Parker Panther Press
March 29, 2019

April Events
4/01 PTO meeting @ 6:30
4/01 - 4/02 NYS Grades 3-8 ELA Testing
4/09 Board of Education meeting @ 6:30
4/12 Elementary Report Cards Distributed
4/15 - 4/19 Spring Break No School
4/25 Parker Community Celebration 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
4/30 - 5/1 NYS Grades 3-8 Math Testing
Early Dismissal Dates
All K-6 students will be dismissed at 12:30 p.m. on May 14 and June 21. This is AFTER all students have had their lunch. Our faculty and staff will be using this time to prepare for the transition to three elementary schools. Please reach out to the principal with any questions.
Come one, Come all! Revisit your memories!
Parker Community Celebration - April 25th from 6:30pm - 8:00pm. Come tour the building from 6:30 - 7 and then join us in the gym for a reading of the Alton B. Parker play, a memory slideshow and some dessert. We are asking for your memories to include in the show. Please scan your pictures/memories to  athayer@cortlandschools.org .
All are invited, hope to see you there!
Math Minute
6th Grade Math Enrichment
The greatest wish of any educator is for his/her students to become lifelong learners. For a math teacher, this means less about finding the right answer, and more about having fun with the process. Last Friday, I had the opportunity to pull a 6th grade enrichment group for a few minutes. So, of course I was eager to introduce them to my beloved “KenKen Puzzles” that I’ve mentioned in my blog. They quickly mastered a few 4x4s. Next, they twisted my arm to allow them try a 6x6. The remaining minutes of the school week dwindled away as I gave some suggestions and helped them find the solution. They LOVED the puzzle. I thought, what could be better than this ? At the sound of the bell, they pleaded, “Do you have more puzzles we can take home, Mrs. Snyder?” I sent them off with this 6x6 in hand, with a warning of how difficult it would be. But- sure enough- they showed up at my classroom door on Monday donning big smiles. A couple of them had solved it.
Attendance: Did You Know?
  • Research shows that missing 10 percent of the school, or about 18 days in most school districts, negatively affects a student’s academic performance. That’s just two days a month and that’s known as chronic absence.
  • Poor attendance can influence whether children read proficiently by the end of third grade or be held back.
  • By 6th grade, chronic absence becomes a leading indicator that a student will drop out of high school.
  • As many as 8 million U.S. public school students struggle academically simply because they miss too much school
Sixth Graders Host Science Fair
Science fair in 6th grade for the 1st graders at Parker. 6th graders prepared science 'tricks' that looked like magic to get the attention of the 1st graders. After demonstrating the tricks they explained the science to their audiences.
First Graders Learn How to Send a Message
Using Sound
First graders got to learn about sound this past month! This unit involved students questioning what makes a sound (vibration) and then exploring the different ways that we can manipulate sound and what effect it can have on other objects! Along the way students made their own kazoos, drums, and a banjo. The unit concluded by students making a banjo and testing it out by using a decided code to pass a message.
Student Reading Groups Share Learning
Some students from Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Underwood’s reading groups are sharing their learning with others. First graders are enjoying reading and discussing their books. Familiar re-reading is beneficial to help with reading fluency. These students also shared their writing notebooks with each other. This group plans on enjoying shared reading and writing together next month too!
Fourth Graders Study Energy
In fourth grade, students are learning about different types of energy that is provided for our homes and focusing on the question: How does energy move and change?
Students rotated through stations and made observations as they looked for evidence that energy is moving and changing: for example: in the marble station, energy transfers from one object to another as the marbles collide. In the hand-crank-mirror station, motion energy is transferred into light energy and is reflected off the mirror as the students crank the handle. In the lamp and black-felt pad station, heat from the lamp is transferred into the felt thus making the felt with the lamp's light hitting it warmer than the other felt. Next, fourth graders will be learning about electrical energy!
Vaccine Requirements
According to New York State Education Law and Public Health Law, every student attending school must be immunized.

All 5th Grade students entering 6th Grade, or when turning 11 years old, must show documentation of the Tdap vaccine before the start of the school year in September.

All 6th Grade students entering 7th Grade, must show documentation of the Meningococcal vaccine before the start of the school year.

New York State Law requires students be excluded from school without required immunizations. The school nurse will require documentation of the vaccine. Documentation may be sent in or faxed by the health care provider any time. The school nurse expects documentation be submitted prior to the start of school in September.

Documentation of the Tdap and Meningococcal vaccine means:
  • Written medical documentation of having received the Tdap vaccine from your healthcare provider or the health department. Health Care Provider’s signature and date is required.
  • Written medical documentation of having received the Meningococcal vaccine from your healthcare provider or the health department. Health Care Provider’s signature and date is required.

GET A JUMP START AND SCHEDULE YOUR CHILD’S APPOINTMENT NOW! THANK YOU!
Students Study Geometric Lines
Fourth graders are investigation their Parker playground to find geometric lines and angles, and polygons. Students searched for parallel-intersecting-perpendicular lines, right-obtuse-acute angles, triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, and hexagons.
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