December 5 5:00-7:00 Literacy Night

December 5 5:00-7:00 Literacy Night December 13 3:15 – 6:30 Fundraiser Pick up December 14 7:00 Winter Concert December 22 Early out (2:30) December 25-January 1 No School January 2nd Back to School

Please make sure students do not come to school before 8:00. There is no one there to supervise until 8:00.

Second Grade The second grade students prepared and packaged 3, 240 meals for families in Puerto Rico for Kids Against Hunger. The students enjoyed the process and we are very thankful for your donations to this cause. We also had our monthly Adopt-A-Firefighter visit from the local fire departments. The firefighters are currently teaching the students the importance of an evacuation plan. Papers came home for students to discuss and develop a plan for each family. The firefighters asked each student to memorize their address, as they will be using it during our field trip to the fire station this spring. We are looking forward to our future firefighter holiday party. The students will get to wear the gear and participate in a relay race. We are currently conducting animal research projects that the students are excited about. Quarter 2 has a big emphasis in the writing process. The students are researching facts and characteristics about each animal. Then they are learning to revise and complete a final draft. We plan to see you all on December 14th at 7pm at the High School for the holiday music program.

Third Grade The third grade teachers were very pleased to see so many parents at conferences. Your support is greatly appreciated! Students have been working on reviewing the six syllable types and the vowel phonemes (sounds) represented by each syllable type. We use non-sense words to work on our syllables and vowel phonemes so that students must decode the word by the sounds of the letters, not just by recognizing the word. Ask your child what syllable types they know and the hand gesture for each syllable type.

We are planning an all-third grade field trip to the Carnegie Museum here in Fairfield. We will reach some of our social studies and science benchmarks by observing exhibits at the museum. More information will come home soon.

Fourth Grade Our 4th graders have been reading lots of nonfiction stories with the genre of expository text! These stories have been about ecosystems and animal adaptations. We will also be reading and discussing different types of poetry. We are continuing to work on our skills of finding text evidence, theme, main idea, and key details. In math, we are learning all about fractions. For example, how to make them equivalent, rules, comparing, and ordering. We will be working with decimals, and learning different strategies to use with multiplication. During Education Week, all fourth grade classes loved having reading buddies with our middle school students. We also enjoyed cookies because our students are so appreciated! We have been enjoying the unusually warm weather and playing in the large field on the playground at recess. We are also looking forward to a fun holiday season!

Music Notes for December

The halls at Pence have been ringing for some time now with the music of Second, Third and Fourth grades preparing for their winter concert. The time is fast approaching, so here are the details: WHAT: PENCE WINTER CONCERT WHO: PENCE 2nd, 3rd and 4th GRADES WHERE: FAIRFIELD HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM WHEN: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 7:00 PM

The program features new winter music, along with a short musical entitled “Crazy Carols” by the 4th graders. Come join us for a fun evening of music!

Trojans Unite PTO at Pence Elementary

THANK you to all who participated in our Pence School Fundraiser! MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Pickup will be on Wednesday, December 13th.

HOLIDAY SHOP We will be hosting the Holiday Shop on December 5th, 6th and 7th at both Pence and Washington schools. We welcome volunteers who would like to help support this event.

COKE REWARDS We’re excited to share that our elementary schools are part of the Coca-Cola Give program! The best part? Donations don’t come out of your own pocket. When you make Coca-Cola purchases, you simply enter the product codes here:https://us.coca-cola.com/give/schools/ and our school receives a donation.

If you don’t want to enter in codes please place them in the red tub by the office. PLease make sure your pop bottle lids are CLEAN. Much appreciated!

MEETING INFO Our meetings are held on the first Thursday of the month at the ACT Building. There WILL NOT BE a meeting in December. Also, due to scheduling conflicts, the next meeting is planned for Thursday, January 11th.

Meeting minutes from past meetings can be found on the school website (fairfieldsfuture.org). In addition, find us on Facebook! Events, happenings, and updates are posted at Trojans Unite PTO

Hello from the School Counselor’s Office! Students at Pence Elementary have earned over 19,000 Trojan Trait tickets for positive behavior and have gotten some awesome rewards along the way including an extra recess and smencils. Keep up the great work! In other news, students In guidance are continuing to learn ‘Skills for Learning’ using our Second Step Program. Look for information on our topics in your students take-home folder. Edie is continuing to meet with students on Mondays and is always looking forward to seeing her students. Please continue to use our online nomination form if you have any questions or concerns. Mrs. Mottet will be taking appointments for ‘Books & Braids’, a morning reading program where students can get their hair done while practicing their reading skills. Appointments can be made in 15 minute increments from 7:45-8:30 on Thursdays. Please email Mrs. Mottet at [email protected] for appointments. You also may have noticed the Fairfield Police Department visiting Pence on Friday mornings.. They are part of a new program called Breakfast Buddies that allows students to connect with community members to build relationships and learn about their jobs. If you or your organization would like to volunteer to be a part of Breakfast Buddies, please contact Taryn Mottet at Pence at 641- 472-2957.