Mr. Ward’s Message:
With each passing month it is with great pride at Freetown Elementary School that we continue the deep, embedded tradition of Student of Month ceremonies. With each month a student from each classroom is nominated by peers and/or their teacher. Students nominated have put forth their best efforts in their school work, behavior, and efforts. For the month of November these students best exemplify what it means to be a Freetown Elementary Student. Congratulations to the November students that were nominated…
Kindergarten: Jude Johnson, Tyler Orlowski, Julian Medeiros, Rowen Isherwood, Jayce Figeuroa
Grade 1: Emma Mancuso, Natalie Enes, Delaney Martin, Victoria Granvanis, Molly Andre
Grade 2: Corey Boucher, Molly Chouinard, Anthony Kanakis, Alexander Neves, Evangeline Zussy
Grade 3: Bryce Patel, Madison Corrao, Mia Gonsalves, Aidan Wells, Audrey Corrao
Specialists: Emily Almeida
News and happenings around FES…
Once again this year FES is participating in the Christmas Stockings for Veterans & Troops. Freetown Elementary School is assisting the Tuesday Club of Assonet in collecting items to make stockings for our local Veterans. The suggested items for donations are outlined in the link above.
This Thursday, December 14th the Grade 1 Team will be hosting a Storybook Night on Thursday, December 14th for our first grade students and their families. Students will learn about holidays around the world.
Upcoming events:
12/13: Grade 3 Choral Concert beginning at 7:00 PM
12/14: Grade 1 Holiday Storybook Night from 5:00 - 6:30 PM
12/22: Early Release Day for students. Students will be dismissed at 12:15 PM.
12/22 - 1/1: At the close of school on 12/22 Winter Recess will begin. School will resume again
on Tuesday, January 2nd.
Holiday Spirit Week will take place during the week of December 18-22.
Monday, December 18: Holiday Accessory Day - Students are invited to wear their best and most festive holiday accessory such as headbands, hats, socks, necklaces, earrings, ties, etc.
Tuesday, December 19: Polar Express Day - Children can wear their pajamas to school. Staff is welcome to read the Polar Express and participate in some Polar Express activities.
Wednesday, December 20: Holiday Sock Day - Students can wear their favorite holiday socks!
Thursday, December 21: Holiday Sweater Day - Students can wear their festive holiday sweaters/shirts to school.
Friday, December 22: Red & Green Day - Students are invited to wear red and green or holiday colors to school. Come dressed festive for Holiday celebrations.
PTO Corner:
PTO meetings will be held in person and virtually. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, January 8, 2024 from 6:30 - 7:30 PM. The meeting will be in person as well as virtual to accommodate for families. Hope you will consider joining the FES PTO.
FES PTO website is...https://freetownelementarypto.weebly.com/
Attendance Matters Weekly Update:
Goal: 94% of the FES student population will attend school daily.
December’s Daily Student Attendance Percentage:
Week of December 4-8: 94%...Back on track, goal achieved!
News and Happenings around the classrooms:
Preschool: This week in preschool we continued our study of this season’s holidays. We learned that some families celebrate Kwanzaa and we discussed some similarities and differences between Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. We created Kwanzaa crafts, including the Kinara and Bendera flag. Math was incorporated into these projects through counting candles and discussing ordinal numbers. The preschoolers also learned about the letter Q and the sound it makes.
Kindergarten: In kindergarten this week our skill letter for ID/sound/formation was Nn. Our HFW was “and”. Phonemic awareness skills were blending of single sounds and onset-rime. Our comprehension skill was setting in a story and visualizing. In writing, we worked on writing sentences, capitalization and descriptive details. In math our lesson was making 10(Number partners). We continue to read and complete activities based around the holiday season.
Grade 1: This week in first grade we reviewed words with short -u and contraction words. For comprehension we focused on plots of stories and confirming predictions. In writing, we are working on responding to a text. This week we read about building and different materials used to make things with. For math we reviewed all the facts we’ve learned to 10. For social studies we are learning about different Holidays around the world.
**Save the Date**: Our Holiday Story Hour will be held Thursday, December 14th from 5:00-6:30.
Grade 2: This week in second grade reading we read poems and described how the author uses sound and meaning. In phonics, we worked with v-e syllable type which has a long vowel, then a consonant, then a silent “e”. We also learned about “-ive” which makes the sound /iv/. Examples of these types of words are: sunrise, include, athlete, active and captive. In math, we worked on strategies to help us add three-digit numbers with regrouping. In writing we worked on our informational writing about animals. In science we talked about the effects of wind and water and observed changes to land.
Grade 3: In math this week, students used CUBES to solve one step word problems with multiplication and division. In reading, students continued to explore the essential question: why do people immigrate to new places? They also completed their I-Ready reading and math growth check. It was amazing to see their progress since September! In writing, students completed typing and presenting their realistic fiction stories.
Physical Education: Students started the lifetime activity of bowling in the gym this week. Students in first, second, and third grades practiced the proper grip and stance, and were introduced to the grade level delivery. They then took two roll turns and also participated in other alley roles such as ball return and pin setter. The focus this week was on having a proper grip and stance as well as rolling a smooth, straight roll. Kindergarten students practiced setting the pins through relay races and then learned the alley jobs and bowled one roll turns.
Art: Kindergarteners are creating an adorable mixed media winter trees scene. Grade 1 continued work on their symmetrical construction paper shape monsters. Grade 2 is creating a mixed media African mask. Grade 3 is also creating a mixed media project as they create adorable carolers in their likeness.
Music: This week, students K-3 have started the 4th week of their unit on improvising. Grade 3 will be improvising movements in Mama Lama, Grade 2 will explore improvising using mallet instruments. Grade 1 and Kindergarten will continue to improvise with arioso type songs. In addition, we have begun singing holiday songs chosen by the students.
Library: We celebrated Hour of Code week, which is a week that is dedicated to learning more about computer science and computer programming. Students used iPads apps to program the Dash and Dot robots this week. Students used the computer programming language called "blockly" to program the robots.