The Patrick Henry Post

After our students exit preschool, they enter a completely new phase of education in lower elementary at Patrick Henry. Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade are three of the most important years of a student's educational experience because the foundational knowledge of reading, math, social studies, and science are built in these young years. Students will take this knowledge with them to all other grade levels, all the way through their college years! This week's Patrick Henry Post highlights and celebrates our lower elementary students and teachers. Take a look below to see their most recent adventures!

Kindergarten has been working hard towards our goals!! We have been focusing on becoming super readers!! Super readers are able to read 1:1, identify our high frequency words and use strategies to figure out unknown words! During writing workshop we have been using text evidence to explain our answers while adding details to our drawings! In math, we mastered reading and writing numbers 0-5 so this week we moved into unit 2 where we build on those skills and compare groups of objects!

Welcome to Team Versen, where we have been learning phonics, grammar, conventions in writing, along with conceptual addition and subtraction. We continue to learn about creating and following rules as well as embracing and handling our emotions. The kids are finding out what it means to become friends and to be there for one another. In social studies, we have learned and recite “The Pledge of Allegiance,” each day. We have also learned about American customs with songs like, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and “This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land,” to name a couple. Soon, we will be learning about elections and we will even vote for our own class president! In science, we have been deep diving into weather and have begun tracking weather regularly. The shift into fall is noticeable! We are learning about water molecules, types of clouds, and the water cycle. Eventually, that learning will come full circle when we learn about how Earth’s rotation and orbit around the sun along with the moon’s gravitational pull, is responsible for the length of days, the yearly cycle of seasons, and ocean tides. This is a huge year of growth for us, and we appreciate the support of our families, school friends, and community partners.

A hoppy hello from the Rabbit Room! We started off our school year going over routines, class rules and our daily schedule. We spent our first week of school reading "Our Class is a Family". We had an assignment attached to it where everyone worked with a partner, drew a picture of them, and told them one thing they liked about them. This assignment has helped grow the positive relationships between the students to this day. I start off every day by reminding the students that we are a class family, and we need to respect each other. We have also practiced reading, writing, spelling, and sight words! In Math, we learned addition and subtraction within 100, number line, ten frame and doubles. In Science, we learned about Matter and did a Science experiment. Lastly, in Social Studies, we learned how to be considerate, tolerant and a Good Citizen! The Rabbit Room is already looking forward to Halloween!

In math this week we focused on using manipulatives to help us add and subtract. We used counters, number cards, and counting on a number line to help us find the sum and the difference to addition and subtraction equations.

Did you know that the third Thursday of the month, we have a Mobile Food Market that visits Patrick Henry from The Little Bit Foundation? We have partnered with Little Bit for years, and they have been a faithful support system to the 63106 community for clothing resources, food resources, and school support. Thank you, Little Bit, for providing for our community, and thank you, Ms. Webb, for making sure that that this partnership continues!

All SLPS schools will be closed on Friday, September 23rd so that staff can participate in a day of professional development. Enjoy your three-day weekend!

On Friday, October 14th, families will receive their child's 1st quarter Report Card via email. Please make sure you have updated your contact information if you do not have a current email address or phone number. You can update your contact information by calling the school at 314.231.7284 or by clicking here.

Parents are invited in person for Parent-Teacher Conferences the week of October 17th, Monday-Thursday. Please schedule your conference with your child's teacher. Available times are listed below:

• Monday, October 17th, 3:15-5:15pm
• Tuesday, October 18th, 3:15-5:15pm
• Wednesday, October 19th, 3:15-5:15pm
• Thursday, October 20th, 3:15-3:45pm

You should also receive a packet of interventions from your child's teacher this week. Every student will receive a one-pager to explain their current Reading and Math level, and what you can do at home with your child to make sure they are always challenged and growing as Readers and Mathematicians!

All SLPS schools will be closed on Friday, October 21st.

On Friday, October 28th, Patrick Henry will celebrate Halloween with our students through an amazing event at the school! We invite all students to bring or wear a costume to school that day, but please remember that all costumes must still be school-appropriate and cannot have any type of weapon, even as a part of the costume. We are always in need of family support for this event, so please see the ways you can contribute below:

• Donate candy to the school for our candy stations (all candy welcome!)
• Volunteer the day of the event (Friday, October 28th, 1:00-2:30pm) - We need people to help run our stations, walk with the students through the event, and support the teachers as they assist students with costumes and candy collection
• Donate bags for the students to use to collect and hold their candy

Parents must be a registered volunteer with the district in order to participate in this event. Please contact Shanice Webb for more details: shanice.webb@slps.org, 314.231.7284