still standing and can be seen on the Red Hawk Nature Trail.
Science Olympiad
Patriots STEM Elementary sent two teams to compete in the regional Science Olympiad event at Coltrane Webb Elementary in Concord on Saturday, April 9th. Our varsity team came in second place in the whole tournament!! Our varsity team also won the Spirit Award. Events included 3, 2, 1 Blastoff, Super Sleuths, Weather Permitting, Marshmallow Catapults and many more. Individual winners were: First place - Katy R., Kripa P., Eva P., Owais K., Cameron T. and Amy B. Second place winners were: Trent S., Michael T., Connor J., Deborah C., Lily J., Kripa P., Grace B., Katie T., Marissa L., Kayla A. and Megan C. Third place winners were: Bryson L., Aubrey J., Max A., Conner K., Deborah C., Viviana T., Kelly E., Michael L., Eva P., Etta N., Sydney L., Lily J., Jasmine O., Tanner H. and Natellie A. Congratulations to all the students on both the JV and Varsity team who did an outstanding job representing Patriots!!
PTO
A Note from the President
It’s hard to believe that by the time that most of you receive this newsletter that we will be less than one month from the end of school. It’s been an amazing year for Patriots, and the PTO is grateful to be a small part. We are always looking for ways to help improve our school and would love to have your input and ideas. Please consider joining the PTO next year, if you didn’t this year and take that first step to getting involved on a deeper level with our school.
For our current members, we will be having a General Session on May 10th before the Art Show to give our members a chance to hear a synopsis of what the PTO has done this year and vote on the 2016-2017 Executive Board members.
If you have any questions about the PTO or what we do, please feel free to contact me at maynorchad@hotmail.com.
EOG Proctors Needed
Janel Hussein, PTO Volunteer Coordinator
We are in need of your help to make the 2015-2016 End of Grade Tests go smoothly. If you are able to help us and have had your background check cleared, please consider volunteering to proctor. EOG tests are scheduled for
May 25, May 26 and June 1.
We will conduct a required training each day of the testing beginning at 8:00am in the Media Center. If you decide to sign-up for more than one day to proctor, you only need to attend this training once. You will receive your assignment at that time. Please click below to sign up.
We would like to thank you in advance for your support and offering your time to serve as a proctor here at Patriots STEM Elementary!!
Cornhole Tournament
Tammie Lyons & Angela Brown, Major Fundraising Chairs
Have you put your team together?
We sure hope so! Bags start flying at Patriots first ever Cornhole tournament Saturday, May 14th. Adult tournament begins at 1pm and the adult/child tournament begins at 3pm. We will have a vendor fair running simultaneously, so come and shop from our local businesses.
Early registration is due by May 6th. If you have any questions, please contact Tammie Lyons or Angela Brown at majorfundraising.patriots@gmail.com
Campbell Labels and Box Tops
The Campbells Labels for Education program is ending forever this summer. If you have any Campbell's soup, please clip the labels and submit by the end of the month, and we can use the funds for our school.
Also, if you have any Box Tops, please submit for our final counting day on May 13th! We will have a competition for your child's classroom to win a popsicle party. Every year, we "lose" a significant portion of our Box Tops to expiration, so please send them now, while we can use them- especially the 2017 labels, most of which will expire before our major fall submission date!
Thanks again for all your clipping. It has earned us more than $5000 this school year!
Classroom News
AIG
Fifth grade AIG students had a really good day at JA BizTown as they worked along with students from Rocky River and Harrisburg to run businesses such as Travel With Us, the Bank, the Radio Station and Realty. They will continue to work in the financial literacy unit. Fourth graders are working hard as they visit classrooms to teach about their fundraiser, Change for Change and why they felt the need to help others. Third graders are writing some beautiful and creative poems as part of the poetry unit.
The school Math24 tournament was held on August 28th and nearly 80 students participated. Fifth graders played and also served as judges for the fourth grade tournament. We congratulate fifth grader Riley Mathes - the new champion! Also runner up Anakin Kaminsky and 4th grade winner Shane Maletta.
AU
It has been such a fun and exciting year learning about the Solar System, North Carolina regions, Dinosaurs, Dr. Seuss and the Life Cycle of a Frog in Mrs. Kentfield's class. We will end the school year with completing our unit on Frogs. We have three tadpoles and one froglet in our classroom right now. The students enjoy checking on them every morning to see if they have turned into frogs. As soon as we get frogs, we will take them to the pond and release them to move on to their next adventure.
We also have one graduate this school year, Jonah Hunter. Congratulations Jonah and good luck next year in middle school.
AU hopes that our Patriots families have a happy and safe summer! See you next year Red Hawks!
Kindergarten
Hello there! Our April showers are hopefully over, and May flowers will soon be in bloom. Along with flowers blooming, our kindergarten classes have been showing us how much they have bloomed this year as well!
April was a very busy month for us. We started the month studying animals in science and diving deeper into our animal unit by studying Living vs. Nonliving. We explored isopods and worms, describing their habitat and characteristics. The students had a blast observing the insects!
In math, we continued our addition and subtraction facts and Measurement unit. In May, we are starting Word Problems.
Reading has found us working on retelling and comparing. We have also learned how to use our schema to make inferences about characters. If you meet up with a kindergarten student, ask them to sing you the Schema song or the Inference song. They love them!
The Spring Fling was definitely a hit with our Kindergarten families – we appreciate you coming out and sharing your evening with us! Field Day was also amazing!! The students really enjoyed all the wonderful fun-filled rotations.
On May 12th the kindergarten students will visit Patterson Farm for a hands-on experience on how strawberries are grown and harvested. Yummy! We welcome parent chaperones. Let us know if you can make it!
Parents, please remember that while the testing focus is usually put on Third Grade and above, even our younger students are tested each quarter. We will spend much of May assessing their growth over the year. Please be sure your child gets to bed on time and eats breakfast either at home or at school. Stress to them that they are going to be First Graders very soon, and we want to see them practicing First Grade behavior now! Thank you for your ongoing support. It is truly appreciated.
1st Grade
It is May and the flowers and trees are in full bloom. It is a beautiful and fun time of year. The calendar isn’t quite as jam packed this month, but there are plenty of things going on.
- May 4th - Field Trip to the Schiele Museum for Looney, Bramlett, Boteilho and Maddux
- May 5th - Field Trip to the Schiele Museum for Baute, Nicely and Mizera
- May 5th - Progress Reports go home
- May 6th - Movie Night
Our end of the year celebration will be June 3rd in the morning. Please watch for more information about this.
In English Language Arts we are reviewing characters and how important they are to a story. We are also remembering and retelling major events as well as the main idea and the central message.
In writing, fiction stories are the focus as we introduce our characters, decide on a problem and solution and learn how to do dialogue.
For math, we are working hard on balancing equations with addition and subtraction on both sides of the equal sign. We are also learning how to find missing numbers in addition and subtraction sentences. This is intense work as we continue to build our number sense in many ways.
In science, we are enjoying learning about Earth’s properties and how they differ from area to area and how humans have impacted the earth. Next we will learn about geography and cardinal directions.
Here is to the last full month of school! Go Red Hawks!!
2nd Grade
How can it be May? The year has flown by and we are excited about our final activities! This month students will demonstrate their mastery of reading, writing and math through 3D and Discovery Education testing. We are eager to see how much they’ve grown! They will also have many opportunities to show off their problem solving skills using the Design Cycle in teams.
Our reading and writing focus is on Fairy Tales, Folk Tales and Poetry. The children will focus on key elements of each genre, compare and contrast multiple versions of the same tale to better understand various cultures around the globe and write their own fairy tales and poetry!
Students will complete multiple PBLs in their science block related to the fairy tales being covered. They’ll choose materials to build houses that can withstand the “Big Bad Wolf” (a hair dryer) trying to blow the house down, as well as, construct the tallest, free-standing tower with Rapunzel’s braid of hair hanging down. Students will also finish up their study of insects in May.
In math, the children will be learning about Multiplication and Division. Students will complete a zoo animal PBL, in which they build a zoo animal with tangrams. After building and tracing the animal they will need to determine its height, length and area. This information will be turned in to the engineers building the animal habitats at the zoo. Can’t wait to see what they create!
Once again, we would like to thank every family for all they do and have done to support our classrooms this year. We are so grateful. We couldn’t have had so much success without you!
3rd Grade
Happy May Red Hawks! It is hard to believe that the school year is already coming to an end. What an exciting year it has been. In science, we are continuing our Forces and Motion unit. The students are learning about push and pull movements. In reading, we are administering our last round of MCLASS testing. This testing will determine the students' reading levels for the end of the year. We are also working on our poetry unit. The students have been learning about figurative language, such as similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration and onomatopoeia. In math, we are continuing our unit on measurement. We have been learning how to tell time to the nearest minute, how to read a ruler to the nearest half inch and how to measure and estimate volume and mass.
We will be starting EOG review for the last few weeks of school. The Reading EOG will be held on May 25th, and the Math EOG will be on May 26th. We have started to send EOG review packets for weekly homework. In addition, we are starting to review strategies for the EOG that will help students relax and take their time during the test. To avoid the “summer slide,” any reading they can do over the summer will be greatly appreciated and advantageous. Thank you for all of your help and support!
4th Grade
May is an extremely busy month for fourth grade. This month students are wrapping up poetry and will begin Greek Mythology. They will be listening to Greek Myths while analyzing characters, theme and looking at problems and solutions. This will be the last unit for ELA, as students will be reviewing for their reading end of grade test.
In math this month, they are finishing up the geometry unit and then getting geared up to show off their math skills on their end of grade test.
After exploring the moon and its cycles, 4th graders will learn about animal adaptations, all in the name of survival. They will learn about ecosystems and how changes in one part of an ecosystem can affect other parts of the system. To wrap up 4th grade science, students will learn about health and nutrition.
This month, we are looking at modern North Carolina, how it has advanced and adapted over the years. As we prepare for the end of the year, 4th grade will learn all about pirates in North Carolina later in the month. They will research and create their own pirate character and will culminate with a living museum for third grade during the annual 4th grade Pirate’s Day. Please be on the lookout for requests for Pirate’s Day items from your homeroom teacher.
The fourth grade team would like to thank all of you for your continued support this year.
5th Grade
Math
We have begun our EOG review. We will be going over all the topics that we've covered this year. We will also discuss the math vocabulary students will see on the test. They can reference their math journals or math binders for examples of problems we've done this year. The kids also have access to some great websites that have videos explaining different topics. They can use their IXL login to review certain topics they are struggling with.
Social Studies
We will finish out our year studying Westward Expansion. Students will create wagons that will be tested to see if they would survive the journey west. They had better watch out for wind, rain and rough terrain! Students will also construct boats and test them against the World's Winds. They will have to battle prevailing winds as their boat travels around North America and South America. Students will decide if they would have traveled west on a boat or on a wagon!
Science
We will begin our review of previous units the first week of May. We will begin with Forces and Motion, Heat Transfer, Weather and then Ecosystems. Students will enroll in a Canvas Review Course for each topic. Be on the look out for weekly MacDaddy Review sheets. These sheets are the most important topics for students to know on the EOG. Please spend time studying these each week, they are EXTREMELY important. We will also be writing in our "Burrito Book." This will be everything they need to know rolled up into one "Burrito." There will be a Science EOG CRAM JAM session on Tuesday, May 31st from 3:15-4:30.
Reading
Our EOG prep has begun. We are on our second weekly homework packet that students should be working on nightly, as well as the review we will do in class. Your child should have a list of reading EOG vocabulary that we would love for him/her to review nightly and don't forget the excellent resource your child has in his/her reader's workshop journal. We are also starting book clubs soon, using historical fiction novels to support our social studies curriculum.
5th Grade Promotion Save the Date- You should have received a save the date flyer for our 5th grade promotion ceremony. If not, please put June 8th at 8:45 on your calendar. Parents will be allowed into the parking lot after all students have arrived safely (about 8:20). Please note that Patriots' siblings will have to remain in class due to limited seating. Look for more information about checking out 5th graders and siblings after the ceremony closer to the end of school.