April is the time to grow! This is true in kindergarten too. We are working so hard in reading. We are learning to blend words and read. We are working on opposites and new vocabulary. We are writing sentences and making stories. It is amazing when you compare to the beginning!

Math is all about the teen numbers and counting to 100! This is a good thing to practice at home. The teen numbers are hard!

We will be planting seeds this month so please ask your child how they are doing. Hopefully, everyone will have a plant to bring home! Let’s watch everything and everyone grow!

First Grade

April is going to be SUPER fun and busy. We have our music program on April 21st and our field trip on April 29th. The students are continuing to make progress and are preparing for second grade!

ELA - We are starting Unit 5 Module B Observing the Messages of the Natural World then will move on to Unit 6 Module A Celebrating Diversity. Students have continued to read informational and narrative texts. For foundational skills, students are continuing to decode words and working to use them in sentences. In writing, they have written narrative and informational pieces.

Math - We are beginning Module 5 Identifying, Composing, and Partitioning Shapes then will move on to Module 6 Place Value, Comparison, Addition and Subtraction to 100.

Science - We are in our Light, Sound, and Communication Unit. We will also review Space Systems: Patterns and Cycles.

Social Studies - We will be learning about History.

Math

In second grade math, we are learning about equal groups and forming arrays as our introduction to multiplication. To build this knowledge, students have been drawing and building arrays with square tiles. Following our unit on multiplication, students will be learning about measurement and money.

Tips: Practice forming arrays with objects at home using rows and columns. Continue practicing addition and subtraction math facts.

Reading

In second grade reading, we are learning about biographies and informational texts. Drawing facts from many types of true stories has been a large focus. As a result, students have been learning to develop opinions based around the true facts related to a topic.

Tips: Practice reading enjoyable stories at home to family and friends. Allow students to develop their own opinion after learning about topics that you encounter in the real world.

Science

In science, we have been talking about the properties of materials and matter.

Students have been busy learning so many things this year. Our state testing begins this month. We would like to ask for your help in making sure your child is getting enough sleep and proper nutrition throughout the week. Please help encourage your child to make sure and try their best on these assessments! Our overall goal is to make sure your child feels proud of their work and this is one way to show off what they’ve learned this year! Each student has been working very hard throughout this school year and we want to see them shine!

In math, we just finished data charts and graphs. The students even made their own bar graph and collected data by doing a survey and using tally marks. They were able to choose their own topic. We will now start on our last Math Module that offers students intensive practice with word problems, as well as hands-on investigation experiences with geometry and perimeter. The module begins with solving one- and two-step word problems based on a variety of topics studied throughout the year, using all four operations.

In Reading we have read books about becoming an active citizen. We read Brave Girl and what she did to help women have better working conditions and we also read about Rosa Park and how she refused to give up her seat on the bus. The students will continue to read about characters who are active citizens. In writing, the students will then choose one of the people or characters they read about. They will state and support an opinion about which person they think had the greatest effect on the events in the story. In foundational skills, the students have worked on suffixes and now they will work on vowel diagraphs.

In Science, the students have enjoyed learning and playing with magnets and understanding invisible forces. In Social Studies, the students will be learning about civics and government, which it combines with our reading. The students will learn about being a good citizen and different parts of the government.

April is going to be a busy month for us! We have state assessments for reading April 5th & April 6th. Math state assessments will be April 11th and April 12th. Please make sure your child is getting some good rest before testing! We are also taking our trip to the Salt Mine Museum in Hutchinson on April 13th. It will be a great break after a lot of testing! We will be sending more info out once the field trip gets closer regarding pick up time since arrival may be a little after 4 PM.

Math: -We will be completing Module 6 and Module 4. In Module 6 we will be covering Topic A: Exploration of Tenths, Topic B: Tenths and Hundredths, Topic C: Decimal Comparison, Topic D: Addition with Tenths and Hundredths, and Topic E: Money amounts as decimal numbers. In Module 4 we will be covering Topic A: Lines and Angles, and Topic B: Angle Measurement, Topic C: Problem Solving with the Addition of Angle Measures, Topic D: Two-Dimensional Figures and Symmetry.

Reading: We will be continuing- Unit 4 Module A. The emphasis of this module is that readers will be able to understand the elements of narrative texts and how to use them to determine the theme of a story. Writers will understand that they can draw evidence from literary texts to analyze and reflect on story elements. For our performance based assessment, students will write a short story about a character who solves a problem or overcomes a challenge with an innovative solution.

Social Studies: In our unit this quarter, students will recognize and evaluate how limited resources require choices. They will analyze the concepts of opportunity cost and cost-benefit in the context of choices made in Kansas and another region and draw conclusions about these choices. Students will examine how natural, capital, and human resources are used in the production of goods and services. They will analyze the roles of consumer, producer, saver, investor, and entrepreneur. Students will examine the reasons for economic specialization and how that leads to trade between regions of the United States. They will trace the production, distribution, and consumption of a particular good in the state and regions. Students will describe how a market economy works in the United States and consider the role of the government in the market economy.

Science: In out unit this month, our focus will be Energizing Everything. In this unit, students explore energy. Students investigate how energy is stored, how it can make objects move, and how collisions transfer energy between objects. Students also construct devices that convert energy from one form into another, such as heat into motion and electricity into light.

Thank you for your continued support at home!

Spring is finally here. In spring, we get to witness new life starting all around us. Springtime is truly one of the best times of the year. For our fifth-grade students, it is time for them to demonstrate what they have learned so far this year. It is also a time of exploration as they continue to learn about explores in reading, mapping coordinates in math, using different chemicals in science to create different reactions, and finally, the birth of the United States Constitution.

State testing has already started, and it will continue throughout April. Your students will get the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned this year.

We are testing on April 7, 8, and April 12, 13. Your students will want to get plenty of sleep on these days to ensure they can do their best on these tests.

This month your students will be learning more about explorers who discovered new places worldwide. It all starts with the book Explores Triumphs and Troubles by Paul Mason.

We will discuss their successes and failures. We will also talk about how these explorers shaped the world today. Some of the explorers that we will discuss are Marco Polo, Hernan Cortes, and Christopher Columbus. Your students finish this section by writing an opinion paper about exploration's positive or negative aspects.

In math this month, we are learning about coordinate planes. Your students are learning how to plot points using the x-axis and y-axis. Some things you can do at home to help your students develop these skills include playing games like Battleship and teaching them how to read maps. Both of these activities will help your students understand how to find coordinated pairs so that they can plot them.

In science this month, we are learning about chemical reactions. We will talk about different chemicals and their properties. We will start by discovering if the chemical is an acid. Next, we will discover the reaction of vinegar and copper. After that, we will talk about the legend of a great alchemist who claimed he could turn steel into copper. We will repeat the same experiment and determine if we can turn a steel nail into a copper nail.

In social studies this month, we will continue learning about the hardships during the revolutionary war and the birth of a new nation. We will learn about the struggles the country had in the early days that brought about the birth of the United States Constitution and the first ten amendments, also known as the Bill of Rights.

Your students will be very busy this month, and we also hope that they will have fun along the way. They will be working on their Kansas State Test in the upcoming weeks. They will learn about explorers who helped shape our world. In math, they will learn how to plot coordinate points. In science, your students will learn about chemicals and chemical reactions. Finally, they will continue learning about the birth of America as a nation and the creation of the United States Constitution.

In kindergarten we continued learning folk dances, sang songs honoring music, and listened to books to play instruments along with or move to.

In first and second grade we continue learning rhythms, continued to learn folk dances, sang songs honoring music, and listened to book to play instruments along with or move to.

3rd grade is currently working on rhythm counting and just added two new rhythms in March. We are also working on a folk dance unit learning Alabama Gal and Grumpy March. We are focusing on how to move in time with steady beat and rhythm and working with various partners through these dances. It has been a lot of fun! Ask your child to show you what they’ve learned.

4th grade is learning how to draw rhythms according to specific pitches on the music staff. We are also in the beginning stages of our recorder unit. They are using their rhythm, pitch and counting knowledge and applying it by playing an instrument. The kids are really enjoying playing and ask constantly when they can take their recorder home. I promised them that once we learn 3 notes and a few songs they can take them home to play for their family!

In fifth grade we finished up our dance unit, in which one of the folk dances they were assessed, we continue to work on rhythms, reviewed the treble clef staff in order to prepare playing the recorders.

Hello All!

The library has been a busy place!

Kindergarten and First grade are working hard on fiction and non-fiction. We have been sorting books, comparing fiction and non-fiction and finding fun ways to tell the two apart. I encourage them to tell their parents what kind of book you are reading at home!

Second grade will be looking at different sources of information and recognizing facts/opinions. We will also be looking at what the purpose and what the author wants you to know.

Third- Fifth grade will be doing research! We are starting by discussing the importance of the resources we are using. Are they safe? Are they reliable? We will be looking at different websites and information to answer these questions.

Keep reading at home! Mix it up while reading together! You can read a page and then your child can read a page, read different characters or read in a monster or whispering voice! Make it fun and your kiddos will be asking you to read every day!!

5-13 State Assessments for 3rd, 4th, 5th

11- Site Council

12- PTO, Papa John's Night

13-4th grade to Salt Mines

14- No School

15- No School

18- No School

26- 5th grade parent night at DCMS

29- 1st grade to Garden City Zoo

Congratulations to Phillip Nguyen on his retirement. Mr. Nguyen has worked at Northwest as our head custodian for 27 years. He did an amazing job on keeping our school clean and safe for our students and staff. Thank you for all your years of hard work. You will be missed by everyone Mr. Nguyen.