Patriots Press
April 8, 2016 Issue 7
Light It Up Blue Week
April is Autism Awareness Month. Patriots held Light It Up Blue Week to help raise awareness this past week. The color blue is associated with Autism Speaks, an autism advocacy organization that sponsors autism research and conducts awareness and outreach activities. Patriots did a wonderful job raising awareness and showing support by wearing blue all week long. The students also did a great job making posters and videos about autism. Thank you to everyone who participated! We had a fun week learning about the disability and showing support.
Also, thank you to the parent volunteers for coming out to help sell bracelets and puzzle pieces. We will announce the total raised soon. AU wants to thank everyone for their support and participating in the awareness week. Light It Up Blue each day!
Red Hawk Nature Trail
Come join us as we spruce up the Nature Trail on April 23rd from 8:30-11:00. Please bring rakes and shovels if you have them. We will be moving downed limbs, digging up some sapling stumps, filling in holes, putting in a handrail for the bridge and working on the steps. Please use this sign up genius so we will know how many people are coming. Thanks! www.SignUpGenius.com/go/4090A4AA8A82BAB9-nature
Spring Book Fair
Thanks to all who volunteered to help make this Spring Book Fair a huge success. We had an amazing turnout for the Breakfast with Mom and early morning book fair. New books will be available soon to check out from the library thanks to your generosity!!
Iditarod Reading Challenge
This year's Iditarod Reading Challenge winners were: K-1 Mrs. Nicely's class with 3,731 minutes read. 2-3 Ms. Alisca's class with 12,614 minutes read and 4-5 Mrs. Walker's class with 12,178 minutes read. Each winning classroom will receive a set of books for their classroom library. Congratulations to our winners! The Red Lantern award for crossing the finish line last goes to: K-1 Staton, 2-3 Pace and 4-5 Morse. Those classrooms will receive a red lantern with candy. Thanks to all who participated in our 6th Annual Iditarod Reading Challenge.
From the Nurse's Office
Our health room is in need of a few items to make it through the end of the school year. We are in need of Kleenex. Also as you go through pants/shorts your child or children have outgrown that still have reasonable amount of wear, keep these additional needs in mind:
- Shorts - Boys and Girls with elastic waist or adjustable band inside (sizes 5-16). Please remember that shorts must comply with the dress code policy.
- Pants- Boys and Girls with elastic waist or adjustable band inside (sizes 5-16)
Donations are greatly appreciated for our students!
Nurse Darlene
PTO
A Note from the President
I hope that your family had a great Spring Break. Now that we are back to school it means that we are quickly heading towards summer. I know that this is a very busy time for a lot of families, but please don’t miss out on the great opportunities we have below to volunteer and support our school. If you have any questions about these opportunities, please contact the coordinator or myself.
Our PTO is built on great volunteers and we are looking for a few more to fill spots on our board in several positions. Please take a moment if you are interested and join us on the second Monday here at the school at 6:30pm. The only prerequisites to help is to be a PTO member and a willingness to help us improve our school.
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 you time to serve as a proctor here at Patriots STEM Elementary!!
Mother-Son Hockey Game
We look forward to our annual mother-son event Sunday, April 10th. We will be enjoying the day with our Charlotte Checkers.
Hats – hats can be picked up at the Foundation table in the main concourse at any time during the game. Parents simply need to mention they are with Patriots.
There is a post-game skate with the players that is $5 for everyone skating and $7 if you need to rent skates. Those spots are filled on a first come first served basis. Parents will need to register in-game on the 10th. The proceeds benefit the Checkers Charitable Foundation.
If you can't make it this year, we will see you next year!
Cornhole Tournament & Vendor Fair
Tammie Lyons & Angela Brown, Major Fundraising Chairs
Patriots PTO is excited to announce that we will be having our first ever Spring Cornhole Tournament.
Mark your calendars for Saturday, May 14th. Bags fly at 1pm for the adult tournament and 3 for the adult/child tournament. It will be round robin/ tournament bracket competition.
Be on the lookout this week for our flyer that will come home with your child. It will contain forms for entry registration, corporate sponsorship opportunities as well as volunteer forms.
If you have any questions, please contact Tammie Lyons or Angela Brown at majorfundraising.patriots@gmail.com
Appreciation Event
Kristel Swazye, Hospitality
Patriots PTO loves their volunteers. We want to thank you for all the things you do from trimming box tops to marking shirts at the Red Hawk Run. We will host a volunteer appreciation the same day as field day. Invitations will be sent closer to the date.
Skate Nights
Every month, our skate nights give students a chance to spend a couple of hours after dinner socializing with friends from different classes and years, skating, entering drawings and playing a few games. We have a little grade-level fun and make some money for our PTO.
The grade level hosting decides on a theme to dress up if you choose, and competes to see which class has the most people show up - this class keeps the coveted golden skate to show off for the month! However, there are always plenty of people from other grades - cars full of friends who arrive together, and some younger students hanging on to skate frames or a parent's hand, just learning to move around on skates. All are welcome! It's an inexpensive way to make the kids happy and tire them out, no matter what the weather!
Students enter for $5, including skate rentals, and non-skating adults enter free and can use the Wi-Fi while the kids skate. Snacks, games and skate frames are available.
This year, we still have 4th grade on April 21st, and our final night, sponsored by the PTO, is on May 19th. Join your friends, and give it a try!
Classroom News
AIG
Fifth graders interviewed for their jobs at JA BizTown this week and will now be working with their companies to prepare for our field trip on April 20th. Fourth graders are continuing to work in the Water unit and are hoping to lead a school wide fundraiser in the near future. Money raised will go to an organization that is making a difference by bringing clean water to countries in Africa. Third graders started their poetry unit this week. Fourth and fifth graders are also practicing their Math24 strategies as they prepare for the Math24 school tournament scheduled for the last Friday in April.
Kindergarten
Hello Patriots Families! March was a long, busy month for us. We learned so many new things!
In reading this month we have been working on main idea, comparing and contrasting nonfiction text and activating our schema. We have loved watching your children grow their schema this school year! Writer’s Workshop brought a celebration of our All About books! We have become excellent writers of many types of genres. In math, we reviewed addition, subtraction, composing and decomposing numbers 11-19. We will begin learning how to use different measurement tools and how to accurately measure specific items in math this month. Thank you to all of our families who got involved in the design process of a PBL by creating Leprechaun Traps for St. Patrick’s Day. Those sneaky Leprechauns got away again this year! In science, we learned about seasons, map skills, land/water forms and habitats and environments! Whew, we definitely earned our Spring Break and hopefully everyone enjoyed it!
We are looking forward to our field trips to Carolina Aviation and the Cabarrus Arts Council trip to see Doug Berky! Be sure to ask your child about these exciting field trips ahead!
Thank you for all of your support! The kindergarten teachers appreciate everything you do!
1st Grade
April showers bring May flowers – but that doesn’t mean I’m asking for a lot of rain! In fact, for our Spring Fling on Friday April 15th at 5pm, I would prefer no rain! Please come join us for a time of fun and games!
Fun and games will also be had for students on Field Day April 28th. More information will come about this event.
During our school time, we are always having fun with our subjects.
In English Language Arts we are reading different kinds of non-fiction to see how they can add to what we already know about a subject. We are using books as well as videos, poetry, magazines, websites and anything else we can come up with to learn about a certain subject. Then students collaborate to discuss how the new learning changes their old way of thinking.
In writing, we work hard each day to put our thoughts from our head onto our paper. We are also writing poetry and using our expanding vocabulary to make it more interesting.
For math, we will be finishing up our unit on using place value to add and subtract. Not only can we line up numbers and add and subtract, we can use base ten blocks, tens frames, number lines and words to explain how and why an answer is reached. This is a lot of repetition but having a strong foundation with numbers is extremely important. Our last unit of the year is balancing addition and subtraction equations.
In science we finished molecular biology and are working on our social studies Unit of Economics. We will learn about needs and wants, and how that affects our lives.
Here is to the last months of school! Go Red Hawks!!
2nd Grade
It’s hard to believe 4th quarter is here! It’s an exciting time to be in Second Grade! This month we’ll be visiting the Asheboro Zoo on the 19th. Prior to the visit the children will study pollination. To learn more about pollination and why certain insects can only pollinate specific flowers, the children will experiment in a PBL with creating hand pollinators and test their effectiveness on various plant designs.
Just before the visit the children will work with maps of the zoo, the Asheboro Zoo website, map skills (compass rose and map key) and school search engines to plan the best route to visit the zoo. In the end they will create a map plotting the route they think is best.
As a follow up to the trip the children will be learning about basic genetics. In one PBL they will create a new animal by joining two very different “parent” animals. They’ll consider strengths and weaknesses of each animal and the physical appearance of each animal to create an animal that would be a major attraction at a zoo. They will also take into consideration the habitat needed for the animal. After creating and illustrating the animal, each student will write a news article persuading the public to come and visit the new animal exhibit!
In math, students will finish up and be assessed on their understanding of place value to 1,000 including explaining strategies for addition and subtraction. Afterwards we’ll begin our introduction to multiplication. Two PBLs are planned to guide student learning ~ one on Wasps and the other on Pizza. Students will use multiplication and estimation tools.
In our reading and writing lessons the children will finish up our study of non-fiction. In reading, book clubs are focusing on strategies for understanding and discussing biographies. In writing, each student is working to create a book about one of the states of matter that includes information from note taking and results from an experiment they perform themselves.
A big thank you to all of our parents for all you are doing to support our classrooms ~ we couldn’t do it without you!
3rd Grade
Welcome back Red Hawks! We hope everyone enjoyed their Spring Break. It is hard to believe that it is already fourth quarter. We have been working hard in third grade. In science, we recently finished our unit on ecosystems. Our focus was on plants and their lifecycle. The students got to complete a PBL in which they built their own hydroponic systems to take home. We also had Space Camp Day on the half day before Spring Break. The students got to participate in several STEM activities related to space from coding robots to travel between planets, to designing a new landing spacecraft to be used on Mars. Discovery Place brought in an inflatable planetarium so that the students could learn about the various constellations in our solar system. We are now starting our social studies unit on cultural diversity.
In reading, we are working on our research unit with a focus on China. The students are enjoying learning about China’s culture, including the customs and responsibilities of Chinese students. They will soon be researching a country of their choice in class. This is a great unit to help the students sharpen their critical thinking and research skills. Finally, in math, we have recently finished our unit on fractions. We are now moving on to our unit on measurement. We will be starting with telling time and working our way to measuring mass, liquid volume, capacity and distance. Thank you again for all of your support!
4th Grade
This month in math 4th graders are wrapping up our unit on decimals and understanding how they compare to fractions. The next unit in math will be Geometry and Measurement. Students will learn to use protractors to measure angles as well as using metric and customary units of measurement. They will also understand which units are appropriate for measuring weight and capacity.
The Hickory Furniture Mart PBL is well underway. Students are using natural resources found in North Carolina to build a furniture model. This PBL incorporates so many aspects of our Social Studies and ELA curriculum. Students will not only learn about natural resources, but economics as they price their items and marketing as they use persuasive writing to help sell their furniture. We are looking forward to the exhibit which will happen later in the month.
This month Junior Achievement volunteers are visiting the 4th grade teaching them all about entrepreneurship, advertising, regional resources and local businesses. “Junior Achievement USA is the nation's largest organization dedicated to educating students in grades K-12 about entrepreneurship, work readiness, and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs designed to help young people understand the economics of life. In partnership with businesses and educators, JA brings the real world to students, opening their minds to their potential." (JA Guide)
In science, 4th grade is finishing up our unit on energy and will be starting our unit on animal adaptations. Students will learn why animals have certain adaptations. They will learn how ecosystems are made up of interactions of organisms with their living and non-living environment.
5th Grade
Camp Thunderbird
Camp Thunderbird is quickly approaching! Please be sure you have sent in your last payment as well as all of your medical forms. We are looking forward to this wonderful opportunity with our students and our wonderful chaperones. If you haven't purchased a rain poncho for your child, please do so. Maybe all of those ponchos will scare away any chance of rain!
Welcome Mrs. Carter!
We want to welcome Mrs. Carter who began 4th quarter with us, taking Mrs. Newman's place after her retirement. She is looking forward to learning all about our 5th graders and is especially excited about our over night field trip!Math
We are working on our Geometry Unit. We have been discussing Ordered Pairs, Line Graphs, Polygons, Triangles and Quadrilaterals. We've been talking about their attributes and different ways we can classify them. We have been working on writing our own code to design shapes, change their colors, and fill in the shapes. The kids are really enjoying this and it helps them to understand how people use math in real world jobs.
Science
We have started our Ecosystem Unit by focusing on Earth's major Biomes and their characteristics. Students will be creating their own app about the different Biomes. We will be studying food chains and food webs as we look at smaller ecosystems. Our culminating activity will be students creating their own ecosystem on a new found planet! Our last unit will be focused on the major systems of the Human Body and how they work together.
Social Studies
In social studies we are winding down our Presidents unit by completing our Presidential Tic-Tac-Toe project. Students will be creating their own website where they are the expert about the president they chose to research! We will be heading into our Westward Expansion PBL where students will be learning about the reasons for westward expansion. Students will study how technology evolved that changed how we transported people and goods. Students will be constructing their own wagon and testing to see if their wagon meets all the requirements for travel.
Reading
We are winding down with our last two units including Traditional Literature and Poetry/Figurative Language. We are also planning some book clubs with a focus on the genre of historical fiction. These will tie in what the students have been learning in social studies. Be sure to ask your child about these once we get started on them. Book clubs are always a favorite!