October 25 Spruce Scoop

Spruce School Wide Rules:

See below all the rules and expectations we have here at Spruce. This poster is used in order to help students learn appropriate behavior and be the best that they can be! Mrs. Turner hosted meetings by grade level to go over this, bus rules cafeteria rules as well as so many other things that will help our students grow!

Putting the I In Kind

Rowan and Teresa Rush put the I in Kind.

Thank you for setting an example of kindness every day!

The Spruce Kindergarteners are off to a great school year. They are learning how to write their name-starting with a capital followed by lower case letters. Students are focused on mastering letters and book orientation. They are learning how to be a good listener at the rug during instruction and story time. Teachers are encouraging students to talk and share using complete sentences to help foster their oral language.

We have started our Math workshop! During this workshop, we begin with some routines we'll be doing all year long: counting children/taking attendance, comparing attendance sticks, counting cup, and calendar. Then, we teach a short mini-lesson. Next, the students go into the workshop using math tools with a partner. They try new ways to use the tools each day and are quickly learning new things from each other. During “counting cup” routine, students count the cubes in their cup then use their fingers to represent the number of cubes they have. We’ve also been practicing number writing from 0-10 using our whiteboards and a catchy song.

Second Grade Snippets

September was such a busy and fun month of new beginnings and learning in grade two.

This past month, we began our Reading and Writing Workshops. In reading, we’ve been reviewing our reading strategies and we have started being true “Big Kid” readers. We work on our decoding and fluency skills each day, while “making meaning” (comprehension) of the books we read. In writing, we have been writing personal narratives about special small moments from our lives. In our UFLI phonics word study program, we have been reviewing long and short vowels. We will continue to work on our reading and writing of “tricky” multisyllabic words too. Please keep working on the reading and writing of those SNAP words at home as well. As you know, daily reading at home is needed and very much appreciated.

In math, we have been working on addition, subtraction, and the number system through coins, number strings, and math story problems. We often use games to practice our new concepts and strategies. We’ve also been working on telling time. It’s always a good idea to practice basic math facts, counting coins, and telling time at home. Counting coins and telling time are quite difficult concepts for most second graders and takes lots of practice and review.

In science, we shall soon embark upon our WozEd unit Weather-Earth Events & Living Organisms. In social studies, we often use Scholastic news to learn about the world around us. We’ll be focusing on communities over the next month as well.

In the next few weeks, we may even find time to do some additional fun learning extension activities about the autumn season.

May the school year ahead be a fabulous one for us all. Happy Fall!

Doing partner work

Using math tools

Playing a math game

Third grade students from Ms. Hughes and Mrs. Breeden's class showing off their beautifully colored and labeled world maps! In Social Studies, we learned about the 7 continents and 4 oceans. We also learned about cardinal and ordinal direction on a compass rose and practiced giving directions around our classroom.

Miss Townsend's third graders have been working on multiplication facts! Here they are creating array cards to play an array game

Miss Proefrock's class playing a multiplication card game using arrays and equations.

Miss Trimboli's Star Students

Abraham was caught a star student in our classroom this week. Abraham‘s silly and positive personality brings so much joy into our classroom! Abraham is always a helper to anyone who needs it in our classroom. each day he comes to school ready to learn with a big smile. We are so proud of you Abe!

Brantley was caught being a star student this week! This week he has shown so much compassion for others and has gone out of his way to welcome friends into our classroom. Brantley is a leader and is very responsible, he takes pride in his work and gives his best effort every day! We are so proud of you and so happy to have you as a part of our classroom! Nice work, Brantley!

Brayden was caught being a star student in our classroom this week. Brayden is the first person in our class to offer a helping hand to another peer and always looks out for others in our room. Each day he comes to school with a bright smile & shows so much kindness in our classroom and we are so lucky to have him!

Meet your School Psychologist, Social Worker and Counselor!

Ms. Burgasser (School Psychologist), Ms. L. (Social Worker) and Mr. Zon (Counselor) are social and emotional support resources here at Spruce Elementary School.

Mr. Zon and Ms. L push into every classroom K-3 to teach students so many different, Social and Emotional Learning Skills such as: Emotion Identification, Coping Skills, Social Skills, Teamwork and so much more! We also offer, small group and individual counseling for those students who need that type of support in school. We both will be overseeing interns this year to help run our SOAR Program. If you ever need any holiday or home support you can reach out to us and we can help get you linked with resources. (Information on all of this is outlined below)

As a School Psychologist, Ms. Burgasser plays a vital role in identifying the diverse ways students learn and determining the best methods to support their individual needs in the classroom. She works with every student at Spruce Elementary, spanning all grades, including both General and Special Education. With her expertise in mental health, learning, and behavior, Ms. Burgasser is dedicated to helping students succeed academically, socially, behaviorally, and emotionally!

Make sure to check out Community Resources in the section below, especially the flyer on free emergency Childcare. We look forward to an awesome school year with all of our students!

Spruce Sprinters: Boys Running Team

Here are our 3rd grade boys are apart of the after school running team. A program funded by the SPTO, these boys not only running to train for their final race, but to learn important skills like teamwork, leadership, positive self talk, goal setting and so much more. Way to go boys, keep practicing!

We are off to a fun start of the year in the art room. Here's what to look forward to this month:

Kindergarteners are painting this month and will create a fun colorful monster.

First graders will read The Leaf Thief by Alice Heming and Nicola Slater and create fall art with a focus on texture.
Second graders will dive into shapes and learn the difference between geometric and organic shapes and how they can be used in art.
Third graders will begin a sugar skull printmaking project after learning a little about the symbolism of a sugar skull in the Mexican holiday Dia De Los Muertos.
In Miss Trimboli's class, students are currently working hard on found object sculpture based off the work of Louise Nevelson
In Mrs. Swanson's students are busy crafting and exploring a variety of art making tools and art making experiences with a different theme each week.

It was Acorn Week in the art room with Mrs. Swanson's Class. They had a great time exploring different art making techniques.

Sneaker Award

This award goes to students that ALWAYS have proper footwear and following directions

K-Jasper Metlak and Brinley Yaple

1- Bryce Stacey and Valerie Andrezjewski

2- Justin Htay and Vienna Anthony

3- Emerson Clark and Gibson Zimmerman

Students of the Month

K- Marshall Maxwell

1-Jordan Loncar

2- Isaac Colon

3 - Grace Glurich

Next SPTO Meeting: October 9th 6:30-7:30PM @ Get Air

Hello from the SPTO! We have several events and fundraisers going on this month, including Get Air Night, our Fall Coffee Fundraiser with Giving Bean, and Trunk or Treat. Our monthly meeting will take place at our Get Air event on the 9th – feel free to stop in to hear about our upcoming events and meet the board – we love new faces!