BES Literacy Gazette
Did you know we are not wired to read? All humans must be taught hot to crack the alphabetic code. Successful reading comprehension is the product of multiple subcomponent skills, including decoding and oral language. For students to become proficient readers, they must master the following skills:
Phonemic Awareness–the ability to hear, identify, and play with individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words
Phonics–understanding the relationship between letters and sounds
Fluency–the ability to smoothly, accurately, and with proper expression, allowing for better comprehension and enjoyment of text.
Vocabulary–the collection of words a person knows and understands, essential for effective communication and reading comprehension.
Comprehension–the ability to understand, interpret, and make meaning from written or spoken text.
Click here to find out ways to support these skills at home!
Baldwin Elementary - Title I Reading Specialists
Erin Baacke - ebaacke@mcpsva.org
Sabrina Brown - sbrown@mcpsva.org
Encore Events
Art With Mrs. Grebner
In art, we will focus on space, finishing value, and using a variety of media materials, techniques, and processes to create artwork, including clay, during the 3rd quarter.
Space is an element of art where you change the size or layer of images to show depth. This element is shown in our third-grade work – painted paper forest as shown below. Overlapping the trees in this work shows that some trees are behind or in front of others.
Value is an element of art where you create tints and shades by mixing white or black to a main color. Fourth graders created value landscapes with both tints and shades, second grade used this element for their metal robots to show light and shadows, and first grade with the blue and light blue colored pencils on the edge of their snowmen to show a more rounded shape.
K- We have finished up our cute chalk pastel polar bears and are creating snowflakes using clay. They will roll, cut, use texture plates and paint to create a beautiful hanging snowflake.
1ST- Students are finishing their snowmen adding a variety of lines to create texture for the hats and will learn to make a yarn pom-pom for the tops of the hats. Our next project will be clay snails where they will learn different hand building techniques with clay (slip, score, rolling, imprinting, etc.).
2ND- Second grade really enjoyed creating their value robots and will move to creating a winter landscape using space and water color inspired by artist Jen Ariyani. Once complete we will create clay penguin sculptures focusing on different techniques.
3RD- Students will learn the history of weaving and create a woven flower vase out of paper and create 3D flowers using various materials. Then, they will move into various clay techniques to create a fish sculpture which they will paint.
4TH- Students will begin with printmaking of foam and move to clay where they will use the techniques learned over the years to create a dragon eye. They have been waiting for these projects since last year and are excited to begin.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Mrs. Grebner
Music With Mrs. Kingett
K - Kindergarten students have been learning the basics of music like patterns of 2, 3, and 4, melodic concepts, and moving to music. They love to play music games like Kangaroo, I have lost my closet key, and Stinky Pirates. Their next unit is on the instruments of the orchestra. In honor of Black History month all students have been learning about Trombone Shorty, Marian Anderson, and Dizzy Gillespie.
1ST - First graders have learned the beginnings of music reading. In the fall we focused on rhythm and the use of quarter notes, quarter rests, and eighth notes. Now we are focused on melodic concepts like phrases and melodic direction. We have also learned the solfege names and notes of Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, and La. We will be doing a unit on instruments of the orchestra and dynamics in the coming weeks.
2ND - Second graders have been learning about melodic and rhythmic skills in their music classes. They know and can demonstrate the use of all of the first grade concepts plus half notes and rests, the major scale, the pentatonic scale, and the solfege notes of Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, and high Do. They are currently studying the Baroque Period, and the composers Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel. We hope to have a concert about literacy in April.
3RD - Third graders are so excited about learning recorders. We have started learning our first three notes, B, A, and G. We have also started Recorder Karate and we already have students who have earned 4 belts! We hope to have a concert in March to show everyone all we have learned.
4TH - Fourth graders have had a very full year in music so far. Right now we are working on a unit on guitars. We have had a good time learning the open strings and the notes on the E and B strings, plus the chords C & G. As a class, we are looking forward to beginning a unit on Ukulele in the coming weeks. Prior to winter break, our 4th-grade chorus sang at the tree lighting in Manassas City and at our Winter Sing Along in December. We sang at the All City Chorus event at the Hylton Performing Arts Center on February 18th. We even have eight students who will be representing us at All Virginia Elementary Chorus in April.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Mrs. Kingett.
PE With Mr. Markiewicz and Ms. Frack
K & 1st: We are currently learning how to play tag games as well as games that incorporate throwing. We are also working on coordination, balance and locomotor movements!
2nd & 3rd: We are currently working on games that incorporate agility and cooperation. In March we plan to do age appropriate basketball skills. Frisbee will also be coming up!
4TH: We continue to work on lifetime fitness skills and prepare for our fitness testing coming up in April. Each class consists of a warm up, locomotor skills, endurance training and strength training. Classes will learn Yoga, Basketball and Frisbee in the upcoming weeks.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Mr. Markiewicz and Ms. Frack
Library with Mrs. Nichols
K: In Kindergarten, we have been previewing books, activating prior knowledge on book topics, making connections to stories and characters from our own lives, sharing ideas and making inferences, as well as talking about how to tell the difference between fiction and nonfiction books.
1ST: In first grade, we have been working on story elements, making connections to a story, highlighting vocabulary, learning and identifying how every good story has a problem and solution.
2ND: In second grade we have been reading a variety of fiction and nonfiction books to compare and contrast features and support comprehension as well as with characters of other cultures and countries.
3RD: In third grade we used Code.org to code an interactive book cover by following basic programming directions and using creativity to make it our own. Third graders are becoming successful in using our library search engine to discover and find books that interest them and working on our sustained reading time through competition with other classes.
4TH: Fourth graders have been using their computer research skills to find facts on an animal of their choice as well as reading fiction stories about that animal to infer why an author might choose a specific animal for their story. They have used websites such as Britannica School, Worldbook Online, EPIC and PebbleGo to support their research. We have learned the basics on how to credit/cite resources that we used.
