October 1 Picture Day
October 9 Movie Night
October 12 No School (Teacher’s work Day)
October 19 No School (Teacher’s work Day)
October 23-29 RED Ribbon Week
October 27 Literacy Night
October 30 Halloween Parties
Remember, please don’t drop your children off before 8:00. If your child walks, makesure they don’t get to the building before 8:00. There are no adults there to supervise them before that.
Reading, Reading, Reading
Pence Literacy Team is gearing up for another exciting year of reading. This year we will again be having 4 literacy nights. Our first literacy night will be October 27th from 5:30-7:00pm. The theme for this night will be Halloween. Come dressed up in your costumes and enjoy free games, free food, free prizes and free mystery readers. Did we mention it was FREE!! Come join in on all the fun!
Kindergarten
Kindergarten will be learning about the life cycle of apples. Each class will do an investigation of apples. We will be looking for apple donations. We will need cooking apples, red apples, and green apples. Please look for a note home about apple donations!
Kindergarten will be working hard on some fun Fall themes. We will be reading many non-fiction books about bats and spiders. Rainbow Sight Words will start this month. Please look for a note home about the Rainbow Sight Words!
First Grade
Our first grade reading groups have been going well! Students are participating in skill-based groups and working with different teachers. Thank you for supporting your students reading and reading book nooks at home! It is fun to see how excited students are about their own reading growth. We are looking forward to also starting BOOKIT. Students book nook time will also count towards their BOOKIT goal minutes and they can earn a free personal pan pizza. Mrs. Holligsworth (October 27), Mrs. Greiner (October 26), and Miss McEvoy's (October 30) class will be traveling to the Jefferson County Park in the end of October.
Second Grade
2nd grade is excited for the changing of the seasons. We have worked very hard on our classroom routines and are settling in to more learning. We will be focusing on story elements, beginning, middle, end, and how the illustrations help us understand characters in a book. In math we will begin learning addition facts so we can quickly add. We are also working on place value, ones, tens, and hundreds. In social studies we will focus on families and our communities.
The end of October will bring our first classroom celebration, the Halloween party! If you have volunteered to supply items for the party, your teacher will let you know the time of the party. Please be looking out for further information on the party from the head volunteer.
Third Grade
During the month of October, both classrooms will be traveling to the Jefferson County Park. Please watch for notes to come home and updates about the up and coming field trips! In the classroom, we will be focusing a lot of our attention on animals. We will learn about animals that are endangered and extinct, learn about animal life cycles, and even compare animals to plants. As always, watch for email updates from Ms. Roth and check out Mrs. Hoyer's class blog @
Fourth Grade
Fall is here! It is starting to cool down upstairs! Fourth grade has many activities to look forward to this month. We have begun our new reading classes to ensure good fit levels of instruction. Look out for students bringing home new reading strategies. In social studies we are beginning out studies of the different regions. With Columbus Day and Thanksgiving approaching, it is only fitting to begin in the North East! This time of year brings on our favorite part of math- Pumpkin Math! Students will be exploring multiple math skills through the use of pumpkins. We will be asking for pumpkins and parents soon!
Fun at the Sondheim Center with theAfter School Program
Ten students from the Pence 4th grade went to the Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts onSeptember 15th and 22ndafter school to learn about the Barhydt Organ and the grand piano there. John Connet spoke to the students about how he repaired and rebuilt the huge pipe organ, and Dr. Werner Elmker played the organ. A question and answer period followed, then the students actually got to play both the organ and the $500,000 grand piano! The students enjoyed learning about and playing these two fantastic instruments.
From the Nurse
October brings the cooler weather and the sounds of leaves crunching beneath our feet; let’s not forget the start of flu season is around the corner! While it is not a requirement that students receive a influenza vaccination it is always an opportunity for extra immunity against influenza causing agents. Of course receiving the influenza vaccination is not the only way we can keep our students healthy following our school student health policy is another great way to keep everyone at school healthy and learning! Please do not send your student to school if they have vomited the night before or have had a fever. Students must be absent of fever, vomiting or diarrhea for 24 hours prior to returning to school! Keeping your student at home 24 hours after an illness can help prevent the spreading of illness causing viruses! If you would like more information on where you can obtain an influenza vaccination for your student please feel free to contact me anytime at Pence Elementary!
Heather L. Miller, R.N.
Pence Pals -
Hello from Pence Pals! We are the volunteer parent group for Pence Elementary. We would like to welcome all parents and guardians with students at Pence to come to our meetings! Our meetings are the firstWednesdayof each month, starting at6:00 p.m.in the art room at Pence. If you cannot make the meetings but would like to help our group, which helps the students, teachers and school, send us an email r a message on our Pence Pals Facebook page.
Here are our meeting dates for the rest of 2015:
October 7th
November 4th
December 2nd
IMPORTANT DATE:
OCTOBER 9th- Pence Pals Family movie night - Bring your lawn chairs, blankets and family! Also bring a school supply from the list sent home with students or any school supply and you will get a free bag of popcorn! Other concessions will be available. The students have voted on the movie and Mr. Benge will give clues to them the week of the movie. We will announce the movie on our two Facebook pages onOctober 8th! Stay tuned and see if your student can guess which movie won!
****Stay updated on events by joining our Facebook pages, which are: Pence Elementary-Fairfield, IA and Pence Pals****
Have a great October! From Pence Pals!