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NOVEMBER 3K NEWSLETTER
Happy November from Ms. Cristino, Ms.Gosset, Miss Karol, Mrs. Nath, Miss Erika and Mrs. Esther!
WHAT WE ARE LEARNING:
We are finishing up our unit on “TREES”. We will begin working on the next topic of study which will be “CLOTHING”. We’ve noticed that the children are very interested in clothes. They talk about clothes, put on and take off dress up clothes, compare clothes, and add clothing details to their drawings. We think clothes will make an interesting study. As we study clothes, the children will learn concepts and build skills in language and literacy, math, science, social studies, the arts and technology. They also will use thinking skills to investigate, ask questions, solve problems, make predictions and test their ideas.
REMINDERS:
Arrival time is between 7:45 and 8am in the annex. Students who arrive after 8:15 will be marked late.
Dismissal time is promptly at 2:00. Any student not picked up by 2:20 will be walked to the main building gym.
Please pack a water sippy cup and snack for your child, daily.
Please check class dojo and your child’s mailbox daily and return all correspondence in a timely fashion.
IMPORTANT DATES
November 4- Election Day- No school
November 3rd and 5th- 3K In-Person Conferences
November 6th – Half Day- 11:30 dismissal
November 11- Veteran’s Day- No school
November 27th and 28th- Thanksgiving Recess- No School
April 14- Happy Birthday Aniyah!
April 24- Happy Birthday Sebastian
Pre-K December Newsletter
Teachers:
Mrs. Longo & Mrs. Jenn
Mrs. Kelly & Ms. B
Ms. Vozzolo & Mrs. Feller
What we are learning:
Your children will be learning about buildings. Your child will be exploring different types of buildings, how they are the same and different, who builds buildings and what tools they use, what they are made of and what makes them strong, and how we can make a community with our buildings. In addition, we will begin to discuss all the holidays celebrated in December.
Reminders:
• Please be sure to send a healthy snack and a reusable bottle of water each day.
• Blankets will be sent home for cleaning. Please be sure your child returns with a clean blanket the following week.
Important Dates:
Holiday Spirit week themes and dates to be announced.
Winter Break (No School)- December 24th - January 2nd . School will resume on Monday, January 5th.
Birthdays:
Aaliyah-12/5
Jimmy-12/9
Sophia-12/24
Kindergarten
December Newsletter
Reading: In Module 3 children will read, view, and interact with the topic of communities
Writing: Students will create an informational text about helping others in their community.
Math: We will be continuing learning numbers 0-10. We will start to classify groups of objects and compare them by the amount.
Important Dates:
Artistic Stitch trip: Permission slips with the date will go out to each class.
December 23-January 5: Winter Break
December 16- Winter Musical
December 1st Grade Newsletter
Mrs.Villalta, Mrs. Frydel, Ms. Rooney, Ms.Mondesi, Mrs. Castillo, and Mrs.Benenati
Dates to Remember:
· Holiday sale, December 8-12, 2025.
· Hot cocoa with MsDiamond @ 8:45am, December 12,2025
· Holiday concert @ 12:25pm, December 16, 2025
· Holiday festival, December 18&19, 2025
· No school, December 24,2025-January 4, 2026
Reminders:
· Please check your child’s folders every day.
· Please check homework every day.
· Arrival is in the gym at 8:00 am on Bleecker St.
· Dismissal is in the gym at 2:00pm on Bleecker St.
A peek at what we are learning:
MATH: Students will learn how to subtract to 20 on a number line, use double facts to solve subtraction problems, and use addition facts to find subtraction facts.
Phonics: Students will learn to continue how to print upper and lower-case letters and sounds. Students will learn the short vowel sounds and digraph th. They will continue to practice using CVC words and creating sentences.
ELA: Students will discover many details about animals as they read both nonfiction and fiction selections. Children will learn about the various characteristics of animals that allow them to grow and survive in the natural world. They will also explore the various
kinds of structures animals build for homes and protection. Students will conduct research and write an informative paper about their favorite animal.
Second Grade Newsletter
Ms. Garcia, Ms. Olivo, Ms. Ululati, Ms. Arias, Mrs. Saleh, and Mrs. McKenna are thrilled to share that the school year is off to a fantastic start! We’ve loved getting to know your children and can’t wait to continue learning and growing together in the months ahead.
What we are learning:
● HMH Into Reading: Students will learn about how people can work out disagreements.
● Math: In units 3 and 4, students will learn about adding two-digit numbers using strategies such as a hundred chart, a number line, and place value.
● Writing: Children will also write a persuasive essay about an issue that may cause disagreement.
Reminders:
● Please check your child's folder and homework daily.
● Arrival is at 8:00 a.m
● Dismissal is at 2:00 p.m
● There are spelling tests every Friday
Important dates:
● No school on November 4th, 11th, 27th and 28th
● Parent-teacher conferences will take place virtually or in person the week of November 3rd
● Students will have a half day on November 3rd - 11:30 dismissal
● Swimming classes will continue on each classes’ specified week day
Terrific Third Graders
December 2025
Holidays and Art Projects
*Stay tuned for holiday party and dates*
- Hanukkah
- Christmas
- Kwanzaa
Math
In topic 4 we will be introducing multiplication facts to help them solve division problems. They are learning how the two operations connect and how knowing one can help with the other. Multiplication and division have an inverse relationship. We are also using our understanding of even and odd numbers to identify multiplication patterns.
Reading
*Essential Question: Why might some stories be
better told as plays?
Essential Skills for Module 4
*Critical Vocabulary:
- audition, rehearse, ability, actor, saga, genuine, coiled, whirled, tame
*Vocabulary Strategy: Shades of Meaning
*Generative Vocabulary: Prefixes in– (not),
- im– (into); Spiral Review: Prefix im– (not)
*Reading Comprehension Skills:
- Ideas and Support
- Elements of Drama
- Visualize
- Literary Elements
- Figurative Language
*Foundational Skills
- Decoding: Consonant digraphs
- (ch, tch, sh, wh, th, ph, ng)
*Spelling: Spelling the /ch/ sound
Writing
Narrative Writing: Story
Children will write a story about this person’s life and what they did to help someone else.
* Make sure your story has a beginning, middle, and conclusion. It should move logically through the story’s events.
*Make sure your story has an interesting plot with specific details including characters, setting, and dialogue.
*Use a variety of sentence types, word choice is specific and clear, and uses correct spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation.
Grammar:
-Subject pronouns, objective pronouns, Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement, Irregular Plural Nouns, Capitalizing and Punctuating Quotations.
Important Dates:
*December 15th- Holiday Music Concert
*December 24th -January 2nd - Winter Recess, Schools Closed
4th Grade
Reading-Rise to the occasion - What does it take to meet a challenge?
We are still working on Module 3. Over the next few weeks, they will build and strengthen their reading, writing, listening, speaking, and thinking skills as they explore facing challenges. Titles include
● Rent Party Jazz
● Hurricanes:A Force of Nature
● My Diary:From Here to There
These titles will provide students with opportunities to synthesize ideas, identify plot elements, and identify themes to better understand unfamiliar texts. Students will also encounter narrative nonfiction, autobiographical fiction, and a play to build knowledge across genres.
As students build their vocabulary and synthesize topic knowledge, they will learn that with personal courage and the support of family, friends, and community members, people can face any challenge.
WIN – What I Need
We are almost finished with assessing students for placement for the school wide phonics program which will begin promptly at 8:15. It is important to have students come to school on time so they do not miss this program.
Writing: Opinion Essay (continued)
Friends and family can work together to overcome challenges.
Students are coming along with the new writing unit. Students are learning how to
• clearly state opinions
• support opinions with reasons, facts, and examples
• use persuasive language
Math: Topic 3 In this unit students will use strategies and properties to multiply by 1-digit numbers. They'll be able to use basic facts and place value patterns to find products when one factor is 10, 100, or 1000. They will also use rounding to estimate products and check to see if answers are reasonable. More importantly students will be learning multiple ways to multiply including distributive property or alien ears, partial products, as well as the traditional way of multiplying.
Science: Mrs. Fanning has begun the Amplify Science Program during her classes. She is currently working on the Vision and Light unit. Over the course of this unit, students investigate the role that animal senses, primarily vision, play in survival as they try to understand a realistic fictional problem with a real organism. They investigate why there is a decline in the number of Tokay geckos living in one area of a rain forest in the Philippines. Humans change the environments in which we live in many ways—clearing forests to make roads and build houses, removing species of plants and animals that are dangerous to humans, installing lights to make it easier to see at night, and so on.
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Upcoming Events
Important Dates
November 4th - Election Day - NO SCHOOL
November 6th ***PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES******
November 6th - ½ Day Dismissal is 11:30
November 11th - Veterans Day - NO SCHOOL
November 27th and 28th - Thanksgiving - NO SCHOOL
Parents please check with your child’s teacher to set up a time for Parent Teacher conferences to discuss report cards.
Fifth Grade Newsletter
Grade 5 December Newsletter
Happy December!
In ELA, we are beginning Module 3. This module will focus on natural disasters. The students will be learning about various natural disasters and how learning about them can make us safer. The students will listen to, read, and view a variety of texts and media that present them with information about natural disasters. The children will build their vocabulary and synthesize topic knowledge across genres to learn about the causes of different types of natural disasters.
The skills focused on this month will be: Making predictions to monitor comprehension, identifying text structure and chronological order, using text and graphic features for comprehension of harder texts, understanding content area words, identifying the central idea, analyzing author’s craft, identifying and analyzing the use of figurative language, and responding to texts.
In writing, we are writing persuasive essays about natural disasters. The children will decide if they think it’s better to rebuild a town after a disaster hits or to leave it. Once they decide their position, the students will try to convince the reader to agree with them.
In Math, we have begun Topic 5 which focuses on division of whole numbers. The students will be using models and strategies to divide whole numbers. In this unit we use many strategies to divide numbers. We will use models to divide whole numbers, partial quotients to divide, estimation to place the first digit of the quotient, and multiples of 10 to divide. In addition, we are working on solving word problems using various strategies. If you learned a different way to divide, please feel free to use that to help your child succeed.
Many students continue to struggle with basic multiplication facts. Remember to study those multiplication facts daily!
Helpful Links: khanacademy.org mathgames.com
We will have our last Salvadori Program class this month. The children’s final project is to work collaboratively to design and construct a model of a landmark,
monument, or memorial in the context of a public park site. They will also finalize a design proposal letter and plaque information.
*Stay tuned for the next exciting enrichment program that’s coming for our children. Ballroom Dancing is up next! More information to follow soon!
Physical Education
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This November, our fourth and fifth graders are actively participating in the NYC Fitnessgram, focusing on improving their personal fitness levels and learning about the importance of maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle. They’re working hard to set goals, track progress, and develop confidence in their physical abilities.
Our younger students are busy building foundational skills through fun, hands-on activities. Kindergarteners are exploring locomotor movements—like hopping, skipping, and galloping—while learning the basics of throwing. First, second, and third graders are practicing underhand throwing using a variety of manipulatives to strengthen coordination, accuracy, and teamwork.
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September/October Newsletter for ENL
We are working with our English Language Learners/Multi-lingual Learners (ELL/MLL) with HMH Into Reading. This year we are using The Designated English Development slides that are aligned to each Module, week and session. We follow the Integrated ENL model where we push into the classroom and offer support. Additionally, we have some free standing ENL groups where we work with the children in a small group setting. We are working with the same stories as the HMH Into Reading program, but by chunking the text, the children are able to engage with the material on their level. Grammar is taught through the HMH material and Deconstructing the Text helps to breakdown the reading into comprehensible input. There is an Exit Ticket to evaluate
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Library Newsletter
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December Newsletter for Library
Our students have been busy in the library!
In December, we have many things to celebrate. We will enjoy literature focused on the many holidays and seasonal changes occurring during the month of December.
Students in kindergarten, first and second grade will begin a unit on gingerbread stories, in which they compare and contrast the many different stories that focus on gingerbread men/women. Students in third and fourth grades will also work on gingerbread stories, but will continue their research into runaway food stories (Stop that Pickle, The Cajun Cornbread Boy, The Runaway Tortilla and many others). Students in fifth grade will work on a unit researching winter holidays around the world. Students will continue to borrow books throughout December. Additionally, seasonal texts will also be enjoyed and shared while visiting the library.
Please continue to ask your children about their library books and continue to read with them at home!
Happy November!
Music Newsletter for NovemberSPOTLIGHT: Thanksgiving is on the way, but we will be working mostly on our Holiday concert in December this month!THIS MONTH:Kindergarten - I’m Mr. Turkey, Holiday Concert SongsFirst Grade - Turkey Woogie, Holiday Concert SongsThird Grade - Many Thanks, Holiday Concert SongsFourth Grade - It’s Good to Give Thanks, Holiday Concert SongsFifth Grade - The Great Big Holiday Bake Off Show for Holiday ConcertDID YOU KNOW?: Mrs. Brosky loves Thanksgiving! Her favorite food is her mom’s sweet potatoes! She is thankful for being your music teacher!JOKE OF THE MONTH: What is the most musical part of the turkey? The drumstick!All Music Newsletters Here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19iz9hZbq0kku_lPrycFqjjRYTOluvhGwNzvwyIm1rsY/edit?usp=sharingFOR FEBRUARY
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JOKE
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Mindful Moments with Savage
December Yoga & Mindfulness – Grades 1–5
Hello Families, This month we’re helping students stay calm, focused, and confident during the busy holiday season.
In Yoga, we’re practicing:
· Tree, Mountain & Star Pose
· Gentle winter stretching
· Fun movement games for balance and strength
In Mindfulness, we’re learning:
· “Snow Globe Breathing” for big feelings
· Gratitude moments: “What made you smile today?”
· Mindful listening to improve focus
Special Activity: We’ll make Mindfulness Jars with kind words and calming ideas.
Wishing you a peaceful December! – Ms. Savage
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Science- December 2025
Ms. Fanning and Ms. Kassnove
Kindergarten-We are beginning a new unit on pushes and pulls. We will learn about all of the different types of directional forces. Our scientists will learn how to control directional forces; from soccer players to engineers developing forms of industrial automation to pinball machine players.
Grade 1-We will continue taking a deeper look at ocean animals. We are fascinated with what we have learned so far and will continue researching different ocean animals comparing their similarities and differences. We will study their habitats, diet, appearance, and other interesting facts about ocean animals.
Grade 2- Second grade scientists are continuing to explore the relationship between plants and animals. They are now experimenting with seed dispersal, and the variety of methods of how plants can get their seeds to new locations: wind, animal fur, and animal waste.
Grade 3- Third grade scientists continue to explore how traits are passed from parents to offspring. They are learning about DNA and genes as well as environmental influences on genetics. They are working to solve the mystery of a wolf being raised in a pack he was not born in.
Grade 4- Students completed their life science unit on vision and the Tokay Gecko. Scientists are now studying Earth science. They are exploring how rocks and fossils can help us understand how the Earth changes over time. Students are examining real fossils and learning about sedimentary rock and how fossils get buried in rock.
Grade 5- Students are completing their unit on matter, substances and mixtures. They participated in a computerized lab on the states of matter (solid, liquid, gas). Our next unit will introduce students to ecosystems and how plants and animals rely on each other to maintain the health of the given ecosystem.
Hydroponics Lab- Our second grade botanists have been learning about how to grow plants without soil in our new Hydroponic Flex Farm. They are using water, nutrients, and artificial light to grow edible plants including lettuces and herbs!
Speech & Language Newsletter
Hi, We are the Speech-Language Pathologists (Speech teachers) at P.S. 81!
What is our role in helping the students at P.S. 81?
Speech-language pathologists, also called SLPs, are experts in communication. SLPs work with people of all ages, from babies to adults. SLPs treat many types of communication and swallowing problems. These include problems with speech sounds, language, literacy, social communication, voice, fluency and cognitive-communication. Speech sounds are how we say sounds and put sounds together into words. Language is how well we understand what we hear or read and how we use words to tell others what we are thinking. Literacy is how well we read and write. People with speech and language disorders may also have trouble reading, spelling, and writing. Social communication is how well we follow rules, like taking turns, how to talk to different people, or how close to stand to someone when talking. Voice is how our voices sound. We may sound hoarse, lose our voices easily, talk too loudly or through our noses, or be unable to make sounds. Fluency, also called stuttering, is how well speech flows. Someone who stutters may repeat sounds, like t-t-t-table, use "um" or "uh," or pause a lot when talking. Cognitive-communication is how well our minds work. Problems may involve memory, attention, problem solving, organization and other thinking skills.
If you have any questions about your child’s development, please feel free to contact any of us.
Jessica Amato, Jaclyn Castaneda, Rose Ann Mascia, Cristina Quintanilla and Noelia Rosenthal
Here are some Fall activities you can do with your child to encourage their speech and language development.
1. Fall Scavenger Hunt (Language & Vocabulary)
Goal: Build vocabulary, describing skills, and following directions.
How to Play:
· Make a list of fall items (leaf, pumpkin, pinecone, acorn, squirrel, scarecrow).
· Go on a walk or look around the yard/house.
· As your child finds each item, have them describe it:
o “What color is it?”
o “What does it feel like?”
o “What can you do with it?” Speech tip: Use full sentences (“I found a brown leaf.”).
2. Pumpkin Talk (Articulation & Conversation)
Goal: Practice target sounds or social language.
How to Play:
· Carve or decorate a pumpkin together.
· Each time your child takes a turn (drawing, scooping, etc.), have them say a word with their target sound (e.g., /p/ words: pumpkin, pie, pop, paper).
· Or ask “conversation” questions:
o “What face should we make?”
o “What do you like about fall?”
3. Apple Taste Test (Describing & Comparing)
Goal: Practice describing words and comparison.
How to Play:
· Try different types of apples (red, green, yellow).
· Use words to describe: “sweet,” “sour,” “crunchy,” “soft.”
· Compare: “The red apple is sweeter than the green one.” Speech tip: Encourage complete sentences and new adjectives.
October 2025
Counselor's Corner: Josephine D’Amico
October brings cooler weather and the excitement of fall activities. This month, we’ll be focusing on the importance of building empathy and understanding within our school community. As we celebrate the season, let’s also take time to appreciate the diverse perspectives and experiences!
Upcoming Events
The Beautiful Me and Confident Kids, self-esteem programs have begun with our 5th grade students during their lunch periods. Class 5-412 is the first class participating in this program.
· The Beautiful Me lessons will increase their positive body awareness and build healthy friendship skills.
· The Confident Kids lessons will promote their appreciation of their genuine qualities, accurate self-awareness and developed coping skills.
Focus of the Month:
Building Empathy & Understanding
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. This month, we’ll be exploring how students can practice empathy in their daily interactions and why it’s so important for creating a supportive and inclusive school environment.
Halloween Safety Tips
· Stay on the sidewalk.
· Don’t eat candy before it is inspected by an adult.
· Don’t eat unwrapped candies.
· Stay with your group/ family.
· Wear reflecting items on your clothes so cars can see you.
· Observe trick or treat hours.
· Have a Haunting good time!!
Contact Information:
If you have any questions or concerns, I’m here to help. You can reach me at ([email protected]) or call (718-821-9800). Let’s work together to support your child’s growth this year!