November 17, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We've had another busy week in Room 115!  We have learned a little about Wampanoags and Pilgrims.  We read a story called “Tapenum” about a young Native American.  We also read a story called “Samuel Eaton’s Day” which is about a day in the life of a Pilgrim boy and a similar one called “Sarah Morton’s Day” which is about a day in the life of a Pilgrim girl.  We talked a lot about the chores Pilgrim boys and girls had to do and I tried to encourage them to be helpful at home too!  Our focus was where we live and the different kinds of homes we live in.  We compared our homes to those of the Native Americans and Pilgrims.
We read a couple of Scholastic Let’s Find Out readers this week about Pilgrims and Wampanoags.  The online version has some great videos that we watched to learn more about what their lives were like.  I would encourage you to watch them at home with your children to further discussions about homes, chores, and being thankful.
The website is:  http://letsfindout.scholastic.com/
The password is:  Duncank115

The students wove placemats, decorated Native American teepees, and started making turkeys in the art area this week.  They completed two class books about where they live and what they are thankful for.  These books will be circulating around to homes along with all of our previous ones.  Please be sure to read the books with your family and send them back to school as soon as possible for others to enjoy.  The students also wrote about the Pilgrim boy and girl we read about and did some more rhyming activities too.  Another writing project included writing facts about the changes that are happening in the fall.  Students wrote about leaves falling, harvesting pumpkins, apples, and potatoes, and how animals (including bears, geese, and chipmunks) prepare for winter.  These will be coming home next week.

Mr. Musselman from the Burlington Science Center visited our classroom today to teach us about clouds.  We learned about different kinds of clouds and different kinds of weather and Mr. Musselman even made a cloud right in our classroom!  He encouraged students to try making a cloud at home...with parent help of course!  The ingredients are water, heat, cold air, and dust/smoke.  It’s very similar to turning the hot water on in the shower.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving will be a half day of school.  Dismissal will be around 11:15am.  A form went home this past week for you to complete and return that will let us know if children will be riding home on the bus or getting picked up by parents.  Please return the form as soon as possible.  We will not be eating lunch at school on Wednesday.

It's hard to believe that it's already time to start thinking about all our December activities!  We will start practicing Nutcracker dances in preparation for our Nutcracker performance and to help our trip to the ballet be more meaningful.  We are going to see the Nutcracker Ballet on Thursday, December 7th.  We are planning to have our own Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance on Thursday, December 21st at 9:00am.  An invitation will be going home soon.  It is one of the biggest highlights from our year in Kindergarten!

We have been doing a lot with rhyming but I would encourage you to practice it at home with your child too.  You can ask them to sing “Willowby-Wallaby Woo” or listen for rhyming words in books or even just try to list as many words as possible that rhyme.  It would also be wonderful if you could help your child practice with counting, ordering, and writing numbers to 10 and even into the teen numbers.  Even simple things like counting stairs as they walk up them or counting how many bites of food they eat would be helpful!

There is a great website that has some great activities to support rhyming, early reading skills, and even math practice.  It is www.starfall.com.  It may be fun for the students to explore at home.

I am looking forward to meeting with you for conferences the week after Thanksgiving.  Please be sure to check the schedule and let me know if you can’t make it.

Have a great weekend!

Melanie Duncan

Also… Please make sure your child brings warm clothes to wear outside for recess now that the weather is getting colder and please help them practice putting all their stuff on too!

Readers Theatre

We have been practicing our Readers Theatre for the past two or three weeks.  Students picked an animal, made a mask, and researched their animal.  Students were even a part of writing the script, which was similar to Bill Martin, Jr.’s Polar Bear, Polar Bear book. They did awesome!

Group 1

Group 2

November 8, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We had a very short week but were able to do a lot of really neat things!  We learned about several American symbols and will finish learning about them next week.  The students made a small book about American symbols that I would encourage them to read often at home.  We also drew and painted the Statue of Liberty to add to our displays of bald eagles and our giant American flag.

We enjoyed a Veterans Day Assembly in the gym earlier today and welcomed several veterans that are related to Francis Wyman families.  We said the Pledge of Allegiance, listened to several patriotic songs, and learned some neat facts about the flag and veterans.  The Kindergarten classes even sang a little poem about our flag.  You will have to see if your children remember it!  We also enjoyed sharing about the veterans in our families during one of our morning meetings!

We finished Topic 3 in math.  We will start a new topic next week about comparing numbers 1-10.  I would encourage students to continue practicing number and letter formations at home.  There certainly has been a lot of improvement!

Several students went to the Used Bookstore this morning.  There will be many more throughout the year if your child would like to attend.  The books purchased from the Used Bookstore are for students to keep.  Please be sure to check the back of all books that came home today.  We also went to the library.  If there is a barcode on the back of the book that says Francis Wyman Library, that book needs to be returned two weeks from today when we will visit the library again.

We have been practicing our Readers Theatre for the past two or three weeks.  Students picked an animal, made a mask, and researched their animal.  Students were even a part of writing the script, which was similar to Bill Martin, Jr.’s Polar Bear, Polar Bear book.  We performed it for a final time today and invited our principals, Mrs. McDonald and Mr. Doiron to watch.  They loved it!  The students did a great job and should be very proud of all their hard work!  I will try to post it to my blog for you to be able to enjoy it as well!

There will be no school for the rest of this week.  Tomorrow is a professional development day for teachers and Friday is when Veterans Day is observed.  Thank you to all of our veterans for your dedication and commitment to our country!

I hope you all have a wonderful long weekend!

Melanie Duncan

PS...Please be sure to send in hats, mittens, warmer jackets, etc. for your children now that the temperatures are dropping more...and don’t forget to LABEL EVERYTHING!!!  Thank you!

November 3, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Parents,
                               
We had a busy week in Room 115!  We spent most of the week talking about our families and how families are different.  The students created large collages of their families and labeled each family member.  This was a huge project and the students put a lot of effort into them.  They look amazing on display in our classroom.

The students enjoyed learning about some American symbols.  We will continue learning more about them next week as we approach Veterans Day.  We made a giant flag and bald eagles using hand prints.  We started a book on American symbols today and will continue it next week.  The students were excited to share what they already knew about them!

The students completed another classbook this week, which has started circulating around to different homes.  Please be sure to read the classbooks with your child when they come home and return them on the next school day.  The students also completed an individual book about things they like.  They will practice reading them a few more times at school but will bring them home soon for more practice.

We will start learning about the Wampanoags and Pilgrims during the next couple of weeks before Thanksgiving.  I hope the students will be able to comprehend a little about how different it was to live 400 years ago.  We will start the unit by reading a book by Kate Waters entitled, "Tapenaum, the Story of an Indian Boy".  This book has accurate information and photos taken from the Wampanoag village at Plimouth Plantation.  It is a book that depicts the lives of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags in the 1620's.  We try to emphasize how different their lives were from ours, but that family was then, and is now, very important.  Hopefully they will come away from this unit with a tiny bit of understanding and thankfulness for all we have today.

We will continue talking about our our families and homes.  Please help your child learn his/her address and phone number.  Both are important pieces of information for them to know.

The students have been working hard in math. We are still working on writing our numbers, one-to-one correspondence, and different math language (i.e. which is more or fewer, etc.).  Please take a careful look at the math papers coming home and ask your child to explain what they learned for extra reinforcement.  The number practice papers we have been sending home for homework are now done but I would still encourage students to continue practicing them at home.

The students homework for this weekend and for the next couple of weeks is to practice putting jackets/sweatshirts on and taking them off all by themselves.  This also includes fixing sleeves, turning sleeves right-side-out, and zipping/buttoning.

We had our first Francis Wyman SOAR Assembly today.  The whole school gathered in the gym to recognize students’ accomplishments, especially in the area of self-control.  The school’s safety officer, Bernie Schipelliti came to talk about self control.  Offiicer Papsedero and his K9, Havoc, also came.  We enjoyed hearing about and watching how even Havoc has had to learn self control!  It was an enjoyable way to end a busy week!

 On Wednesday, November 8th, Francis Wyman will hold its first Used Book Store of the school year.  These used books sales will be held several times throughout the school year.  The Used Book Store offers an opportunity for students to buy or exchange USED books to keep.  Students can either bring in a book of their own to exchange for a used book or pay $0.50 to purchase a used book.  There is no obligation to buy or exchange a book.  This is simply another opportunity to refresh your home book library and continue to expose your child to a variety of literature.   If you would like your child to have an opportunity to buy or exchange a book at the Francis Wyman Used Book Store, please send in your child with a book or 50 cents on Wednesday, November 8th.

I sent the conference schedule home today in your child’s blue folder.  Please mark the date in your calendars and let me know if you can’t make it so we can reschedule.

Melanie Duncan

PS...Don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour for Daylight Savings this weekend!

And...there is no school for students on Thursday, November 9th and Friday, November 10th.

Happy Veterans Day to all the men and women who have served and are currently serving our country.  Thank you!