THANK YOU!!! Live Oaks School. Send a Valentine to our Servicemen and Women

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1 Live Oaks School Connections January 15, 2016 Volume 2016, Issue 16 Send a Valentine to our Servicemen and Women Reflecting back to our amazing Veterans Day assembly, we are reminded that so many of our Live Oaks families and friends have served or are currently serving in our armed forces. We continue to be thankful and proud of the work they do to keep us safe and protected. Our school has been invited to team up with Big Y and our local USO to deliver Valentines to our servicemen and women overseas and right here at home. Students are encouraged to write a supportive message or drawn a picture on the template sent home this week. Our Student Leadership Team is spearheading this project and has set a school goal of 250 Valentines! We are looking for the classes with the greatest participation! Students are invited to make more than one valentine. In this issue: Valentines for Servicemen and Women News You Can Use Student Leadership Conference Staff in the Spotlight Numbers in the News Good Apple Update Important Dates: January 12th: NWEA Testing Begins January 18th: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day NO SCHOOL January 27th: Early Dismissal 1:05 pm, Servicemen and Women Valentines Due! I II III-IV V VI VII Please return to school by Wednesday, January 27th. Please note: Store bought cards, cards in envelopes and digital cards will not be accepted due to the USO monitoring card content. THANK YOU!!! Live Oaks School 575 Merwin Avenue Milford, CT (203) Rose Marzinotto Bonnie Etense Principal Teacher Leader

2 News You Can Use The collection box is located in the main lobby. Please consider donating any of the following: Cans or bags of dog and/or cat food Clean, gently used towels and/or blankets Pet toys Saturday, January 23rd 9:00 am - Registration Opens 9:30 am - Festivities Begin! Come behind the scenes of Long Wharf Theatre as we take you on an adventure The Dream Factory is a magical place where dreams are carefully crafted for all the children of the world. Every now and then, this whimsical factory goes a little wacky! We need your help to get the factory back up and running, so we can keep bringing dreams to life. Will you come help us solve this dreamy dilemma? Through a series of interactive games, crafts, and workshops, kids will help save the Dream Factory and experience the magic of building live theatre. Along the way, kids and parents will get to explore the inside of Long Wharf Theatre, where we bring dreams to life on stage. Activities are designed to be appropriate for kids (and parents!) of all ages. Pajamas are strongly encouraged! $5 suggested donation per family. $10 donation will get you entry & a chance to win a prize.

3 Live Oaks Student Leadership Team Attends Conference On Friday, January 8, 2016, the Live Oaks Student Leadership Team students attended the Connecticut Association of Schools 23rd Annual Elementary Student Leadership Conference for Students in Grades 4 through 6 at Sacred Heart University. The conference featured unique, interactive lessons in communication, problem solving, decision making and productive thinking. The goal of the conference was to demonstrate the use of a multiple-talent approach in helping each child find his/her best way of developing leadership skills. The LOS Student Leadership team met this week to share their learning and begin planning some exciting projects and events for the whole school.

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5 Staff in the Spotlight Mrs. Santa 1. When did you decide to become a teacher? I decided to become a teacher when I was in elementary school. 2. What was your favorite subject growing up in school? My favorite was reading. 3. Where did you go to college and for how many years? I went to UConn for 4 years and then I got my master s degree in Southern. 4. What is your favorite part or thing about Live Oaks School? It is a family tradition. My husband was in the first graduating class and it was the first school I taught at as a reading teacher. 5. How many years have you been teaching? [in any school] I have been teaching for 28 years. 6. What is your favorite hobby? My favorite hobby is reading and gardening. 7. What is your favorite quote and why? If at first you don t succeed, keep trying. Believe in yourself and never give up. 8. Why do you enjoy teaching so much? I love working with children and helping them be successful with learning. By: Fourth Graders, Kiera & Lucy

6 Numbers in the News An update from our Math Coach Investigations Math Investigations supports students to make sense of mathematics and learn that they can be mathematical thinkers. A major goal in all grades is computational fluency with whole numbers. Students come to school with ideas about numbers, shapes, measurements, patterns and data. When we give them the opportunity to learn in an environment that stresses making sense of mathematics, students are able to build on the ideas they already have and then learn about new mathematics they have not encountered. We want students to be able to apply what they know to new situations and think and reason about unfamiliar problems. This may seem very different than the way most of us have learned mathematics in the past. Please continue to support your child s mathematics education by helping your child master his/her addition, subtraction, multiplication and division combinations (facts). How do I help my child learn multiplication facts? Learning all 100 multiplication and 90 division facts can seem like a huge task, and sometimes children feel as if learning the facts is all about being able to memorize. But that is not the case! It is a matter of knowing and using a good strategy! The most important idea is that students can use a KNOWN fact to help them with an UNKNOWN fact. Let s see how that might look. Suppose a student does not know the product of 4 x 6. Here at LOS we encourage our students to think of 4 x 6 as 4 GROUPS of 6 because they can visualize that! Since students have already learned 2 x 6 = 12 or 2 groups of 6 items = 12 items in all, a student can apply that knowledge to 4 x 6. The product is 24 or twice as much as 12. It is twice as much because there are twice as many groups... 4 instead of 2. All of the 4 s facts can be related to the 2 s facts in this way. Once learned, the 4 s facts can be used to help students learn the 8 s facts and understand WHY those products make sense! They are double the 4 s! What about the 3 s? Let s consider 3 x 8. A student can again use his or her knowledge of the 2 s facts to help! 3 x 8 or 3 groups of 8 are equal to 2 groups of 8 plus another group of 8. Mathematically, it would look like this: 3 x 8 = (2 x 8) + (1 x 8) = = 24 Continued on page 6

7 NUMBERS IN THE NEWS Continued. Once students know the 3 s they can easily learn the 6 s. They are double the 3 s! Isn t 6 x 8 twice as many as 3 x 8? How about 9 x 7? That seems difficult and hard to memorize, but it is actually very simple. How many items are in 10 groups of 7? 70. But since we only have 9 groups instead of 10 we just need to take away one group of 7. Mathematically it looks like this: 9 x 7 = (10 x 7) (1 x 7) = 70 7 = 63!! With enough practice, students will know all the facts by heart. Until then we encourage and expect students to use known facts to help find the products of unknown facts. The best way to help your child at home is to support the work we are doing here at school. Thank you for your continued support!! Mathematically yours, Mrs. Pam Ward Good Apple Update There are 670 Good Apples earned so far this year! Good Apple Winners, January 4th-8th: Caelan B.-Mrs. Hayes was impressed with the way that she handled materials and put them away without being asked. How responsible! Luca F.-Mrs. M noticed how he stopped in the hallway to let a class pass. Rumeysa B.-Mr. Kapral was so pleased that she donated her favorite book to the library! What a great way to share reading with others! Vin L. Mr. Kapral was impressed how Vin held the door open for him and Mr. Pat. Daniel L.-Mrs. Luth was so proud that he knows all 29 kindergarten sight words. How responsible! Good Apple Teacher Mr. Kapral