November 30, 2007 Has the year moved quickly for you? Will you sit down to your holiday dinner and marvel that, so soon, the New Year is upon you? Or will you breathe a sigh of relief and say, “At last…” It’s strange how time moves at different speeds for different people in different years. Of course it all has to do with the challenges we face. If you have a son or daughter serving overseas, perhaps time has slowed to a crawl. If he or she is home for the holidays, maybe you wonder why time moves so quickly. Graymont Grade School Newsletter Dear Parents, NEWSLETTER: December 2007 Volume 1, Issue 13 Whatever way time is flying for you this year, take time to relax, enjoy your family and friends, and remember that the holidays don’t have to be picture perfect to be warm and enjoyable. We are planning activities in preparation for the holidays. The annual Christmas Program will be December 11 beginning at 7: 00 p. m. Santa’s Secret Shop will be set up the evening of December 12 th. Students will be allowed to shop during the day on the 13 th. This is always an exciting time for the students to shop for gifts for those special people. The band chorus are planning to visit Livingston Manor, and perform a few Christmas selections on December 20 th. We will also have Christmas parties on December 21 starting at 1: 15. We will dismiss at 2: 00 that day. School will resume on January 8, 2008. In case of inclement weather, make sure you listen to the following stations for school closings and early dismissals: • WJBC 1230 AM Bloomington • WTRX 93. 7 FM Pontiac • WBWN B 104 • WBNQ 101. 5 FM Bloomington • WEEK TV 25 Peoria, Bloomington • HOI 19 News As the winter weather is quickly approaching, I want to remind everyone that our students need to make sure they are dressed warm enough for the temperatures. Please make sure your children have warm coats, hats and gloves to stay warm while they are outside during the morning and lunch recesses. Best wishes during this holiday season, Mrs. Fritchtnitch 1
Student Council The Student Council Pennies War was a huge success. The school as a whole raised a total of $219. 08 to be donated to Make-A-Wish. 3 rd and 4 th grade won the competition by raising $61. 14!!! Great work Christmas Concert The Christmas Concert will be Tuesday Dec. 11 th at 7 pm. All students should be in their classrooms ready to go by 6: 45 pm. Chorus/Band Our 5 th – 8 th grade students will be visiting Evenglow Lodge in Pontiac on Wednesday, Dec. 20 th. They will be demonstrating their beautiful vocal and musical talents as well as warming the hearts of the elderly. “Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you. ” ~ William James, American Philosopher, 1842 -1910 2
Teacher News Mrs. Erickson Kindergarten is looking more like a holiday factory during December. Besides all of our regular work, we are busy making projects, banners, trees, "keeping secrets" and getting ready for our Christmas program. We have a special place to read books called "The Holiday House". It even has Christmas lights for decorations. We are working on our tricky words and also sounding out words as we go. We are able to read more of our Morning Message every week. We are using our magnetic letters to work on new words and help us with the sounds. Christmas items help a lot as we work on addition and subtraction. We have candy canes, reindeer, santas, stockings, etc to help us with our problems. We also know how many days 'til Christmas because we each made a countdown chain and take off a loop every day. We are beginning a world tour of countries to find out how they celebrate the holidays. We are finding out that there are many different customs around the world. We are planning a special surprise for everyone at Graymont School on Dec. 12 th!!!! Christmas is not just about getting, but also about giving. We have been sending cards to soldiers in Iraq. There is a special website sponsored by Xerox (www. letssaythanks. com) that lets us send our special greetings. Kindergarten has worked so very hard and read 100 books. We reported our 100 books to Scholastic and now Scholastic will donate 100 books to kids that are in need of books. WAY TO GO!!!!! We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Ms. Myers Our class is working hard on so many different projects. First grade is working on finishing up our third unit in our reading series just in time for our Winter Break. Our main focus is to continue working on different phonics sounds and blends. We read two stories each week to reinforce these sounds and the reading strategies we have learned so far. In Language Arts, we are learning about verbs. We will be practicing present and past-tense verbs, as well as, the tricky verbs: am, is, and are. For the rest of this quarter, first graders are going to focus on addition and subtractions sentences. We are going to practice related facts and build into fact families. We are also continuing to practice our touch point strategy for addition and subtraction. Second graders are also working to finish up their third unit in their reading series. Our focus will continue to be working on the tricky vowel combinations and the sounds they make. They also work through two stories each week and have shown great progress in their reading skills and use of strategies. Second graders will also be practicing using and writing verbs in Language Arts. Furthermore, we will be learning about quotation marks and its usage. I hope to have the students write a story and use actual dialog for their characters. Writing is a big focus in second grade. It is important for students to know who to put their ideas down on paper in a logical order. This is an extremely hard process to learn but we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In math, second grade is going to finish up the quarter working on and mastering two-digit subtraction. We are going to practice subtracting using manipulatives and other approaches. In science, we will be finishing out the quarter focusing on rainbows. In this unit, the students learn the basic characteristics of a rainbow. We also learn about the rainbow system and what makes people see them in nature. We will be introduced to a prism and diffraction glasses. Students will also do a number of experiments to do with rainbows. We look 3 forward to all the exciting activities to come!
Ms. Rients I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. As we begin the busy holiday season, it’s important to remember that we still have a lot to do in the classroom. In reading, both grades have finished unit 2 and have begun unit 3. Unit 3 for 3 rd grade is “Getting the Job Done”. The skills they will be studying are steps in a process, summarizing, text structure, and visualizing. Unit 3 for 4 th grade is “Keys to Success”. In this unit, they will focus on making judgments, drawing conclusions, making generalizations, and making predictions. In language arts, we will finish up verbs and move on to pronouns. In writing, our focus is descriptive writing. The students are learning how their writing is more interesting when they can create a picture for their audience. They are getting much better at using colorful words. Then, they will write another personal narrative while practicing being more descriptive in telling their story. The 3 rd graders are practicing using money in math. They are counting bills and coins, making equivalent sets, making change, and adding and subtracting money. This is a hard concept for some students, so please work with your child and give them opportunities to practice with money at home. Have them add the prices for a couple of things they want for Christmas, or pretend they get to buy something from one of the holiday ads and figure out what change they will get back from $10 or $20. After learning about money, they will start the chapter on telling time. 4 th grade is finishing their study of graphs and charts. Then they are going to do a review of multiplication and division facts, multiplication properties, order of operations, and expressions and equations with variables. The students completed their Tic-Tac-Toe projects in social studies about the history of communities. They were very creative. Now we are switching our focus to science. We are studying the human body. We will look at each of the body’s systems and how they work together to keep us alive. The students will have an opportunity at the end of the unit to make a life size drawing to model one of the systems. Mrs. Hott 5/6 Social Studies - We are currently learning about the formation of the original 13 colonies and the various countries that had an interest in the “new world”. After Christmas, we will begin discussions of the American Revolution. 5 -8 Science - Look for the pictures of our “Voyage to Mars” on the school web site! 7 th and 8 th – We have been learning about the different types of cells and what cells are made up of. We have also learned how they gain energy and multiply. Next up is heredity and genes/DNA. Ask your students about the “pond critters” we saw under the microscope! 5 th and 6 th – We have been studying the classification of organisms and have learned about the six kingdoms of organisms. We have also learned that each kingdom is further broken down into phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. Dichotomous keys were used to classify fruits, bugs, and Jelly Bellies. Each of us took off a shoe, lined them up and tried to create our own dichotomous key to classify them. Next we will be learning about cells. Math – 5 th graders are working on multiplying by double digit numbers. They will be multiplying by decimals next. 6 th graders are working on ratios, proportions and percents 7 th graders just finished up multiplying and dividing fractions and are moving on to ratios and proportions (a little more in depth than what the 6 th graders are covering) 4 8 th graders are finding areas of parallelograms, trapezoids and circles. They will be moving on soon to 3 -dimensional figures.
Ms. Wilson 5 -6 – In Reading we have started Unit 3: “What do we learn from our experiences? ” and “How do people accomplish their ambitions? ” During this unit we will focus on the reading elements: cause and effect, summarizing, theme, plot, and text structure. 7 -8 – In Reading we have started Unit 2 on Relationships. In this unit, students will read selections that illustrate how people are interconnected and part of the larger world. The reading selections in this unit emphasize the importance of people connecting with one another. This unit will focus a great deal on reading and understanding poetry. 5 -8 – In Language Arts we are finally done with our Verbs unit and are smoothly sailing through Chapter 4: Modifiers; Adjectives and Adverbs. 7 -8 – In Health we are finishing up Chapter 13 on Tobacco and will begin Chapter 14: Drugs. In this chapter we will focus on drug misuse and abuse, illegal drugs, narcotics, stimulants, and depressants, hallucinogens and inhalants, getting help for drug use, and staying drug free. 7 -8 – In Social Studies we are working on Chapter 6 The Road to Revolution. In this chapter we will focus on a tighter British control, Colonial resistance, the Road to Lexington and Concord, and Declaring Independence. Special Dates to Remember • Dec. 11 th – 2: 00 Dismissal 7: 00 Christmas Program • Dec. 13 th – Secret Santa Workshop • Dec. 19 th – 2 nd Qtr Ends • Dec. 20 th – Band to Livingston Manor • Dec. 21 st – 2: 00 Dismissal • Dec. 24 th – 31 st – Christmas Vacation ***School resumes January 8 th. 5
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