December

At a Glance

December 1st

PTA Movie Night

(sneak a peek at the book fair)

December 4th

Book Fair Begins

December 5th

Spirit Day—PJ Day

PJ Reading Night 6:30—8pm

December 7th

2 Hour Early Dismissal

December 8th

Parent/Teacher Conference

NO SCHOOL FOR

STUDENTS

Book Fair Ends

December 14th

Chick-fil-A Day/Night

December 15th

Spirit Day—Grade Level Color

DRAMA SHOW

6pm-8pm

December 18th—21st

Holiday Shop

December 22nd

Class Holiday Parties

-Spirit Day-

Wear your ugly sweater

December 25th-January

Marley Elementary School

715 Cooper Road

Glen Burnie, MD 21060

410-222-6414

Dear Families,

We hope you are enjoying all of the wonderful signs of

the holiday season. With the holidays, we are provided with

special opportunities to gather as family and friends. Please

plan to join us for Pajama Reading Night and our Winter

Concert being held at Glen Burnie High School. What a

great way to begin celebrating!

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas or a Happy

Hanukkah and a Happy New Year! Make sure to spend

some wonderful time with family and friends. As the winter

break draws closer, we know that most of us get busier and

busier with holiday preparations. We spend so much time

shopping, planning, and running continuous errands that we

often suffer from frustration and fatigue. We encourage you

to stop and remember that in the end, what is truly im-

portant, are the relationships we build with others. Though

it may not always seem like it, our children truly love and

want to please us. We encourage you during this busiest of

times to give them what is not written on their list, your

time and your love. It is truly the greatest gift you can give

to them.

We wish you and your family a beautiful holiday sea-

son filled with an abundance of love, joy, and happiness.

Kristie Battista,

Principal

Rebecca Williams,

Assistant Principal

PARENTS

PLEASE READ

REGARDING ALL

BIRTHDAYS

In regards to all birthdays—we here at Marley Elementary ask

that if you wish to supply cupcakes for your child on his or her

birthday that you only bring in the very small bite size ones.

We also ask that be the only thing you supply as far as food and

drinks go. With our school size and limited time for lunch we

feel this is all we can accommodate. You are welcome to sup-

ply pencils or a small like object instead if you like.

Thank you for all your understanding and if you

have questions please feel free to contact the office

PARENTS—PLEASE READ!!

First Grade News December

Does your child read for 15 minutes each night?

Each child will bring home a notice requesting items for Gingerbread Houses as well as the Winter Party

Check your school calendar for important dates

Encourage your child to tell you about his/her school day

Math facts should be practiced each night

Be sure your child is dressed appropriately for outdoor

recess (coats, gloves, hats, etc.)

Each night, be sure to review and sign your child’s homework

(writing too!)

Remember to check Take-Home folder every night

Second Grade News The second marking period is off to a fabulous start in second

grade. Girls and boys are reading, writing, problem solving, and so

much more! Check out what we have been working on a take a peek at what’s ahead

Language Arts

This month our word study focus is

on that of word endings. We will be looking

at comparatives (big, bigger, biggest), as

well as adding ed and ing to words. Our

comprehension skills we will work on are

summarizing both literary and information-

al texts, as well as author’s purpose. When

reading at home, ask your child to summa-

rize after reading by using SWBTS

(Somebody wanted but then so).

Students are doing an awesome job

writing their how-to pieces. This has been a

really neat experience for both students and

teachers. Make sure you ask your child

about what needs to be included

when you are writing a how-to

piece!

Coming Up

Thursday, 12/7 – Two Hour Early Dismissal

Friday, 12/8 – Parent/Teacher Conferences –

Schools Closed for Students

Monday 12/25 – Monday 1/1 - SCHOOLS

CLOSED for WINTER BREAK

Math

Students have started to expand their

knowledge of place value to include the hun-

dreds place and begin working with three-

digit numbers. They will work to represent

numbers in various, equivalent ways and

compare the value of the numbers. Students

will also work on skip counting to 1,000 using

quantities of 5, 10 and 100.

Vocabulary

Equivalent: Things that are equal in value

and amount. Often represented with the

equal (=) sign.

Skip Counting: Counting by an amount that

is larger than 1.

Expanded Form: A way of writing numbers

that shows the value of each digit. The num-

ber is written as addition sentence of the val-

ue of each digit.

600 + 30 + 4 = 634

Word Form: A number written using words

instead of digits. Six hundred thirty four

Keep this up at home:

- continue practicing math facts for fluency

- practice identifying and naming coins and

their values

Reminders

Please send your child to school with a

coat every day. We go outside for re-

cess unless it is raining, so please be sure

your child is prepared for the weather.

Please remind your child to return his

or her media book each week so that

they can check out a new one!

Homework is due on Fridays. Please

make sure that your child completes

his or her homework each week.

Happy Holidays from the

Second Grade Team

Third Grade News Ms. Montgomery, Ms. Witmer, Ms. Shultz, Ms. Plunkett, Ms. Colebrook

READING IS FUN!

* Third graders are learning to be text detectives! While reading, please ask your child

questions that require them to look back in the text. Some examples are:

* Why is respectful a good character trait to describe Max in your story?

* Can you give an example of a time when the character was determined?

* How and why did the main character of the story change?

We will also continue to focus on comprehension skills like…

Sequencing—Drawing Conclusions—Main Idea—Theme

Cause and Effect—Character Traits—Summarizing

WRITING

Third graders are still working on informational writing. You can help your child by expos-

ing them to different non-fiction texts. Try reading newspapers, blogs, timelines, magazines,

or an encyclopedia entry.

MATH

Please continue practicing multiplication facts with your child. Multiplication.com and Shep-

pard Software.com are some great websites to use. This month, students will continue

learning about fractions. We will also discover ways to represent measurement data

REMINDERS

* Homework is checked on Fridays

* Take-home folders should return to school on a daily basis.

* Holiday Party: News about our Winter Party will be coming soon. Please check your

child’s folder for more information.

Arlington Echo

As a reminder, 4th graders at Marley Elementary have a wonderful opportunity to

attend an overnight field trip to Arlington Echo. We need a great deal of volunteers

who are willing to chaperone or teach outdoor education lessons (lessons easy and

fun to learn and teach) and to spend the night. All chaperones must be fingerprinted in order

to attend the trip. This information can be found on the website and fingerprinting occurs at

the Anne Arundel County Board of Education.

Math

Fractions - This month students have been increasing their understanding of fractions includ-

ing how to find equivalent fractions using models, such as bar graphs and number lines. Stu-

dents have also been

Reading

Students have been busy reading a variety of texts to practice 4th grade skills. We are focusing

on re-reading to analyze and respond to texts in an essay form. Please encourage your child to

read on a daily basis and if possible find time to discuss their book with them. Students should

be able to pick out details to determine the Main Idea of the text they are reading.

Science

In science we've been doing some inquiry learning about the geologic features of the Earth.

Students have been utilizing maps to observe and make a connection based on where moun-

tains, volcanos, and earthquakes are located.

Writing

Our 4th grade authors have been busy learning about opinion writing. Through research stu-

dents are able to find factual reasons to support and inform their audience about their chosen

topics.

Thank you!

The Fourth Grade Team

FOURTH GRADE NEWS

December 2017

5th Grade News

Math: Students will be learning how to multiply and divide fraction this

quarter. Students are taking notes in their math journals for each les-

son. The journal is a resource to help them at home. Anything you can do at

home to support your child is appreciated.

Reading: For the second quarter, the theme of Explicit Comprehension is

Collaboration. We will also be working on Theme, Point of View, Main Idea,

Comparing Characters, How to Summarize and Drawing Inferences. We

will also be working on improving reading strategies to improve comprehen-

sion.

Parent Teacher Conferences are on December 8th. We will be using

Sign Up Genius again. We are asking parents who did not meet with us in

October to please sign up first. We would like to meet with parents who we

haven’t met with yet. Thank you.

Please continue to encourage your 5th grader to be active listeners and

productive participators in class on the daily basis.

As always, please contact us if you have any questions or concerns!

Ms. Hagans, Ms. Greenstein, Ms. Lynch, Ms. Comstock, Ms. Rode

DECEMBER 2017

“Volunteer Update”

A big thank you goes out to all of our volunteers in the school and at home. We would al-

so like to thank our wonderful Watch DOGS who have volunteered their time during the

month of November ~

Mr. Mann Mr. Ward Mr. Scott Mr. Graham Mr. Austin

Remember that if you’d like to be a Watch DOG please call the school

& ask for Ms. Eckert.

Becky Dillon – County Reading Teacher

Cori Sears – County/Title 1 Reading Teacher

Kim Bibeault – Title 1 Reading Teacher

Cathryn Nash – County Reading Teacher

“PJ Reading Night”

Thanks for joining us for our PJ Reading Night!! We hope you enjoyed listening to sto-

ries & having a cookies & milk snack. J

“Box Tops”

Please continue to cut out & turn it Box Tops. The class with the most Box Tops in De-

cember will win a class prize.

“Gift Ideas”

Need a holiday gift idea?? Books make great gifts!! Just a few popular series for kids:

Kindergarten – Pete the Cat, Clifford 3rd grade – Romona, Captain Underpants

1st grade – Fly Guy, Fancy Nancy 4th grade – I Survived, Whimpy Kid

2nd grade – Magic Tree House, Ivy & Bean 5th grade – Harry Potter, Percy Jackson

General Music

December

Fifth Grade Chorus Students Only:

Fifth grade chorus students are invited to participate in a

joint Glen Burnie area school concert, alongside the Glen Burnie High School chorus, as

well as several other elementary and middle schools in the Glen Burnie area. This GALA

event will be on January 26, 2018 at 7pm, with rehearsals on Wednesday and Thurs-

day January 24-25, from 6-8pm. The weather dates are January 31 and February 1

(rehearsals) and the concert would be on Friday February 2, 2018. A permission slip

will be sent home in the beginning of December.

4th and 5th Chorus:

The Winter Concert is scheduled for December 19, 2017 with the morning concert at Mar-

ley Elementary for students only. The evening concert will be held at Glen Burnie High

School and will start at 6:30 PM. Call time for Band, Chorus and Strings students to check

in is 6 PM. If your child is in strings, band or chorus, please remember that the appropri-

ate concert dress for the day is as follows:

White dress shirt or dressy blouse

Black pants or ankle-length skirt

Black socks and dress shoes

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs. Cunningham

at jlcunningham@aacps.org.

.

Marley Music Families:

Our winter concert will be Tuesday, December 19th at 6:30 in the Glen

Burnie High School auditorium. Band, Strings, & Chorus students

have been working hard to prepare for their performance and we look for-

ward to seeing you there!

As we practice for the concert, please make sure students have their in-

struments for every class:

Band: Tuesdays & Fridays

Beginning Strings: Mondays & Thursdays

4th & 5th Experienced Strings: Mondays & Wednesdays

Beginning Strings:

Mondays & Thursdays

4th Intermediate & 5th Advanced Strings:

Mondays & Wednesdays

Band:

Tuesdays & Fridays

BAND

&

STRINGS