Classy Cats for November

K Sammy Nutter Jake Adams Chelsea Thach Landon Cunningham

1st Kyleigh Tye Praveen Thiagarajan

Burke Schwentker Cameron Farley 2nd Dylan Nicholson Lauren Felker Micah Martin Retaj Alhajazi 3rd Isabelle Pinnock Reece Bandelow Cosette Branstetter Aiden Smith 4th Brooklyn Edmonsond

Nikki Edmonsond Nick Fazzino Hayley Neff 5th Logan Lisner Abby Phillips Renee Hayes Madison Montgomery

PRINCIPAL’S POST

CHEETAH CHATTER VOLUME 10 ISSUE 2 | JANUARY 2016

Box Tops Help Our School! Chapel Lakes Elementary has been collecting box tops for education for the past several years. Teachers collect the box tops that you send and turn them in. Twice a year we submit our total box tops for the building and receive a check from Gen-eral Mills. With this money teachers have been able to purchase additional items for their class-rooms. We appreciate your support with this pro-gram and ask that you continue to save and turn in box tops. You can send in the box tops with your student at any time.

CHEETAH CHATTER A quarterly publication for students, parents, family and staff at Chapel Lakes Elementary

CHAPEL LAKES ELEMENTARY | 3701 NE Independence Ave. | Lee’s Summit, MO 64064 | (816) 874-3600 | Bryce Johnson, Principal | Brenda Franks, Secretary

Chapel Lakes Families, Welcome to an exciting 2016! We are energized and enthusiastic about the learning that is taking place and we are gearing up for a wonderful second semester. As we head in the second half of the year, it is extremely important that we continue to partner in promoting student learning. Nothing is more im-portant to academic achievement that being a good reader. Strong reading skills will increase student performance in all subject areas. Here are some ways you can help your child become a more effective reader.

Set aside a time to read with your children every day.

Make sure your child experiences a variety of literature, such as fiction, non fiction (informational text), and poetry.

When reading with your children, ask them questions about how the sto-ry may relate to things happening in their own lives

It is ok to read the same book several times, this helps to increase reading fluency.

When your child is struggling with a word, it is important to not give them the word. Rather, say things like “What is the first sound?” or “Look at the end.” It is also important to encourage the child to look at the pic-ture clues to help with words they don’t know.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2016 and don’t hesitate to let us know if we can be of assistance to you or your child. It’s a great day to be a Cheetah! Dr. Johnson

PRESIDENT’S REPORT Dear Parents, Teachers and Students It is hard to believe we are halfway through the school year! A lot has taken place up at Chapel Lakes over the past several months. Our Trunk and Treat, Fall Holiday Parties, Teacher Luncheons and Santa Shop were all a great success. Because we were so close to meeting our An-nual Fund Goal, Dr. Johnson and Mrs. White so graciously agreed to dress up as Santa’s helpers at our Santa Shop. The students really enjoyed seeing their principals in elves cos-tumes. We had 41 Reflections entries this year. I would like to thank each and every student that took the time to participate. Each one of you did an outstanding job and should be proud of yourselves. I would like to pass on that we do have a change in the date for Spring Carnival. Mark your calendars for Friday, March 11th! The Carnival was to be held on Friday March 18th but due to a scheduling conflict, we needed to move the date up a week. That day also happens to be Muf-fins with Mom and Book Fair so there will be a lot of excited students that day at CLE. More information on these events will be coming home with-in the next few weeks. We have many more fun events like Valentine’s Parties, Bingo for Books, Math and Science Night and our Spring CLE Walk to School Day coming over the next few months. Thank you again for your continued support to Chapel Lakes and our students! Sincerely, Kristen Svoboda PTA President Mk_svoboda@yahoo.com

CHEETAH CHATTER | Page 2 | January 2016

November 6—Fall Party 13—No Scool 9—Fall Party 18—Teacher Appreciation Luncheon, 1st Grade 19—PTA Board Meeting, 6pm

19—PTA Unit Meeting, 7pm 25-27—No School, Thanksgiving Holiday

December 10-11—Santa Shop

16—Teacher Appreciation Luncheon, Kindergarten 17—PTA Board Meeting, 6 p.m. 17—Unit Meeting, 7 p.m. 22-31—Winter Break begins

THE “LITTLE READ WAGON

LIBRARY” IS NOW AT CLE!

The Little REaD Library is a new addition to Chapel Lakes Elemen-tary School. It is a little free library that can be used by any child or teen. The books and activities age levels range from Pre-K to high school. Every month there will be new books of every grade level for your child to choose from. Please return the books when your child is done with them and get a new book! The Little REaD Library is located in front of Chapel Lakes, and is a red newspaper dispenser that says “The Little REaD Library” on the front and sides. This can be accessed any time of the day. The Little REaD Library is part of the Girl Scout Gold Award project, and we hope your child enjoys using it and enjoys read-ing!

PTA CALENDAR

February 12– Valentine’s Parties 15—No School 17—Teacher Appreciation Luncheon, 2nd Grade 18—PTA Board Meeting, 6pm 18—PTA Unit Meeting, 7pm

March 1— Bingo for Books 7-11— Book Fair 10 — PTA Board Meeting, 6pm 10 — PTA Unit Meeting, 7pm

11 — Muffins with Moms 8:15am 11 — Carnival 5-7pm 16—Teacher Appreciation Luncheon, K, 1st, 2nd 25-31 — No School, Spring Break

The CLE clinic is in need of small and medium sweat pants or jeans for our little ones. If you have any you can donate please send them to school with your child.

Thank you!

Kindergarten We are continuing to grow and make great gains in Kindergarten! We are really enjoy-

ing being a part of our classroom and school community! This past quarter we celebrat-

ed Thanksgiving with a Kindergarten Feast. We also spread Holiday Cheer with our

annual Holiday Sing for parents. The kiddos did a fantastic job!

In Pathways, we have now learned all of our upper and lowercase letters and the

sounds they make. We are ready to learn about the digraphs and long vowels next.

In Reader’s Workshop we covered two reading strategies and set up informational book

clubs. Students learned how making mental images helps them as a reader and the

importance of asking questions while reading.

Wow! We are really starting to get the hang of writing books. Now that the students

know all their letter sounds, they are able to stretch their words and get them down on

paper. Students worked on informational all about books and narratives this quarter.

They did a great job! We still have to be reminded to use spacing in our writing and we

continue to stress the importance of the illustrations in books and how they will help us

read the story.

We have covered many topics in math already this school year. Rote counting to 50,

counting with 1-1 correspondence, comparing numbers, decomposing numbers, and

measurement… just to name a few! We are busy becoming mathematicians!

In science we have discussed weather, seasons and position. As always, we are trying

to be inquisitive, just like a scientist.

In social studies we have talked about our family, community, and na-

tion. We have covered jobs in our community, as well as the different

types of communities.

We are excited to learn more in 3rd quarter!

CHEETAH CHATTER | Page 3| JANUARY 2016

If you want to

see some great

readers, writers

and mathemati-

cians, come

down to the first

grade hallway!

First grade will be focusing on compre-

hension skills for the last half of the year

since we are becoming such good read-

ers.

Our writing unit on opinion books was

fun and now we are working on person-

al narratives.

All of the math strategies we have

learned have helped with addition, sub-

traction and missing number problems.

Our next unit is adding and subtracting

numbers with two digits.

The gingerbread house decorating was

a sweet activity that was enjoyed by all

our First Grade students. A huge thank

you to all of the parents for their help

and donations.

We have two field trips coming up: The

School of Economics and our arts part-

ner trip to a puppet show.

We are looking forward to a great 3rd-

quarter in first grade!

1st Grade

3rd Grade Third quarter has had a wonderful start. Third graders are working hard to prepare for our spring assessments. We have been fortunate to have good weather and not miss school. We will be studying the sun, moon and stars this quarter in science. It is fun watching the changing shadows and learning about the phases of the moon. Social Studies has been filled with preparation for BSSE (Blue Springs School of Economics). Students are absorbing new vocabulary, learning how to price items based on sup-ply and demand, and working together to prepare for our field trip this quarter. During math we have been feverishly working on memoriz-ing our multiplication facts. We mixed up our classrooms to create learning teams. We also enjoyed learning about fractions. Communication arts has moved from poetry to information-al text. Students are learning about a variety of topics by researching and taking notes. We have included both sci-ence and social studies in our reading units.

In writer’s workshop we are expressing our opinions. We are learning how to listen to the opinions of others and to give support for our own opinions. We are continuing our MAP practice by taking time to make parts of our lessons look more like MAP testing. Prac-ticing with actual practice pieces in the test taking setting. Students are working on building their stamina for deep thinking and focus. Students are doing a great job and taking this practice seriously. We enjoyed spending time with our 1st grade buddies. We

always look forward to our time with them each month.

CHEETAH CHATTER | Page 4| JANUARY 2016

2nd Grade The second graders are getting ready to make a SPLASH! That’s

right, thanks to the Blue Springs School District’s Swim to Success

program, all second grade students will be taking four swimming

lessons at the Blue Pool in January or February. This is a fantastic

program that gives our children much needed winter exercise, and

the ylearn safety techniques and become more comfortable around

water. Those that can already swim get the chance to practice their

strokes.

Our second grade students are working very hard on our core skills

– especially reading, writing, and math. We have made such tre-

mendous growth already this year, and the teachers are excited to

see how much more this class can learn! Thank you to the parents

that help their children practice their skills at home. Together, we

truly are a team!

We will be performing out songs at PTA and for Chapel Lakes stu-

dents on February 18th so mark your calendars! Thank you to Don-

na Price for helping us with our music. We hope you are able to

come to the show!

5th Grade This semester students will be working with Officer Colon, our D.A.R.E. officer, to learn good decision making skills that will help them lead safe and responsible lives. 5th grade has D.A.R.E once a week during 3rd and 4th quarter. They will be learning about peer pressure, how to handle stress, and making safe choices. We will celebrate students graduating from the D.A.R.E. program in May. Big Changes To Come!! Fifth grade students will be making some big decisions about mid-dle school soon. In February, 5th grade will be headed to Delta Woods for a field trip. They will be learning about all the different classes that are available for them to take as 6th grad-ers. They will also be meeting with the Delta Woods counselors to go over courses and ex-pectations at the middle school level. Students will also be given tours of the school. Our 5th graders are very excited about becoming Gators!!

CHEETAH CHATTER | Page 5 I JANUARY 2016

Fourth graders culmi-nated their Missouri Studies unit of Famous Missourians with a Wax Museum performance for family and friends in December. Social stud-ies was integrated into both reader’s work-shop and writer’s work-shop throughout this unit. Students studied Harry S. Truman, Wil-liam Clark, Meriwether Lewis, Sacagawea, Laura Ingalls Wilder, George Washington Carver, Mark Twain as well as Clara and Rus-sell Stover and many more important people

to our state’s history. Students then selected a Missourian to re-search and compose a speech. Dressed in cos-tume and ready to per-form, students became their famous Missouri-ans and shared that person’s individual sto-ry. We are so proud of all of their hard work!

4th Grade

CHEETAH CHATTER | Page 6 | JANUARY 2016

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