February 2014 http://www.malonecsd.org/davis/caper_paper_site. Issue 6
Davis Elementary School Malone, New York 12953 (518) 483-7802
It is our goal at Davis School that all students, regardless of differences, develop and progress intellectually, socially, emotionally, and physically through learning as a partnership between school, home and community.
C o m i n g
E v e n t s
February 1 PTA Winter Carnival Parade @ 11:00 AM
February 3-14 Niagara Chocolate Sale (PreK – 2 nd grade)
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February 3 Little Caesars pick up from 4-7 pm
(3 rd
– 5 th
grade)
February 4 Report Cards Distributed
February 6 Davis Grades 3 -5 Winter Concert
6:30 @ MMS
February 11 PTA Meeting 6 pm
February 14 1/2 Staff Development Day
School Dismissed @ 11:00
February 17 – 21 No School
Winter Break
March 20 1/2 Staff Development Day
School Dismissed @ 11:00
March 21 No School – Supt. Conf. Day
Schools are responsible for teaching your child.
But schools can’t do their job if your child is absent. Learning builds day by day. A child who misses a day of school misses a day of learning.
Research shows that children who are in school most of the time do better in school. Being late for school hurts a child’s learning. A student who is 10 minutes late every day will miss approximately 30 hours of instruction during the school year.
Your child’s success in school depends on having a solid educational background – one that can only be gained through regular school attendance.

Thanks for helping us do the very best job we can in educating your children.
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K INDERGARTEN
For our culminating activity for Unit 4 “Pitch In” the children in
Mrs. Hart’s Kindergarten answered the essential question: How can you make our community better?
Here are the children’s answers:
I can plant a tree. Harrison
I can pick up garbage. Brandy
I can put flowers in the garden. Annabelle
I can plant a tree. Emma
I can rake leaves. Trenton
I can plant a tree. Alivia
I can pick up garbage. Karley
I can plant a garden. Mykenna
I can plant a tree. Logan
I can pick up garbage. Tyler
I can plant trees. Erica
I can pick up garbage. Erick
I can plant flowers. Alijiah
I can plant a tree. William
I can pick up garbage. Ruth
I can rake leaves. Sophie
I can plant trees. Blake
I can pick up garbage. Owen
I can plant a tree. Jacoby
I can clean my yard. Tristian
I can plant flowers. Hannah
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We came back from Christmas Break well rested and ready to begin a New Year! The children enjoyed writing and discussing their ideas about resolutions, and how they can help us be the best students we can be! Recently, we talked about Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. who was an important
American. Dr. King dreamed that everyone would live peacefully and in harmony with each other. We learned many facts about his life and how he helped to change many unfair laws with the help of other important Americans such as Rosa Parks and Ruby
Bridges.
We are continuing to work hard as readers and writers. Our theme in reading and writing has been about the big idea of what can happen over time.
Our weekly themes have been how we measure time, how plants change as they grow, what a folktale is, and how life has changed from long ago.
We have been practicing long vowel words and soft c/g spelling words. We have been reading fantasy stories, plays, folktales and non-fiction! Our writing has been an inspiration from these genres!
In some of our math classes, we are focusing on two digit addition and subtraction with and without regrouping, and problem solving using picture graphs and bar graphs. In other classes, we are learning about measuring using linking cubes and pennies, making pairs, identifying odd and even numbers, using dimes and pennies, and addition and subtraction facts.
We are looking forward to learning about
Groundhog Day, Presidents’ Day, Valentine’s Day, and 100 days of school!
All of the First Grade Teachers are very appreciative of your efforts to help your child with his reading and math work! This greatly reinforces all of the learning we do here at school and helps them remember what was taught! Thank You!

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Miss Jaime LaClair, who is student teaching from
Plattsburgh State University, will be working in our classroom for the next few weeks. Miss LaClair will graduate with a BS in Childhood Education and an MS in Special Education in May, 2014. She is from Watertown and graduated from Indian River
High School. She loves to take pictures and loves scrapbooking. We are grateful to have the opportunity for Miss LaClair to be in our classroom and to benefit from her great ideas and fun activities. Welcome Miss LaClair!
In Science, we have started our unit on Weather.
The students will work together to collect data from our outdoor weather station located in the courtyard.
Students will graph data on wind direction, wind speed, snow accumulation using a snow stick, rainfall using a rain gauge, and air temperature using Fahrenheit and Celsius thermometers.
Second grade scientists will also summarize the data each week by writing a paragraph and reporting to the class.
Curl up with a great book! The Pizza Hut Book-It!
Program continues throughout the winter. This is a great program to motivate your child to read a little each night. Calendars are to be returned at the end of each month, signed by a parent. If you haven’t been participating, it is not too late – the program continues through March. Read, Read, Read!
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Third grade is a blast as we are learning all about the solar system! This theme encompasses the use of nonfiction and fiction literature as well as informational videos and a research project.
Learning about the sun, moon, planets and stars will keep us busy for a while.
We are going to show our friends just how much they mean to us by celebrating Valentine’s Day. It is always heartwarming to watch the students give and open Valentines. Please watch f or a class list to be coming home so your child can participate in this special day.
Our students have been working very hard to learn and perfect their concert songs and can’t wait to perform them for you! The concert will be at the
Middle School on February 6 th
. We hope to see everyone there!
We have just recently learned all of our multiplication facts. Our math program taught the students many different ways to figure out an unknown fact. Although these strategies are very useful, it would certainly benefit your child to memorize as many facts as possible. Flash cards or online game sites would help with this. There is a fact practice component on our “My Math” program site. All students have their own password for
ConnectED. Thank you so much for all you do to support the learning!!

FOURTH
G
RADE
Boy have the 4 th
graders been busy! During ELA, we were learning about animal interactions which integrated nicely with our science curriculum. We have learned how animals spark ideas for authors, as well as their role in the environment, food chains, and food webs. We have also read
Haiku and lyrical poetry, and we have been writing some of these poem types in class. Counting syllables, rhyming patterns, and meter have been examined as we read and wrote these poems. We have also studied similes and metaphors.
Our next unit in ELA focused on what we can do to help our community. We have read a fantasy thus far for this unit. Please continue to study your child’s weekly vocabulary words and spelling lists at home.
In Math, the students have been super busy multiplying.
They now know how important it is to know their multiplication facts quickly. We have multiplied 3-4 digit numbers by 1-2 digit numbers. We are now dividing 2-3 digit numbers by 1 digit numbers. This has been a harder skill to grasp for many students. Some of the ways your child is being taught to complete division is not the same way you may have learned it in school.
Please refer to the Homework Helper at the top of the homework sheet for how the problems need to be completed. This will reinforce the skill being taught.
The students are seeing math processes being taught differently so that they can get a deeper understanding of what is being asked of them. Don’t worry…we will be dividing how we learned in school shortly! Please continue to practice multiplication facts at home.
Switching these to division fact practice would be great too! There is fact practice on ConnectED ~ the website for our My Math and Reading Wonders programs.
In Science, we finished studying animal behaviors and interactions. We are now working on the Technology and Design Unit where each child will be designing and making a vehicle that will be put to some tests! Ask your child to tell you what they are doing in class.
In Social Studies, we learned about the land that makes up New York State. We are learning about the Native
Americans of New share with learned in that settled into the state
York. Ask your child to you facts that they have class.
Thank you for all your continued support during this school year. Together we make a great team in your child’s education!
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HELLO WINTER! Like every other group, we have been working with the cold and blowing weather, wishing that we could go outside more. However, we have a secret weapon to keep us busy. It is Mr. Fisher! Mr.
Fisher recently showed us a science experiment in which you take boiling water and throw it into the air. What happened amazed us! The water actually condensed and formed a cloud right in front of our eyes. This made the water cycle concept real to us.
Thanks Mr. Fisher for helping us to understand.
And speaking of Mr. Fisher, all of us fifth grade students would like to thank Mr. Fisher for cooking us a pancake breakfast. Thank you too, to the lady teachers who helped supply the materials for the breakfast.
As for academics, we are currently working on writing five paragraph essays. Fortunately, we had lots of practice in fourth grade, so we are doing a nice job with these. We are also working on learning about our 50 states. Each class is currently working on projects about our fifty states. In math we are working with decimals. We are using all four of the operations, and we hope to be experts soon.
Our specials are going well too. In PE we are learning all about nutrition with the help of guest lecturers. In music, we are preparing for our concert coming up soon. We know you will like a special song we do in Chorus that involves flashlights. That is the only clue we will give you.
Finally we are doing these exciting dragon pictures in Art. They are really fascinating.

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The most important and exciting months are ahead of us in the music room. As we go to press, the
Third through Fifth grade students and the Davis
Chorus are working hard to put together their concert songs for all of you to enjoy! This year the
3 rd
-5 th grade concert will be held on Thursday,
February 6 th
. The performance will start at 6:30 pm at the Malone Middle School Auditorium. The show is sure to be entertaining and we look forward to seeing all of you there.
In March, the Kindergarten through Second
Grade classes will take their turn in the spotlight.
Preparation has started in putting their songs together and thinking of what to add to make their performance enjoyable. We are excited to show you how everything is coming together and how our hard work pays off on Thursday, March 27 th.
.
Mark your calendars; February and March are going to be busy months for music!
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Ms. Richards
Do you have the winter blues? Here are some fun things to do in the library to chase the blues away:
*Make a monster. Remember that our visiting author (Matt McElligott) will be here in the spring—let’s make that monster chain stretch around the school!
*Check out a new book. We have 3 new copies of
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck!
*Play a game on the library website
*Make a valentine for a friend
*Read a new magazine
*Look up information on strange creatures like the cane toad
Mrs.
Buschbascher’s class won the book advertisement contest, and they each received a new book! Congratulations to them, and I’m proud of the entire third grade for the great job they did on the project.
Kindergarten and first grade are learning about different story elements this month, such as
‘setting,’ and ‘character;’ soon we’ll be starting our poetry unit!
I can’t wait to see everyone on Dr. Seuss Day— look for the Cat in the Hat to be walking around…
Website of the Month
NeoK12
—A giant list of educational videos and games for kids on every topic! http://www.neok12.com/

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February 2014
Wendy R. Norman & Michelle Pearsall
Candy hearts aren’t the only hearts you need to worry about in February. This Valentine’s Day, throughout the month of February, and onward we would like you to start thinking about your heart health. Working out with a friend or as a couple offers an endless variety of heart healthy benefits, but it can strengthen your friendship and/or relationship as it improves your cardiovascular fitness.
Research suggests that engaging in exercise and proper nutrition with a friend or as a couple is easier than doing it alone. Not only do you get the satisfaction of working together toward a shared goal, you also reinforce the idea that your friendship and/or relationship is about health and feeling good.
Unlike a huge meal or a chocolate-fest, shared time in physical activity (i.e., gym time, running, walking, outdoor play, etc.) is a great way to enjoy heart healthy time together as often as you want.
Shared time in physical activity may also help you build trust and improve communication, all while getting healthier. This year forget chocolates for
Valentine’s Day. Instead, choose a friend or a loved one try to do something heart healthy for each other.
Have a great February!
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VIP
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P lease stop by and see our Davis VIP Bulletin
Board in the lobby. Read about each student to find out what makes him/her special. Following are our recent VIP’s:
Week of January 6 – 1:
Victoria Crossman, Landon Jarvis, Quin Lane,
Alexander Lohr, Zoey Murray-Barney, Tyler
O’Connor; Ben Poupore; Evan Rust, Lily Saumier;
Bryce Webb,
Week of January 13 - 17:
Starra DuPont, Noah Fakir, Blake Hanna, Jason
Hastings, Benjamin St. Mary, Trinity Soulia,
Terrance Tobiasson, Jayden Trombley, Carson
West, Colton Willett,
Week of January 20 – 24:
Carson Griffin, Ethan Monette, John Poirier, Ethan
Robistow; Alex St. Hilaire;
Week of January 27 - 31 :
Dominick Andre, Brandin Barney, Sophia Cromp,
Lillian Curtain, Emma Duquette, Timberly Garland,
Hunter LaBare, Piper Lessor, Selena Moore, Calla
Nitto, Zeallah Svenningsen, Ruth Yeddo, Cody
Zerniak;
Feb. 1st winter carnival parade at 11:00 am
Feb. 3rd little Caesars pick up from 4-7 pm (3rd-
5th grade)
Niagara Chocolate fundraiser starts for Pre-K - 2nd grade
Feb. 11th PTA Meeting 6pm
Feb. 14th Niagara Chocolate fundraiser due

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