Dear Cayuga Families,

I hope this newsletter finds you all happy, healthy and enjoying this fall season! November is well underway and is a great time of year to be thankful for all we have, and especially, our Veterans! On November 10th we held a breakfast and a parade for Veteran loved ones in our community. These special guests seemed to be very appreciative and it was a great opportunity for our children to say "Thank you!" In October we enjoyed informative and exciting visits from the Lake Ronkonkoma Fire Department - we remain grateful for all these volunteers do as well!

I am also very thankful for this community. I do strongly believe that we are all fortunate to call Cayuga home. We have awesome kids, families and staff who consistently work together to raise and educate happy, positive, hard-working, respectful, and empathic members of society. I am regularly reminded of this by what I see happen here each day!

In other relevant news, Cayuga alum Joe Scally is a professional soccer player and has been called up to play for Team USA in the upcoming FIFA World Cup! Please join us in wishing Joe and USA good luck!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and healthy Thanksgiving with family and friends. Please know that I am always available to answer any questions you may have. You can feel free to call the office at (631) 471-1800 or email me at mwells@sachem.edu at any time.

Sincerely,

Matthew Wells

Principal

We had a great October filled with amazing pumpkins, awesome trunks, and lots of candy at our fall festival. Our teachers all took a chance and battled the odds to win their classes some treats at the bookfair. Ms. Rosenman was our big winner while Mr. Sussman and Mrs Shutka had to earn their treats by completing a left over trick which they did with smiles. Coming up we have our Miss Chocolate order pick ups and Zingo which is always a great night filled with laughs and prizes. Please keep your eye out for those dates and times.

As we sailed into October, we learned about Christopher Columbus and his voyage to the Bahamas! Don’t forget, in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. In math, we explored numbers 6 to 10. The children sorted and counted objects in groups to 10 and learned how to form these numbers. In science, we have been exploring wind speed, cloud cover, precipitation and temperature as we observe the weather each day. During reading and writing workshops, we have been noticing how authors and illustrators use their words and pictures to tell a story. We want to thank the Ronkonkoma Fire Department for coming in to teach about fire safety!

Our classes have been experimenting within our Lights and Sounds Science unit. We plucked rubber bands on shoebox guitars and created drums to hear vibrations. In math, our classes enjoyed playing math games to study Ways to Make 10 and Double Facts. We are analyzing math story problems to uncover missing parts and whole numbers. The children loved learning about Fire Safety with the visit from the Fire Department. We had exciting class parties to celebrate Halloween!

Second grade had the opportunity to visit Sunken Meadow State Park. We learned about the three different types of rocks, engaged in hands-on activities, and even learned about plants and animals which live in that water! We can't wait to continue being scientists in the classroom.

Third grade students incorporated SEL and fall festivities into their writing this month! Students wrote descriptive paragraphs about a fall-themed character to express a certain emotion. The students shared their work with partners and did a great job guessing each emotion! Their writing pieces are all matched with illustrated crafts to match their writing and displayed in the hallway.

Fourth graders developed a deeper understanding of place value and adding and subtracting numbers up to the millions. We learned that accuracy is important. Problem solving skills are coming along. In fourth grade, tape diagrams are used to model a word problem providing a visual representation of our math thinking. Brush up on those multiplication facts, we are about to jump into Module 3! Students have also explored and enhanced their geography skills. Mrs. Schindler shared some great strategies for goal setting and communication during our Too Good For Drugs and Violence program. We all had an amazing time at the Museum of Natural History. It was a day filled with exploration, learning, and life-long memories.

Cayuga’s 5th Grade is hard at work in November! We have focused on geography and map skills with classes completing maps of the entire North American Continent. In Science some classes are working on exploring Matter while others prepare to investigate Outer Space! Currently we are building our math skills with multi-digit operations and problem solving. Be sure to help us out by practicing math facts at home. All of us are excited about the fiction Halloween writing we have done and we have begun to turn our attention to nonfiction essays and Document Based Question responses. We are very excited to return to field trips this month, beginning with our grade going to the Cradle of Aviation Museum. A special thanks to the Veterans who we honor this month for their service. Cayuga’s 5th grade teachers want to wish all of the families from Cayuga a Happy Thanksgiving and we look forward to all the upcoming winter holidays too!