October has been a busy month for us. After establishing our daily learning routines, we introduced special wellness activities, including yoga and nutrition lessons in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension. Next week, we will also begin Agriculture in the Classroom. Both students and teachers have been enjoying the new Magnetic Reading resources and iReady Classroom Mathematics materials.

• Pick-Up Door: Please be sure that siblings and students that have been picked up are being supervised properly by an adult. Students should not be climbing on the fences/gates or crossing the bus lane without supervision. Buses also come and go from the 2nd driveway. Toys need to be returned to the toy box near the building. Thank you!
  
  
• ATTENDANCE MATTERS!
• As of October 31st, we have had 39 days of school. Therefore, we hope that students have missed less than 4 days of school so far. Please reach out if you need support or resources for helping your child be ready for school each day.
  
  
• Upcoming dates:
• 11/4 - PARP (Pick a Reading Partner) begins
• 11/4 - 6:30 PTA meeting - Brookside Cafeteria
• 11/5-11/6 - Book Fair: We will share the specific shopping days for each class on ParentSquare.
• 11/8 - 9:30 Veterans Assembly
• 11/11 - No School/Veterans Day
• 11/12 - Two Hour Delay Schedule for professional development
• 11/18-11/20 - PTA Fundraiser at Barnes & Noble
• 11/21 - Math Night at Brookside - 6:00-7:00
• 11/25 - RaiseRight (Gift Cards) Orders Due to PTA
• 11/27-11/29 - No School/Thanksgiving
• 12/6 & 12/13 - 12:30 Dismissal for Parent-Teacher Conferences

November 10

9-2

High School Gym

The Craft Fair supports the SVTA Scholarship Fund.

The November Word of the Month is Gratitude. Our definition is "when you feel thankful for the good things in your life". Here are some suggested books to read at home about Gratitude-

Small Blessings by Erica Becker, The Thankful Book by Todd Parr, Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson and Gratitude Soup by Olivia Rosewood.

Gratitude Jars are a fun way for families to keep track of what they are grateful for. Keep a jar somewhere that everyone can access. Family members can write what they are grateful for on slips of paper and add it to the jar. Periodically reading them together is a fun way to share what you are grateful for with one another!

As a schoolwide project, we will be collecting non-perishable Thanksgiving food items for our local school community. Each grade level is assigned an item. Your child will be bringing a reminder home but here is a summary:

PreK - Bread or Dessert Mixes (Banana Bread, cake Mix, etc)

Kdg - Boxed Mashed Potatoes

1st grade - Boxed or Bagged Stuffing

2nd grade- Canned Green Beans

3rd grade -Canned Corn or Carrots

4th grade -Breakfast Cereal or Breakfast Bars

5th grade - Canned or jarred Turkey Gravy

With cold and flu season upon us, here are some tips to help keep our school a healthy place!

When to keep a child home from school:

It can be difficult to decide whether to send children to school when they wake up with early symptoms of an illness or complaints that they do not feel well. However, there are some situations in which it is best to plan on keeping your child home for a day to rest or to arrange for an appointment with your health care provider. The following are a few situations that warrant watching and possibly conferring with your health care provider:

· Persistent fever greater than 100F orally, including a fever that requires control with medication such as Tylenol or Advil

· Child is too sleepy or ill from an illness, like vomiting and/or diarrhea, to profit from sitting in class all day

· Significant cough that makes a child feel uncomfortable

· Sore throat that is severe, accompanied by fever and/or feeling ill, that persists longer than 48 hours, OR after known exposure to a confirmed case of Streptococcal throat infection

· Honey-crusted sores around the nose or mouth or rash on other body parts that might be impetigo; OR a rash in various stages including boils, sore and bumps that may be chicken pox; OR a significant rash accompanied by other symptoms of illness such as a fever

· Itchy, red, runny eyes that distract the child from learning

· Large amount of discolored nasal discharge, especially if accompanied by facial pain or headache

· Severe ear pain or drainage from the ear

· Severe headache, especially if accompanied by a fever

· Any condition that you think may be serious or contagious to others

If you know your child is running a fever, please do not give them a fever-reducing medication and send them to school. Fever-reducing medication (Tylenol, Advil, etc) typically wears off within four to six hours. Once the medication wears off and the fever returns, you will need to come pick your child up from school.

Chorus, 5th Grade Band and 5th Grade Orchestra members!!!

Our Winter Concert will be on December 12th at 6:00pm here at Brookside. More information concerning this event will be coming out towards the end of this month. Your child will need to wear their nice black tops (long sleeve or short sleeve) and nice black pants or leggings. The students will also need to wear black comfortable shoes. This is a very special event. If your child has a special part in the chorus production, they will be given a note concerning what to wear for this concert event. Thank you all for your help and we look forward to performing for you on December 12th!

~Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Dyson

Attention Chorus Members with Special Parts:

Just a reminder to all chorus students who have a special part as a dancer, the rehearsals take place this month in the morning before school. Your child should have received a practice schedule and letter concerning this.

If you have any questions, please email at kdyson@svsabers.org.

~Mrs. Kelly Dyson

This month in Pre-K we have started to focus our attention on letters and sounds. We are learning that every letter makes a sound and when we put those letters and sounds together we can make a word! We also love to listen to stories and then practice being readers by reading the pictures and telling the story we remember.

In Kindergarten we have been very busy learning our letters and sounds. Thus far the students have learned the following letters: /m/, /a/, /t/, /d/, /o/, /c/, /g/ and /i/. They have practiced printing and learning the proper letter formation of each. As well as learning the letter name and sound, the students have been practicing “breaking apart” combinations of these letter sounds to make individual words.

Ex. /g/ /o/ /t/ “got” In writing, this strategy of “breaking apart” their word, will tie together. At this point the students have been working hard on drawing a detailed picture along with labeling their picture. Continued practice at home will help strengthen these skills.

This year we are excited to implement the use of a “new to us” foundational skills reading program by i-Ready. It will provide students with an opportunity to be immersed in explicit, systematic reading instruction with support for fostering their reading fluency skills. Daily lessons focus on working on crucial foundational skills such as letter/sound recognition for blending, phonological awareness, phonics, high-frequency words and more! The students are enjoying lessons where they are feeling successful with decoding words and reading decodable texts to become active readers as they are working on building their fluency.

2nd grade has spent the month reading fiction and nonfiction books. We continue to strengthen our phonics skills. We have been working on many comprehension skills. Some of these are: inferencing, sequencing, making connections, and problem and solution. We have a group of students that love to read and love to be read to.

Dear 3rd Grade Families,

Happy Fall! I can’t believe we are already towards the end of October. We are continuing to work on our reading skills in 3rd grade. In third grade, students develop their reading skills in a number of ways such as reading longer texts, developing comprehension, thinking and talking about what they read, and self correcting and monitoring themselves while reading. This year we started a new Reading Program called Magnetic Reading. This new program utilizes evidence-based practices and the "Science of Reading" approach to develop reading fluency and comprehension skills through high interest stories. Each Unit focuses on a different reading strategy. Our first reading strategy we focused on was Recounting a Story from beginning, middle, and end. We talked about the characters, setting, problem and solution. Another reading strategy we just finished was determining the central message and using key details to support the central message. Next we will be working on Asking and Answering questions while reading. The students are really enjoying these rich and engaging stories so far! We encourage your child to read every night at home (at least 20 minutes). Reading with your child at home helps them to develop language and literacy skills, builds background knowledge and helps with their fluency and comprehension. Thanks for all your support!

Reading is one of the most important skills that children can learn. By the time students enter 4th grade they are now reading to learn in all school subjects throughout their entire day. During ELA class, the students are reading grade level material and focusing on many different reading skills including inferencing skills, character development and comprehension. When the students have intervention and guided reading, they are focusing more on reading text at their own level to become better readers. Our 4th graders are expected to read at home on a nightly basis. At home, keep reading together! Always check for understanding and show interest in their books. Ask your child, “Tell me about this story?” or “What is your favorite part?” Ask questions about what they are reading and they will definitely grow as readers. Thank you for all that you do!

The 5th graders at Brookside have been reading many different passages in our new “Magnetic Reading” series. We have been working on summarizing, making inferences, finding the theme of the text, and comparing/ contrasting characters. That is a lot of work and the students are definitely taking on the challenge!

It is extremely important for students to also be reading independently every day. We do try to give them time in school, but finding 20 minutes to read outside of school is very beneficial to building reading stamina. To help students find books, Mrs. Titus started sending home Scholastic Book Club forms this month and will continue to do so monthly. The next order will be placed on November 14th and families can order right online at www.scholastic.com and enter the classroom code: 1DFS8. We also have many books available in our classroom libraries, as well as the school library. Happy Reading!

Please see below for information on the upcoming coat giveaway through FEN: