Mustang Messages … October 2017
The mission of RudolphMatasElementary School is to maintain high academic
achievement by meeting the diverse learning needs of every student.
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Happy October, everyone! The calendar shows that we are officially into the fall season, but the weather seems to want to remain in summer. We have many exciting events coming up for our students, most notably our annual Fall Fest on October 27th. Our PTO has been hard at work on this year’s festival and help is always needed, so please contact the school if you are able to assist, or please attend our next PTO meeting. Additionally, the end of the first nine weeks is approaching, ending on October 13th. Please make sure your students continue to work hard, and parents, please plan ahead to attend Parent/Teacher Conferences on November 1st from 4 PM until 7 PM. Our teachers and staff have been working very hard in their classrooms, and your students are busy learning every day. As always, thank you for allowing us the privilege of educating your child, here at Matas.
Mr. Deemer
Pre-K -Wow, we’ve been very busy learning so much in
Pre – K! Some of the things we’ve learned are: walking in line, following school and classroom rules, and cafeteria procedures. Of course, we are learning: the letters in our names, numbers, how to listen to a story, how to share toys and how to be a good friend. Our first theme was “My School and Me,” and now our theme is “My Family and Friends.” Besides having our families at home, we are a school family! Learning is fun in Pre – K!
Kindergarten -October is a busy month for Kindergarten! We have learned our rules and routine and are full swing in our curriculum! We are working super hard on letter sounds, reading and writing words with those sounds, and putting those words together to make sentences! We also love reading and making books with these words. You can help us with this by reading to us every night before bed and letting us read the words we know in the book. Reading a lot makes us better readers! We are excited about fall and learning about all the fun things that fall brings! Make sure to check our folders daily and read our homework sheets carefully to keep up with all the excitement! We would like to congratulate our September and October Students of the Month-Sophia Ramirez, Dariel Cesario, Natalia Hussein, Samira Betancourth, Jaelyn Pineda and Chase Girard! They are doing an awesome job of being safe, responsible and respectful as well as shining brightly in their work! Awesome job!!
Ms. Davis – Kindergarten Special Ed - Fall is here! Our theme for the month of October is family and friends. Students will continue engaging in academics such as Math, English and Language Arts Skills. Students will work on social skills through play and interaction with their peers and teachers. Parents I encourage you to communicate with your children. My assistants and I will continue to assists your child with his or her educational needs.
First Grade-The first graders are doing a great job in the first quarter. In ELA they are blending short vowel words and will soon start blending long vowel words. They are also recognizing nouns in sentences. In math they will begin using addition and subtraction strategies. It would be a good idea to buy or make some addition and subtraction fact flash cards to 12 and help your child learn them.
Please remember to sign the space on the behavior calendar every night. A new scale will be going home in October that is aligned with the new grading scale for conduct. Also, please
remember to sign the test folder when it goes home and return all tests in it.
Second Grade - Fall is here! We are wishing for cooler weather. Second graders will be learning about animals in Science and the environments they live in. The students have been working very hard learning all about addition and subtraction strategies in Math. Currently we are using arrays and repeated addition to learn about multiplication. Our reading has been quite varied. We have been working together to retell a story, determine the lesson, and describe how characters respond to challenges. Soon the students will be able to write a fictional narrative on their own. The children are discovering how to identify fiction, nonfiction, biographies, and more. Students are also sharpening their critical thinking skills by responding to different types of literature. Continue to check Homework folders and work with your child every night. Finally, we would like to announce the Student of the Month for each 2nd Grade class! This award is given monthly to a student who is always doing the right thing! Congratulations to Jayden Jatho, Elissa King, and Jaiden Diaz for the month of September and Vivian Tan, Katie Walker, and Brandon Osorto for the month of October!
Third Grade- We want to compliment the students on the fantastic work they have done so far in third grade. “Student of the Month” for September goes to: Anais Wilson, Mina Tubre, and A’Liyah Beverly. “Student of the Month” for October goes to: Kaleb White, Jonas Pursell, and Christopher Graff. Congratulations to these students for always being Safe, Respectful, and Responsible.
This month, the students will continue to practice previously taught Math skills as they work on becoming fluent in multiplication and division. They will also begin practicing measurement of time, weight, and volume. Please try to reinforce these skills at home each day. In Language Arts, students will continue to improve their writing skills and explore different genres of literature. Our grammar focus this month will be nouns and pronouns. The mysterious world of Science will be explored through exciting hands-on investigations with Forces and Motion. Third grade continues to study our great state in social studies, and we are learning to locate physical features of Louisiana and use map skills.
October is filled with a variety of activities. The end of the first nine weeks is October 13, and report cards will be sent home on October 19. Please continue to check your child’s test folder for weekly grades and other important information about your child’s progress. Welcome fall and let the cooler weather come!
Fourth Grade- This first quarter we have been reading the novel “Ninth Ward” and working on the following skills; supporting evidence, context clues and character traits. We have also been learning how to do narrative writing. In Math the fourth grade students are working on multistep problems with addition, subtraction and multiplication. Students should be studying their multiplication facts every night. We will be starting multiplication and division fact families. In Science, we just finished learning about how land changes over time. This month we will discuss how animals and weather can effect land. In Social Studies, it is important that the students work hard this month to memorize the location of all 50 states. We will be dividing the United States into regions and learnabout the climate and natural resources in each area that help make the United States a successful country.
Fifth Grade -Happy Fall Yall! We are continuing to read Wonderstruck in ELA. We are working on comparing & contrasting characters, settings, and events, finding the theme of a poem and story, and summarizing. Please make sure your students are reading at least 20 minutes a night. Studies show that reading for at least 20 minutes per night enriches vocabulary and boosts tests scores. Just as athletes need to practice, so do readers need to practice!
In Math, the fifth graders are working on long division and long multiplication. Students should study and memorize the multiplication facts to master them.
In Science, we are finishing a unit on force and motion. Next week we will begin our unit on Native American Tribes in Social Studies. Remember to study your notes daily!
Sixth Grade/Seventh Grade/Eight Grade- Middle School is excited to be back for another fantastic year! We have already had an exciting Back to School dance with J.C. Ellis, and we are looking forward to more fun activities. Teachers would like to remind students that all of the fun activities at Matas are an earned privileged, so they must work hard to ensure that they can go to these events. Both students and teachers are looking forward to all of the exciting fundraisers (and the prizes that go along with them!) that PTO has planned for us. Teachers would also like to remind students to study hard, and do their best in very class. Let's make this the best year yet!
P.E.News- The students in PE have been working hard improving their basic locomotor skills and learning the skills associated with football. The students in Middle School have been competing in flag football leagues, and the younger students have been flag pulling, catching, running, and throwing. We are expecting a visit from the Saints Play Football Experience on October 2nd for the third and fourth grade students. Students will need signed permission slips in order to participate. The students have been doing a great job discussing and asking questions so far. In addition to staying active, we need keep using our brains.
Art/Music – We will celebrate the season fall in October. Students will learn about colors and how to mix them. Pumpkins will be a reoccurring image for our works of art. Drawing and arranging pumpkins will improve the students’ composition skills. Middle school students will immerse themselves into the world of dragons. They will do research about these mythical creatures in books and will create a dragon drawing. At the same time they will learn about the Asian culture and attempt to paint Chinese/Japanese word symbols.
Library – Mrs. Kabel- Library News-THE BOOK FAIR IS COMING!!!!!!!!!
The Fall Book Fair will be from October 13th-October 20th. The fair will be open for regularly scheduled library classes from 10:00 each day. However, on Friday, October 20th. The fair will close at 11:00 am. We will have a Family Night on Tuesday, October 17th. The book fair will be open from 6:30-7:45 to accommodate families wanting to shop together. Students will have an opportunity to write a wish list on Friday, October 13th. Students with money will come to shop at the fair the next weekduring their regularly scheduled library time. We will NOT SELL BOOKS on Friday, October 13th. Books usually range from $4.00 on up. Books can be purchased with a check made payable to Rudolph Matas, or Cash. Credit cards are not accepted. Hope to see you there!!
Mrs. Larkin’s Class – MD Special Ed.- Mrs. Larkin’s class will be involved with creating fall related activities. Welcome fall. Jacob is our student of the month for October. Our class will also find out information about Physical Science, Move it. That is the theme for the October unit in Unique. One of the books that will be shown on the Promethean Board is Make Your Body Move Now. The students in a classroom learn about dancing bymoving their body, clapping and waving hands, running, stomping, hopping, andshaking theirhips. The second book that will be shown is Tina Goes tothe Carnival. As Tina moves around the carnival, she goes on various rides, some fast and some slow, and plays various games.
Mrs. Hilliard– Special Ed - Our Unique learning system October lessons address the topic of Physical Science. The unit looks at motion and movement. The student will learn that objects move as a result of a push or a pull. Ms. Hilliard's class will also do fun activities related to Halloween such as: witch mobiles, balloon ghosts, etc.
10 PTO Meeting
12 Canes Night (4-8)
19 Report Cards
13-19 Book Fair
17 Family Night (6:30-8:00)
19 Report cards
25 Early Release for students 1:20pm
27 Fall Fest