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 October these students best exemplify what it means to be a Freetown Elementary Student. Congratulations to the October students that were nominated…
Kindergarten: Morgan Ashley, Arya Murphy, Marianna Boucher, Aria Zitano, Brielle Dunne
Grade 1: Brantley Brown, Charlotte Jackson, Gabriella Xavier, Mariah Pittsley, Kaine Kaminski
Grade 2: Calynn Desrosiers, Henry Hughes, Ashlynn Casey, Abigail Zussy, Max Clondas
Grade 3: Jackson Rogers, Isla Hardy, Lila Badurina, Brady Beaulieu, Connor McNamara, Zackary Bering
Specialists: Rylan Dionne
News and happenings around FES…
This Wednesday, November 22nd is an Early Release Day. Students will be dismissed at 12:15 PM. Breakfast will be served. Lunch will not be served.
Please be advised that this Thursday, November 23rd and Friday, November 24th there will be no school for Thanksgiving Recess. School will resume again on Monday, November 27th.
Important information about Parent/Teacher Conferences…
Parent/Teacher Conferences are slated for Thursday, December 7th. December 7th will be an Early Release Day for students for the purpose of Parent/Teacher Conferences. Students will be dismissed at 12:15 PM. The Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held in two sessions, an afternoon and an evening session. The afternoon session will be from 1:00 - 3:25 PM. The evening session will be from 5:15 - 7:15 PM. The conferences will be held in person at Freetown Elementary School. All conferences will be at a scheduled time. On Sunday, November 26th at 6:00 PM Freetown Elementary School will be sharing the Parent/Teacher Conference Sign-up Document. Please sign-up for your parent/teacher conference beginning on Sunday, November 26th.
Upcoming events:
November 22: Early Release Day - Students dismissed at 12:15 PM. No lunch served.
November 23 & 24: No School - Thanksgiving Recess
December 1: Kindergarten Gingerbread Night
December 6: Term I report cards will be sent home
December 7: Early Release Day for Parent/Teacher Conferences
December 13: Grade 3 Choral Concert at 7:00 PM
December 14: Grade 1 Holiday Storybook Night
December 22: Early Release Day - Students dismissed at 12:15 PM. No lunch served.
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.
November’s Daily Student Attendance Percentage:
November 1-3: 94%...Goal achieved!
November 6, 8, & 9: 94%...Goal achieved!
November 13-17: 93%...Did not quite achieve the goal!
News and Happenings around the classrooms:
Preschool: This week in preschool we continued learning about the Native Americans and Pilgrims. We watched videos about how they lived, and how different life was for them than it is for us. We learned about the legend of the three sisters and how the beans, corn, and squash worked together in order to grow. We also continued learning about the v and its sound.
Kindergarten: This week in kindergarten many of our Wonders skills were reviewed. We reviewed letters, sounds and formation for a, m, s, p, t. High frequency words reviewed were- I, the, see, a, like, we. Phonological awareness focused on syllables, segmenting and blending sounds. Writing focused on spaces between words, describing and verbs. In math our lesson was decomposing(part/part/whole) the numbers 8 and 9.
Grade 1: This week in first grade we reviewed bonus letters f, l, s, & z, digraphs and blends. We also reviewed comprehension skills from unit 1 in Wonders. For writing we are continuing to work on the personal narrative unit. The students are working on adding a who, where, and what to their stories. In math we worked on number partners for 10. In social studies, we are discussing the first Thanksgiving.
**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 we worked on finding the main topic of a text. In phonics we continued to work on multisyllabic words and learned new suffixes such as -ful and -less. In math we continued to work on strategies to help us solve 2-step word problems using addition and subtraction; we also began a review of all of the skills that we have learned so far in preparation for our unit 1 test. We worked on our second writing unit which is an expository text about animals. In science we talked about the effects of wind and water.
Grade 3: This week in third grade, students have been working on addition and subtraction with regrouping. In writing, students have started a new unit: realistic fiction. Students chose a writing prompt, created a story map to organize their story, and created a hook to engage the reader! They have some great ideas! In reading, students started a new essential question: how do people make government work? We read a variety of short stories that explore that question. In social studies, students created placemats to use during their Thanksgiving Feast coming up soon!
Physical Education: On Monday and Tuesday second and third grade classes practiced the 3-3-3 and 6-6 stacks. They learned and practiced the 3-6-3 combination and were introduced to the 1-10-1. Kindergarten and first grade students practiced walking the cups and the 3-3-3. They learned the 6 stack and practiced the 6-6. Starting Wednesday and continuing into next week, the students participated in cup stacking stations which included: group freestack, mini’s-metals-jumbos, relay races, fitness stacking and regular cup stacking with timers.
Please join me this Thursday for the annual Family cup stacking night from 6-7 in the gym. There is no sign up or cost. For those who wish to donate, I am collecting personal care items in a partnership with the Freetown Council on Aging and the Tuesday Club of Assonet. These items will be given out to our local Veterans and Senior Citizens in Freetown. v
Art: Kindergarten learned about organic shapes and took rubbings from leaves. Grade 1 listened to the story You Be You and used oil pastels to color unique fish. Grade 2 learned about radial design while creating beautiful Mexican mirrors. Grade 3 finished their James Rizzi happy cities.
Music: This week, students K-3 have started the 3rd 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. Kindergarten will be working on their instrument as an introduction to playing percussion instruments and reading music
Library: During library class this week, kindergarten students learned how to use the explore tool on the Britannica Early Elementary website. Students chose a biome to explore and did a drawing of what they learned about the biome using the create tool. First grade students wrote a sentence in Google Slides about the purpose of their writing. Second and third grade students analyzed and answered questions in a collaborative document about scenarios related to online privacy concerns.