Blackrock Elementary School       December 2015

Blackrock Elementary School Phone:  (401) 822-9450  Fax: (401) 822-9452  Website: http://blackrockelementaryschool.weebly.com/  

Blackrock canned food drive 

continues through December 11th! 

All pantry items accepted! 

Every Friday is BuzzBee 

Feinstein Jr. Scholar Spirit Day 

Wear our T-Shirts/Earn a Bee $ 

 

Upcoming Events 

Thursday, December 3rd-  

SIT Meeting at 7:30 a.m. in the library 

(Parents welcome) 

 

Friday, December 4th-  

Jazz Band Afternoon Shows  

for  all grades 

 

Tuesday, December 8th-  

School Committee Meeting  

PARCC results 

7:00pm at Washington Oak School 

 

Thursday, December 10th- 

 PBIS Meeting at 7:30a.m. in the 

library (Parents welcome) 

 

Friday, December 11th- 

Trimester 1 Report Cards Home  

 

Tuesday, December 15th-  

Parent Teacher Conferences 

12:00p.m. -3:10p.m.  

(Half Day until 11:30 for Students  

No Kinder or Pre K) 

 

December 23rd - January 3rd-  

NO SCHOOL HOLIDAY RECESS

From the Principal: Training, resources and collaboration have been what we have been up to! Our teachers have had additional technology training and practice at our PD Day. Thank you to Mr. Feinstein for helping us meet our technology needs. Classrooms will be receiving new magnetic whiteboards and adjustable technology carts! Our good deeds continue with 390 canned good items being donated to the Coventry Food Bank for families at Thanksgiving! Our third grade donated 136 blankets to the needy! See more in the Grade 3 News! This demonstrates our caring power and ability to make our world a better place by doing good for others! Thank you to Mrs. Paiva and all the families who helped out and supported our Scholastic Book Fair! It was our best yet! Don’t forget to share your feedback from Parent Teacher Conferences! http://goo.gl/forms/ewWPa8bklO Data so far… %73 Satisfied %27 Want more time! Thanks to the School Committee for approving additional parent teacher conference time which was especially needed for our grades 3-5 content specialist teachers! December 15th will be a half day (dismissal at 11:30 & no K/Pre K) with conference time openings following 12-3:10pm. There is now also 2 conference half days in April: 4/5/16 and 4/7/16 (both with dismissal at 11:30 & no K/Pre K) The 2015 PARCC reading and math results are out! If you are interested in learning more attend the School Committee meeting where district PARCC data will be shared Tuesday December 8th at 7:00pm at Washington Oak School! Blackrock will be hosting January 12th! Come join us at 7pm! At our next PTA Meeting 1/11/16 at 6:30pm we will have Mrs. Medeiros our Coventry Science Coordinator presenting our new Science curriculum! Nicole Hitchener HitchenerNicole@coventryschools.net As always I seek any feedback to improve what we do! http://goo.gl/forms/64COfdlorC

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Contact Information

Nicole Hitchener

School Principal hitchenernicole@coventryschools.net

Rachelle Sweeney

School Secretary sweeneyrachelle@coventryschools.net

Melissa Thibodeau

School Nurse thibodeaumelissa@coventryschools.net

Joan Guilfoyle

School Social Worker guilfoylejoan@coventryschools.net

Send your email to school to

join our Listserv BUZZWORTHY-L@LISTSERV.RI.NET

School Twitter: @BlackrockBuzz

School Facebook Page:

@Blackrock Elementary School

District Web page: http://www.coventryschools.net 

 

Links for at home practice: 

(Ask your teacher for your username 

and password) 

 

ELA & Math 

THINK CENTRAL 

https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/ePC/st

art.do 

 

Science 

STEMSCOPES 

http://www.acceleratelearning.com/ 

 

Typing  

(rotate grades 3-5) 

TYPING AGENT 

https://coventry.typingagent.com/ 

PTA: Join us and have a voice at our Blackrock PTA meetings at 6:30 in the

library on 1/11/16, 2/8/16, 3/14/16, 4/11/16 & 5/9/15. Childcare will be available!

Sign up for Stop and Shop A+ Rewards Program using Blackrock #

10770 at http://stopandshop.com/aplus/registercard/ We earned more than $800 last year!

Please send in Boxtops and Labels for Education!

Please try to cut these to size! Thank you! Please remember you MUST have a current BCI (background check)

on file at the school to volunteer. BCI checks need to be done every year. If you were told that if you

had one done last year and you were all set, we will honor that this year but for the future it needs to be done every year. BCI checks are

needed for volunteering in the school and for participating in school field trips!

If you need a BCI check: (this takes time to complete the process -at

least a month) 1. Ask us for an application! 2. Bring the application and your picture ID to the Attorney Generals Office in Providence

http://www.riag.ri.gov/homeboxes/BackgroundChecks.php 3. The application will then proceed to Coventry Central Office for approval

and this is the part of the process that takes time If you have any questions please contact us!

Attendance and Arrival/Dismissal: Thanks to those parents who bring their license to pick up in the office. For Pre K and Kinder always bring your license in case of substitutes IDing.

Please try to have your child arrive and leave on time for school at 8:30 and 3:05. Missing instruction by being frequently being absent, coming in late or leaving early has a negative impact on your child’s learning. Please see Health

News for more on this! Our morning routine is: Side gate is unlocked at 8:15am for outdoor arrival

(line up by room & supervised by teachers). Bell rings and door opens for breakfast at 8:20am. Gate closes at 8:28am & students go to class. Final bell

rings at 8:30am and doors are closed. If dropping off your child please either park and walk in using sidewalks and/or crosswalks or use the inside drop off lane. Please do not get out of your car in this lane. Children should use the crosswalk from the car into school. Please allow buses enough room to make

the turn on the outside lane. It is important you don’t cut the inside lane corner! You are able to pass buses with stop signs out and lights flashing only

in our lot as to not hold up the arrival process. For Pre K and K mid day dismissal/arrival or at any other time PLEASE DO NOT PARK IN THE

LOOP! This disrupts buses and daycare vans! Thank you!

If you need to change how your child is dismissed please send a signed note of that change on that day. Please ensure the person picking up is on the back of

the emergency card.

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School Health News: Happy Holiday Season from the Health Office; The Dentist is coming!! Dr. Gordon the school dentist will be here on Friday January 8th to screen all children who have not turned in the yellow dental card. Please make sure to have all yellow dental cards into this health office by Wednesday January 6, 2016. Otherwise your child will see the school dentist-no exceptions. Cough drops are not allowed in Elementary School without a physician's order. You can access the Coventry Medication Consent form on the Coventry Public Schools Website or from me in the health office. If your physician fills this out, then cough drops may be kept in the health office for your child as needed. However, if you wish your physician may select may “self-carry” & “self medicate”, should they wish to keep them on their person and take as needed. Either way Coventry Public School medication consent form is required for either of the options states above. No exceptions can be made to this policy which is in the Coventry Elementary School Handbook. (Page: 11-for reference) Quick blurb about attendance and illness; if your child is sick and needs to stay home from school, please obtain a physician’s note after your child has been out 3 or more days in a row. Also, please be aware of, I am a full-time registered nurse in this building. If your child requires cough medicine etc. to get through the day I am here and can administer it with a physician’s order. Sometimes I can just fax a doctor for a temporary order to get through a brief period of time. We can work together to get your child through the day of attending school. Sometimes we all are fighting a little cold, cough etc. but, it is not a reason to be absent from school. Please contact me so we can work together in keeping your child in school. Reasons to keep your child home from school, for being ill are, contagious type symptoms such as fever, diarrhea & vomiting or if a physician has directed your child to stay home from school for a period of time. Any questions, concerns, or inquiries feel free to contact me Melissa Thibodeau MSN, RN, CCRN, CSNT Phone: (401) 822-9450 Fax: (401) 822-9452 Email: thibodeaumelissa@coventryschools.net

PBIS and the Blackrock Bees: We are so proud of our Blackrock students, they are working hard on being respectful, responsible, safe, and being their best at school, we hope they are doing the same at home. We have seen many home bee bucks come in and would love to see more. It’s especially exciting when the bee bucks have been related to a task for school, for example, having their back pack ready at night or getting up and getting ready for school without being told and a positive attitude. Every student receives one sheet of bee bucks at the beginning of the month. Students are extra proud chosen from the raffle with a home bee buck. PBIS Committee 

Reading News: The first trimester of reading interventions will be winding down by mid December. Students have been working very hard and have improved their word recognition and reading fluency. Winter

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school wide assessments in reading and math will take place by mid January. Students will be selected for winter intervention groups based on these assessments. The first round of the Extended Day Kindergarten program will end at the close of December. We have worked on understanding rhyming words and recognizing letters. During read-alouds, the children have learned to discuss problems and solutions in stories they hear. Additionally, they have discussed how characters develop within a story. “The children were nestled all snug in their beds while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.” The holidays are a perfect time to give the gift of reading. Books create a mind movie unlike anything seen at the local cinemas. As you snuggle with your child at bedtime, reading aloud helps your child with fluency, intonation and word recognition. That special time will be in your child’s memory forever! Take a trip to the local library or Barnes & Noble. Ordering books from Scholastic would also be a special holiday gift. The Reading Department wishes you every happiness during the holiday season. Mrs. Sansone and Ms. Richtarik

  

 

Got Math?: Here’s a game for counting, probability and comparing numbers. It’s appropriate for Kindergarten ­grade5. 

 More or Less 

Shuffle a deck of cards, and place them face down in front of you. Turn over the first card, and guess whether the next card is more or less. Continue in this fashion until all cards have been used. Discard all 

unsuccessful guesses. Count your successful guesses. High score wins! Enjoy!

Unified Learning & Support Services (ULSS) News:  Now that our first trimester is over, and we are all settling into our everyday schedule and the routines of the classroom, students are now aware of what is expected of them.

In the most successful classrooms, teachers have established specific routines for the children to follow. This means giving the children a specific place to find and keep materials, a set schedule for classroom instruction, etc. These routines, blended with the teacher’s consistent standards, form a smooth running classroom where the children have the security of understanding their environment and are reinforced positively for their contributions.

At home, it is also important to provide routines. Many families build a daily “quiet time” when the television is turned off. This quiet time provides students the opportunity for completing schoolwork or for recreational reading if there is no homework. During this quiet time a suitable place, somewhat free of other distractions, should be available. The routine of a daily quiet time provides an opportunity to develop self-discipline, stimulate imagination, and enhance reading skills.

Teachers everywhere recognize the important contributions parents make toward a child’s success in school. Parents are the single most important variable in a child’s schooling. Children thrive on predictability. Have a regular time for homework. Set and stick to a regular bedtime. Plan a morning

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routine that gets everyone out the door on time. There is no question about it - success at school begins at home.

ULSS Team Cara Capalbo, Laura Daley, Sharon Eagleson, Ann Marie Walsh

Pre K News: Happy December! It's hard to believe that the end of 2015 is near. The preschoolers have been working hard learning to play and work with each other throughout their daily activities. This month will bring many fun activities. We will be having our annual Gingerbread House Making Day on Friday, December 18. This is a family event. Please send in your RSVP by December 12th. We will also have our Polar Express Pajama Day on Tuesday, December 22. Children are encouraged to wear their favorite winter PJs and slippers to school. We will watch the Polar Express movie and enjoy some hot chocolate. Have a wonderful holiday! Mrs. Cohn and Mrs. Masciarotte

   

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kinder News: Happy December! Thank you for coming to conferences!! I love sharing your child’s progress with you. I am a very proud teacher of all my littles. We are currently assessing for our very first report card! Report Cards will be distributed on December 11th. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me. This month in Phonics, we will begin tapping sounds to build words, focus on ending sounds in words, and continue with our rhyming and sight word work. In Math, we are beginning our unit on Addition. We have been building up to this very important math strategy. Our Science focus is on Force and Motion, specifically with Pushing and Pulling. We have been conducting a few fun hands on experiments! There are a few exciting transitions this month! One is with journal writing and the other is guided reading groups. It is a most exciting time in Kindergarten!! I hope you are enjoying exploring Think Central. There are great resources in both ELA and Math. Thank you for your generous donations for our Adopt and Grandparent! I am very proud that we will make a difference this holiday season. Stay tuned for more information in our classroom monthly newsletter. Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season. Mrs. Abood and Mrs. Levesque

Grade 1 News: We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday. We would also like to say thank you for your support in collecting food for the coventry food bank.

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This time of year is wonderful and six-year- olds have an energy that is infectious, and so are their colds. Please remind your child to sneeze into their elbows, rather than into their hand to minimize the spreading of germs here at school. Remember to provide weather appropriate clothing as recess is a necessary outlet for energy and the weather will be getting colder. You may want to consider layering clothing to accommodate changes in the temperature here at Blackrock. We also appreciate the hustle and bustle of the season, but we do ask that you try to remain faithful to homework support and the regular reading assignments for the sake of continuity and progress. We will be sending home report cards on Dec. 11th. Thank you for your and partnership in your child's education. Happy Holidays Mrs. Mary Leyden, Mr. Stevens, and Mrs. Talbot

Grade 2 News: 2nd graders continue to be very busy learners! In social studies we have been discussing the different communities in which we live: neighborhoods, towns, cities, states, countries, and continents. Maps (in puzzle form) and globes make great learning tools for children! (holiday gifts, perhaps?) Your children probably have a new appreciation of their childhood after reading about the days in the lives of Pilgrim boys and girls. Be sure to ask them what their lives would have been like in the 1620s when the Mayflower and other ships such as the Anne came to the New World from England. In math we continue to focus on place value and numbers and operations. Children are learning to decompose numbers in various ways such as expanded form, finding 10s in numbers as well as doubles. Application is always connected to math and problem solving in the real world. Students are making and interpreting graphs, skip counting, and practicing number patterning in a variety of ways. We continue to work on mastering addition and subtraction facts to sums of 20. Remember that each 2nd grader should be reading for a minimum of 20 minutes nightly during the week and once on the weekend. The reading logs are collected each Monday and should be filled out by the students and signed by an adult. Thank you to all who were able to conference with us to discuss your child’s progress. It is important that we work together so that your child meets with success on our rigorous Common Core Standards. Thank you for all of your continued support. We wish your family a happy, safe, and relaxing holiday season! Mrs. Anna Boulanger, Mrs. Jessica Easton, & Mrs. Lori Romano

Grade 3 News: Science: How can I move an object without touching it? Using magnetic and electric forces, your child will surely tell you! We are nearing the end of our study of magnetism and static electricity in the strand of physical science. Ask your child to explain differences and similarities between these two forces. The “big understandings” for this unit are: ● Two objects do not need to be touching in order for a force to be present

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● The size of a force depends on what makes up the objects and their distances between one another ● The force between two magnets depends on how they are aligned with each other opposite poles attract and like poles repel We will begin our next unit, Life Cycles, in the strand of Life Science, shortly. Now that students are becoming more proficient in science processes, we will begin to devote more attention to our Science Practices, in particular, asking questions. Encourage your child to generate questions about what they are learning in school, as well as about the greater world around them. I encourage you to hop onto Stemscopedia with your child to either review past learning or get a jump start with upcoming information! In addition, don’t forget to take advantage of Science Spin for entertaining night time reading. The computer will read the articles to you! Writing: Students are wrapping up their personal narratives. Their closing paragraphs reflected on their main event and included techniques such as advancing time, internal thoughts and feelings, dialogue, and stating a lesson learned. Students will engage in peer editing, using a checklist, as well as illustrate a significant moment from their main event. Coming soon descriptive writing! Grammar lessons have included comma usage, use of was versus were, action verbs, and verbs of being. As always, I am looking for application of these skills in daily work. An important spelling focus was homophones. Let’s master there, their and they’re once and for all! Math: The children are using the skills they learned for multiplication in our unit on division. They are learning that multiplication and division are inverse operations. If your child has not yet mastered his or her multiplication facts, then daily fact practice is essential to his/her success. When children know their multiplication facts with automaticity, the division facts fall into place easily and they can spend more time and energy on problem solving. Ask your child to teach you how to solve the problems on their homework pages. Encourage them to use accurate vocabulary, such as dividend, divisor and quotient. Also, engage your child in rich conversation about the math that is all around us on a daily basis: time, measurement, distance, weight, cost of items while shopping, money, etc. They will likely have questions, which will lead to discoveries and learning! Social Studies Community Service Project: thank you to all families who donated to the blanket drive. It was a success! We collected 6 handmade blankets and 130 new blankets of various sizes from baby blankets to throws to bed blankets. A very special thank you to Mrs. LaPlante who hosted a Zumba for blankets drive which collected 13 blankets! The handmade blankets were delivered to project Linus and the new blankets were delivered to a homeless shelter in RI. Reading Workshop: Students are learning paragraph formats for written response to text. Two of our response formats are RACE and RAC3A. RACE is a format we are practicing with regularity. The R is restate the question asked, A is answer the question in a complete sentence, C is cite evidence to support your thinking from the text, and E is expand your idea to your own life using an “I learned”...”This reminds me of”....”I now

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understand” .... “This is important because”..... type of statement. A modified version of this is RAC3A, which eliminates the E to answering the question again at the end but citing 3 pieces of text evidence. Did you know that Common Core requires students to gather information from text and multimedia presentations? Check out our technology page which is located at http://classjump.com/b/blackrock_room32/ (accessible off the Blackrock school weebly page). Look for those technology response sheets to arrive home weekly and see how your child is progressing in this common core expectation.

Grade 4 News: In spelling, students have now completed the first 9 word lists. That totals 180 words! Students are learning their assigned words with great success. Remember…spelling words correctly in daily work in all subjects is the true test of learning. Applied knowledge!

In language, students have completed all lessons on sentences. They have learned the four sentence types (declarative, imperative, exclamatory, and imperative) and also know in-depth knowledge of subjects and predicates including simple, complete, and compound subjects and predicates. I am now looking for students to apply this knowledge to their writing pieces in Writer’s Workshop as well as in their Scientist Notebooks during science investigation and reporting.

Our fourth graders have become turkeys! As part of our Writer’s Workshop, we are working on persuasive/opinion writing through a friendly letter format. Mrs. Bousquet became the proud owner of a turkey farm and the students are the turkeys. Through their writing, the students have to try to persuade me not to choose them for my Thanksgiving meal. As an added twist, they then have to ‘turn’ on one of their classmates’ turkeys and persuade Farmer Bousquet why that turkey would be best-suited for dinner. Students’ artwork is proudly displayed in the hallway.

Science class is energized! We continue to study energy and are investigating how energy is transferred or changed in collision. An example of one investigation is that students have created circuits to light a bulb and buzz a buzzer. They are realizing through investigation that energy is not created or destroyed, but rather transferred or changed. Students now have sign-in capability for the Gizmos science website and we will be utilizing the Chromebooks in our science and writing class.

Math Who would have thought that Math could actually be fun? Students in Fourth grade have Flashcard Relay races and we love to play “Buzz”. This is a perfect name if you’re a Blackrock student! “Buzz” is a game where students must use discrete math and in the process they are learning divisibility tests. The game sets the stage for further study in multiples, factors and division. The game can get very stressful especially when you lose your place and you must problem solve to stay in the game. You may call on a friend, but will they give you the wrong number? Paying close attention and creating your own strategy are the keys to winning. Another game that we play is “Next to”. In this game, students must use a combination of operations in order to create a number that that is on the board. They can earn more points if the number is touching a number that has been played by the other teams. This game is great to build teamwork. Math Trivia Crack is also a great game to review math in all areas to include problem solving, geometry, number sense and equations. We have also included current topics like regrouping and division with remainders. Math doesn’t always have to be

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paper and pencil tasks. Students learn how to work in a team, discuss and analyze numbers and investigate problem solving activities while still learning the standards in Common Core.

Grade 5 News:  As the first trimester draws to a close, it is important to note that we still have many important tasks to complete in the Fifth grade. The students will need to complete 12 Book Blurbs for January 22nd. So, over the vacation it is important for the children to keep reading during this free time so that they can continue to meet the expectations for this requirement. The children are truly excited about using the Chromebooks as often as possible in their classes. This in itself is quite an undertaking! In Social Studies, the students will begin their investigations into the early Explorers and the lands that they navigated to using the knowledge they obtain through the Chrome Books. The best way for the students to appreciate the scientific enterprise, learn important scientific concepts and develop the ability to think well is to actively construct ideas through their own inquiries, investigations, and analyses. The Energy Flow in the Ecosystem Unit will allow students to develop models that describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers and the environment. In Math we have been learning many things about Fractions. We have been drawing models and solving problems. Please continue to practice facts nightly!

 

   

  

Art News: Seasons greetings from the Art carts! November was crazy creative and December will prove to be even more so! Students in grade 5 have just finished their sumi asian letter style writing unit with much success! They are able to write their names and many phrases in Chinese and Japanese. Many requested the alphabet packets so they could continue this practice on their own! (makes an art teacher proud!!!) Grade four students have just finished their three dimensional cake drawings, beautiful cylinder style 3-d drawings of some very exquisite cakes! YUM! Third grade practiced weaving using paper strips, many making a gorgeous centerpiece for Thanksgiving tables. Next they will be working with complementary colors to create "after images" on white paper...stay tuned... Second grade finished their pictograph teepees of Native Americans. They included surroundings and landmasses. Next we will finish totem poles and move on to painting snow scenes.

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Grade one designed a Thanksgiving dinner on an actual paper plate, including place mat, beverage and dessert! We look forward to our winter months with the children making holiday ornaments and snow themed landscapes. Enjoy your families and art materials at this craft filled time of year!! Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Gauthier

Music News: The holiday season is always a festive time in Music Land. Students in grade 1 will continue to learn about tempo while students in grade 2 are all about rhythm. Grade 3 students continue to get to know their new recorders, and fourth graders will even get to play a few Christmas songs. Also, with the coming of the new trimester, third and fourth grade students are reminded that their folders and recorders are now part of their preparation grade in music from now until June, though in most cases, folders for third graders are already at school. Grade five students are finishing their unit on key signatures. This means that they're learning about three different kinds of notes, naturals, sharps, and flats. The test on this unit will be their first test grade of trimester 2 and should take place during the first full week of December. In January we'll do a unit which always proves to be a fan favorite, Beethoven. Until then, it is our sincere hope here in Music Land that your holidays are filled with joy and peace. 5th Drop Box: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mqqq9xydk0nqiq1/AADZUsY_aI56ZeAWRLdcyA2ra?dl=0 4th Drop Box: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x56bx83z1msoo13/AAAqT_EbZW_E_Yl3ED1Gc4hga?dl=0

 

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