October 27, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

I hope you are enjoying all the beautiful autumn changes that are happening outside and the beautiful day today too!  It is an exciting time of the year for the children and it is a busy time in the classroom!

We enjoyed our Halloween Parade earlier today and enjoyed seeing many of you there!  It certainly was an exciting day for the students!  We also painted pumpkins this week, did leaf rubbings, and read some fun Halloween stories.

As you can see from the work coming home, the children are continuing to make books.  We have finished the Mom and I Went to the Zoo innovation and have been reading them to each other.  I would encourage the children to reread them as much as possible.  It’s also good to have them point to the words while they read them.  The students also made another class book this week called, “Scarecrow, Scarecrow, How Scary Can You Be?”  The children continue to write in their journals, illustrate poetry, and work with beginning sounds and rhyming.

The students worked very hard on animal research reports this week!  We started the week by learning about bald eagles.  The students drew pictures and wrote about what they eat and where they live.  Then students did their own research about an animal they picked!  They looked at pictures in non-fiction books and listened to me read small excerpts.  We certainly learned a lot of neat facts about animals!

We have been working with numbers 6-10 in math.  These numbers have been tricky to write for many of our students.  I would recommend practicing them as often as possible to help make them easier and more automatic for your child.  Some fun ways to practice include writing the numbers in a tray of salt/sand, spraying shaving cream on the table and using fingers to write the numbers, and writing the numbers on post-its and sticking them all over the house.

We will be focusing on families and homes during the next couple of weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.  The students will make family collages, which will include everyone who lives in their homes and they will also create a class book with their houses and addresses.  It would be helpful if you could work with your child on memorizing his/her street address.  Phone numbers are also useful pieces of information for children to learn.

I will be sending a parent conference schedule home early next week.  Thursday, November 30th is a conference day and there will be no school for students that day.  I will try to fit as many conferences into that day as possible but may do a few on other days as well.  Please look at the schedule when it comes home and let me know if you can’t make it so we can set up another time.

I also wanted to remind everyone to send in the $13 for our Nutcracker field trip as soon as possible since we need to pay in advance for the tickets.

Thank you to all who volunteered to come with us on our Nutcracker field trip on Thursday, December 7th.  Unfortunately I am only able to bring one chaperone this time but have the rest of you on a list in case any tickets become available that morning.  I have already mentioned to other teachers that I would be interested in any extra tickets they may have.  Erica Moffatt is the one that was selected to come.  I will call the rest of you in the order that I drew names in case there are any extra tickets.  I will also let you know when we select a date for our own Kindergarten version of the Nutcracker.  That will be the one you won’t want to miss!

Have a great weekend!

Melanie Duncan

                               Halloween Parade Pictures

                               Leaf Rubbings

                                Teddy Bears and Pumpkins

                               Animals students made from shape tracers

                                Maker Space Stations in the Library

                               Teddy Bear's Picnic Masks

   

                             
                                Bus safety pictures from Monday.

   

October 20, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We’ve had a busy and exciting week in Room 115!

The students have been working on their “Mom and I Went to the Zoo” innovations.  These will be completed this coming week and will go home as soon as the students read them to the class.  Like the Brown Bear books that went home last month, I would encourage students to read them often!

In the art area, students decorated teddy bears for Halloween.  I will try to post some pictures next week.  They also finished their teddy bear masks, which we used for a special Teddy Bears' Picnic activity today.  The students also made Readers' Theater masks of different zoo animals that they will use to act out "Polar Bear, Polar Bear" by Bill Martin, Jr.  They will help write the script next week.

We finished our second topic in math and will be beginning our third one next week.  Our focus will be on numbers 6-10.  I would encourage you to review the daily math papers that are coming home with your child to help them get a little extra practice.  The homework is optional, though.

We will be going to the library on Wednesday.  Please be sure to have your child return his/her book by then.  Also, please make sure you read and return our class books as soon as possible too.

Our school’s safety officer will visit on Monday to talk about bus safety.  The students will have a chance to practice jumping out of the back of the school bus (with help from teachers and bus drivers), which is always very exciting!

I will be sending the November Parent Volunteer Calendar home by the end of next week.  If you are interested in volunteering in the classroom at all, please let me know as soon as possible so I can plug you into the calendar.  Be sure to include which day(s) you are available.  The volunteer time is 9:45-10:20am daily.

I will also be sending the Parent Conference Schedule home next week.  Thursday, November 30th is a conference day.  There will be no school for students but I am looking forward to meeting with all of you.  I will set up 20 minute conferences.  I will try to coordinate conference times with teachers of your other children, if applicable.

Francis Wyman will be having its final Halloween Parade this Friday, October 27th at 9:00am for grades K-5.  Students are welcome to come to school dressed in a costume for the parade if they wish to participate.  We are asking students to leave all toy accessories at home (swords, wands, etc.).  They should bring a change of clothes for after the parade.  Please LABEL EVERYTHING!!!  Also, please let me know ahead of time if you do not want your child to participate.  Parents are invited to watch the parade in the gym.  It’s a lot of fun!

Information went home this week about our next field trip.  We are going to see The Nutcracker Ballet on Thursday, December 7th!  We do have to pay for the tickets in advance so are asking that the $13 be sent in by Thursday, November 2nd, if possible.  Please see the info sheet about it for more details about the trip, including chaperones.  We will be selecting chaperones next week.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Melanie Duncan

PS… I told the students that their homework for this weekend is to look for the funny “a” and “g” on signs and in books.  We learned about them in Fundations and they are excited to be letter detectives!

October 13, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

It's hard to believe October is halfway over already!  We had a wonderful trip to the Franklin Park Zoo yesterday.  It was a wonderful way to kick off our unit on mammals and other animals.

The children have spent time working on their individual innovations of Mom and I went to the Zoo.  They are working very hard on their illustrations, which are looking more and more like the animals they want them to be.

The students have been playing rhyming memory games and even made rhyming monsters!  The monsters eat lots of things but only foods that begin with the /r/ sound.  Therefore, pizza becomes rizza, numbers become rumbers, elephants become relephants, and zippers become rippers!  The students enjoyed feeding their monsters all of those silly foods and many more!  The monsters went home for the children to practice this silly rhyming game with their families.  Feel free to change the rules and make the monster eat foods that start with different sounds!

We started our second topic in math.  We have been comparing numbers 0-5.  They are getting more comfortable with the number formations.  I will continue sending homework home during the next couple of weeks so they can continue practicing them.

Many of you may be aware that Francis Wyman has an Annual Halloween Parade during school either on or near Halloween.  It has been decided that this will be the final year for the parade.  We would like to invite you to attend on Friday, October 27th at 9am.  Students are welcome to bring in a costume to wear during the parade.  We will walk through the gym where parents will be.  More information will be going out about the parade.  I just wanted to give you the heads-up!  There will also be a PTO sponsored Halloween Party/Dance that same Friday night from 6-8pm.  Information already went home about that fun evening.

Please consider practicing shoe tying and coat zipping at home.  It will save a considerable amount of time in the classroom…especially getting ready for recess!  Also, don’t forget to label water bottles, lunch boxes, coats, sweatshirts, and other clothes items.  We have been doing a lot of detective work trying to figure out what belongs to who!  Thanks!

Have a great weekend!

            Melanie Duncan

Franklin Park Zoo Field Trip

We had a lot of fun at the Franklin Park Zoo today!  We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day or for more enthusiastic children!  We were disappointed that the giraffes weren't out today but we got to see a lot of other really amazing animals including zebras, ostriches, red pandas, lions, tigers, bongos, gorillas, bats, crocodiles, snakes, kangaroos, and so much more!  I want to say a special thank you to Mrs. Tedesco, Mrs. Rawding, Mrs. Miminos, and Mr. Boossarangsi for being such wonderful chaperones and for enjoying the day with us!

 

Guest Reader

One of our principals, Mr. D., visited our classroom today and shared a special book called "Five Little Pumpkins."  The children helped him act out the story and used several math concepts at the same time.

Going to the Zoo!

The students finished their monkey and crocodile puppets last week in time for us to sing our "Going to the Zoo" song before our field trip.

October 6, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We are getting excited for our trip to the Franklin Park Zoo on Thursday!  More information about the trip will go home on Wednesday.  Students will need a completely disposable bagged lunch and drink.  Chaperones will be riding on the bus with us and should plan to be at the school by 8:30am.

We have already started learning about animals and will learn more about mammals next week.  The children will begin an individual innovation entitled, Mom and I Went to the Zoo, which they will bring home to read in a couple of weeks.

All of the students read their Brown Bear books to the class before bringing them home this week.  I made them all promise me they would read them often!  There are some pictures below of the students sitting in the teacher’s chair and using a microphone to read to the class!  They were very proud and so were their teachers!

Students made crocodile and monkey puppets this week to use as props when we sing our zoo song.  They are all so unique, because they draw and cut the parts of the puppet themselves.

We started drawing some zoo animals that will be on display in our hallway after they have been painted and cut out.  The students have been using shape tracers to make their animals.  They are looking great so far!

The children continue to write in their journals and to illustrate poetry.  We have been introducing various poems and chants, which help the children to hear rhymes.  We finished another class book called “Did You Ever See…?” It’s silly but a great way to use rhyme!  Please be sure to return class books on the next school day so we can continue circulating them!

We also learned about cross-section diagrams this week.  The students drew and labeled the inside and outside parts of apples.  They look great!

We have started sending home papers for students to practice writing numerals.  This is homework that they should return the next day.  We ask that students use a pencil to write the numerals using the Fundations pencil grip (pinch the pencil close to the tip with thumb and pointer finger and use the rest of the fingers to rest on the table).  All numbers and letters should be written from top to bottom.

The Fundations papers that will be coming home next week are for students to practice at home.  They do not need to be returned to school.  Reminder:  all other math papers from our enVision Math program are optional homework, including the vocabulary sheets, reviews, and last pages of the daily packets that go home.

We have just finished our first topic in math and will be starting our next one next week.  We will be doing a lot with comparing and ordering numbers in math.  Students have shown a lot of improvement with writing their numbers.

Students were introduced to ST Math on the iPad today.  Our math specialist, Mr. Pera, came in to get them started with their password training.  We will be trying to do ST Math at least 2-3 days a week for about 20 minutes each time.  This is a wonderful math program that I got to pilot last year.  I am excited that our students have the opportunity to use it this year.  It isn’t something that students can access from home at this point in the year but I will send information home later in the year about how your child can access it from home if they would like.

I will be introducing students to a website that I like to use frequently, mostly with math, although it includes many subject areas.  Please feel free to check it out ahead of time:  http://www.sheppardsoftware.com.  Click on “math games” and then under the heading “early math” click on the games “Count and Order,” “Order Numbers 1-10,” and “Count to 10.”  These games help reinforce some of the concepts we are practicing in math.  They are simple but the students typically enjoy them.  There are many other games and activities on that website that your child would probably enjoy at home.  I will use some of them throughout the year.

Don’t forget that there is no school on Monday due to Columbus Day weekend.  Enjoy the extra day!

Melanie Duncan

PS...We will be going to the library on Wednesday.  Please be sure to read and return your child’s library book so he/she can borrow a new one!