Mr. Ward’s Message:
As we move from the season of giving thanks to a season of giving and kindness, I would like to make Freetown Elementary Families aware of two Community Service Projects happening simultaneously.
Freetown Elementary Community Service Projects…
#1. The Grade 3 Student Council is collecting non-perishable food items to benefit the local Freetown Food Pantry. The Third Grade Student Council Food Drive is taking place until December 9th. Suggested items include pasta, canned vegetables, canned soups, canned food, etc. The Grade 3 Student Council thanks you in advance for your assistance.
#2. Christmas Stockings for Veterans & Troop Supply List…Freetown Elementary School is assisting The Tuesday Club of Assonet in collecting items to make stockings for our local Veterans at The Veterans Hospital in Brockton and the Veterans Transition House in New Bedford. Some suggested items include…
note pads pens & pencils writing paper
plan envelopes playing cards crossword puzzles
toothbrushes toothpaste dental floss
chapstick deodorant combs and brushes
Collection bins will be set up at FES from now until December 9th. Thank you for your support!
FES News and Happenings:
Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Wednesday, December 7th (evening) and Thursday, December 8th (afternoon). An on-line sign-up document was shared on Sunday, November 27th at 6:00 PM. Conferences will be limited to 10 minutes. Parents/Guardians may select a conference time on either date that works for your schedule. Your child’s report card will be sent home on Tuesday, December 6th for you to review and have for your child’s parent/teacher conference. More information will follow in the upcoming weeks.
Couple of thoughts…
Report cards will go home on December 6th.
Parent/Teacher Conferences will be 10 minutes in length.
Also, parents/guardians don’t forget to meet with our specialists (PE, Art, and Music) for parent/teacher conferences. Please use the link provided and sign-up for a time to meet with our specialists.
PTO Corner:
The next PTO Meeting will take place on Monday, January 9th from 6:30 - 7:30 PM. The meeting will be both in-person and virtual.
FES PTO website is...https://freetownelementarypto.weebly.com/
Amazon Smile…The Holidays will be here before you know it. Don't forget when you are doing your holiday shopping to start at AmazonSmile and select Freetown Elementary School PTO as your charity. Once you set up the AmazonSmile connection Amazon will remind you anytime you shop to start at AmazonSmile. The price of your products doesn't change at all, but amazon gives FES PTO a percent of your purchases. It's just that easy. Support us when you shop for holiday gifts http://smile.amazon.com/ch/75-3257492 and Amazon donates.
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!
Let’s keep that momentum going into the month of December.
Upcoming events:
December 7 & 8: Parent/Teacher Conferences
December 13: Grade 1 Holiday Storybook Night
December 16: Kindergarten Gingerbread Night
December 21: Grade 3 Holiday Choral Concert beginning at 7:00 PM
December 23: Early Release Day for students. Breakfast and lunch will not be provided.
Grade Level Happenings from the Week of 11/28-12/2:
Preschool: This week in preschool we discussed the season of giving. The preschoolers began making special holiday gifts for their parents. We also built a Giving Graph in our classrooms where we will graph charitable donations brought in by the preschoolers. We will use this graph as a tool to teach counting, sorting, and comparing least and most. The children met a new Lively Letter, the letter g, a girl who loves to gulp grape juice. We introduced the various holidays that will be celebrated this month. The children will learn the similarities and differences between them during the upcoming weeks.
Kindergarten: This week in kindergarten our Fundations Letters were l, h and k. Our high frequency word was “to”. For our comprehension skill, we continued to discuss key details in stories and for writing we talked about using adjectives. We discussed number partners for 10 and making 10 in math. For science we began to talk about weather conditions.
Grade 1: This week in first grade we finished up unit 4 in FUNdations. We reviewed bonus letters f, l, and s and the glued sound “all”. For comprehension we reviewed predicting, setting and characters. In writing we are continuing to work on responding to a text. For math this week we learned about the equal sign. In social studies, we began learning about how different countries celebrate the holidays.
**Save the Date**: Our Holiday Story Hour will be held Wednesday, December 13th from 5:15-6:30.
Grade 2: This week in second grade reading we worked on finding the topic and relevant supporting details. In Fundations, we learned about combining vowel-consonant-e syllables with other syllable types to make multisyllabic words. In math, we began to learn strategies for adding 2-digit numbers with regrouping. In writing we worked on further developing our Realistic Fiction writing. In science we talked about the effects of wind and water.
Grade 3: This week in third grade we worked on reading and understanding argumentative texts by identifying the central idea and relevant details. In writing we revised, edited and published our personal narratives. In math, we continued to practice rounding to the nearest ten and hundred and we introduced the students to addition with regrouping. In social studies, we discussed what the journey on the Mayflower was like for the Pilgrims.
Art: Kindergarteners loved learning about Wassily Kandinsky and his non-objective art. They added black lines to their shape stamped paper to try to make the shapes look like they are moving. Click here to learn more about Wassily Kandinsky with your child. Grade 1 started a shape monster cut paper collage. Grade 2 finished up a few projects. Grade 3 is completing a fun cityscape inspired by the pop artist James Rizzi. To learn more about James Rizzi with your child, Click Here.
Physical Education: This week in PE classes students participated in Fitness stations designed to increase muscular strength and endurance, increase flexibility, and help increase cardiorespiratory endurance.
Speed Stack Orders:
If you would like to order speed stacks for your student, I am running a fundraiser for the PE department. Please follow the link to order them through the school and part of the proceeds will go to purchase equipment for the PE program at FES: speedstacks.com/go/30261-14682906/ If this is a holiday surprise, I can arrange a pick-up time for you.
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. In addition, we have begun singing holiday songs chosen by the students.
Library: During library class this week, kindergarten and first grade students worked on the iPad app Relationshapes. Students explored visual-spatial relationships and created pictures with shapes. Second grade students compared two countries of their choice in the Britannica Student database. Students responded to writing prompts on Google Slides. Third grade students read a book on Epic called “How Your Media Choices Make You Feel” and completed a writing response of Google Slides.