PreSchool News

The theme we are working on is My Five Senses.  We will discuss all the senses (smell, touch, taste, hear and see) with the students and how they use them in their ever day lives.  The next theme will be Seasons All Around.

For writing we will be adding details to our “Play Plans”.  Play plans are completed every day as a beginning writing activity.  Students draw themselves and the area that they will be playing in.  Lastly, they write a message that starts:  “I am going to _____________”  and they then identify the area they are playing in (ie; house).   We will also be focusing on story re-tell for, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” and “Brown, Bear, Brown, Bear What Do You See?”

The math concepts we will be working on are patterns and counting.  We will be focusing on basic AB patterns (ie; blue, green, blue, green).  At home you can help students identify basic patterns in their life.  Patterns can be found in clothing, environmental print, toys, etc.  Lastly, continue to work on counting with your students.  You can count number of steps, toys, bites taken during meals, people in family and more.

–Ms. Elaine & Ms. Sadie

Kindergarten News

Kindergarten recently started Junior Achievement. We are working on learning about money. We also had a visit from Rosie the library mascot last Thursday.

–Ms. Andrews, Ms. Bales & Ms. Edwards

First Grade News

First grade has been hard at work learning to read and write. The students are making great progress and it is such a joy to watch them grow into great readers! During reading, they are learning to retell stories including the characters, setting, beginning middle and end of the stories. Please make sure your child is reading and doing their homework nightly. The students are adding details to their writing to make their stories more interesting.

First grade has started a unit learning about our communities and community helpers.  Please ask your child what they have learned about community helpers.  Thank you for supporting King as we work toward our goals!

P.S. Cold weather is here and we will be going outdoors for recess. Please be sure to send your child with hat, mittens and winter coat.

–Mrs. Mutapcic, Ms. Campero & Mrs. Schwertley

Second Grade News

King Elementary 2^nd graders have been very busy! We have started Science this month. The air and weather have been the topic that 2^nd graders have been studying. They learned that air is all around them and that is takes up space. In math, 2^nd graders have been learning about measurement. They have been measuring anything and everything around them. They loved to measure their height! In addition, we have been learning about graphs. The three graphs we are learning about are bar graphs, pictographs, and line plot graphs. They love to color their graphs and collect data from their class. In Reading, the 2^nd graders have been focusing on main idea/details, character traits, and text features in their stories. They have been excited to learn about how characters feel in their stories.  The 2^nd graders are putting turkeys in the display case by the library. Students are writing about what they are thankful for in their lives. We are having an exciting year!

–Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Spreitzer & Mr. Sanford

Third Grade News

In third grade math we have started learning multiplication and division.  Students first used manipulatives and pictures to learn the concepts and are now writing and solving multiplication equations.  We have also learned some songs and created flash cards to help us learn our basic facts.  We are off to a great start and I anticipate this will be a successful unit for all!  In science, we have studied simple machines and will be getting ready to conduct experiments soon.

In third grade reading, we have been doing a thanksgiving writing project with Ms. Campero’s first graders. In reading, we’ve been focusing on main idea and details as well as identifying the author’s point of view and comparing/contrasting characters in a story. For social studies we have been learning about the global world. We’ve been identifying the equator, prime meridian, hemispheres, continents, countries, states, and communities.

–Ms. Cousins, Miss Derr & Ms. McGrath

Fourth Grade News

4^th grade math—

Math—We are getting ready to take our Unit 2 math test next week. We have spent the last few weeks focusing on multi-digit multiplication, measurements, and story problems. We are now adding writing in with our math, and writing out all of our thinking in our story problems. We are writing out all of our thinking and explaining every step we do. I am very confident that we will see a lot of growth from our students on this test. The students have done a great job! Our next unit after thanksgiving break will be on Geometry!

Health—we have been focusing a lot on what makes us happy and healthy. We have talked about the importance of physical activity, the importance of family, and the importance of respecting one another in the classroom. We are going to be decorating our door soon on what we are thankful for by creating a thankful tree with our hands.

Homework—please remind your students that in math they receive homework on Monday’s and it is due every Friday unless they are told otherwise. They are also receiving a packet on Mondays that is due on Friday’s. Some students have been missing several assignments for some time now. These assignments are made to help them succeed in the classroom!

4^th grade reading/language—

Reading—We are getting ready to take our Unit 2 reading test next week.  For the last 5 weeks, we have been studying compare/contrast, fact/opinion, character traits, generalizations, and author’s purpose.  Our goal is to get at least 24/31.  We will be beginning Unit #3 after Thanksgiving break.  Don’t forget:  Read a little each day!

Language—For the last 5 weeks, we have learned 100 new spelling words.  We have also been working on antonyms and analogies.  For writing, we have been working hard on finishing our personal narratives.  These will hopefully be done before Thanksgiving break.

Homework—Please remind your student that in reading, your child receives a packet of work on Monday.  They have the entire week to work on the packet at both home and at school.  The packet is due on Friday of each week. Students do have to correct each mistake that is made, so we are really working hard on doing it correctly the first time.

–Mrs. Studer & Miss Jenn

Fifth Grade News

This month fifth graders are moving into addition and subtraction of fractions in math and finishing up the study of the human body in science. In reading students are focusing on determining theme in a story, drawing conclusions, and writing summaries of both fiction and non-fiction texts. In language arts students are working on pattern books, such as ABC books.

–Ms. Vandagriff & Mrs. Fry

Library News

Thanks everyone for collecting and clipping all those box tops. We have turned in over 4500 Box Tops for our first submission. We were so close to our goal of 5,000. The next submission will be in March 1, 2014. That gives us plenty of time to reach our goal of 5000 again. As the saying goes, “Stay Calm and Clip On!”  We want to send out a BIG THANK YOU to one of our King parent Tiana Morrow for counting all those boxes tops.

Give the gift of Reading!!

December 2nd -6th we will have our Book Fair.

–Mrs. Phanfil

Counseling News

During counseling class, students have been learning about ways to prevent bullying.  We talked a lot about standing up for yourself and telling bullies to STOP!  The theme of our learning was “Stop, Talk, Walk” – Tell the bully to STOP, TALK to them about why their behavior is inappropriate and WALK away. We also talked about the importance of reporting bullying behavior to a safe adult.  “Don’t bystand, lend a hand” – Don’t just watch bullying behavior happening, help the victim and report it to an adult.

–Mrs. Mowery