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We are safe. We are responsible. We are respectful. We are Gregory Drive!

Ms. Schletter, Principal Ms. Hartigan, Assistant Principal

December 6, 2016 In This Issue:

1 Principal’s Corner

1 Vision and Mission

1 PTA Press

2 Calendar of Events

2 SAC

2 Dolphins of the Month

3 Inside our Classrooms

4 Inside the Drive

Parent Teacher Association (PTA)

Next meeting: December 6 and 20, 2016 @ 4:00 p.m.

Please join us at this meeting.

We are in need of a secretary and treasurer! If you are interested,

please let us know.

Check out our School Website!

Duvalschools.org/GDE

Follow us on:

@GregoryDrive

Facebook

Instagram

@gregorydriveelementary

#WeAreGregoryDrive

* * * Check your child’s

planner daily for general

information. * * *

CLIP AND SAVE

Classes will compete to see who

can bring in the most Box

Tops. Start saving them

today!

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Can you believe it is December already? I know it seems as if we just started but we are almost half-way through. By now, our students are rocking and rolling in their instruction and should be able to complete tasks on grade level. Our teachers are working hard to differentiate instruction to ensure those students working below grade level are given extra attention to help them excel. We are watching the data very closely for each and every child.

You can help! Have your child sign onto i-Ready or Achieve every night. In order for them to get the most benefits from the program, they should be on for at least 45 minutes and pass each lesson with at least an 80. You can check their progress right on the screen!

Here are our current numbers:

We are 17 weeks into school

48 days until Florida Standardized Assessment (FSA) in writing

73 days until FSA 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade Reading and Math tests

23 weeks of school left…No time to lose!

If you pick your children up early once a week (30 minutes) x 23 weeks of school left = 11.5 hours of missed instructional time. Please consider enrolling your child in extended day if you cannot wait for them at 3:00. As you can see, we need every minute of instructional time.

Happy holidays! Have a safe, fun, relaxing time with your family ~ Ms. Schletter

Gregory Drive Mission and Vision

Vision: Gregory Drive is a place

where all students are encouraged

and committed to strive for excellence

in a safe, supportive atmosphere.

Mission: Gregory Drive Elementary, a

caring and collaborative learning

community, ensures that each student

achieves intellectually through

integrating math, science and

technology across all academic areas.


Calendar of Events

December 6th and 20th at 4:00pm, PTA

December 9th, Holiday Show and SAC 4:00

December 13th, Music performances for students during school

December 15th, Winter Dance (during the school day)

December 23- January 4th, Winter break- No School!

December 24th First night of Chanukah

December 25th Christmas

December 26th First Night of Kwanza

***** EARLY RELEASE DAYS- December 14*****

Dolphins of the Month!

Kindergarten- Yadiliz Cruz

1st Grade- Adri'yan McClendon

2nd Grade- Colin O'Neal

3rd Grade- Alondra Bonano 4th Grade- Clemmesia Montina

5th Grade- Khalil Worthen

Teacher- Ms. Taylor

Staff Member- Mr. Lewis

CONGRATULATIONS MS. SPRAGUE,

EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR!

School Advisory Council SAC is made up of parents, staff,

business partners, and citizens in the

community. Anyone interested in joining

SAC should contact the main office.

The Council meets 8 times a year.

The Next meeting:

January 9 @ 4:00 p.m.

in the conference room

Business Partners

Do you have a business? We would like to

partner with you! Contact Margie Brooks

at 573-1190 to become a Gregory Drive

Business Partner. Your business can

donate time, volunteers, items, in kind, or

in many other ways!

i-Ready and Achieve Access

i-Ready: learn.i-ready.com

Achieve:

https://portal.achieve3000.com/

index

Cost: $5.00 – includes pizza and

a drink along with admission to

the dance

Dec. 15th, 3:15-5 pm. Parental

permission slips must be

completed.


Kindergarten: Our littlest dolphins are working on Farms (What makes a farm interesting?), what

a farmer does, and what animals live on the farm in Reading.

Math we are talking about Measurements - measuring using non-standard units. We will be using

the words longer, shorter, same as, lighter than, and heavier than to describe measurements.

Science - We are working on sorting matter using their properties, that we have been learning

about last month.

In writing we are learning How to....? We are describing the steps to complete an activity.

First Grade: First Grade is doing a science day on Dec 16th. First grade will begin studying Ancient Civilizations. We are learning ways to regroup and make ten in Math. Our Saxon phonics is teaching us rules to learn new words so that we can read more difficult books. I-ready testing will be this month also so practice at home. We will have a field trip in January. Reading/Social Studies: Finishing Similar Stories, Different Lands and beginning Early American Civilizations Math: Introduction to Place Value Through Addition and Subtraction Within 20 Science: Finishing Push and Pull and beginning Law of Gravity

Second Grade: Reading: At this time, we are beginning Module 5 The War of 1812. We have

been asking 5W and 1H questions (who, what, when, where, why, and how) while reading a

variety of non-fiction texts. Please remember to read and ask 5W and 1H questions as you read

nightly. Most, importantly, we have been focusing on main topic or main idea. Main topic means

what the story or text is all about. Writing: Students have been practicing writing an opinion

and supporting an opinion with reasons and details from the text. Please continue to encourage

your child to check his or her work and write with capital letters, punctuation, and sentences that

make sense. Math: We are currently working on Place Value. Ask your child to draw a place

value chart and use model form for the numbers. Here is an example: Standard Form: 125;

Expanded Form: 100 + 20 + 5; Written/Word Form: one hundred twenty-five; Unit Form: 1

hundreds 2 tens and 5 ones. Science: We have enjoyed learning about Earth and look forward

to learning about the weather!


Important Dates: December 8-13th i-Ready growth check testing. Please encourage your

child to do his or her best! Also, during the dates of December 8-13th do not allow your child to

complete i-Ready lessons at home or library until his or her teacher gives permission to do so.

Next, we will be visiting the Cummer Museum December 7th. You may contact your child’s

teacher if you are an approved volunteer and would like to be a chaperone on this field trip.

Third Grade: ELA: We are learning all about frogs including how they adapt, their life

cycles, and much more. While we are learning about frogs, students will be focusing on

reading skills, such as main idea, finding key details, citing text evidence and using

illustrations to find details in the text. Our new writing genre is poetry.

•If you have access to the internet, please have your child log on to Achieve 3000 and

complete one activity at 75% or higher each night. They need to complete 40 activities by

the end of the year.

•In order to build reading stamina, your child should be reading for at least 30 minutes

every day. This will increase in January to 40 minutes to get them prepared for the FSA!

•Math: Students will be applying distributive and commutative properties to relate

multiplication and division to find the unknown. Also, students will build fluency on 6, 7, 8,

and 9 facts.

•We will be going to see the Nutcracker on December 15th. If you would like to chaperone,

please be sure that you are an approved volunteer.

Fourth Grade: It is hard to believe that we will soon be half-way through the school year. Time

flies! Be sure to check the agenda for homework assignments and conduct grades. Now would be a great

time to set some new goals for your child. Where can they show improvement? What are your

expectations? Knowing this will help focus every child for success.

We are working on our unit on informational text in reading! We will soon know amazing facts

about simple machines. We will even write an editorial writing piece explaining which simple machine is

the most useful in our daily lives. Take a look at the simple machines you use every day. A spoon is an

example of a wedge. The wheel and axle of a car can drive us to school. Can you think of any others?

Our writing is moving along. We are continuing to write opinion writing pieces. We are choosing

our opinions on a topic. We are reading and annotating text, then using text details to support our


opinions. Our writing should include four paragraphs, with an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a

conclusion. We are looking closely at word choice, transitions and paragraph organization. It is a lot to

take in, but we are up to the task!

Do you use fractions in cooking? Do your tool sets include fractions? What a great opportunity to

show some of these examples to your child. Fractions are our focus in math for quite a while. Students

will recognize equivalent fractions. They will need to compare fractions and put them in order from least

to greatest. They will add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions. (And don’t forget to reduce the fractions

to lowest terms) Now that’s a lot of fractions! So please take the time to share some of the fractions you

use on a daily basis with your child.

Now it’s time to slow down and notice motion in science! We will identify speed and velocity.

Students will learn about gravity and friction. We will even experiment with potential and kinetic energy.

There are so many great examples around us each day. Motion really moves us!

Remember that parents who are interested in chaperoning any field trip must have a current

volunteer form completed. Just come by the school or log in to DCPS. The application process is quick, but

results can take a week. Hope to see you soon!

Fifth Grade: Reading: In the upcoming weeks, students will continue to apply what they have learned

about human rights by creating a Public Service Announcement (PSA). Students will analyze and select

passages from Esperanza Rising and make connections to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for

the purpose of developing and performing their own Public Service Announcement. They will work in

small groups to select passages (from multiple chapters) of Esperanza Rising that reflect characters’

experiences with human rights challenges.

Writing: Students also will write a justification to explain how the passage their group selected relates to a specific article from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Social Studies is integrated in both reading and writing daily.

Math: In math we are continuing to add and subtract mixed numbers. After our End of Module 3 test we will move on to multiplying and dividing fractions. We are also closely monitoring I-Ready scores for growth. Please make sure your student knows their multiplication facts. As always I-Ready math is a great filler on non-homework nights.

Science: In science we are diving into Earth Science. We are currently learning about our solar system and our moon. After learning about our solar system and our moon we will then move into earth structures. .Please continue to encourage your child to work on PENDA and Achieve Science at home.

we are safe. we are responsible. we are respectful. we are ...€¦ · we are safe. we are...

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