20750 So. 214th Street

Queen Creek, Az 85142

Phone: (480) 987-7400

Fax: (480) 987-7415

Website: www.qcusd.org

CONTENTS:

Kindergarten–

First Grade………Pg.2

Second Grade– Third Grade…………...Pg. 3

Fourth Grade– Special

Education……...Pg. 4

Physical Education-Recycle…………Pg. 5

Music………….Pg. 6

Students of the Month-Calendar……...Pg. 7

VOLUME 14 ISSUE 6

Dear Parents,

Another month has gone by and our students are growing by leaps and bounds. Here are some of the things that are happening at JBE.

FREE ALL DAY KINDERGARTEN – At last night’s school board meeting, the School Board approved FREE ALL DAY KINDERGARTEN for the 2015-2016 school year. If you already signed up for All Day Kindergarten and paid your tuition fee, your money will be re-funded by the end of February. If you registered for a half day program Carol, Registrar will be contacting you to see if you are interested in All Day Kindergarten.

Kindergarten Registration – Kindergarten registration for the 2015-2016 school year has started. The number of classes that we offer always depends on enrollment numbers. If you know a family in your neighborhood that has a child starting Kindergarten next year, please let them know that we have started registrations. If you are planning on registering a Kindergarten student for the new school, please go to the district office and ask for Shelle or Eileen. The address is 20217 E. Chandler Heights Rd, Queen Creek (west of Ellsworth on Chandler Heights Rd.).

New School – If your child is presently attending JBE and you live in the 85212 zip code and plan on attending the new school (on Ray Rd. and Signal Butte) next school year, you do NOT need to register them. Their enrollment information and records will be automatically transferred to the new school unless we receive an open enrollment application from you.

Open Enrollment - Please stop by the office to pick up a form. Open Enrollment is for any-one that lives outside of the JBE boundaries and would like to attend JBE. Open Enroll-ment must be completed yearly and approval depends on class sizes.

Bench the Bag – plastic bag recycling competition. Help us WIN!!! Please start sending in the plastic bags.

Proper Collection Techniques:

Clean, dry and used. Unused and/or bulk stacks of bags will be grounds for disqualification!

Acceptable Materials:

Grocery bags

Dry cleaning bags

Sandwich bags

Bread bags (clean and empty)

Department store bags

Shrink wrap (ex. Wrap around 24 packs of water bottles, wrap around toilet paper pack-ages, wrap around Kleenex boxes, wrap around paper towels, wrap around paper plates)

Daddy Daughter Dance – We will have our annual Daddy Daughter Dance on Thursday, Feb. 12th from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. in the cafeteria. This event is for our JBE girls and their dads. Come have a fun evening with your little girl. You can dance a little, have some punch and cookies and have a photo taken.

NAEP Testing – Our 4th grade students are scheduled to take the National Assessment of Educational Progress test on Friday, February 20th. You should have received a letter and an email from me with information about this last week.

Additional dates for your calendars:

2/11 – Early Release

2/16 – No School

2/25 – Early Release

2/27 - Last Day for AR testing

Jack Barnes

Pride Press

2

We are now over 100 days SMARTER!!! We are working to become flu-ent with our 51 sight words. We are blending words more consistently. Our reading and writing is increasing more and more everyday. We have completed 3 word families. We are excited for our upcoming Zoo trip on February 26.

We will be exploring and learning about the different animals we will be visiting during our field trip to the zoo.

In math, we continue to work on building fluency with numbers 1-20 as well as adding and subtracting in math! Practice counting on from different numbers and writing numbers.

Thank you for all your continuing support in our classrooms. We appreciate all your help!

The Kindergarten Team,

Mrs. Laidley, Mrs. Gettens, Ms. Noble, and Miss Toly

This month in Fabulous First Grade, we have been learning about ten more and ten less, interpreting graphs and how to count coins to a dollar. We are be-coming very good at recognizing coins and telling the value of them. We are con-

tinuing to practice telling time and our addition facts. Please help reinforce these skills at home. We will be starting double digit addition soon.

It was fun predicting to see if the Groundhog would see his shadow and predicting which team would score the most points in the Super Bowl. Some of us predicted right, and some of us didn’t; but we have learned that predicting is just a guess and that it is okay to guess wrong.

In reading we have been learning long vowel rules, which helps us to be better spellers and readers. The first graders are becoming very good at their reading skills and have really im-proved on their fluency. Please continue to read nightly and practice sight words. We would like all of the first graders to meet their AR goal this term. Please remember that the first graders need to have mastered 125 sight words by spring break.

Thank you for all of your continued support. We truly appreciate the moms who help us weekly with literacy centers and making copies for all of first grade.

The First Grade Team,

Mrs. Butler, Mrs. King, Mrs. Incardone

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K

1st

3

In 2nd grade Reading we have started the Theme of Amazing Animals. We are quickly learning how amazing some animals can be. We will be learning about Ants next and then biographies. Presidents day is com-ing up as well so we will be doing some research about who our presidents were. The next theme will be Family time. We will be focusing on Chapter books and reading stories such as Brothers and Sisters, Jalapeno Bagels, and Carousel. We will be practicing how to make generalizations, follow directions and make judgements. In

Spelling and Phonics students will be practicing -er ending words, -le ending words, and the sound of y at the end of words. They will also be working on the prefix un-, -ed and -ing endings, and silent consonants such as gh, k(n), and b. In Grammar students will be learning about verbs and how verbs tell about now. They will also be learning about the special verbs is/are and was/were. In Math we are going to be continuing on with measurement. Students will learn standard and metric measure-ment. They will learn to measure an object using two different units and compare the lengths. Also they will be estimating the length, weight or capacity of an object. After that we will be working on word problems with an unknown number. For Sci-ence we will be finishing up Human body. The 2nd graders will be taking a Field Trip to the Halle Heart Museum on February 18th. They will be able to use their prior experience to help guide them through this amazing museum.

The Second Grade Team,

Mrs. Hawes, Ms. Rasmussen, Ms. Standage

Wow! We can’t believe that is is already February! Third Grade continues to push through the Arizona State College and Career Readiness Standards to prepare our students for 4th grade and beyond. This month we will be working on review of elapsed time, fluently multiplying and dividing facts up to 12, rounding and two step word problems. The Benchmark 3 test will include all of these objectives. In addition to these, we will work on graphing and con-

tinue to revisit fractions, addition, and subtraction strategies through our morning Bell Work and Problems of the Day. It is very important that 3rd graders continue to practice math facts DAILY. Our expectation is that they know their addition and subtraction facts by now. (some do, some don’t) We will be hitting multiplication and division hard this month and throughout the year. Quick recall of these basic facts will be such a valuable tool for each and every one of our students. Please make sure that they are including math facts practice as part of their homework/daily routine.In the area of reading we will be covering compare and contrast of both fictional and non-fictional text, drawing conclusions based on text features such as illustrations, and determin-ing point of view of a piece of text. We will continue to have discussions on various types of genre. We will revisit alphabetizing and spelling patterns. Also topic sentence and supporting details will be emphasized. Of course, there will be AR goals to reach, so encourage your 3rd grader to continue to read nightly. Social Studies and Sci-ence will still be included through , mainly our nightly fluency passages. Our Spelling words and vocabulary are also “springboards” for discussion in those two areas. As you can see, there is still so much to do in 3rd grade. Encourage your child to set goals for success this semester. Let’s all keep those New Year’s resolutions and goals in close sight!! We appreciate all that you do to help your child find the most success in school. Thank you for timing the nightly fluency, checking over homework, reading logs, spelling, helping out with IXL, signing agendas and encouraging your child to be organized, responsible students!

The Third Grade Team,

Mrs. Laporte, Mrs. Hull, Ms. Newberry, Mrs. Horst

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2nd

3rd

4

This month will be a busy one for the fourth graders at Jack Barnes. Among other things we have been studying varying topics in science, geometry in math, point of view in reading, and writing fantasy sto-ries and business letters in language arts. We have been working hard on our Accelerated Reader goals for the third marking period. On January 12th we had our 100th Day celebration where each student released a balloon, lovingly blown up and tied by our dedicated PTO. We can hardly wait to hear where our balloons traveled this year! Three have been found in Mesa and we are anxious for others to be found.

In February we will be moving into customary measurement in math including perimeter and area. In reading we will be comparing and analyzing pieces of literature and comparing and contrasting them. We will also begin some test prep this quarter for the upcoming AZMerit test. Test-taking strategies are a skill the students need and it's important to practice so that they feel relaxed and ready when test day arrives. It would help the students, and the teachers, if you would continue to practice multiplication, addition, and subtraction facts with your child. The quicker they know them the better off they will be and the more success they will have with each skill we review and practice and each new skill we introduce.

We want to thank you for all of the support you give to your children and to us as teachers. We couldn't do what we do without it. We are truly partners for a year of your child's life and it's great that at Jack Barnes we all recognize how im-portant that partnership is.

We are looking forward to another great month with the fabulous 4th graders of Jack Barnes Elementary!

The Fourth Grade Team,

Mrs. Papa, Mrs. Cowden, Mrs. Thuer, Ms. Vela

Mrs. Belvado’s Class and Mrs. Jester’s Class This month our parliament (team- group of owls) is working on the concept of angles and rounding, telling time to the hour and half hour, measuring length using metric and customary tools.

In reading we are identifying key details and points of view, long and short vowels, story elements, and retelling stories from different cultures.

We are excited to say our garden boxes have been completed and will arrive shortly! We will begin prepping our special hands garden for planting soon.

What did you do over Christmas vacation?

JM: Played with my toys CG: Played with my bike JD: Played at my friend’s house IP: Rode my motor bike NM: Rode my scooter KU: Went to Golf Land OT: Went to Amazing Jakes ZM: Had a sleep over at my house KS: Nothing JF: Played DA: Nothing EY: Saw the movie “Golden Blades” JM: I don’t know CG: Saw Katelyn MR: Rode my bike and got new shoes EH: Nothing

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4th

5

Help us win the “Bench the Bag” contest by do-

nating your plastic bags to JBE.

We will be collecting bags

February 2nd -March 6th

Thank You!

Running club is off to a great start. We have 75 par-ticipants. We are working on getting into shape for the big race.

In P.E. we have been working on different activities. We played a game called volley/catch. The students had to successfully pass a ball to each other and the last person threw it over. The other team would try to catch the ball before it hit the ground. A team could score a point each time the other team let the ball hit the ground. We also successfully played Scooter Hockey. All the students enjoyed being goalie.

Please make sure your child wears tennis shoes on P.E. days in order to partici-pate in the activities.

Mrs. Langaker

Physical

Education

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6

The Kindergarteners have started working on their songs for their graduation program. We will be performing the musical, “Welcome to Our Neighborhood”. Fred McFeely Rogers was widely known and loved as “Mister Rogers” on the televi-sion program Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. The Kindergarteners are very excited about performing at the PAC for their graduation ceremony.

The First Graders are working on reading rhythm patterns containing quarter and eighth notes in our songs: “Granny”, and “El juego chirimbolo”. They are also still working on responding through movement to our “Head and Shoulders” song.

Second grade have started working on their songs for the musical, “Seussical Jun-ior” that they will be performing in March. This musical includes five songs: “Oh, The Thinks You Can Think!”, “Horton Hears a Who”, “It’s Possible”, “Green Eggs and Ham”, and “Seussical Mega-Mix”. The students will be performing on March 2nd at 1:30 p.m. here at JBE.

The Third graders are continuing to work on skills to help them play their record-ers. All of the students should have a recorder and music folder that they are bringing to class. They are continuing to learn to read quarter notes, eighth notes, learning finger placement, posture, and tone production. Please make sure your child is practicing their recorder. The students have also learned about pen-tatonic songs, and how to identify do, re, mi, so, and la with our “Frosty Weather” song.

Fourth Graders are also working on their recorders. All students should have a recorder and music folder that they are bringing home, and should be practicing. They are also working on reading simple pitch notation in the treble clef with our song “Sail Away, Ladies”.

Mrs. Payne

7

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

“Bench the Bag” Contest 2/2-3/6

Progress Re-ports sent

home

@12:20

NO SCHOOL

2nd Grade

Galileo Testing

2/23-3/6 @12:20

Kindergarten

Students of the Month

Ground Hog Day!

Kindergarten:

Olive Jones

Raymond Hermosillo

Dylan Ethington

Anna Smith

Dilyn White

1st Grade:

Chloe Crittenden

Lillian Durrant

Joycelyn DiMascio

Keagan Stose

2nd Grade:

Jayden Reed

Sophia Wares

Isabelle Aldrich

3rd Grade:

Maya Noble

Matthew Dillon

Addison Jarvis

Zoe Masse

4th Grade:

Robert Wolfe

Kaitlan Hesche

Emery Vogan

6:30pm-8:00pm

4th Grade NAEP Test

Last day for AR Testing