Principal's Message 9/27/19

9/27/19
TGIF…Twin Groves it’s Friday! 

In an effort to spread positivity, Twin Groves uses our 5 Traits to recognize exemplars of the following qualities: Responsible, Accountable, Respectful, Safe, and a Community. In addition to the 5 Traits, we are also recognizing students for being an Upstander.

As part of this focus, the Twin Groves Staff would like to recognize and reward students who consistently demonstrate these qualities each month. For this month’s recognitions, we are pleased to announce that the following students have been selected for displaying these characteristics.

Dorsa Akbarzadeh
Callan Harrington
Maya Heller
William Li
Evan Lynch
Jordyn Martini
Will Nack
Eitan Podolny
Vageesh Ramaswamy 
Marcel Ryszkowski
Veronika Upart
Mari Villasenor

 

What’s Happening in the Classrooms?

6th Grade
Language Arts/Language Arts Advanced
Students are well into their books for their Book Clubs and seem to be enjoying this time spent with peers, reading and discussing books together!  We have also started studying informational text, specifically the author’s tone and purpose, central idea, and text structures.  Soon we will begin our work on narrative writing, focusing on including sensory details, description, and dialogue.

Pre Algebra Survey
The students have been working really hard and transitioning well to middle school math. Pre-Algebra Survey students have just finished their unit on ratios, and are starting the new unit on rational numbers. 

At curriculum night, we talked about encouraging students to persevere on their homework. Thank you so much for your support at home on this! This month we’d like to focus on another math practice standard: modeling with mathematics (showing work in different ways). Part of being a mathematician includes being able to approach a problem in several different ways. In class, we often teach several strategies that can be used to solve problems. It is very challenging to be able to understand and use different representations and models in math, and it is a skill we will continue to work on all year. 

The students have access to these apps that they should be using regularly:
Math Facts Ninja - For students who need extra practice with their math facts. 
Knowre - This app covers topics in line with the Common Core Curriculum which the students are covering this year. This program is designed to develop critical thinking skills. Each class has expectations for completing lessons in Knowre each week, and students are welcome to work ahead and extend their learning. 

Pre Algebra
The students have been working really hard and transitioning well to middle school math. Pre-Algebra students have just finished their unit on ratios, and are starting the new unit on rational numbers. 

At Curriculum Night, we talked about encouraging students to persevere on their homework. Thank you so much for your support at home on this! This month we’d like to focus on another math practice standard: modeling with mathematics (showing work in different ways). Part of being a mathematician includes being able to approach a problem in several different ways. In class, we often teach several strategies that can be used to solve problems. It is very challenging to be able to understand and use different representations and models in math, and it is a skill we will continue to work on all year. 

The students have access to these apps that they should be using regularly:
Math Facts Ninja - For students who need extra practice with their math facts. 
Knowre - This app covers topics in line with the Common Core Curriculum which the students are covering this year. This program is designed to develop critical thinking skills. Each class has expectations for completing lessons in Knowre each week, and students are welcome to work ahead and extend their learning. 

SS
The students are just finishing up our first unit on geography.  They have worked on learning about why we live where we do, and have had opportunities to investigate possible solutions to problems that plague our environment.  We are now going to be learning about the migration of people throughout time.  We will focus on what factors both drive people out of an area and pull people towards living in a new spot.  The students will continue to hone their inquiry skills through a variety of unique sources from throughout history!


Science
Students have started working on the Ecology unit. We are learning about what factors can affect a population and a community.  We will be completing a number of lab activities to  simulate animal interactions with other animals and how people can influence a population of animals as well.  We also will be working on a STEM challenge creating a trap to capture a 3D printed animal!  

7th Grade
Language Arts/Language Arts Advanced
Since last month, we’ve been working on identifying and analyzing an author’s tone, determining the central idea of an informational text, and using this information to develop an anecdotal example. Poetry and literary elements have also been a focus, as well as narrative skills. Moving forward, we will continue to refine these skills while integrating writing targets. Reading and writing conferences are underway as students examine their areas for growth and reflect on how much progress they’ve made toward their goals. Reading at home, as well as at school, is a requirement during 7th grade Language Arts, and all students should establish a routine to incorporate reading into their weekly schedule. Some students have reported that they “fit in” reading when they have a chance to do so; instead, we would like to have them establish a routine reading time at home so that it is not overlooked. Thank you for your support!

Bridge to Algebra 1
In Bridge students are finishing up an important unit on how to solve equations and inequalities. Our next unit focuses on functions and being able to use them to sketch graphs or compare to other functions.

Algebra 1
We are in the middle of the unit on writing and graphing linear functions and linear inequalities. The students have learned three different forms of linear functions and how to use them given certain parameters.

SS
It’s been a great start to the school year!  We’ve examined human rights and citizenship up to this point. Could you pass the U.S. naturalization exam?  We tried!  We are right now preparing to answer:  What makes an effective citizen (characteristics, actions, etc.)?  We’ll be working on historical argumentation… developing a claim with evidence and providing effective closure.  This will provide as the transition into our next investigation and inquiry: the development of the British 13 colonies in North America.  The three separate and distinct colonial regions will be a particular focus: New England, Middle, and Southern. Each region features specific economic, geographical, and weather/climate characteristics that will enable each to grow and prosper.  We’ll also look at some of the challenges of colonization, which will eventually lead to struggle and conflict.  As always, we ask a lot of questions and encourage deep, divergent thinking to enable students to think critically about history.  

Science
In science, students will be learning about heredity. We are working with Punnett Squares to predict possible inherited results. Students will also be learning about DNA transcription and how mutations occur. We will then investigate how these mutations can affect an organism in a harmful, beneficial or neutral way.

8th Grade
Language Arts/ Language Arts Advanced
In Language Arts and Advanced Language Arts we have been working on strengthening our written responses with strong text evidence and solid analyses.  We have also been focusing on the mood of a story as well as point of view, the purpose of a character, and theme.  We recently wrote short narratives about stories we read in class.  We are looking forward to starting book clubs next month! 


Algebra 1
In Algebra 1, we are wrapping up our second unit on Graphing and Writing Equations of Lines. We will finish the unit learning about piecewise functions and then doing some interactive review activities prior to the benchmark. Please make sure that students have a TI-84 Plus graphing calculator they are bringing with them to class daily. 

Algebra 2
In Algebra 2, we are onto our second unit: Polynomial Functions. We will be exploring ten different learning targets in this unit. We will be working on operations with complex numbers, graphing polynomial functions, determining end behavior, and understanding all the key features of polynomial functions. The students will be discovering their understanding of some of the learning targets by using their TI-84+ graphing calculators.  Please make sure that students have a TI-84 Plus graphing calculator they are bringing with them to class daily. 

SS
In Social Studies we have continued to focus on our thematic unit, “Social Justice”, helping students understand what many people have had to endure while on their journey against prejudice and discrimination. Thus far, we have covered the 1960’s African American Civil Rights Movement, as well as the Women’s Movement, dating back to the early 1900’s. Along with showing injustices that have occured, we have highlighted specific upstanders and what they’ve done to create change.  Students have been very engaged in lessons, especially as we make connections to today for all movements covered.  Next up will be Muslim Americans, Post Sept. 11, 2001, the LGBTQA community and students will work through an independent inquiry on a Movement of their choosing.  

Science
In Science we have been looking at  the different wind patterns and how they affect the weather. We will be diving deep into looking at natural disasters.  Students will be assigned one catastrophic event and will be asked to research that information. They will then present their findings to the class

 

ILC
Students in the ILC are becoming much more proficient with independently following their individualized schedules.  Furthermore, we are seeing increased independence across all areas.  We have just finished our Social Studies unit on geography and are jumping into some fun Science -- plate tectonics!  The students will participate in many hands-on activities, including cracking a hard-boiled egg to see the “plates” of the Earth.  In Guided Reading, the students first preview a story with the teacher and then read aloud to the teacher while being monitored for accuracy and intonation.  The students receive immediate and prescriptive feedback while reading.  The completion of a story is followed with a variety of reading comprehension and writing activities.  Students are also learning how to independently read a text while annotating the main idea of each section in their reading journals.  We have spent a lot of time learning to express our thoughts in complete sentences that NAME (subject) and TELL MORE (predicate).  These fundamental language skills are reinforced during nearly every activity your child does during his/her day!  In Language Arts, we continue a weekly rotation of stations that focus on language development, thinking comprehension, reading comprehension, decoding and writing.  For more information about which rotations your child completes (based on individual need), please email Mrs. Pio.  In Math, the students continue to work through daily centers to build math concepts and computations, as well as calendar, weather and personal information skills.  Every student is now able to access his/her DreamBox math app and Kids A-Z reading app, so please feel free to have your child use those resources at home as well!

 

Information for All Parents To Be Aware Of
Hidden In Plain Sight


Help Prevent Missed Emails from School District 96
Some District 96 parents reported they did not receive their student's MAP scores sent by email (from [email protected]) on Sept. 6. Delivery by several specific email service providers proved to be problematic.

The District has received the following specific instructions to help prevent missed emails for parents/guardians who use one of the following email service providers: MSN, Outlook, Hotmail, or Live
• Log into MSN, Outlook, Hotmail, or Live from a computer workstation.
• Click the PEOPLE icon in the extreme lower left-hand corner of the page (next to the Mail and Calendar icons). A new window will open.
• On the new window, click NEW CONTACT.
• Type in Jeanne Spiller into the First Name and Last Name fields.
• Type in [email protected] into the email address field.
• Click CREATE.

(Mrs. Spiller is the District's assistant superintendent for teaching and learning.)

Repeat this process multiple times as you wish, creating contacts for your building principal (names/email addresses follow) and E-NEWS 96: Betsy Fresen, [email protected]

Principal Names/Email Addresses:
Willow Grove: Jennifer Smith [email protected]
Country Meadows: Meghan Bird [email protected]
Ivy Hall: Robert Hanrahan [email protected]
Kildeer: Vail Kieser [email protected]
Prairie: Christine Pfaff [email protected]
Twin Groves: Jessica Barnes [email protected]
Woodlawn: Greg Grana [email protected]

If you use another service provider for your email than those listed above, you might consider following your service provider's instructions for adding contacts to your address book.

 


Daily Announcements
The Daily Announcements will be posted daily. Please see Twin Groves website for up to date school announcements.  The announcements let you know what exciting activities and clubs are going on at Twin Groves.  Please click HERE to access the Daily Announcements.

 


PTO

Upcoming Events:
10/23- Dessert Day
10/25- Fall Bash 3-5PM
10/30- Special Lunch
11/13- Dessert Day
11/20- Special Lunch
11/25- Book Fair
11/26- Book Fair
12/11- Dessert Day
12/18- Special Lunch

Please click HERE to access the Membership Toolkit. All items for sale from the PTO will be available on this website.