Pekin CSD - Packwood, Iowa

Kindergarten has had such a busy month that it’s hard to believe that March is around the corner! During these cold temperatures we have been learning the effects it has on the animals and hibernation. We learned what animals hibernate and where they hibernate, as well as animals that migrate to warmer areas. We did get a chance to “hibernate” with some healthy snacks and fun activities to wrap up the unit. In reading, we are learning about the importance of vowels and consonants-blending them together fluently. We are also learning with Morgan Dickey and Annie Millikin with EET (Expanding Expression Tool) which is a multi-sensory approach to get detailed descriptions and definitions. This also expands the students vocabulary by adding more detail and pulling in prior knowledge. In math we are learning about number sentences and number bonds. We just celebrated our 100th day of school! For this day, we did a lot of fun counting activities, building with 100 objects, exercises, and the best one of all: the kindergarten trading extravaganza! This is where each student brought in 100 identical items to share. Students were able to exchange their prepackaged items with friends. It was fun to watch them interact and reason with one another while exchanging items. Tying into the 100 day celebration, the kindergarten classes joined together to collect 100 items for Noah’s Ark, in Fairfield, and the Richland Food Pantry. The students will be dropping the donated items to the locations later this week. We have been learning about ways to help others and show kindness and this is a wonderful way to think of others. Kindergarten will celebrate Valentine’s day with fun centers and a valentines exchange. We will make our own monster valentine bags in class along with some fun valentine journaling about who we love and why. This was a lot of fun watching the kids sound out their words and create more than just one sentence! We will be starting our unit on Penguins next. This includes writing facts learned about the different types of penguins, habitats and life cycle. It is going to be another busy but fun month in kindergarten as we head into March.

Pekin Banking continues each week thanks to Kortney Heald and Pilot Grove Savings Bank. 5th grade students apply to be tellers and learn real world skills while helping students .

Here is the link for the boys shootout at WACO: http://www.youtube.com/WACOwarriorslive

Best wishes to our wrestlers and Coach Chapman, at Sigourney today, as well as to our basketball players and coaches as they enter tourney play! A special shout out to Mrs. Brown as she also taught and supported our State Speech students! Go Panthers!

Best wishes to our students participating at the State Speech Competition being held this Saturday at Kennedy High School! Special thanks to Mrs. Lane for her professional efforts to prepare them. (I had the honor of watching the Reader's Theater team yesterday...priceless!)

Our 5th grade students were scheduled to perform during the HS basketball games this evening, but unfortunately Mrs. Buch is out ill today. So, we need to postpone this event until Mon., Feb. 7th. The students have worked so hard to prepare for this opportunity to showcase their skills. Please join us Mon. night to cheer them on and enjoy some HS basketball.

January in the Pekin CSD was great! February is going to be even better! Go Panthers!

Online registration for parent/teacher conferences is open from Feb. 1st-11th. Please register through your PowerSchool account. Conferences are Feb. 15th & 17th from 3:00-7:00 PM. School will dismiss those days at 1:30.

Here is your link to order tickets for the Sectional Wrestling meet at Sigourney Feb. 5th starting at noon. Tickets MUST BE purchased online. https://www.iahsaa.org/tickets/

I wanted to remind the Pekin Elementary parents that the pie fundraiser forms and money are due to be turned in Mon., Jan. 31st. Please make sure your form has complete information and payment is included that matches your sales. I truly appreciate your efforts as we try to complete the final phase of our playground expansion project. Anyone who hasn't ordered yet be sure to contact your favorite elementary student or the elem. office. Thank you, Mrs. Ledger

Here are a few more photos from Ag in the Classroom with Taryn Reed and our Kindergarten students.

Kindergarten students enjoyed learning about sugar cane and sugar beets from their recent lesson by special guest, Taryn Reed. Taryn works for our Jefferson Co. Farm Bureau and has supported our Kindergarten classes by integrating Ag in the Classroom. They enjoyed making gumdrops. They thought it was great!

K-6 Music Update: We are enjoying hosting a student teacher in music for the months of January and February. Mr. Spears comes to us from William Penn College. He has been teaching the 3rd grade how to read treble clef notes and the 4th grade on how to read bass clef notes. K-2nd have been working on hearing rhythms while the 5th graders have been working on their singing. Our 6th graders are taking a break from the History of Rock-n-Roll to begin working on their creating sound project. The 5th grade band has been learning more music concepts as well continuing to learn to play together. That is always a challenge the first year of playing. The 6th grade band members have been given their solos and ensemble music to work on as well as reaching their potential of playing band music on their level. Letters with more information for you concerning concerts and/or the solo/ensemble contest will be sent home accordingly. Hopefully students are sharing what they have been learning with you. If not, please ask them to share :0) Here are the Concert Dates for the rest of our school year so MARK YOUR CALENDARS! March 24th - 3rd & 4th Grade Music Concert @ 6:00 pm March 31st - 6-8 Grade Solo/Ensemble Contest (All 6th grade band members are involved) April 28th - 5th & 6th Grade Music & Bands Concert @ 6:00 pm

The Pekin Community School District will have a two-hour late start on Wednesday, January 26, 2022. Again, Pekin Schools will have a two hour late start, tomorrow, Wednesday, January 26th. Thank you!

6th Reading In December, the 6th-grade students used their creative skills to apply their knowledge to language projects. We read three Christmas stories The Christmas Carol, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Ugly Christmas Sweater Rebellion. For The Christmas Carol story, students had to write their own Christmas Carol parody. For the book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, students had to write an essay to persuade me to think the Grinch was either Malicious or Misunderstood. Their writing skills are developing well. For The Ugly Christmas Sweater Rebellion book, students were given “$20.00” to spend in the stem room for supplies to design their own ugly Christmas sweater. During the three days of designing, our awesome, resourceful stem teacher challenged the students to math skills by offering a buy one, get one free offer and a 75% off sale during the duration of the unit. Some students were very creative in their thinking of how they were going to spend their money. In January, we read the story That Knot is Not a Knot. Along with new vocabulary words, the students learned how to tie real knots and fake knots. We also learned how to use the string to create a cat’s cradle, Jacobs Ladder, witches’ broom, and the Eiffel Tower. We compared this to fidget spinners that students use today. In Quarter 3, not only are we focusing on vocabulary words, but we also are focusing on spelling words to learn how to spell more accurately and enhance our vocabulary. AR will start again. I encourage students to read at home and study their spelling words. 6th Grade Math In math class, we have already worked through four units and have switched to our second math journal. Recently, the 6th grade students have been working on solving problems with order of operations. The Everyday Math series has also given the students a great introduction to algebraic expressions. If the students want to practice any of the skills we have been working on, they can log-in to their IXL account at home. This is a great opportunity for them to practice their math skills we have been working on. IXL: https://www.ixl.com/signin/pekin The students’ username is their last name first initial with no spaces. Passwords are on their google classroom or you can email me. Let me know if they have trouble getting logged in. -Mrs. Hinnah 6th Social Studies/Science We just finished up our World Cultures unit for Social Studies. We put a new spin on this unit this year since it was Christmas time. I had the 6th graders pick a country and compare Christmas in that country to the U.S.A. The students made Christmas cards using designs and phrases from their country, they picked out a recipe from their country then brought it in and shared it with their classmates, then the final part of the project was to make a slideshow presentation comparing Christmas in their country to Christmas in the U.S.A. This week we started our Weather & Water FOSS kit for Science. Ms. Clarahan

Dear Pekin Parents and Students, With windchill temperatures expected to be - 25 degrees or more in the morning, the Pekin Community School District will have a 2-hour late start on Thursday, January 20, 2022. Thank you! Mr. Hatfield

WACO Warrior Wrestling Tournament Update The tournament has been canceled.

WACO Warrior Invitational Update The wrestling invitational at WACO has been moved back to 12:00pm tomorrow. Coaches will be in contact with wrestlers, managers, and cheerleaders with the departure time.

Reminder: No School for Pekin students on Friday, January 14, 2022 due to a staff work day. All Friday evening activities have been postponed. We will assess road and weather conditions early Saturday morning to determine event participation. The Pekin Child Care Center will close at 4:00 PM. Thank you!

Fifth Grade Math Update First semester is about to end, and students are ready to start their second math journal. Second quarter focused mostly on introducing fractions. Students now realize that fractions are actually division problems, the numerator divided by the denominator. They have learned how to convert improper fractions to mixed numbers and vise versa. They also worked on finding common denominators to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators. This is a difficult concept for them. They are now able to find a fraction of a whole number and multiply two fractions. Simplifying fractions is still a struggle for most students, but practice makes progress, so we keep working at it. Students have also been writing decimal numbers in expanded form and adding and subtracting decimals. They have learned that 0.6 is the same as 6/10, 0.06 = 6/100 and 0.006 = 6/1000. We have also spent time working with ordered pairs and coordinate grids. Next semester we will continue fraction work using more mixed numbers. It is quite exciting to think about how much students have learned so far this school year. Fifth Grade Social Studies As we wrap up the 2nd quarter, we are focusing on the theme, “How Can Leaders Impact a Historic Event?” We have studied two influential leaders Andrew Jackson and John Ross and their connection to the Trail of Tears. We have focused on what makes someone a good leader, and also how history could have been changed by the leaders using their power to make different decisions. We have had some wonderful in-depth class discussions throughout this unit about the importance of studying our history can help us not to repeat our past mistakes. During this unit, we have focused on the skill of taking notes, and using those notes to answer essay paragraph style questions. We also took the last few days before break to do an “Ugly Christmas Sweater” themed unit. We learned where and when they “think” the idea originated, designed our own sweaters and we were able to decorate them as well. During this project we learned and solved a logic problem, and graphed coordinates to form Christmas themed pictures. Fifth Grade ELA It’s hard to believe that we are already finishing up the 2nd quarter! During the second quarter students have been working on a wide variety of skills in reading and writing. One skill that will be ongoing throughout the year is reading fluently and accurately. Our reading intervention time has helped this tremendously. During this time teachers are able to work with a smaller group and focus on each student's individual needs. We have also been working hard on using the text to help and answer questions and draw conclusions/make inferences. Making inferences can be a tough skill for students to understand since it is not “right there”. We are just wrapping up an informative writing essay that consists of five paragraphs. This took most of the quarter to complete. We took our time to research, take notes, and work paragraph by paragraph to complete this essay. Students were able to choose their own topic to research and write about. I found this neat to get to know what each student was super interested in. Students continue to work toward meeting their AR goals and completing book projects. In December we were able to complete a snow globe book project. We also completed a Polar Express Unit. Students really enjoyed this unit. They designed and “purchased” materials to build their own train. I am excited to see how much the students will grow and succeed over the next two quarters.