Upcoming Dates:
January 10 - PTO meeting - 7:00 p.m
January 16 - No School
February Break - February 20 - 24
MCAS Dates
Grade 3 Only
Math - May 17 and 18
ELA - April 11 and 12
SEPAC (Special Education Parent Advisory Council)
We, like the PTO, are a group of parents helping one another learn and grow regarding our children's needs. Please do not think that this parent group is strictly for parents of students with special education needs.
Is your child struggling academically, emotionally or behaviorally? Do you have a child that has a diagnosis and is eligible for an IEP or 504? Do you have questions about resources or how to help your child progress? If you are looking for support, then let's talk about it! Please join your FreeLake SEPAC Tuesday, January 10th at 6:30pm in the Apponequet Library for a mid year check in. Bring your questions and let's support each other. We are joined in our monthly meetings by the Director of Student Services Ms. Ashley Bouley, who can also assist with any questions or concerns you may have. If you are interested in coming or have any questions about SEPAC, please feel free to email us at sepac@freelake.org . We hope to see you soon!
Additionally, the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) will be visiting the District in March 2023 to assess our special education programming. In preparation for this, the DESE is holding a parent orientation on Tuesday, February 7, 2023 @ 6:30. We will be streaming this presentation during our monthly SEPAC meeting in the library at ARHS. Please contact Ashley Bouley if you have any questions abouley@freelake.org .
PTO NEWS:
BRUINS EVENT in MARCH: assawompset 1-22 2.0.pdf
AES Yearbook Information:
We are looking for photos to include in our yearbook. These pictures must be of SCHOOL events and only include current AES students. We will be utilizing grade-level emails to take submissions. For example, if you took a picture of your 2nd grader at the Fun Run you would submit the picture to a 2nd-grade yearbook email address. Please include the child/children's NAME and EVENT in the SUBJECT of the email. Unfortunately, not ALL photos will be included in the yearbook as we will try to include the almost 500 students that AES has in the number of pages that we can use.
kindergartenaesyearbook@gmail.com
1stgradeaesyearbook@gmail.com
2ndgradeaesyearbook@gmail.com
3rdgradeaesyearbook@gmail.com
A look into our classrooms:
Art:
Our annual family art event, Artapalooza is fast approaching! At this time, I am looking for volunteers to frame artwork at home. All children received a colorful flyer with the details. Please email me if you did not receive yours, or you can click here.
Music:
Happy New Year! This week all grades K-3 are getting back into the swing of things singing, playing instruments, dancing and playing music games! We are working on playing the instruments using the dynamics p, mp, mf, and f.
Library:
Welcome back and Happy New Year! Students in Kindergarten are learning about the different sections of the library and more specifically, the non-fiction section. First graders are starting a unit on fractured fairy tales where we are comparing/contrasting The Story of the Three Bears with The Story of the Three Bears as Told by Baby Bear. Second and third graders are learning how to leave book reviews in Destiny on books they have previously read or listened to. This is to create a community of readers to get students talking about different books they have enjoyed.
PE
HAPPY NEW YEAR! In the gym this week we are celebrating the New Year by discussing what a resolution is. We are discussing examples of resolutions and starting a school wide resolution of exercising more. To begin our fitness unit, in class we are completing a jump battle, a Star Wars Jedi Training workout, and playing a tag game. Here are the links to the workouts we are doing if you want to do them at home!
The STAR WARS 'OBI-WAN KENOBI' LIGHTSABER WORKOUT (11mins 36secs) #GETKIDSMOVING
New Years Jump Battle | Pokemon Brain Break | Just Dance
Kindergarten
Happy New Year everyone! The kindergarten students were very excited to return to school and reconnect with friends they haven’t seen in awhile! They had lots of stories to share with their teachers and classmates. This week, kindergarten students began Unit 3 in our Wonders Reading Program. The essential question this week was “What rules do we follow in different places?” We’ve had some great discussions about rules we have in the classroom, in the hallway, on the playground, and on the bus. All of these rules remind us of our school’s core values, to be safe, responsible, and respectful. We practiced blending sounds to read words with short a and short i and we learned a new sight word: to. In math we have begun learning about addition and the plus sign.
Grade 1
Happy New Year from our first grade team! The first graders were very excited to see their classmates again and they were very eager to share some of the things they did over the holiday break. This week we have been talking about New Year’s resolutions. We talked about a resolution being a promise to yourself to try or do something differently in the new year. We also discussed how it was like setting a goal ourselves. Students then wrote about a goal they would like to accomplish this year.
We are in Unit 2 week 5 in our Wonders program. The essential question is: How can you find your way around? This week students will be learning about maps and globes and how they help us find different places that are important to us.
Grade 2
Happy 2023! The Second Graders are settling back in after break and returning to routines. This week we have been reviewing our classroom routines and rules. We have had insightful conversations about our class promises that we created at the beginning of the year and ensuring that we commit to those class promises in the new year! The students have been sharing about their time at home and the many exciting things they did over the break. In reading we began Unit 2 in Wonders. This week the students are focused on the essential question, “How are offspring like their parents?”. There have been many great stories on various kinds of wild animals that the students have enjoyed reading. We have been taking a deeper look at the texts and understanding what makes these stories expository texts. Also, the students have been practicing the skill of looking back in the text to find useful information to answer questions. In second grade math we are working with comparing three digit numbers. Students have been working on their place value understanding and have been successful with identifying the larger or smaller values. We are reviewing concepts in Unit 5 of Fundations and moving onto Unit 6. The students are also beginning a “Me on the Map” project for social studies. This begins with their location at school, to their town, to our state, country, and then continent. It has been a wonderful start to the year so far!
Grade 3
Happy New Year! In Grade 3, we’re off and running. In math we are launching Unit 4, which is fractions. Kids love all the hands-on aspects of fractions. Try pointing out fractions when you see them in your everyday life: recipes, gas tank in the car, serving sizes on food packages. Knowing that it’s relevant helps them see the need to learn it, and using fractions outside of school cements understanding.
In reading we will wrap up Unit 2 in Wonders this week and next. We’ve been looking at historical fiction, literal and figurative language, and theme vs topic, to name a few skills.
We will soon be having an assembly about animal adaptations to go along with our lifecycles unit in science. We will also be having classroom assemblies by the educator for the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra in preparation for attending their Young People’s Concert in March.
Nurse’s Nook:
Happy 2023! Friendly reminder: I will happily accept all gently used clothes (socks, shoes and underwear too!) Accidents happen- and I try to have them transition back to class as quickly as possible.
Have you cleared out those closets yet for 2023??
I will be placing a plastic bin at the Main Entrance. .
Whatever I don't use here will be donated to Gifts to Give in Acushnet
Counselor’s Corner:
What Is Working Memory?
A new year often comes with new goals. Students have been discussing what short and long term goals they want to accomplish. One goal families can work on with children is helping them develop their working memory. Working memory is the ability to hold information in the mind temporarily so it can be recalled when needed. It is an executive function that allows people to store information until the information needs to be used to complete a task. Students rely on working memory to follow directions, stay on task, answer questions about information they have read or to solve multi-step math problems. Families can assist children in developing this skill by using visual schedules/checklists (i.e. chores, homework, etc.), assign a specific space for your child to organize belongings, develop consistent routines and keep directions simple. Additionally, maintaining a healthy lifestyle including a balanced diet, exercise, sleep routine and decreased stress will assist your child in developing strong executive functioning skills.
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Thank you! Have a great weekend.
Bethany Pineault
Principal