Transcript Slide 1

November 30, 2007
Has the year moved quickly for you? Will you sit down to your
holiday dinner and marvel that, so soon, the New Year is upon
you? Or will you breathe a sigh of relief and say, “At last…”
It’s strange how time moves at different speeds for different
people in different years. Of course it all has to do with the
challenges we face. If you have a son or daughter serving
overseas, perhaps time has slowed to a crawl. If he or she is
home for the holidays, maybe you wonder why time moves so
quickly.
Graymont Grade School Newsletter
Dear Parents,
NEWSLETTER: December 2007
Volume 1, Issue 13
Whatever way time is flying for you this year, take time to
relax, enjoy your family and friends, and remember that the
holidays don’t have to be picture perfect to be warm and
enjoyable.
We are planning activities in preparation for the holidays. The
annual Christmas Program will be December 11 beginning at
7:00 p.m. Santa’s Secret Shop will be set up the evening of
December 12th. Students will be allowed to shop during the
day on the 13th. This is always an exciting time for the
students to shop for gifts for those special people. The band
and chorus are planning to visit Livingston Manor, and perform
a few Christmas selections on December 20th. We will also
have Christmas parties on December 21 starting at 1:15. We
will dismiss at 2:00 that day. School will resume on January 8,
2008.
In case of inclement weather, make sure you listen to the
following stations for school closings and early dismissals:
•WJBC 1230 AM Bloomington
•WTRX 93.7 FM Pontiac
•WBWN B104
•WBNQ 101.5 FM Bloomington
•WEEK TV 25 Peoria, Bloomington
•HOI 19 News
As the winter weather is quickly approaching, I want to remind
everyone that our students need to make sure they are
dressed warm enough for the temperatures. Please make
sure your children have warm coats, hats and gloves to stay
warm while they are outside during the morning and lunch
recesses.
Best wishes during this holiday season,
Mrs. Fritchtnitch
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Student Council
The Student Council Pennies War was a huge success. The school as a
whole raised a total of $219.08 to be donated to Make-A-Wish. 3rd and 4th grade won
the competition by raising $61.14!!! Great work 
Christmas Concert
The Christmas Concert will be Tuesday Dec. 11th at 7pm. All students should be in their
classrooms ready to go by 6:45pm.
Chorus/Band
Our 5th – 8th grade students will be visiting Evenglow Lodge in Pontiac on
Wednesday, Dec. 20th. They will be demonstrating their beautiful vocal and
musical talents as well as warming the hearts of the elderly.
“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out
they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll
be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.”
~ William James, American Philosopher, 1842-1910
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Teacher News
Mrs. Erickson
Kindergarten is looking more like a holiday factory
during December. Besides all of our regular work, we
are busy making projects, banners, trees, "keeping
secrets" and getting ready for our Christmas program.
We have a special place to read books called "The
Holiday House".
It even has Christmas lights for decorations. We are
working on our tricky words and also sounding out
words as we go. We are able to read more of our
Morning Message every week. We are using our
magnetic letters to work on new words and help us
with the sounds.
Christmas items help a lot as we work on addition and
subtraction. We have candy canes, reindeer,
santas, stockings, etc to help us with our
problems. We also know how many days 'til Christmas
because we each made a countdown chain and take
off a loop every day.
We are beginning a world tour of countries to find out
how they celebrate the holidays. We are finding out
that there are many different customs around the
world. We are planning a special surprise for
everyone at Graymont School on Dec. 12th!!!!
Christmas is not just about getting, but also about
giving. We have been sending cards to soldiers in
Iraq. There is a special website sponsored by Xerox
(www.letssaythanks.com) that lets us send our special
greetings.
Kindergarten has worked so very hard and read 100
books. We reported our 100 books to Scholastic and
now Scholastic will donate 100 books to kids that are in
need of books. WAY TO GO!!!!!
We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year.
Ms. Myers
Our class is working hard on so many different
projects. First grade is working on finishing up our
third unit in our reading series just in time for our
Winter Break. Our main focus is to continue working
on different phonics sounds and blends. We read two
stories each week to reinforce these sounds and the
reading strategies we have learned so far. In
Language Arts, we are learning about verbs. We will
be practicing present and past-tense verbs, as well
as, the tricky verbs: am, is, and are. For the rest of
this quarter, first graders are going to focus on
addition and subtractions sentences. We are going to
practice related facts and build into fact families. We
are also continuing to practice our touch point
strategy for addition and subtraction.
Second graders are also working to finish up their
third unit in their reading series. Our focus will
continue to be working on the tricky vowel
combinations and the sounds they make. They also
work through two stories each week and have shown
great progress in their reading skills and use of
strategies. Second graders will also be practicing
using and writing verbs in Language Arts.
Furthermore, we will be learning about quotation
marks and its usage. I hope to have the students
write a story and use actual dialog for their
characters. Writing is a big focus in second grade. It
is important for students to know who to put their
ideas down on paper in a logical order. This is an
extremely hard process to learn but we are beginning
to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In math,
second grade is going to finish up the quarter working
on and mastering two-digit subtraction. We are going
to practice subtracting using manipulatives and other
approaches.
In science, we will be finishing out the quarter
focusing on rainbows. In this unit, the students learn
the basic characteristics of a rainbow. We also learn
about the rainbow system and what makes people
see them in nature. We will be introduced to a prism
and diffraction glasses. Students will also do a
number of experiments to do with rainbows. We look
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forward to all the exciting activities to come!
Ms. Rients
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. As we
begin the busy holiday season, it’s important to
remember that we still have a lot to do in the
classroom.
In reading, both grades have finished unit 2 and have
begun unit 3. Unit 3 for 3rd grade is “Getting the Job
Done”. The skills they will be studying are steps in a
process, summarizing, text structure, and visualizing.
Unit 3 for 4th grade is “Keys to Success”. In this unit,
they will focus on making judgments, drawing
conclusions, making generalizations, and making
predictions.
In language arts, we will finish up verbs and move on
to pronouns. In writing, our focus is descriptive writing.
The students are learning how their writing is more
interesting when they can create a picture for their
audience. They are getting much better at using
colorful words. Then, they will write another personal
narrative while practicing being more descriptive in
telling their story.
The 3rd graders are practicing using money in math.
They are counting bills and coins, making equivalent
sets, making change, and adding and subtracting
money. This is a hard concept for some students, so
please work with your child and give them
opportunities to practice with money at home. Have
them add the prices for a couple of things they want for
Christmas, or pretend they get to buy something from
one of the holiday ads and figure out what change they
will get back from $10 or $20. After learning about
money, they will start the chapter on telling time. 4th
grade is finishing their study of graphs and charts.
Then they are going to do a review of multiplication and
division facts, multiplication properties, order of
operations, and expressions and equations with
variables.
The students completed their Tic-Tac-Toe projects in
social studies about the history of communities. They
were very creative. Now we are switching our focus to
science. We are studying the human body. We will look
at each of the body’s systems and how they work
together to keep us alive. The students will have an
opportunity at the end of the unit to make a life size
drawing to model one of the systems.
Mrs. Hott
5/6 Social Studies - We are currently learning
about the formation of the original 13 colonies and
the various countries that had an interest in the “new
world”. After Christmas, we will begin discussions of
the American Revolution.
5-8 Science - Look for the pictures of our “Voyage
to Mars” on the school web site!
7th and 8th – We have been learning about the
different types of cells and what cells are made up
of. We have also learned how they gain energy and
multiply. Next up is heredity and genes/DNA. Ask
your students about the “pond critters” we saw
under the microscope!
5th and 6th – We have been studying the
classification of organisms and have learned about
the six kingdoms of organisms. We have also
learned that each kingdom is further broken down
into phylum, class, order, family, genus and species.
Dichotomous keys were used to classify fruits, bugs,
and Jelly Bellies. Each of us took off a shoe, lined
them up and tried to create our own dichotomous
key to classify them. Next we will be learning about
cells.
Math –
5th graders are working on multiplying by double
digit numbers. They will be multiplying by decimals
next.
6th graders are working on ratios, proportions and
percents
7th graders just finished up multiplying and dividing
fractions and are moving on to ratios and
proportions (a little more in depth than what the 6th
graders are covering)
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8th graders are finding areas of parallelograms,
trapezoids and circles. They will be moving on soon
to 3-dimensional figures.
Ms. Wilson
5-6 – In Reading we have started Unit 3:
“What do we learn from our experiences?”
and “How do people accomplish their
ambitions?” During this unit we will focus on
the reading elements: cause and effect,
summarizing, theme, plot, and text
structure.
7-8 – In Reading we have started Unit 2 on
Relationships. In this unit, students will read
selections that illustrate how people are
interconnected and part of the larger world.
The reading selections in this unit
emphasize the importance of people
connecting with one another. This unit will
focus a great deal on reading and
understanding poetry.
5-8 – In Language Arts we are finally done
with our Verbs unit and are smoothly sailing
through Chapter 4: Modifiers; Adjectives
and Adverbs.
7-8 – In Health we are finishing up Chapter
13 on Tobacco and will begin Chapter 14:
Drugs. In this chapter we will focus on drug
misuse and abuse, illegal drugs, narcotics,
stimulants, and depressants, hallucinogens
and inhalants, getting help for drug use, and
staying drug free.
7-8 – In Social Studies we are working on
Chapter 6 The Road to Revolution. In this
chapter we will focus on a tighter British
control, Colonial resistance, the Road to
Lexington and Concord, and Declaring
Independence.
Special Dates to
Remember
• Dec. 11th – 2:00 Dismissal
7:00 Christmas Program
• Dec. 13th – Secret Santa
Workshop
• Dec. 19th – 2nd Qtr Ends
• Dec. 20th – Band to
Livingston Manor
• Dec. 21st – 2:00 Dismissal
• Dec. 24th – 31st – Christmas
Vacation
***School resumes January
8th.
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