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West Ridge News "Committed to Educational Excellence" Volume Issue From the Principal’s Office Grade Level Activities Dear Parents, Pre-School - Ms. Randazzo’s preschool classes are having a great year. In September, we spoke about I enjoyed the opportunity to see many of you at our our feelings and sounds we hear around us. Currently recent Back-to-School Night. It is always nice to see we are in our tree study unit and will be using all our so many parents come to this school event. When I senses to investigate trees. This fall we will continue to think about this, I have a renewed sense of the great experience the world around us, and sing songs that importance of the work we do with and for children. enhance our language, academic, gross motor, and The kindness to me and generosity to West Ridge fine motor skills. Enjoy the fall. means a great deal – so thank you, and please contin- Mrs. Anderson’s preschool classes have had a great ue to check in with me throughout the year. I am al- start! We have been listening to Fall stories and learn- ways interested in what is going on with you and your ing many new songs and poems, along with working family. I want to thank families for joining us for on counting, number and letter recognition, and our “Walk to School Day.” Events like that are fine exam- fine motor skills. We ripped orange paper and cut and ples of parents and educators working together to glued the pieces to make mosaic pumpkins, and help our children continue to grow. counted ghosts. We have also been having fun playing and learning with our new STEM toys: a house build- Another thank you to all of the families who are send- ing set, and block center accessories to help develop ing their children to school on time and closely paying our skills in gravity, structure, balance, and trajecto- attention to their children’s attendance. Attendance ry. Happy Fall! at school is very important. Research shows that ab- Kindergarten - The West Ridge Kindergarten senteeism in the first month of school can predict classes began the year by learning all about the poor attendance throughout the school year. Half the names of our classmates. We made a “Star Name of students who miss two to four days in September go the Day” book for every friend in our class and an al- on to miss nearly a month of school. Absenteeism phabet book all about our names. After reading Cor- and its ill effects start early. One in ten kindergarten duroy and A Pocket for Corduroy by Don Freeman, we and first grade students are chronically absent. Poor brought our teddy bears to school and sorted them attendance can influence whether children read profi- four different ways. We learned our color words and ciently by the end of third grade. Research also we can read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You shows that missing ten percent of the school year, or See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle all by our- about 18 days, negatively affects a student’s academic selves. Our other favorite books are Caps for Sale, performance. That is just two days a month and that Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, and Chicka is known as chronic absenteeism. Additionally, when Chicka Boom Boom. For math, we learned how to students arrive late or are picked up before dismissal, sort by color, shape, type, and size. We just finished teaching and learning is disrupted for every student. learning all about patterns. We discovered that there Please make every effort to have your child in school are patterns all around us. During Fire Prevention from 8:35 AM -3:20 PM each day. Week, the Park Ridge Fire Department came to West Ridge School in a fire truck to teach us all about fire The procedures and daily activities of your child’s safety. They even brought Sparky! They enjoyed see- classroom should be familiar and comfortable to them ing you all at the West Ridge Halloween Parade! by this time in the school year. If your child is still experiencing anxiety or any type of concerns, please First Grade - The first graders have been very contact your child’s teacher. You are welcome to also busy investigating the Fall changes in the garden, and include me on those types of communications. We will harvesting seeds to save for planting time next Spring. be happy to talk with you on the phone or schedule a We have been writing personal narrative stories about meeting together regarding ideas to help your child or small moments in our lives that are special to us. In the situation. Please do not ever hesitate to contact reading, the first graders have been growing a list of us. We want to help. strategies to help us when we get stuck on words. In math class, we are developing a variety of strategies to This year we are incorporating “Brain Breaks” into the add quickly in our heads. We look forward to growing classroom routine for students at all grade levels. Our stamina in reading and writing next month, and work- primary grades have been doing a short “chair yoga” ing on subtraction strategies. Principal Continued on Page 4... PAGE 2 WEST RIDGE NEWS Second Grade - Second graders are off to a Fifth Grade - Fifth grade has gotten off to a great start this year. We enjoyed the warm Fall very exciting start! Initially, the students worked on weather by exploring the outdoor garden while we creating movie posters for their summer reading. We studied different habitats in our science unit. We also just completed our character study through our collected data which was then used to compare our read aloud Holes by Louis Sachar and have been garden habitat with habitats around the world. (We busy responding to our independent reading books. love the outdoors!) In math class, we learned about In writing, we are getting ready to publish our per- different addition strategies. We worked with open sonal narratives, so be on the lookout for some fan- number lines, arrays, hundred charts, and ten- tastic stories! Our mathematicians are busy working frames. Our stories in writing workshop were about on multiplication and mastering our math facts. In memories we have about small moments in our lives. science, students are learning to think like scientists Our vacations, birthdays, and sports games were and are all enjoying completing hands on experi- among our favorite stories. We are becoming strong- ments investigating properties of matter. Our histo- er readers by expanding our decoding skills and by rians are finishing up studying Native Americans reading for understanding. We are thinkers when we and look forward to starting to explore the New read! Second graders are very busy! World. In problem solving, students have been read- Third Grade - Third graders are off to a great ing a variety of Chris Van Allsburg books, working on Prezi presentations, and writing their own stories start! Writing and developing personal narratives is based off of a mystery novel by Chris Van what they have been working on during the writing Allsburg. We are looking forward to some exciting workshop. A lot of time and effort has gone into holiday projects soon, so stay tuned! these writings and the third graders are very proud of their accomplishments. In addition, they are con- Sixth Grade - Sixth grade has been reading tinuing to practice their addition and subtraction and writing up a storm! In literacy, the sixth grade skills. They are also learning to effectively analyze has just completed an intense character analysis and solve problems during mathematics. They are unit and is now moving into studying non-fiction. using estimation to judge reasonableness. Also, They have written personal narratives that tell im- third graders are paying more and more attention by portant stories from their own lives. Sixth grade has stopping and thinking while they read in order to started writing expert information books while rais- continue to become better readers. The students ing the level of their writing. In math classes, stu- continue to work on being responsible and orga- dents have been focusing on operations with deci- nized. Go third graders! mals, fractions, and exponents. Students are using these skills to evaluate expressions using PEMDAS Fourth Grade - Fourth grade is off to an ex- order of operations. In social studies classes, stu- citing start! Students have settled into the routines dents have been learning all about life in the Paleo- of switching classes, participating in instrumental lithic Era and how technology,tools and skills lessons and taking home their laptops! Our mathe- shaped the development of human culture over time. maticians are hard at work solving multiplication In science, sixth graders are studying forces and mo- and division equations. Color tiles and Thinking tion. They are learning about speed, motion, veloci- Blocks have helped students become successful in ty, and acceleration through different labs and activ- modeling and evaluating algebraic expressions. Our ities. scientists are busy identifying various types of rocks and minerals and will soon be learning about weath- Resource Center - Mrs. Fox’s students are ering and erosion with exciting labs. Be sure to ask off to an exciting start! Grade 1 and 2 literacy stu- your fourth grader to share our rock songs and dents are learning how to set reading goals, read dances at home. Students have become New Jersey with “smooth voices” and “stretch” their reading experts in Social Studies.

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