Independence E elementary News Page 1
Principal’s Corner
Another quarter has flown by and we are heading into the holiday break! We have had so many wonderful things happening at Independence during 2nd quarter.
I had the pleasure of meeting with each 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade student to set a math and reading goal to work toward. For the most part, the students could immediately verbalize the skills that they want to focus on and learn more about this year. I will follow up with each student in the spring to see if they made progress on their individual goals. It was so much fun to have individual conversations with the children about their learning!
Once again, I would like to thank our PTO for all of their ongoing support with our building initiatives. Because of the support of our families, we were able to adopt 13 of our own families this year and provide them with a memorable holiday season. We were also able to purchase 3 more SMARTBoards for the children to use. With the help of our PTO, we purchased 6 Kindles for the students to use here at school. We are currently in the process of purchasing RAZZ Kids for our teachers to utilize as a way of supporting and enhancing reading for our students. All of these things are possible because of our wonderful PTO. We would not be able to provide all of the amazing things we share with our students without the help of our
PTO. Thank you so much for your continued support of learning at Independence.
Character Connection continues to be one of my favorite things to do at Independence. Character Connection occurs 2 times per month and lasts 30 minutes per session. The Character Connection team consists of administrators, counselors and Vacation Station coordinators. We plan lessons and activities that deal directly with Character Education’s 11 Principles. We get to hear the students’ voice and any concerns that they have here at school. We also take the time to address any behavior or other issues that have been brought to our attention. The K-5 regular education teachers utilize this additional time to plan for interventions. It is a wonderful program for both students and teachers.
In closing, I wish you all the very best holiday season yet. See you in 2012!
Sincerely,
Emily Allen
Assistant Principals
CHARACTER CORNER
Second quarter has been very successful for Independence Elementary in many ways. In particularly, our Character Education team has met several times to analyze where our school is with Character Education. Character Education is centered on 11 Principles, and our Character Education team analyzed all of the things we do at Independence to monitor the alignment with those 11 Principles. Through our analysis, it is confirmed that Character Education is a high priority for Independence.
If you didn’t already know, Independence’s teachers and students focus each day around 4 CORE CHARACTER WORDS: RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY, FRIENDSHIP, AND HONESTY. Each morning, after the staff and students say the Pledge of Allegiance, everyone also recites the Independence Mission statement which is “Independence Elementary where all Individuals are Inspired to Think and Learn Independently and Show Good Character At All Times”. Teachers regularly have class meetings and discussions with their classes about what it means to show good character. It is the goal that all staff and students know what it means to be Respectful, Responsible, Honest, and a good Friend because having good character will help lead to academic success.
Lastly, our Climate Surveys has been completed so I wanted to thank everyone who participated. Some strengths that were shared with us from the parents who completed the survey are:
* 94% of the parents feel like staff members effectively communicate with them.
* 96% of the parents feel like Independence teachers set high expectations for learning.
* 95% of the parents feel like Independence staff members value their ideas/input.
These are just a few of the celebrations from the Parent Climate Survey. The Character Education team will analyze this data, and make adjustments to the School Improvement Plan to find ways to make changes for any areas that might need improvement.
Your ideas are valuable to us so thank you again for participating in the survey. Look forward to a second survey in 4th quarter.
Happy Holidays!
Jana Schultz
Assistant Principal
Kindergarten News
Second quarter always seems to come and go so quickly! The kindergartners have been busy with many fun filled activities. Our quarter started off with a fun filled field trip to Centennial Farms! We learned about bees and how they produce honey and then got to explore a pumpkin patch and pick our very own pumpkins off the vine! What a fun day! As the quarter continued we did a lot of preparing for our Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast. The last day before we left for the holiday, we had our annual Thanksgiving Feast! What an amazing day! Thank you to the parent helpers, we could not do it without you! As we head to the end of the quarter all of the kindergarten classes will Video Conference with Mrs. Claus in the North Pole and we will visit six different countries during our Holidays Around the World project! Looking forward to third quarter we are very excited to come back with an author study on Jan Brett! Our kindergarteners are really working hard during writer’s workshop and we are all so thrilled to see the progress our little authors are making! We hope everyone has an amazing holiday and we will see you in 2012!
First Grade
First grade had a great 2nd quarter! We have been working very hard learning to read and becoming independent writers.
In reading, we have been working on the word families: un, ug, et, ed, ick, ack, ill, ell, ail, ain, ake and ale. We’ve learned about the digraphs “th” and “sh.” We have discovered the importance of changing our voices when we are reading dialogue. We have also learned how to go back and reread parts of a story that we find confusing.
In math we have been working on fact families and learning about subtraction. We’ve also practiced counting tally marks and counting coins.
First grade hosted their annual Food Drive this November. It was a huge success! We donated to St. Joachim and Ann Care Center. They are always very appreciative of our support. We are very proud of our students for their kindness and generosity.
We will end our quarter by decorating gingerbread houses and having our class parties. We would like to thank all parents for their support and for reading with their children each evening. We appreciate all that you do!
Second Grade
The second graders are off to a great start this year. In communication arts, the students read a lot of great books and did a lot of writing. They enjoyed “connecting” to books and stories by sharing and writing about events in their own lives that are similar to those from a book. They used their listening skills to create images and make visual pictures in their minds as they listened to stories and poems. The students worked on using proper mechanics when they write, utilizing rich vocabulary words to make their writing more interesting and working through the writing process to edit and revise their work. In math, the students practiced using different addition and subtraction strategies to solve math facts and story problems. In science we compared animal life cycles, and in social studies we studied landmarks and important people, places and celebrations in our country’s history.
We held our weekly town hall meetings on Wednesdays, and outstanding students in each class were recognized with a “Character Kid of the Week” award. The second graders also enjoyed the student-to-student recognition when they shared outstanding character behavior that they observed from their own peers.
During our fall break, we encourage you to help your child stay sharp in spelling and math by checking out 2 great websites. They are www.spellingcity.com and www.studyisland.com . “Spelling City” is a fun, interactive way to practice spelling words. You may use old spelling words or any high frequency or challenge words that you feel would benefit your child. Study Island” is a great place to practice math facts. The students are pretty familiar with this site and should be able to log on their own.
We wish everyone a safe and enjoyable fall break!
The Second Grade Teachers
Third Grade
Happy Holidays! Students are continuing to learn and grow in third grade. They have been practicing multiplication and division and working with graphs in math. Cursive is improving, and we will continue to practice it next quarter. We learned about the water cycle (we even learned a song – ask your child) and had a great time exploring science. We used this quarter to learn about cultures in social studies.
Also this quarter, we attended the play, Ramona, at the Florissant Civic Center. The students were able to use their knowledge of Ramona’s character traits and her stories to compare to this performance.
As we head into 3rd Quarter, Third Graders will be asked to select a service project. This project will be a shared effort between the Third Grade and our First Grade buddies. It is our hope that students will feel intrinsic rewards and satisfaction for assisting our community through their work.
All the third grade teachers wish you a great Christmas break and a Happy New Year!
Fourth Grade
Second quarter in fourth grade brought many new math, science, and social studies topics. In math we worked on double digit by single digit multiplication, telling time to the minute, perimeter, area, and we explored three dimensional shapes. It is so important that your child is practicing their multiplication and division facts at home. Our math continues to build on those basic facts. Knowing their facts (up to 12x12) is a great way for your child to get ahead in math! In science, we explored simple machines, rocks, and minerals. We thoroughly enjoyed our field trip to Meramac Caverns! Our focus during social studies was on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Government. In writing your child learned about functional writing and story writing. Ask your child about all the novels they read and the writing they published this quarter!
Fifth Grade
Congratulations to all of our D.A.R.E. graduates and for their hard work at completing the program and learning so much from Officer Sandy. Each student was required to write an essay focusing on the information shared during the D.A.R.E. lessons. The essays were very well written and it was very evident that each student walked away with learning how to “Just say NO!” to drugs and alcohol. Our fifth graders were very fortunate to have been able to participate in these lessons taught by Officer Sandy. We wish her the best as she begins to enjoy what retirement is all about!
Students have also been working on mastering their division and multiplication fluency facts. Our fifth graders are working very hard at achieving the grade level goal before Christmas and they are almost there. Please continue to practice at home as fluency is a big part of mastering these facts which will help promote continued success.
Greetings from Art
Greetings from the Art Rooms
Second quarter has been busy as usual in art!
The primary grade levels have been following their grade level expectations with different fall activities.
Kindergarteners worked on the diamond (rhombus) shape by making a lion. They painted symmetrical pumpkins by using a printing method. They reviewed shapes by painting a shape house and creating a shape robot from paper. Finishing out the fall, they have made Native American vests to wear for their Thanksgiving feast and created their own dinner from paper!
First graders have combined shapes to make owls overlapping on trees. Using shapes and texture rubbings they made themselves falling into leaves. Large scarecrows using primary and secondary colors were made. Learning about texture, cornucopias will arrive home soon! Native American will be discussed and thunderbirds will be made.
Second graders worked on positive and negative symmetrical pumpkins. They also did a great job on their warm and cool colored aluminum leaf rubbings. A wise old owl was drawn on top of some literature from an art book, and they are working extensively with Native American projects. Totem poles, parafleche and clay story tellers have been projects made during this time.
Secondary level students continue to do art projects that follow our Art History time line.
Third graders have made urns when learning about Greek and Roman times. In the Middle Ages, castles were made and Coat of Arms and helmets followed.
Fourth graders created mosaics for the Greek and Roman times. Knight’s armor were created from aluminum foil . The Renaissance era is a fun time! Students are making plaster mask faces to decorate.