Johnson Elementary
T h u n d e rb i rd s
November 2013
Newsletter
Important Dates!
Parenting Without Struggles Class
6-7:30pm JES Library
Tuesday Nov. 5th
Parenting Without Struggles Class
6-7:30pm JES Library
Tuesday Nov. 12th
Picture Re-Takes
Tuesday Nov. 12th
PTC Meeting 6PM Library
Wednesday Nov. 13th
Parenting Without Struggles Class
6-7:30pm JES Library
Tuesday Nov. 19th
PTC Financial Meeting
6PM JES Library
Wednesday Nov. 20th
Parenting Without Struggles Class
6-7:30pm JES Library
Tuesday Nov. 26th
Thanksgiving Break - no school
Wed.- Fri. Nov. 27-29
Box Top’s and Campbell Label’s for Education
PTC will be collecting Box Top’s and Campbell Labels for Education from classrooms on the following dates:
November 1st
December 20th
November 11th November 25th December 9th
Johnson Elementary School
Messages from Mrs. Pierce
November 2013
Conferences
Thank you parents for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend conferences in October. Teachers reported it was a pleasure
speaking with you and getting to know you better. We thank you for your support and for the wonderful children you entrust to us
on a daily basis.
Helping Children with Reading
PHONEMIC AWARENESS
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, produce, and manipulate the sounds of language. When children are
able to segment words (break them apart sound by sound) and put them back together (blending) by hearing and saying
them, they will become more successful readers. Providing opportunities to learn, practice, and refine phonemic awareness skills are critical to a child's reading progression.
The following are phonemic awareness activities that will help strengthen this foundational part of reading for your
child.
• Help your child recognize large chunks of language as in compound words. Say a compound word out loud to your
child and ask that he/she tell you the two words that make up that compound word.
Example: sunflower =sun/flower, butterfly = butter/fly
• Starting with simple 2 and 3 syllable words, model out loud how you would break a word apart by syllable. Take turns
breaking words apart into syllables. Examples: pro-tect, en-ter, in-ter-est. If needed have them clap out the number of syllables in words and names.
• Play rhyming games with your child. In the car say a word and ask your child to supply a word that would rhyme. (cat,
sat, bat, hat, slat, flat or back, tack, stack) Have fun chanting a string of words that rhyme.
• Say a word to your child and have them break the word apart (segment) into individual sounds
Example: you say “black” and your child says, /b/ /l/ /a/ /ck/ or /bl/ /ack/
• Ask your child to blend sounds together when you break them apart. Examples: /g/ /e/ /t/ = get /f/ /r/ /o/ /g/ =
frog
• To strengthen your child’s auditory sequencing have your child repeat a string of unrelated words
Examples: cat, snow
bread, tire, house, parachute
television, pencil, car, watermelon, school
The goal is to help your child hold more words in auditory memory so that when they segment words while reading they
will be able to hold the “chunks” of the words long enough in auditory memory to blend the “chunks” back together
into the word.
Kindergarten News
I think Fall is really here! Please have children wear appropriate clothing for the
weather changes.
We would like to thank all the parents that came to Parent/Teacher conferences!
What a great turn out we had! We want to work together for the benefit of your
child.
The school year is flying by with so much more to do. Here are some of the things we
are working on in the classrooms: The characters of the book and the setting of the
book. After reading the book, ask questions about the characters in the story, who
they were and what did they do. Where was the setting, inside, outside (outside
where?) We will still be practicing predicting while reading a book. Practice those high frequency words.
Rhyming words will be fun to work on with your child. When you read a story with words that rhyme be sure and
have them say the words.
Numbers will play an important part of our second quarter. We will be writing them, counting them, comparing,
and playing lots of number games.
Thank you,
The Kinder Team
First Grade News
Thanks for attending October’s Parent-Teacher conferences. We were very impressed
with the great turn out and appreciated the opportunity to discuss your child’s progress
with you.
During the next few weeks, first graders will continue to be counting money as
part of our math program. We will be introducing dimes. Skills the children
will need to be successful include counting by 1’s, 5’s and 10’s. We will continue to explore odd and even numbers, skip counting patterns on a number
line and interpreting data from graphs. Thank you for making sure homework gets back
with your child!
Your help in treating sight words as nightly homework is appreciated. All first grade sight
words should be firmly in place before Christmas vacation in December. Having these
words in place helps the students become a successful reader and makes them more likely
to be reading at grade level.
We are looking forward to our Annual First Grade Thanksgiving Lunch where students reenact the first Thanksgiving celebrated in Plymouth Colony. Students share a lunch with
their classmates and dress in costumes of the Pilgrims and Native Americans. The youngsters prepare the foods themselves. This has been a seasonal tradition at Johnson Elementary for over thirty years and we appreciate your help in providing food for this event.
We’ll have more information as the date approaches.
Second Grade News
Dear Second Grade Families,
We are now into the second quarter and the kids are into established routines with high behavioral and instructional expectations. Your child’s teacher
should have shared with you the character rubric that was sent home in your
child’s report card envelope. Following those expectations will help your child meet their learning goals and
make their school year successful. We will be pushing kids to extend their learning in order to get the most out
of the calendar year before the holidays hit.
Reading and Writing:
In Literacy, our students will be continuing to make connections, activating background knowledge, building
vocabulary and concept knowledge, and making inferences within a text. Moreover, students are still working
on discriminating text features and organization within non-fiction text. We will also continue our descriptive
writing and editing as this is a complex task.
Mathematics:
In the area of Math, students will complete Unit 3 on concepts such as Place Value, manipulating Money, and
telling and writing Time. They will quickly move into Unit 4 that expands on Addition and Subtraction strategies. They will practice solving number stories, reading and showing temperatures, and developing number
strategies in adding and subtracting 2 and 3 digit numbers. We are asking parents to continue practicing basic
addition and subtraction facts at home.
Thank you for your support and partnership in meeting the academic needs of your child.
Third Grade News
November greetings from third grade,
It was good to meet with you during the parent-teacher conferences. We are grateful for
the support you give your children at home in both the academic area and in building
character. Our Good Habits, Great Readers program teaches six major reading habits for
children. We have learned that Great Readers See Themselves as Readers and Great
Readers Make Sense of Text. We will now begin the third habit which is Great Readers
Use What They Know. Students will make connections, activate background knowledge, build vocabulary, and make inferences as they read. Unit 4 of math will be multiplication and division. The students are making progress learning the addition and subtraction facts through 9. Please continue to practice and review these facts at home. Third
graders will also be expected to memorize the multiplication facts through 10. Thank you
for continuing to help your child complete the reading log each week.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!
Mrs. Casebier, Ms. Crosby, Mrs. Head, and Mrs. Kiehlbauch
Fourth Grade News
The fourth grade teachers would like to thank all of our parents for taking the time to visit
and share with us about your students. It means a great deal to us. We want to again remind you how important it is to visit with your student about their homework folder, math
facts, and reading log.
We are continuing to work on the addition/subtraction and multiplication facts. The district goal and our goal for each student is to achieve 90% proficient in 3 minutes for each
math fact test. Keep up the practice at home as well.
The fourth grade is now focusing on geography in social studies. We are looking at the
three regions of Colorado and how those regions extend beyond the
boarders of Colorado.
Thank you for all your support.
Fourth Grade Team Mr. Steck, Mrs. Ganskow, Ms. Reyes, Mrs. Riley
Fifth Grade News
In 5th grade we are starting all new units! In Math we are starting a unit on Division. This is an extremely important unit for our 5th graders, since division is our
math fact goal for the end of the year. Remember to help them practice their
math facts during the week!
In Reading our new unit is Great Readers Use What They Know. They will be
learning how to activate background knowledge, make connection between text,
self, and world. They will also be learning how to make inferences.
In Writing we are working on a fictional narrative. Students have already been
working hard developing their story line and their characters. These stories are
going to be fantastic when they are done!
Thank you parents for all your support in signing homework/reading logs this
year. It is definitely making a difference for our students!
Health News
Every Fall schools experience a few cases of lice. Although lice is not
dangerous, they are a nuisance. Please note anyone can get lice, regardless of cleanliness. Lice isspread when an individual comes in contact with an infested person's hair or something their hair has touched.
Any new cases of lice should be reported to the school health office
immediately. Questions regarding treatment for lice should be referred
to the Health Office.
*BOOK FAIR - Our recent book fair was AMAZING! I am happy to report that we had the most successful
fair that we've ever had since I started at Johnson! Thank you to all you amazing families for supporting
our library, AND for getting good books into your homes! I appreciate you!
*GOLDEN TICKET - We have started a new 'game' in the library. It will go on for as long as I'm around!!
Here's how it works:
There are 5 'golden tickets' hidden inside 5 books in the library. The tickets will always be hidden inside
books that are "lonesome" -- older books that haven't been read in a long time! The purpose of the game is
to encourage students to check out older books. We talked in class about how it doesn't matter how old a
book is, the story inside it never changes, and they are missing out on some wonderful stories when they
only check out newer books! Every time someone finds a ticket, they can return it to me AFTER they read
the story, and they will win a reading prize! Then the ticket will be hidden inside a different book! The
good news: there have been 2 golden tickets found already! They were hidden inside "Stuart Little" by E.B.
White, and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl. So take a moment and share with your children the names of some of YOUR favorite books--who knows, we may have it in our library, and it might
have a golden ticket hidden inside!
Mrs. Mahan
Has your family lost someone dear due to a death?
Loss and grief impacts all of us at sometime in our lives. Grief in children and teens looks
different from grief in adults, making it difficult to identify. Because children cannot sustain emotional pain for long periods of time, they grieve in spurts. Episodes of tears or crying can be followed quickly by laughter and play. Grief may also present itself as changes in behavior, stomachaches, or decrease in academic performance. HELP IS AVAILABLE for kids and teens coping with
a serious illness or the death of a loved one, even if the loss occurred in the past.
HOPE WEST KIDS, formerly Hospice & Palliative Care of Western Colorado, can provide
professional counseling services to children, either individually, or in school groups. School programs are co-facilitated with school counselors. We provide grief education in a supportive environment where children can learn with others . School groups are sponsored by donations and are
free of charge.
If your child has been impacted by the loss of a loved one, please contact the school counselor, Jean Granberg, or the child/teen program at Hope West Kids for more information about
how we can help your child in his or her school setting. Call SHIRLEY HARVEY, LCSW at 2522506 or 712-4160. Or visit www.hopewest.org
We have many lost items in our
Please claim your items!!
LOST & FOUND