Newsletter - Pleasant Valley Community School District

Cody Connection
Cody Elementary
School
April / May 2015
Important Numbers:
Message from the Principal
Attendance:
332-0211
Congratulations to Our Cody Stars - Cody has many very talented stu-
Main Office:
332-0210
dents. We would like to recognize the following for their accomplishments:
Math Team March 30th Cody’s Math team competed at the AEA office in Bettendorf.
Seth Clausen, Jack Dumas, Owen Jones, Emerson Peters and Cassie Smith were
awarded second place with Cassie Smith receiving 2nd place honors overall and Owen
Jones receiving 3rd place honors overall.
Honor Band Maya Hartz-trumpet, Cassie Smith-french horn and Kane Zemotrombone.
Youth Choir Allison Brown, Seth Clausen, Erica Heiselman, Lydia Cox, Ingrid Hofmann, Kendall Jarvis, Manoa Kapua, Charles Kautz, Anna Kunau, Cadee Radcliff,
Cassie Smith, Reese Thompson and Jaden Waterhouse.
Future Problem Solving Team members: Erica Heiselman, Ingrid Hofmann, Owen
Jones, Emerson Peters and Cassie Smith. They will be competing at State in Ames,
Iowa, on April 17. Good Luck!
Upcoming Events:
Apr. 3 No School
Apr. 8 EARLY OUT
Apr. 9 Fine Arts Night
6:00-7:30PM
Apr. 14 PTA Mtg. 6:30PM
Apr. 24 PTA Variety Show
6:30PM
Apr. 27 6th Gr. District
Band Night HS 6:30PM
Apr. 28 Skating Party 6:008:00PM
Apr. 30 Beg. & Intermediate
Orchestra and 6th Grade
Choir HS 6:30PM
May 1 Morning w/Mom
7:45AM
May 6 EARLY OUT
May 11-12 6th Gr. Science
Camp
May 12 PTA Mtg. 6:30PM
May 15 Walk A Thon
May 19 All School Flag
Ceremony 8:45AM
May 20 6th Gr. Track Meet
May 25 NO SCHOOL
May 28 Last Day
Mailing Address:
2100 Territorial Rd.
YEARBOOKS FOR SALE $9
LeClaire, Iowa 52753
Kindergarten
It was so nice to see all of you at conferences, and we hope you enjoyed getting to chat one-on-one with us
about your students. Thanks also to those parents/families that supported us by providing something for our dinners
through PTA. We know Mrs. Everitt makes a delicious salad! Thank you so much for your presence and comments at
these conferences. Your concern and support is so important to your child’s success. Together, we make a great team!
For math, please continue to work on numeral recognition to the number thirty (or farther if your child is ready
for a challenge). Each child will need to be able to recognize and write 0 – 30 when presented out of order. We are also
practicing counting by 2s, 5s, 10s and working on solving and creating our own addition and subtraction number stories.
Feel free to use small blocks or another manipulative to assist with number stories.
KC has completed their Junior Achievement unit but KR will be enjoying Junior Achievement with Mrs. Porter
through out April and May (shortly after we come back from spring break). The lessons and activities focus on earning
money through work and choosing what to do with it (spend, save or donate). We thank both of our volunteers and their
employers for their commitment to our students.
Please read, read and read some more with your child EVERY night. This will help them become confident
readers and independent learners throughout their lives! Make sure to practice talking about the parts of a story
(characters, setting, problem and solution) and retelling the story in their own words without looking at the pictures.
These are skills that will benefit comprehension and language development. Twenty minutes each day is all it will take.
As the end of the year approaches we will be communicating with you about the needs of your child or special events
that will be taking place. Keep an eye out for information regarding our field trip to the zoo in May!
With the unpredictable weather of spring upon us, it is sometimes hard to know what to wear to school. Dressing in layers helps children be comfortable in the classroom. Please continue to send jackets and boots (for the muddy
days). Recess isn’t fun for kids who are too cold to enjoy it. Also, kindergartners always come straight to our classrooms in the morning and older kids go outside until 8:25. After Easter Break, April 6th, we will begin having the kids
transition to going outside as well until 8:25. No change for you, we just wanted you all to be aware.
Thanks for your dedication to learning!
Mrs. Rokes & Mrs. Carter
First Grade
All of the hard work in first grade is really starting to show as our readers impress us each day with their enthusiasm and abilities. Keep reading at home each night and notice how their fluency and expression is improving.
Incorporating some written retelling into the nightly routine might be a nice way to mix things up and help make connections between reading and writing.
In math, first graders continue working hard to learn:

basic addition and subtraction facts

recognizing coins and counting combination to 99¢

telling time to the nearest 5 minute

recognizing polygons and 3-D shapes such as: cylinders, pyramids, rectangular prisms, spheres, and
cones
With spring comes the beginning of Junior Achievement (JA) classes for first grade students. During JA, we
learn about the important roles that family members play in each other’s lives, as well as what is means to be part of a
community.
We are so proud of all of the Cody first graders who participated in Booker Bear! We truly appreciate all the
time and energy you put into helping your child grow as a first grade learner. Happy Spring!
Second Grade
Happy Spring!
In math, we will soon be working on Unit 10. Students will be building on our money skills to help us understand decimals and place value. Students will be comparing prices, estimating costs and making change. We
will also begin exploring place value in the ten-thousands and beyond.
In reading, we will be learning how the images in our picture book support the key details in the story. Students will also be researching a historical figure and will create a biography based on the facts they gather.
We have started our plant unit in Science. We will be investigating the parts of the plant, the plant life cycle
and how to grow a plant by actually planting different types of seeds ourselves! Green thumbs are starting to sprout
on our students! We will be taking a field trip to the Botanical Garden Center in May.
We really enjoyed having the opportunity to visit about your child’s progress at Parent Teacher Conferences. Our strong home/school connection is a key to your child’s success.
Mrs. Stoflet and Mrs. Bailey
Booker Bear—First Grade
Third Grade
Third grade has been very busy. The students are identifying the narrator/character’s point of view in fiction
texts. They will be deciding on how the narrator/character’s behaviors affect the story. They will also get a chance to
agree or disagree with the behaviors using evidence from the text. It is crucial students read on a regular basis to
maintain their reading skills.
The students are well into their expository writing of an animal that they want to learn more about. Research
has gone well. Now they are in the stages of making their writing better and more interesting to the reader. With the
sharing of published nonfiction texts and the sharing of student work they are truly generating curiosity as readers
and writers of animals.
In math, third grade is digging deep into fractions. Students have also been working very hard to master their
multiplication facts. Some extra practice with basic multiplication facts would be a great reinforcement over Easter
weekend.
Fourth Grade
Iditarod 2015 is off and running in 4th grade. The students are keeping track of the musher they have chosen.
Through the literature units and activities, the students are able to learn the history of the Iditarod and about Alaska.
We will also be continuing our region study of the Western Region in Social Studies Alive!
Biz Town will be in May. Biz Town is designed to introduce basic economic principles to the students in a way that
is exciting and challenging. We will be talking to our classes about the lessons that lead up to their job experience at
Biz Town. Prior to Biz Town, the students will be participating in a job interview event at the Pleasant Valley Junior
High on April 14th. Each student will be taking his/her own resume and application to the interviews.
The class went on a field trip to the Symphony on February 24th.
In math, both classes will be studying equivalencies among fractions, decimals and percent's. The students have
been doing a great job at being responsible for returning their math Study Links and for having their assignment notebooks signed daily. Continue to practice the division facts. Keep up the super job!
Mrs. Gellerstedt
Mrs. VenHorst
Fifth Grade
Thinking Spring…
In Math, students are solving equations using a pan-balance model, using algebraic expressions, generating
input-output tables and using data in tables to link corresponding points on coordinate grids.
In Social Studies, the students are learning about the major events that led to the creation and approval of the
Declaration of Independence. They will examine and paraphrase key passages from the Declaration of Independence.
In ELA, students are identifying the theme of a poem from details in the text. We are identifying different
examples of figurative language used in text. They can explain how and why it is used in the text and how scenes and
stanzas fit together to provide the overall structure of a play or poem. The students will write an opinion paper that has
the topic clearly introduced with opinion stated and an organizational structure in which ideas are logically grouped to
support writer’s purpose.
On Monday, May 18, we will take a trip to the Herbert Hoover Museum in West Branch, Iowa. We’re excited
for the coming spring and everything that comes with it!
Cody Art News
Fine Arts night is on Thursday, April 9th, so please circle the date on your calendar and come see the awesome artwork that will be on display! Each grade level will have two projects on display. With the end of the year
fast approaching, there is much to get through at each grade level. Here is a brief description of concepts that will be
coming up.
Kindergarten: Rural landscapes, implied and actual texture and sculpture.
1st grade: Movement, exaggeration, weaving and color mixing.
2nd grade: Illustration, still life and city building with shapes.
3rd grade: Illustration based on a folktale, positive and negative space, and an architectural triarama based on a
community event.
4th grade: Still life painting and printmaking.
5th grade: Contour, wire sculptures and graphic art.
6th grade: Pointillism, cultural art study and one point perspective.
Mr. McConnell
Sixth Grade
On February 23rd, the 6th grade students led their own conferences with parents and guests. The students,
Mrs. Notton and Mrs. Betts appreciate all of the support we received. This is a great way for students to celebrate
their accomplishments toward the end of their elementary experience.
The Hump Day Hub Store is a smashing success! The sixth graders have worked very hard behind the
scenes to make this business venture a positive experience for both the customers and the workers. The students are
gaining real insight into what it takes to not only start a business, but how to run it week to week. They are using a
variety of advertising techniques to drum up business!
The Math team competed on March 30th. Cassie Smith, Seth Clausen, Owen Jones, Emmie Peters and Jack
Dumas were awarded 2nd place. As we are writing this, we still do not have a chess champion, but we are very
close. Congratulations to Michael Musal and Kaden Bradley who are competing in the championship game. Their
first game ended in a stalemate. Also congratulations to Jack Dumas who came in 3rd place.
Congratulations to all of the 6th grade students that participated in the Cody Battle of the Books competition. Students formed a team of three people and they had to read seventeen Iowa Children Choice books. The
Bookie Rookies (Lydia Cox, Erica Heiselman and Lacy Roberts) and PV Thunder (Isabel Stephens, Cassie Smith
and Anna Kunau) teams competed at the Pleasant Valley Battle competition on March 4th at the Bettendorf Library.
Students had a great time competing!
SCIENCE SCENE
Sixth grade students are working very hard to finish up on their science fair projects that they
have been working on since January. We are studying what lies under our feet. Up next is the identification of important minerals. Camp is a go this year, we are thankful for all of those wonderful
donations. I sure hope it warms up soon so they won’t be freezing in the creek and pond!
Fifth grade is engineering an adaptation to keep water inside a sponge in a desert environment. It is amazing to see their wonderfully creative ideas. Up next, the class favorite, dissection of
an earthworm and sheep eye! Our chicks are due to hatch around April 21.
Fourth grade is getting started with our physics unit. We will be testing our shoes for which
type has the greatest traction. We will continue working on learning basic physics principals during
May, so we can each create an egg drop container for our competition in May! Look for our constellation boxes at this year’s Science Fair.
Third grade students are working with measurement. We just finished mass with balances
and are now working with liquid volume and graduated cylinders. Up next is learning to use the microscopes. I thank you in advance for getting the pond water samples for our discoveries!
I hope to see you all at this year’s Science Fair on April 9th. Kindergarten-fifth grade projects can be brought that day, the sixth grade will be turning their projects in on Monday and Tuesday. See you there!