Dear High Bridge Families,

Thank you to the PTA for Sponsoring our Semi Annual Scholastic Book Fair. It was a huge success. The

PTA is sponsoring a canned drive as well as a coat drive from now until the end of the holiday season as

a way of “giving back” to the community. Please lend your support to this effort.

Parents, when dropping off your children in the morning during carpool, it is important that you pull all

the way to the end of the driveway not to allow congestion of the runway as much.

As we approach the Thanksgiving Season we have a lot to be thankful for. There are a lot of people less

fortunate than we are and need our assistance.

As always, thank you for your support and Happy Thanksgiving!

~ William J. Kelly

Assistant Principal’s Tips...By Mrs. McLaughlin

November Hawk-Eyed Tip Tip #1 – Helping With Homework at Home Homework is often an event in many homes! After a long, rigorous day of learning, children are often ready to rest or play (usually play) at the end of a school day. Here are some basic tips to assist your child in successfully complete his/her homework.

Create an After-School Schedule. Allow your child free time/down time (about 20 mins.) to relax and/or have a snack before he/she jumps into homework. Then have him/her begin homework. Depending on your child, you may need a quick exercise/catch your breath/go to the bathroom break between subject matters. Once homework is completed he/she can pick some activities of his/her choice (fun & educational is always our pick, but he/she can choose from options you provide). When creating this daily schedule, identify specific blocks of time for each part of the schedule to help guide your child in staying within the parameters of a certain time. This is important at home & school. A timer supports this effort. If your child goes to after-school programs and/or extracurricular activities, make sure that is taken into consideration on the schedule and homework doesn’t fall by the wayside.

Set the mood. Establish an area for homework that is conducive to your child being able to focus on homework completion. Ideally this would be a quiet, well lit, clean & organized location. Homework is a review of what has been taught at school so he/she should be able to work independently, but you or another responsi-ble person should be close by if he/she has questions or needs some guidance.

Prior to your child beginning his/her homework, take a look at what they have to do and make sure he/she can explain what they are expected to do. If your child completes homework before you pick him/her up in the evenings, make sure you have him/her explain what the homework was and check the work carefully. It’s OK and expected that you will check work and minimally support when needed, but please do not do the work for your child! Give him/her a chance to think things through and ask him/her questions to help them arrive at the answers for the homework.

Make sure your child’s work is neat and legible before turning it in to the teacher and make sure it goes in its proper place in his/her book bag at night so that it gets to school the following day.

Always be positive with your child about homework. Ask him/her what they learned in class and how it relates to the homework. Help keep him/her motivated supporting good effort and praising completed homework. Also, reward your child for a job well done with a favorite treat or some fun family time together. Always encourage your child to take pride in his/her work & accomplishments.

Some challenge with homework completion is absolutely normal for most children. However, if your child continues to struggle after establishing a homework routine & following the steps above, contact his/her teacher immediately to discuss this concern and come up with a plan to ensure your child’s homework success.

Principal’s Greetings…...

The Hawk Highlights……. November 12, 2018

Volume 5, Issue 3

It is November, and we have so much to be thankful for!

This month, in Language Arts, we will begin studying list and label books, which help us gain information

about a topic. We also will make and break CVC words with the short /a/ sound. In Social Studies, we will

talk about cultures. We will tackle the different celebrations, special foods, and places we go. In Sci-

ence we are working on Physical Science, we are describing locations such as above beside, below, behind,

in front of. Explore how things move, Explain that things move in various ways such as: zig zag, round and

round straight, up and down back and forth. In addition, students will explore how we can change the ways

things move such as pushing and pulling. We will also work on identifying various objects and their attraction

to magnets. In Math students will begin working on addition and subtraction. We will learn that addition

involves putting two groups together to find a sum, whereas subtraction involves having a group of things

and taking one part away. Students will learn how to solve addition and subtraction problems by using vari-

We’ve been busy in first grade learning new sight words/sound blends and using them in our writing. We’re also

learning how to edit our sentences for meaning, capitals and punctuation. We encourage parents to use these skills at

home as you do homework with your child. Remember to use details in writing and pictures to retell a story. Keep

up the great reading logs at home and remember that at least 15 reading minutes per night are due monthly for a

grade and prize! We’re learning about pets and how to care for them so this is an excellent opportunity to read fact

or fiction animal books with your child.

In math, we are continuing addition and subtraction strategies, such as adding doubles, adding tens/ones, adding 3

numbers and inverting number sentences to find the same sum; for ex.) 2+3=5 3+2=5 Ask: How are these similar?

Practice Math facts adding numbers to 20 each night to gain speed and thinking skills needed for our Math program!

Our behavior so far has been great, so let’s keep up the reminders and rules at home! We’ve set our goal high this

year for increasing our reading and math abilities so keep it up with your kids at home! Your support is so helpful and

appreciated!

Language Arts: This month students will work on the following reading skills/strategies: Author ’s Purpose, Main Idea and Supporting Details and Monitor/Clarify. Students will learn about multiple meaning words, compound words, plural nouns, possessive nouns and apostrophes. At the end of the month students will begin a short research project on animals. In writing, we will learn about personal narratives. Using our Writing Fundamentals program, we will read several wonderful personal narrative stories, like the Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco and Owl Moon by Jane Yolen We will then write, edit, and publish stories about our own lives. Math: During November, the Second grade will continue our Math unit on measurement and data. The students are having so much fun measuring objects, both inside and outside of the classroom. We will creat tables and graphs based on our measurement information. Science: In Science this month, we will learn all about changes to the earth’s surface...earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, landslides, and hurricanes! The students will be creating drawings, models and participating in hands-on ex-periments to discover how all of these natural phenomena work. Social Studies: For the second quarter, students will use historical thinking skills to understand how individuals and events have changed society over time. Academic vocabulary will introduce and students will explore what various cultures, traditions, and ethnicities exist in their classroom and family.

Page 2 The Hawk Highlights…….

Kindergarten Highlights!!!!!

Fabulous First Grade!

Second Grade News!!!

As Third Grade explores the author’s craft or style of writing from Writing Fundamentals, students will decorate their own writing journal cover and to demonstrate their writing ability. Please make sure you se-cure the “ keep home resources” to support the reading log and essays for homework. Social Studies demonstrates the knowledge to identify core virtues and democratic principles that guide government, society, and communities. For the month of November, Student Government will inte-grate processes of thinking, communication, leadership, and management in school, family, career and community settings. In Math students are discovering different ways to attack multiplication through drawing arrays, re-peated addition and making equal groups. November is the kickoff month of “Multiplication Touchdown”, the

In Math, students will prepare for Benchmark assessment then use their skills to solve multi-digit and

operational symbols to solve word problems. Students are implementing the Tree Read strategy to better under-

stand and analyze what is actually being asked to solve the task. Students will receive weekly math logs in order

to allow parents to know how much time and practice is being dedicated to knowing multiplication and division

facts. These skills will immensely help in understanding fraction calculations later in the year.

In Science, students will learn of the importance of fossils and what they tell us about the past. Information can

include different animals of the past, layers of earth and how regions may have changed and how fossils affect our

lives today. In Health, Students are looking at ways to promote proper nutrition for good digestive health. Food

groups, physical activities, and hydration will be studied.

In RELA, students are learning to analyze informational text to find the main idea. Students can practice this skill

at home by reading and discussing the evening news, magazines and news articles with family.

In Social Studies, we are beginning to explore the history of Maryland. In our first series of lessons we will learn

about Native American tribes native to our area. We are looking forward to see our results from exercising our

right to vote for our student government representatives.

We thank Mrs. Johnson for her work as Mrs. Bias was away. We welcome Mrs. Bias back to school.

We have just completed our first quarter of the school year and what an eventful time it has been! Report cards will be sent home soon. Everyone looks forward to building on our newfound knowledge. To keep communication alive and to foster the success of all students, it is important that parents check the Remind App routinely for updates. Our Reading/Language Arts classes are embracing the concept of close reading with complex texts. Their reading comprehension will improve by employing skills in predicting, sequencing, summarizing and making inferences to analyze informational text in the coming weeks. As we move forward into the second quarter of this school year, students will be expected to apply skills and concepts learned with greater independence to prove their text analysis and comprehension abilities. Students are also writing their first original story of the school year this quarter. To prepare for middle school (and beyond) our Math classes will delve into using decimals and fractions properly. Please assist students in memorizing their multiplication facts. They should practice basic facts regularly. In Science, we will study how learning gravitational forces affect the earth. We will study rainfall, mass weight, and density and its impacts on the environment.

Social Studies will explore the American Revolution as we investigate the challenges that the original colonies faced in establishing freedom from the English monarchy. We will employ learning techniques with analysis of text, video immersion, and interactive classroom simulations.

Page 3

Third Grade Happenings…..

Fourth Grade Happenings!!!!!

Fifth Grade News Flash!!!!!!

www1.pgcps.org/highbridge – A great place to find the

school calendar, frequently asked questions, current events, and websites for

enrichment and intervention!

PGCPS Important Dates

To Remember:

Nov. 13-14

5th Grade FAST

Science

~~~~~

Nov. 13-14

Vision and Hearing

Screenings

~~~~~

Nov. 19

Release of 1st Quarter

Report Card

~~~~~~

November 21-23

Thanksgiving Break

~~~~~~

Nov. 27

Honor Roll Assembly

Grade K-2 @ 7:00 P.M.

~~~~~~~~~

Nov. 28

Honor Roll Assembly

Grade 3-5 @7:00 P.M

High Bridge Elementary School 7011 High Bridge Road

Bowie, Md. 20720 Phone: 301 805-2690 Fax: 301 805-2693

Technology

Now you can follow us on twitter@highbridge

www1.pgcps.org/highbridge – great place to find the school

calendar, frequently asked questions, current events, and

websites for enrichment and intervention!

Our Second Literacy

Parade was a huge

SUCCESS!!!!!

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