Mr. Ward’s Message:
This week will bring Teacher/Educator/Staff Appreciation Day to Freetown Elementary School. Our always supportive FES PTO will be sponsoring several day to day activities to honor the FES Staff.
“You are a teacher...I will never forget you gave me wings, roots, and you believed in me.” - Anonymous
A big THANK YOU to all our staff members this week as it is National Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week. It is humbling to work with such a dedicated and caring staff. We see it every day in the little things you do for our students such as taking the extra moments to make sure our scholars have a great day, you plan lessons to meet their needs, you continuously work with families and with each other. You deserve a moment to reflect on the true positive impact you have on the lives of our students. The PTO will be hosting a variety of special events throughout the week. Enjoy...you deserve it!
Upcoming events:
May 13: May PTO Meeting beginning at 6:30 PM
May 14 & 15: Grade 3 Math MCAS
May 15: Grade 3 Spring Choral Concert beginning at 7:00 PM
May 17: Special Olympics
May 20-24: “Buy One, Get One” Scholastic Book Fair
May 23: Annual Art Show from 6:00 - 7:00 PM
May 23: Family Book Fair Night from 5:30 - 7:00 PM
May 27: No School - Memorial Day
PTO Corner:
PTO meetings will be held in person and virtually. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 13th beginning at 6:30 PM. The meeting invitation will be shared the week prior.
There are a couple of open FES PTO board positions for the upcoming school year, 2024-2025.
Co-Chair
Co-Treasurer (2)
Co-Volunteer
FES PTO website is...https://freetownelementarypto.weebly.com/
Attendance Matters Weekly Update:
Goal: 94% of the FES student population will attend school daily.
May’s Daily Student Attendance Percentage:
May 1-3: 97%...Met Goal!
In and around the classrooms of Freetown Elementary for the week of April 29 - May 3:
Pre-School: This week in preschool, we continued working on Mother’s Day gifts. We began learning about insects and their characteristics, and the students participated in sorting activities to highlight these features. We learned about bees and created our own bees using paper plates and coffee filters. Students learned about the letter, H, and its sound.. We also learned about the hexagon and observed that a bee hive is made up of many hexagons.
Kindergarten: This week in kindergarten we focused on the /sh/ sound at the beginning and end of words and we also learned about the long a sound with silent e. Our HFW were- help, too. In writing we focused on keeping our letters on the lines and connecting ideas. Our math lesson was naming shapes along with distinguishing solid and flat shapes.
Grade 1: This week we reviewed Unit 4 in Wonders. We reviewed the vowel teams ai, ay, ea, ee, ie, ey, igh, oe, ow, and oa along with the vowel sound y makes (i and e). For comprehension, we reviewed characters, setting, and plot along with non-fiction text features. In writing we are working on the Poetry unit. For math, our focus was on sorting data. We are excited for our field trip to the Museum of Science next week!
Grade 2: This week in second grade reading we worked on identifying text features: bold print and timeline; and understanding character perspective. In phonics we worked with double vowel syllables using the spellings ou, ue, and ew for the /ü/ sound of as in soup; the /ū/sound of ue as in glue; the /ů/sound of oo as in hook. In math we began to learn about counting coins and solving word problems involving money. In writing students worked on writing fiction stories. In science we learned about what plants need during our field trip program “Getting to the Root of It” at Soule Farm.
Grade 3: This week in math, students learned how to label a ruler in fourths and eighths. They also learned how to measure objects in fourths and eighths as well. Additionally, students learned the properties of shapes and important vocabulary terms used to describe shapes as well. The third graders have incorporated science, reading, and writing together to learn more about natural hazards. Students have selected five natural hazards to research, write, and present to their peers.
Art: Kindergarten students created a monochromatic collage with paint, paper, found objects and glitter. Grade 1 completed their texture monster project. Grade 2 finished up a myriad of ongoing projects. Grade 3 continued to use artist tricks to show distance in an original drawing.
Music: This week, students K-3 have started the first week of their unit on performance. Grade 1 and Kindergarten are practicing performing by learning new songs such as Wishy Washy. 2nd grade will expand their musicianship and begin practicing for our Star Spangled Spectacular. 3rd grade will begin wrapping up performance on their recorders.
Library: During library class this week we focused on learning how to navigate the Britannica Elementary and Gale databases. Students in kindergarten and first grade watched a video of the week which was about penguins on Britannica Elementary and did a drawing of a penguin. Students took a picture of their drawing and inserted it into Google Slides. Second and third grade students practiced searching for a topic on the Gale database. Students used the search box to search for an animal of their choice and answer questions about it. Students also searched for a science topic of their choice using the picture search and answered questions about it.