BUBBLES’ BLOG

DECEMBER-JANUARY 2017 NEWS

S. B. BUTLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

UPCOMING EVENTSFri, Dec 2nd After School Bingo 3:30-4:45pm

Fri, Dec 2nd Roller Skating with NEA 5-7pm

Fri, Dec 9th Movie Night 6-8pm

Tue, Dec 13th Teaching & Learning InitiativeEarly Dismissal for Students 1:12pm

Thur, Dec 15th Strings Festival at Fitch High School 6:30pm

Fri, Dec 16th Report Cards Distributed

Tue, Dec 20th Band & Chorus Concert 6:30pm

Wed, Dec 21st PTO Meeting – Media Center 6:30-7:30pm

Fri, Dec 23rd Early Dismissal – Winter Recess 1:12pm

Dec 26th – Jan 2nd No School – Winter Recess

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Tue, Jan 10th Teaching and Learning InitiativeEarly Dismissal for Students 1:12pm

Mon, Jan 16th Martin Luther King Day – No School

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Fri, Feb 3rd Roller Skating with NEA 5-7pm

Sat, Feb 11th 5th Grade Applebee’s Fundraiser 8-10am

Tue, Feb 14th Teaching & Learning InitiativeEarly Dismissal for Students 1:12pm

Feb 20th & 21st President’s Day Recess – No School

PRINCIPAL’S CORNER

Dear S.B. Butler Families,

I wanted to take the time to thank our PTO for the numerous fundraising efforts and family events they have supported thus far. Their support to our school community, teachers, and students is greatly appreciated. Please be sure to join us at the next PTO meeting on December 21 st at 6:30 p.m. in the library.

As the weather begins to turn cold, it is important to make sure that your students come to

school ready for outdoor recess. We will be heading outside as long as the temperature/wind chill does not dip below 20 degrees. If we do experience inclement weather and Dr. Graner calls for a 2 hour delay, our school day will begin at 10:55. Breakfast would not be served on those days and sandwich/salad lunch options will not be available.

A member of the Harlem Wizards visited our school on November 21st to meet with students and get them excited about the upcoming game on December 2, 2016. Members of our district school staff will play against the Wizards. Proceeds will help to support the Groton Education Foundation.

Please enjoy the holiday season this year! I want to thank all of our S.B. Butler families for everything you do to help our school, our staff, and most importantly, our children. They are the reason for what we do each and every day and I am thankful for the role you play in this.

In Partnership,

Mr. WheelerPrincipalS.B. Butler Elementary School

Health RoomMrs. Grater & Mrs. O’Connor

We are in the process of finishing up hearing and vision rescreens. If your child has failed a screening, a referral letter will be sent home. If you have any questions about your child’s vision/hearing screenings or failures, please feel free to call or email me (kgrater@groton.k12.ct.us). My hours are: 8:30am to 3:30pm.

There still is plenty of time to get your child a Flu Shot. If you haven’t done so already, I strongly recommend that she/he get one. Visit the CDC web site at: www.cdc.gov/flprotect/vaccine/index.htm for more information.

Remember to practice good health habits to stay healthy throughout this cold and flu season!!

Wash hands often Eat healthy Hydrate drinks lots of fluids, water is the best!! Exercise Get plenty of rest

Happy Holidays to all our Butler Families from the Health Room!!!!

Math NewsMrs. Fleming

December is the perfect time to incorporate some math into your family discussions! Counting down to the holidays and the New Year is a fun way to do some calculations. The temperatures are starting to fluctuate quite a bit now too so charting these changes and creating graphs to compare is another great way to use math in our everyday lives right now. Many people enjoy baking during this time of year which is a terrific opportunity to add fractions, divide baked goods equally into containers, and to subtract how many goodies have been eaten!

Now that it’s getting a bit colder outside, kids might be spending a little more time indoors. I encourage playing some of the math games online that can be found on our school website.

I hope you all have a terrific December break and I look forward to doing lots more math in 2017!!

KindergartenMrs. Horler & Mrs. Whitten

December is a very exciting time in Kindergarten. We will be exploring various cultures and holidays around the world. Some other exciting days are:

16th – Gingerbread Day21st – Pajama Day23rd – Gift Book Exchange

Our Kindergartners will be continuing Unit 2 in math. The following are the Math Skills for Unit 2:

Exploring 5 groupsIdentify, order and write numbers 6-10Identify and continue patternsIdentify two dimensional shapesAddition and Subtraction storiesIntroduce the nickel

At this point in the year, all lowercase letters and sounds have been introduced. We will continue to work on proper formation of these letters. We will continue to go into depth about writing small moments in January by focusing on including a beginning, middle and end in our stories.

For science, during December we will use our five senses to explore gingerbread. In January, we will investigate winter and winter animal habitats.

We wish everyone a wonderful holiday season!

First GradeMrs. Celtruda & Mrs. Grigg

In social studies, the first graders are learning about families and how families love, work and play; as well as needs and wants. It’s really fun to ask 6 year olds what they “need” and the rationale they give for “needing” video games!In math, they are exploring attributes of different shapes. They have also been participating in various numeracy activities involving skip counting and adding doubles.

The children will be writing non-fiction books for the next two months, learning to use a table of contents, headings on the pages, labeled diagrams, and other attributes of non-fiction books. We are also reading non-fiction books during Reading Workshop.

The first grade Hibernation Celebration will be Thursday, December 22. More information on that will follow.

Second GradeMrs. Bailey & Mrs. Westkott

November was a busy month. The children enjoyed rotating through first and second grade classrooms for different activities on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Both Second Grade classes had the opportunity to visit the Mystic Manor. The trips are pleasurable and it is lovely to see the interaction the children have with the seniors. They are compassionate and helpful. We will continue to visit each month.

In math we will be working on a short unit of measurement and geometry. Then we will move onto subtracting 2-digit numbers. Please continue to practice addition and subtraction facts to help with more challenging math concepts.

It is exciting to see the children eager to learn about new topics during Reader’s Workshop! They are also working hard on writing their own teaching books

Third GradeMrs. Gwaltney & Mrs. Zuliani

Predicting, questioning, connecting, drawing conclusions, and making inferences are the strategies that we continue to practice in reading. TASS (turning the question around when answering open-ended questions with supporting details) is still a strategy we are using to help write complete open ended responses. This can be a challenging, but effective in writing complete answers.

We have moved on to Information Writing which is a structured, written-to-teach, expert-based type of writing. We continue to work on different ways to elaborate in these written pieces. For example: including facts, definitions, descriptions, and other concrete details about the topic.

We will be shifting our focus in Math for Unit 3. The area of focus will be on customary and metric measurement. Our lessons will focus on volume, mass, and time. There are lots of opportunities to practice these concepts at home. Fun things you can do together include cooking, timing a fun family activity, and measuring big and small items around the home. Have fun together!

Fourth GradeMrs. Genovese & Mrs. O’Connell

In language arts, we will continue our focus of nonfiction reading and opinion writing.

In math, we will be shifting our focus to Unit 3, which will be the division of whole numbers, interpreting remainders, and using multiplication and division to solve word problems.

Please continue to have your child practice multiplication and division facts daily!

 Upcoming Events:

* December 5: Mystic Aquarium Visit to S.B.B. 9:30-11:00 a.m.* December 20: Band and Chorus Concert at 6:30 p.m.

Fifth GradeMrs. Burdick & Mrs. Wilson

The fifth grade class would like to thank all who contributed to our very successful Annual Fifth Grade Bake Sale. We raised $2,499.67!!! A special thank you to our co-chairs – Mrs. O’Leary and Mrs. Brookhart for all of their efforts in coordinating this event!

Our annual school wide food-drive will take place during the month of December. All donations will go to our local food locker. Look for more information to come home the first part of December.

Students presented fascinating research on their Native American projects. They showed they learned a lot about their tribe as well as other tribes within the same region.

In writing, we are concluding our unit on Narrative writing and will soon begin researching and discovering information about the Westward Movement to help us create an informational piece.

In math, we are beginning to learn how to multiply and divide fractions. A helpful website to aid in additional understanding or any questions is Khan Academy: www.khanacademy.org .

Students are continuing to enjoy reading in their book club groups and exploring theme.

We will begin learning about the nervous system and how it relates to the five senses in Science.

Have a safe and joyful holiday season!

Art with Ms. WMs. Whitchelo

The SBB Art Room is now on Instagram and Facebook! I would love for families to see what is happening in the art room at SBB by visiting our Instagram or Facebook pages. Throughout the year, I will post picture of various artwork that students are working on.

Find us on:

at sbbutler_artroom

at Sbb Artroom and enjoy!

Building a Reading Life!Mrs. Fridinger & Mrs. Pombrio

HOLIDAY GIFT IDEASSearching for a gift for the special child on your list?

Here are some suggestions.

1. Share the joy of reading. Books make great gifts for children. Select a few best-selling titles that your son/daughter might enjoy.

2. Subscribe to a children’s magazine (Ranger Rick, Time for Kids).3. Consider tools for learning such as maps, puzzles, globes, reference books, white boards, pens

and pencils. 4. How about some games? Concentration, board games, playing cards, marbles, Crazy Eights

and number games to name a few. These are a fun alternative to video games and get the whole family together.

5. Is your son/daughter creative? There are a variety of markers, crayons, stickers, rubber stamp sets, paints, glitter and paper to choose from. Put together a fun art box.

6. Model kits, science kits, telescopes and microscopes make great gifts.7. Jump ropes, hula hoops, roller/ice skates never go out of style and keep them moving on cold

winter days!

WISHING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A JOYOUS HOLIDAY SEASON!

Media CenterMs. Harper

Students in the second grade are doing an author study this year – we are reading and discussing authors Bill Peet and Chris VanAllsburg. Third grade students have been learning coding via the website code.org/learn. There are many different

programs that students may choose to complete their Hour of Code which most schools in the district will be doing in January.

Fourth grade will be writing to authors using literature response questions and building an interpretation. The past few years we have received many responses from the authors and gifts such as books and bookmarks.

SB Butler will host author David Biedryzcki on April 5th. More information in future Bubbles Blogs!

Music Classes Are Making Lovely Music at SBB!Mrs. Martelle, Mr. Kasle & Mr. Schneider

Please join us at Fitch High School on December 15th at 6:30 for the Groton Strings Festival!

Selected members of the 4th and 5th grade band will perform at our Winter Concert on Tuesday, December 20th at 6:30 p.m.  We will be performing a variety of seasonal music. Look for a notice to be coming home with your

child. 4th & 5th grade Chorus students will also be performing the choral musical “Snowbiz” on December 20th.  

Please check our school web pages for monthly updates.  Thank you!

Special Education Teachers and Speech-Language PathologistsMrs. Salovitz, Mrs. Harris,

Miss Kasparek & Mrs. Stillwell

Winter is fast approaching and that means SNOW! What’s the best way to spend a snowy day? Making a snowman of course! Did you know that building a snowman is a perfect way to work on academic and language skills? When building a snowman you can work on concepts (ex. bigger/smaller), following directions (ex. first, next, last), turn-taking, and descriptive vocabulary (ex. frigid, large, round, construct, etc.). So the next time it snows, get outside and build a snowman. It’s fun and educational!

Helping Your Child Make Friends

Nancy E. Anderson, Ph.D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Most child development milestones are monitored closely by parents from a very young age. Can my child walk? Check! Use a cup to drink? Check! Jump on one foot? Recite the ABC’s? Check and check! Then there are child development “soft skills” – social and emotional skills that can be harder to judge and even more challenging to teach. Skills like sharing, empathy and respect aren’t instantly obtained, but developed. Perhaps the most basic social-emotional skills children must develop is making friends, especially when they begin attending school.

Friendships are important when it comes to emotional health. To a child, even having just one good friend can make a huge difference. While some children make friends with ease, others may need encouragement. Some people tend to think it just comes naturally, and for some children, it does. But for many, it doesn’t.

If your children is shy or has struggled with making friends, there are many things you can do to help. Here are some ways you can help your child make lasting friendships without putting too much pressure on them.

Talk about it. Talk about or brainstorm a list of “friends qualities” with your child. Use such concepts as: being friendly, being honest, laughing and having fun, willingness to share, being kind, and learning to place others’ needs ahead of their own. Once your child understands what sort of qualities make a good friend, you can then discuss or even role play these qualities.

Organize play dates or activities. Be proactive in organizing play dates for kids. After-school play dates can support socialization in many ways. Social practices in an after-school environment may feel more forgiving than school. Socializing can be much easier in one-on-one situations. Also, the greatest potential benefit is the creation of a shared experience, a bond that the two children can then build on at school. A shared bond between your child and another child can be formed through choosing enjoyable after-school and extracurricular activities.

Connecting through conversation. Since being able to share thoughts and ideas is so important to any friendship, you can help your child understand how to build and maintain a conversation. Remind kids to look for connections between what was just said and what they will say next. Encourage kids to think of conversation as being like a Lego tower; in order for a conversation to keep going and going, the various pieces must connect and fit together tightly. If they don’t, the tower will fall and the conversation will collapse.

Be realistic. Be sure not to have unrealistic expectations of your shy or socially reserved child. Some children are just more outgoing than others. It’s just their personality. Comparing siblings or other children to yours can be dangerous and skew your perspective. But with just a little gentle parental support and guidance, most children develop the social skills necessary to make friends. Be available to listen to your child’s tales of woe from school. Then, rather than just giving your child solutions or new strategies, guide him or her to be the problem solver.

This information is excerpted from PBS Parents article, “Helping Your Child Make Friends.”

Dr. Nancy Anderson, school psychologist at Butler Elementary School, provides consultation to any parent requiring help for issues related to their child’s educational achievement. Contact Dr. Anderson at nanderson1@groton.k12.ct.us.