OCTOBER 2008
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Kindergarten News
The kindergarteners are working on finishing up the alphabet! We are excited about knowing all the letters and beginning to meet the alphafriends. We are also quickly learning how to read and spell color words!
In Math, we are busy counting to 25, learning to name shapes, identifying numbers, and noticing patterns in the environment around us. We will begin WRITING numbers soon!
The end of the first quarter is right around the corner. Please take a few minutes to review the 1st Quarter “I Can” statements. If your child is having difficulty with any of the skills listed there, please practice them at home. Each of those items will be tested for the report card! Thanks for all of your support and hard work at home!
Our first field trip is quickly approaching! We are looking forward to visiting Spring Mist Farms where we will learn about farm animals and life on the farm. We are also going on a hay ride! Remember that BOTH AM and PM classes will be leaving Towslee together at 9:30am on Thursday, October 16th and arriving back at school at approximately 1:30pm. Make sure that all students have a ride home at 1:30. There will be NO BUSES at that time! There is no school on Friday, October 17th.
We are doing lots of Fall projects and have just completed a Fall Leaf book! We have started to talk about Halloween and are looking forward to seeing each others' costumes on Friday, October 31st. Hope to see you at the Halloween party!
Miss Mason and Mrs. Jesse
1st Grade News
Happy Fall! The students enjoyed our magnet unit in science very much. We discovered the different objects that magnets attract. We’re starting to explore our senses in science.
We’ve been working with short vowels and family words in reading. Please continue to practice the first quarter sight words. We will be testing the children on these over the next few weeks. Buddy reading is a hit in our classrooms! Let’s all keep encouraging students to do their best printing and coloring on all their work.
We are introducing counting and exchanging pennies and nickels, time to the hour, and making combinations of ten in unit 2 for math. Please continue to practice counting by fives and mix pennies and nickels in order to make counting nickels easier.
The students’ homework has included tying their own shoes and memorizing their phone number and address. If your child is unable to do these, please continue to practice nightly. Please check and sign the student homework spiral book. This is a good place to include notes for the teachers.
We are in need of moms or dads to volunteer for A.R. reading. Mrs. Knopp and Mrs. Thompson are willing to train volunteers. A.R. reading would take place during the library time each week. Please remember to fill out the volunteer form if you’re able to help us.
Thank you,
The First Grade Teachers,
Mrs. Barbarotta, Mrs. Braun and Mrs. Radabaugh
2nd Grade News
Second grade is flying by! As you can tell by your “I CAN” goals, we have managed to cover most of the topics.
In Math, we will be starting place value as well as reviewing some tricky concepts for the second grade: buying with money and telling time. We will continue to have our timed tests once a week.
In Science, we are finishing up our unit on the rainforest by reading a fantastic book The Great Kapok Tree. This book details what happens if a rainforest is destroyed. We will start our final habitat the temperate forest, the one in which we live.
Later in the month, we will look at citizenship and government. The children are going to have to become familiar with governmental leaders (president, governor, and mayor) and also some famous landmarks (Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial).
We will be checking the first twenty-five sight words in the very near future. Please be sure that you are reading with your child on a nightly basis. This will only improve your child’s ability to read and consequently write in the long run!
Thank you for all you do for your child,
Miss Boyer, Mrs. Dick, Mrs. Hunter and Mrs. Sinko
3rd Grade News
Third grade is progressing nicely this school year. Next week, we will be taking the practice Math Ohio Achievement Test and the Fall Reading Ohio Achievement Test. Throughout this school year, we will continue to strive for progress and success to apply to the “official” OATs in May.
In Reading and Writing we are working on and practicing letter writing. We are also reading and working on different Theme Books. Please make sure to read every night. We will be beginning the Pizza Hut Book It! Incentive Program soon.
In Math we are working on two and three digit addition and subtraction, with and without regrouping. We also are continuing to practice solving number stories. This is a great time to practice basic addition and subtraction facts with your child, as we will be beginning our multiplication facts very soon!! The next unit will be studying is Unit 3, Measurement.
This month we are focusing on Science. Our Science unit is Rocks, Minerals and Soil. We will be discovering the different types of rocks and how they are formed. We will also be doing some fun (and tasty!) experiments with this unit!
Keep up the good work at school and at home third grade!!!
Mrs. Burke, Mrs. Reisinger, Mrs. Velic and Mrs. Wright
4th Grade News
Writing
Do you have a favorite story in your life that you love to share with family and friends? Try writing it down and sharing it with your child. This is the “ I can” statement that your child is working on right now, personal narratives. This concept will continue through out the entire year. A person narrative is a story about yourself it that includes the following:
Setting – Where does the story takes place?
Characters – Who is in the story?
Plot – What happens in the story?
Thank you for your cooperation with the growth of your child’s education. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Mrs. Holdash
Reading
As Fall approaches we will be going into our second unit in reading. This unit is called American Stories. These are some great stories that we can all relate to in our own lives. Family reunions, immigration, the Wild West and learning the joy of reading are the themes for these stories.
Mrs. Nelson and I would also like to encourage you to take a closer look at what your child is writing when they answer the daily question on their Reading Log. Sometimes the question does not fit perfectly with what your child is reading. Encourage them to stretch their imagination and answer the question thoughtfully. They also need to be written much neater and with correct capitalization and punctuation. Oral reading and question reply are two key areas in our reading curriculum that needs to be practiced nightly. Thank you for your help with this area of reading.
AR (Accelerated Reading) books are available in our school library. Each student should be taking out 2 AR books when they visit the library. Tests on these books need to be taken shortly after the book is completed. The book needs to be read cover to cover and then each child should summarize the book in their own head noting a few details and the main characters in the book. This will ensure a better score on the book that has been read. Mrs. Arnold's students each need to have at least one book read and the test passed by Oct. 9th.
Happy Fall!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Arnold
Mrs. Nelson
Social Studies
We have just completed our unit on maps. Most of us can name the seven continents and know that HOMES is the acronym for the 5 Great Lakes. We are now moving onto some specific Ohio geography and then next week we'll start the 3 branches of government both Federal, State and Local. I will also be bringing in the Presidential Election and all 3-5 grade students will get a chance to vote for their candidate of choice on Monday Nov. 3rd.
Please keep in mind, I have two classes for Week A and then the other two classes for Week B. I teach the same thing two weeks in a row so each class gets the same information. If a test or quiz grade is blank when you go onto Progress Book, it may be because your child is at science and not social studies that week. They will get the same quiz or test the following week. I hope this helps explain some of the empty scores on Progress Book.
Have a great Fall. Enjoy the beautiful weather and the slow changing of the leaves.
Mrs. Arnold
Science
The students have had many experiences with weather reporting and predictions about the weather. Thank you for your support as each child kept track of a weather journal. We also made barometers and the students will be measuring air pressure everyday for five days. Please ask your child for their lab reports for your review.
Studying the cloud types was really fun. We enjoyed lying in the warm sun identifying types of clouds while discussing the significance of the clouds' movements.
The students loved when Mr. Paul Wetzl (Greg's uncle) a meteorologist from Youngstown came in to teach us about his career.
Next we look forward to studying the make-up of the Earth
Mrs. Nelson
Math
We have completed our first unit in math. Geometry was difficult for some students due to the large number of vocabulary words we needed to know. These words will be reviewed during the year. Please make sure your child knows what the following words mean: rhombus, trapezoid, isosceles triangle, scalene triangle, equilateral triangle, ray, line, line segment, acute triangle, obtuse triangle, parallelogram, quadrilateral and right triangle. The definitions can be found in the glossary of the SRB (math textbook) or in students' red spiral notebooks.
Multiplication facts continue to be a struggle. Students should know these quite well at this time of fourth grade. I cannot take class time to work on mastering them, because we have so many other concepts to learn. Please spend at least 15 minutes each night reviewing and drilling unknown facts. Students should be bringing home extra worksheets to practice from my classroom. They may help themselves to these practice sheets. I am starting to grade multiplication facts as part of classwork, so this will affect grades. Students know how to use skip counting to figure out answers, but they need to continue to master them without the skip counting.
We are starting a unit on place value and rounding whole numbers. Your child will need to know how to read, and write, numbers to the hundred millions place. I will be asking questions like this:
What is this number increased by ten-thousand?
5,207,981
What is this number decreased by two hundred?
8,649,370
Please let me know if you have any questions regarding your child's math progress.
Thank you,
Mrs. White
5th Grade News
Reading
Wrapping up Michelle Kwan and fact/opinion with text organization. We will be moving into Mae Jemison which will focus on story structure, predicting, and summarizing. Outside of the story we will be focusing on cause and effect. In writing, the drug free essays were wonderful. Brianna and Josh were our class winners and will be going to Pizza Hut and also reading their essays on morning announcements. September Reading Logs looked great! Lots of my students won free Pizza Hut coupons. Be sure to keep track for October to receive a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut.
Science
We moved out of scientific inquiry, knowledge, and technology to complete our foundation for learning Science. We have now moved into Earth Science. We will be focusing on the Earth and Sun. We will briefly discuss planets and the stars. We also will be discussing renewable and nonrenewable resources. Students have done a great job with taking notes in Science and keeping track of them to study for tests/quizzes!!! Good job!
5th grade Other NEWS
Hiram House will be in May. If you would like to be part of a committee to help with fundraising please contact Miss Lamphear by calling the school or emailing her klamphear@brunswickschools.org. We will be conducting a pie sale through Market Day which helps the students earn money off the total cost of their trip ($200).
Video Club has its members officially. The students are: Bailey Lack, Rene Nealon, Brielle Trussa, Maris Vick, Eric Thomas, Jessie Chunat, Brittany Leighty, Kendall McCloskey, Brienna Reed, and Jacob Liogky. Good job and be looking for morning announcements via TV very soon.
Miss Lamphear
Math
The students have already completed Unit 1 and 2 in Everyday Math. We will begin Unit 3, Geometry Explorations, this week. It is very important that your child have a protractor for this unit as we will be drawing and measuring angles. Please continue to work with multiplication flash cards at home.
Schweisthal's Language Arts:
We have been reading many non-fiction stories and focusing on fact and opinion and cause and effect. The students just completed writing a red ribbon essay on what it means to be drug free. They did a wonderful job!
Mrs. Schweisthal
Social Studies
We have started to discuss the Native American groups of North America (Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, and Northwest Coast). Our next test will be next week. Please make sure your child is studying only their study guide material for the test. They should have 12 pages in their folder at this time. There will be more handed out this week. We will begin the Discovery of North America following this test.
Mr. Hunter
Autumn is here, bringing such wonderful poems, stories, and plays to inspire our early readers and writers. The first graders are focusing on phonics and decoding skills. We are playing a game called Alien Words, which supports the DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency assessment. The students take a nonsense word, such as poz, change a letter, and make an Earthling Word, such as pot. They are also doing repeated choral readings of fall poems to build on their reading accuracy and fluency.
Both first and second graders are practicing their reading strategies with leveled readers, which are developmentally appropriate for their reading level. The second graders are learning to respond to comprehension questions, using complete sentences. They will also practice their writing skills by creating Halloween stories, which they will read by candlelight!
Mrs. Pollick
Grades 1-2
News from Title 1
Our Title 1 students have gotten the year off with a blast! They have been working so hard to master their concepts. Our wonderful third graders have been very busy working on making inferences, using the PEPSE method to sequence, and summarizing. The fabulous 4th grade students have been working on finding the main idea and details, sequencing, and locating cause and effect. Text organization, sequencing, and predicting outcomes are all skills that have been covered by our excellent 5th graders.
Parents, we would like to remind you that we will be having a Title 1 Parent Meeting on October 22 from 4:00-4:30. Also, we ask all parents to try and listen to your child read. We are really working hard on improving all of the students’ reading fluency.
As always, thanks for your continued support and cooperation. You are the best!!!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Savage and Mrs. Linden
Grades 3-5
Physical Education
Earlier in September, the third, fourth and fifth grade students completed a unit on volleyball. For many of them, it was their first time every practicing this skill. Over the course of two weeks, many of the students improved dramatically and really did a fantastic job. First and second grade students have been working on their agility and balance. They are improving as well.
Now, it is October and that means Veterans’ Day is coming soon. The third grade and fifth grade students are busy learning their sign language and movement routines for the show. We are off to a pretty good start. Let’s keep up the good work!
Mr. Harrington
Notes from Music: (pun intended)
1st grade students have just finished identifying steady beat sounds and melodies that go higher or lower. It is now time to identify long and short sounds to prepare us for reading and writing rhythms. For example, from Beethoven's famous 5th symphony: short-short-short-LONG. 1st graders will also be identifying which instruments sound higher or lower, and will compare those sounds to the size of each instrument.
2nd grade will be expanding their knowledge of rhythmic patterns, and should be able to identify half notes and half rests (worth 2 beats) by the end of October. Music gets really interesting when we listen for crescendos (getting louder) and decrescendos (getting softer). Also, 2nd grade will be studying instruments from the strings family, along with other instruments from around the world.
4th grade has begun Recorder Karate and is already performing "Hot Cross Buns". Recorder technique is tricky in the beginning, so look in the music packets for reminders on properly performing notes. Watch out for squeaks caused by leaks from the finger holes, and listen for a "do" sound instead of a "hoo" sound at the start of each note.
3rd and 5th grade students have been working very hard at preparing for the big Veterans Day Musical. Choreography and singing will bring together the theme for this year: Welcome Home, Soldier. A few actors will be chosen by the Veterans Day Committee, along with essay winners that will have the opportunity to read their papers in front of the Veterans. A small packet of song lyrics will be sent home with each student to aid in memorization (the large packet of sheet music will stay at school). Please encourage your child to read/sing the words regularly.
Mrs. Gigax
Brushing Up on Art
The students are using various ways of expressing themselves with art is past month: The kindergarten students are reviewing the basic shapes and colors as well as types of lines, first graders are learning about lines and colors (warm and cool), the second graders were excited to make their first clay turtles, the third graders made fish fossils out of clay, and the fourth and fifth grades used finger paints for projects that involve multiple types of paints and techniques. The halls are filled with a variety of artwork from Chinese bamboo brush paintings, cave rock art, turtles in their habitats, pumpkins on vines, to tigers in fields of tall grass. Our Towslee students show a great deal of talent in art!
Keep drawing!
Mrs. Hunt
C. R. Towslee Ambassadors
Our Ambassadors are working hard to volunteer their time to help others. We are especially proud of the students who are bringing aluminum pop cans to the Fire Station at Rte. 303 and 42 to help the burn victims.
"Can't hide that Towslee pride!"
Mrs. Hunt (Advisor)
Patriot Patrol (Flag Raisers)
Our Patriot Patrol has done a wonderful job for our special ceremonies, especially for the flag ceremony on September 11th. Their dedication every day is to be commended. It takes dedicated students to perform such a special job each day!
Remember to bring old and worn out American flags to our school. The Brunswick VFW Post will take care of them in a special ceremony.
Mrs. Hunt and Mrs. Study (Moderators)
Library News
The Library will be able to purchase a large number of new books for the students this year thanks to the wonderful help of our Bookfair parents!
The students were so excited seeing the new books they had trouble making a decision which books to take home to read. What a joy to see excitement about reading and conversation about the characters in the stories. Some of the books purchased will be non-fiction for our early readers. Non-fiction books will help your child thrive as good readers. Please remind your child to return his/her book each week on their library day.
Reading can be fun and a great family activity. Reading aloud to your child is such a great gift for your child. I use puppets to help with my storytelling. Older children enjoy reading aloud to a younger brother or sister, which helps both of them improve their reading skills.
Please feel free to come and visit our Towslee Library or volunteer to help in the library as we always need workers to assist the students in the decision of what book to take out from the library.
Happy Reading!
Mrs. Zeigler
Cafeteria News
Happy Fall from Towslee Cafeteria! We've been serving lots of tasty food for breakfast and lunch.
Manager's Choice lunch on Wednesday October 22nd will have lots of Halloween and Fall giveaways!
Our menu will include a pepperoni pizza pocket with dipping sauce, seasoned curly fries, Autumn trail mix and choice of milk.
We offer breakfast daily. Bus riders getting breakfast can enter school early to allow more time to eat. Students have their choice of a variety of cereals, a warm "Super Bun" or waffle, yogurt, or peanut butter and jelly gram-wiches. They also can have a choice of juice and milk. Lowfat cheese may also be chosen. Cost is $1.50 or 30 cents on the reduced program.
Happy Healthy Eating!
The Cafeteria Staff
Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Crouse, and Mrs. Theobald
Perfecting Parenting:
Tips from your School Counselor, Mrs. Lalos
Make Your Child Feel Special When Tough Goals Are Met
She did it! She learned all her multiplication tables. Or she was chosen Student of the Week for her good behavior. Setting goals and reaching them is one of the best ways to motivate children. Sometimes, just reaching the goal is enough. But other things call for a special celebration. So when your child reaches a tough goal, let everyone share in her success.
Here are some fun ideas:
Source: Michelle Borba, Parents Do Make a Difference, 1999.
Help Your Child Recognize Strengths, Boost Self-Esteem
Helping children recognize their strengths is a great way to boost their self-esteem. Here are some simple ideas you might try:
Source: Kenneth Luck, 52 Ways to Nurture Your Child’s Natural Abilities, 1994.