Mr. Ward’s Message:
This week brought the Scholastic Winter Book Fair. Students eagerly participated in the Book Fair and students were given the opportunity to purchase a book or two for their personal library. Thank you to all the parents who volunteered for the Book Fair. Your help is greatly appreciated.
Next week will bring the 100th Day of School. The anticipated date for the 100th Day of School for students in grades 1-3 is Wednesday, February 8th. Our Kindergarten students join the school year a couple days later thus they will be participating in 100th Day activities on Friday, February 10th. Please be on the lookout from your child’s teacher about any 100th Day of School activities.
Gentle Reminder...As we prepare for the winter season we will continue to use the Thrill Share Communication network to provide families with the necessary school cancellation and delay information. In addition to Thrillshare, we will utilize the school website and all local media outlets to communicate information in a timely manner for our families in Freetown and Lakeville.
FES News and Happenings…
Grade 3 News...Students in grade 3 across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts participate in their first MCAS exam. Students will be tested in English Language Arts and Mathematics. The MCAS exam is a computer based exam in which students will take the exam on the computer. MCAS dates for students in Grade 3 at FES will be:
April 4 & 5 for English Language Arts
May 16 & 17 for Mathematics
Please note the date change for Math MCAS. The change was due to the Grade 3 Spring Choral Concert.
PTO Corner:
The next PTO Meeting will take place on Monday, February 13th from 6:30 - 7:30 PM. The meeting will be both in-person and virtual.
FES PTO website is...https://freetownelementarypto.weebly.com/
Attendance Matters Weekly Update:
Goal: 94% of the FES student population will attend school daily.
The September average student daily attendance was 95%. Goal achieved!
The October average student daily attendance was 95%. Goal achieved!
The November average student daily attendance was 94%. Goal achieved!
The December average student daily attendance was 89%. We did not achieve our goal!
January student daily attendance rate…
January 3-6: 96%...Goal achieved!
January 9-13: 95%...Goal achieved!
January 16-20: 94%...Goal achieved!
January 23-27: 93%...Not quite reaching our goal.
January 30 & 31: 95%...Goal achieved!
The final daily attendance rate for the month of January is 95%. We meet our goal! Job well done!
Upcoming Events:
February 13: February PTO Meeting
February Vacation Week will take place the week of February 20-24. School will resume again on Monday, February 27th.
Grade Level Happenings from the Week of January 30 - February 3:
Pre-School: This week in preschool we learned a new Lively Letter, Letter n, a boy who does not want to clean up his room and says “n-n-no!”. His nose reminds us that we must use our noses to make this sound. We also learned about how some animals hibernate in the winter. We learned about Groundhog Day and made predictions about whether or not the groundhog would see his shadow. On Thursday, we invited the preschoolers to wear their pajamas to school. We pretended to hibernate and even had a special “breakfast” snack when we woke up from hibernating!
Kindergarten: This week in kindergarten- in Fundations we finished reviewing upper case letters. We concentrated on P-Z and made words for decoding(Reading.) Our high frequency word was “my”. Our comprehension skills were character, setting and events. Print concepts were finding a printed word and parts of a book. In math, we subtracted within 10. For writing, we started opinion writing, along with end punctuation and focusing on one idea. We discussed groundhogs, shadows and Groundhog’s Day.
Grade 1: This week in first grade we learned about glued sounds ank, ink, onk, and unk. For comprehension we focused on retelling key details of a story and identifying who is telling the story at various points. We read “Interrupting Chicken”. In writing we are continuing to respond to a text. For math this week we learned about tens. The students are learning that 2 tens is the same thing as 20 ones. We used light and sound to communicate in science this week.
Grade 2: This week in second grade reading we worked on identifying literary elements in a story. In Fundations we began working with double vowel syllables and the double vowel teams “ai” and “ay” for the long /a/ sound. In math we solved word problems involving adding and subtracting with regrouping. In writing we worked on research and drafting of our informational animal reports. We explored properties and states of matter in science.
Grade 3: In reading, we are starting a new essential question in our Wonders reading program: what can we learn from Earth and its neighbors? Students will read a variety of stories that focus on exploring this question. In math, students are learning how to label a fraction on a number line from 0 -1 (¼ , ½, ¾, 1). In writing, students will read an MCAS prep story called, “The Snow Walker.” Students will learn MCAS testing strategies that involve multiple choice questions and an open response question. In science, students will watch a video that explores natural hazards and how they can affect our surroundings. Students will read a variety of short articles, which will generate discussions about the dangers of natural hazards and how communities can help each other.
Art: Kindergarteners are learning about the primary colors. They learned about Alexander Calder’s primary color paintings and started their own painting inspired by Calder. Grade 1 completed their complementary color hand designs. Grade 2 completed 2 different rainforest inspired projects. Grade 3 learned about Pablo Picasso’s blue and rose periods as well as his abstract style called cubism. We started a self portrait that combines these concepts.
Physical Education: This week students practiced their step aerobic and stretch band routines. In between the cardiorespiratory activities each grade had mini health lessons. The third graders learned about their muscular system and how it works with the skeletal system. Second graders learned how important fruit is in their diets to get some of the vitamins and minerals they need and how complex carbohydrates are better for their bodies than simple carbohydrates. First graders learned about families and how they are the same and how they are different but in the end their family is just right for them to celebrate the good times and to help them through the difficult times. Kindergarten students learned about anger and ways to help calm themselves when they are feeling overwhelmed by this emotion.
Music: This week, students K-3 have started the 3rd week of their unit on listening. Grade 1 and Kindergarten will listen to music for dynamics, tempo and directions as well as music from Haydn. 2nd grade will listen to music of Beethoven and respond to vocal and instrumental musical elements. 3rd grade will listen to the music of the Beatles.
Library: In library class this week, kindergarten and first grade students completed a lesson on Seesaw about digital footprints. Second and third grade students worked together on a virtual stick together board and completed a picture of a groundhog for Groundhog Day.