McNab Matters January/February 2014

Russell Schwartz, Principal Clarice Johnston, Assistant Principal

Calendar of Events Jan.13-17 BAT testing 3rd-5th

Jan. 13: SAC mtg. 2:15pm

Jan. 20: No School

Jan. 21: Book Exchange 7:30am – Media Ctr

Jan. 22: PTA mtg. 6pm - Cafe

Jan. 23: Class Pictures

Jan. 31: School Tours 8:30 am

Feb. 3: SAC mtg. 2:15pm

Feb. 6: Early Release Day

Feb. 13: Volunteer Appreciation 8:30 am

Feb. 18: Book Exchange 7:30 am – Media Ctr

Feb. 19: School Tours 8:30 am

Feb. 25-26: FCAT Writes 4th grade

Feb. 27- Mar. 6: Spring Book Fair

Feb. 28: Reading Under the Stars 5:30 pm

McNab Families,

Hopefully everyone had an enjoyable New Year. On behalf of McNab Elementary School, we wish you a year filled with happiness and health. Now that we have returned to school, we are focused on a strong second half of the year with school days filled with learning and excitement. During the month of February, we will be having a “mock” safety drill. The drill will include the campus being placed on a code yellow and red. We will communicate with families via ParentLink on the afternoon of the drill. The first year with our School Unified Dress Policy has been a gigantic success. I would like to remind you that when the temperature falls below 55 degrees, we encourage students to wear jeans, jackets, and anything else that will keep them warm and comfortable. As the temperature returns to our normal Florida heat, we will continue to follow the Unified Dress Policy. Remember, students are always permitted to bring light jackets to keep in the classroom to use as needed. Next, we are very excited to see everyone at our PTA sponsored Reading Under the Stars night. The date of this event is February 28th and will take place in conjunction with our Book Fair. Be on the lookout for more information in the near future. Lastly, please spread the word in the community that on March 6th we are having our McNab Kindergarten Round-up. Encourage your neighbors to register at McNab for the 2014-15 school year. Thank you, Mr. Russ Schwartz Principal

The Character Trait for January is RESPECT

Treat others with respect; follow the Golden Rule • Be tolerant and accepting of differences • Use good manners, not bad language • Be

considerate of the feelings of others • Don’t threaten, hit or hurt anyone • Deal peacefully with anger, insults, and disagreements

The Character Trait for February is HONESTY

• Honesty is telling the truth. • Honesty is straightforward conduct. • Honesty is being sincere, truthful, trustworthy, honorable, fair,

KeepingUpwithKindergarten

We are off to a great start in 2014! Our beginning readers are gaining an understanding of how stories are structured with a beginning, middle and ending. They continue to make and confirm their predictions as we read stories in class. Nonfiction and informational texts are of great interest as they learn about other cultures and holidays, history, science, and the world around them. They are adding details to their writing and using letter sounds and sight words as they write sentences about things that happen in their lives. Our young mathematicians practice subtraction as the process of “taking from” or “taking apart.” They will also learn to model, read, and write numbers 11 to 20. In addition to this, they will be learning about the relative position of objects. For example, they will be using the words and phrases, “above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to” to describe location. During the month of January the students learn about the New Year and the accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. February brings a flurry of activity! The students will be very busy learning about Groundhog Day, 100th Day of School, Valentine’s Day, Presidents’ Day, Dental Health, and Black History Month. Ask your child to share their February school experiences with you. To help your child develop reading comprehension skills, ask him or her to describe the connection between two characters, events, ideas or pieces of information in a text. As we enter the third quarter of the school year, and your child is half way through their kindergarten journey please be sure to read with your child for at least 20 minutes each night. Make it an enjoyable time as you and your child cuddle up with a good book!

Phenomenal Fourth Grade In January and throughout February, our fourth graders will work on their writing skills with the narrative and expository process in preparation for the upcoming Florida Writes on February 25-26th. We just finished Big Idea One, which focused on algebraic skills, multiplication, and related division facts in multi-step word problems. Please keep working on memorizing the times tables through 12! Big Idea Two will focus on fractions, decimals, and percents. These are very difficult skills to master. Math Intervention (previous math book), Animated Math Models (Common Core book) and Megamath are great ways to work on these skills and can be accessed through BEEP and the online math textbook. We have spent the past few weeks identifying the author’s purpose across genres. We will be focusing on sequencing, main idea and details, and comparing and contrasting in the upcoming weeks. The reading FCAT focuses on many genres of reading: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, newspaper/magazine/ internet articles; there are graphs, diagrams, maps, and reference skills. Identifying test features and understanding their purpose is very important. Please make sure your child is reading nightly in ALL of these areas, not just fiction. FCAT reading and math will be given in April and your child must score a Level 2 or higher in both areas for promotion, so please keep up with their nightly homework. Fourth grade scores are also used for entry into a middle school magnet program. Let us know if you have any questions. Thank you!

Please refrain from using your cell phones when dropping off and

picking up your students from school in the car loop. It takes all of us to

keep the children safe!

Terrific Third Grade Happy New Year to all! We have so much to do in the next couple months. Please continue to remind your third graders that responsibility, hard work, and a positive attitude is essential for being successful on the FCAT in April. In preparation for the FCAT, we suggest continued review of the following strategies: compare and contrast, author’s purpose, sequencing, text features, main idea, drawing conclusions, cause and effect, and vocabulary in context. The second BAT (Benchmark Achievement Test) was held the week of January 13th. It is helpful in measuring your child’s FCAT proficiency. Results will be forthcoming. You will be able to find them on virtual counselor as well. This quarter’s book report will be a famous African American or President timeline. Book approval will be on January 17th and the presentation will be held on February 14th. Stay tuned for detailed information coming home about this project. In Math, we are finishing up division and getting ready to develop an understanding of fractions. In Social Studies, we continue to learn the states and their capitals. The third quarter test will consist of the Western Region. Testing will be on Thursday, March 3rd. Please continue to make sure your child reads at least 30 minutes EVERY day.

Fabulous Fifth Grade Welcome back! We are busy working to prepare our children for the upcoming FCAT in April. We will be visiting Pompano Middle School on January 9th to take a sneak peak at their magnet program. Don’t forget to look into as many magnet programs as you can and fill out your applications by February 12th. We will be moving into multiplication and division of fractions in our Go Math series. Please keep practicing multiplication and division skills with your children. In our Science Fusion we will be moving into the Solar System. After that, it is onto weather, climate, and the water cycle. Don’t forget that science will be tested on the 5th grade FCAT. On March 3rd, we will be taking our annual trip to JA Biztown. The students will be learning how to run a business and how to work together to accomplish this goal. We will need many volunteers to make this trip a successful day. Please go to www.getinvolvedineducation.com to be cleared as a volunteer. The 5th grade will be going to IGFA for a fantastic fishing field trip on either February 4th or 5th. Here the students will get to learn about fish adaptations, while exploring the Fishing Hall of Fame.

Sensational Second Grade The Second Grade Team wants to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year! It's nice to see all the students refreshed and eager to begin a new semester and back into our regular routines again. So, check with your child and make sure he or she has supplies needed such as pencils, expo markers, notebooks and folders to start the New Year on the right foot! In case you're a bit out of routine, start those good habits now and get back to a good bedtime, reading daily, doing homework and checking agendas daily. We are at the mid year point so your child should be reading at least 30 minutes a day outside of school assignments and able to recall basic addition and subtraction facts from 1 to 20. Practice and review high frequency words, vocabulary words and spelling words to stay fresh. In reading we will be working on main ideas, author's purpose, cause and effect and using text/graphic features. Grammar and phonics will focus on suffixes, proper nouns, and compound sentences. Social Studies is a combination of various maps and their uses and Native Americans and their culture. Science will be focusing on weather and matter. Our budding scientists will learn the changes, cycles and patterns and what it's all made up of! Math will take us into the process of subtraction. We will be diving into 2-digit subtraction and learning many different strategies to use to find the difference. Remember, it's about learning different strategies and then finding the one that works for you!!! Keep up the excellent work!

Fantastic First Grade

It is time for the Mid-Year Reading Assessment in First Grade. Your child will take this formal reading assessment January 28th and 29th. Your child will be expected to read several passages independently. Each passage has a few comprehension questions to go with it. Your child will be expected to read the questions and the choices and then bubble in the correct answer. This is one time that students are not allowed to ask the teacher for help. Results will be discussed with parents. This will give you a good indicator how your child reading skills are coming along.

During the Third Quarter in Reading we will be reading stories about the ocean, the jungle, the desert, the seasons, animals, and the moon. Please make sure your child is practicing their reading every night. Don’t forget to ask those comprehension questions! Ask about who was in the story? Where did the story take place? What was the problem in the story? How did the problem get resolved? What kinds of feelings did the character show?

In Math we are learning about tens and ones, comparing numbers, and two digit-addition and subtraction. Please remember to review the skills on the Math papers that come home in the red folder. Sit down and talk about each paper. Your little one will be so proud to explain to you what they have learned and that helps solidify their understanding of the new concept. If they have forgotten what they learned it is a great time for you to go over it with them.

On February 12 we are going on a Field Trip to Flamingo Gardens. You can take a look at their web site and check out the kinds of animals we will see there. You can do a little research with your child on Peacocks, Flamingos, Spoonbills and other Florida wildlife we will encounter. It is an awesome field trip that your child is sure to enjoy!

Volunteer Opportunities There are many, many ways to get involved at McNab Elementary. If you are interested in volunteering at school, please log on to www.getinvolvedineducation.com and complete the on-line volunteer application. This is a district requirement. Get-involved! It is what helps McNab be the terrific school that it is!

Please Remember:

School Starts at 8am and students are marked tardy if they are not sitting in their classrooms ready for instructions at that time. Also, when your child is absent for any reason, please call the front office to excuse them or bring in a doctor’s note if possible. Five unexcused absences cause a five-day letter to be generated by the state attorney’s office and you may have to meet with administration. Thanks for your cooperation!

Don’t forget to wear you McNab Mustangs shirt every Friday to show your

school spirit!!