Tiger Insider
December 2022
November Terrific Tigers
Announcing our November Terrific Tigers representing RESPECT! This month's deserving students are Gracie & Broden (grade 6), Elly & Colton (grade 5), Jada & Colton (grade 4), Penelope & Aiden (grade 3), Gray & Owen (grade 2), Nora & Brock (grade 1) and Teagan & Jayse (kindergarten)! When you see them, please congratulate them on being such positive influences in our school family!
DECEMBER'S PAWS-ITIVE CHARACTER TRAIT IS...
CARING
The PAWS-ITIVE Character Trait for the month of December is CARING. Caring people are polite, considerate, generous, affectionate, patient, understanding, loving, and forgiving.
Tiger Ticket Tally
WOW! We are really racking up the Tiger Points around here!
Kindergarten - 1,925
Grade 1 - 3,197
Grade 2 - 3,512
Grade 3 - 1,100
Grade 4 - 2,368
Grade 5 - 1,304
Grade 6 - 1,472
FOR A GRAND TOTAL OF 14,878 TIGER TICKETS!
Parent Teacher Conference Sign Up Links
Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held at Maplewood Elementary on Monday, January 16, 2023 from noon until 7:25PM. Please use the link below to find your child's teachers scheduling form. From there you can schedule a time with your child's teacher. If you have any trouble scheduling, please contact your child's teacher for assistance in obtaining a time slot.
We look forward to catching up with families on this day!
MAPLEWOOD MOMENTS
MOBILE AG LAB
The AG Lab visited MES last month! All classrooms participated in this mobile event! The Mobile Agriculture Education Science Lab is a 40-foot mobile classroom that travels across the state of Pennsylvania bringing an interactive field trip style experience directly to schools and students in grades K-8. The Mobile Ag Lab is equipped with over 30 STEM-based science experiments and lessons, a certified teacher, and all the supplies needed for a hands-on learning experience. Each science experiment is designed to emphasize a different aspect of agriculture, including Pennsylvania’s commodities, the environment, biotechnology, food and fiber. While on our lab, students work cooperatively to solve a problem as they form a hypothesis, collect data and draw conclusions while focusing on the scientific method. Each lesson on the Mobile Ag Lab focuses on increasing student knowledge on the importance of agriculture and its impact on their daily lives.
HOUR OF CODE
A HUGE SHOUT OUT to all the students and staff who participated in Hour of Code last week! It's never too early to learn how to code! The 'Hour of Code' is a worldwide initiative sponsored by Computer Science Education Week and Code.org to introduce millions of students to one hour of computer science and computer programming. Participating in the Hour of Code means doing a one hour computer science activityThe Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code", to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science.
GRADE LEVEL NEWS
KINDERGARTEN
The month of December is full of excitement in kindergarten. We have been reading gingerbread books, Christmas stories and the Polar Express is yet to come. We've been working on partner reading. Our phonics and writing co inside using letter sound in our writing. Math is all about numbers 0-10. Step 2 is dealing with feelings, how to control them and how to calm down from them. The kindergarten team wants you to enjoy the season-Merry Christmas!
GRADE 1
In Reading, students are studying words closely and learning important strategies to solve unfamiliar words while reading. They are learning how to break apart words into parts and blend them back together.
For phonics, students are learning about words with the "silent e", vowel teams, contractions, and compound words. For writing, students are finishing up writing "How To" Books.
In math this month, students are continuing to build strategies for addition and subtraction, finding unknown numbers in equations, and graphing/interpreting data.
GRADE 2
Second-grade readers are working on building fluency and stamina while reading longer books. They are also thinking about the mood of the story and talking like the characters. In phonics, students are working on breaking words apart and using strategies to spell longer words. Second-grade writers are writing about their reading. Students are writing letters to others about characters and favorite parts in the books that they are reading. In math, we will be wrapping up two-digit addition and subtraction and will start time and money after the holiday break.
GRADE 3
Reading and Writing- The students have been working on reading nonfiction texts during reading and during writing they have been writing informational writing pieces. Many of the students used their reading time to research ideas for their writing topics. The classes will be celebrating their final informational writing pieces next week.
Math- The students just completed their unit on how to fluently add and subtract within 1,000. They learned some new strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems. They also are working on how to solve multi-step story problems that involve higher level thinking skills.
Second Step- The students are learning how to be problem solvers when working in groups.
GRADE 4
In writing, we are finishing up our personal and persuasive essays, getting ready to move into writing a Literary Essay, where students will write essays in which they support claims and incorporate evidence from their readings.
In reading, we are working on our non-fiction unit. In this unit, students have been tasked with reading nonfiction texts for part of their independent reading and are working on a research project on extreme weather.
In math, we are finishing up 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication. We have introduced division so that they have a background in the procedure, but will be moving on to dividing larger numbers and also by 2-digit divisors. This will take a while for the students to completely understand the algorithm and how to solve the problems. They definitely need to use their multiplication facts and table to help them along the way.
4th Grade Social Studies-We are learning about the five major regions of the United States along with the climate and natural resources of each region. We are also comparing and contrasting the regions. They include the Northeast...Hello Pennsylvania. The Southeast...Florida- is about 60 degrees Fahrenheit this time of year. The Southwest...It's dry in the Arizona desert region. The West...Welcome Rocky Mountains! Finally, the Midwest...Thank you farmers!!
GRADE 5
*Our readers are in nonfiction now and practicing skills associated with cause and effect, text features, and multiple and complex main ideas within text.
*In science we are learning about Earth’s renewable and nonrenewable resources, as well as the 3 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
*In social studies, we have been learning about early explorers, and will continue on to colonization. The students had fun during STEM day ‘building’ ships. The goal was to have the ship float, sail, and carry 25 “passengers”. Most were very successful!
*In writing, we are working on Journalism pieces, and we are also working on grammar practice. Then we’ll continue on to Literary essays.
* In math we are finishing up multiplication of whole numbers and starting multiplication of decimals using models and a variety of strategies.
GRADE 6
In Reading and Writing, students will continue to work through the “Animal Allies” unit, reading about how animals and people form special bonds and can learn from one another. In Math we will continue working on Algebraic concepts. Students will be writing and evaluating numerical and algebraic expressions. They will use Order of Operations and Distributive Property to evaluate the expressions. Students wrapped up their learning about Homesteaders and Sodbusters in Social Studies by creating "sod" homes in small groups. They had a lot of fun designing them and sharing them with the class. We are beginning to learn about Industry and Immigration, and how new inventions and the culture of immigrants changed our nation. Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, and Henry Ford are just a few of the inventors we will learn about these next couple of weeks. In Science, the students are dissecting owl pellets. After investigating the contents, they will use a dichotomous key to identify what the owl ate and use the bones to reconstruct the animal's skeletal structure. Our 6th graders will also be participating in the Hour of Code. We will be investigating the concepts of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and how AI Robots can be used to solve world problems. 6th grade will also be visiting the Crawford County Career and Technical Center on December 15th. Students will learn more about the programs offered in high school.
TECHNOLOGY
Kindergarten: Students in Kindergarten have been working on computer literacy and cross-curricular skills including letter, number, and shape identification. This month we are focusing on mathematical skills such as number order, quantity discrimination, and sorting activities using the computer.
1st Grade: Students in first grade wrapped up their coding unit last month and began computer literacy in the big computer lab in December! They are learning how to use the keyboard, type snap words, use the keyboard arrows to solve maze expeditions, pixel art, math skills- such as greater than/less than, and practicing alphabetical order.
2nd Grade: 2nd graders wrapped up their coding unit and began exploring other technologies to apply their skills! One of those are my Osmo iPads. Students have been practicing how to apply mathematical problem solving skills through Osmo's tangram program.
3rd-6th Grade: Students in 3rd-6th grades are happily coding and building their knowledge through their individualized Code.org courses. We will be wrapping up these courses before Christmas. When they return from break, they will hit the ground running by applying those skills on real-life robots!
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
MES P.E. classes will be looking forward to January, February, and lots of snow. Our classes will spend some time in the snow. When it’s not snowing, we will learn how to stay active inside with some recreation games. LET IT SNOW!
UPCOMING DATES
Q2 Report Cards
The second nine weeks ends on Thursday, January 26, 2023. Report cards will be available after February 6, 2023.
NO SCHOOL
Thursday, December 22, 2022 - Sunday, January 1, 2023. They are holiday breaks for students and staff. Students also do not have school on Monday, January 23, 2023. It is a Teacher Work Day.
Conference Day
Parent-Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Monday, January 16, 2023 from noon - 7:25PM. Scheduling links are available by clicking here.
2022-2023 DISTRICT CALENDAR
STAY CONNECTED
Schoology for Parents
We are excited to provide parents/guardians access to Schoology, our new Learning Management System (LMS)! As a parent/guardian, you will find this platform to be an essential source of information, keeping you up to date about your student's grades, attendance, and assignments.
NOTE: Students should have brought home an Access Code which parents/guardians must use in order to link that student to your Schoology account. The code can be used multiple times by each parent/guardian who need access to that student. If you did not receive an access code, please contact your building school secretary.
To create a Schoology account, go to https://app.schoology.com/register.php?type=parent and enter in the Access Code and hit "Continue". Fill in your first name, last name, email/username, and password to create your Schoology account. Check the "By clicking Register, you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use" box and click "Register". You should then be logged into Schoology - to view your student's information, click on your name in the upper right corner and click on your student's name to view their information.
Once you have created your Schoology account and linked your student(s), you will be able to login to Schoology by visiting: https://app.schoology.com/login
School Messenger
Make sure that you are signed up for SchoolMessenger to receive important school updates related to school closures, announcements and important upcoming events. Go to this link and sign up today!
Digital Backpack
Worried that a note from school didn't make it home? Check out our Digital Backpack to see if you've missed any announcements, news or opportunities!
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WEBSITE
Check out our building website for upcoming events, news, information, lunch menu and much, much more!
YOUTUBE
Click on the YouTube channel to visit our YouTube channel. To get notified each time a new video is uploaded, hit the subscribe button!
Our Students ROAR!
We LOVE having the opportunity to help our students succeed and we're very proud of them for repeatedly making the right choices. We hope you are as excited as we are about the great work that the students have been doing. Our recent SWPBiS evaluation confirms what we already know..... MES is PAWS-itively the best!