Dear Parents, 

 I hope everyone is settling into the new school year. It's hard to believe that we have been back for almost a month! 

Our elementary grades began MAP testing last week! This is a computer-based assessment that helps us measure students’ progress in reading and math. Students take the MAP test three times each school year to help us better understand their growth and support their learning.

If your family is new to MAP testing, please check out this overview to help you understand how schools use this assessment. 

Our MAP testing window will close on September 19th. Family Reports will be available during Student Led Conference Day on 9/24 or sent home if your family cannot attend. 

Kind Regards,

Lisa

The district's goal this year is to reduce Chronic Absenteeism among our students. Did you know that missing 10% of school is considered to be Chronic Absenteeism, whether the absence is excused or unexcused?  Please make every effort to ensure your student is at school and on time.  

EVERY STUDENT MATTERS AND EVERY DAY COUNTS!

🦷 Big Smiles Dental will be here on September 12th!  If you would like to save time and avoid taking a day off work, your student can be seen by a dentist here at school!  Click here to register your student.

🩷 If you are in need of holiday assistance for your student, the Salvation Army Angel Tree program will begin to take registrations on September 2. To register, go to angeltreeregistration.com.

During September, we will focus on letter sounds and sight words in the skills block, explore toys in our reading module, begin Unit 2 in math (numbers 1-10), and start studying properties in science. We are also looking forward to meeting our Moonbeams and participating in our first Brown School Field Day. We hope to see you for Open House, Literacy Night, and Conference Day in September as well. 

Jenna & Cheri

Firefly Newsletter LINK

Reading: Students are building on their understanding of tools/work by considering how habits of character (initiative, collaboration, and perseverance) help us do work. Guided by The Most Magnificent Thing, students will observe/discuss the main character’s behavior/actions as she initiates a project, collaborates with her pet, and perseveres through multiple iterations of her magnificent thing until she gets it just right. In the following unit, students will collaborate to design and create their own classroom tool.

Math: Students solve new types of story problems within 10 using the relationship between addition and subtraction. They develop an understanding of the meaning of the equal sign and connect story problems to equations.

Eriauna & Lauren

Dear 2nd Grade Families,

EL Module One has the theme of schools and communities. In Unit One, we have been building our classroom community by reading a variety of books with the guiding question, "What are schools, and why are they important?” Ask your child to share with you what the central message of The Dot by Peter Reynolds and The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig.  Students have been working on using details from the text and illustrations to support their ideas in class discussions and in their written work.

In math, we are learning to organize bar graphs using four categories, interpret them, and create our own. Students are also working on adding and subtracting within 50. Next month, we will begin adding and subtracting within 100.

Thanks for reading!

Ms. Mayra & Ms. Susan

Reading: Module 1 Overcoming Learning Challenges Near and Far. In Unit 2, students will explore how people access books, building on their earlier work analyzing challenges in accessing schools. They'll enjoy engaging with excerpts from *My Librarian Is a Camel* by Margriet Ruurs, which provides fascinating insights into how individuals in different countries around the world find ways to access books.

In third-grade math lessons, we'll have the opportunity to explore Unit 1, where we'll learn about the Basics of Multiplication. We'll work through Section B: Connecting Graphs to Multiplication, and then move on to Section C: Showing Multiplication with Arrays and the Commutative Property. Please be sure to check out the Math Family Notes.

Andrew and Samantha

Numeracy:

• Recognize equivalent fractions on a number line.

• Explain how we know whether fractions are equivalent.

• Find equivalent fractions without using diagrams.

• Compare and order fractions.

Literacy:

• Describe what inspires a character to write poetry, using evidence from our text, Love that Dog.

• Determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

• Cite evidence from the text to support my answers.

• Research and describe what inspired a poet.

Science / Social Studies:

• Explore West African culture:

• Describe where people settle in West Africa

• Analyze what current and past maps reveal about West Africa

• Describe how rocks are affected by chemical and physical weathering.

• Explore how humans change the flow of water.

Christie & Jamie

Math: Our first unit covers volume. Students will learn its definition, how to calculate it for certain shapes, and work with connecting cubes to build shapes and find their volume. They measure volume by counting unit cubes and observe its additive nature, realizing that different solid figures can share the same volume. The focus then shifts to right rectangular prisms: constructing them with unit cubes, analyzing their structure, and calculating their volumes. They write numerical expressions to represent strategies and work with more abstract prism representations. Students generalize that the volume of a rectangular prism can be found by multiplying its side measurements (length x width x height) or the base area by its height, revisiting properties of operations as they analyze, write, and evaluate different expressions for the same volume grades.

Reading/Writing: This week, we are beginning Esperanza Rising. Our goal is to finish chapter three by the week's end. We will also dedicate time to working on MAP reading goals and reflections. Please inform your student about the upcoming steps. In ELA, our learning targets include: understanding the structure of a story, recognizing when human rights are threatened or violated, and organizing thoughts with a character map. In writing, we focus on answering text-based questions with a clear claim, accurate evidence, and supporting reasoning. Additionally, we will have our first graded assignment this week, which involves answering a text-based question.

Tyler & Randy

This month, we're celebrating the wonderful trait of Respect. Think of Respect as recognizing the value in everyone and everything, and showing care through our actions. It’s about noticing the worth in all people and things and spreading kindness wherever we go. Since everyone might see respect a little differently, we hope this month sparks warm and meaningful conversations with your family about what respect truly means to each of you, and how you can show it every day! Respect is one of three key qualities we're cultivating this year to help students grow in kindness. Along the way, they'll learn important skills like understanding different perspectives, resolving conflicts peacefully, and stepping into leadership roles.

Cross-Country and cheer are off to a great start this year. Thanks to our coaches for making it all happen. We will send out information about girls' and boys' elementary basketball in mid-September and will begin practice in mid-October. We will have soccer again this spring in the LouCity league. 

Please check the Bear Essentials and www.brownbearathletics.com for coaching contact and other news and information about elementary athletics.