September 2022

Welcome to first grade!! We are so glad you are here! We are working to create our classroom community and family. Students are practicing being respectful, responsible, and safe at school. We are working on short vowel sounds in reading, and reading bags will be coming home later this month! Students are also reviewing letter formation for uppercase and lowercase letters. We are starting a new math program this year, and we have just started introducing this! As a team, we are so excited to be growing with your children this year.

Welcome to second grade! We have been spending the last couple of weeks getting to know one another, our classroom/school, and our rules and routines.

This month in math we will be diving into number sense, operations and fact fluency to 20. We will being starting off our writer’s workshop with narrative writing. We will learn to pick a small moment from our lives and stretch that moment into a story with lots of details! In reading, we are starting out with a review of short vowels as well as studying consonant clusters and decoding multisyllabic words. During our class meetings this month we will be learning more about one another, getting along, our emotions and how to manage them! We are looking forward to a great year in 2nd grade!

Third grade is off to a great start this school year! In the month of September, we will be beginning our new Bridges Math, as well as jumping into our Spring Math modules for the year. In ELA, we will be exploring different character traits, setting, plot and point of view. In Science, we will be diving into Forces and Motion with Magnetism; right after we dig into what makes a great scientist.

To kick off the school year, our 4th grade has been reading Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. We have worked on summarizing each chapter as a class. In writing, we have learned that every sentence needs a subject and predicate.

In the coming weeks for reading, we will focus on identifying the theme of a story. Coming up for writing, we will start writing our own narrative stories.

ELA Classes

Readers and writers are learning the routines of class and building relationships to strengthen group work. Soon, we will be diving into narrative text, writing, and comprehension skills that are focused on analysis. Within a few weeks, readers will begin book clubs. Students are off to a great start.

Math Classes

Ratios, ratios, and more ratios. Right out of the gate we’re tackling ratios and equivalent ratios. We’ve even stirred up equal paint ratios.

We are building relationships as we discover relationships between pairs of numbers. Our recipe for success 3 parts effort to 3 parts being present. Sounds like a 1:1 ratio to us.

Hello! My name is Miss Block, I am very excited to be with you at Warren L. Miller! I just graduated from Lycoming college with a bachelor's degree in art. A little about me is I love hiking, kayaking, and Indian food!

At the start of this month, all of the grades have been working with paper to create things like sculptures, collages, and mobiles. We are focused on vocabulary like symmetry, movement, balance, and shape.

Third and fourth grade are doing quilled paper projects that look like these examples:

Quilling paper is the process of cutting paper into thin strips, rolling and pinching the strips then gluing them to create a decorative art.

For the rest of the month we will be focusing on the fundamentals of art and exploring shapes in relation to our world.

It is nice to have students back in the gym! During the first month, students will be participating in several orientation activities and cooperative learning challenges. Kindergarten students learn about spatial awareness and practice their climbing skills on our climbing wall. First and second grade students will be practicing manipulative skills, and our 3rd-6th graders will be performing some team building activities where they will asked to collaborate, cooperate and communicate to solve problems and complete challenges.

Students are reminded to wear sneakers and comfortable clothing in order to maximize their ability to participate in each physical activity safely. Thank you for your cooperation!

You may contact me at ksmith@southerntioga.org

if you need anything throughout the school year.

Welcome to the 2022-2023 school year! Classes have been learning about the organization of the library and checking out books. Students in grades K-2 are learning about the location of books in the library, how to find books that are just right, and are exploring some awesome authors and illustrators. Students in grades 3-6 are learning how to check out books independently and will begin to explore the library website and the many resources that can be found there.

Checkout reminders: Students in grades K-3 may check out 1 book at a time. Students in grades 4-6 may check out 2 books at a time. Please help your student to return their books on time. Thank you.

We are off to a great start in the music room! We have been busy playing some music name games, learning about what instruments are in the room and how to play them, and reviewing some concepts that we learned last year.

Students in the 5th and 6th Grades are currently deciding on if they want to be a part of the band this year. They have the opportunity to try our band instruments out before making a decision. If you are interested in renting an instrument, our local music store Robert M. Sides will be here on September 14th at 6:30pm in our cafeteria here at WLM.

All 5th and 6th Grade students have begun chorus. We are currently learning some warm-ups and our procedures, but will begin working on concert material soon. Save the date cards went out at Open House if you stopped by the music room, but the dates have changed. Our concert dates for this year will be December 13th, 2022 and May 18th, 2023. Both concerts will be in the auditorium at NP-Mansfield and will begin at 6:30pm.

If you have any questions please feel free to call me at the school (x1702), email me at sthomas@southerntioga.org, or send me a message through Parent Square.