Salem Avenue Elementary Saber News School Website: www.salemavenue.weebly.com Facebook: Salem Avenue December 2017 Important Dates & Upcoming Events Dec. 13- Holiday Read with Me Family Event 8:00 8:30 a.m. Dec. 18- Grade 5 Combined Winter Band Concert- 7:00 p.m. @ Rockland Woods Elementary Dec. 22- Jan. 1- Winter Break- Schools Closed We wish you a safe and happy holiday break! Attendance and Tardies Regular school attendance is extremely important to student achievement. The Washington County Public Schools attendance policy states: No more than 12 absences, lawful or unlawful, per school year. Absences after 12 days require official documentation (i.e. Doctor s notes, legal documentation, etc.) If your child is absent, please send a note the next day explaining the absence. Per WCPS policy, students are permitted to miss only 12 days a year. Salem s school day begins at 8:55. Any student arriving after 8:55 a.m. is considered tardy and MUST be signed in by a parent/ guardian. Tardies disrupt the normal flow of the school day. Tardy students are not able to enjoy the free breakfast that would normally be provided to them and are often missing out on valuable instruction. It is important to have your child to school on time every day. If your child is tardy, you MUST walk them into the school and sign them in using the C.L.A.S.S system. You WILL NEED to bring your driver s license in with you. Family Events We ve had a busy first few months of school. So far this year we have hosted Back to School Night, Off to a Great Start Parent Meeting, Roy Roger s Family Night fundraiser, Family Math Night, Spanish Family Night, Parade of Characters Family Reading Night, Parent Teacher Conferences, Family Visitation and 2 nd Grade Morning Math, Thank you to all the families who attended. We have reviewed all of your feedback and use it to plan future events. We are looking forward to bringing back one of our family favorites, our Holiday Read with Me morning event on December 13. Don t forget to RSVP if you plan on attending so we ensure we have enough supplies for all. Your involvement and support is essential to ensuring each student reaches their academic potential.
Pre-Order the 2017-2018 Yearbook Online YBPay.lifetouch.com code is 8554818 $20...no add on packages available this year Online orders highly recommended Volunteer Policy Volunteers MUST complete a Volunteer Application and Information Form AND be approved to volunteer and/or chaperone, each school year. Many volunteer opportunities are offered to only preapproved volunteers, so we encourage you to complete this process ASAP. Contact Jennifer Johnson, Title I School Family Liaison with any questions. Team Tiger News December is always an exciting and busy month for Team Tiger. We have listed our major events below but please check Facebook for updates. Our schoolwide challenge for December will be to decrease our tardies. Please remember that students must be in the building by 8:55 to be considered on-time and to ensure that they are not interrupting instruction nor missing out on valuable instruction. If we decrease our tardies by 10%, all students will earn a movie in their classroom before the holiday break. Our bullying prevention booster week will be held from December 11 th -15 th. Please note the days: Misfit Monday: Wear mismatched clothing, crazy hair, odd socks etc. (no hats today) to emphasize that we all look different therefor no one is ever really a misfit. We will show Rudolph to generate discussion for the rest of our bullying prevention week. Team-up Tuesday: Wear a jersey or shirt celebrating your favorite team sport to show that we can have different likes but still respect and appreciate the opinions of others. Wake up Wednesday!: Roll out of bed and come to school in your PJs to show that each day you are ready to support bullying prevention from the start. (Don t forget about our family Read with Me breakfast) Thoughtful Thursday: Wear your thinking cap (any hat) because each class will be performing their own thoughtful act to show how we can impact our school with acts of kindness. Family Photo Friday: Wear a flannel shirt or dress in red to show that the 1323 is one big family standing against bullying. We will take pictures of different groups to post on our Team Tiger bulletin board and maybe share a few on Facebook. Our student government will hold their annual Student Counsil Holiday Shop the week before Winter Break. Please look for details to come home with your child early this month.
As usual, Team Tiger is always looking for donations and community connections so that we can better serve our students. If you know anyone or are associated with businesses that may be interested in supporting our positive behavior interventions in any way, please contact either Jennifer Johnson (SFL), or one of our two Team Tiger coordinators (Donna Harne or Kristy Irving). We appreciate sponsorships, gift cards, prizes, cash or even connections to people who offer events, fundraisers or presentations. Thank you for your support. Grade Level Please remember to: Pre-kindergarten News Return your library book and the baggy book on Mondays. Check your child s folder each night and initial the calendar. Continue to help your child write his/her name. Practice zipping and buttoning coats as cooler weather arrives, Ensure your child has a change of clothes in his/her backpack. Please update with winter clothing. This month your child will be learning: Reading: To name letters, letter sounds, and basic sight words, understand story elements and ask questions about fiction and nonfiction books. Fundations: The correct formation of letters and identify letters and sounds. Writing: How to write personal stories, place labels on the illustrations, continue to add more details, and write simple sentences. Math: How to compare numbers using the terms more, less, same (equal). Ways you can help: Reading: Encourage your child to ask questions about the details, facts, or unknown words in the books you are reading. Fundations: Use the Fundations formation directions when helping your child write his/her name. Remember to say the directions out loud and invite your child to join you. Writing: Continue to encourage your child to label pictures and begin to write simple sentences. Invite your child to make holiday cards. Math: Begin to compare numbers by using the words more/less/same (equal). Play dice games.
Kindergarten in December!! This month we will be learning: *Reading: Readers are resourceful. They will be tackling hard words and tricky parts in books. *Writing: Students will be composing narrative pieces of writing. *Fundations: Students will blend and segment sounds. They will blend and read three-sound short vowel words. They will work with alphabetical order. *Math: Students will be identifying shapes as two-dimensional or three-dimensional. They will analyze, compare, create, and compose shapes. *Social Studies: Students will identify contributions of people past and present. You can help your child at home by: *making sure your child arrives at school by 8:55 AM. *making sure your child completes his/her homework and filling in the Reader s Log. *providing practice in writing his/her first and last name. *ensuring that your child has a coat appropriate for the weather and can button, snap, or zip his/her own coat. If the playground is clear, if it is not snowing or raining, AND the temperature is above 32 degrees, we will go outside for recess. *helping your child practice tying his/her shoes. Kindergarten teachers would greatly appreciate any donations of tissues, paper towels, and Clorox or Lysol Wipes. As the weather changes, so does the demand for these items. Thank you! Look What s Happening in First Grade! Reading First grade readers are tackling super hard words in order to keep learning. Also, we are learning how to become Read Aloud experts. Math First grade mathematicians will be reading and writing number to 120, comparing two two-digit numbers, adding a one-digit number to a two-digit number and subtracting within 20. Writing First grade writers will be writing teaching books. We will be writing non-fiction chapter books that teaches others about an expert topic. Science First grade scientists will make observations to construct an evidence-based account that objects can be seen only when illuminated.
Look What s Happening in Second Grade In second grade math, students will be adding four 2 digit numbers, continuing word problems and starting data and graphing. At home continue to practice Math facts and using Reflex. In reading students will continue to study characters in their books, by looking at their voice, how they interact with each other and traits they may have. As they study characters they will start to compare characters and the life lessons their books may hold. Continue to practice Reading and fluency at home daily. In writing students will continue to do Opinion writing and voice their opinion about a variety of things including their favorite books. Students will be writing book reviews to convince others to read their favorite book. In social studies, students will continue to work on communities and the types of communities around us. Students will also continue working on map and globe skills to help them find areas and landforms. In science students will be starting landforms and how they shape the world. Second grade students will be taking their annual field trip to Children's Village in December. Please be sure to return permission slips and dress appropriately for this trip. Some of the activities are outdoor activities, depending on the weather. Hope you have a safe and happy holiday break!! Look What s Happening in Third Grade In writing, we have begun working on writing informational books. We are writing to teach others about things we know a lot about. Students will begin to use their ipads to type their pieces. In science, we are learning about how forces interact with one another. We are learning about how every move we make is a force and motion. We will apply this learning to interactions between magnets. In math, students will continue to work on solving word problems! Our main focus will be solving TWO-step word problems using the four operations! Talk about math words that remind you when to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Also, ask your child what strategies they can use to solve word problems effectively. This month in reading, our readers will be continuing the nonfiction unit called Reading to Learn. Third graders will find the main idea and supporting details for their books and become experts on multiple topics as they read. We will then shift to biographies so the students can learn how to read and summarize narrative nonfiction.
Big Things are Happening this December in Fourth Grade! We will continue our research of non fiction texts in reading class with the weather and then a self selected topic. In writing, we will continue researching and writing strong opinion pieces. Mathematically, we will continue our authentic work with fractions as we continue to build a deep understanding. Our scientists will being looking at different types of waves and the attributes. The historians of fourth grade will continue learning about the groups of Colonial Maryland and how Maryland developed over the years. It is going to be an amazing month in fourth grade! Exciting Things Happening in 5 th Grade Writing We will be finalizing, revising and editing our Narratives and we will begin our informational writing. Reading We will finish our informational non-fiction unit and begin our poetry bend by the end of December or beginning of January. Students will examine the structure and purpose of poetry as well as the author's techniques for this type of writing. Math During the month of December we will be finishing up our work with decimals and learning to add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions. Science We will continue our study of the earth s systems. These include the Hydrosphere, Biosphere, Atmosphere, and Geosphere. We will study their interactions. Social Studies We will begin our study of early explorers. We will also study the Magna Carta and the teachings of John Locke to see how they influenced the framers in the writing of the U.S. Constitution. Ways you can help: Reading: Make sure students are continuing to read and log at least 30 min. per night and taking the time to talk about and discuss what they are reading with you. Writing: Talk about writing with your children. They should be able to state a strong claim and provide evidence and reasoning to support their claim. Math: Continue to practice, practice, practice math facts. Social Studies: Talk politics with your children. Look to the newscasts and newspapers for current event topics. Science: Have your child read informational texts about science and share learned information with you and others.