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 January these students best exemplify what it means to be a Freetown Elementary Student. Congratulations to the January students that were nominated…
Kindergarten: Joshua Pimental, Jr., Abigail Melo, Oliver Pierpont, Tilly Carvalho, Morgan Lawless
Grade 1: Alexis Linhares, Benjamin Cooper, Liliana Edson, Evangeline Tavares
Grade 2: Kennedy Murphy, Adrienne Oliveira, Paisley Suttie, Mya Rodgers, Lila Badurina
Grade 3: Isla Calderwood, Travis Deneault, Layla Tompkins, Myra Amaral, Zoe Nickerson, Evan Vangsness
Gentle Reminder...As we prepare for the winter season we will continue to use the Thrill Share Communication network to provide families with the necessary school cancellation and delay information. In addition to Thrillshare, we will utilize the school website and all local media outlets to communicate information in a timely manner for our families in Freetown and Lakeville.
This past week brought the 100th Day of School to Freetown Elementary School. We are all 100 Days smarter. Students participated in 100th Day activities such as counting to 100, jumping to 100, sorting to 100, writing 100 words, and the list could go on and on. Now we are down to our final 80 days of the school year and we will be pushing our students to reach their full potential. We can do it!
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 4 & 5 for English Language Arts
May 16 & 17 for Mathematics
Please note the date change for Math MCAS. The change was due to the Grade 3 Spring Choral Concert.
PTO Corner:
The next PTO Meeting will take place on Monday, February 13th from 6:30 - 7:30 PM. The meeting will be both in-person and virtual. The meeting invitation is below…
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5044273489?pwd=QkJBNTE1S3psODJCRUM3NW1xOXJVUT09
Meeting ID: 504 427 3489
Passcode: FESPTO
FES PTO website is...https://freetownelementarypto.weebly.com/
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!
The December average student daily attendance was 89%. We did not achieve our goal!
The January average student daily attendance was 95%. Goal achieved!
February student daily attendance rate…
February 1-3: 94%...Goal achieved!
February 6-10 (excluding 2/10): 91%...Goal not achieved!
Upcoming Events:
February 13: February PTO Meeting
February Vacation Week will take place the week of February 20-24. School will resume again on Monday, February 27th.
Grade Level Happenings from the Week of February 6 - 10:
Pre-School: This week in preschool we learned about a new Lively Letter, letter l. Letter l is a famous singer who likes to warm up her voice! We also began discussing kindness, love, and the meaning of Valentine’s Day. The preschoolers also made their special Valentine gifts for their parents.
Kindergarten: This week in kindergarten our FUNdations lesson focused on tapping to read words, listening for sounds and making words for decoding. Our high frequency word was “are” and comprehension skill was topic and details. For print concepts, we focused on tracking when reading, return sweep and parts of a book. Our math lesson was practicing addition and subtraction facts within 5. In writing we are learning about opinion writing and words that connect ideas.
Grade 1: This week in first grade we celebrated the 100th Day by making shirts with 100 things. In FUNdations we finished up unit 7 by working on glued sounds with suffix -s. For comprehension, we discussed the main topic and key details of the book “Where Does Food Come From?”. In math we focused on the 120 chart and had fun working on ways to make 100 for the 100th day. In science we are finishing up the light and communication unit.
Grade 2: This week in second grade reading we worked on identifying literary elements in a story. In Fundations we worked on spelling and reading multisyllabic words with the double vowel teams “ai” and “ay” for the long /a/ sound. In math we solved word problems involving adding and subtracting with regrouping. In writing we worked on research and drafting of our informational animal reports. We explored properties and states of matter in science. We had a great time on Wednesday celebrating the 100th day of school!
Grade 3: In reading, we continued to explore our essential question in our Wonders reading program: what can we learn from Earth and its neighbors? Students read a story called “Destination Saturn” to learn more information about our solar system. In writing, students used their creative writing skills by writing a story about a groundhog popping up at the superbowl game. We had fun listening to their fun stories! In math, students learned about equivalent fractions. In science, students chose a natural hazard to learn more about. They used a graphic organizer to organize the information they are learning and prepared to create a slideshow presentation of their natural hazard. We also did a fun math activity to celebrate the 100th day of school!
Art: Kindergarteners completed their Alexander Calder inspired painting with primary colors. Grade 1 painted 100 lines to celebrate the 100th day of school. Grade 2 learned about color value and painted hills of Ireland with tints and shades. Grade 3 experimented with mixing analogous colors as well as tints and shades as they painted their cubist style self portrait. Click here to learn more about color with your child.
Physical Education: Students in second and third grade learned and practiced volleyball skills. They learned the overhand pass, underhand pass, and underhand serve. Kindergarten and first grade students practiced hopping, jumping, balancing and throwing, and started to learn the game of hopscotch.
Music: This week, students K-3 have started the 4th week of their unit on listening. Grade 1 and Kindergarten will listen to music for dynamics, tempo and directions as well as music from Haydn. 2nd grade will listen to music of Beethoven and respond to vocal and instrumental musical elements. 3rd graders will listen to their peers play on the xylophone.
Library: Students started working in centers this week. The centers consisted of independent and buddy reading, writing book reviews and practicing typing skills on Typetastic and Typing Club.