Campus News

Lower Division Newsletter

February 12, 2010

Junior Kindergarten

Language Arts

We continue to compare and contrast the

farm and country with the city. We will also
learn about our new Alpha friend, V, and
review C and Q. In handwriting (HWT), we
will learn the letter Rr and review Pp, Bb,
Ss, and Jj. The students will begin to use
capital letters at the beginning of sentences
and put the appropriate punctuation mark at
the end of their sentences. Our High
Frequency Words (HFW) will be and, go,
for, have, the and said. We will unscramble
color words and start using our HFW in
sentences. We will also review the –ig word
family and –an and –at words.

Social Studies

Our virtue is charity. We will read stories

about thinking of others in need and discuss
how we can be charitable.

Science

We will plant our seeds and start to chart

their growth.

Math

Students will compare capacities using the

sand and water table. We will also talk
about the things we do with money and
what types of things people can buy using
money. The children will practice drawing simple shapes and review the fractions whole, half, and
quarter. They will continue adding and subtracting using manipulatives.

Senior Kindergarten

Language Arts

In our Famous American unit, the children will listen to stories about Abe Lincoln and George
Washington. We will focus our lessons on listening comprehension and identifying story elements:
characters, setting, events, problem/solution, and conclusions. The children will be involved with several
art projects that will spark their creativity and help them to retell the story to you. Daily reading groups
help the children work on blending and segmenting words,
comprehension, and retelling the story. Reading each evening
before bed will greatly help to improve your child’s reading.
In phonics, the children will review long vowels /a/, /e/ and
/i/. The children will also review blends and digraphs. In
writing, they are learning to expand their ideas when writing;
their main focus is brainstorming their own ideas on a given
topic. This is helping them to organize and develop all of the
traits of a good writer. We will continue to work on ideas,
organization, word choice, and conventions.

Social Studies

The children will go over their phone numbers,

addresses, and tying their shoes. Please reinforce these
valuable self-help skills at home. The children will be
assessed on these skills in the upcoming weeks. Our
Famous American unit is off to a great start. Ms. Szarko
read us a great story during media time on Mr. Lincoln.
This month, the virtue is Charity. Students will read
books and discuss the importance of lending a helping
hand.

Math

Our focus for the next couple of weeks will be introducing tens/ones, reviewing odd and even numbers,
adding and subtracting numbers to 15, using our touch points to count money, and tally marks. We will
continue to work with numbers to 100, adding with tens and ones, fractions, telling time, and 3-
dimentional shapes.

Grade 1

Language Arts

In the next two weeks our

reading strategies will focus on
phonics and decoding,
comparing/contrasting, and noting
details while reading fiction and
realistic fiction selections. Our
phonics and spelling will focus on
sounds of –y, more vowel pairs,
and compound words. Our
writing will continue to emphasize
friendly letter writing and
paragraph writing.
Grammar skills will concentrate on
using is and are, was and were.
Please continue to practice high
frequency words.
Social Studies

February is a short month with many celebrations. As we celebrate President’s Day, students will learn
about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. They will also learn about many important African
Americans as we celebrate Black History month. Additionally, the students will learn the history of
Valentine’s Day.

Math

In the next two weeks, students will work on ordering numbers through 100, use 10 to make an
estimation, compare numbers using symbols <, >, or =, and identify ordinal numbers.
Math vocabulary: ones, tens, regroup, greater than, less than, before, after, between, and
ordinal numbers

Science

We will wrap up our unit on solids and liquids and begin our unit on comparing and measuring.

Grade 2

Thank you to all our parents for helping to make our Sweetheart Breakfast a heartfelt party for the kids.

Language Arts

We are enjoying our new theme,

“Amazing Animals.” We recently
wrote acrostic poems about some
amazing animals to get us thinking
about how remarkable animals can
be. We will continue to focus on
reviewing reading strategies while
developing story elements and
retelling skills. The selections will
help us to draw conclusions,
summarize, identify fantasy and
realism, and discuss cause and
effect and fact and opinion. Our
phonics and spelling lessons will
include –ar, er, ir, or, ur, oa, ow
and endings –nd, -ng, -nk, nt,mp. Our writing experiences will center on developing good paragraphs
with details, composing letters, and writing stories. Our grammar will focus on pronouns and singular
and possessive nouns. We are developing as readers and writers.

Social Studies

We will focus heavily on biographies in February. We will continue our study of important people in our
country. We will also begin to learn more about United States symbols.

Science

We will be starting our new unit of study, “Changes.” We will begin by thinking about how things
change and discuss changes that could happen in solids, liquids, and gases. We will test, observe, and
describe changes in a water experiment. Then we will explore freezing and melting before conducting an
experiment about evaporation and condensation. It is a perfect time of year to talk about the changes of
liquids and gases in the cold early mornings.

Math

We continue to practice regrouping when adding two-digit numbers. We recently began to regroup when
subtracting. Some of the different strategies we will use will be using a hundred chart, regrouping tens,
and subtracting one digit numbers from two digit numbers. We continue to problem solve and practice
our math facts.

Grade 3

Language Arts

Students are enjoying their study of biographies in their anthologies. They are reflecting on what they
have read, sharing facts with partners, and writing
summaries. This activity helps them become more
aware of what they have read.
We are happily writing away on our animal reports and
will soon be finished with the first draft. Next we will be
engaged in peer editing and examining sentence
structure for repeat phrases (Sentence Fluency). Good
news: the library books can now be returned to the
library! Thanks for your support of our class book
project!

Social Studies

Third grade is now involved with learning about their

second early Florida tribe, the Timucuans. They are
learning and researching in preparation for assembling
the next group poster. They love learning about people
who lived here so long ago.

Science

Our trip to Sweetwater Organic Farm was inspiring. It’s

time to get out in the garden again! Students will weed
and organize the garden to prepare for the warm-
weather garden choices. Our compost cycle is
complete, and we will be using it as natural fertilizer.
You’ve got to love the cycle! We will have a big boost of
new green material from House Day, so we will need to
balance it out with some brown. Don’t forget to send in
your dryer lint, and if anyone is willing to shred their
newspaper for us, that would be GREAT!
Students completed their field test on minerals. Our
focus will now switch to rocks and the rock cycle.

Math

We will continue our study of division. Our focus will be on division facts for 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8. We will
use the multiplication table to show yet another relationship between multiplication and division. Please
continue to study the multiplication facts daily to help your child be successful. Thank you from the
bottom of our Valentine’s Day hearts.

Grade 4

Language Arts

In class, the students continue to gather interesting facts from their biographies. They are completing
graphic organizers and writing reports on laptops. In technology, they are transferring these ideas into
power point slides. In grammar, we will focus on adverbs and prepositions following our assessment of
pronouns.

Social Studies

The students learned many interesting facts from our

visiting Abraham Lincoln impersonator, Jim Getty.
Thank you to Dr. Persky who donated the resources
and made it possible for us to see and hear such a
wonderful historical figure come to life.
We continue to study the Northeastern region of the
United States. We will learn about the early history,
growth, and resources.

Science

Our buzz boxes should be finished soon and ready to

come home. The students are so eager to share their
learning with you. Allow them to explain the process
of a circuit. Listen to their strong usage of the correct
terminology. Working in groups, they will spend the
next two weeks planning and lighting four rooms of a
cardboard house.

Math

We will begin studying fractions by working with

equivalent fractions and finding the simplest form of a
fraction. We will then compare and order fractions,
and work with mixed numbers and improper fractions.
Did you know that four students have already mastered
their mad minute in multiplication and are now taking
division mad minute quizzes on Friday? Continue to
encourage your child’s mastery of multiplication facts.
I look forward to sharing many more Sonic treats with
students.

A big thank you to all. We raised

$82.00 for Helping Hands Pantry on
our last dress down day.
The Giraffe Club
Second Grade Went to MOSI
Upcoming Events…..

February 17, 2010

First grade hosts assembly – dress uniforms – 2:30 p.m.

February 19, 2010

Giraffe Club sponsors Jeans for Haiti Day – everyone is allowed to wear blue jeans (no rips or tears) for
$2.00. All monies will go to UNICEF to help those in need in Haiti.

Pet Day (postponed from February 12) – 2:00 p.m.

February 24, 2010

SK hosts assembly – dress uniforms – 2:30 p.m.
Ms. Uthe’s class to ABC TV – dress uniforms – 9:45 a.m. – 1:45 p.m.
SK to the dentist

February 25, 2010

Day of Manners – dress uniforms
SK to Chili’s – 10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Grade 3 to Florida Pioneer Museum – 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

February 26, 2010

Re-enrollment contracts are due

February 27, 2010

Academy competes in Odyssey of the Mind

March 5 and 6, 2010

All School Production – Wesley Chapel Center

March 8, 2010
Grandparents’ Day – 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

March 10, 2010

JK hosts assembly – dress uniforms – 2:30 p.m.

March 11, 2010

End of third quarter

March 12, 2010

No classes – Professional Day

March 17, 2010

Grade 3 hosts assembly – dress uniforms – 2:30 p.m.

March 19, 2010

Report cards go home