Ms. Matthews Gifted & Talented - January & February 2025

Rachel Matthews Snow Winter Bitmoji Classroom

January & February 2025

Dear Maxwell Families,

As we round out the months of January & February, there are a lot of updates to share with families regarding gifted & talented auditions in visual & performing arts, the upcoming UK Dance Blue event, and what students have been up to in the resource & co-teach classrooms! Even though we have had some interruptions with our schedules due to snow & NTI days, we have been moving forward with services and learning opportunities for our gifted & talented and primary talent pool students both in the regular and resource classroom! Additionally, there is a fabulous opportunity to participate in Engineering Day at the University of Kentucky on Saturday, February 22nd. Here is a website link that has more information for families:

Engineering Day at UK - February 22nd, 2025

Visual & Performing Arts

This school year, all visual & performing arts auditions took place during the fall semester. All of our families of students who participated in the VPA audition process were scheduled to receive results on Friday, February 14th through Infinite Campus. We are excited to share with our families that through this process we had over 34 qualifying VPA audition scores! Maxwell Elementary has talent in visual arts, drama, dance, & music! We will have a gifted & talented dance & drama specialist working with our VPA students at Maxwell this coming spring and a gifted & talented music & visual arts specialist working with our VPA students identified in those areas as well. We are looking to have a collaborative night with the Lexington Legends and Maxwell's "Hit the Books" for students to perform and share their work with an audience! Stay tuned for more information to come!

UK Dance Blue Event - Thursday, March 6th

The fourth & fifth grade Maxwell student council team has been working hard to plan and implement the 24-25 UK Mini Dance Blue event during the school day on Thursday, March 6th! We are excited to host the University of Kentucky Dance Blue team for our students during their specials. The dance is the culminating event for our goal of working to raise over $6000 for pediatric cancer and here are a few ways that our families can support the cause. We are implementing 3 fundraisers to help us attain our goal: Digital Dozens Vouchers, Penny Wars, & Winchell's restaurant night.

Krispy Kreme Digital Dozens - One way you can help us raise money for the UK Dance Blue organization is by purchasing vouchers for Krispy Kreme donuts online and sharing this fundraising link with your social media & email networks! Here is the link that you can share with your networks and families to directly purchase vouchers for Krispy Kreme donuts that will benefit the Maxwell Elementary UK Dance Blue fundraiser. Fifty percent of proceeds from the Krispy Kreme digital dozens will go directly to our fundraiser!

Krispy Kreme UK Dance Blue Digital Dozens

Penny Wars - Students in grades K-5th grade are encouraged to bring in loose change and dollar bills to support this grade level fundraiser competition! The grade level that collects the most money from the Penny Wars competition will earn extra recess, a highly coveted prize with the spring season and warmer weather just around the corner:)

Winchell's Restaurant Night - Come on out to Winchell's on Wednesday, February 19th and enjoy some delicious food! A percentage of the proceeds from your meal will go directly to the UK Dance Blue fundraiser! We hope to see you there:)

Resource & Co-Teach Classroom Updates

5th Grade

Math - We have been working on solving problems with linear equations with two variables. Students have been working to identify and solve problems with independent and dependent variables, rates of change, coefficients, and constants that determine order pairs that can be graphed on the coordinate grid to evaluate slope intercept form and draw conclusions about a data set.

English Language Arts - We have been hard at work developing the depth and complexity of our writing for five paragraph opinion pieces! Students have been challenged in the classroom to articulate paraphrasing of source evidence and provide analysis that explains their thinking clearly and eloquently in multiple sentences of elaboration. We will continue to focus on developing our writing throughout the remainder of the spring semester. All 5th grade students are welcome to participate in the Passion Project showcase in May. Please contact me ASAP if you know your student is interested to learn more and participate in this upcoming enrichment opportunity.

4th Grade

Math - We are finishing a unit on customary and metric measurement conversions for length, mass, and capacity. We will conclude with a project-based activity that involves opening a "pie shop!" Our next unit of investigation is a geometry unit about area, volume, and surface area of 3-D shapes.

English Language Arts - We have been studying Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter From Birmingham Jail" and the students have been blown away by the depth, complexity, and high level of vocabulary acquisition in his writing. We have learned a lot about the history of the Civil Rights Movement, segregation, and Martin Luther King's leadership as a nonviolent advocate for social justice change. All 4th grade students are welcome to participate in the Passion Project showcase in May and will be completing an independent project either for the showcase or for presentation in our small group classroom.

3rd Grade

Math - We have been studying a unit on perimeter and area that culminated with a project-based learning activity that involved "designing our dream bedroom." Additionally, we are learning about order of operations to solve problems with multiple computations in one equation. We are getting ready to start a unit of study about fractions. Students will be learning how to compare fractions with unlike denominators and complete computations for fractions with unlike denominators.

English Language Arts - We have been studying "Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail" and the students have been blown away by the depth, complexity, and high level of vocabulary acquisition in his writing. We have learned a lot about the history of the Civil Rights Movement, segregation, and Martin Luther King's leadership as a nonviolent advocate for social justice change. All 3rd grade students are welcome to participate in the Passion Project showcase in May and will be completing an independent project either for the showcase or for presentation in our small group classroom.

2nd Grade

Math - We are starting a unit on fractions. In this unit, we will be comparing fractions with unlike denominators, investigating and analyzing proper, improper and mixed fractions to solve problems.

ELA & Creativity - Students are learning the SCAMPER method of creative thinking that we will apply to a project-based activity for writing during the spring semester. They will be given a menu of options to give choice regarding what they wish to create!

1st Grade

Math - We are learning how to identify fractions using pattern blocks and other hands-on materials! We will create our own geometric design using pattern blocks to test our knowledge of fractions this semester.

Primary Talent Pool VPA

We will have a gifted & talented dance & drama specialist working with our primary talent pool VPA students at Maxwell this coming spring and a gifted & talented music & visual arts specialist working with our primary talent pool VPA student. We are looking to have a collaborative night with the Lexington Legends and Maxwell's "Hit the Books" for students to perform and share their work with an audience! Stay tuned for more information to come!