Red Ribbon Week

Tuesday, October 29th is “Sock it to Drugs” day and students may wear the craziest or mismatched pairs of socks. 

Wednesday, October 30th is “Raise our Hands against Bullying” day.  Throughout the week, students may donate either a pair of socks or gloves/mittens in a bin located within the front doors of Westgate.  These items will be distributed to  local shelters in need.

 Thursday, October 31st is “Say Boo to Bullying and Drugs” day and students will receive an individually wrapped Twizzler stick that says “Don’t Let Drugs Twist your Mind.”    

Friday, November 1st is “Show Good Character” day and students can wear red.  

October Classroom Snapshot of Events

Here's what has been happening in our classroom:

Reading:
Throughout whole group CAFE strategy lessons, our class has been working with the comprehension strategies of  determining the author's purpose for writing (to persuade, inform, or entertain the reader); learning how to generate questions when we read; and learning how to summarize a passage.   Additionally, we have been learning how to be more accurate and fluent readers by reviewing the various strategies of  being a voracious reader; learning how to read appropriate level texts that are a good fit; and being able to cross-check what we read for understanding or to skip a word we don't know and come back to it or substitute another word that makes sense.    

Throughout our extended vocabulary time, the students have been working with homographs. These are words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings. Additionally, the students have also been using the website called Dictionary.com to learn how to find the various definitions of words having multiple meanings.  

The students are beginning to settle into the routines and practices of literature circle groups.  I have placed your child in a group and provided them with an appropriate novel that I feel matches their reading strengths and capabilities. Our guided reading time involves assigning students chapters to read independently, having them complete a literature response activity about their book, and meeting with their group for a novel group discussion. Afterwards, they can complete one of their Weekly 5 assigned activities.  Throughout the year, your child may be moved to a different guided reading group depending on their needs. If your child has a difficult time finishing their guided reading assignment during the scheduled 60 minute literacy period, they may be asked to finish it that night for homework.

I will now begin to conference with your student individually while having them read to me orally and asking them comprehension questions along the way.   Through our conference together, we will establish a reading strategy goal that I believe that they need to work upon throughout their individual reading time, literature circle time, and Weekly 5 routine time.   Each week we will try to meet to see if their goal has been reached.   Once the goals have been mastered, a new goal will be established for your student to individual work upon.   All of the goals will be set in either the area of comprehension, accuracy, fluency, or extended vocabulary (CAFE).   

Grammar:

Over the past several weeks, the students have been working on determining the difference between finding the subject and predicate in a sentence. We also have been learning the proper way to combine two sentences that are alike by using a comma and the words "but" or "and" to make one compound sentence. Additionally, we have been working on learning how to capitalize proper nouns and the rules for making words plural.  

During literacy time, the students had fun practicing these skills with the following web pages. Feel free to lick on these links to view and play the web site games at home: Rags to Riches , Compound Sentences, Rats, and The Plural Girls.  

Spelling:

I appreciate all of the hard work that each student gives to spelling each evening. Please continue to make sure that they are sorting their words correctly into their various spelling categories. The goal of our spelling program is for the students to learn and retain the spelling rules and word patterns for future use in their writing. The nightly spelling sorts and activities will help your student to reach this goal.

Writing:

Throughout Writer's Express (WEX) time, our class continues to work hard learning about the important elements to include in a personal narrative. Together, our mini-lessons have been focusing on writing our paragraphs in a more logical and organized manner. In addition, we are continuing to make sure that our work focuses on a single moment in time. Our lessons have been stressing the importance of utilizing strong verbs, good sensory detail, and proper sentence mechanics in our writing.

During conference time, parents will be able to view all of our stories in our WEX binder. Parents will also get to read our first published personal narrative that are currently writing,  revising, conferencing, and editing over the next week in a program called Googledocs.  

Math:

Last week our class just finished up Unit 2 in math that involved adding and subtracting whole numbers. The students have been working hard learning about fact families, extensions of addition and subtraction facts, two and three digit addition and subtraction problems, "What's My Rule?" problems, parts-and-total number stories, and comparision number stories.   We just started Unit 3 last week that involves learning about both the U.S. Customary and metric forms of measurement.  

A BIG THANKS goes out to all of the parents that helped your child to start an Xtramath.org account.   Everyone did a great job with logging into the program and settling into the routine of practicing their math facts.   I appreciate all of the help and assistance with making sure your child completes at least three rounds of math practice a week.  

Social Studies:

Currently, the students have been put into research groups to work on our "Weekend in Chicago" podcasts.   Within their group, their job is to research and plan a weekend in the Windy City.    Through the research, the groups are taking notes on attractions and activities they want to visit,  restaurants they want to eat in, and finding a hotel they want to stay in. (Please click here to view the websites that the students are researching from.)  After they have researched and planned their weekend, their group will be creating a podcast to share with the rest of the class about their fun-filled weekend.   Once our podcasts are finished, we will post them on our webpage for all to view.   

A BIG THANK YOU goes to all of our parent classroom volunteers!

We would like to thank Mrs. Murray for sending out weekly email reminders to the volunteers for their upcoming duties. 

I would also like to thank Mrs. Barnett, Mrs. Ciccone, Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Petrusonis, Mrs. Rogers, and Mrs. Silvestri for coming in this past month to make copies for our class.    

We were able to have our first Reader's Theater last week. This is where the students are put into a small group with a parent and are asked to read aloud from a short play script. We certainly appreciate Mr. Murray, Mrs. Osterlund, Mrs. Rogers, and Mrs. Hammond for coming in to assist and monitor each of our groups!  

Our class was also able to experience our first Art Appreciation this month.   We would like to thank Mrs. Petrusonis and Mrs. Saunders for conducting a wonderful art lesson with the artist Edward Munch.   

We also would personally like to thank Mrs. Silvestri and Mrs. Petrusonis for taking time out of our busy schedules to take inventory on our Science boxes that just arrived!

Art Appreciation

We would like to thank Mrs. Petrusonis and Mrs. Saunders for coming into our classroom to conduct a wonderful Art Appreciation lesson and learning about the artwork of the artist Edvard Munch.

October 21st-25th is Character Counts Week!

Monday, October 21st - Wear Blue for Trustworthiness!  

Tuesday, October 22nd - Wear Yellow for Respect! 

Wednesday, October 23rd - Wear Green for Responsibility! 

Thursday, October 24th - Wear Orange for Fairness!  

Friday, October 25th - Wear Red or Purple for Caring/Citizenship! 

Reader's Theater

We would like to thank Mr. Murray, Mrs. Osterlund, Mrs. Rogers, and Mrs. Hammond for coming into our classroom today to do Reader's Theater!

Halloween at Westgate

We are planning our annual Halloween extravaganza for the afternoon of Thursday, October 31st. Students will be in costume (in the afternoon) to celebrate the special day! Teachers and parents are planning a fun afternoon of games and activities! Although most children take part in the costume parade and parties, their participation is completely voluntary. As you are planning your child’s costume, please remember we are a kindergarten through fifth-grade elementary school. Students remaining in school during lunch should plan on costumes with limited make-up accessories. We are requesting your cooperation in selecting school-appropriate costumes that avoid violence, sharp objects, weapons, unnecessary gore, etc. At the discretion of the principal, students with inappropriate costumes will not be able to participate in the parade. If you are unsure of the appropriateness of your child’s costume, please contact the office.

The costume parade will start at 1:45 PM (please note lunch changes below for Halloween). Weather permitting; the parade will begin outside on the sidewalk. Students in grades 1st and 2nd will exit the building using the Primary Doors and line up on the sidewalk along Dwyer Street. Students in kindergarten and 3rd grade will exit the building using the Main Doors and line up on the sidewalk in front of school. Students in grade 4th through 5th will exit the Grove Street door and line up on the sidewalk along Grove Street west of Dwyer Street. The office team will lead the parade and students will parade in the following order: Kindergarten, 3rd , 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th grades. 

The parade will walk north on the west side of Dwyer Street to Sigwalt, and then return to Westgate walking south on the east side of Dwyer Street. Parents are welcome to line the parade route outside along Dwyer Street. (Students will exit the Primary Door, Main Door, and Grove Street Door. The entire school will meet on the southwest corner of Grove Street and Dwyer Street.) In the event of inclement weather, we will either reduce the length of the route or cancel the parade.

Traditionally, many students go home for lunch on Halloween to change into a costume. However, in recent years, more children remain at school for recess and lunch. To ensure all children will be able to go home and return for the Halloween parade at the same time, the lunch time for ALL grades will be from 12:30 -1:30PM as follows:

PRIMARY (1-2) Lunch 12:30-1:00/Recess 1:00-1:30PM
INTERMEDIATE (3-5) Recess 12:30-1:00/Lunch 1:00-1:30PM

If your child is in grades 1-5, then please complete the portion below and return to your child’s teacher by Wednesday, October 24th. 

Students leaving the school for lunch will use the following exits: Main Door (Door #1), Primary Door (Door #2), and 5th Grade Door (Door #16.) The Cab Doors (adjacent to the North Parking Lot, Door #13 ) will not be used for lunch dismissal. 

Remember: Students leaving for lunch should not return to school prior to 1:30PM. Returning students should line up at the Main Entrance (Door #1.) There will be no supervision prior to 1:25PM. Students may not enter the building until 1:30PM

Children who stay at school for lunch will have the opportunity to change into their costumes during the lunch hour. The second shift students will be getting into their costumes during the first shift and then vice-versa. There will be limited adult assistance for costume preparations and it is advisable to keep the costume simple. 

Marty McGuire Global Read Aloud

Last week the students started to learn what it truly means to be global.   To begin our discussion,  we read an online story called What Does It Mean To Be Global? by Rana DiOrio. Through reading the book we learned that being global is........

• .....being curious about other parts of the world.
• .....recognizing that your language is just one of thousands spoken on our Earth.
• .....listening to all different kinds of music.
• .....traveling to places near and far and appreciating how special they are.  
• .....trying all types of food.
• .....experiencing other traditions.  
• .....learning about other religions.
• .....respecting that others may have different values than you do.
• ....celebrating diversity in people.
• .....understanding how your actions affect another person's experience.
• .....living respectfully and peacefully with one another.
• .....opening your mind to new possibilities.
• .....being a citizen of the world.

Throughout the school year we will continue to integrate our curriculum with being global.  Our first step involves all of the third grade classes participating in the "Global Read Aloud Program" that runs from September 30--November 8th.   Together, all of us will be reading aloud a book called Marty McGuire to the students.   Each class then partners up with another third grade class across the nation that is also participating in the Global Read Aloud.  Together, the partnering classes plan various activities and literature discussions throughout the read aloud experience.

Our Global Read Aloud partner is a Miss Pantalena's Third Grade Class from Korn Elementary School in Durham, Connecticut.   (You can visit their webpage at: misspantalena.weebly.com. )  Last week our class was able to meet with them via Skype.   The students had the opportunity to ask questions about each other's classrooms and learn more about our cultures.   Over the next month, we will continue to read aloud Marty McGuire to each of our classes.  Our class will also hook up with Miss Pantalena's class via Edmodo to answer literature response questions.  

Please be sure to  have your student log into their Edmodo accounts at home to update you on our classroom experiences with our partnering class!   You can also learn more about Global Read Aloud through visiting this webpage:  http://www.globalreadaloud.com/p/faq.html

Chicago Wendella Boat Tour

We had such a wonderful time touring around the beautiful city of Chicago on our Wendella Boat Tour last Friday.   We would like to thank our chaperones Mrs. Rogers, Mrs. Silvestri, and Mrs. Riley for helping to make it such a successful trip!

Feel free to go to our classroom webpage to view pics from our trip:
http://hynekclass.weebly.com/wendella-boat-trip.html