Administrative Team
As we near the end of the school year, the Administrative Team at Estrella Vista would first like to say thank you to all of our parents and students for all their hard work and efforts to make this the best school year ever.
Warmer weather usually equals lots of water and children. Please make certain to have the renewed conversation about water safety with your child, in an effort to keep them safe in and around water.
Mrs. Jacci Jones, Assistant Principal
Kindergarten
In Kindergarten we are learning to read addition and subtraction word problems and solve them. We are also breaking down numbers from 10 into smaller groups. In Reading we are comparing and contrasting the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories. We are also working on reading strategies like sounding out words or using pictures details to find out the unknown word. Our students are becoming amazing little readers by reading their decodable books with purpose and understanding. Kindergarten Promotion is just around the corner on May 22nd. Please check emails and student folders for upcoming information.
Kindergarten Team
First Grade
In the month of May first grade will focus on strategies for reading two-syllable words. We will also continue to review long vowels and long vowels/ combinations such as /ī/ y, ie, /ō/ o_e, /ī/ igh and /ā/ ai, ay. Please continue to have your child study the sight words and read 15-20 minutes each night. In math we will begin to interpret picture graphs, tally charts and bar graphs. We will also resume practicing place value, addition and subtraction. Should you have any questions please contact your child's teacher.
First Grade Team
Second Grade
Our last quarter of the year has begun. We are excited to begin end of the year testing. Students are ready to show how much they've grown academically. We have been working on enriching reading and comprehension with meaningful conversations that create and inspire critical thinking. We are excited about Math: pictographs, surveys, word problems and so much more... We will be working on reading fluency to meet our 2nd grade goal of 90 words per minute. We encourage students to think outside the box and write persuasive essays and expressing their opinions. 3rd Grade is approaching get ready!
Second Grade Team
Third Grade
Fourth quarter in third grade is well on its way and we are excited to finish out the year with AIMS testing and our field trip to the World Wildlife Zoo. Our classes are eagerly awaiting the zoo field trip and it will conclude our science unit for animal adaptations and habitats. In math we are currently working on addition and subtraction to the 4th digit along with, place value to the 6th digit, and converting units of measurement. Our classes are still working on combinations and reading graphs to help us answer mathematical questions. In writing and reading we are currently focusing on synonyms, antonyms, homophones, compound words, and adverbs.
3rd Grade Team
Fourth Grade
Can you believe the end of the school year is almost here! We are working hard to finish up all our objectives and get our fabulous fourth graders ready for fifth grade. We will be focusing on reviewing all the math concepts they have learned so far this year. Please help us out by making sure to review with your child. Memorizing those multiplication tables is so very important and forms the base for many math concepts they will be learning in fifth grade. Many classes are doing projects as a wrap up for fourth grade. We will also be introducing some fifth grade concepts to jumpstart for next year.
Thanks for all your support and help this year.
The Fourth Grade Team
Fifth Grade
5th grade has been working very hard in all the classrooms to prepare for AIMS, Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards. We believe that all children are capable of success, NO EXCEPTIONS and we have utilized that motto from Kids at Hope to encourage and build confidence in our students. They each know that we, their teachers, believe in each and every one of them! All our 5th graders have worked extremely hard to show growth on AIMS, growth in their reading fluency and comprehension, and mathematics knowledge to prepare for 6th grade.
Thank you again parents for all you do! Your 5th grade teachers appreciate your support!
Fifth Grade Team
Sixth Grade
In Reading, students have been wrapping up novel studies. Each class studied a different novel with topics that included deep friendship, self-discovery, and drama played out through historical events. Coming up is a 6th grade unified novel study of the Holocaust through literature.
Sixth Grade Team
Seventh Grade
Math: They will be starting to take things to the next level so they are ready for 8th grade.
Social Studies: In Social Studies we are learning about the Great Depression and how the United States suffered the worst financial disaster in its history.
Science: It has been a year long journey for the 7th graders towards a more specified science curriculum. This quarter, we started the environmental unit and will head towards astronomy where kids get to explore the sky and our universe.
7th Grade Team
Eighth Grade
We are plowing through history. In the past two months we have covered the Cold War and the Vietnam war.
In ELA, students will be reading The Hunger Games for the remainder of year as part of a unit on utopian and dystopian societies. Students will consider broader questions like: What is equality? What is freedom? What makes a "good" society? We will continue to spiral review of the year's objectives in order to prepare students for our summative assessment at the end of the year.
Tribal council in the classroom? That's right! This year's 8th grade students at Estrella Vista will be participating in a 3 week survivor science activity on "Survivor Island". Our science lab will be transformed into a tropical paradise complete with palm trees, tiki torches, tropical flowers, and more. Themed after the CBS television series, Survivor, students will join tribes of four to compete for various prizes. They will compete in immunity and reward challenges to earn points for their tribe as well as review science concepts such as metric conversions, the scientific method, calculating density and volume, reading the periodic table, applying Newton's laws, using Punnett squares, and more.
With AIMS in the rear view mirror, the rest of the year will be focused on the challenging work of preparing for high school and the algebra courses that our students will take in their freshman year. In addition to review of number operations and the real number system, we will complete graphs of linear functions and learn how coordinate graphs can tell complex stories about data. We'll finish the year with projects focused on math literacy, reading, using and applying statistics to measure problems around our community that we want to solve.
Eighth Grade Team
Technology
Pretty exciting 4th quarter in the computer lab... 7th and 8th graders are using Edmodo to electronically receive and send assignments. Students can receive immediate feedback from their teacher or their peers. Students can also access Edmodo from home, so if they miss an assignment, they can log in to see what's happening in class for the day.
6th graders are working a project where they get to create their own cruise ship! They get to decide what activities will be on board, and the places where their cruise ship will travel. They are coming up with some great and creative ideas.
5th and 4th graders are creating "Summer Time Newsletters," and they are turning out amazing! They are using all the skills they have learned this year, and really putting together colorful and creative newsletters in Microsoft Word.
3rd graders are continuing to work on ST and FT math programs, as a pilot for our school district.
2nd and 1st graders are creating awesome picture webs using Kidspiration software. I'm so proud of how far we've come along in the computer lab this year! J
Ms. Magos, Technology Teacher
Music
Third quarter was full of the exciting music of film composer Randy Newman! We learned about his life, listened to his music, and even watched examples of the music he wrote for some famous movies like Toy Story and Cars. Students also got a chance to sing and make melodies using Boomwhackers.
And our Estrellas Brillantes choir is continuing their hard work for the 5th annual Estrella Vista Spring Concert, "Road Trip U.S.A." on May 3.
Mr. Spielman, Music Teacher
Art
1st and 2nd graders have been working hard to learn how to create the secondary colors (orange, green and violet/purple) from the primary colors (red, yellow and blue) and incorporating those into a Color Wheel that shows how to make each accurately. 4th and 5th grade artists have just finished their Tessellation artwork, inspired by the artist M.C. Escher! 6th graders are working hard to finish their mixed breed symbolic animal, representative of themselves. 7th and 8th have used their knowledge of negative space to create a collage based off of warm and cool colors that incorporates their initials in traditional cursive.
Ms. Yonke, Art Teacher
Band
Spring has been a busy time for the band here at Estrella Vista. Four students participated in the AZ Solo and Ensemble Festival in March. All the advanced band students worked on solo and ensemble projects to help them perform better in public settings along with fostering their musicality. Finally, the entire band and strings program at Estrella Vista is gearing up for their annual Spring Band Concert on Thursday, May 10th. Way to go Estrella Vista Band!
Mr. Flaherty, Band Teacher
What's coming up?
May 3rd: Spring Choir Concert @ 6:30pm
May 10th: Band Concert @ 6:30pm
May 22nd: Kinder Promotion Ceremony
May 23rd: 8th Grade Promotion Ceremony
