CTL Corner The Center for Teaching and Learning January 2018
Center for Teaching and Learning Linda Ellis, Ph.D. Head of School & Director of Student Services Darryl Morris, Ed.D. Principal & Director of Administrative Services Amelia Maia Administrative Assistant Beckey Billings, B.A. Grade PreK Teacher Anne-Marie (Annie) Manning, B.S. Grade Kindergarten Teacher Lisa Lipar, M.Ed. Grades 1-2 Teacher Melanie Smith, M.Ed. Grades 3-4 Teacher Angela Bailey, B.S. Grades 5-8 Language Arts & 7-8 Social Studies Teacher Lori Williams, B.S. Grades 5-8 Math/Science & 5-6 Social Studies Teacher Treva McKissic, M.Ed. Grades PreK-8 Art Teacher Diane Engle, M.Ed. Grades PreK-8 Music Teacher Monica Lopez, B.S. Grades PreK-8 Physical Education Teacher James Milner, B.A. Grades PreK-8 Drama Teacher Jennifer Chamberlain, M.Ed. Administrative Consultant Paige Lewis, M.Ed. Administrative Consultant Sharon Lewis, Ed.D. Early Literacy Coach Joyce Armstrong Carroll, Ed.D., D.H.L. Consultant Emerita Our Vision We are dedicated to igniting and growing a LOVE of learning in every child.
In this issue… From the President and Principal…page 3 Pre-K…page 5 Kindergarten…page 7 Grades 1 and 2…page 9 Grades 3 and 4…page 11 Grades 5 through 8 Williams…page 13 Grades 5 through 8 Bailey…page 15 Music and PE…page 18 Drama and Art…page 20 Special Events…page 22
From the President… From the Thanksgiving Feast followed by our fall break, time started speeding by. Nothing like Ms. Engle's and Mr. Milner's fabulous Holiday Music and Drama Program, complimented by the festive scenes created by Ms. McKissic's art students, to set the stage for the holidays. It took the whole village to pull this off-teachers, parents, students and the community church parishioners, and we appreciate all the time and effort that brought our CTL family together for a night of celebration and fun! Thank you! Parent preparations began soon after for our annual Holiday Treasure Shoppe, and CTL teachers and students decorated the hallway and classrooms to add to the holiday spirit. We all enjoyed the true gift of giving with our annual toy and pajama drives. A vicarious ride on the Polar Express while sipping hot chocolate in our pajamas and then our holiday parties carried us joyfully into the holiday break. Memories that will last a lifetime! We welcomed the students back on January 9 to begin an exciting new year. The hallways were again abustle with their energy, synergy, and an eagerness to share their holiday memories with each other. It was like the beginning of school all over again, then they quickly settled in to their classroom routines, and the hallways were quiet again, awaiting a year filled with wonder, learning, excitement, and fun. After only four days back from the holiday break and a long weekend with the Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Day, we were surprised with two more days off because of the unusual, icy winter weather. When we returned on Thursday, we entered the building and were welcomed by frozen pipes. The pipes soon thawed and we didn't miss a beat. Flexibility is the name of the game at CTL, and the students and teachers are so good at it. It was a little too cold for outdoor play for the little ones but never one complaint. We are hoping for warmer weather next week and lots of time outdoors again. The gala committee is back in full swing with preparations for our spring gala on Friday, March 23 at the Butler's home. The theme voted on by the committee for this year is Turning the Page for CTL: An Evening in Hogwartz. The Committee is having so much fun planning around this theme. We have such creative parents! 3
The next meeting is planned for Thursday, February 1 at 8:30. Please join the fun if possible. If you can't come to the meetings but would like to help, please contact Marcy Schustereder. There is plenty to do and jobs that fit your schedule. It is fundraisers like the gala that help us keep our tuition at one of the lowest rates in The Woodlands area. We also hope you will attend our CTL Parent Workshop on Wednesday, February 7 to discuss plans for our CTL high school scheduled to open in the fall of 2019. We will also plan an evening meeting for those who aren't able to come during the daytime. We value your input into our innovative, proposed high school plan. Valentine's Day is sure to be the highlight of February as always. Your room parents will be contacting you! Thanks to all of you who made November and December such special months for the children and who are busily engaged already in planning exciting events for this year. We value your contributions--always! Have a wonderful new year! Wishing each of you much happiness and prosperity. Hope to see you around the school and at many of our activities planned for the month of February. …and the Principal Dr. Linda Ellis & Dr. Darryl Morris 4
The Little Learners Mrs. Billings Pre-K Happy New Year and welcome back! We’ve had the pleasure of caring for your children for four months now. It’s hard to believe how quickly time flew. The children have grown so much in this short time. Pre-K has been busy these two months with tons of fun activities. Our co-sponsored community service project for CAMO Animal Rescue with the kindergarten class was a huge success. A big thank you for all the donations. We surpassed our goal of 75 donated items. The children appreciated the donated supplies for displaced dogs due to Hurricane Harvey. One of November’s highlights was the Thanksgiving feast. Pre-K relished in dressing up as Pilgrims. Hope everyone had an opportunity to see them. They were so cute! We also explored the travels of the Pilgrims and compared lifestyles now and then. As part of our studies, we made homemade butter like the Pilgrims. December brought many travel adventures for Pre-K. First, we took a train ride and headed toward the North Pole as we enjoyed the Polar Express movie, complete with hot cocoa and popcorn. Then we took our annual Christmas Around the World trip. Our travel adventure began with a trip to Mexico. We read The Legend of the Poinsettia and learned about the Las Posadas Christmas celebration. One of our favorite adventures was the visit to Germany. They are known for their beautiful gingerbread houses and cookies. We 5
decorated gingerbread men, and then we were able to eat our creation. In France we sampled La Buche de Noel (Yule Log). Then we were off to Sweden for hot chocolate and cinnamon buns. We also learned that Tomte, the Christmas Gnome, delivers the gifts to the children. His sled is pulled by a team of goats. Next was Buone Feste Natalizie, or Merry Christmas in Italian. We read about The Legend of La Befana and how she brings gifts to all the children. We opened Christmas Crackers in England. Then it was back to the United States just in time for our class Christmas party. Everyone enjoyed opening their presents, decorating Christmas ornaments, and eating all the delicious snack foods. What an exciting time we had in December! In January we will be exploring winter, polar animals and snow. 6
Kindergarten Mrs. Manning Happy New Year from CTL Kindergarten! Time is certainly flying as we embark on the second half of our school year already! I would like to send a HUGE thank you to everyone for helping us exceed our class goal during our community service project in November. Your generosity helped over 90 dogs at CAMO Animal Rescue in need of forever homes. The rescue staff was overwhelmed by your kindness and the amazing collection of much-needed dog supplies. You have set a great example for students of how to be good citizens by meeting the needs of others. There is no better way to learn that important social studies concept than to see it acted out in a time of need. We are truly expanding our horizons in kindergarten. Dr. Morris has started teaching us to speak Spanish on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The students are counting to ten, naming colors, greeting one another and naming classroom objects in Spanish. They are catching on quickly, and enjoying their time with their maestro. In language arts we have continued to challenge ourselves to read harder texts and more books with each passing week. Students enjoy reading some of their personal books aloud to their classmates. We are working on rhyming words, word families, beginning, middle and ending sounds, and counting syllables in words as well. In writing workshop we are dabbling into some expository and informational writing, but the students still enjoy personal narratives the best! They are full of stories to tell and are doing a magnificent job adding details and sharing with expression. We will continue to develop our skills as readers and our craft as writers in the weeks to come. We have worked tirelessly in math to lay the foundation for a strong number sense. Our big focus has been on composing and decomposing numbers. It is critical for early math instruction to focus on the hands-on manipulation of numbers and sets to help children learn to think flexibly and fluidly with numbers. We use a large variety of manipulatives to explore the many ways to build each number. As we move forward we will be fine tuning our addition and subtraction skills as we discuss equations and solidify our understanding of number stories. Non-standard measurement is a topic on the horizon as well. 7
In science we extended our study of the four seasons and weather due to student interest. We have several budding meteorologists in our class! We explored our environment, as many students had expressed an interest in ways to reduce the human impact on our planet through recycling and other ways to care for the earth. We have also had several requests to study animals. I believe strongly in teaching students, not curriculum, so we will delve in to their topic of choice and see where it takes us. Perhaps a field trip to the zoo may be in or future! In social studies we discussed Pilgrims, Native Americans and Thanksgiving in November. We enjoyed our CTL Thanksgiving Feast. It was a wonderful time to reflect on all that we are thankful for. In December we turned our attention to holidays around the world. That was a natural opportunity to discuss the difference between wants and needs. We had several parent presenters come to our class to teach us about holidays in their home countries. We learned so much and enjoyed the treats and crafts that came along with our learning experiences. Thank you parents for your amazing presentations. We closed out 2017 with Polar Express, Treasure Shop and a great class holiday party. We will take some time to discover maps, directionality and basic geography next. I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season with your loved ones and took some time to enjoy the small moments that build lifelong memories. I am thrilled to be back at CTL after a lovely break, and I am looking forward to the months ahead as the students grow, learn and discover! 8
The Explorers Mrs. Lipar Grades 1 and 2 Happy New Year to all Explorer families! December was a short month at CTL. Our elves Holly and Jolly arrived. They brought some fun and excitement to our classroom each day with their snowball fights, game playing, candy cane sharing and even some holiday "decorating" with toilet paper! We had quite a few activities that were full of fun and learning. We celebrated the holiday season with our Polar Express celebration, holiday crafts and gift making for parents, Holiday Treasure Shoppe, our International Day, and our holiday party! All of this would not have been possible without the awesome help from all our parents. Thank you so much for your continued support in making CTL a great place to learn and grow. We have continued to strengthen our skills in all areas of learning. In reading and writing workshop the students have been focusing on making connections, expository text, personal narrative and word study. We are working toward the editing process as we continue our lessons in writing. Our STEM challenges were festive as we geared them around Christmas. We created a Christmas tree with cups (stacking). The class continues to build on the skills they have learned in math as they practice reading and creating math word problems, learning new math vocabulary, working with the different properties of addition, double digit addition and subtraction, money recognition, adding, subtracting, equal groups and repeated addition. We will focus on rounding to the nearest ten and hundred, estimating, fractions, organizing and graphing data and data analysis. 9
In science the Explorers studied the changes from heat and conductors and insulators. We will move on to study land changes, both rapid and slow, and how weather contributes to this. We learned about the native American people and their lifestyles during their settlement in America in social studies. In January we will be learning about homes around the world and how people live. Students will research the different habitats in which people live. In science we completed experiments to teach understanding of solids, liquids and gases. They experimented with states of matter to elicit changes in them. We also January will be a full month as we start new concepts and activities. We will work to create classroom and individual projects. I have extended the Secret Reader Calendar through the month of April. If you would like to sign up, please go to our Shutterfly site. I am looking forward to a great 2018 in the Explorer classroom. 10
The Smithosians Mrs. Smith Grades 3 and 4 Snow and ice were unexpected but highly anticipated events that shaped our winter months at CTL. From a snow day at school to ice days at home, our chilly experiences along with exciting learning activities in the classroom will make this school year memorable to say the least. The minute we arrived back from our Thanksgiving break and fresh off our student led conferences, we hit the ground running with holiday themed learning. It truly was a winter wonderland in our reading workshop. In December we finally finished our read aloud novel, Wonder by R.J. Palacio. We loved the story so much we decided to see the movie on opening day. The story of Auggie was brought to life on the big screen, and we were not disappointed with the film adaptation of the book. Thank you to all of the parents who not only brought your students to the theater but stayed to watch as well. A few parents even requested to check out the book from our library to read themselves. We’ve now moved to the story of Melody, a young girl much like Auggie but struggling with Cerebral Palsy. In Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper we are learning what it’s like for the smart and funny eleven-year-old to live a life full of knowledge about so much but unable to express any of it because of her physical limitations. Students are continuing to read daily their own books of choice with the popular series of Sister and Smile being constantly circulated. Amulet, the Hardy Boys series, Harry Potter, and I Survived remain our class favorites that also get a fair share of being passed around. It is wonderful to see students share the books they love and hear students say, “Can I read that after you?” In writing workshop students began the final stages of the writing process in December as they choose a piece of their writing to publish. We now have so many published books from our class full of authors, two full shelves in the front of our classroom have been filled with only our own books! Interestingly enough, our class is divided fairly evenly among the pieces students enjoy composing. About half of the class love to write fiction. Students have been exploring developing their plot lines by adding depth to their characters. The characters’ actions, thoughts, and dialogues have helped readers feel more connected to these often funny fictional stories. Students writing fiction are honing their cliffhanger skills as well. Many of the stories have developed into chapters with each chapter leaving us hanging and wanting more. The other half of the class who love to write expository have presented us with a variety of pieces that explain topics ranging from fishing to playing with Beyblades, to explanations that give us an indepth look at their families. We will continue to hone our writing craft by sharing our writing daily. Feedback from our peers 11
along with analyzing what our favorite authors are doing to draw us into their writing will always be the underpinnings of how we improve our writing. Third grade math students have extensively explored number talks that have helped them go from understanding their multiplication facts to memorizing their facts. Besides playing games, solving riddles, and coloring hidden pictures by answering multiplication problems, we have spent a great deal of time decomposing multiplication facts. The time we’ve spent looking closely at patterns and the many different ways a multiplication problem can be solved, have better prepared our students to solve future problems with larger numbers. The time it takes to build number sense will always serve students well as they continue to move up grade levels and on to more sophisticated math concepts. Fourth grade math students have been extending their basic multiplication facts into two and three digit numbers times two digit numbers. With larger factors, students are also using place value to help them use partial products to solve these more complicated math problems. All students practiced applying their multiplication facts by solving lots of word problems, often centered around winter themed activities. Next, we will move to the inverse of multiplication and look at the patterns of division. Decimals and fractions will follow quickly behind division. Science before the Christmas break was filled with winter themed STEM activities. We took advantage of our snow day fun and brought into the school a large snowball. We all took guesses at how long the snowball would take to melt. Based on our knowledge of evaporation, many students guessed that a few hours would do the job. Surely by lunch the snowball was going to be no more. It turned out the snowball took over eight hours to melt! We also took advantage of nature on our playground and collected sticks of all sizes. Students were challenged with creating a reindeer that could stand on its own. The challenge seemed feasible until students realized they could only use duct tape and yarn. Once they discovered the stability of the triangle, many students were able to create a reindeer with a solid body that stood-- but only for a short time. Duct tape was the first choice for many; but once they experienced how difficult it was to work with several students, they finally turned to the yarn and explored ways to secure the sticks together. It was fun to see the variety of shapes and sizes of the reindeer along with how well they stood up. Sometimes failure and starting over turn out to be the best teachers! We will continue with our STEM activities as we move into landforms. Christmas was more than just a holiday to us in social studies. We dove deep into research as we discovered how Christmas is celebrated around the world. Besides hearing from parents who visited our classroom and shared with us what happens in Germany, Mexico, Spain, and Canada, we took our research and displayed it into a fun lapbook. Moving forward, we are using some of our social studies time to now learn Spanish with weekly classes from Dr. Morris. 12
Grades 5 through 7 Mrs. Williams Math, Science, Social Studies Grade 5 and 6 Math, Science, and Social Studies November and December flew by! 5th and 6th grade spent most of November preparing their portfolios and practicing for student led conferences. This is always a busy time of the trimester and they enjoy sharing their portfolios with their parents. Grade 5-6 math students have been hard at work mastering fraction operations. They have been applying those skills by creating recipes for a cupcake shop. Who knew making cupcakes involved so much math? In 6th grade the focus has been on expressions and radical operations. The holiday season brought a fun research activity to our classroom. Students determined the actual cost of the 12 Days of Christmas by researching the current price for the presents given in the song. Next month, 5th graders will shift their focus to rates, ratios, and proportions. Meanwhile 6th grade will take their knowledge of expressions and begin solving equations and inequalities. Students continued working on their multitasking research papers and have learned how to properly cite in-text using the MLA format. They also worked together on multiple holiday- based STEM activities. They determined the best cookie for Santa based upon the milk absorption of the cookies, made snowflakes with borax and hot water, and learned which materials would best prevent a snowflake from melting. In the upcoming month, we will begin our exploration of the Internet, basic networking, and computer hardware. Social studies was full of fun and excitement as students created their own canopic jars and tested different mixtures and solutions to determine what would best preserve a slice of 13
apple. This activity opened our study of ancient Egypt. Students worked collaboratively to research different Egyptian pharaohs and presented their findings to the class. We also learned about holidays around the world by researching the holiday traditions of twenty different countries. In January, we will continue our study of Egypt. Grade 7 Math and Science In 7th grade math students began studying expressions and polynomials. They have become experts at translating word problems into written expressions and then simplifying the expressions by using the distributive property and combining like terms. One of our favorite activities was a matching relay game we played to help develop fluency, simplifying radical expressions. Next month students will learn how to solve equations and inequalities with multiple steps that include radicals. Students worked diligent creating timelines of the earth's geologic history. They used rolled paper to model the history of earth. Each centimeter on the graph, represented one million years of earth history. Students then broke the timeline down into eras and periods and provided examples of the organisms that existed at that time. In January we will learn more about the history of earth by studying what ancient maps of the earth's continents would have looked like. Students will learn about Pangaea and how organisms, like trilobites, helped scientists understand how the continents looked millions of years ago. 14
Grade 5 through 7 Mrs. Bailey English Language Arts and Social Studies 5th -7th Grade Language Arts The last couple of months have been busy in our reading-writing workshop classroom! The 7th grade class started a new read aloud, SYLO by D.J. MacHale. Students are enjoying the fast paced action and complex characters in the story. We have had many spirited discussions about how our own perspectives influence our interpretation of the books we read. We have also looked at different types of conflict found in books and identified them in both the read aloud and independent book selections. In the 5th and 6th grade class we completed our read aloud of Hexbridge Castle and The Talisman Thief by Gabrielle Kent. Students were intrigued by the twists and turns in the plot and enjoyed finding out that some of their predictions were correct in the end. Several students are interested in reading the next book in the series. We discussed foreshadowing and its purpose in the books we read, as well as how character motives drive the plot. Students in both classes presented commercials to advertise a favorite book in order to entice classmates to read their recommended book over the holiday break. The presentations were persuasive and convinced several students to check out more than just one book. It’s exciting to watch our reading community grow and develop as students are inspired to read new books and genres recommended by their peers! In writing workshop both classes added new ideas to their “Writing Territories” after completing prewriting activities. Students were also inspired to add topics to their lists after listening to the ideas of their classmates. They also published several free-verse poems after spending time reading and listening to a variety of poems. Although many students found the genre to be difficult at first, they became more comfortable with practice and enjoyed sharing their thoughts and ideas in poems. Their final products were impressive! The 7th grade class read flash fiction stories and determined how its structure differs from longer fiction. After class discussions about the features of the genre, students used their “Writing Territories” to find an idea and began writing their stories. They became intrigued by the genre and inspired by the ideas shared by classmates. The 5th and 6th graders studied the features of short stories and began drafting their own pieces after reading several examples. They have enjoyed sharing their story ideas and beginnings with classmates and are eager to revise when they are given suggestions to improve upon their ideas. We all enjoy our author share time and are inspired by the variety of stories shared. The 5th through 7th graders took part in a team challenge to build a Christmas tree using only toothpicks and gumdrops. They worked in groups to plan their tree, begin constructing it, and measuring their progress with a ruler. It was impressive to watch the groups come together and solve problems that arose during the construction of their designs. In the end, they all found that working together to complete the challenge resulted in the best design and end product. 15
7th Grade Social Studies In social studies we discussed Internet safety and ways to browse the web in a safe and efficient manner. Students played online games to better understand the concepts. They loved the games, and many have repeated the lesson at home because it was fun! Students also worked to understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it when writing an essay or presenting a research project. In order to understand this, students completed exercises in summarizing, paraphrasing, using direct quotes, and applying MLA citation style. They first practiced with example essays and then completed a short research project independently. They took notes and identified whether they summarized, paraphrased, or quoted the author’s words on their notecards. After completing the research, students organized their notecards by topic and began writing a short essay utilizing proper MLA citation. The understanding they’ve gained in the project will be applied to future presentations and essays in class. Students in both classes put together their first portfolio for the school year. They spent time reflecting on their learning over the course of the trimester and created goals for the next. They enjoyed sharing their work with parents and demonstrated pride in their progress. It’s always fun to look back and see how each child has developed over the course of the trimester. Thank you to parents for attending student-led conferences and supporting your child! The 5th through 7th graders took part in a team challenge to build a Christmas tree using only toothpicks and gumdrops. They worked in groups to plan their tree, begin constructing it, and measuring their progress with a ruler. It was impressive to watch the groups come together and solve problems that arose during the construction of their designs. In the end, they all found that working together to complete the challenge resulted in the best design and end product. The 7th grade class had a fun and exciting holiday party. They played a game to exchange White Elephant gifts after learning about the origin of this type of gift exchange. Afterwards, they unwrapped a plastic wrap ball filled with prizes in a fast-paced game and enjoyed yummy treats. Thank you, parents, for supplying the treats! 16
Physical Education Coach Lopez Grades Pre-K through 7 November inspired a lot of creativity for planning indoor PE. There were a few days that required us to stay indoors, but the kids didn’t seem to mind. We got busy learning to play indoor games like silent volleyball and even learned how to play ping pong ball in all levels. Students were given a chance to test their knowledge in remembering what exercises were properly called and challenged themselves and see how many repetitions they could perform in the time limit. Wrapping up the month, students had the opportunity to learn how to play marbles and play tournament style! December had the kids in a festive mood from the get go, so naturally it carried on into PE. From Texas tree decorating contests to intense holiday themed yoga, the students had the opportunity to spread the cheer all over CTL. The month also included relay themed “snowman” building contests, Star Wars themed yoga to commemorate the release of the new movie, and body weight exercise challenges. While the month was short and sweet, students did an amazing job staying focused and excelling at every challenge thrown their way. Special thanks to you parents for having students come to school with jackets when needed and proper shoes to avoid injuries. In the month of January, students can look forward to activities that involve balance. This component of health is essential for coordination, reaction time, body awareness, and most importantly joint stability. Temperatures for the month of January have been forecasted to stay in milder temperatures with a few chances of rain. Please have a light sweater packed just in case it is too cold for them. PE will be accepting donations in the form of used board games, Legos, and sporting equipment to build up the indoor PE activity supply. 17
Music Mrs. Engle Grades Pre-K through 7 All music students at CTL have the opportunity to perform in music programs in addition to attending music class during the school day. CTL students recently presented the holiday music program The Best Gift. Music students at CTL learn new music concepts in a childdevelopmental sequence. Each new concept is experienced through physical, aural and visual activities. The Pre-K music class involves vocal exploration, partner activities and recognition of patterns. Kindergarten students continue to work on comparatives. They are currently experiencing the High/Low comparative and will be combining it with Fast/Slow and Loud/Soft comparatives. High/low is the comparative that prepares them to read music. Grades 1-2 students are learning to read solfa (do re mi.... major scale) from the music staff. Their first interval is so-mi. They continue to study rhythm patterns and learn about music in 2/4 meter and 4/4 meter. Grades 3-4 students have learned re in a mi-re-do solfa pattern. They will be combining this pattern with the known so and la notes in order to study the Do Pentatonic Scale. They are also studying 16th notes in 4/4 meter. Reading music from the staff as they play, grades 5-7 students are continuing to learn to play the piano/keyboards. They have learned to play short excerpts from classical composers: Beethoven's Ode to Joy and the beginning of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. The students have also watched a video about Handel and will be watching another on Beethoven as well as other classical composers during the coming weeks. They will also be working on an upcoming performance. 18
Drama Mr. Milner Grades 5 through 7 The build up to our end of year drama performance was intense, but the grades 5 through 7 drama students came through with a stellar performance on the night of the program. A huge thank you to everyone who had a hand in helping put the performance together, in particular Dr. Morris for his hard work building our sets and Mrs. McKissic for coordinating the whole school into having a hand in painting, designing, and drawing our sets. The students worked hard to memorize their lines, and I know there were some dedicated parents who sat and helped the students practice their roles. Thanks also to all the parents who helped with the costumes and props the students used in the plays. I would also like to acknowledge the work of Haylee and Kyra who took on director duties for their plays and helped manage any crisis or question that was raised. The new year will see us move into video production. More acting will be required as well as some behind the scenes filming and editing. 19
Art Mrs. McKissic Grades Pre-K through 7 20
Special Events CTL Christmas Program Polar Express Day 21
Treasure Shoppe 22
Center for Teaching and Learning 26131 Kuykendahl The Woodlands, Tx 77375 832-474-8214
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