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L. Watkis (Assistant Principal)

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L. Watkis (Assistant Principal)

In person teachers will post a Sign-Up Genius Monday October 4, 2021, for parents to sign up for a virtual parent teacher conference. We have time slots available throughout the week. Parents will meet all three teachers to discuss student progress. We will confirm all parent meetings after signing up and provide the Zoom link for conferences. Ms. Paviagnano will provide her own method for signing up for conferences. Reading: This week we read our first story in our new textbooks “Reaching for the Moon.” In the text the students monitored their inner conversations as we read the text closely. Next week we will begin to explore a new text. This text “Rare Treasures” students will continue to read closely to discover the main idea and support it while referring to details in the text. Students will also be asked to make inferences about information that is not explicitly stated. Monthly reading homework calendar begins on Monday October 4, 2021. Students will now have weekly spelling word practice writing, and are also expected to read or complete at least two IXL lessons Monday-Friday. Math: Happy Friday! This week, scholars have continued to understand the structure of whole numbers. We spent some time reviewing place values and have briefly discussed rounding whole numbers. Next week, we will enter the second lesson series in the unit. We will use our place value understanding to round multi-digit whole numbers to any place value and apply this to addition of multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm. Science: This week students looked at adaptations of animals by combining the features of three different animals. The students use molding clay to create their new animal creations. Next week students will explore how animal adaptations help them to survive in various environments.

Best, Fourth Grade Team

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L. Watkis (Assistant Principal)

2nd Grade Greatness! Salutations Stupendous Second Graders! Yet another week of instruction has passed and our amazing second graders continue to exceed expectations and learn new things about ourselves and the world around us! Hopefully, everyone is taking advantage of the 3-day weekend to relax and refill so we can hit the ground running when we return on Monday! Just a reminder that students should be bringing their chromebooks to and from school each day in the event that our class is quarantined and we need to revert to virtual learning. On Tuesday and Wednesday this upcoming week, we will be taking the MAP Fluency test which requires students to read to their computer. Please send students to school with headphones with a microphone or reach out to Mr. Rowland if you don’t have any. Thank you to all of our parents and guardians who have been partnering with us this year! Keep up the great communication and keep an eye open on your Class Dojo Class Story for an upcoming event announcement!!!! Social Studies: This week in Social Studies we learned about the rights that we have as citizens and the document that protects them known as the Bill of Rights. Students held a class discussion about what rights were the most important to them. We also talked about voting rights and having a class presidential election. The textbook pages that we used were pages 20 to 23 and answered the questions for an exit activity. Our objective was: Students will identify and describe the rights that citizens have in the United States. Next week we will begin Lesson 3 (We Follow Rules and Laws) The objective for this lesson is: Students will identify rules and laws and describe their purpose in school, community, and society. We will work in the textbook on pages 24 to 27. Students will exit this lesson with a Kahoot game on Friday October 8th. The weekly Standards will be: D2.Civ.1.K-2-Describe roles and responsibilities of people in authority. D2.Civ.3.K-2-Explain the need and purposes of rules in various settings inside and outside of school. In our Hispanic Heritage lessons, Students learned all about legends and the way that they impact our creative thinking and logic skills. Science: This week in Science we reviewed the seasons and the change in the weather. We are still currently bridging the gap between Science from first grade and making the connections to second grade. We are starting a new module on Earth Science. Our objective is: Students will investigate patterns of where water is found on Earth. Students will learn about oceans, rivers, lakes, and ponds as well as learning that water can be found on Earth as liquid water or solid ice. Students will also develop a model, such as a map, that includes land as well as bodies of water. The weekly Standards will be: 2-ESS2-3 Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid. 2-ESS2-3.1.a.ii Obtaining information:Students use books and other reliable media as sources for scientific information to answer scientific questions about the idea that water can be found on Earth as liquid water or solid ice (e.g., a frozen pond, liquid pond, frozen lake). Health: This week in Health students were working through feelings about stress. The objective was Students will discover the meaning of stress and find positive ways to cope with the stress that adjustments of returning to school in person has caused them. This month for October, we will continue to focus on our mental health. The objectives for this month will be: 1(a) - Mental & Emotional Health 7.0 - Self - Management Students will explain the major parts of the brain and how the brain works as a control center for your body. Students will develop respect for the functions of the brain. Students will practice using different functions controlled by the brain. Students will analyze the different ways the brain handles the needs of the body. Reading: This week in reading, we will be taking our final round of diagnostic tests so that we can make data-driven decisions in our reading classes and in planning for instruction. This test is going to be the MAP Fluency test and will be replacing the DRA county-wide. For this assessment, students will need their headsets with a microphone, so if you have this, please send it in with your child on TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY this week for testing. I have a few extra pairs, but not enough for every student. For instruction, we will resume our rigorous instruction through the Wonders curriculum with Week 3. We will be doing an abbreviated week because of testing, so we will be doing an interactive read aloud of My Partner and Friend, a close read of Finding Cal, and an in-depth look at Not Norman; A Goldfish Story by Kelly Bennett. Our focuses for this week are asking and answering questions, context clues (for vocabulary words), and character, setting, and events. The genre focus for this week is Fiction and we will be looking at sentence subjects in grammar. The essential question is “How can a pet be an important friend?” Vocabulary words: decide different friendship glance proper relationship stares trade Spelling words: grass trips crack still west mask clap plans milk bell This week’s standards: RL.2.3- Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges. RL.2.7- Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot. L.2.4a- Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. Math: This week in math, we are continuing to explore topic 2.1. In this unit, we are focusing on MD Common Core Standards 2.OA.2, 2.OA.3, 2.OA.4, and 2.MD.8. Last week, we spent time reviewing equal groups and what makes a number even or odd. We also practiced writing repeated addition sentences to prepare us for 3rd-grade multiplication. We also began sorting coins by their names, values, and physical attributes. This week, students will recognize that groups of 10 pennies can be exchanged for dimes and how this translates to base ten blocks (ones and tens), the hundred chart, and also a number line. Skip counting has become a part of our regular routine. Students should know, now, how to skip count by 10 and have begun skip counting by 5. If your scholar is not confident YET in skip counting, please take a few minutes each day to practice at home. Ways to support learning at home: - Coin games- Take turns exchanging smaller coins for bigger coins. Emphasize that the amount of coins is not as important as the value of coins. - Talk about money when you are out shopping for groceries, clothes, etc. Have them recognize, compare, and discuss the cost of items. - Practice skip counting by 10 and by 5. Associate this with coins, if able. Show scholars that you can skip count dimes by 10 and nickels by 5. We will be doing this in class as well. - Be sure to review our unit family letter that came home last week for ways to support learning at home! In Partnership, 2nd Grade Team Ms. Phillips Mrs. Boggess Mrs. Valera Mr. Rowland

L. Watkis (Assistant Principal)

Hello everyone! We have successfully completed our first month in school and we are ready to move right along into October! Parents should have received students' MAP scores by now, and if you have any questions regarding scores or what students can do to continue growth as much as possible, please reach out to us and we'd be happy to help! We also have parent - teacher conferences coming up on Monday, October 11. There will be a sign up sheet posted to class dojo on Monday, October 4, so make sure you sign up if you want to meet with us! We know there will not be enough time slots in the day for every parent, so we are happy to schedule other times before/after school or diuring our planning times to meet with you! Unfortunately, we have two third grade classes at home quarantining right now, and we miss our students already! Please make sure that the quarantined classes are looking at Canvas to complete all classwork/homework assignments during this time at home. There will be asynchronous work posted for students each day that they should complete in each class! Ms. McDonagh's homeroom is still in the building, so they will receive live instruction for RELA with Ms. McDonagh, and then complete asynchronous work for Ms. Balogun's class and Ms. Fleet's class. Most of all, we hope everyone at home is staying as safe and healthy as can be, and we can't wait for you to return! Please make sure use our Google Site as it has many helpful links and resources such as schedules, more newsletters, important links, and a weekly assignment breakdown page! There is also a tutorial video on Ms. McDonagh's Canvas and our Google Site about how to use Canvas! Here's the link to our google site: https://sites.google.com/pgcps.org/3rdgradeclasssite We can't wait to continue learning in 3rd grade together and we hope everyone can come back soon safely! Please let us know if you have any questions! From your 3rd Grade Team! :)

Leah McDonagh Kylie Fleet Tamara Mathews Rashidah Balogun

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L. Watkis (Assistant Principal)