Campus News

Lower Division Newsletter

September 11, 2009

Junior Kindergarten

Language Arts

Our theme will be “My Family, My Community” with a focus on neighbors. We will learn the
nursery rhyme, “The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe” and “Mary, Mary Quite Contrary.” We
will meet our new Alpha friends for the letter “M” and “R.” Our High Frequency Words (HFW)
will continue to be “I” and “See.”
In handwriting (HWT), we will practice making the
letters “F” and “E”.

Social Studies

Our virtue for September is “Goodness.” We will

continue to discuss the ways families are alike,
different, and unique and talk about our neighbors
and community.

Science

We will discuss external and internal body parts and

label the different parts on our traced bodies.

Math

We will work on one-to-one correspondence with

sets of objects. The children will count by ones, build
concrete sets to five, and match a number to a set. They will also learn ordinal numbers
from first to fifth.

Senior Kindergarten

Language Arts

Students will continue to review beginning sounds, ending sounds, rhyming words, and sight
words. Please go over all the sight words
in your take home folder every night.
Students will begin to locate and identify
letters and words all around the room.
We have also started working on the
following word families: _at, -an, -am,
and –all. Students will review long and
short vowel patterns for the letter Aa and
be introduced to the letter Ee. In
handwriting, the students will continue to
focus on pencil grip, letter formation, and
spacing. The children are really working
hard with their lower case letters.
Journal writing will emphasize the trait of Ideas. Please feel free to review color words and
number words to ten.

Science

The focus will be on how apples grow and where they come from through beginning map
skills and the story of Johnny Appleseed.

Math

Calendar math will focus on number sense to 20, nonstandard units of measurement,
months, days of the week, odd/even numbers, ABB/ABC patterns, number sense, problem
solving skills, and seasonal glyphs.

Virtues

Students will role play Goodness – children will begin to show awareness of feelings of
others.

Grade 1

Language Arts

In the next two weeks our reading strategies will focus on

summarizing what we have read, identifying story elements (such as
main character, setting, beginning, middle, and end), and
sequencing events. Our phonics and spelling skills will focus on final
consonant blends ct, ft, nt, mp, if, and lk. Our writing will continue to
focus on writing complete sentences, applying the appropriate use of
capitals and punctuation, making lists, and writing another class
story.

Social Studies

We continue to study map skills and finish our Me on the Map

books. Students will have the opportunity to create a map of their
bedroom which will include a map key and symbols.

Science

We continue to monitor September’s weather and record our findings

on a weather calendar each day. Students will learn about the water
cycle, how air travels, and temperature.

Math

We will work on writing addition and subtraction sentences, using tally mark to read a graph,
and using pictographs and bar graphs. Please practice the following math vocabulary with
your child at home:
tally, pictograph, bar graph, tally chart, greater than, less than, and equal to
Addition Clue words: in all, sum, add, plus
Grade 2
Thank you for coming to Parent Night. The children
were anxious to have you come to the room and look
around. We are looking forward to a great school year.
We appreciate your support and thank you for sharing
your children with us.

Language Arts

We will continue our reading theme “Silly Stories”

through fiction and nonfiction selections. As we read
these selections we will predict/infer, identify cause and
effect, and distinguish between fantasy and realism.
Our phonics and spelling skills focus will be on long
vowels a and i with the CVCe pattern and a review of
short vowels. Our writing focus will be on developing a
character sketch, adding details, writing dates, and
story writing. Our grammar focus will include
identifying sentences, naming parts of sentences, and identifying action parts of sentences.

Social Studies

We will continue to focus on the concept of a community, and compare old and new
communities. We will begin our study of Native Americans.

Science

We have enjoyed our study of insects. We even made models of the insects we studied. Our
butterfly larvae should arrive at anytime, and we are excited to be observing the upcoming
transformations as we study “The Life Cycle of Butterflies.” We will be watching them grow,
shed their skin, transform into a chrysalis, and emerge as a Painted Lady butterfly. We will
also be working and studying insects in our Second Grade Butterfly Garden.

Math

We have been practicing ways to do addition facts: count on to add, use double facts, add
ten, make ten to add, and add three numbers. We will begin to focus on ways to do
subtraction facts: count back to subtract, subtract to compare, use addition to subtract, and
look at fact families. The students will continue to practice problem solving skills by
choosing a strategy to solve problems. Please practice basic addition math facts for quick
computation.

Grade 3
Language Arts

We continue to work on comprehension and fluency with activities like Word Wall, Guess the
Covered Word, and making words. We are also learning to talk through the text by asking
questions and finding answers, making and checking predictions, retelling to make sure we
understand, and deciphering unknown words by using context. Please be sure to have your
child read, or read with your child, at least ten minutes each evening.
Third grade is learning how to
write a friendly letter. We are also
using adjectives to add lots of
interesting detail to our writing.
We are asking that each student
bring in a picture of something or
someone they love. They will use
that picture to write a descriptive
piece. The picture will be returned
unaltered. Thank you for helping
your child to remember to bring in
the picture by Monday, September
14th.

Social Studies

We continue to develop mapping

skills that help students locate
continents and countries. Students
will be challenged to use
vocabulary related to continents, lines of longitude and latitude, and cardinal directions
when explaining the geographic location of a particular place.

Science

Did you hear about the fertilizer for our garden? Within the next two weeks we will take our
trip to Home Depot and plant our garden. It is definitely an exciting time! Our indoor class
time will be focused on planting, observing, and recording the growth of our Wisconsin Fast
Seeds.

Math

Place value is a challenging concept with which to begin the year, but third grade is
successfully meeting the challenge. We have been working on steps and strategies to help
students work on word problems independently. Mrs. Hansen’s class will have their chapter
test on Wednesday, September 16th. A study guide went home today in the Friday Folder. It
has a review of all concepts your child will need to know for the upcoming test. It is provided
for your convenience to help your child
feel confident he or she is ready. The
pages in the study guide do not need to
be turned in for grading. We will be
moving on to Chapter 2 which covers
comparing, ordering and rounding
numbers.

Grade 4
Language Arts

We have already begun typing our

personal narrative essays on the laptop
computers. Students will learn to use
spell check as an editing tool as they
revise their writing. The students now
own the “keys to writing success” and
will use the 6 traits of writing as they refine their first published work. Were you impressed
by their amazing Haiku poetry and illustrations on Parent Night? The students enjoyed
taking a moment to enjoy the wonderful miracles in nature right in our own beautiful garden
as they gained inspiration for their poetry. Our next endeavor for writing will be sentences.
We will explore the types of sentences, imperatives, conjunctions, run-ons, and compound
sentences. In reading, we will be challenging the students to infer meaning from text and
make generalizations. In addition, we will be working on research strategies to include using
a dictionary, taking notes, outlining and summarizing.

Social Studies

We have begun our study of the United States! The students are learning to locate places
on a map using latitude and longitude coordinates. They will culminate their knowledge of
landforms with a cookie landform activity. Next, we will focus on our climate.

Science

We will continue our study of land and water as we explore streams and how they form and
study run off and erosion. The students were very much engaged in their stream table
activities as they witnessed the effects of rain in small and large amounts. Did you know
that they actually created a model of the water cycle and were able to witness warm water
vaporize and condense, then fall back to the land as precipitation? They are amazing!

Math

We are working with comparing and ordering money. Money is a difficult concept and we are
spending ample time making sure that students have a firm foundation of understanding.
We will continue with making change, problem solving and logical reasoning. The students
did a terrific job on their Chapter 1 tests!

Did
You

Know….
Third graders have begun getting their garden ready for the fall planting. We can’t wait to
see what this harvest brings! We have never been disappointed with the riches that come
from this garden.
Upcoming Events…..
September 15, 2009
Picture taking – dress uniforms

September 16, 2009

Grade 3 assembly – dress uniforms

September 18, 2009

JK In-house field trip - Germaine the Germ Thing – 9:00 a.m.

September 23, 2009

Grade 2 hosts assembly – dress uniforms – 2:30 p.m.
Giraffe Club candidates for office present speeches during Grade 2 assembly

September 24, 2009

Day of Manners – dress uniforms
JK field trip to McCormick Campus – 8:30 a.m.
Giraffe Club Officer elections

September 28, 2009

No school – Yom Kippur

October 2, 2009
JK and SK bake a birthday cake with seniors
October 8, 2009
First quarter ends
Founders’ Day assembly

October 9, 2009
No classes – Teachers’ Professional Day

JK had a great start to the year!