Marshall Street Elementary
School
The 2016– 2017 Communicator
Principal’s Connection
November has been a very busy and productive month! The MSS students and staff have been working
diligently and our students are making wonderful progress! Many of our families met with the staff on November 22nd or 23rd and have received the first of three report cards for the 2016- 2017 school year. These
reports will indicate your child’s progress on many specific learning targets with the understanding that the
progress is being reported as “at this time”. It is important to keep this frame of reference in mind because
your child’s progress may vary throughout the school year and therefore the progress indicator can change
in reference to the end of the year goal.
This year as you review your child’s report card , keep in mind that many learning targets have been revised. That is because the Pennsylvania Department of Education recently revised Chapter 4 regulations
(http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/022/chapter4/chap4toc.html ) which define the Pennsylvania Core
Academic Standards. The new standards for reading, writing, content area literacy and mathematics are
more rigorous at every grade level than the previous state standards. We are in the process of reviewing
curriculum and instruction to better ensure students are successful in meeting each grade level’s standardsbased expectations. As part of that process, our district continues to work on K-12 Literacy and K-12 Mathematics learning targets to continue to provide you with specific details about how your child is progressing
toward the new, more rigorous standards.
Educational adjustments are happening in many areas. As indicated by the following quote taken from
Mike Schmoker's book, Results Now, How Can We Achieve Unprecedented Improvements In Teaching and
Learning, it is evident that our young learners will need to acquire more advanced skills than their predecessors.
“Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than at any other time
in human history. They will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households,
act as citizens and conduct their personal lives.”
I also want to point out that we have been working hard to require deeper levels of thinking from the students when we ask them to respond or to complete a project. In educational terms it is called, DOK (Depth of
Knowledge.) These levels range from simple recall of information or facts to application and then to more
complex tasks that require strategic thinking such as appraising, revising, drawing conclusions and investigating. The deepest level of cognitive demand is represented by extended thinking. At this level students
are required to use strategic thinking to create unique solutions. This kind of thinking requires extended
time.
I mention the above information because while you will want to know why your child received a particular
numerical indicator representing their progress on the report card; it will be just as important to talk with the
teacher about how your child is responding to the various levels of deeper thinking (DOK).
I look forward to our continued work together.
December 2016
Volume III
Issue 4
Special points
of interest:
 No School 8th
 Early Dismissal
15th
 Evening Conferences 22nd
 Morning Conferences 23rd
 Thanksgiving Break
24th– 25th
Inside this
issue:
Mark Skoczynski
Medical Information for the Nurse Mrs. Falco
Let’s fight the flu together!
Your decision to get the flu shot or not goes well beyond you. It
also affects the many lives you touch…
Influenza is a contagious disease of the respiratory tract (nose,
throat, and lungs) that can lead to serious complications, including
pneumonia and the worsening of other chronic health conditions. Flu
symptoms may include fever, headache, extreme tiredness, dry
cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, and muscle aches. The
best way to protect your family from new influenza strains is to get
vaccinated each year.
Enjoy a healthy holiday season!
MSS Information
1/2
Reading Tips
6
Math Challenge
4
Music News
5
Health & PE
5
Coming
Events
7
Page 2
The 2016– 2017 Communicator
From Miss Raub Lead Teacher
While we enjoyed some seasonably warm fall weather recently, it appears that colder temperatures are now here to
stay. With winter just around the corner, it seems an appropriate time to discuss climate, but a different type of climate- School
Climate. School climate is the feel, mood, and atmosphere you sense when you first walk in to a school building. School climate
can be described just as the weather outside- is it warm and sunny or cold and dreary? Children are more likely to grow up
healthy when they have an encouraging and positive environment, so a cold, dreary climate would not be a place students want
to be for very long.
Many factors can affect school climate, but people have the most influence. Students interact with their bus drivers, peers,
teachers, counselors, and numerous other individuals every day in school. The way each person feels about the school will influence how he or she treats others throughout the day, and vice versa. As children, we all learned the Golden Rule: “Treat others
the way you want to be treated.” At MSS, we want a positive learning environment which all students feel challenged and respected. Developing caring relationships with peers and teachers can lead to a warm and sunny school climate every day.
Our newly implemented School Wide Positive Behavior Incentive Program is just one of the many ways that the Marshall
Street School teachers and staff work to create a warm and sunny climate for your children at school every day. To make a difference in your child’s school climate, you can learn about your child’s school, policies, and mood. Discuss with your children
how they feel about the school. Encourage your child to reach out to students who seem isolated or lonely to be their friend, to
stick up for students who may be bullied by others, and to report any concerns to a teacher or administrator. Also, you can become involved with the Parent-Faculty Club to create a spirit of cooperation between families and teachers. If we all work together to advocate for students, MSS will rarely have a rainy day in its school climate!
From Mrs. Aponick
As we prepare for December, Mrs. Aponick's class will learn about the winter season. Cold temperatures and snowy weather
will be the focus. How do the animals from the zoo program adapt to the winter months? A white-themed day is in the forecast for
December. All activities will be centered around the color, white. The women of the Norristown Garden Club will show us how to
make a seasonal floral arrangement.
Mrs. Aponick and her class wish a happy and healthy holiday season to all!
Kindergarten
December is filled with authentic learning experiences for the kindergarten students. We will continue to expand our
knowledge of numbers using the “My Math” program. The students will be exploring teen numbers, and learning to count my
ones and tens! During our literacy block the students will be exposed to new sight words and letters. As always, please continue to work with your child on his or her letters, sounds, words, and numbers. We appreciate the reinforcement at home very
much.
With December’s theme being “lights,” the students will be learning all about day, night, and energy through our science program. We will also look at different holidays that are celebrated during this time of year to give students a new appreciation for different cultures. We hope everyone enjoys the holidays with their family and friends! With the weather getting
colder what a great opportunity to curl up with a good book with your child.
First Grade
On Thursday, December 1st, First Grade will celebrate their first ‘Friendsgiving.’ We are excited to end our Social
Studies unit with this culminating activity to honor the different cultures and customs within our first grade families. We
were delighted for our students to share the foods that are special to them.
In December we will learn the step by step process used for ‘How-To’ writing. We will focus on various authors and
how they master their craft. We will apply their techniques to our own ‘How-To’ writings. We hope you will continue to
read the books written by Tomie dePaulo and Eric Carle at home. We would love to see them in the reading logs.
We end the month with one of our favorite things: Winter Lesson Rotations. Each first grade teacher designs a special
lesson and shares it with all of the first grade students. Mrs. Miller specializes in arts and crafts. Mrs. Thomas will read
Snowmen at Night and apply our ‘How-To’ knowledge for building our snowmen. Mrs. Houseal will read about snow and
make snow globes to capture this learning. Miss Page will add a winter wonder to the mix and Ms. Siar will share how-to
make native bird feeders for our garden areas so we can serve our feathered friends. Make sure you check the bag full of
treasures to see and hear what we did together.
We wish you the best as 2016 closes and whole new year begins. Enjoy winter break!
Volume III
Page 3
Second Grade
November was a busy month is second grade. It was a pleasure meeting with many of you during conferences to discuss your child’s progress and celebrate their growth. We hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.
In math, the students finished up a chapter on 2-digit addition. Our chapter we are now focusing on is 2- digit subtraction. In order for your child to be successful, they need to recall their basic addition facts. Flash card review and Xtramath are
excellent ways to practice these facts.
During the month of December, second grade students will focus on reading fiction and nonfiction. They will continue to
practice comprehension skills; identifying plot, story structure, and answering questions such as who, what, where, when, why,
and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. Nonfiction books would be a great choice for the twenty minutes
on nightly reading.
We hope you have a wonderful winter break!
Third Grade
Thank you to all that attended last month’s conferences and for your continued support at home, as we move into the New
Year. November was a busy month for third grade, and we will be wrapping up 2016 in a similar fashion. We recently completed math units on multiplication and division. We will continue exploring multiplication and division, while working toward basic
fact automaticity. Students should be practicing with multiplication flash cards nightly in order to build fact fluency. Their future
math success depends on it!
In reading, we will continue to explore a variety of genres, answering comprehension questions and citing text evidence to
support our conclusions. We will also continue to build robust vocabulary and reinforce grammar concepts and spelling patterns within our daily writing.
Please continue to check your child’s homework folder nightly for assignments and school information. Students should be
reading on a nightly basis and completing the third grade reading log. Continued practice will contribute to classroom success.
Fourth Grade
Literacy (Reading and Writing): Fourth grade students are continuing to utilize fiction and non-fiction and informational text
throughout their learning. The use of non-fiction text features and the knowledge of cause and effect will allow students to research information and to increase their understanding of writing a persuasive essay.
Math: In the upcoming days, we will begin to cover chapters six, and seven. Students will review basic division and multiplication facts and practice long division with whole numbers. The upcoming focus will be on fractions. Students will be able to find
common denominators as well as comparing fractions. We are continuing to tackle extended multiplication and division so continue to work on those multiplication facts at home.
How to Support At Home
Please continue to check your child’s homework nightly to make sure that it is completed and initial next to the assignment. Feel
free to add a note in your child’s planner if additional help is needed on a particular assignment. Thank you for supporting the 15
to 20 minutes of nightly reading. This is essential to improving your child’s reading level and confidence!
Other Announcements
A special thanks to the many parents who attended conferences last month. Your continuing concern and support of your child’s
educational progress was outstanding and appreciated!
From the Music Department Mrs. Bulman
2017 is going to be a great year of making music at Marshall Street Elementary! Mrs. Bulman and Mr. Patti are hard at work ensuring that every child is learning about singing, instruments, music history, songs, and
dances. We are reading and writing music and having fun while singing and dancing
too!
Please encourage your child to sing songs or practice their instrument at home. Ask
what songs they are learning in music class. You may be surprised what they have
learned!
Volume III
Page 4
Math News from Mrs. Krewson
Turning a Family Favorite into Family Math Time
Now that it is getting colder outside, you can have more fun inside time with math games!
All you need is a regular deck of cards. Deal out the cards evenly between game participants. Aces
represent one and face cards are ten. Play one of these versions:
Number Top-It: each person puts one card out face-up. The person with the highest card wins all the cards played in that
round. You can switch it up and play the lowest card wins. Have your child tell who gets second, third and fourth
place in each round. This is good practice for your child to compare numbers.
Addition Top-It: each player turns over two cards and adds to find the sum of them. The biggest sum wins all of the cards
in that round. Encourage your child to count up from the higher number rather than counting beginning with 1. In a
tie, add one more card each and find the new sum. For older students, you can have them add 3 cards at a time.
Subtraction Top-It: each player turns over two cards and finds the difference between them. The biggest difference wins.
Encourage subtraction strategies including counting up, making tens, and using addition facts. In a tie, put those
cards to the side and play a new round. The person with the largest difference gets the cards from both rounds.
Multiplication Top-It: Follow the directions above with each player turning over two cards at a time. Multiply the two numbers and the largest product wins. For a student just learning multiplication facts, use two decks of cards and start with
the easiest fact families first, gradually adding the larger numbers.
“5 Ways to Help Your Kids Not Stink at Math”
In the July 2014 New York Times article, Elizabeth Green discusses ways to support your child’s mathematics skills and understanding that they need for the 21st century.
Have your child explain his or her thinking and listen to what mistakes your child is making rather than correcting mistakes.
Do the everyday math you do out loud so that your child can hear your think and see how math is used in the real world.
Use pictures to represent the problems including using dot representations of arrays to help develop the understanding
behind the algorithms.
Combine memorization and understanding, making each one stronger.
Introduce complex ideas earlier by asking questions to promote thinking.
For more about how to support your child’s learning, read the full article at:
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/23/5-ways-to-help-your-kid-not-stink-at-math/?_r=0
Mobile Math
Math practice site http://www.abcya.com/
Children can practice all operations. They will choose their grade level, subject, and a skill to practice. Children will receive immediate feedback if their answers are correct or incorrect.
Another math practice site - http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm
This website offers a range of games and activities for preschoolers to middle school.
The engaging games practice thinking skills related to computation, number sense, and problem solving.
From the Library Mrs. David
A sincere thanks to all of the families that supported our American Education book fair.
I would like to thank all of the volunteers, as well as those that made purchases to help support our library program.
The money raised will be used to buy new books for our school library.
As always, we could not have made this into the success it was without the support of our Marshall Street families.
December in the library will focus on multicultural literature and genres. We will be reading
fiction as well as nonfiction about different wintertime customs and cultures.
Volume III
Page 5
From the Art Teacher Mrs. Broadt
The next fourth grade lesson for December we will be drawing a still life picture of a brisk winters evening using chalk and oil
pastels. The students will learn about different styles of art from abstract and realistic styles of art. The third graders are going to
learn the process of making stained glass and places they might see stained glass. They will then create their own stained glass
window using tissue paper and construction paper. The second grade students are going to make a stained glass trees using the
same materials as the third graders. In first grade I am going to read them a story titled “Snowmen at night”. We are going to
begin to make a snowman or girl. They will learn symmetry, texture, pattern and choose a color scheme to color their project. In
kindergarten I am going to read them “Legend of the candy cane” and why it was invented .They are going to make a candy
cane reindeer learning symmetry, pattern and continue to learn their cutting skills.
From the Health & Physical Education Department, Ms. Brown & Mr. Shrader
Throughout the month of December, student in PE will be working on their non-locomotor skills (pushing, pulling, reaching,
stretching, etc) by climbing on the rock wall and cargo nets. Students will learn how to safely climb each piece of equipment.
During the month of December, the students will be working in social skills. 4 th grade will learn about making new friends,
choosing good friends and maintaining friendships. 3rd grade will work on how to deal with anger. 2nd grade will be working on
focus and frustration. 1st and Kindergarten will be working in feelings, how to identify what they are feeling and how to handle
what they are feeling.
From Mrs. Chester– Kerr, Guidance Counselor
What Children Want to Hear
Whether you are a parent or caregiver, children thrive on positive attention. Children need to feel loved and appreciated. In parenting,
it’s often easier to provide the negative feedback then the positive. By selecting and using some short phrases below on a daily basis
with your child, you will find that he/she will start paying more attention to you and will try harder to please.
Yes, Very good, Excellent, Marvelous At-a-boy, That’s Right, Correct, Wonderful I like the way you do that, I’m pleased with (proud of )
you Wow, Good work, Great going Good for you, That’s the way, Much better, O.K. You’re doing better, That’s perfect, Good idea, What
a cleaver idea That’s it! Good job!
I like the way you ______ , I noticed that you ____ , Keep it up! I had fun ______ with you, You are improving at ______ more and more You
showed a lot of responsibility when you ______, Way to go! I appreciate the way you ______ , You are great at that! You're the best! Good
remembering! That’s beautiful! I like your______ . I’m sure glad you are my son/daughter. Now you’ve got it! I love you! You can SHOW
them how you feel as well as TELL them. Smile, Nod, Pat on shoulder, Wink, Signal or gesture to signify approval, High five, Touch cheek
Tickle , Laugh (with, not at) Pat on the back, Hug
These loving gestures, take little time, little effort and cost no money, however can reward a child with invaluable security and self worth
that last a life time!
One Final Touch
If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy.
If a child lives with fear, he learns to be apprehensive.
If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement he learns to be confident.
If a child lives with acceptance, he learns to love.
If a child lives with recognition, he learns it is good to have a goal.
If a child lives with honesty he learns what truth is. If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith in himself and those about him.
If a child lives with friendliness, he learns the world is a nice place in which to live to love and be loved.
(Anonymous)
Volume III
Page 6
From Mrs. O’Donoghue ELA Support teacher
Making the Most of Nightly Reading
One of the best ways that you can help your child improve his or her reading is to make the most of their nightly reading. Every
student is expected to read every night for at least 15 to 20 minutes with the goal of reading at least 25 books by the end of the
year.
Here are a few helpful tips to make reading a part of your daily good habits! J
Schedule reading into your nightly or morning routines
Keep books in your car for when you are doing errands
Read to your child from your favorite book
Share the reading responsibility – you read a page, your child reads a page
Don’t limit reading to just a chapter book: newspapers, magazines, poems, advertisements, graphic novels, comic
books…..
Ask questions about what your child is reading
Who/what are reading about?
What has happened so far?
What is your favorite part and why?
What do you think will happen next?
What was the most exciting part of the book? Why?
From Mrs. Conston Speech Clinician
During November speech classes, we’ve been practicing language concepts with a Thanksgiving/turkey theme. We started out
by reading two stories, “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey.” While reading, we worked on WH questions and vocabulary (i.e. "What is she swallowing on this page?" "Where is the
old lady sitting?" "Who is sitting on the bench with her?" "Where is the cat?", “When will she be full?” “What did she eat in the
beginning, what happened in the middle and what happened last? Next, students worked on sequencing the pictures in the
story. Students were able to make their own story wheels to retell each of the “There Was an Old Lady” stories at home. We also
looked through each page in the book again so the students could practice categorization skills receptive (find the picture that
floats, has fur, swims, is round, is yellow, is a vegetable) and expressive (telling the object function of pictured items eaten in the
story). Students working on articulation skills retold the story using their speech sounds and by naming each item the lady was
eating. We enjoyed these books and hope everyone has a lot of time to spend reading books with their families in December.
Please contact me at Marshall Street Elementary with any questions about your child’s speech/language program.
REMINDER:


Winter Break December 26– January 2
Students return to school on January 3rd
**The school doors open at 8:30 AM unless your
students attend ESCC. Please do not drop them off
early. If you have any questions please contact the
school...Thank you
Upcoming Events at our School
We have many things in the works this year at Marshall
Street. Please mark your calendars for some of the
events coming up:
December 6= Early Dismissal
December 26-30= No School Winter Break
January 2= No School Winter Break
February 17= Staff Development (no school for students)