Thursday, March 7, 2013


Self Defense Night: Ms. Andrews, P.E. Teacher

The safety of our children is of great importance to all of us. We can do our best to keep them safe at home and school, but situations may arise that we cannot control. These incidents can happen anywhere, at any time, and with anyone. It is not just an issue in the big cities or always a “stranger danger” attack. Parents are often unsure of what to say to their young children and how much information they should provide to them.

Mrs. Andrews will provide an age appropriate, hands on self-defense workshop in which you may participate with your family. When parents are in attendance, they can hear and see firsthand what she plans to cover. Your child can practice these techniques on their parents or adult family members. Competence and confidence in self-defense techniques can relieve anxiety and is a good resource for your child. The majority of self-defense is avoidance of dangerous situations and good information. This will be Mrs. Andrews’ main focus. We will be practicing physical defenses, though, so please have your child wear comfortable clothing and safe gym shoes. Older siblings and all family members are encouraged to participate. The event will be held Monday, March 11, 2013, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. for students in K-5. At 8:00 p.m., students from Grades 5 are welcome to stay for a 15- 30 minute internet and middle school situations safety presentation.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Mrs. Andrews at terri_andrews@ispd.org or at 630 428-6709.

MAY WATTS FUN FAIR NEEDS YOU!

The Fun Fair is the PTA's biggest fund raising event of the year and it cannot happen without volunteers to work the various attractions. We need over 85 volunteers on the day and with only 2 weeks to go, we are still short over 15 people.

Think how much your child would enjoy seeing you being involved in the Fun Fair. There are 2 shifts: the first from 11-1 and the second from 1-3 so there will be time for you to help and still enjoy going round the Fun Fair with your family.

We will struggle to run the Fair with such a deficit of help on the day. Please, consider giving just 2 hours of your time to help the PTA bring in thousands for the school.

If you can help out, please use the SignUpGenius form to do so, found at this link:


If you have any questions, please contact Debs McDonagh (deborah.e.mcdonagh@gmail.com), Volunteer Coordinator.
 
May Watts Service Club Announcement:
Our club’s first service project is called: “RACE to 1,000 MEALS”. We will be collecting money to help the organization Feed My Starving Children. The Service Club will be packing in May, but we would also like to help by raising enough money to cover the cost of 1,000 meals. Each meal costs 22 cents; which means one quarter donated per student would get us close to our goal!

This will be a grade level competition to see which grade level "donates the most meals". The fundraiser will start the first week in March and continue until spring break.
We appreciate your support. If you have any questions please contact Mrs. Beutler or Ms. Happy.
Thank you!

Curriculum Update

LANGUAGE ARTS:   Our focus has been on the genre of biographies. We read the story "Tomas Rivera.”  Then we worked on the strategy "reading for evidence" to help us understand the story and the person we were reading about. When there is a question to answer from the story, we need to go back to the text to find the answer/evidence. We also read various stories and practiced the comprehension strategy of "making mental images" to help us connect with the story and make a picture in our mind of something the story reminds us of in our own lives.


PHONICS: The students were assessed on long and short A and I.  Then they were introduced to long O with the CVCe vowel pattern(spoke, rope, hose), the CVVC vowel pattern (road, boat) and the CCVC pattern (grow, bow). We learned the blends dr and cr.
WORD WALL: know, because, brother, people, think, children,
GRAMMAR: We reviewed commas, abbreviations, and contractions.
WRITING: The students have been reading different biographies and now they are getting ready to write a biography.  They will interview a classmate and write a biography about him or her.
MATH: We are working on Unit 6 which is subtraction.  They are learning the strategies of counting back, counting up, doubles, near doubles…. We continue to work on problem solving.  We discuss the various ways to solve a problem and the many strategies that can be used.  We also need to read the problem carefully to find out exactly what it is asking us and what we need to find out.  Finally we need to persevere in finding the answer.
SOCIAL STUDIES: Our unit on Influential Americans is coming to an end. We read many biographies about many important Americans. We discussed their character traits. We will be making a timeline to show how they affected each other through history.
SCIENCE: Will March come in like a Lion and out like a Lamb? The students can keep track at home with tally marks and write a few sentences about what they discovered with the weather. If they return it after spring break, they will earn a bookmark and a paw print!!

Saturday, March 16: Fun Fair and Book Fair.

Wednesday, March 20: Read In

March 25-29: Spring Vacation, No School

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