Ellsworth Families:

Happy New Year! 2016 is going to be the Year of the

Ellsworth Eagles. As a school, we are continuing to

provide quality instruction to ensure that your child is

successful. However, we cannot do this alone and need

your help. Ultimately, the highest level of support you

can provide your child is to read with them, check their

homework, and ask them to Teach You something they

learned in school every day. Asking your child about their

day must include questions about what they learned. If

they can teach it to you that will help reinforce new

knowledge and build mastery of lifelong reading, math,

science and social studies skills our students will need to

be productive 21st Century citizens.

Thank you, the parents, for your continued support of

Ellsworth. It is because of your support that we are able

to do some amazing things!

I am very proud of the Students and Staff at Ellsworth

Elementary School and I look forward to more great

things in 2016.

I hope that You and Your Family have a wonderful New

Year filled with good health and blessings.

Sincerely,

Principal Stimatze

A Message from Principal Stimatze’s

Desk

JOCUSD

January 2016

Ellsworth

Elementary

PTO meeting– Library 4:30 pm

1/12

Clothing Drive 1/11-1/16

No School– MLK Day 1/18

Class Pictures 1/21

Orchestra Concert 6:00pm– MPR

1/28

Take Flight Friday 1/29

Calendar

1st Grade Hello Families!

First grade ended the 2nd quarter with a great Polar Express Day! We have had a great start in

the New Year! We are diving head first into story problems and addition and subtraction to 20.

In reading, we will analyze fiction texts. We are also learning welded sounds and blends in

Fundations. We truly appreciate all of your support and we look forward to the rest of the year!

First Grade Team

Page 2 Ellsworth Elementary

Ellsworth Elementary Hours

Office Hours: 7:30am to 4:00pm

Campus Open for students: 7:45am

Class Hours (Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri): 8:15am-3:05pm with a

warning bell at 8:10am

Wednesday: 8:15am–1:35pm with a warning bell at 8:10am

Kindergarten Kindergarten is off to a great start for second semester! We

are very excited to celebrate the 100th Day of School with a

fun-filled day of counting to 100 many different ways! We will

also be learning all about Presidents and National Symbols in

February. For our Valentine's Day celebration we will be

talking about what it means to be a good friend and also

learning all about Arizona for Arizona's birthday! We are now

beginning to read fluently and independently and can spell

many words.

Happenings

“ Find a way, not an excuse”

Ellsworth Elementary

38454 N Carolina Ave

Queen Creek, AZ 85142

Phone: 480-882-3520

Fax: 480-987-8250

Page 3

3rd Grade

“Winners are not people who

never fail, but people who new

quit”

2nd Grade We hope you had a great Winter Break! We are excited to be starting our STEM projects during Science time. Here is a look at what we are focusing on in class:

Fundations: Open Syllable Types, "y" making a vowel sound

Reading: Comparing and contrasting two versions of the same folktale

Math: Creating pictures to help us subtract numbers within 100

Writing: Writing an opinion paragraph

Science: STEM project

We're thrilled to be back in the swing of things in third

grade! Our students are delving into a fiction unit, where

we analyze fairy tales, folktales, fables, legends, and

myths. We get to sum up our learning with a Reading

Restaurant, where our students will transform into waiters

and "serve" up their recommendations of stories we have

read and explain the elements of the fiction. We are

continuing our math unit and focusing on place value,

rounding, subtracting and adding multi-digit numbers.

Students will also work on an exciting STEM project

during science in preparation for our school-wide Take

Flight Friday at the end of the month.

Special Education–

Resource

Students are continuing to

work on their academic goals.

Our focus will be on providing

explicit instruction regarding

academic vocabulary in the

areas of reading, mathematics

and writing. The goal is to

have students understand

academic terminology to assist

them with critical thinking

skills.

4th Grade

Page 4 Ellsworth Elementary

Good 2 Great

5th Grade

The fifth grade would like to again extend much gratitude to all of the families that made

donations to our holiday classroom celebrations, as well as to our Accelerated Reader and

behavior reward parties. We will be continuing to shoot for the stars for A.R. goals and will also be

utilizing the behavior punch card reward system 3rd quarter.

The clothing drive starts on the 11th and runs through the 16th, so please go through those

closets to donate gently used clothing that others are in need of. We want to show that Ellsworth

fifth grade cares about the community (winning the competition doesn’t hurt either).

On a more academic note, our grade level will be continuing to work on the standard method for

two-digit long division in Math, and we will also be studying coordinate planes and order of

operations procedures. In Reading, we will be integrating a lot of historical contexts in the

literature we will be reading, so the students will be learning a lot about history as they are

strengthening their reading skills.

Additionally, we are still in need of Career Fair participants to represent the fifth grade population.

Please be looking for emails from your child’s classroom teacher for more information. Lastly,

don’t forget that the second battle for Battle of the Books is coming up January 25th at 1:00 in the

Multi-Purpose Room! Come and watch the action! Happy New Year!

Fourth Grade is off and running to greatness for 2016.

We recognized the academic successes of our students

at the Awards Assembly. Our study of Historical Events

begins with the Great Depression and World War II. We

are looking forward to participating in Ellsworth’s

Spelling Bee, where we will showcase our spelling skills.

Continuing on with adding to our Math knowledge, our

new unit of study will find us working on situation and

solution equations for addition, subtraction,

multiplication, and division, along with comparison word

problems. The end of January will give us an

opportunity to share our hard work when we display our

Stem Science Projects.

Page 5

Title One Reading

Happy December!

Happy New Year!

Our readers are set to achieve new and ambitious goals

for 2016. Keep your child motivated to learn by providing

a set time dedicated to reading. Make reading a time for

enjoyment and relaxation. Find a topic that naturally

interests your child, and encourage him/her to research

more information. Through continuous interest-based

inquiry, your reader will acquire new vocabulary and

comprehension skills that will lend itself to academic

achievement.

Bianca Alva

Reading Specialist

“Every Accomplishment

Starts With The Decision

To Try”

6th Grade Sixth grade worked super hard on nonfiction elements, learning about biographies. They created

Prezi presentations on a person of their choice and enjoyed presenting them to their class. In

math, we learned about prisms, pyramids, and surface area. We have been preparing for our JA

Biztown trip, filling out job applications, and conducting interviews. We had a very successful first

semester and will continue working hard to prepare students for their transition to middle school!

ORCHESTRA NEWS Dear Orchestra Parents,

I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching your children, and I am very proud of their accomplishments!

PLEASE MARK YOU CALENDAR!

Concert time is approaching! The 5th and 6th Grade Ellsworth Orchestra Concert will be on Thursday, January 28 in the Ellsworth Cafeteria. This is a great opportunity for parents to see the progress that has been made so far this year, and for the students to combine and play with other musicians. The concert will begin at 6:00 p.m.

I Look Forward To Meeting You,

Musically Yours,

Mr. Guido Lavorata, Director of Orchestra: Combs Traditional Academy, Ellsworth, Simonton, and Harmon Elementary Schools

Counselor’s Corner Hello and welcome to 2016 at Ellsworth Elementary. One of our objectives in this new year are oppor-

tunities for your student as they look ahead in their academic career. We also have many fun activi-

ties planned as well.

One of our early objectives are to have your students participate in STEM (Science, Technology, En-

gineering and Math) projects participation in their classrooms. We will also have classroom guidance

lessons exposing all students to various fields.

We will also be preparing our sixth grade students as they prepare for college and high school with

AZCIS, an interactive tool that helps with education and career planning. On January 28, the

sixth graders will be visited by counselors from the middle school to aid them in the process of plan-

ning for their careers as middle school students.

All students should mark Friday, February 5 on their calendars as our annual Ellsworth Elementary

Career Fair returns! The fair allows all of our students to explore their interests and hear what work-

ing professionals have to say about their careers. We still need professionals to showcase their tal-

ents. If you or someone you know is interested, call Mrs. Telles at (480) 882-3528. Can't wait to see

you!

Technology

JOCombs Elementary students K-6 participated in the annual world wide "Hour of Code" event in December. "The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics."

This activity allowed students to experience coding through games and they can continue these engaging lessons at home.

Visit hourofcode.com for more information.

Ellsworth Eagles

Rock

Follow us on twitter at

@EaglesEllsworth

Facebook:

facebook.com/EaglesEllsworth

Great Schools:

Greatschools.org

Save The Date

CALLING ALL HEART HEROS!

Ellsworth is proud to partner with the American Heart

Association to help kids with special hearts! Mark your

calendars now for our upcoming Jump Rope For Heart event

taking place the week of

YOU can help the American Heart Association by helping

your child make a web page. Visit www.heart.org/jump &

click on “Students Sign Up” to get started.

Guarden La Fec

Llamando a todos los Héroes del Cora-

zón! Ellsworth está orgulloso de colaborar con la Asociación Americana del

Corazón para ayudar a niños con corazones especiales! Marque su

calendario ahora para este evento JUMP ROPE FOR HEART

(Brincando Cuerda) que va ser el

Pueden ayudar a la Asociación Americana del Corazón en ayudando a

sus hijos que hagan la página web. Visiten www.heart.org/jump y el

haga clic en “Students Sign Up” para empezar.