The Wallace Wildcat
April 12, 2024- Hoboken, NJ
Dear Wallace School Parents and Guardians,
Kindergarten
This week our kindergarteners focused on developing foundational literacy skills. This includes phonics, new sight words, and reading comprehension. We engaged in storytelling, where children learned about characters, settings, and plot elements. Additionally, we continued to foster a love for reading through daily independent reading time and read-alouds.
In math, we worked on building a strong numerical foundation. They learned that equations are like treasure maps that guide us to find the missing puzzle. Using hands-on manipulatives like counters, blocks, and pictures, students explored simple additions and subtraction equations.
In Social Studies, our curious kindergarteners embarked on an exciting journey to learn about money-where it comes from and how we use it. In our exploration of money’s uses, children explored the importance of money in our daily lives.
Our Dual Language classes focused on the acquisition of Spanish by using strategies in their classrooms such as: Maravillas, Imagine Learning, and Learning A-Z on a daily basis.
First Grade
The First Grade has been hard at work! The students kicked off the week with a visit to the pop-up library. They also enjoyed celebrating the “Week of the Young Child” by wearing blue, their favorite sportswear and of course, PJ's.
In ELA, the students focused on Bossy R, irregular plural nouns, sorting, spelling, writing complete sentences, and locating key details in fiction stories.
In Math, they concentrated on number games and mixed story problems. As always, the students had fun during ILP working on IXL, Classworks, Starfall, Razkids and the many fun hands-on projects that we do each week.
Second Grade
At Wallace Elementary School, our second grade students had a thrilling week! On Monday, the students geared up for a special event - the Solar Eclipse. We explored what a solar eclipse is along with what safety measures to take during this celestial event.
In ELA, the young learners have been actively focusing on sequencing and recounting stories. They are practicing retelling using the transition words ‘First, Next, Then, and Last.’ Students are also practicing identifying nouns, verbs, and adjectives in a sentence.
In math, our Wildcats have been immersed in exploring nonstandard units of measurement. Through hands-on activities, they are measuring various objects in the classroom utilizing math cubes. The students are excited to begin using a ruler as a tool for measurement!
Third Grade
Wow! The week after Spring Break has come to an end! Third graders worked hard this week to get back on track and start preparing for the end of the year! Take a closer look at what we accomplished this week below.
In ELA, students started studying biographies. We dove into Unit 5 of Wonders and learned a great deal about Dolores Huerta and her contribution to society. Students also began our next core novel, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. We are looking forward to reading more chapters next week as we were left with quite the cliffhanger! It is amazing watching students fall in love with reading and our core novels. We were also so excited to be visited by the pop up library this week!
In Math, students reviewed fractions in great detail! Students recalled how to compare fractions, how to plot fractions on a numberline, how to divide with fractions, and how to draw models of fractions! Students demonstrated their current knowledge with fractions by rocking out their first quiz on fractions this week. Unit 6 will be coming to an end next week - be on the lookout for an update from your teacher on when your student will be taking the end of unit assessment. This week we also started to familiarize students with the state test online platform as well as reviewed questions on the state test from earlier years!
At Wallace this week, we celebrated the Week of the Young Child. Students greatly enjoyed dressing up in the daily themes. In addition, third graders completed a social studies night write all about Ramadan. We also can't forget about the solar eclipse we got to witness! Students studied all about solar eclipses through videos and conversations in the homeroom and in Science.
We can't wait to see what next week has in store for our hard working third graders! Have a great weekend!
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.
MATH
Our 4th grade mathematicians are doing a wonderful job working through the Geometry and Measurement unit. This week the children worked on a study guide to prepare for the unit assessment.
Next week we are starting a new unit on modeling data with line plots and graphs. Our mathematicians will learn how to create, interpret, and compare line plots. We are very proud of all their hard work and excellent progress.
Solar Eclipse
Our 4th graders had an exciting learning experience learning about the Solar Eclipse which took place on Monday, April 8th. Students had to create a poster to notify adults and children not to look at the sun during a solar eclipse. Students received a pair of special glasses to use during the eclipse. It was a very enjoyable learning experience for all!
Fifth Grade
This week our Wildcats went to the Hoboken Historical Museum, where they met local artist Julio Santiago and discussed his artwork around Hoboken. They also engaged in learning more about the History of Hoboken.
Math:
Our 5th Grade Mathematicians created a growth graph that described the relationship between two varying quantities to interpret the values of the points on a grid in the context of a situation by using the given story.
Language Arts:
Our Readers are identifying stanzas and meters to read and understand poetry by engaging with the shared read poem, "How Do I Hold the Summer" to write key details in their Companion book
Social Studies:
Historians were engaged in summarizing the major battles and events of the Civil War and their significance by closely reading informational texts and engaging in discussion to create battle book pages in their digital notebooks. They have learned about the Battles of Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg. They also engaged in analyzing the Gettysburg Address.
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 the importance of the magnificent vowel E.
The Magnificent E
The vowel E has several jobs in the English Language. We usually just think about the magic e or silent e rule but there are so many other purposes for the vowel e. We are going to break down all of its jobs down below.
#1. Magic E: The magic e gives power to the first vowel so the first vowel can say the long sound. ex. like, take, poke
#2. Not a Plural: If the word horse did not end with an “e”, we would assume that the word was plural, or more than one. We add the “e” so we can show that the word is not plural. Some other words that this applies to are: house, mouse, please.
#3 Helping V in the Final Position: Most people use the terms “magic e” and “silent e” interchangeably but a silent e is slightly different. As stated previously, magic e gives power to the first vowel so it can say it’s long sound (ex. save, hive), but in a silent e the “e” does not give power to the first vowel to say it’s long sound as it is just there because words in English don’t usually end in a “v” (ex. give, have). The purpose of the “e” is that we do not double that last consonant when adding a vowel suffix to the base word. When adding the base word (have) + suffix (-ing) we create the word “having”, but if the base word was spelled “hav” and we added the vowel suffix -ing, we would need to follow the doubling rule and double the v when adding a vowel suffix, therefore it being spelled “havving”, which could get mistaken for “hawing”. Due to that confusion in print, we use the silent e to prevent doubling the consonant in the base word. Pretty interesting!
#4 To Make a Letter Say the Soft Sound: Words that end with a “c” and “g” will need the vowel “e” to make the soft c /s/ and soft g /j/ sounds like in the words change and trace.
#5 Turn a Blend into a Syllable: It creates a blend (like bl-) into a syllable -ble like in the word table. At the end of the syllable in the world table, you will hear a schwa sound, which is a neutral sound that usually says the short /u/ or short /i/ sound; in this case it says a short u sound /ta- bul/. That schwa sound helps blend bl- turn into the syllable -ble and it sounds like “bul”.
Check out the following video from the Institute of Multi-Sensory Education for more information about how magnificent the vowel e really is!
CTY
On Thursday, 4th grade CTY students from all of Hoboken’s elementary schools traveled to Washington Middle School in Harrison, along with 4th graders from other Hudson County school districts, to partake in a Dream Flags Project celebration sponsored by the Hudson County Gifted and Talented Consortium.
In preparation for this celebration, students created Dream Flags keeping with the tradition of Nepalese Buddhist prayer flags, which are inscribed with important symbols, invocations, prayers, and mantras. Buddhists for centuries have planted these flags outside their homes and places of spiritual practice for the wind to carry the good vibrations across the countryside. Prayer flags are said to bring happiness, long life and prosperity to the flag planter and those in the surrounding area.
Against the backdrop of their beautiful dream flags, students enjoyed a variety of art and poetry activities centered on dreams and positivity. They created thoughtful gratitude jars, constructed precious friendship bracelets, and even turned ordinary rocks into artwork by painting positive messages on them. The highlight of the field trip occurred when three of our little dreamers from each of our elementary schools courageously climbed onto the auditorium stage and read their touching poems to no less than two dozen teachers and two hundred kids. Well done to them and to all of our CTY students!
Ms. McGeehin's Art Class
Counselor’s Corner
Dear Wallace Families,
During the month of April, Wallace School will be focusing on the character trait, Responsibility. Responsibility means being dependable, making good choices, and taking accountability for your actions.
As always, please feel free to click Here and log in to MOVE THIS WORLD, a Social-Emotional Learning Platform, and explore all of its resources and lessons at home with our Wallace Family account. For information on how to navigate the website and make use of its resources please refer to the Family Platform Guide linked here after first logging in with:
Username:WallaceWildcat
Password: movethisworld
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:
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
It’s time to announce our Wildcats of the Week!. 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.
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