Mrs. Whaley and Ms. Signore

Reading/LA | Social Studies | Math | Science
1st Quarter Newsletter
Mrs. Whaley in Australia - 2000 Olympics

September 1, 2005

Dear Families of Team O-Blue,           

Welcome to Davisville Middle School.  It is going to be a wonderful year.  We will spend this first week of school building a sense of community in our classrooms.  The students have come to us from many elementary schools and it is important we get to know our new classmates. Included with this letter, is a form for you to fill out to let us know about your child.  This would be a great opportunity to tell us any concerns you might have that you would like to share with us.    

We have a great year planned.  The students will be very busy learning many new things.  Our classrooms are based on meeting the standards with the curriculum and using best practice to have your child reach their full potential.           

The students have been having fun and we hope the feedback at home has been positive.  We are working on using the new school planner to help organize the nightly homework.  Please have your child explain to you how they are using their planner to record their nightly homework.  This will help them to organize their work.The most important school supply your child can have is to bring a pencil to school each day.  We also ask that they come to school well rested, having eaten breakfast, and with their homework done.  Each student should also have a folder to put their homework assignments in each day.                      

Team O-Blue Teachers : Tanya Signore and Ella Whaley

1st Quarter Newsletter
Our team has had a wonderful year so far! The students have been doing well academically and socially; in addition, they work well together. The students are actively involved in class and a lot of tasks (both individual and in groups) are getting accomplished. Below are some of the things that we have been doing on Team O - Blue.
We had our first field trip of the year at the beginning of November. We went to Yawgoog Scout Reservation where the children participated in outdoor challenges and team building activities. Thank you again to our chaperones: Mr. Handy, Mr. Lieb, Mrs. Linnane, and Mrs. Eland. That was nice of you all to give us your time.
In order to meet the reading / language arts standard, children are required to read 25 books by the end of the school year. The students should be reading for twenty minutes or more nightly. There are silent reading periods built in the school’s weekly schedule; also, our guided reading books (where the whole class reads the same novel with the teacher) count towards the required twenty-five.
We are also having a Battle of the Books competition in the spring and we have given the students a list of 30 books to read in order to participate. Reading the Battle of the Books novels is a great idea, because students can join in for the competition and this will also count towards the required 25 books.
Some skills that we have taught the students in reading / language arts are as follows: similes, metaphors, personification, homonyms, analogies, characterization, etc.
We expect that the students use these literary items in their writing. The classes have been working on developing their writing skills including how to describe characters. For instance, rather than simply saying, “Jen was bored.” The students are being taught to envision a bored person and write something more descriptive and imaginable, such as, “Jen was tapping her fingers on the desk and she kept looking over at the clock.” Their writing consists of assignments such as the Halloween closets, which were very well done. They had great flow of writing, wonderful storylines, beautiful artwork, originality, creativity, and lots of details. We were proud of the students since they followed the rubrics given to them, and they used skills they learned in class to complete the assignment with success. Other writing assignments that have been done are related to characterization, journal entries, and summaries. We will be starting our Mystery’s Unit with the students shortly; as well as other projects that include writing.
In science with Miss Signore, the students continue to work with the Time Measurement Kit. This includes experiments related to the sun, moon, earth, calendars, etc. Also, activites have been done that are connected to elapsed time and how to determine when one minute has passed. Furthermore, we have investigated how to make items sink at a certain amount of time. The ongoing moon phase assignment was successful. The students went outside every night, looked at the moon, then recorded what type of moon phase the moon was in. They were to put the date on the moon phase card that goes with the accurate moon phase, and tell when they originally predicted this phase. In connection with our kits, we have been learning about astronomy. Some things we have been working with are: Earth’s moon, the origin of the moon and how it was formed, features of the moon, Galileo, rockets sent to the moon, Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the Solar System, Ptolemy, Copernicus, heliocentric system, and geocentric system. Our kit in Measuring Time will end in the beginning of December.
In Team O-Blue’s social studies classes we have learned the five themes of geography. Strategies and work has been done related to reading from an expository textbook. By the end of the year our goal is to have all students understand information in a textbook; know where to find information that is needed; and be able to glean key concepts from a textbook. Some of the topics that we have taught the students are: The Stone Age, farming, social classes, early civilizations, Sumerian city-states, Mesopotamia, myths, Babylonian and Assyrian empires, Phoenicia, etc. Our Sumerian City-State project was a huge success. The students did a wonderful job on the drawings and map keys. Many students went above and beyond by adding smaller details, more action, and many colors. Great job! Moreover, the myths that the students are working on with Mr. Shaffer, our dance / drama teacher, have been going great! The students are very involved, cooperative, and creative. They have been learning how to act on a stage, what certain areas on the stage are called, and how to verbally and physically perform their myths.
In math classes with Mrs. Whaley, the students have finished the unit on Geometry and patterns. They have created straw icosahedrons and tetrahedrons, as well as origami, hexahedrons, and polygons. We have reviewed our addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts and are working on problem solving strategies, multiplication, and place value. The Planet 3 project was very well done. The students’ work was nicely put together, organized, categorized and well written. Great job!
Lastly, we are having a wonderful year and would like to thank you for all your support and cooperation. Thank you for spending time at home with your children’s educational tasks. We truly have a nice team and are enjoying the children.
As always, give us a call, send us an email, or write a note at anytime if you have any questions.