Mr. Ward’s Message: Term II closed on March 8th and report cards will be sent home on Monday, March 18th. If after reviewing your child’s progress report card and you have questions please do not hesitate to reach out to your child’s classroom teacher. All staff members stand ready to assist you and help you understand your child’s progress.
Upcoming events:
March 29: No School - Good Friday
April 1: Early Release Day: Students will be dismissed at 12:15 PM.
Other events coming up shortly…
April 1 is an Early Release Day for students as voting will take place at Freetown Elementary School. Please be advised that dismissal for April 1st will be altered for Parent Pick-up to ensure the safety of all. Students will be dismissed out the doors at the end of the long hallway to the doors that face Bullock Road. Therefore, parents will be able to park on the large playground blacktop (gates will be open) and walk up the designated path leading to the grade 3 doors. Please be patient as we work together to keep all staff, students, and FES families safe.
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 8 & 9 for English Language Arts
May 14 & 15 for Mathematics
PTO Corner:
PTO meetings will be held in person and virtually. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 8th beginning at 6:30 PM. The meeting invitation will be shared a week prior to the meeting.
FES PTO website is...https://freetownelementarypto.weebly.com/
Attendance Matters Weekly Update:
Goal: 94% of the FES student population will attend school daily.
March’s Daily Student Attendance Percentage:
March 1: 92%...Did not quite make our goal - Only day 1.
March 4-8: 94%...Met goal!
March 11-15 (without 3/15): 94%...Met goal, two weeks in a row.
In and around the classrooms of Freetown Elementary for the week of March 11-15:
Pre-School: This week in preschool we continued our study of authors and illustrators. We learned about the letter s and the sound it makes. We also participated in the school-wide math week. We estimated, graphed, solved a word problem, and practiced patterning!
Kindergarten: This week in kindergarten our letter/phonics and PA was the letter Uu. Our HFW were have, for. Also for phonemic awareness, we worked on onset/rime blending. For comprehension, we discussed the difference between fact and opinion. In writing we focused on describing words and capitalization at the beginning of a sentence. We counted to 100 by tens in math. We also had fun participating in the various Math Week activities.
Grade 1: This week in first grade we are reviewing unit 3 in Wonders. Our focus was on magic-e syllables and the vowel team sound /oo/ like in hook and pull. For comprehension, we reviewed main ideas and details and the purpose of fiction and non-fiction. We combined these skills along with math and science this week by celebrating Women’s History Month. We read about Maryam Mirzakhani and Dorothy Vaughn, who are important women in science and math. For writing we finished up the opinion unit. In math this week, we are comparing two digit numbers. We also celebrated Math Week by completing a school wide math problem, a graph on the next school reward, estimating heights, and wearing fun patterns and numbers!
Grade 2: This week in second grade reading we worked on author’s purpose and learned about how authors use reasons to support their ideas. In phonics we learned to spell and read words with the double vowel teams “oi” and “oy”. In math we compared lengths of various objects. We worked on writing personal narratives and fictional narratives. In Science learned about building blocks of matter. We had a great time participating in Math Week, doing everything from solving a school-wide word problem to estimating people’s heights to exploring patterns and everything in between!
Grade 3: This week in third grade, students learned how to identify the area of a shape. In reading, students continued exploring the question: how do animals adapt to challenges in their habitat? Students read a variety of books that explored this question. In writing, students read an article called: The Grand Old Tree and How The Forest Grew - they wrote a comparison essay between the two articles. In social studies, students learned about the Boston Tea Party. All third graders had a fantastic time celebrating math week and exploring the connections between math and our daily lives!
Physical Education: This week we started our Mini Golf unit where we focused on striking (not pushing) the golf ball while having a proper grip and stance.
Music: This week, students K-3 have started the 1st week of their unit on musicianship. Grade 1 and Kindergarten are practicing elements of the beat. 1st grade will also practice rhythms. 2nd grade will expand their musicianship with Sol Mi patterns. 3rd grade will be writing and reading music for their recorders.
Library: This week in library class, kindergarten and first grade students learned about how to be a digital leader by taking care of electronic devices. Students created a poster on Seesaw to show how to take care of electronic devices. Second and third grade students worked on a media literacy activity where they identified different types of images. Students used Google Jamboard to label what type of image was conveyed (painting, timeline, map, A.I. "artificial intelligence") in each picture.