Appleton City Elementary Newsletter

Upcoming Dates March 14th Daylight Saving Time Begins March 15th—19th Spring Break March 22nd Teacher Professional Development Day NO SCHOOL March 29th School IN Session April 2nd Good Friday—NO SCHOOL April 5th—9th BOGO Book Fair April 5th, 12th and 26th School IN Session Snow Make Up Days April 6th Kindergarten Screenings April 12th—April 23rd MAP Testing April 19th Teacher Professional Development Day NO SCHOOL May 3rd, 10th and 17th School IN Session May 9th Mother’s Day May 16th High School Graduation May 21st Last Day of School May 31st Memorial Day

Spring 2021

Character Words: March = Citizenship, April = Self-Discipline, May = Honesty

Oh, The Places You Go When You Read!

“One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”, “The Cat In The Hat”, “Hop on Pop”, “Green Eggs and Ham” and the list goes on and on. . . . . .

On March 2nd millions of children and adults celebrated Read Across America to honor the birthday of the late Dr. Seuss. Now during the month of March is a perfect time to enjoy that old Seuss favorite of yours with your child and promote the joy of reading in your home.

My Oath of Reading

I promise to read Each day and each night. I know it’s the key To growing up right. I’ll read to myself. I’ll read to a crowd. It makes no difference If silent or loud. I’ll read at my desk, At home and at school, On my bean bag or bed, By the fire or pool. Each book that I read Puts smarts in my head ‘cause brains grow more thoughts The more they are fed. Come rain or come shine, Snow, wind, or sleet, Each day of the week Reading’s a treat. So I take this oath To make reading my way Of feeding my brain What it needs every day. By: Debra Angstead

Spread the Word! The 2021—2022 Kindergarten Enrollment and Screenings

will be held on April 6th.

Call the Elementary Office for an appointment!

Title I

Mrs. Matthes & Mrs. Bock

Mrs. Parsons’s and Mrs. Vogel’s 1st Grade Class The first grade students were very busy in January. In reading, we read Junie B. Jones and studied Martin Luther King, Jr. We practice every week on becoming more fluent readers and the students are making great progress in decoding unfamiliar words. They also have had more difficult spelling words. In math, we learned about graphs and had fun creating a bar graph after counting gummy bears (and then they enjoyed eating the gummy bears!). Now we are learning about numbers to 40 (comparing numbers using greater than and less than symbols, ordering numbers,

etc.). Thank you for listening to your child read and helping them practice their sight words and math facts - it does make a difference!

Ms. Raybourn’s Kindergarten Class

I am so proud of how hard these boys have been working! (Yes, Ms. Raybourn’s Kindergarten class is ALL boys this year!) I was gone for two weeks and they just kept on trucking and learning everything they needed. Every day we do an activity called Partner PALS. This activity is a great one that helps with letter / sound recognition, sight word practice, word and sentence reading. The boys take turns being “coach” and “reader.” They do an awesome job. Every Friday, we do an art or craft to go along with our reading theme. The picture shows the polar bear we painted. We used forks to spread out the paint to make it look more like the fur on the polar bear.

Mrs. Scotten’s Kindergarten Class

Mrs. Scotten's class learned about some Winter topics in Reading. We read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and learned about snow. I taught them how to fold and cut out paper snowflakes, which are each unique and beautiful just like real snowflakes. We also read a nonfiction book published by National Geographic Kids about polar bears. The students learned many interesting facts about these amazing Arctic creatures. Each student worked on writing a fact about polar bears and doing an illustration. In addition, we made a polar bear craft that turned out so cute! In Math, the students are working very hard on being able to count and write numbers to 100. We have been working on how to count larger sets, as well. We are also working on the skills of more and less with these larger numbers. Last of all, my students have been making a lot of progress in their independent reading. They all are so proud that they can read some short books all by themselves now. I am so proud of them, too!!!

Mrs. Schenker’s 2nd Grade Class

In Mrs. Schenker's 2nd grade, we have been working hard on publishing our first book. To start the writing process we picked a topic, and then did some research about that topic. The topic that we chose was Logging 2020,

an informational book about logging trees. We also included some information about planting trees and the importance of that as well. After we picked our topic and did our research, we worked hard on rough drafting and final drafting our book. We sent it to the publishers in November and now have our final drafts back! We are so excited to see

all of our hard work in an actual book! Another thing we have been learning about is animals and their habitats. We built shoe box habitats and have them displayed in the

hallways for our fellow students to enjoy!

Mrs. Nold’s 2nd Grade Class

In Mrs. Nold's Second Grade, we have been working on habitats in our classroom! This is a fun subject and we have been spending quite a bit of time researching the different habitats and the animals that live in them. Each student was

allowed to choose their own habitat and then created a diorama of the habitat using a shoebox and other crafting materials. As always, the students' creativity amazes me. The students took their time to make each habitat look as

realistic as possible. It was amazing to watch how excited the students were to make these projects, and it

is definitely something that I look forward to teaching each year. I am so proud of the time and effort everyone put into

these. Can you guess our habitats?

Mrs. Campos’s 4th Grade Class Fourth grade has been learning a lot this year! Recently in social studies, students have been learning about maps,

globes, and geography. Students had the opportunity to make a map of their classroom as well as research a specific climate. In math, students have been learning multiplication and geometry concepts. They were even able to apply

some of their angle concepts in math to discover how longitude and latitude measurements work.

Mrs. Cole’s 3rd Grade Class

Third grade just finished their physical and chemical change demonstrations. We had vinegar and baking soda

volcanoes, Mentos and Coke volcanoes, cakes, brownies, magnets, and burning steel wool among other things.

We are reading Pippi Longstocking and working on comparing and contrasting, making inferences,

and drawing conclusions.

In math, we have finished up our multiplication and division units and have started on patterns and number sequences.

We will soon be moving on to geometry and fractions.

In social studies, we continue to learn about the American Revolution and current events.

Mrs. Parsons’s 5th Grade Class

What’s been going on??? Well, in fifth grade, students have been reviewing basic concepts in math. Math skills like: adding and subtracting greater numbers and decimals; multiplying and dividing whole numbers and decimals; and we are also shaping up to learn some basic geometric ideas. In ELA, fifth grade students have been reading many genres of fiction and nonfiction, honing their inferential skills, making claims and providing evidence, (and not just in ELA, but in Math and Science also). Students are developing a sense of their genres elements, such as plot, setting, and character. Lastly, fifth graders have worked on spelling, vocabulary, and grammar skills- ending sounds, defining and looking for understanding of new vocabulary, and nouns, pronouns, and antecedents. Science looks a little different. We are still learning about Earth, physical, technological, and life sciences, but we are approaching it with more individualized learning. Students have more independence and are utilizing technology with science. As far as topics, we have worked on living and non-living things, plants and animals, insects, matter, the human body, and we are getting ready to dive into weather. When we go into the units, we establish vocabulary and our own understanding, and build from there. In class we have created, formed, researched, and developed, so that we can better understand the world around us and everyday science that occurs.

“Little People School” with Ms. Jina

Each Tuesday our “little people”,

who are preparing to go to

Kindergarten next year, spend an

hour with Ms. Jina learning about

and writing numbers and letters.

They also get to practice school

routines such as sitting in their

desks, raising their hands for

questions, and listening to the

teacher, etc...

Art with Mrs. Bales So far this quarter in art, most grades are learning about the element of "texture" in

the arts. In the lower grades, we talked about the 5 senses and how "touch" or how

something feels is an important element in art. Artists have to recreate texture within

their art to make it believable as well as more interesting. For example, painting fur on

puppies. Kindergarten used gooey glue and salt for texture, whereas 1st graders are

learning about cave art and have created "rocks." Second grade has just begun an

arctic landscape and we will use crumpled wax paper as mountains and third will be going

into African art with loads of textures. Fourth grade has weaved with soft yarn. We are

not quite there yet with fifth because I felt it was important to learn about Martin

Luther King Jr. and being kind to create a better world. No matter what messes we

make, we are certainly making things interesting!

Music with Mr. Payton Our Kindergarten through 4th grade students just completed the

lesson about the String Family. We began with the orchestra instruments in the Sting Family and then explored other string

instruments. We have now started the Brass Family. The students learned that brass family instruments have a metal mouthpiece that the player

buzzes his/her lips into. They were able to explore the Trumpet, Trombone, French Horn, and Tuba. Next will be the Wind Family and then finally the

Percussion Family.

5th Grade has been learning about Jazz. They have learned about the history of Jazz and are now learning about important Jazz composers /

performers. They have recently learned about Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. They explored the world of scat

singing, swing dancing, and improvising.

Library

with Mrs. Bollig

From legos, puzzles, Keva Planks and designing to

learning how to play together or reading a good book, the library offers all students the

opportunity to shine.

Counseling with Mr. Payton Grades K-5 just finished up with Courage for January. We discussed fears... Why are they

important? How do we address them? How can we help others? What are some strategies that will help

us build our courage?

February’s character word of the month was “Cooperation.” We discovered some wonderful ben-efits from cooperative activities! They were stronger,

faster, more organized, and had more fun working together. The photo is of some students sorting

blocks by color and racing the time it took someone working alone.

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1

School IN Session –

make up day

2

Spring

Photos

3 4 5 6

7 8

School IN Session –

make up day

9 10 11 12 13

14 Daylight

Savings Time

Begins

15

No School

16

Spring Break

17

Spring Break

St. Patrick’s Day

18

Spring Break

19

Spring Break

20

21 22

Teacher PD

No School

23 24 25 26 27

28 29

School IN Session –

30 31

Don’t Forget to “Like”

Appleton City Elementary

on Facebook!

PE with Mrs. Moore

It's cupstacking time again! We have a different look this year. We are still

having our tournament; however, we won't be traveling. We will be having our tourna-ment during PE this year. Medals will still

be awarded to the top 3 in each of the following 3-3-3, 3-6-3 and the cycle.

Working on hand-eye coordination.

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 2

No School Good Friday

3

4

Easter

5 School IN Session –

make up day

6

Kindergarten

Screenings

7 8 9 10

11 12

School IN Session –

make up day

13 14

MAP Testing

15

MAP Testing

16

MAP Testing

17

18 19

Teacher PD

No School

20 21

MAP Testing

22

MAP Testing

23

MAP Testing

24

25 26

School IN Session –

make up day

27 28 29 30

If your child will be 5 before August 1st, now is the time to begin

thinking about Kindergarten enrollment requirements.

The following items are required for enrollment:

immunization records, state issued birth certificate,

social security card and proof of residence.

Did you know that your child can receive the immunizations that are

needed to attend Kindergarten anytime on or after his/her fourth

birthday? You do not need to wait until age five. We encourage you to

have your child fully immunized now and bring the immunization record

to school on the day of Kindergarten screening. If you have questions

regarding required immunizations, please feel free to contact Nikki

Piepmeier, School Nurse, at 660-476-2601, option #7.

Spread the Word! The 2021—2022 Kindergarten Enrollment and

Screenings will be held on April 6th.

Call the Elementary Office for an appointment!

660-476-2108

BOGO Book Fair! April 5th—9th

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1

2 3

School IN

Session

4 5 6 7 8

9

Mother’s

Day

10

School IN

Session

11 12 13 14 15

16

Graduation

17

School IN

Session

18 19 20 21

Last Day of

School

22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

39 31

Memorial

Day