March & April 2010 Charlestown Elementary School………Dragon News March & April 2010
Principally Speaking:
During the weeks of March 8- 16 the students in grades 3, 4 & 5 will be taking the Maryland School Assessment (MSA). Our students have worked very hard to prepare for this assessment and we appreciate the effort the students have demonstrated. It is our desire to see our students perform to the highest level of their ability.
Here are some important items that will contribute to students doing their best. Your child will need:
At least 8 hours of sleep each night
Breakfast every morning
To arrive at school by 8:45AM each morning
It is important that you try not to schedule appointments for your child during the mornings of testing. (Testing usually ends by 12:00 noon.) It is important that the student attends school on the test dates so that he/she may take the test with his/her class. Listed below are the grade levels and the days on which they will be taking the MSA.
Grade 3: March 8, 9, 15, 16
Grade 4: March 8, 9, 11, 12
Grade 5: March 10, 11, 15, 16
If you have any questions, please call me at school. Thank you in advance for your cooperation! We are looking forward to making this a successful experience for our students!
ATTENDANCE is the key to your child’s success in school. Research has shown that children who are in school most of the time get better grades and do better on state tests. Research also shows students who are absent a lot often do poorly in school and score lower on state tests.
Being late for school hurts a child’s learning, too! A student who misses 10 minutes everyday will miss 30 hours of instruction during the school year. Older students can copy notes but younger students can never get back what they miss. A student who is frequently late or absent will miss very important discussions, questions and explanations by the teacher and the thinking that makes learning come alive.
Your child’s success in school and in the future depends on having a solid educational background- that can only be gained through regular on-time attendance at school.
School Calendar
March
8-16 MSA Testing
18 Toddler Time
23 Rick Waterhouse
The Chef Shapes Up
24 Variety Show Practice
25 Grade 4, Fair Hill
26 Spring Bingo
31 School Wide Spelling Bee
April
1 Closed for Students
Professional Day for Faculty and Staff
2-6 School Closed
7-14 Kindergarten Registration
8 Variety Show Practice
13 3rd Marking Period Ends
Variety Show Practice
14-21 Pre-K Registration
14 4th Marking Period Begins
15 Toddler Time
20 Grade 2/3 DuPont Theater
21 Report Cards Issued
22 Variety Show Dress Rehearsal
23 4th Annual Variety Show
24 Rotary Club Spelling Bee
27 School Pictures
KINDERGARTEN NEWS
The kindergarten students have been busy practicing their reading skills with sight words and word family words, as well as using their knowledge of letter sounds and sight words to write down their ideas. In March, we will begin a new reading unit called “Wheels Go Round”, where we’ll focus on stories about various kinds of vehicles and also trains. In April, our reading focus will be on stories about farms and farm animals in a unit called “Down on the Farm”. In Math, we will continue to practice writing, recognizing, and counting to 100 by ones, fives, and tens. We will work on solving problems using simple addition and subtraction. We will also learn about place value and symmetry. In Social Studies, we will begin to learn about maps. We will learn what a compass rose is and will use it to navigate on a map. In Science, we will learn about animals that live on a farm. We are enjoying our time in the computer lab where we play learning games and work on activities to practice and strengthen our reading and math skills.
Please remember to check our web pages to find links to some great sites for your child to use at home.
First Grade
Thank you for helping your child with homework, sight-word books, reading books at home and practicing math flash cards. J
Here are some of the topics we are currently working on:
Reading/Spelling: using fiction and non-fiction reading selections to make predictions/inferences, monitor/clarify, question, evaluate, and summarize; reading (using details and sentence structure) to build comprehension; connecting new information to own experiences; using graphic organizers to respond to text; making words with vowel sounds, blends, digraphs; learning sight words; self-correcting; and retaining learned word family spelling patterns to use in daily work. PLEASE HAVE YOUR CHILD READ EVERY NIGHT.
Writing/Handwriting: research; writing with details; writing to inform; writing to persuade; and writing for personal expression; choosing own topic to write about. Be conscientious enough to give 100% effort, use correct grammar, capitalization, and punctuation, proofread, edit, and revise.
Math: two and three dimensional shapes; fractional parts; (and as always) telling time to the hour, half hour, and quarter hour; counting and exchanging coins; facts to 18; and addition/subtraction with regrouping. PLEASE HAVE YOUR CHILD PRACTICE +/- FLASH CARDS EVERY DAY. Students should know the answers in 3 seconds or LESS!
Social Studies: Map skills and economics
Science: pebbles, sand, and silt; dinosaurs; insects; and spiders
Health: dental health and good hygiene
Self-awareness: being attentive; participating in class, using good listening skills; monitoring own behavior; controlling impulsivity; assessing own strengths and weaknesses; deciding whether it is the right time or place to discuss things
It is difficult to believe that the year is passing so quickly. Much progress has been made by many of the students. Please remember to sign homework logs every day and look at the required assignments.
Thank you for your support.
Second Grade News
Wow the school year is half over! Where has the time gone?
Reading/Spelling: The children are completing Theme 4 on Animals. The children are working with vowel digraphs to decode words. They are continuing to review antonyms, synonyms, homographs and compound words. The children are reading in order to determine main ideas, problem solving, and story details. They are also sequencing story events, making judgments, determining cause and effect relationships, and inferences based on story events. Please continue to read each night with your child. Thank you for completing the Books in a Bag and monthly reading projects. All of these activities make the children better readers.
Writing/Handwriting: The children are continuing to use the Marcia Freeman Writing Program. They are using good beginnings, good endings, strong verbs story details, making comparisons, and attributes in their writing. The children are beginning research projects on different animals. The children are working on forming plurals by adding s, es and irregular plurals. They are also working on mastering manuscript letter formation. They are beginning cursive letter formation.
Math: The children are continuing to master their addition and subtraction facts to 18. The children are working on addition and subtraction with regrouping in addition to the regular assignments. Please continue to review money and telling time.
Social Studies: The children are finishing work on map and globe skills and identifying landforms. They are then going to begin a unit on communities and economics.
Science: The children are finishing work with Air and Weather. They are identifying air and it’s properties. They are exploring through different experiments how air moves and changes with temperature.
Health: The children are working on different safety units. They will be discussing bike safety, personal safety, and good dental health.
Please continue to complete home book reports and reading charts/calendars. Thank you!
Third Grade News
Reading-We will be finishing our fourth theme and starting our next to last theme after MSA is over. The next theme is called “Voyagers” and has a variety of story genres including non-fiction, realistic fiction, and fiction. We will continue to use all reading strategies in our whole and guided reading groups. The students should be reading as much as possible at home each night. Over the next couple of weeks our focus will be on preparing and reviewing for MSA.
Math-We are finishing the telling time mini unit and will be starting a very long unit on fractions. Students should continue to be practicing flashcards (+, -, x) as part of their regular homework routine. Multiplication mastery is a must! So far only a handful of students are showing mastery at a flash. Please continue to encourage your child to complete homework each day. It is assigned each day for math and spelling.
Writing-Third graders continue to write for a variety of purposes in all subjects. They are learning new strategies to help them become proficient writers. Most writing assignments in the language arts area are kept at school in a notebook. Our next assignment will be to write a research report. We will also continue to work on grammar and punctuation skills.
Spelling- Students are continuing to do pretty well with our assessment program. By this point students should be getting a score of twelve correctly spelled words on weekly tests. During the last marking period, a score of sixteen correct will be 100%. Remember to study those words that were missed on the weekly tests. Encourage your child to complete their homework assignments.
Science and Social Studies-In Science we are finishing “Structures of Life”. Our Social Studies unit is currently “A Community Far, Australia”. Our last unit will be Economics.
Due to an unusually cold and snowy season, our class has run out of tissues. We would very much appreciate donations.
NEWS FROM MISS RANIERI
Jump Rope for Heart was a huge success this year and we are so proud of Charlestown’s efforts. Students raised over $2600 and had a great time jumping with their classmates. As we move into spring, physical education classes will begin going outside for class when weather permits, so please make sure students have a sweatshirt or jacket.
NEWS FROM FOURTH GRADE
MATH: Please continue to encourage your child to work on mastering multiplication facts through 12 x 12. Nightly review of 5-10 fact problems would be helpful for mastering more belts in Karate Math.
READING: Our fourth theme is all about Problem Solvers. Students will read a variety of stories and identify the problems and solutions the main character faced.
SOCIAL STUDIES: We will begin our Maryland unit. During the study of this unit, we will learn about the history, geography and symbols of our state.
SCIENCE: We will be piloting a brand new program that is very interactive and reading based. Students will participate in lots of hands on activities in class and will then respond to questions. The students are very excited to begin this new program.
WRITING: We will continue to work on a variety of writing skills based on Marcia Freeman. Students will expand sentences into more complex thoughts and will also write multiple paragraphs.
CURSIVE: We will continue to introduce and practice cursive letters and words.
WORD WORK: We will continue to identify the meaning of words with Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes. Students will decode new words and identify the meaning based on the prefix or suffix meaning.
HOMEWORK: Please encourage your child to complete and return homework on a routine basis. Just a reminder, there is homework Monday through Thursday. Students should read at home for a minimum of 20 minutes every night to improve fluency and vocabulary.
Math homework is expected to be completed every night unless there was a unit test. Spelling homework is expected to be completed every night Monday through Wednesday and Thursday is the night to study the words to prepare for a weekly test on Friday. Please make sure to sign the Homework Spiral every night, which helps communicate to the teacher that you were aware of the homework assignments.
Thank you for your continued support!!
Mrs. Boylan, Miss Wood and Mrs. Ayers
Pre-Kindergarten students will read repetitive and predictable texts. Examples we will use are Five Little Monkeys (Christelow) and If you…(Numeroff). Additionally, we will conduct an author study of the works of Byron Barton.
Kindergarten students will be reading and analyzing similarities and differences among several versions of Little Red Riding Hood. We will look for cultural differences in the relating of these tales.
Grade One will finish the unit on media literacy skills. We will research another country as we plan a “trip”.
Grade Two will finish the unit on media literacy skills. We will also address Currency, Authority and Relevancy of media resources and the importance of locating and using the best resources for the topic. We will identify arrangement of the fiction section in the media center and discover strategies to use the electronic catalog as we locate information in our media center.
Grade Three will complete the unit on media literacy. We will identify musical language used in books written by Dr. Seuss. We will analyze genres of literature, introducing the play, poem and story.
Grade Four will complete biography research of the lives of famous African Americans and Famous Women. We will introduce searching using Boolean operators and refining/broadening our searches. We will discover the genres in the media center and review the medal winners of the Newbery Award. We will begin our study of media literacy.
Grade Five will finish our research of a famous person we selected. Fifth graders will be taking the media benchmark in early April. Following the benchmark, we will conduct our unit on media literacy.
There are many competitions that have deadlines quickly approaching…
http://media.ccps.org/medfest/festival.html
We really look forward to student participation in these contests. They are open to all students in our school! Please see/email Mrs. Wooddell as soon as possible if you have questions about participating. Email dlwooddell@ccps.org
The Rotary Club Spelling Bee will be held at Cecil College on April 24, 2010 for our school representatives. Congratulations to all those students. Information will be forthcoming.
The Charlestown Rising Stars Team is getting ready for the big competition on March 6, 2010. Rising Stars team members work together to solve age
appropriate challenges. They learn to explore and develop creative and critical thinking skills. The team consists of seven boys and girls from first and second grade. They have been working all year to present a structure made of newspaper and tape to the judges at the main competition which will be held at Bel Air Middle School. They have also tackled mini challenges that put their creativity and problem solving abilities to the test in a given moment. Please wish our team, Sydney Channell, Isabella Simon, Haydn Hulbert, Tanner Moore, Ian Ronald, Hailey Poole, and Natalie Steltzer as
we get ready for the big competition.
All A’s or Consistently Evident
Ian Baughman
Emily Burchett
Ily Fritts
Anna Breneman
Eva Fockler
Mackenzie Hitch
Cooper Meekins
Kiara Forrester
Robert Maphis
Trent Moore
Olivia Boas
Zach Yucis
Alexis Haley
Jade Handy
Joshua Lisk
Madison Willis
Ryleigh Johnson
Honor Roll
Sydney Channell
Drake Gividen
Haydn Hulbert
Patrick Lindsey
Tyler McCluskey
Paulina Watts
Larissa Gogots
Ian Ronald
Natalie Steltzer
Sarah Wooddell
Olivia Hunsberger
Hanna Gordon
Kamryn Heroux
Cora Hickling
Rose Madera
Michael Olszewski
Nicole Owens
Emma Ritter
Gavin Watts
Braden Yadlosky
River Andrichyn
Hunter Arledge
Annika Fockler
Tanner Moore
Kristen Owens
Alexander Reynolds
Isabella Simon
Megan Tucker
Mackenzie Barnett
Alexis Haley
Abby Hechmer
Kelsi Watts
Marina Jones
Brianna Yadlosky
Nicole Roark
Alannah Kidd
Kaylee Leonard
Kyle Miller
Alliya Mann
Shannon Poole
Olivia Boas
Nathan Wooddell
Zach Yucis
Cameron Garcia
Brooke Reynolds
Connor Roark
Tobie Smith
Samantha Steltzer
Jade Handy
Payton Hoskins
Joshua Lisk
Andrew McCluskey
Allen Owens
David Poole
Nick Rinehart
Madison Willis
Sarah Chandler
Lashanda Lister
Tyler Miller
Tiara Smith
Grant Tucker
Isabel Edstrom
Jake Hechmer
Sage Hunter
Ryleigh Johnson
Lacie Phipps
Rose Porch
Madalyn Wilkinson
Bug
Aiden Blankenship
Abby Cade
Jaclyn Delfino
Maddie Elmer
LeAnne Greene
Trent Moore
Laci Rothblum
Mason Twist
Blaze Underwood
Reece Vandervort
Jonathon Badolato
Patrick Lindsey
Tyler McCluskey
Johnathan Baker
Larissa Gogots
Hailey Poole
Ian Ronald
Mason Wilkinson
Michael Olszewski
Emma Ritter
Brayden Henderson
Jonathan Pyott
Mackenzie Barnett
Alliya Mann
Kyle Miller
Brianna Yadlosky
Brooke Reynolds
Connor Roark
Jade Handy
Payton Hoskins
David Poole
Ryleigh Johnson
Lacie Phipps
Rose Porch
Outstanding Effort
Carson Boas
Kayla Cook
Grant Gividen
Sabrina Lee
Brianna Montgomery
Way to Go!
Connor Humphrey
Zachery Strong
Jaclyn Delfino
Dylan Miller
Mason Twist
Perfect Attendance
Dylan Maxwell
Seth Thompson
Sabian Thompson
Sydney Channell
Drake Gividen
Hayden Hulbert
Ethan Humphrey
Larissa Gogots
Sam Mistler
Sarah Wooddell
Kirsten David
Hannah Gordon
Kamryn Heroux
Cora Hickling
Trent Powell
Trae’ Singleton
Gavin Watts
Braden Yadlosky
Kristopher David
Jonathon Pyott
Jacob Russell
Alex Reynolds
Abby Hechmer
Alannah Kidd
Nathan Wooddell
Nicole Roark
Connor Roark
Timmy David
Jacob Cook
Taylor Danglade
Payton Hoskins
Joshua Lisk
David Poole
Hannah Henson
Sunny Piatt
Tiara Smith
Brandon McBride
Great Attendance
Ily Fritts
Mackenzie Hitch
Sage Underwood
Emma Ritter
Hunter Arledge
Brittany Kortas
Allen Owens
Sarah Chandler