Classroom Update - October 22nd

Updates/Reminders

• This week we will be celebrating Kindness/School Spirit Week at Morrisville Elementary! This week is going to highlight ways for our Mustangs to learn, explore, and practice kindness. Studies have indicated that promoting kindness in youth promotes self-confidence, optimism, leadership, and increased happiness! We are challenging all students to do as many kind acts for one another as possible and/or adding their kind act to our school kindness chain. We below for Kindness week schedule.

• Monday, 10/22 – Kindness Week - Wear BRIGHT colors(Orange) to remind everyone to use words that brighten other people’s day! "UNITY DAY"

• Tuesday, 10/23 – Kindness Week - Tie Tuesday! Kindness is a gift, tie your gift with a bow! – Wear a Bow-tie or a Tie (Girls may wear pearls or any necklace)

• Wednesday, 10/24 – Kindness Week - Wear your favorite sports uniform! or Jeans and favorite Jersey! Nothing Beats Kindness or Team Kindness

• Thursday, 10/25 – Kindness Week - Wear your crazy socks! We are Crazy for Kindness!

• Friday, 10/26 – Kindness Week - School Spirit Day! Wear Morrisville attire; We are proud to be MES with the amount of kindness that we show!

• On Wednesday, October 24th, the students will be taking the NC Check In for math. This assessment will be administered first thing in the morning at 9:30, so please be sure to get your child to school on time. This test will provide us with additional information about how your child is performing in math. Results will be shared with parents later this quarter.

• First Quarter report cards will go home on Friday, October 26th.

• Order Your Spirit Wear Today Online!!

• The PTA is taking orders for spirit wear beginning today, Oct. 5th through Nov. 2nd. Orders will be delivered to your child in late November.

• Go to morrisville.memberhub.store and Click on MES Spirit Wear on the left.

• If you would like to pay by cash or check, then please print out the form in the link below and return with payment to your child’s teacher: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12XaUxHX9rUvPbRMmXh2ZI1-fRc3PZbR1/view?usp=sharing

• If you have any questions, then please email spiritwear@morrisvillepta.org

• This is a reminder that November 6th (Election Day) has been changed to a 2 hour delay. Buses will run on a 2-hour delay. Doors for students will open at 10:45 and the instructional day will begin at 11:15. We will have a modified lunch schedule and students will eat in the classrooms due to MES being an election site.

E.L. Education:

This week, the students will be starting a new EL Module on animal behaviors and adaptations. Today, the students took a poster walk around the room to view some of the different resources that we will be utilizing this year. They also worked on jotting down facts that they already know about animal defenses and things that they want to learn this quarter on a KWEL (what you already KNOW, what you WANT to learn, EVIDENCE you found from resources, and you LEARNED). This is a chart that the students will revisit throughout the quarter. This week the students will also be exposed to and practice close reading with a variety of challenging texts. They will be working on using the reading strategies of finding the gist (what the text is mostly about), defining unfamiliar vocabulary, capturing the main idea and supporting details and paraphrasing what they have read and heard.

How to Help Your Child at Home:

• Take your child to the library to check out or learn more about defense mechanisms that animals use to help them survive.

• Have them identify the main idea and supporting details of nonfiction paragraphs or text sections.

• Have your child orally paraphrase what they just read in a nonfiction text.

• Point out tricky words, while reading and discuss strategies that your child used (or could use) to determine the meaning.

Math:

This week in math the students will begin to learn how to multiply multi-digit numbers. They started the week, with a hands on activity on what is happening when we multiply numbers (remembering that multiplication is repeated addition) using base ten pieces. As the week goes on, they will be introduced to several strategies such as the Area Model, Algebraic Notation, and Partial Products to solve 1x2 and 1x3 digit numbers. The standard algorithm (the way we all probably learned as children) is not explicitly taught until fifth grade. The students will be taking notes in their math journal that they can take home as a guide and I will be posting quick video tutorials to help you help your child at home. Please trust this process. These methods truly work at helping to build your child's conceptual knowledge of what is happening when you multiply numbers.

How to Help Your Child at Home: ​

• Does your child know their multiplication facts? If not, they should be practicing them each night to improve their math accuracy and fluency. There are great sites like multiplication.com or arcademicskillbuilders.com that have fun games and strategies that your child can use at home. There are also many other fun apps and sites that your child can visit, in addition to flash cards.

• Watch the video lessons on my website or look back through your child's student notes together. Have them show you some of the new ways that they are learning to multiply numbers.

• Have a discussion with your child on how the different ways are similar and difference to each other.

Social Studies:

This quarter in Social Studies the students will be focusing on the government in North Carolina. This will they will learn about the North Carolina constitution, why it was created, the key principles included in it, and revisions or amendments that have been made. They will also learn about the preamble and the declaration of rights and why they are important to citizens living in this state.

How to Help Your Child at Home: ​

• Have your child share with you what the North Carolina Constitution is and why it was created.

• Discuss some of the key principles in it and why they are important.

• Talk about the Declaration of Rights and what freedoms these mean for them.

• Take your child with you to vote and help them understand some of the ways that you research the candidates you choose to vote for and explain why voting is important to you.