Ruth Ditto Elementary School, Arlington, Texas
Ditto Ranger Roundup
Week of December 4th
2016/2017
Ditto Families,
We want to thank you again for the generous contributions to the Student Council Canned Food Drive which
was given to Mission Arlington just before the Thanksgiving break. Our families donated over 2,000 items and
we received a lovely "Thank You" letter from the director, Mrs. Tille Burgin. What a wonderful thing we can
do for our community, and it was made possible by your generous donations.
Thank you so much!
Karie Kuster
Principal
Coming in December:
12/15 Holiday Parties
12/16 Early Dismissal (12:20 PM)
12/19-01/02 Winter Break
In The Classroom:
K: We have introduced all letters and their sounds! Our sight word this week is "said". We are practicing
reading, spelling, and writing this sight word all week long. We are practicing planning and writing fiction and
non-fiction stories. One of our report card skills includes writing legibly. We have been studying a word family
each week. This week we are studying the -ap family: nap, map, cap. During social studies we are discussing
holidays around the world. In math we are decomposing numbers to 5. Your child should be able to read, write,
count, and recognize numbers 0-20. Reviewing letters, letter sounds, sight words, and math concepts at home
with your child gives them an opportunity to take pride in what they are learning. Please take a few minutes
every night to review, discuss, or just read together!
So far your child should be able to identify the sight words:
a, the, can, see, we, like, the, am, go, in, went, me, my, to, you, do, look, have, was
They should be practicing reading and writing with these word families:
-at example: cat, bat, rat
-an example: can, man, fan
-ad example: bad, lad, dad
-ag example: wag, bag, lag
You can also quiz them on EVERY letter and sound!
1st: Language Arts: recall story details; analyze characters; make predictions and provides text evidence to
support predictions; self-correct when reading; Math: instantly recall all 2-number combinations that make 6;
build and compare numbers to 75; use strategies to solve addition and subtraction equations; Social
Studies: locate places using the four cardinal directions; create and use a simple map to locate the community,
Texas, and the United States; Science: describe how magnets push or pull objects.
2nd: 3rd 6 Weeks Goals: these new goals are being placed in the last pouch of each students O.W.L. Folder
Highlights: summarizing fiction and non-fiction text; retell the most important events in nonfiction text;
making inferences; read independently for 20 minutes (no interruptions); read fluently (with appropriate rate,
accuracy, intonation, and phrasing); reading 190 HFW, spell 45 HFW from 2nd grade list; comparing &
ordering numbers to 500; recognize, identify, and create 2D and 3D geometric shapes; graphing; problem
solving with numbers to 500; motion, forces, speed, magnets; reading maps and constructing timelines;
producers and consumers.
We are very excited about our upcoming field trip to Casa Manana! Permission slips for our field trip will be
coming home on Monday. The cost is $10.00 per student. Both the permission slip and the money need to be
returned to their teacher as soon as possible. We would like everyone to wear a Ditto shirts, if possible. This
helps us easily see our students. Last, students will need a sack lunch and a drink for that day. We will be
having a picnic in our classrooms when we return from the theater. Chaperones will be contacted by homeroom
teachers.
Websites for everyday use:
***Moby Max: www.mobymax.com - students know their username and password (should you get the prompt
for your school simply type in ditto and choose Arlington, TX)
***Raz Kids: https://www.kidsa-z.com/main/Login/reset/student - students have their username and password
Upcoming:
December 13 - Field Trip to Casa Manana (chaperones limited; invitations will be sent out)
December 15 - Holiday Sing-A-Long and Parties
Thank you for all your support and help this year!
3rd: Reading: We are practicing drawing conclusions and continuing our referencing skills. We will take our
2nd Reading CA December 13th; Math : we are continuing to work on multiplication and division. Please
study your facts every night.
4th: We are working on an imaginative narrative composition in writing class. We are in need of a few
different donations for this activity. If you are able to donate, please send the materials in by December 6th to
your child's writing teacher. If we get more materials than we need for this year, we will save them for next
year unless you request otherwise.
*120 clear dome lids with no holes.
*tiny snowballs or snowflake confetti
*Red,green, and/or blue card stock
Thank you so much for your support!
5th: In lieu of a book exchange at the Christmas party 5th grade takes donations to the Arlington Animal
Shelter. Please have your child give their donation to their first block teacher. The first block teacher will give
them one ticket per dollar spent. Please check the attached file for the items needed for the shelter. Thank you
for your help!
6th: In Language Arts: students are reading the novel Tuck Everlasting. We have enjoyed discovering how
Winnie Foster feels about life, and have watched as she changed from being lonely and insecure to confident
and caring. We've also learned how authors use foreshadowing to give us clues of upcoming events. Our
inferencing skills have been important as we used the author's clues to fully understand Winnie's actions and
character.
Ditto Library News:
Battle of the Books: the AISD Battle of the Books is a reading-incentive program that all 4th & 5th grade
students have the opportunity in which to participate. Students read the 8 books on the list, compete within
grade-levels on their campus on January 10 & 11 via a test and
then four-student teams from each grade will represent Ditto Elementary on Saturday morning, March 25, 2017
at the Mac Bernd Professional Development Center. A detailed flyer went home to parents in October and
another one will be sent home with students who qualify to represent our school. If you have any questions
about the Battle of the Books program, please contact our librarian, Mrs. Murrow at 682-867-3122
or [email protected]
The Barnes and Noble Book Fair that was to take place on December 8 has been cancelled.
Hour of Code: I will be hosting/teaching "Hour of Code" in our library classes during the lesson time frames
of Dec 5-16 in grades 2-6.
The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching over 100 million students in more than 180 countries.
Anyone, anywhere can organize an Hour of Code event.
The students will be guided through at least 2 choices to explore during our lesson time. I am extremely
excited about sharing and guiding our students through this exciting part of technology!!
https://hourofcode.com/us
New Arlington Public Library Book Club!
Obviously the family that reads together has the most fun together! Kids (and Parents) Book Club is just that: a
book club for kids and parents! Kids and parents can read the book together or separately, and then use our
meetings to talk about what they read. Every month we will meet and decide on our next book, so keep an eye
out for our next read! For more information, go to:
http://tinyurl.com/jv2z5jt
The Texas Bluebonnet Award voting will take place around the third week of January. In order to vote,
students, grades 3 through 6 have to read a minimum of at least 5 of the 20 nominated books on the current
list. The students of Texas determine the WINNER of the Bluebonnet award, which is a REALLY big
deal! We have been promoting this since last spring and students have had the opportunity to check out books
at school or the public library; here is the website: http://www.txla.org/tba-nominees
Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DittoElementaryPTA
Check us out on http://dittopta.com/ .