Pleasant Valley School

Valentine's Day is Friday, Feb. 14th. We will be celebrating on Thursday, Feb. 13th. Students are welcome to bring treats and valentines to share with their classmates. If you need a class list, please let me know.

Baking Contest: For our class reward, the students requested to have a baking contest. We discussed how they would like to run the contest. The students will work in groups of 3 to create a type of cookie. They will make and bake them at school on Thursday, Feb. 13th. The cookies will then be sent home for family members to test and complete a judging sheet for each type of cookie. Don't let students tell you or ask them which type they are making until after family members have completed the judging sheets. Judging sheets need to be returned on Tuesday, Feb. 18th. I will then tally the judging results to determine a winner.

Box Tops: Thank you for scanning your receipts! We had a few more supporters this last month and jumped our fundraising from $175.10 to $262.10. This month is refer a friend month. If you have any friends or family members who would like to help support the school, share the referral code of NPRU3Q7G. If they scan their first receipt during the month we get 50 bonus box tops - that is $5 just for joining and scanning a receipt.

Parent Teacher Conferences: Conferences are coming up the on March 7th. Please see the section about school events to sign up for your conference time.

100 Day is Tuesday, March 4th. During the month of February, students need to create a project using 100 of something to bring on March 4th. Be creative and have fun! Below are a few ideas from past projects.

St. Patrick's Day is Monday, March 17th. Lets see if we can trap a Leprechaun. Work with your family to create a trap. Bring traps to school on March 13th.

We got to learn from Flathead Electric and Associated Arborists about powerline safety and clearing trees from powerlines. They told the kids to stay in school and that several of the team members had been to college to earn their forestry degree.

Parents please share photos for the yearbook or copy any of your students that you wish to save. Above is a link to our shared Google Drive folder. Please don't delete any photos.

Students are welcome to bring cards and treats to share with their classmates.

No School

School Day due to Monday holiday.

2nd Trimester MAP Testing for all grades.

Dr. Suess Celebration! Students may wear comfy clothes or Pajamas, bring a stuffy friend to read to, and a book that they would like to read.

Remember to bring your 100 Day projects.

End of Trimester is March 6th. Please click on the form below to request your conference time.

St. Patrick's Day is Monday, March 17th. Lets see if we can trap a Leprechaun. Work with your family to create a trap. Bring traps to school on March 13th.

No School this week!

What are we learning in reading is listed following the individual grade levels by their program colors. If you do not know which color your student is in, please ask Miss Sheets.

Math

Unit 4: Numbers Within 10: Addition and Subtraction

Science

Topic 5 - Needs of Living Things

What do plants and animals need to survive?

Social Studies

Topic 4 - Geography of the Neighborhood

What is the world like?

Arts

In art, we will be headed to freshwater environments while working with clay. The final project will be creating a sculpture of a dragonfly.

In music, we are working on musical form and composition.

Math

Unit 4: Length: Measurement, Addition and Subtraction, and Line Plots

Science

Topic 4 - Earth's Processes

What causes land to change?

Social Studies

Topic 4 - People who Supply Our Goods and Services

How do people get what they need?

Arts

In art, we will be headed to freshwater environments while working with clay. The final project will be creating a sculpture of a freshwater turtle.

In music, we are working on musical form and composition.

Math

Unit 4: Fractions: Equivalence and Comparison, Measurement, and Data

Science

Topic 4 - Climate

Essential Question: How can you explain what climate is like in different places?

Social Studies

Topic 4 - Government, Landmarks, and Symbols

Essential Question: Why do we have government?

Arts

In art, we will be headed to freshwater environments while working with clay. The final project will be creating a sculpture of a frog pond.

In music, we are working on musical form and composition.

Math

Unit 4: Fractions, Decimals, and Measurement: Addition, Subtraction, and Multiplication

Science

Topic 4- Earth's Features

Essential Question: How can you use maps to understand Earth's features?

Social Studies - Montana: A History of Our Home

Unit 3 - Coming to Montana

Essential Questions:

• Why did people move to Montana?
• How did they change the state?

Arts

In art, we will be headed to freshwater environments while working with clay. The final project will be creating a sculpture of a beaver.

In music, we are continuing to work on the King and Queen level. On independent study days, they are learning how to play chords on the ukulele.

Math

Unit 5: Proportional Reasoning: Percents and Statistical Samples

Reading - Middle School ELA

7C: Brain Science - Unit Test Feb. 12th

7D: Poetry & Poe

In this unit, students learn to read like a movie director. First, they read poems by D. H. Lawrence, Federico García Lorca, and Emily Dickinson to learn to form mental images while reading. Then, they read three texts by Edgar Allan Poe—“The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Raven.” They use the rich details from "The Tell-Tale Heart" to create a visual storyboard that helps them understand the curious perspective of the strange, first person narrator in this story. They watch thoughtful, animated adaptations of “The Raven” and “The Cask of Amontillado” and compare the adaptations to the original texts. After reading these stories, students’ knowledge of Poe’s tales allows them to participate in the murder mystery Quest, Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe? , where they investigate a fictitious crime scene, interrogate characters to find and interpret clues, and present their proposed solution to the mystery before the true solution is revealed. At the end of the unit, students write an essay arguing for or against the reliability of the narrator of one of the unit's texts.

For more information, please see caregiver letter on Feb. 18th.

Science - Middle School Course 2

Topic 6 - Distribution of Natural Resources

Essential Question: How is the distribution of natural resources the result of geological processes?

Social Studies - Middle School American History

Topic 10 -Industrial and Economic Growth (1865-1914)

Essential Question: How did America's economy, industries, and population grow after the Civil War?

Topic 11 - The Progressive Era (1865-1920)

Essential Question: What can individuals do to affect society?

Arts

In art, we will be headed to freshwater environments while working with clay. The final project will be creating a sculpture of a textured fish.

In music, we are continuing to learn how to play the music for festival in May. Independent study day will continue to focus on learning the guitar and music theory.

Skills 6:

This unit differs from Units 3–5 in several ways. In each of the three previous units, the students were introduced to eight or nine letter-sound correspondences. In this unit, they will be introduced to only one new letter-sound correspondence, the ‘s’ spelling for the /z/ sound. Students have already learned the spelling ‘z’ for the /z/ sound. In this unit, they will learn that the spelling ‘s’ is a spelling alternative for /z/. One goal for this unit is to encourage students to automatize the letter-sound correspondences and blending procedures they learned in Units 3–5.

There are three additional new elements in this unit:

1. consonant clusters
2. letter names
3. reading text independently

Knowledge 7: Kings and Queens - Starting Feb. 10

In the Kings and Queens domain, students will listen to read-alouds about kings and queens and royal families. Both the fiction and nonfiction selections will build students’ understanding of the responsibilities, lifestyle, and customs associated with royalty throughout history. Many of the fictional rhymes, poems, and stories in this domain are classic, well-loved tales, including “King Midas and the Golden Touch,” “The Princess and the Pea,” “Cinderella,” and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

Knowledge 8: Seasons and Weather - Starting Mar. 3

This domain will introduce students to the concept of weather. Students will learn that different regions of Earth experience different weather patterns throughout the year. They will also learn that we can think about a year and the related weather patterns in terms of four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and autumn. Students will also learn why knowing about the weather is important, and how weather affects our daily lives and activities.

Skills 4:

Unit 4 is devoted to introducing more spelling alternatives for vowel sounds and three tricky spellings. Remember vowel sounds and their spellings are the most challenging part of the English writing system. Only two vowel sounds are almost always spelled just one way (/a/ and /ar/). The other seventeen vowel sounds have at least one significant spelling alternative. Several of them have many spelling alternatives.

• Many opportunities are provided in this unit for review of the spelling alternatives. The specific sounds and spellings introduced for the first time in this unit are:

  • /er/ spelled ‘er’ (her), ‘ur’ (hurt), ‘ir’ (bird)
  • /i/ spelled ‘y’ (myth)
  • /ie/ spelled ‘y’ (try), ‘igh’ (night)
  • /oe/ spelled ‘ow’ (snow)
  • /ee/ spelled ‘e’ (me), ‘y’ (funny), ‘ey’ (key)
  • /aw/ spelled ‘al’ (wall)

Knowledge 7: Westward Expansion - Started Feb. 3rd

This domain will introduce students to an important period in the history of the United States—the time of westward expansion during the 1800s. Students will learn why pioneers were willing and eager to endure hardships to move westward. The group will learn about important innovations in both transportation and communication during that period, which greatly increased the movement of people westward. More specifically, students will learn about Fulton’s steamboat, the Erie Canal, the transcontinental railroad, and the Pony Express. Students will also come to understand the hardships and tragedies that Native Americans endured because of westward expansion. This domain will build the foundation for learning about the U.S. Civil War and immigration, as well as for learning about other periods of American history in future grades.

Knowledge 8: Insects - Starting Feb. 24th

This domain will introduce students to the largest group of animals on Earth. Students will learn the characteristics of insects, the life cycles of insects, how insects can be categorized as solitary or social, and how insects are viewed as both helpful and harmful. For example, students will learn how insects are important to the process of pollination and in the production of honey, some cosmetics, and even medicines. This domain will lay the foundation for review and further study of the life cycles, habitats, and classifications of insects and other animals.

Unit 5 - Light and Sound

The nonfiction Reader for Unit 5, Adventures in Light and Sound, consists of selections describing the science behind light and sound. Students will read about light sources, shadows, mirrors, reflection, refraction, lenses, and color. They will also study the characteristics of sound, as well as the human voice. Later chapters include information about light and photography as well as biographies of two famous inventors who worked with light and sound: Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison. It is important that you discuss the characteristics of the biography genre and stress that biographies are nonfiction since they are factual accounts of people’s lives.

Unit 5: Geology

The Big Idea of this unit is that the earth is composed of layers that, through heat and pressure, cause movements that result in geological features above and below the earth’s surface. Tectonic plate theory explains how mountains, volcanoes, and trenches are created on land and under the sea. Information about the rock cycle, weathering, and erosion also explains how the earth is continually changing. This unit explores the relationships between these different geological processes and how they affect the landscape and related environments of the earth.

Email: teacher@pvsmt.org
Website: pvsmt.org
Location: 7975 Pleasant Valley Rd, Marion, MT 59925, USA
Phone: 406-858-2343