Support the PTA through online Shopping!!1

Will you be doing any online shopping for the holidays? If so, you can help raise free money for Banks Road Elementary PTA by shopping at Amazon.com through the Fund Your PTA program! Amazon will send Banks Road Elementary PTA a check for 6% of all money spent at Amazon.com (4% on electronics) through the special link below... http://www.fundyourpta.org/banksroades.php. If you ever misplace the link, you can visit the online version of our October/November newsletter on the PTA web site at http://banksroadpta.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/october-2013-newsletter.pdf - the Fund Your PTA link is on Page 6. You can also earn electronic Box Tops for Banks Road by shopping through the Box Tops Marketplace at https://www.boxtops4education.com/marketplace. There are over 400 online retailers listed in the marketplace, and for every purchase, eBoxTops are electronically credited to our school. Thank you for supporting the PTA!

Another Exciting Art Residency Coming To Banks Road—

Another Exciting Art Residency Coming To Banks Road— During this year’s Artist in Residency, every student at Banks Road will get to experience working with a professional artist during their art special. January 21st through 28th we will be hosting the environmental artist Bryant Holsenbeck. The students will participate in her “Weaving Like a Bird” residency where they will use recycled materials, string, yarn, old sheets etc to weave a wall sculpture that will be installed in the school. We need everyone’s help collecting fabric for us to use in our artwork! Please send in scrap fabric, old sheets or curtains, ribbons, and yarn! The more colorful, the better! If you would like to contribute but don’t have these things lying around, gift cards to fabric stores like Joanne’s Fabric would be very helpful and much appreciated as well. Also, keep a look out for information on ways to volunteer to help with this residency. Our art teacher, Ms. Stephenson, will collect all contributions. Please send in contributions through your child or bring them in to the office with Attn: Ms. Stephenson. She will begin accepting them immediately. Thank you for your support of Banks Road Visual Arts! For more information about Bryant Holsenbeck’s Residencies check out her web page at: http://www.bryantholsenbeck.com/weave.html Contact Ms. Stephenson with any questions- mstephenson@wcpss.net

Pumpkin Day in our classroom!!!

Last Friday we had Pumpkin Day in our classroom!!! The students had an awesome time observing their pumpkins, discovering whether or not it sinks or floats, found out how much it weighed, and counted how many seeds were in their pumpkin. Thanks to Mrs. Howrigon, we made Mrs. Graf's Principal blog. Check out the link below to check out some fantastic photos that Mrs. Howrigon took during our hands-on learning with pumpkins!

Homework for the week of October 28th- November 1st

Reading: (Daily Activities) • A new “Book in a Bag” will be coming home this week. This is a book that is on their level. Your child should continue to read their “Book in a Bag” several times throughout the week, but they can continue to read other books throughout the week. Once your child has completed their time, initial below to show that they have read each night. Monday: 10 minutes Tuesday: 10 minutes Wednesday: 10 minutes Thursday: 10 minutes Math: (due Friday) • Workbook Page 4.7 (Homework- front and Targeted Practice - back) • Workbook Page 4.9 (Homework- front and Targeted Practice - back) Letterland: (Daily Activities) Practice the Tricky Words, List A, and New Sentences for Unit 11 Monday – Read the words and sentences attached 2 times Tuesday – Choose one activity from the list attached! Wednesday – Choose a different activity then the one you choose yesterday to complete from the list attached! Thursday – Practice Spelling Test

Weekly Newsletter volume number 13

In reading, we continued to read lots of non-fiction, or informational text, about Columbus Day and Fire Safety. We added lots of information to our prior knowledge, or schema, and had many of our questions answered about these two important items. In Math, we worked on comparing two digit numbers using the signs > (greater than or more than), < (less than) and = (equal to). To compare the 2 two digit numbers, we learned to show the number with ten sticks and leftover ones. If the number was 72, the number 7 is in the 10’s place, so they need 7 ten sticks and 2 circles since 2 is in the ones place. We also worked on word problems with teen numbers. We had groups of 10’s and left over ones. In Letterland, we learned the glued sound /all/. These three letters are a glued sound, so it only makes one sound, as in the word all. So if we had the word fall, it would be tapped out as /f/ and then /all/. We also reviewed the short vowel sounds of /a/, /e/, and /i/. Fire Safety- Last week we talked a lot about Fire Safety. We read several books about Fire Fighters and how Fire Fighters and safety requirements have changed from hundreds of years ago to now. Have your child share some of the things they learned last week. Important Information: - Pizza Party- We will be having our Pizza Party this Wednesday for lunch. Our class raised the 3rd most money in the school during our coin drive. Way to go!!! - Barnes and Noble Spirit Night- Our Barnes & Noble Book Fair is quickly approaching! It will be held on Thursday, November 7th at the Barnes & Noble store at Cary Towne Center! We have a great night planned! The Banks Boomers will be performing. A mystery reader will be hosting story time! The PTA will be selling BRES spirit wear and the Yearbook Club will open yearbook sales that night!

Homework For the week of October 21st

Homework for the week of October 21st- October 25th Reading: (Daily Activities) • A new “Book in a Bag” will be coming home this week. This is a book that is on their level. Your child should continue to read their “Book in a Bag” several times throughout the week, but they can continue to read other books throughout the week. Once your child has completed their time, initial below to show that they have read each night. Monday: 10 minutes Tuesday: 10 minutes Wednesday: 10 minutes Thursday: 10 minutes Math: (due Friday) • Workbook Page 4.4 (Homework- front and Remembering - back) • Workbook Page 4.5 (Homework- front and Targeted Practice - back) Letterland: (Daily Activities) Practice the Tricky Words, List A, and New Sentences for Unit 10 Monday – Read the words and sentences attached 2 times Tuesday – Choose one activity from the list attached! Wednesday – Choose a different activity then the one you choose yesterday to complete from the list attached! Thursday – Practice Spelling Test

Weekly Newsletter volume 12

In Reading, we focused on the reading “non-fiction or informational” text. This type of text is real information and the purpose of the book is so we can learn more information about that topic. We read a lot of informational text about Christopher Columbus. We worked on filling out KWL charts. The K stands for what we already know or our “schema”. The W stands for what do we want to know. And the L gets filled in after we have completed our research and stands for things that we learned. In math, we started a new unit working the counting by 10’s and adding on the extra ones. We have been working on making 10 sticks, which is doing a straight line for each ten and then drawing circles for the ones place. For example if we had the number 37, we would do 3 ten sticks (straight lines) and then do 5 circles on top and 2 underneath it. We do 5 and 2, so we can quickly add 5+2 to give us 7. Doing the ten stick saves a lot of time, so we don’t have to count up 10 each time, but instead can count by ten. In writing, we started working on persuasive letter writing. We first shared our schema, which is what we already know. Which we found out, wasn’t a whole lot. Then we read the book “I Wanna New Room” by Karen Kaufman Orloff. In the book, Alex, the little boy, was trying to convince his parents that he needed a new room by writing persuasive letters to them. Have your child tell you what Alex finally got and how he felt. Then we started brainstorming ideas that we could change for the school, community, and your family. In Letterland, we learned about the “Vowel Men.” These men say their name, which is the long vowel sound. We learned about Mr. A, Mr. E, Mr. I, Mr. O, and Mr. U. We also learned that Mr. I often times gets dizzy at the end of words, except for hi and I, so Mr. Y, comes and helps him and he makes the long I sound, even though he is the letter y. Important Information: - JDRF Walk- We will walk tomorrow, the 15th, from 9:30 to 10:15, during specials. All money collected will be due tomorrow. Thanks! - Scholastic Book Order- If you are interested, check and order form will be due to me by Friday, October 18th. If you would like to order online, our class activation code is: G229M. You can access that at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. - Team Time- Last week was our first official week of Team Time. We use this time to meet students’ individual needs. We have remediation, enrichment, and review to help students succeed in math. We rotate for Team Time Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday’s from 12:40 to 1:00. Ask your child who their Team Time teacher is and what they worked on last week during this time.