Tiger Insider
February 2023
January Terrific Tigers
Announcing our January Terrific Tigers representing KINDNESS! This month's deserving students are Valkyrie Shoup & Maverick Vetter (grade 6), Annie Burrows & Kaeden Duke (Grade 5), Lucinda McGowan & Westin Cooper (grade 4), Addyson Yoder & Joel Sabolsky (grade 3), Emma Williams & Henry Sullivan (grade 2), Lainey Leech & Austin Troyer (grade 1) and Lillyonna Young & Nicholas Anderson (kindergarten)! When you see them, please congratulate them on being such positive influences in our school family!
FEBRUARY'S PAWS-ITIVE CHARACTER TRAIT IS...
CITIZENSHIP
The PAWS-ITIVE Character Trait for the month of February is CITIZENSHIP. Good citizenship is defined as the sense of belonging to a community and having the rights and responsibilities that come with it.
Tiger Ticket Tally
WOW! We are really racking up the Tiger Points around here!
Kindergarten - 2,868
Grade 1 - 4,126
Grade 2 - 4,998
Grade 3 - 2,586
Grade 4 - 3,197
Grade 5 - 2,204
Grade 6 - 1,815
FOR A GRAND TOTAL OF 21,794 TIGER TICKETS!
Look At Us ROAR!
As of February 27, 2023, 382 out of out 438 students have received one or fewer behavior referrals for discipline. That means that 87% of our students at Maplewood Elementary were consistently doing the right thing! Our students are making great choices and learning quickly to avoid repeating bad ones.
Our annual MakerFaire will take place on Wednesday, March 22, 2023 from 6:00-7:30PM. This is an interactive showcase where students can show off projects that they have completed this year. Join us that night to see what kids can make!
CALLING ALL FUTURE TIGERS!
We have now opened kindergarten registration for the 2023-2024 school year! We request that if your child is eligible for kindergarten (turning 5 on or before August 31, 2023) that you complete the brief survey linked here. We appreciate your timely response to this matter as it helps us staff accordingly for the following school year. After you fill out the linked survey notifying us of an incoming kindergarten student, we will mail home a registration packet. Please contact us with any questions by calling (814)337-1659 or emailing MESOffice@penncrest.org
Kindergarten Registration/Transition Night
Registration for children entering Kindergarten for the 2023-2024 school year in PENNCREST School District will be held on Thursday, March 23, 2023 in each elementary school. Registration will be from 6-7:30PM, children should be present. Plan on staying the entire time as Title I Transitioning Night activities are scheduled for future Kindergarten students to participate in.
GRADE LEVEL NEWS
KINDERGARTEN
In the month of March, kindergarten is working hard with their super reading powers to read even bigger reading books. Writing is all about "how to" teach someone how to do something they are an expert at doing. In Phonics, we are working hard on our "vowel power" to help us with our decoding of words. We are working on "teen" numbers in Math. In science we are getting ready for the signs of spring and in Social studies we are talking about community members and their jobs in economy. Also, March 23rd is our kindergarten registration night!
GRADE 1
In Reading, the main focus is building on fluency and comprehension of text.
In Phonics, students are becoming “Word Builders''. They are focusing on vowel teams inside of words and are using them to build big words.
In Writing, students are beginning to learn about what opinion writing looks and sounds like. They will start to create their own opinion writing pieces soon!
In Math, students are continuing to learn about place value. They are also using the number chart to add and subtract by 10’s. Measurement will be later in the month.
GRADE 2
Second grade is working on place value, skip counting, and comparing three-digit numbers in math. We will also be starting three-digit addition and subtraction with and without regrouping. In reading, we will continue to spend the next month reading nonfiction books. Students are learning about the main idea and details in nonfiction, nonfiction text features, and connecting information across books. In phonics, we are continuing to review skills we have worked on this year to continue to work toward mastery. Second-grade writers are continuing to work on poetry. Students are learning about various types of poetry, writing with poet's eyes, and editing their writing.
GRADE 3
Reading- The students are continuing to work on their Character Studies Unit. They will be wrapping up this unit by finishing the novel, Winn Dixie.
Math- The students began Topic 7 which presents how to represent and interpret data. The students will be creating many different kinds of graphs as they work through this unit.
Writing- The students have been working on writing and presenting their opinion and persuasive writing pieces. They have been learning how to write a strong thesis and support their thesis with reasons and evidence. We will be wrapping up the opinion unit shortly and moving into our mini TDA Unit.
GRADE 4
4th Grade Science- We are working on Structures and Functions of organisms. Topics include internal and external structures of plants and animals. Ideas such as survival, reproduction and adaptations in different environments are studied. We are also covering DNA(Deoxyribonucleic Acid). We're learning about inherited family traits.
4th grade writing has just finished up their Literary Analysis Essay and are starting their unit on Notebooks to Projects. During this unit, students find something from their notebook and expand on it, culminating in a project at the end of the unit. We have students creating newspapers, a collection of poetry, and collections of short stories just to name a few. The students are loving this unit.
4th grade reading is gearing up to begin their new unit on poetry. Students are going to be learning all about figurative language along with reading and writing poetry.
In 4th grade math we have begun our fractions and decimals unit. This is a large part of our learning in 4th grade and we will be spending quite a lot of time making sure that we understand fractions and how they relate to decimals. This unit is a favorite of 4th graders every year!
GRADE 5
Math - After finishing adding and subtracting fractions, we are getting into adding and subtracting mixed numbers and then we will be moving on to multiplying and dividing fractions. Writing - In writing, we are working hard at researching our dream jobs to write our final informational pieces. We will then be preparing for our trip to BizTown. Fifth grade will also be working on how to write a Text Dependent Analysis (TDA) so that we can talk academically about our reading, while consistently working on improving our grammar knowledge to become stronger writers. Science - Space and the solar system are the focus in science class. Students are learning about the sun, planets, solar system, and Earth this unit. We will also be starting our projects (including glow-in-the-dark-displays) for the Maker Faire in March! Social Studies – We will practice main idea, text structure, and academic language when reading Informational texts. Reading – Students finished their book clubs. We will continue to read through fiction and nonfiction texts to practice various skills, vocabulary, reading responses, and comprehension. We will be gearing up for PSSA review and practice.
GRADE 6
In Language Arts, students finished/are finishing up a unit on Exploration and will soon begin a unit on Imagination. They will read, discuss, and respond to various texts that all explore the answer to the question, “Where can imagination lead?”
In Social Studies, students just finished a test on chapter 12, and a play called the “Suffrage Sisters.” Students did a phenomenal job acting out the events that led to the 19th Amendment, and had fun creating props and having a chance to be “theatrical.” Next, we will learn about key events related to the good times and hardships our nation faced during the 1920s and 1930s. We will learn about key people from World War I, Roaring Twenties, Great Depression, and New Deal eras.
In Math students just finished a unit on ratios, rates, and unit rates. Students did an awesome job comparing multiple items and finding which is the best buy based on the unit rate- they are ready to help with finding the best deals while grocery shopping! Next up is our unit on percents. Students will be converting between decimals, fractions, and percents. They will also be finding the percent of a number and finding the whole amount when given a part and the percent.
In Science students are finishing up a Ping Pong Pickup Challenge for National Engineering Week. The challenge was to design and build a device using nothing but paper, tape, paper clips and string that could pick up and retrieve a ball from the furthest distance possible. Next, the classes will learn the relationships between potential and kinetic energy and how it relates to motion and force.
UPCOMING DATES
Q3 Report Cards
The third nine weeks ends on Friday, March 31, 2023. Report cards will be available after April 17, 2023.
Kindergarten Registration
Registration for children entering Kindergarten for the 2023-2024 school year in PENNCREST School District will be held on Thursday, March 23, 2023 from 6-7:30PM.
NO SCHOOL
Students do not have school on Thursday, April 6 - Monday, April 10, 2023. Students will return to school on Tuesday, April 11, 2023.
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!
Click on the Facebook logo to "Like" our MES Facebook page to get updates right in your news feed. You will stay connected to news, events and important information straight from MES!
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!