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Volume 1, Issue 24

January 30, 2009

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Dear Parents and Students,

There are many activities taking place at Graymont Grade School this month. Scholastic Bowl is in full swing as the team has three matches, one on the 10th at St. Mary’s in Pontiac, one in the 19th at Graymont, and a third on the 26th at Saunemin. All three of the matches start at 4:00 p.m. We have ten 5th – 8th grade students participating and they would appreciate your support. Graymont Grade School will be holding the annual local spelling bee on February 6th at 12:00 p.m. in the gym.  All students in grades 4-8 will participate in the spelling bee.  The top speller and one alternate will advance to the Livingston County Spelling Bee on Friday, February 20, 2009.  The County Bee will be held at 9:00 a.m. at the Pontiac High School Auditorium. The official study booklet is available online FREE through www.myspellit.com. This interactive Web site features links to Merriam-Webster definitions and pronunciations, challenge words, activities and printable study lists. to help them prepare for the spelling bee.  Everyone is invited to attend the Spelling Bee.  The next PTO meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 3rd at 7:00 p.m. The public is encouraged to attend. We will be making preparations for the annual soup supper, which will be held February 27th. We look forward to everyone coming to support our students and the PTO by attending the supper. I appreciate the continued parental and community support shown to our school. I thank everyone who stays involved and dedicates time to helping make our small school an excellent school. I encourage you to visit our school and see the great things that are taking place at Graymont Grade School. Sincerely,Bill James

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Mrs. Erickson - Kindergarten

Mrs. Hinz – 1st/2nd First and second graders are working on some very challenging concepts for our science units this month. We

have finished discussing “matter” and are moving on to the chapter on “energy.” Some topics that we will be

covering are: how living things get and use energy, heat energy, how light moves, sound energy, and Thomas

Edison.

First and second grade are both in the middle of their fourth unit for reading. The classes are learning new

vowel patterns and practicing them through poetry. First grade are learning to recognize and use the silent (e)

on the end of words. Second grade are studying the different spellings for the same vowel sounds. Both

grades recognize five, new tricky words each week. These words are put on our word wall word to help with

our writing.

March will be split between to units. We will work for about two weeks on our fourth unit on adjectives. We are

continuing to practice finding adjectives in sentences. Furthermore, we are practices using them in our writing

to help expand our meaning. First grades fifth unit will be about special names and pronouns. Second grade

will be working with verbs and adverbs. We will introduce the comma and its placement.

We will be working on similar concepts in mathematics this month. We will be working on symmetry,

congruency, slides, flips, and turns of different shapes. We will be using many manipulatives to help reinforces

these tough concepts.

February really begins with a bang! February 2 is our 100th day of school. So, there will be special activities going on all day. We started getting ready for 100th day about 10 days ago……there are always so many activities to try to fit in.

Reading Readiness has us beginning to work with scrambled sentences. We use capital letters and punctuation to help with word order. This is usually done as a group, but once in a while we try a sentence by ourselves.Tricky words are coming along. We work on 4 new words each week and also spend lots of time on review.We are also going to begin Accelerated Reader in the new future. We will really have to listen and remember the details of a story to take a test on the story. We also are always working on sounding out words and reading.

Math is all about number sentences and using manipulatives. We can listen to a word problem and then actuallycreate the problem using manipulatives. Graphs are becoming easy for us to read. We will be working with hearts and letters during the month of February. Some of the students need to practice…..we are still trying to count to 100.

Social Studies has great Americans coming to visit our classroom during February. Abraham Lincoln and George Washington will be our special guests!! Our highlight will be visiting the David Davis Mansion in Bloomington on Feb. 12th. It is a very special celebration because it is the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birthday.

Science sees kindergarten learning all about dinosaurs. We will be tackling lots of huge names as we learn all about the different types of dinosaurs. We will be expanding our vocabulary with the word “extinct” , plant-eaters and meat-eaters. There will dinosaur manipulatives, dominoes, and games to help us learn all about dinosaurs.

We will also be trying to sandwich in Valentine’s Day. Our party will actually be on Feb. 11 due to our field trip and teachers’ institute. KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS ARE GOIN TO PUT THEIR HEARTS INTO ALL OF THEIR WORK DURING THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY!!!!!

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Ms. Rients – 3rd/4th

Ms. Wilson – 5th – 8th 5th/6th Reading: In the month of February we will be practicing our skills on text structure, author’s purpose, fact/opinion, context clues, summarizing, and character.

7th/8th Reading: We have been very busy with our first novel of the year, Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis. Throughout this book we’re learning about the Elgin Settlement of Buxton, Canada through the eyes of the first born free child of the settlement. We are discovering the hardships they still had to endure even though they were free and the ways in which they made their settlement successful. It is very important your child reads each night’s assignment in order to be successful during daily discussion and quizzes. Our next novel will be The Watson's go to Birmingham; 1963 also by Christopher Paul Curtis.

5th-8th Language Arts – ISAT testing will begin March 3rd so our primary focus in February will be to work on extended responses, expository, narrative, and persuasive writing.

7th/8th Social Studies: With our chapter on Mexico coming to an end we will switch gears and begin studying Central America and the Caribbean Islands. We will learn about how they established their independence, their different cultures, education, economy, and government.

Accelerated Reader: Reminder, you can log on to the AR website https://hosted105.renlearn.com/391791/default.htm to check your child’s AR progress. 3rd quarter ends March 6th so there is still plenty of time for you child to meet his/her 3rd quarter reading goal.

Reading, Language, Writing - In reading, we are discussing character, summarizing, predicting, and drawing conclusions. We are also practicing for the ISAT by writing responses to what we have read. In the responses, students have to make text, self, and world connections. In language arts, we are identifying and writing with adverbs. Adverbs are easily confused with adjectives, so we are working hard to learn the difference. Since adverbs describe verbs and adjectives, they help use write with more detail. In writing, we are continuing to write expository essays. We wrote a practice one together, and now students are writing about their own topic.

Math - 3rd and 4th grade will be studying some geometry and measurement topics together. We are reviewing symmetry and transformations. Also, we will measure the perimeter and area of different figures. We will review together solid figures, and then learn how to find their volume. Students will review measuring with rulers too. Then we will begin working on fractions. In preparation for the ISAT we have also started practicing the format for math extended response questions. These are story problems where students have to show their work, tell what they did, and why they did it.

Science/Social Studies - In science we are still studying physical science as we learn about energy. Students will be learning about different forms of energy: heat, light, and electrical. Then we will switch back to social studies and begin our region-the Middle West.

**Our class is participating in Read to Succeed, so we are each trying to read 6 hours for a free ticket to Six Flags. Please remember to return the reading form by February 23.

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Mrs. Hott – 5th – 8th

Ms. Ores – 5th-8th Health and K-8th PEUnfortunately the 5th and 6th grade health classes were put to a halt with our snow days and swimming in PE. We will be starting our personal care unit over from the very beginning once we come back on February 2nd. This chapter will help your child be more responsible about personal care and hopefully become more comfortable with his or her appearance.

The 7th and 8th graders are now studying the topic of physical activity and fitness in health class. By combining regular exercise with an active lifestyle and sound nutrition, students can achieve fitness and be able to handle the physical demands of everyday life. The students will learn how to test their physical fitness and set and achieve fitness goals. The goal is that this program will start your teen on the path toward lifelong fitness.

1st-8th grade has been swimming during PE. The 1st-4th grade learned the basics of freestyle and backstroke. Some of the advanced swimmers were able to move on to diving and learning breaststroke. The 5th-8th grades are working on all three stokes, diving and will also be learning sidestroke. I would like to take the time to thank a few high school students who took time out of their study-halls to help us out. Thank you to Tori Hobart, Jeremy Gray, Zach Evans, Jake Evans, Taylor Sartoris, Dylan Stout, Caila Smith, Taylor Noonan, and Cody Leach.

After dance, the kindergarteners started working on fitness. We are using games to work on cardiovascular endurance and strength. The games are not only helping with fitness but are also helping us with our cooperation and teamwork.

5/6 Social Studies – Still finishing up learning about ancient Greece before moving on to ancient Rome. We have also done some work preparing for our museum.

5-6 Science – We are well into our 3rd section on Matter – Changes in Matter. We have done quite a few experiments showing various chemical changes and seeing how to recognize them.

7-8 Science – Our volcanoes were awesome! We had a good time watching them erupt – some outside and a couple inside. We are just finishing up our 2nd chapter in our Introduction to Matter and will continue moving quickly through the 3rd chapter (all pretty much review, with a few more detailed concepts thrown in just to keep us on our toes). We will slow down at the 4th chapter and spend some extra time delving into the periodic table.

Grades 5-8 are all working on writing extended responses to specific types of math problems in preparation for ISATs in March. They all have one problem write-up due each week – encourage them not to get behind as they are getting a grade for the completion of these problems.

Math 5 – We are continuing on in fractions and will be learning how we can change fractions into decimals and percents next. Math 6 – Making good progress on our understanding of integers and how they work in various mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). Math 7 – We have almost finished with integers and are beginning to talk about and use various mathematical properties (most of which we already use, but we are now learning the names and rules behind them.) Math 8 – We have delved pretty deeply into fractions – even fractions containing multiple variables and powers. We have worked on adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing all different types of fractions.

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February Dates to Remember• 3rd – PTO Mtg. 7:00 pm• 4th – Progress reports sent home• 6th – School spelling bee 12:00• 13th – No School (TI)• 16th – No School (Presidents Day)• 20th – County Spelling Bee• 25th – 8th grade PTHS pre-registration• 25th-27th – Book Fair• 27th – Soup Supper

Student Council Activities for February• Food/clothing drive Feb. 2nd – 6th. Please bring in any non- perishable cans of food or any clothes you would like to donate. the class with the most cans of food will win a ice-cream treat!!!

• Candy Grams – Please have your pre-ordered candy gram form turned in by Monday, Feb. 9th. Each candy gram is $1