@ Mary Hooker

Ms. Thompson

Greetings ESM Family! Good Morning ESM Family!

Welcome to 2017! Recently I saw a phenomenal movie – Hidden Figures! The movie takes place during the 1960s when NASA was racing against Russia to send the first man into space. At the center of the story are a group of African American women, serious mathematical geniuses, who were responsible for computing and checking the mathematical equations and solutions for the NASA engineers. Three women in particular - Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson – were behind the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, which turned around the Space Race and restored the nation’s confidence in NASA. The movie was such a brilliant display of women, standing up for the rights they deserved, not letting segregation stand in the way of their own progress and intellectual achievement.

Watching the movie, I was reminded again how many stories about our history as a country are just not told. As parents and educators we have such a HUGE responsibility to teach our children about the world around them – its present, future, and the past. There is so much history to learn, so many stories of people to know. I encourage you to take the time out of your busy schedules to see this movie!

Sincerely,

PreKindergarten Happy New Year to all of the students, staff and families at ESM!

The pre-k continues explore how to be a happy and healthy

person during our “Healthy You” theme. We will be starting a

new winter theme during the month of January. The students

will investigate winter weather, activities and how animals

survive during this time of year. We will also begin our

enrichment clusters, which will include such subjects as bears,

the author’s Eric Carle and Dr. Suess. We can’t wait! We

continue to visit the aquatics lab and vivarium on a weekly basis.

The children enjoy all of the

hands-on activities that occur in

those places. Don’t forget to

come to our Family Stem Night

on January 25th from 5pm-7pm, it

should be lots of fun!

See you then!!

Kindergarten Kindergarten is all warmed up and ready for winter! In ELA we are finishing up Unit 4 and have answered the big question “How are plants alike and different?” We have learned how we grow plants, the parts of a plant, how people use plants, and how animals can help or harm plants. We will be beginning Unit 5, Wind, Rain, and Snow. We will be answering the big question “What happens in each season?” We are continuing to work on learning our letters and sounds as well as identifying the beginning and ending sounds in words, and blending sounds to make words. We are learning about setting, or where a story takes place. We also are starting the second round of DIBELS testing on January 9th. Please look for a letter from your child’s teacher with updated DIBELS scores. In math, we are moving on to Module 3 and will be working on the comparison of length, weight, capacity, and numbers to 10. In science we have begun a new unit on weather! We are continuing to meet with Mr. Cappaert on Thursdays to explore weather, and will be visiting the science theater this semester! Please continue to help your child at home by completing homework, reading and practicing the sight words!

2nd Grade Second grade is digging in and getting our hands

dirty with soil! We’ve had a great kick-off to our

soil unit by investigating different soils and their

many properties. We had fun working with Mr.

Clark with the stream tables as well. We

wrapped up our math unit on place value,

counting and comparing numbers to 1,000 just

before winter break. We loved our hands on

explorations using a variety of manipulatives to

trade 10 ones to 1 ten and 10 tens to 1 hundred.

This practice will lead to better counting skills

and problem solving strategies. Our reading

unit focuses on describing how characters in a

story respond to major events and challenges.

Can you identify how characters respond to

problems in your nightly reading at home?

What does this tell you about the character?

Asking your child questions like this helps them

gain a deep understanding of the character and

perhaps make connections to the characters!

When we connect to our reading, we enjoy our

reading more!

1st Grade December was an amazing month for first grade. We had a great time in reading learning about how to ask and answer questions in text using authentic text. Some stories we enjoyed were A Chair For My Mother and How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? We look forward to using this knowledge about saving and using money in order to answer questions about how we might use money as a culminating project. We also read Gingerbread House tales and used mathematics in order to make a menu to create our very own Gingerbread Houses. The First Grade Team wants to thank each and every child and parent for your generosity and donations in helping make the houses possible! We couldn't have done it without you! Looking ahead to January we have a busy month. We are looking at mid-year assessments such as MAP and Dibels taking place this month. Please see your child's teacher for more information. We are also moving to Module 2 in math. Expect homework to look a bit different. Be sure to use the homework helpers link emailed by Mrs. Clapis in order to help with challenges. Contact us if you need the link! We wish you all a happy and healthy New Year.

3rd Grade This month third grade students were treated to a presentation by Horizon Wings. The two presenters brought in three birds for students to observe and ask questions about. Students were able to meet; Sprite, a Northern Saw-Whet Owl, Fianna, an American Kestrel and the feisty Cypress, a Red-Shoulder Hawk. Horizon Wings is a non-profit wildlife rehabilitation center specializing in birds of prey.

Starting in January third grade students will be collecting items to donate to the center such as; paper towels, cleaning wipes and garbage bags. Please consider making a donation.

Each class has been working hard on their Science Fair projects. Classes are busy collecting and analyzing data so they can write their conclusions. Ask you child about their hypothesis. We hope to see everyone at the January Stem-Expo.

Over December recess it is important for students to read nightly and study their multiplication facts. The third grade teachers would like to wish everyone a safe and relaxing winter break. See everyone in 2017!

Resident Scientists It's STEM month here at ESM. STEM Expo projects are due the week of the 9th. All students in grades 4-8 are expected to submit one as part of their science curriculum and will be graded. Top projects in each class in each category move on to finals. Awards are given out during our Family STEM Night on Wednesday, January 25th from 5-7 pm. We have a lot of fun activities in store for you for that evening and we hope to see you there!

Despite the cold weather and short days, our ten hens are currently laying about 36 eggs a week. Would you and your family like to take some home? Eggs will be available to order by the half dozen starting next week. Look for an order form in backpack Wednesday. All donations received from chicken orders will go back towards the care of the chickens and off-setting the costs of field trips- overall, an egg-cellent cause!

New in the Vivarium/greenhouse: Last of the blooming passion flowers; flowers on the pitcher plant; single coffee bean on our tree (but many flower buds); return of the ball python; bumper crop of papaya. Banana leaves are available for those who make pasteles.

6th Grade In December, students use arrays and partial products to understand and apply the distributive property as they solve multiplication problems involving decimals. Place value enables students to determine the placement of the decimal point in products and recognize that the size of a product is relative to each factor. Students discover and use connections between fraction multiplication and decimal multiplication.

In ELA we just finished the very popular novel The Lightning Thief. Students ended this unit by writing their very own original myth. They did a fantastic job! Our new novel is called Bud, Not Buddy. The students are excited about reading this book and they have a lot of questions about The Great Depression, the setting of the story. We will be looking at tone and how the narrator's use of figurative language and word choice affect the meaning, the tone, of the story.

Science students will be focusing on weather factors, patterns, and climate. Students will interpret real-time data and understand that weather varies with location. We will be investigating heat transfer, graphing lab data, analyzing our results, and justifying how we solve real world problems with evidence from our investigations.

LEGO Engineering Lab As we return from our winter break, I have been approached by many students sharing their exciting news of all the LEGO sets that they have received for the holidays. Remember parents, to take a moment to point all of the simple machines and engineering concepts while they build. Gear ratios, wheels and axles, pulleys, friction, the list is endless! Just remember not to walk barefoot in a dark playroom!

The focus in grades K-6 continues to be simple and compound machines. Their Lego sets enable these students to work as young scientists and engineers, helping them to investigate and understand the operation of simple and compound machines found in everyday life.

Grades 7 and 8 are honing their programming and robotic building skills with their Ev3 Mindstorms kits. Happy LEGOS Days!

8th Grade Hello 8th grade families!

Here is an update with what your child is doing in each of their current classes:

ELA: In ELA students began reading "Inside Out and Back Again." This is a verse novel and the first time for some of our students reading extended amounts of poetry. The novel is set during the Vietnam War both in Vietnam and the U.S.A. Real world connections for our students while reading the book include the problems experienced by refugees and the issue of bullying.

Math: We have been working on quadratic functions in class the past several weeks. We are currently working on factoring trinomials and using the rectangle method to check our work. We will be continuing to work through the "FOIL" method and graphing our quadratic functions!

Science: In Science class we have been working on learning different aspects of the Solar System. Students are learning why Earth experiences seasons and tides as well as how gravity affects different objects in space. Students have also been hard at work on their Science Fair projects.

Physical Education The month of December in Physical Education has been really exciting with the emergence of the Project Adventure Curriculum in every grade level. Our students have been excited about Project Adventure and a lot of students have experienced increased confidence levels as well as a different way to work their upper bodies that are new to them. The ropes in particular are one way of the best ways to increase upper body strength as well as wrist and forearm strength. The low ropes, high ropes and tug of war are a fun way to increase push up scores for the fitness test.

7th Grade Dear 7th grade families,

We would like to inform you that December was Do Your Homework December. Do Your Homework December meant that your child had to have 80% of their homework by the last day of December that they are in school in order to get a reward. At the end of the month all the students that had 80% or higher on homework, had "the day off” on December 23rd. They got a chance at the end of the day to watch a movie, eat snacks, and enjoy the fact that they had no extra work to do!

January’s PBIS incentive will be created by students, so keep an eye out.

Written by: Allison Michalski and Mr. Johnson

Music Students in Third Grade General Music are focusing on basic note reading using various wood and metal barred instruments, as well as the recorder. The instruments are being used for large and small group activities during class time.

Pre-Kindergarten is exploring steady beat, rhythm, and high and low through movement, singing, and instrumental playing.

The second session of Enrichment Clusters will begin on Friday, January 20th with students participating in How Does Your Garden Grow?, a mini-musical. It is a collaborative effort for the school year with Mrs. Sanchez (Fourth Grade Teacher). A performance will be scheduled for later on in the school year.

The ESM Instrumental Program includes students from 5th through 8th grade. Students meet once a week during one of their Unified Arts’ class period. The following instruments are being offered for the program: drums, flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, and trumpet.

Congratulations to all students who

performed in ESM’s annual Winter Solstice

Assemblies!