Mr. Ward’s Message:
Important information about Parent/Teacher Conferences…
Parent/Teacher Conferences are slated for Thursday, December 12th. December 12th 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, December 1st 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, December 1st.
Attendance Matters Weekly Update:
Goal: 94% of the FES student population will attend school daily.
September Daily Student Attendance for September was 96% - Goal achieved!
October Daily Student Attendance for October was 97% - Goal achieved!
November weekly attendance data indicates…
November 1: 95%...Met goal!
November 4-8: 95%...Met goal!
November 11-15: 94%...Met goal!
Upcoming events:
November 18th: November PTO Meeting beginning at 6:30 PM
November 27th: Early Release Day - Students dismissed at 12:15 PM
November 28th & 29th: Happy Thanksgiving - No School
FES News and Happenings:
With the holiday season approaching we are hoping to spread some holiday cheer by getting our littles some new fox gear! FES Apparel sale is now live! Sale ends Tuesday, November 19th. No late orders can be accepted to ensure delivery by winter break. There are so many new products and colors to choose from. See the link below for more information.
https://spiritsale.online/freetown
*Please note this is not a FUNDRAISER. The prices are not marked up to make money for the school.
PTO Corner:
PTO meetings are held in person and virtually. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 18th from 6:30 - 7:30 PM. The meeting will be in person as well as virtual to accommodate for families. The meeting invitation is outlined below.
Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5044273489?pwd=QkJBNTE1S3psODJCRUM3NW1xOXJVUT09&omn=87126740788
Meeting ID: 504 427 3489
Passcode: FESPTO
FES PTO website is...https://freetownelementarypto.weebly.com/
News and Happenings from around the classrooms - Week of November 11-15:
Pre-School: This week in preschool we reviewed the letter V. We learned about the Pilgrims and compared our life to theirs. The preschoolers also practiced number recognition by putting together a Mayflower puzzle. On Thursday we celebrated Yellow Day by wearing something yellow.
Kindergarten: This week in kindergarten we focused on the letter Tt and its sound. We practiced /t/(t sound) in the initial and final placements in words. Our HFW was “like”. We worked on locating a specific word in print, letters vs. print, sounds and blending. In math, our lesson was adding within 5. We started talking about Thanksgiving, what it means to be grateful and what we’re thankful for.
Grade 1: This week in first grade we started Unit 2 in Wonders. We learned about the vowel sound -ea that makes the short e sound like in “bread” and “head”. For writing we are continuing to work on writing complete sentences and responding to a prompt. For math this week we began learning about the doubles facts (3+3, 5+5). In social studies we are discussing Thanksgiving and gratitude.
Grade 2: This week, second graders learned strategies to solve 2 digit subtraction problems. In phonics, we focused on the soft c and g sound as well as when to use the trigraph -dge. We also learned about the prefixes -re, -un, and -dis. In reading, we are practicing asking and answering questions using evidence from the text. In science we are learning about the effects of wind and water on landforms. In writing we are continuing with our animal research papers and are exploring the website Pebble Go.
Grade 3: In third grade this week, students completed rounding to the nearest ten and hundred within word problems. In reading, students completed an MCAS practice titled, “Balloons over Broadway” using the RACES graphic organizer to formulate their essay responses. In writing, students wrote an opinion paragraph about whether they would want to be a Wampanoag or Pilgrim. Students were able to share their opinions and reasons with their peers based on what they have learned throughout the unit.
Art: Kindergartners learned that geometric shapes have special names and rules for drawing them. We used a popsicle stick to stamp lines to make shapes. Grade 1 finished their Alphabet abstraction project while using their best coloring with markers. Grade 2 continued to work on their Mexican mirrors, coloring with construction paper crayons and adding tin foil in the middle. They also really enjoyed using the Promethean board to make digital art with radial symmetry using this fun game. Grade 3 is enjoying creating symmetrical creatures from their name.
Physical Education: This week students participated in their second cup stacking lesson. Second and Third grade students reviewed the 3 stack, 6 stack, and 3-6-3 progression. They then learned the 1-10-1 stack. Kindergarten and First grade students reviewed walking the cups and the 3-3-3 progression and then learned how to stack 6 cups.
Music: This week, students K-3 have started the 2nd week of their unit on improvising. Grade 3 will begin improvising movements in Mama Lama, Grade 2 will explore improvising using mallet instruments. Grade 1 and Kindergarten will improvise with arioso type songs. In addition, Grade 3 has the opportunity to take a “virtual field trip” to Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. They will view pictures of his mansion in music class.
Library: During library class this week, students worked on digital literacy skills from the digital literacy curriculum in Typetastic. Kindergarten and first grade students worked on the lesson about what the Internet is as a whole class and then completed an activity on Seesaw about the Internet. Second and third grade students completed the cyberbullying digital literacy module on Typetastic individually. We also discussed what cyberbullying is, what to do if you see it and how to prevent it from happening.