Post-Thanksgiving News

Dear Families,

As we wind down from Thanksgiving break and time with our families, teachers are busily getting back into our regular routines!  We loved having this time to attend the National Association for Gifted Children's Conference in Denver where each of us came back having learned quite a bit about how best to meet the needs of our students!  We also enjoyed time at home, relaxing with our own families, celebrating those things for which we are most thankful.

In LifeSkills this week, we are beginning to generate solutions to common social and emotional issues that arise in Division III, as well as learning to evaluate the consequences those solutions might bring. 

World of Math in Ms. Brown's class will involve reviewing place value of whole numbers to begin learning about decimals, while continuing to master basic math facts for all four operations.  Continue having your child use xtramath.org each night for practice!  

Dr. Ricotta's class experienced a guest teacher from Division IV prior to Thanksgiving break. Ryan Kricker joined them and taught the first level of "Hands On Equations" for three days. The students loved learning pre-algebra through hands-on methods taught by Ryan!

Ms. Burns' World of Math class is currently extending their understanding of algebraic expressions, applying their knowledge of variables learned during their work with Hands On Equations prior to break.  Taking the time to learn the Hands On Equations method has been helpful for all students!

During Art of Language this week, Ms. Brown's students will continue their novel studies, completing literature webs (due December 7) and vocabulary webs (due December 14), as well as participating in literature circles with others reading the same novels to discuss the patterns of change within their novels.  Students will also begin analyzing persuasive writing and planning their own using the "Hamburger Model" structure.  When your child begins requesting gifts and such for the holiday season, ask them to draw upon their newly found persuasive abilities and techniques in ethos, pathos, and logos!

Just before break, Dr. Ricotta's students completed their 5-paragraph essay for the classic "The Secret Garden."  Each essay details the theme of change throughout their particular chapter.  The essays are on display in the hallway outside of Room 6.

Ms. Burns' class has continued their work on the animal reports that were started prior to Thanksgiving break.  Students have started doing fluency work with reading, doing one-minute partner reads to increase reading speed and fluency.

Historical Inquiry brings Division III to one of our most enjoyable topics: Government, Politics, and Nursery Rhymes of the Middle Ages.  During this unit, students will study the government and politics of the time, the feudal system and the everyday life of those living during this time, as well as about castles and their purpose during the Middle Ages.  Students will learn the history behind many common nursery rhymes.  For instance, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" has a very interesting story behind it!  These topics are essential to understanding the history of this time period, so that students can make connections to our current governmental and political structure both in the United States, and specifically in Colorado.  

Students will be able to choose from a number of projects to demonstrate their learning during the course of this unit, and will have the opportunity to research at home and create a model of a castle of their choosing as well.  Information on the Castle Builder Project will go home in binders with students and via email to families today (Thursday, November 29). The project will be due on December 17.

Some important dates to keep in mind during the last several weeks of this quarter:

December 1 - Festival of Lights Parade: Academy ACL will have a float this year! See this week's Monday Message for more information.

December 3 - Scholastic orders due (to ensure delivery before we go to Winter Break)

December 14 - DIII Medieval Feast!  More information to follow soon.

December 20 - Winter Festival: Encore teachers have been working with students to create celebrations of the holiday season from around the world. Performances and artistic expressions will be at the forefront of this event! 

December 21 - No School for Students: Teachers will be busily preparing Quarterly Learning Reports and planning for the third quarter.

December 21-January 3 - Winter Break: Teachers will have a work day to prepare for conferences on January 3.

January 4 and 7 - Family Conferences

November 1 Newsletter

Important Dates & Reminders

November 5 - High School Night

November 15-18 - NAGC Conference in Denver - No School

November 19- 25 - Thanksgiving Break (WOO!)

December 21 - Teacher Work Day

December 22 - January 2 - Winter Break

January 3 - Teacher Work Day

January 4 & 7 - 2nd Quarter Family Goal Setting Conferences

January 8 - Begin 3rd Quarter

Dear Families,

Division III teachers had wonderful goal-setting conferences with all of you last week--thank you for coming!

Please consider donating to our school's holiday food drive.  Many families in our school community are struggling financially, and we would love to be able to alleviate some of the stress that accompanies the holiday season by being able to provide food baskets for all who need them.  We can't do this without your generous donations.  Non-perishable foods can be donated to the boxes outside the office, and grocery store gift cards in $10 increments can be donated as well, being brought to the office.  Every item donated matters and will make a difference for a family.  Thank you for your generosity in advance!

Second quarter is off to a great start:

In LifeSkills, we've started discussing how to calm down when we begin to feel strong emotions and role playing our responses to situations that can cause strong emotions.  The more students can practice these techniques, the more automatic they will become.

In the World of Math, Ms. Brown's class is finishing up their first exploration into measurement.  Students have practiced measurement to the nearest inch, half inch, quarter inch, and explored measuring using metric units as well.  Students also learned to find the perimeter of polygons and experimented with different ways to calculate area.  Most students have begun working toward their quarterly goals of improving math fact automaticity and accuracy by using xtramath.org to practice each night as well.  By the end of the school year, all students should be fluent in math facts for all operations.  Continued practice at home will help in meeting this goal.  Our next unit will focus on common uses of multiplication and division. The Unit 4 family letter was sent home in binders and a digital copy emailed home today.  

In Mrs. Burns' Math class, students are delving in to algebraic concepts with learning "legal moves" with pawns and cubes that represent variables and number values. 

Dr. Ricotta's World of Math class is completing Unit 3 on Friday.  Mastering multiplication facts has been emphasized, division introduced, and beginning algebraic equations has been practiced through open-ended equations.

Ms. Brown's Art of Language class has started work analyzing patterns of change in literature.  During this unit, students will be analyzing the language of literature through four-level sentence analysis, other grammar and vocabulary activities, and class discussion, while reading literature which explores the concept of patterns of cyclic change.  Over the past two weeks, students have created a Frayer Model to explore cycles we see around us every day and started delving deeply into the vocabulary that writers use to communicate their messages.  Students analyzed a portion of Maya Angelou's "On the Pulse of Morning," this week and had some very interesting connections to the poem!

In Mrs. Burns' Art of Language class students are jumping into researching on an animal report. They are working on taking notes on important information and getting ready to compile it into a report. 

Dr. Ricotta's Art of Language class completed reading The Secret Garden. Each student will now be writing an essay relating the novel's theme of 'Change" for one chapter in the book. A home project for their chapter with many choices to choose from is optional.

Division III has chosen to level students for our current Scientific Inquiry which explores rocks and minerals.  Because many of our students have demonstrated mastery of the standards relating to this unit, they are exploring topics within it that appeal to them, becoming experts on the topic of their choice.  Others are experiencing these concepts for the first time, while others are going a bit deeper, synthesizing what they learn while working their way through a web quest and then experimenting hands on with rocks and minerals.