Moyer’s Monthly Memo



Moyer’s Monthly Memo

March 1, 2018

Dear Parents and Students,

Happy March! Is summer here yet? I know many of us are anxious for spring to arrive and warm us up. Although a shorter month, (because of a two- hour delay, snow day, and three school holidays) we worked diligently on many projects during February.

Daily homework and a classroom calendar of events can be accessed via School Wires. Please encourage your child to access both daily. Students are expected to access the March calendar from School Wires, record the events that pertain to them in the March calendar and keep the calendar in their take home folder.

Students, challenge yourselves to “go for the gold” by: eating quietly, keeping a clean space, and listening to directions while in the cafeteria.

Please make sure your child comes clothed appropriately for 30 minutes of outdoor recess. Additionally, kindly make sure your child has a nutritious snack every day as it provides that extra jolt of energy needed to get through and be at our best.

Bridge Valley Home & School continues to generously support our educational program through both their volunteer work and financial assistance.  The Home & School offered a mini-grant to fund initiatives that extend beyond the district program.  In December I applied for a grant for the sixth grade entitled, Casablanca: Sampling Diversity. I received the grant on behalf of the 117 sixth- grade students. I wanted the students to experience food and music from the middle east as we have read Deborah Ellis’ novels entitled, The Breadwinner and Parvana’s Journey (both take place in Afghanistan) and study Ancient Egypt and the Middle East in social studies. I wanted to foster an appreciation and respect for all cultures. On Tuesday, February 13 at 11:00 a.m. in the first floor LGI students sampled the following items from Casablanca, a restaurant in Warrington: pita (bread), carrot salad, hummus (chick pea dip), baba ghanoush (eggplant salad), Israeli salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, with spices, lemon and olive oil), and a piece of baklava (sweet layers of filo dough and chopped nuts) for dessert. Prior to the meal, as a team, we went over the expectations of the meal and reviewed appropriate manners.

Congratulations to Olivia Pulak. Her artwork will be featured on the back cover of the Yearbook. Way to go Olivia!

We had a great time celebrating Valentine’s Day in a creative way that lasted five days. On Tuesday, February 14 the Mystery Valentine was disclosed.

On Monday, February 26 we attended Science Alive and learned about lubricants and the brain, two fascinating topics. Mr. Adams, Mrs. Copeland, Mrs. Goldberg, and Mr. Schorn graciously donated their time to teach the experiments and guide us as we discovered, and problem solved. Mrs. Wagner developed the experiment “Does Your Nose Know?” Thank you, parents!

Emily Anton, Zachary Goldberg, and Joshua Wagner volunteered to assist Mr. Foster with his primary physical education class with Jump Rope for the Heart on Monday, March 5 from 9:35-10:15 a.m. Sadie Adams, Gwynneth Critz, and Alexa Lee.

will assist him from 1:00-1:40 p.m.as well.

On Wednesday, March 7 we are attending Lenape Middle School to see the play Willy Wonka Jr. We will eat lunch before we leave (noon) and return at approximately 2:45 p.m.

Students, it's time to rev up your imagination and draw the Toyota, BMW, Lexus, Maserati and Alfa Romeo of the future! Students are participating in a contest called, Thompson Draw for the Future. It is open to students from kindergarten through sixth grade. All participants will receive a commemorative 2018 Draw the Future t-shirt; drawings will be displayed throughout the dealerships. Entries are due to Miss Moyer on Thursday, March 8. Three prize winners will be selected for each grade, as well as one Grand Prize winner who will have his or her design featured on a local billboard! First and second- place prizes include Target gift cards; the third- place prize is movie tickets. Good luck students!

Congratulations to: Sadie Adams, Eudora Demiri-Worman, Saamia Salman and Chloe Yang for joining Reading Olympics this year. Challenge yourself to read as much as possible by March 22, the night of the competition.

  Students will be taking the PSSA in Writing and Reading for three

days: Monday, April 9 - Wednesday, April 11 from 11:05 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Students will be taking the PSSA in Math for two days: Monday, April 16 and Tuesday, April 17 from 11:05 a.m.-12:45 p.m. On the days that we have PSSA Math we will not have math but reading instead. On the days that we have PSSA Writing/Reading we will not have reading but math instead. Please make sure that your child gets at least 10 hours of sleep and eats a hearty, nutritious breakfast each morning. Kind words of encouragement will also help. During PSSA if students elect to bring any electronics (cell phone, Apple watch, or kindle etc…) those devices will be collected before the start of the test and returned after the completion of the test that day.

Our class is scheduled to go through the Sixth-Grade Assessment from April 23- May 1. Students will: research and draft a five- paragraph paper, revise their written work, create a PowerPoint that answers the research question and present their paper and PowerPoint to a team. It is essential that your child get a good night’s sleep (at least 10 hours) each night and eat a hearty, nutritious breakfast and lunch each day. Please encourage your child that this will be a wonderful learning experience; an extra hug and kind words of encouragement go a long way. Mrs. Jaeger, Mrs. Rick, and I will read over each paper as well as grade sheet and make a list of what skills each child needs more assistance with. Between that point and June, I will work with your child to bring those areas to at least a level of proficiency while challenging those students who have attained a level of proficiency to move to an advanced level.

Bryce Martinez and Joshua Wagner have taken the initiative to use Microsoft Forms, an Office 365 program to create practice assessments and get feedback about class projects from students. Students respond through Office 365. Lauren Copeland,  Eudora Demiri-Worman, Sophie Schorn, and Amber Woodring took the initiative to create an excel document through Office 365. The document has all the students' names in our class, upcoming events, and assessments for the month etc... Students are able to check off what they have completed by logging on to their Office 365 account and using the document. Congratulations Bryce, Joshua, Lauren, Eudora, Sophie and Amber; they have applied and been accepted to take part in our Central Bucks Student Technology Showcase. Kindergarten through twelfth grade students across the district showcase some of the innovative things they are doing with educational technology on Thursday, May 10, 2018 at CB South from 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. 

The students thoroughly enjoyed the shared read entitled, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. Winnie, the main character, learns about the great circle of life, friendship, and love. Each day after reading, we plotted the chapter on the plot structure. As a culminating activity, students responded to two Text Dependent Analysis (TDA) questions dealing with Winnie’s character change and comparing Tuck and Jessie’s perspective on their gift of immortality.

Additionally, we are focusing on reading short, nonfiction stories and practicing skills for the upcoming (April 9-11) PSSA in reading. When answering, questions related to the story, students act like detectives looking for evidence (locating the page and paragraph where the answer appears and highlighting the sentence) as well as responding to open-ended questions using a prescribed protocol.

Students were recently introduced to Epic, an app that’s a digital library where they can explore their interests and learn with instant unlimited access to 25,000 high quality e-books and audio books We are researching and writing an informative paper on G.F. Duckwitz, a high-ranking Nazi official who was instrumental in saving most (7,220) of the Jews in Denmark during World War II. This parallels the upcoming read aloud entitled, Number the Stars. Students were instructed on how to research facts for each body paragraph. Daily class time was given so that students completed the majority of the research and drafting in school with a partner. Snapshots, thoughtshots, and vivid, descriptive language were employed to formulate an introductory paragraph. Students will be scored using the PA Writing Assessment Domain scoring guide, which has five categories: focus, content, organization, style, and conventions. It is my hope to see progress on each writing piece throughout the year.

Shortly, students will independently research and draft a five- paragraph informative paper about Denmark and specifically focus on: Tivoli Gardens, King Christian X and the Danish Resistance. Students are honing in on their researching and writing skills for the upcoming Sixth Grade Assessment (April 23-May 1). Students should work on the project each night for 15 minutes. It should not be left for the night before it’s due as students are being assessed on their process skills, time management, researching, and writing process.

On Monday, June 11 we are headed to Philadelphia Sports Club (PSC) for the class trip. We will leave at 9:00 a.m. and return by 2:00 p.m. The following parents graciously volunteered to chaperone: Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Martinez. Chaperones, kindly have your clearances up to date as you will need them to attend. Chaperones, please meet us at the facility by 9:20 a.m. We will be finished the rotation by 1:30 p.m. and arrive back to school before 2:15 p.m.

Congratulations to the recipients of the February classroom award: Julia Alberts, Bryce Martinez, Alyssa Nocito, Olivia Pulak, and Sophie Schorn. We are very proud of you! Continue to soar and excel!

Please feel free to contact me should you need anything; your child is a priority and I intend to make this year as memorable and positive as possible rmoyer@.

Moyer’s Corner

1. A great lunch would be any combination of the following: vegetarian sushi, salad, or soup.

2. I love to mow the lawn, garden, (vegetables and herbs) organize and clean. However, I dislike shoveling snow.

3. I am reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo.

4. I enjoy watching The Americans and This is Us.

5. I don’t care for ice cream but do love a corner piece of birthday cake with icing (not whipped cream) and a large glass of water.

“Teach the children- and treat them well.”

Steven L. Layne

Rachel Moyer

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download