February Newsletter
News You Can Use
A Note From Mr. McCarthy
Show P.R. I.D.E. by Being Respectful, Responsible, and Safe
On January 8th, K-5 students attended an anti-bullying/character education assembly to remind students about our character education expectations. To date this year, the kids have done a great job. However, the long winter months tend to be the most difficult time for students. We are asking parents to help us this year by reminding students about how they can show PRIDE by being Respectful, Responsible, and Safe while at school. As a staff, we will continue to recognize students who make positive choices with PRIDE Shout Out awards. You can help to build these positive character traits by reviewing expectations with your children at home. Simple reminders can go a long way in providing students with a consistent message. We tend to find that the majority of our issues occur in non-academic situations where the adult to student ratio is high. Below are a few general rules for these areas.
Bus Rules:
· Stay seated until arriving at your destination
· Talk with the student(s) in your seat (no yelling)
· No eating or drinking
· Keep hands and feet to yourself
Cafeteria Rules
· Stay seated until an adult gives you permission to move around
· Talk with students at your table (no yelling)
· Clean up your area
· Stop talking immediately when lights are turned off
If students have a problem in one of these locations, they should report it to driver, monitor, teacher and/or the principal. Our goal is to create an atmosphere where all students feel safe and respected.
UPK and Pre-K
It has been a productive start to the New Year! Our students are working on their speaker and audience skills during our weekly share time. We are also working hard to build our letter/sound knowledge through stories, play and center activities.
Winter has been a fun topic to learn about. We have discussed winter weather, our favorite activities outside, and what we wear to stay warm! We have also learned about penguins and polar bears!
Be sure to snuggle up and stay warm! We'll be looking forward to participating in friendship fun and Valentine's Day activities coming this month!
Kindergarten
First Grade
February has been an exciting month for first grade students. We began the month by learning about Groundhog’s Day. The children listened to stories and poems about the groundhog legend. Most students’ predicted that he would see his shadow.
We celebrated Valentine’s Day in our class. It was a wonderful day to tell each other how much we care. The children read books about Valentine’s Day and did some fun Valentine’s projects. They shared valentines with each other during our Valentine’s Day party.
In math, we are comparing numbers using terms such as greater than and less then. We are also learning about place value – tens and ones. Through the teaching of place value, we introduce money- the dime and penny. Even while learning all these new things, we still haven’t left addition and subtraction practice behind. We need to keep practicing those facts until they become automatic.
During our ELA time our focus has been on Nonfiction. Students are reading and listening to a variety of Nonfiction books and picking out the VIP (very important points). Students have also been on the lookout for different text features such as index, contents, maps, captions, and maps. We have begun to write our own Nonfiction book on a variety of topics. Students will include many of the text features we have been talking about.
As you can tell February was a month filled with all sorts of interesting learning activities. Now we are trying to stay warm as wait for spring and for that lucky leprechaun to come.
Second Grade
Our third marking period is under way and our second graders have been working very hard. We started off January learning about resolutions or goals. Each student came up with resolutions for the New Year. They also wrote about two ways they could be a better student, one thing they would like to stop doing, one person in class they would like to get to know better and eight acts of kindness they could do in 2018.
We connected writing and Social Studies together this month. Your child learned about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his contributions to our country. Our students learned about his dream to have everyone treated equally and then they wrote about a dream or dream they have for their future. Please ask your child what he or she dreams of. They also described MLK, Jr. and the type of person he was. Some of the words they used to describe him were kind, peaceful, determined, hardworking, and brave. They chose three of the words and gave evidence or proof to go with the character trait.
Your child also learned about three different types of ending punctuation. They learned the difference between asking, telling and exclamatory sentences and how to write each type. They have started to use all three types of punctuation in all of their writing assignments and they will continue to be asked to use them in their written work for the rest of the year.
In math, we continued to move forward with our addition unit. We moved onto adding two digit numbers, adding multiples of ten, adding two digit numbers and one digit numbers. We have been practicing addition problem strategies such as counting up, breaking the number into tens and ones, drawing pictures, and using a hundreds chart. We continue to work on word problems, place value, graphing and single digit addition in our math centers. We have also been focusing on learning our addition math facts in January. We have been taking a two minute timed test each day to build our math fact fluency. We have already seen improvement with their knowledge of their facts and they seem to enjoy challenging themselves.
We are continuing to focus on comprehension in our guided reading groups. The beginning of each week starts with a read aloud and learning about and practicing the strategy together. This month we focused on fiction and a strategy called VIP or very important parts. The students find the key words from the story based on the setting, characters, actions, events, and feelings of the characters. After coming up with key words for the beginning, middle and end of the story, they use the words to write a summary with complete sentences.
Please encourage your child to wear boots, hats, and gloves or mittens to school each day. We like to go out for recess even in the winter. Thank you for your continued support!
Third Grade
It’s hard to believe we are wrapping up the first half of the school year. At the end of January, we did a fun, hands-on unit on measurement where students learned the differences between grams and kilograms and milliliters and liters. Students also learned basic differences between standard and metric measurement and about various types of scales and balances. Comparing the mass of different items and the capacity of various containers is always fun for the students.
We will be starting our in-depth study of fractions as we enter the second half of the year! We begin this unit discussing the differences between numerator and denominator, learning about parts of a whole and working with unit fractions, which are one fractional part of an object. There are infinite real-life applications with fractions. Please encourage your child to identify, name and solve problems with fractions around the house. Making eggs for breakfast? What fraction of eggs are in the pan? What fraction were scrambled? What fraction are missing from the carton? As students become more involved in this unit, we will work on using number lines to compare fractions and to identify and find equivalent fractions.
Even though we have moved past our multiplication and division units, we will continue to work on solving problems involving all operations. Timed multiplication and division assessments will continue a few times each week to monitor progress. Therefore, students should still be practicing math facts regularly.
In English Language Arts, students have continued to explore and analyze fictional texts. We have been reviewing story elements (characters, setting, problem and solution) in class. Next, we will take a closer look at characters and explore how they change over time. We will also focus on the lessons characters learn.
February break is just around the corner. Please be on the lookout for a short math and reading comprehension packet. These packets will help students maintain their skills. After break we will begin our formal preparation for the upcoming state exams. Thank you for your continued support!
Fourth Grade
Our fantastic fourth graders continue to give their best effort in all subject areas. In social studies, we are working on our journey through Colonial America by learning about the colonist, specifically how trades in the time period allowed the colonist to flourish.
In Math, we have wrapped up our multiplication and division units. Now, we have headed into the world of fractions. We still are perfecting our word problem skills by practicing multiple strategies to help us with answer these problems correctly. Our young scientists have been working on experiments that have helped them understand how plants and animals survive in the world we live in. We have explored how their senses allow for them to adapt to the environment around them as it changes. Our ELA studies have now got us thinking beyond the text to practice inferencing and synthesizing information. As always, we are working on becoming better readers and writers in our guided reading groups by focusing on vocabulary and comprehension with books at each student’s particular level.
We would like to stress the importance of checking your students’ planner each night for assignments or special notes that go home. The planner is a great spot for home-to-school communication. Please continue to have your student read at least 20 minutes per night as well as practice their math facts for 10 minutes. This is a great opportunity for all the family members to be involved in your student’s education!
The fourth grade teachers would like to thank you for all of your continued support throughout the remainder of the school year!
Fifth Grade
Our 5th graders have taken full advantage of the beautiful weather! Although we keep them busy with learning, we do believe in the importance of allowing them time to run around and get fresh air.
In Math, the study of decimals has come to a close. Students have learned a great deal about how to represent decimals, and how to multiply and divide decimals. Although this was one of the hardest math units we have studied so far, the students put forth their best effort in completing classwork and homework assignments. In the coming month, we will be working on fractions. We will learn how to make equivalent fractions, simplify fractions, add/subtract and multiply/divide fractions. Please encourage your child to continue to practice their basic multiplication facts.
In ELA, 5th graders built new reading skills and learned about the process scientists use to conduct research in the natural world. They compared and contrasted the work of rainforest scientists while navigating the terrain of various forms of informational text (articles, interviews, videos). Students read various texts which aided with increasing fluency when reading as well as compared informational text. We also demonstrated skills learned for determining the meaning of new vocabulary and the main ideas in informational text. Our 5th graders continue to become stronger with close reading strategies and constructed responses. In writing, we have combined our strategy of “stoplight paragraphing” and RACE to strengthen our skills with writing short response answers. This has been intertwined in our study about the rainforest. We are progressing well with this strategy and will be moving on to extended responses during the month. This includes writing several paragraphs and increasing their writing stamina.
Please support your child’s learning by encouraging them to spend time on iReady each night. They are allowed to bring home their Chromebooks for this reason. As the year progresses, assignments will be added in which they may complete on their Chromebooks. Please remind your child the importance of completing homework assignments on time and studying for test and quizzes. These work habits will be beneficial for your child in the future.
Thanks for allowing your child to learn with us!
A Note From The Nurse
It’s the time of year that there is lots of illness spreading including the flu. Although widespread flu activity occurs every year, the timing, severity, and duration of it depend on many factors, including which flu viruses are spreading, the number of people who are susceptible to the circulating flu viruses, and how similar vaccine viruses are to the flu viruses that are causing illness. The timing of flu can vary from season to season. In the United States, seasonal flu activity most commonly peaks between December and March, but flu viruses can cause illness from early October to late May. Flu viruses are thought to spread mainly from person to person through coughs and sneezes of infected people. Less often, a person also might get the flu by touching a surface or object that has flu virus on it and then touching their own mouth, eyes, or nose.
Many respiratory infections spread from person to person and cause symptoms similar to those of flu. Therefore, the nonpharmaceutical recommendations in the attached document might help reduce the spread of not only flu, but also respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), rhinovirus, enterovirus D68 and other viruses and bacteria that can cause illness.
Friendly Reminders from the health office…..
Please remember if your child has the following symptoms, be sure to keep them home….
*Fever of 100° (37.8° C) or greater
*Cough
*Vomiting
*Diarrhea
*Sore Throat
*Runny Nose
Children must be fever-free without the use of fever-reducing medicines such as Tylenol (acetaminophen) or Advil (ibuprofen) for 24 hours before returning to school. If your child develops a fever at school greater than 100°, he/she will be sent home. Please keep your phone numbers updated with the school as changes occur. Children also need to be vomit free for 24 hours prior to returning to school.
Students entering kindergarten or pre-kindergarten must have immunizations up-to-date and a physical completed before entry in September 2018. Students entering 2nd and 4th grades in September 2018 must have a physical either by their own physician or conducted here during the school year. Health certificates are required for all students entering UPK, kindergarten, 2nd and 4th grades in 2018.
PLEASE check your child’s head on a weekly basis for any signs of head lice. It is much easier to eliminate when detected early. If you have any questions or concerns or are looking for more information please call our office.
Red Jacket Elementary CSD
Email: Jeffrey.McCarthy@redjacket.org
Website: http://www.redjacket.org/
Location: 1506 State Route 21, Shortsville, NY, United States
Phone: (585) 289-9647
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Red-Jacket-Elementary-134458507214606/