Oakview South Newsletter

You may have heard your child or someone else mention Capturing Kids' Hearts and you wondered what exactly is that program the school district is using. Capturing Kids' Hearts is a proven social-emotional learning program that focuses on building strong relationships between students and educators. Its core philosophy is that when students feel respected and cared for, they are more likely to engage in the learning process and reach their full potential.

The program centers around four key elements:

1. Building Trust: Teachers and students create authentic, trusting relationships that encourage open communication and mutual respect.

2. Social-Emotional Learning: Students are taught skills such as empathy, self-regulation, and effective communication, which are essential for navigating both the classroom and the world.

3. Positive Reinforcement: Capturing Kids' Hearts promotes a positive behavior system where students are recognized for their good deeds, which in turn reinforces a culture of kindness and respect.

4. Student Voice and Choice: The program gives students the opportunity to have a voice in decisions, making them feel more involved and invested in their school community.

There are so many jargon words that are used in education, so I want to take a moment and clarify some of the words you might hear from your child around Capturing Kids' Hearts.

1. Social Contract: It is an agreement on how everyone will treat each other other and how they will work together. The goal is to create a classroom environment where everyone feels safe and positive.
2. Good Things: A classroom practice where teachers start the day asking students to share something positive happening in their lives, creating a positive and supportive classroom.
3. Affirmations: Students write short positive notes to each other to promote positive self worth.
4. Launch: Teachers end class by sending students off with a positive and purposeful closure, essentially setting them up for success in their next activity or day.

1/5 Winter Break ends

1/20 No School

1/31 No School

Monday: Wear Red

Tuesday: Wear Green

Wednesday: Holiday Socks/Plaid Day

Thursday: Christmas Shirt/Ugly Sweater Day

Friday: PJs/Comfy Cozy Day

If you have a moment, please fill out the following survey.

https://iheartckh.com/squrl/jjaexult

If you get a chance, check out the resources we have for families on our Title page.

If you have any feedback or suggestions for Oakview, click the box below. Thank you!

Thank you to all the families that attended our family game night. It was a huge success and below you will find a list of games that students played at the event.

• Proof, Sumoku, Clumsy Thief, Ten, Prime Climb, Quiddler Jr.
• Blokus, Mancala, Shut the Box, Boggle Jr., Bananagrams, Apples to Apples Jr
• Upwords, Tall Tales, Dabble Word Game, Hedbanz, Play on Words, It's in the Bag
• Uno 99, Yahtzee, Rory's Story Cubes, Taboo, Smart Mouth, Word on the Street Jr
• CMYK Spots, Think Fun Last Letter, Think Fun Distraction, Read My List Game
• Guess Who, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

Christmas Party Information: Our parties will be held on December 20th, from 2:10-3:00. Your classroom teacher will reach out to you with more information.

Math: We are close to completing our third unit. In this unit we made multiple towers to learn about more complex multiplication problems. We also looked for landmark numbers like the 10th and 20th multiple. For example: 32x10=320 and 32x20=640. We continue to use open arrays to break apart math problems.

Example: 8x22=(8x20)+(8x2)

8x22=160+16

8x22=176

Writing: Students just finished an argumentative paragraph. They were given the question, at what age should students be allowed to have a cell phone? Students came up with reasons and examples to support their idea. Most classrooms have moved on to rewriting a traditional fairy tale with a new spin. Students will write and illustrate a book. This is an exciting unit. When we complete this assignment, we will celebrate by sharing our writing with another class.

Science: Mrs. Parker’s class just started an exciting human machine unit. We are learning about how muscles and tendons move our body, how the eye allows us to see, and how fast we react to movement. We made a robotic hand and an eye model.

Reading: Students are working on identifying the main idea and key details and how the key details support the main idea. The main idea is usually somewhere in the first paragraph. The key details are usually in the beginning of the body paragraphs. After finding the main idea and details, students are writing a summary. Please practice this at home.

Christmas Party/Afternoon Breakfast

Our breakfast will be on December 20th from 1:00 - 1:45

Science

We are closing in on our first unit with 4 more lessons to go. We reflect on and discuss how we use water in our everyday lives. We predict how much water we think we use and then compare that to the typical water usage for various everyday activities. As we discuss, we realize that in order to compare quantities, we need to use a standard unit of measurement. We predict how many gallons of water are needed to make common items. We realize that many items use much more fresh water to be produced than we thought. Next, we decide that since humans are using so much freshwater, this must be impacting the Earth. We research a problem related to freshwater overuse in one of three locations. We use our research to develop a model that explains the problem that is happening in our location. We decide that all of our problems have similarities, so we develop one class consensus model that explains the core water problem. We begin brainstorming solutions and discuss the need for limits and conditions. I am enjoying seeing them grow and use evidence to become critical thinkers in our community. Enjoy the holidays.

Math

5th grade students have started a new mathematics unit about fractions called Rectangles, Clocks, and Tracks. During this unit, students use their knowledge of fractions, fraction equivalents, and a variety of representations to compare fractions and add and subtract fractions.

ELA

In ELA, our 5th graders have been hard at work wrapping up their book club groups for the month, just in time for winter break! It has been such a joy to see students collaborate, share their thoughts, and dive deeper into their books during discussions. Their enthusiasm and thoughtful insights have been impressive! We also recently concluded our class read-aloud, which kept students fully engaged as they explored character development, identified examples of foreshadowing, and made meaningful text connections. These activities have not only strengthened their comprehension skills but also sparked a genuine love for reading.

Social Studies

We just wrapped up an exciting exploration of the Indigenous Peoples of North America, where students learned about the rich cultures, traditions, and innovations of the first inhabitants of this land. Next, we will embark on a journey across the Atlantic to study the continent of Africa and its ancient empires, including their remarkable contributions to history and culture. These studies are part of our first unit, "Three Worlds Meet," which examines the interconnected histories of North America, Africa, and Europe.

Here is a link to our monthly newsletter from Capturing Kids' Hearts.