Trumbauersville Elementary School 101 Woodview Drive

Quakertown, PA 18951 215-529-2550

Mr. Adam Schmucker, Principal

November, 2017 American Education Week

November 13-17 6 4-8 PM Parent-Teacher Conferences 7 Non-Instructional Day—School is Closed 8 Book Fair (Open til 6:30 PM for Parents) 4-8 PM Parent-Teacher Conferences 9 Book Fair 10 Book Fair 14 6:30 PM TPO Meeting 15 4-8 PM Parent-Teacher Conferences 16 PICTURE RETAKE DAY 20 Kindergarten Conferences 21 8:30 AM Student Council 22 Non-Instructional Day—School is Closed 23 Holiday 24 Holiday 27 Holiday

Dear Families, Soon you will have the opportunity to meet for a conference with your child’s teacher. These conferences - along with the progress reports that will come at the end of the trimester – will provide a more clear understanding of where your child is on his/her progress toward the learning targets “at this time”. It is important to keep this frame of reference in mind because your child’s progress may vary throughout the school year and therefore the progress indica-tor can change as well. The final goal is the successful obtainment of those grade level learn-ing targets by the end of the year. In our school, we have been working hard to support the students’ growth and development in many areas. To support this we look to foster deeper levels of thinking from the students when we ask them to respond or to complete a project. In educational terms, this is called DOK, which stands for Depth of Knowledge. These levels range from simple recall of infor-mation or facts to application and then to more complex tasks that require strategic thinking such as appraising, revising, drawing conclusions, and investigating. At this level, students are required to use strategic thinking to create unique solutions and this kind of thinking requires extended time. In addition to the DOK, we have been continuing our focus on supporting the Growth Mindset – the understanding that learning grows and expands and that people are not “good” or “bad” at something. With this mindset, we understand that we are all working on improvements every day and that something (for example math) may be a challenge right now because we do not understand the topic we are studying…yet. However, we will persevere and our hard work will pay off! I mention the above information because while you want to know why your child receives a particular numerical indicator representing their progress; it will be just as important to talk with his/her teacher(s) about how your child is responding to the various levels of deeper thinking and the idea of bringing a growth mindset to his/her work. Sincerely, Adam Schmucker Principal

The Student Council program has begun at our school for this year. Student Council is a program designed to serve as a democratic method for all citizens of our school to have a say in the operation of our school. Through Student Council, every student’s ideas can be heard. Student Council representatives went through a process where they wrote a letter of interest, campaigned by making posters for their classrooms, gave speeches to their classes and were voted into the program by their classmates. This year’s Student Council Representatives for our school are as follows:

Mrs. Kallatch’s Class Mrs. Godshall’s Class Samantha Bubser Ambri Dager Justin Murray Will Kummery Mrs. Rice’s Class Mrs. Weinstein’s Class Mr. Hewes’ Class Lilly Federsel Makenzie Marco Lennon Pettine Maggie Wilson Maggie Ferrugio Brayden Ruffner Mrs. Wilson’s Class Mrs. Martin’s Class Mrs. Bigenho’s Class Sarah Kummery Jaelyn Taylor Morgan Murray Turner Dallison Matthew Burger Brayden Donofry

Fall Fitness Fundraiser On October 6 th , the students enjoyed a sunny and fun-filled autumn day featuring pizza box relays, a cup stacking scooter race, the 1-2- 3 game, potato sack relay, fitness dice, giant egg and spoon relay, and the beach ball buddy run. Family, friends, and local businesses sent sneakers from thirty-four U.S. states, Canada, Germany, and The Netherlands. We raised over $19,000! The money is used to support Trumbauersville Elementary School’s TPO activities including field trips, special assemblies, school supplies, playground equipment, and family fun nights. We would also like to recognize the generosity of local businesses who furnished raffle and incentive prizes: BJs Wholesale, Dance Class II, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Freefall Trampoline Park, Miss Cindy’s School of Dance, Putt U, Rebounderz of Lansdale, Spor’s General Store, Swim-In Zone, Target, Upper Bucks YMCA, and Wal-Mart. Finally, we truly appreciate the time you spent helping your children write their sponsor letters, stuffing envelopes, and volunteering at the Fall Fitness Fundraiser event. Your continued enthusiasm and support make this event possible. Thank you! Sherri Ievers and Kim Bell Fall Fitness Fundraiser Co-Chairs

News from the Reading Room

I recently came across this article about wordless picture books from Reading Rockets online magazine. The article discusses the benefits of introducing young chil-dren to the wordless picture book genre and highlights ways to use the books to pro-mote language, comprehension and creativity. Wordless picture books may be a great way to engage your child with books at home, while encouraging your child to expand his/her imagination.

Sharing Wordless Picture Books

By: Reading Rockets

Sharing wordless books is a terrific way to build important literacy skills, including listening skills, vocabulary, comprehension and an increased awareness of how stories are structured.

From the Reading Room Continued…… Our Favorite Wordless Picture Books

Wordless picture books are told entirely through their illustrations — they are books without words, or sometimes just a few words. Sharing wordless books with a child provides an oppor-tunity for literacy-rich conversations. Each "reader" listens and speaks, and creates their own story in their own words. Sharing wordless books also reinforces the idea that, in many books, the story and the pictures are connected. Elementary-aged students often enjoy writing down their original story to accompany a wordless book.

Below are a few tips for sharing wordless picture books with a child:

Recognize that there are no "right" or "wrong" ways to read a wordless book. One of the wonderful benefits of using wordless books is how each child creates his own story (or stories!) from the same pictures.

Spend time looking at the cover and talking about the book's title. Based on those two things, make a few predictions about the story.

Take a "picture walk" through the pages of the book. Enjoy the illustrations, which are often rich with detail. Look carefully at the expressions on characters' faces, the setting and the use of color. Talk to each other about what you see. These conversations will enrich the storytelling.

Enjoy the pictures and point out a few things, but don't worry too much about telling a sto-ry yet. Just enjoy the pictures and get a sense of what the book is about.

Go back through the book a second time and get ready for some great storytelling! Consid-er going first and acting as a model for your child. Ham it up! Have characters use different voices, add sound effects and use interesting words in your version of the book.

Encourage your child to "read" you the book with his story. Focus on the words your child uses when he tells the story. Help your child expand his sentences or thoughts by encouraging him to add information from the illustration's details. One way to encourage more details is by asking "W" questions: Who? Where? When? Why?

Finish your wordless book sharing by asking a few simple questions: What pictures helped you tell the story? What was your favorite part of your story? Have you had an experience like the one in your story?

Sharing wordless books is a terrific way to build important literacy skills, including listening skills, vocabulary, com-prehension — and an increased awareness of how stories are "built," as the storyteller often uses a beginning, mid-dle, end format. For a book with few words, you'll be sur-prised at all the talking you will do, and all the fun you'll have!

Art - Mrs. Jen Robison jrobison@qcsd.org

The first two months of school flew by and here we are in November. All of our boys and girls have been very busy in art class. All grade levels have been working on various projects that include the Ele-ments and Principles of Design. As we tell our students, the Elements and Principles of Design are the basic building blocks of our artwork. We use them every time we create a new piece of art without real-izing that we are using them. When your child begins bringing home their wonderful artwork, ask them which Element or Principle we were focused on in class. So far we have been focusing on color and line. We are building on our prior knowledge and exploring news ways to use these elements in our artwork. Here are some great ways to talk to your child about his or her artwork. If you are ever curious about the artists we study in class or the songs we learn please join my canvas course as an observ-er. You can see our PowerPoints and videos that we watch during our art lessons.

Focus praise on the effort, not the product. For example:

"How did you do this?"

"You seemed to be having fun."

"You were really concentrating."

"What an interesting way to use the brush."

Talk about the shapes, colors & marks you see. For example:

"What I notice first about your drawing is . . ."

"What I like most about this is . . ."

"Isn't it interesting how you've used lots of . . . "

Promote self-evaluation. For example:

"Have you put in everything you want to show about the subject?"

"Do all the parts of the picture look like they belong together?"

"Which of your paintings from today do you like best, and why?"

Instrumental Music

Daily practice is an important ingredient to the success of a young musi-cian. Each student should try to practice 15-20 minutes per day. The practice session should be done in a private place (i.e.: bedroom, etc.) where the student can practice without interruption. Most of the lesson books come with a CD. After the student has practiced the assigned les-son, he/she can use the CD and play along. This helps to make the prac-tice session more interesting and allows the student to hear how the mu-sic should be played. You may also want your young musician to play something for you and your family. Using the CD is a great way for the child to present a mini-concert with positive results.

Four steps to being successful:

1) Identify (say) the notes

2) Finger the notes

3) Put it to a steady beat 4) Play it on your instrument

I ask that each student keep a record of their practice sessions by using the chart in front of the lesson book.

Students that do not practice regularly will become frustrated and want to quit. This can be avoided by daily or every other day practice using the steps listed above. Every student has the ability to succeed. Learning to play an instrument is a great educational tool that stimulates the brain more than any other activity or subject in the educational field. All that your child needs is the discipline to do it on a regular basis.

Mr. Boyd, Instrumental Music Teacher

Our October 16th Pink Day donations totaled

$240. Thank you Trumbauersville for your

contribution to this worthwhile event. You’re the best!!!!

Music Notes from Mrs. Weinlein

In music classes this month, we are working on performing on pitch and rhythm with a steady beat and responding to music. Students show they are able to do this in a variety of ways. We will be focusing on singing and playing a variety of songs. We use our voices as well as instruments and fun activities to demonstrate our ability to perform on pitch and rhythm with a steady beat.

First Graders will be learning that we can group our classroom instruments by metals, woods, shakers, and skins. Second Graders will be learning about instru-ments of the percussion family. In preparation for the introduction of the record-ers, our third Graders will be learning about the woodwind instruments. Fourth graders will be learning about the brass instruments and fifth graders will be learning about the string instruments.

Congratulations to our Rock Star Musicians for the past month. These students have demonstrated respect and understanding in music (D.R.U.M.). They were selected at the conclusion of the month of September.

DOES YOUR CHILD NEED TO STAY HOME FROM SCHOOL?

Children need to stay home from school whenever they have a temperature of 100 F or more. Keeping ill students at home limits the spread of certain health conditions and provides you with an opportunity to closely monitor your child so that a physician can be consulted if necessary. Your child should be fever free (while off

of fever-reducing medicine) for a minimum of 24 hours before returning to school. Additionally, in absence of a fever, if a child has more than one epi-sode of diarrhea or vomiting it is best to keep your child at home. With contagious conditions such as pink eye, impetigo, strep throat, or chicken pox, children should be under the care of a physician. Medication should be taken as prescribed for a minimum of 24 hours before returning to school. Prescriptive medicine should always be taken for the recommended duration. Any suspected reaction to the medicine should be reported to your doctor promptly. ~~ An ounce of prevention ~~ Children often need reminders to wash their hands when using the bathroom, wiping their runny nose or touching open sores. A simple reminder can help them stay healthy and keep illness and contagion to a mini-mum. When your child’s health status changes written updates that are sent to school are always appreciated!

We are accepting gently-worn clothing for our health room. Items needed – sweat pants

THANK YOU

Hello, I’m really enjoying my time teaching your kids and I hope they are having fun learning also. At this point, 3rd through 5th graders should be comfortable getting on Canvas, creating a Bookmark, and using the Bookmark Manager. The 4th and 5th graders have started reviewing their key-boarding skills and will start coding this month. The 3rd graders are learning about proper technology use and safety, and will start key-boarding. The 2nd graders are using Google Docs and Google Drive. The first graders are learning about the keyboard and how to log in using a username and password on the Chromebooks. Full Day Kin-dergarten students are being read Hello Ruby: Adventures in Coding and learning about logical thinking and following directions, important skills for a future coder. Students are also learning a new sign from American Sign Lan-guage in each class…. It helps us communicate quietly and will help them communicate with people who are deaf, which is a great life skill in my opinion.

If you are a parent observer on Canvas, you can see each Cycle’s plan in the Announce-ments section. I also hope to show the students an interesting technology trend each class and I will post that video, article, or photo on Canvas so you as a parent/guardian can pos-sibly talk about it with your child, at the end of each cycle. I’ll refer to those on Canvas as a “talking point” in the Announcements section. Cycle 4’s “talking point” was the Amazon Go grocery store that’s being piloted in Seattle, Washington with Walk Out Technology…..it’s every busy person’s dream;).

Mrs. DiGiacomo

Digital Literacy Teacher

Digital Literacy Class

A reminder from the Cafeteria Ladies: Please put your child’s full name and ID number on the envelope when you hand in cafeteria money. If you use a plastic baggie, please put a slip of paper with your child’s full name and ID inside the bag-gie. The name often becomes smeared from han-dling. Thank you!

Physical Education News Nov. 2017

Dear Parents, The school year is off to a great start! As we near the end of the first trimester, I hope you have asked your child about his/her physical education class because I am certain that you want to be involved in his/her education and academic suc-cess. Have a conversation with your child about their physical edu-cation experience. Ask simple questions, such as:

What did you do in physical education to day?

What is your favorite activity?

Why is physical education important to you?

What is your goal for daily physical activity?

Are you making healthy food choices?

What can we do as a family to increase our physical activ-ity and family time?

For ways you and your family can make healthier food and ac-tivity choices at home, please visit:

http://prowellness.vmhost.psu.edu/. Together we can make a positive experience!

Mrs. Bonk

In the Library…

Book Fair

is here!

Information flyers are coming home with your children, but here is a quick reference for you:

Students will cycle through the book fair during their library classes on November 8, 9, & 10, so please make note of your child’s library cycle day.

Cash and checks written to QCSD are acceptable methods of payment. If sending a blank check with your child, please write a “do not exceed” amount on the memo line. Credit cards are to be used by adults only. When discussing a spend-ing allowance with your child, please remember, all items will cost slightly more than indicated in the flyer due to the 6% PA sales tax.

The Book Fair will remain open until 6 PM on November 9th for parents.

Mr. Nagle

Librarian

Updates on Spanish Class!

Every grade at Trumbauersville is progressing in their learning of Spanish this year! I am so excited to be speaking more Spanish with our students and hearing them speak more Spanish in our classes. We have been doing some “speaking” activities in the intermediate classes, where students ask each other questions in Spanish and re-spond using new vocabulary. Our primary classes have been doing an excellent job using flash cards to create sentences in Spanish! Please encourage practice at home and keep an eye out for practice activities coming home in the students' homework folders! These practice activities are not "homework" but are encouraged as the more use of the language will help the learning. Keep up the great work Trumbauersville!

From the TPO

TPO MEETING—The TPO invites all of you to our next meeting on Tuesday, November 14th at 6:30 pm in the school library.

FALL FESTIVAL—We were very happy to see so many families join us for our annual Fall Festival. We are grateful to the parent volunteers who helped out and made our night a fun success. A big Thank You to Becky Spor and Noelle Olesh for planning and organizing this event for our school.

CLEARANCES—We wanted to remind parents who wish to be able to help during our Winter and End of the Year classroom parties to please get their clearances to Ms. Heffentrager. You can find help with these on the home page of qcsd.org by clicking on the link in the Site Shortcuts column.

BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION—Please continue to cut and send in your box tops. Every little bit helps! Extra collections sheets are located in the school office.

GIANT A+ PROGRAM—If you have not linked your Giant Rewards card to our school or need assistance in doing so, please contact one of the TPO members and we will be happy to assist you.