September 2009
Justina Road Elementary
T
OR
SH
TES Reminders
NO
From the Front
Office
✓ School begins promptly at
8:30am. Breakfast is
served from 7:50am to
8:20am. Any students
who arrives after the bell
will be marked tardy.
Frequent absences and
tardies will result in a
mandatory meeting with
the school counselor.
✓ All visitors should report
to the main office. Visits
to your child’s classroom
must have been pre-
arranged with your child’s
teacher. Interruptions to
instruction must be kept
to a minimum.
✓ Students should be picked
up by 3:00 pm. Bus riders
are dismissed at 2:50 pm,
Car riders at 2:55 pm and
All other students at 3:00
pm.
✓ If making alternate
arrangements for a child
to go home, please let
your child’s teacher know
by sending a note in the
morning. Please avoid
calling the front office at
the end of the day with
changes in how your child
gets home.
✓ Finally, remember that
according to district
policy students will not be
released after 2:15. School
continues until the last
bell rings.
Connection
From Mrs. Maxey Focus on the Positive: Praise
Welcome Back! The faculty and
your child for the wonderful things
that they are up to. Review their
staff at Justina have been busily homework and projects. Know that
preparing for your child’s return. We we at Justina are focusing on the
know that the 2009-2010 school year positive as well. We recognize
will be a memorable one for both students daily for doing the right
students and teachers. Here are a few thing through positive referrals and
ways you can make your child’s monthly through our selection of the
experience the best it can possibly be: student and the month as well as
Make attendance a priority: quarterly with awards for academic
Let your child know unless they’re achievement and good behavior. If
sick they must attend school. Try to you take these three suggestions to
schedule doctor’s or dentist heart your child is sure to have a
appointments after school. Make sure wonderful year.
that your child is on time. Breakfast
is provided!
Show you care: Get involved. Upcoming Events
Stop by the front office to fill out a
volunteer application. Check the Sept 3rd - Ronald McDonald Visit
website or front office bulletin board $ K-2
so you know what events are going on
at Justina and attend as many as you Sept 3rd - OPEN HOUSE 5:30pm
can. Schedule Parent Conferences and
Sept 7th - Labor Day - No School
stay in contact with your child’s
teacher. Your first opportunity to find Sept 9th & 23rd - Early Release
out more about Justina and contact
Sept 25 - Progress Reports
your child’s teacher will be September
3rd for Open House. Make sure to
Sept 29 - Student of the Month
join our PTA.
Parent Power
Several tips to help parents of young children promote literacy at home.
✓ Choose a special place for family reading, like a comfortable chair or
pillows piled on the floor.
✓ Let your child select the book for you to read aloud.
✓ Take time to look at and talk about the pictures. Don't just read the
story: talk about it.
✓ Understand that reading begins at home. Children read their
environments, so make your home a print rich environment.
✓ Read! Don't expect reading to be important to your children if they
see that it's not important to you.
✓ Invite your child to read to you.
✓ Read aloud to your child every day.
*adapted from My First Week of School© by Derrick Gantt
Justina Road Elementary Connection
3. Write favorite jokes on slips of paper.
Home Activity Reading Center
Giggle Break! 4. Over a period of several days, during dinner, pull a
joke out of a hat or box and enjoy the laughter.
Take a giggle break for a good laugh.
What Else You Can Do
What You Need
* Record the jokes and share them with friends and
* Age-appropriate joke books and magazines relatives.
* A box or hat * Make a family joke book. For each page of the book,
What to Do show a picture of a family member and surround the
1. Tell a few different kinds of jokes to set the mood. picture with their favorite jokes. Decorate the cover with
funny drawings.
2. Tell your favorite joke, riddle, or funny story. If you
As suggested by Houghton Mifflin Home Activity Center©
need inspiration and ideas, use the joke books and
magazines.

Extra-Extra
Book of Boxtops!
Book of the
the Month Month: The We will be collecting boxtops again this year
Name Jar at Justina. Our goal is 1500 $. If every Justina
family were to collect 50 boxtops over the course of the school year we
The compelling story of a little girl’s
could easily reach this goal. You can clip 10¢ Box Tops coupons from
first day at a new school in a new
hundreds of your favorite products such as Cheerios®, Betty Crocker®,
country. The little girl, Unhei, has just
Juicy Juice®, Ziploc®, Kleenex®, Hefty® and more! Make sure to turn
moved from Korea to the United States
in your boxtops to your child’s classroom teacher.
and nervously anticipates her first day.
It doesn’t take Unhei long – just a bus Don’t Forget Your Family Passport!
ride to school – to realize that her name This year we will continue the tradition of handing out Family
is different. Unhei decides she needs an passports. Every time a parent or family participates in a Justina
American name and her new classmates Event (parent conferences, PTA, volunteering etc) you
agree to help her find one. The next will receive a signature on your passport. Signatures
morning she finds a jar full of American can be redeemed for various prizes. Stop by the
names on her desk. All she has to do is front office to get your card signed! Passports will be
decide which name handed out at open house.
she will use.
Learner Profiles &
Attitudes:
Commitment,
Cooperation and Justina Road Elementary is continuing the journey to
IB
Being Reflective becoming an authorized Primary Years Programme. The
k PYP is designed to offer an interdisciplinary curriculum
Lin structured around important themes. Each grade level has
careful crafted units and lesson plans that revolve around
Contact Us these certain themes. These concepts include Where We Are
in Place and Time, How We Express Ourselves, How the
Justina Road Elementary World Works, How We Organize Ourselves, and Sharing
3101 Justina Road the Planet. If wish to know which unit of study your child
Jacksonville, FL 32277 is on you can check the bulletin board in the front hallway.
These units encourage active engagement in the learning
904.745.4909 process. There is a focus on internationalism and global
www.duvalschools.org/justina awareness.
Justina Road Elementary Connection
Academic Focus
Reading & Writing
Teaching of the district anchor lessons 1-10. The district anchor
lessons are used to establish the rituals and routines of the classroom
for the implementation of the Workshop Model. Readers and
Writers Workshop includes an Opening Instruction, Work Time and
a Closing.
The Opening Instruction (mini-lesson) is a whole group activity
with a focus on a skill or reading/writing strategy through a shared
and modeled approach.
The reading Work Time is for small group instruction including
guided reading, differentiation and independent application of new
learning into literacy activities.
The Closing is a whole group activity where connections are
made to the Opening Instruction and students reflect on their
learning.
Skills Block occurs outside of the 90 minute Readers Workshop
timeframe. It includes: Two or three 10-15 minute activities,
Interactive Instruction, and Explicit instruction in:
K-2 Phonics, Phonemic Awareness, Vocabulary, Fluency,
Comprehension
3-5 Spelling, Grammar, Vocabulary, Fluency, Comprehension
K - Lab activities that explore observing and
Science comparing objects, weather, and seasons.
1 - Lab activities that explore making,
describing, and recording observations.
2 - Lab activities that explore scientific questioning, observing,
measuring, and recording.
3 - Lab activities to explore scientific processes & tools.
4 - Lab activities to explore the Solar System & planets.
5 - Lab activities that explore observing, measuring, comparing,
classifying
K My World - Families and Friends:
Mathematics
All grade levels will be participating in
implementing rituals and routines, while
exploring the use and care of math
manipulatives.
K - Observe and describe attributes of the
manipulatives.
1 - Comparing and finding relationships
among geometric shapes. Counting objects up
to 20 objects.
2 - Describing and sorting materials on the
basis of their attributes. Identifying categories
for different things. Counting a set of objects.
Writing number expressions to describe
configurations of cubes.
3 - Comparing two numbers and developing
strategies for figuring out the difference
between them. Developing ways of getting close
to 100 by combining numbers. Using landmark
numbers (multiples of 10 and 100) to help in
making a comparison of two quantities.
4 - Using skip counting as a model for
multiplication Seeing multiplication as an
accumulation of groups of a number. Looking
for the multiplication patterns of numbers.
Interpreting standard multiplication and
division notation. Using known relationships to
solve harder relationships.
5 - Skip counting by 2, 3, and 4 digit
numbers between any two 4 to 5 digit numbers.
Relating repeated addition or skip counting to
multiplication. Using skip-counting patterns to
help solve multiplication and division problems.
Developing, explaining, and comparing
strategies for subtracting 4 and 5 digit numbers.

ial Families are made of adults and children. Recording computation strategies using words,
S o c numbers, and arithmetic symbols. Reading,
dies 1 School & Family - People Everywhere:
writing, and sequencing 4 and 5 digit numbers.
St u Families are made of adults and children who
cooperate.
2 Neighborhoods - People and Places:
Neighborhoods are made of many different families.
3 Community - Places We Live: The places we live are known
as communities. Land and Resources: The land and resources in
the United States are diverse and plentiful.
4 Florida History - The Geography of Florida: The
geography of a place helps to shape the lives of the people who live
there.
5 US History - America’s Land: The land and climate of
America are very diverse and provide many benefits and challenges.