Carl L. Dixson Primary School

November 2024 Newsletter

See What's Happening Around Dixson!

Board of Education Appreciation Performance

Thank you to our Veterans!

6th Grade Grady Students Read to Dixson Students

Formal Friday Dance Lessons

Kindergarten Updates

ELA: We began to retell stories by making “story soup”. Story soup is made when you have characters, setting, a beginning, middle and end. All of those ingredients make up story soup. We will continue to retell stories using a retell tool. The students also began our Zoology Unit. We are reading about and discussing living and non-living things, wild and domestic animals, zoo and farm animals and pets. We have learned the following letters: Rr, Ss, Xx, Cc, Gg, Aa, Ii, Uu, Oo. We have learned the following power words: you, and, me, here, are, love, I, a, at, am, in, it, is, up, on, an, can, can’t.

Math: We worked on numbers to 10. We compared, identified, counted and learned to write numbers 0-10.

Social Studies: We learned about Veteran’s Day, What Makes a Family, and Thanksgiving.

Science: We practiced being Meteorologists. We discussed normal vs. severe weather and how to prepare. We looked at weather bar graphs and noticed patterns and trends to make weather predictions.

1st Grade Updates

ELA: First graders have become animal researchers! Classes are exploring wild and endangered animals to learn about physical characteristics and behaviors of animals. This is part of an informational writing unit which will allow each student to create their very own writing piece! In phonics, students learned the following word families: -ap, -ip, -ug, -ell, -ick, -ock, -uck, -ash, -est, -ing, -ank, and -unk.

Math: Students practiced different ways to add such as counting on, using doubles and near doubles, and making 10. They discussed which strategy they prefer using when adding. They also learned how to find an unknown number in an addition equation.

Social Studies: First graders are focusing on the members and places in our community. We discussed the roles of the different members as well as the importance of the places in our community.

Science: First grade scientists learned all about the moon and its phases. We had Moon Journals where we tracked the moon and its phases.

Stepping Stones Museum for Children

Traveling Workshop - Seeing Sound

Special Classes

Art with Ms. Sanft

We have been working on several projects in the Art room! Kindergarten and 1st grade students have been learning how to cut and glue…two very important skills to develop. They combined their knowledge of shapes, with the cutting and gluing techniques they’ve been practicing. They have created fantastic collages!
Students also started a drawing collaboration project. Working together to create a project can be challenging. They have done an excellent job communicating and compromising to create a giant picture together : ) They will add color to their creations.
Dixson artists are working on a squirrel project, which I’m excited to share with you when they are completed!

Music with Mr. Funke

Students are working on sounds that go up and sounds that go down. This involves practice singing and recognizing various melodic contours. Students are also associating melodies with visual representations.
Dixson students have begun learning their music for the Dixson Holiday Show! They are showing what it means to try your best and focus to achieve great things!
The Dixson Holiday Show will be on December 18th at 10:00am in the Grady gym! Parents and family members are encouraged to join us for this special celebration! The entrance to the Grady gym is on the side of the building near the playground and down the stairs. Limited parking is available in the lower parking lot.

STEAM with Mrs. Hopper

Students engaged in several challenging activities exploring balance. They worked alone and with partners to balance objects on wobbly bases, making important discoveries along the way. They even had the option to “level up” to more difficult challenges when they felt ready!
We also began learning about how technology works. Students participated in “unplugged” coding activities that helped them prepare for their first experiences coding Beebots.
Students programmed Beebot robots to travel along a specific route to reach a certain location. It was so much fun!

Physical Education with Mr. Tiernan

Students are engaged in our Volleyball unit. They are participating in games such as Clean Your Room, 3 on 3 Volleyball and Nuke Em. Volleyball is a great cardiovascular exercise that helps develop hand-eye coordination. Students are learning about the 3 ways to hit a volleyball - bump, set and dig.
Please remember to have your child wear sneakers on their gym days.

Academic Intervention Service Team

Our Kindergarten and First Grade students build their number sense throughout the year. Please take every opportunity to notice 1 and 2- digit numbers all around. You can even give “clues” to those numbers to build their understanding. For example, I see a number on that box that is greater than 5. Do you see the number? They should start to recognize numbers in different formats in the world around them. For example, as you are driving, they should see numbers in the price of gas and prices in store windows.

Knowledge of letter sounds in different parts of words is an important skill for our young readers. A great way to practice this is to take a word and change the beginning sound to form a new word. For example, say the word “sit”. Next, have your child take away the letter that makes the /s/ sound and change it to a letter that makes the /f/ sound. Then, have them say the new word. You can have fun doing this activity with lots of word families. For example, -op (hop), -in (bin), and -an (fan) words.

Nurse Notes

This year we have noted an increase of students with RSV. RSV is like a cold bug that can sometimes get a little too strong and spread to a child's lungs, causing an infection called pneumonia, which means their lungs are a bit sick and need extra rest to get better. To help your child prevent RSV, please remind them to wash their hands regularly or use hand sanitizer. Avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth and covering coughs and sneezes with their elbow. Please refer to the “WHEN TO KEEP A CHILD HOME WITH ILLNESS” letter when deciding if your child should stay home from school.

***Please remember to contact the school when your child is absent for any reason.

In good health,

Nurse Carlee, RN

(914) 592-1063

ccharles@eufsd.org

Important Safety and Security Reminders

To ensure the safety of all our students, we have the following policies in place:

DISMISSAL CHANGES:

If you need to make any changes to your child's dismissal plan, please notify the main office in WRITING. You can do this in one of two ways:

Send a note in your child’s folder
Send a message through TalkingPoints to the SCHOOL ADMIN account named Carl L. Dixson Primary School

For early pickups, please ensure your child is picked up no later than:

2:35 PM on Mondays
3:00 PM on Tuesdays through Fridays

The afternoon is a busy time as we transition students for dismissal, so we kindly ask that you plan accordingly. These procedures are in place to make sure all students are safe.

Please note that all communications regarding dismissal changes must be made in writing by 2:00 PM each day. Changes submitted after 2:00 PM may not be accommodated.

SAFETY REMINDERS:

Please do NOT hold the door open for others looking to enter the building, including other parents/guardians. Each person must ring the bell and be approved by the main office staff prior to entering the building.
All visitors must present an identification card in order to obtain a visitor's pass.
Students arriving late or leaving early must be signed in/out from the Main Office.
Remember to bring your identification card when picking up your child.
Please do not park or walk through the staff parking lot as it is an active lot.
The playground is strictly for school use until after dismissal.