Campus News

Lower Division Newsletter

March 26, 2010

Junior Kindergarten

Language Arts

Our new theme will be “Growing and Changing”. We will discuss

life cycles of people and animals and observe how we have
changed over time, as well as learn how nature changes!
We will introduce the letter “E” and “D” and the High Frequency
Words – play and she. We will introduce the “ox” word family.
Handwriting will focus on the letter “Nn” and “Ww”, as we
continue to practice writing our first and last names and practice
the proper pencil grip.

Social Studies

We will talk about family history and relationships and practice our
new virtue, “Truthfulness”. We will also discuss caring for our
environment and how our clothing depends on the environment.
Through our discussions, we hope to become aware of what it
means to become a consumer.

Science

“Investigating Water” will be our new theme for April and May. We
will be learning through a lot of play activities and experiments
with what sinks, floats, and dissolves.

Math

We will demonstrate an awareness of symmetry and continue to

practice our measuring, graphing, tally marks, capacities, and
weighing. We will represent, predict, and extend patterns and
learn how to classify, collect, and record data by creating charts
and graphs.

Senior Kindergarten

Day of Achievement is fast approaching. We can’t wait to see you on May7th at 9:30. Please
go over the lines that we will send home in Friday’s folder.

Language Arts

We will be starting our sea life unit .The children will be listening to the story of Swimmy and The
Rainbow Fish. 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 re-
tell 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 this
week, the children will review long vowels /a/, /e/ and /i/. The
children will also be reviewing blends and digraphs. The
children are learning to expand their ideas when writing. The
main focus is brain storming their ideas on one 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 and Virtues

The children will go over their phone numbers,

address, and tying their shoes. These are valuable
self-help skills. Please reinforce these at home. The
children will be on all of these things in the upcoming
weeks.
This month, the virtue is Truthfulness. Students will
read books and discuss the importance of
truthfulness.

Math

Our focus the next couple of weeks will be reviewing

tens/ones, odd and even numbers, adding and
subtracting numbers to 15, using our touch points to count money, and our May calendar with complex
patterns. We will continue with place value to100, adding with tens and ones, fractions, telling time, and
3-dimentional shapes. On Friday, we will be going over to first grade and doing Munchie Math with them.

Science

Our Sea life unit is off to a great start. Mrs. Szarko will read us a great story during media time this week
on the oceans. The children will look at maps to identify the oceans and talk about many different types
of fish.

Grade 1

Language Arts

In reading, the children are using different strategies for comprehension and decoding unknown words,
such as using context clues, picture clues, and reading on to see if they can figure out an unknown word.
This week in language arts, we will continue to find root words and learn how to add suffixes to short
vowel words.

Social Studies

Social Studies is always fun! We are learning about the 7 continents and special land forms such as
mountains, rivers, lakes, and deserts.
Math

In math we will continue to work on mastering math facts to 18. Please continue to practice each
evening. The children are expected to master 50 facts in 5 minutes by the end of the year. Practice
makes perfect. Our next unit in math will cover the value of coins to one dollar and counting coins to one
dollar. Please practice counting money to one dollar.

Science

In science, we will finish up our unit on measuring and weighing using non–standard units of
measurement as well as standard units of measurement. The children are enjoying measuring themselves
and other classroom objects.

Grade 2

Language Arts

The second graders are really enjoying our new theme “Family Time.” We have talked about people in
our families and then we talked about special foods that represent our culture. We will continue to read
stories that talk about families. We also began to read Charlotte’s Web together as a group. The
children like the story and enjoy reading a big chapter book together. I am so happy that they are so
engaged during our reading experiences.
As we continue the theme, we will review reading strategies while developing story elements and
retelling skills. The selections will help us to predict, make judgments, make inferences, monitor and
clarify, sequence events, and summarize. Our phonics and spelling skills focus will include the sound of y
at the end of words, the prefix un–, base words, –ed and –ing endings, and gh, k(n) and b silent
consonant sounds. Our writing experiences will center upon developing good paragraphs with details,
composing letters, writing an informative paragraph, and writing stories. Our grammar will focus on
nouns and verbs.

Social Studies

We will begin an inquiry of United States symbols and United States major landforms. The students will
begin by exploring landforms using play dough and then research a type of landform for a project. We
will use maps again to identify landforms in our country and where they are located. Our country is a
great big country, and it is very beautiful!

Science

We will be wrapping up our unit “Changes.” We will review solids, liquids, and gases. We will test,
observe, and describe changes in experiments. We will explore looking at rust and identify solids and
liquids that can interact in a variety of ways. The second graders will then begin the last unit of study
“Balancing and Weighing.” The children will build structures that balance and then explore the balance
beam.

Math

We continue to practice regrouping when adding and subtracting. Our main focus of study has been
counting money. We will continue to develop our money skills by making change with nickels, dimes,
and quarters and use these coins to show different ways to make certain amounts. Then, we will begin
to focus on time with hour and half-hour, writing time, telling time in 15 minute intervals, and identifying
elapsed time. Our calendar focus will look at days, weeks, and months. We always continue to practice
problem solving and our math facts.

Grade 3

Language Arts

Students are now reading and recording their individual biographies in class. All of the biographies are
interesting, but they are of varying lengths. If your child has selected a longer biography, it may be
necessary for them to complete a chapter or section at home. We need your help to be sure the book
gets back into your child’s backpack so they are ready for the next day.
Third grade is doing a wonderful job writing their opinion papers. We will continue working on them and
sharing them. In addition, we will be learning capitalization rules. Soon the animal reports will be made
into a class book which promises to be the best ever written!

Social Studies

We will be learning about the Spanish explorers and their impact on Florida. After reading about the four
main Spanish explorers, students will create a poster which highlights the main facts learned about each
explorer.

Science

The rock projects were fantastic! I do hope you had the

opportunity to see them in the media center. The
researched facts and creativity used for the models
were impressive. It is also very exciting to hear about
the connection your child now has with their particularly
rock or monument. It’s just the best!
We have moved into our sound unit and things are
certainly humming and buzzing. Students will be
exploring sound through vibrations they can see and not
see. From there we will explore pitch and what we can
do to change pitch. Stay “tuned;” I hope you will be
hearing about some exciting instruments that we will be
creating in class. Students will also be learning about the parts of the ear and how to protect their
hearing.
Due to circumstances beyond our control….the weather, we missed the opportunity to plant another
vegetable garden in time to harvest before the end of the year. So we have decided to plant a beautiful
flower garden. I look forward to a harvest of spectacular colors!

Math

In math we have been studying time using analog clocks. This is the perfect opportunity to review the
five times table! We encourage you to ask your child the time at various points of the day. If you have
digital time, please ask your child to say the time in a different way using the words, minutes, quarter, to,
past or after. If we do not get to the test before break, upon our return we will review time, using a
calendar, and schedule to prepare for our chapter test.

Grade 4

Language Arts
We are busy working on our state research project. We
will be completing our postcards, brochures, state facts,
and mini biographies in class. Upon completion, the
projects will go home to be added to the backboards for
presentation day. Travel brochures have been ordered
and should be arriving to your homes over the break.
They may be utilized however the students deem
necessary - for information or to cut up for the pictures
and maps. You may find yourselves planning a summer
vacation after all is said and done! The students will also
be working on an opinion essay sharing why someone
should choose to visit their state. We will continue
reading the works of Roald Dahl in our reading groups
through the end of the year.

Social Studies

Our next region of study will be the Midwest. We will focus on the
geography, early history, and transportation. Our skills focus will be
reading flowcharts and comparing historical maps.

Science

Our unit on Motion and Design is moving forward with a high level of
enthusiasm. The students have constructed their “standard vehicles”
from K’nex building materials and will use them to conduct their
investigations. They will be modifying their vehicles to meet time and
weight challenges, experimenting with rubber band energy, evaluating
design features that reduce or increase friction, and adapting their
vehicles to hold a sail. In their free time, they’ve enjoyed building
ramps and jumping their vehicles in the back of class. Imagine that.

Math

After the break, we will be identifying geometric figures and finding the area, volume, and perimeter of
solid figures in Chapter 18. We will continue quizzes on Fridays to assess the fast recall of multiplication
and division facts.

Our Odyssey of the Mind teams will present the skits that earned a second place
finish at the recent Regional competition. They will perform during the first grade
assembly on April 21, 2010 at 2:30 p.m.

Variety show auditions will be held from 3:00-4:00 p.m. on

Thursday, April 22nd & Friday, April 23rd.

Save the dates:

JK and SK Day of Achievement: May 7, 2010
Grade 1 – 4 Day of Achievement: May 21, 2010
Upcoming Events…..

March 29 – April 9, 2010

No School – Spring Break

April 20, 2010

Fourth grade parents meeting with fifth grade teachers and Mr. Pitcairn – 8:45 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. in the
5th/6th grade suite in McCormick Campus

April 21, 2010

Transition Day – all grades will visit with their grade for the coming school year
Grade 4 – 8:05 – 10:15 – drop off at McCormick Campus
All other grades – 9:00-9:30 a.m. at Wendlek Campus
Grade 1 hosts assembly – dress uniforms – 2:15 p.m.
Odyssey of the Mind teams perform at Grade 1 assembly – 2:15 p.m.

April 22, 2010

Day of Manners – dress uniforms
Grade 1 goes to the puppet theater – dress uniforms – 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Grade 2 Parent Conferences

April 23, 2010

Grade 2 to Tampa Theater – dress uniforms

April 26, 2010

JK Parent Conferences

April 27, 2010

SK Parent Conferences

April 28, 2010

Grade 1 Parent Conferences

April 29, 2010

Spring Concert – McCormick Gym

April 30, 2010

Grade 3 Parent Conferences
SK and Grade 1 to Honeymoon Island

Second Grade Gets to Bake Bread at Publix

First Grade Visits ABC Studios
Both first grade classes got to visit a
television studio and sat in on a live
broadcast. They learned about how
news broadcasts are prepared and
presented. They had a wonderful
learning experience!