March 14, 2017

 

Dear Parents and Friends,

 

We will be offering a 7-week summer camp. Flyers are available now. Please ask if you have any questions.

We have a fundraiser scheduled for Thursday, March 23rd at Jerry Remy’s. This fundraiser is for all day and our building owner matches the amount that we raise. Please bring friends and family and help us out. A group of Mastery families will be going after the 5pm dismissal so it may be a nice opportunity to get together with our school community for an evening out. Thank you!

Last week’s letter of the week was Gg.

In reading, the Early Years students read Honk! Honk! A Story of Migration. This story is about a little girl who loves geese and goes on a fantasy adventure on the back of one. The goose took the little girl north. Always traveling north to the nesting grounds, this is where we get to see a baby gosling hatch then grown up into an adult goose. When the weather turns colder the geese fly back south to where it is warmer. The little girl eventually makes it back to her house and waves goodbye to her geese friends.

Primary A students read Goodbye Geese. Stirred by the southward flight of geese, a parent and young child share the excitement of the changing seasons. Using a question-and-answer format that moves from the concrete to the abstract, Carlstrom poetically explores the mysteries of winter: “Does winter have fingers? Yes, her frosty grip will tire the flowers. Winter puts the whole garden to bed and covers it with a fresh white blanket.” This leads naturally into the next query, “Does winter have hands?” creating a balanced structure that allows the text to flow smoothly and logically. This encouraged a conversation with the students about personification and the ability of a writer to give nonliving things human-like features.

The current reading groups include Arthur’s Pen Pal, Junie B. Jones and Meanie Jim’s Birthday,  Secrets of the Past, Freckle Juice, Runaway Ralph, Starry River of the Sky, The Clay Marble, and Flowers for Algernon. Students have been working on connecting to text, writing fiction and nonfiction, discussion questions and responding appropriately to others’ questions, and making graphic organizers to more easily respond to text.

Math class will have several presentations this week including money, fractions and decimals, equations and inequalities, and addition and subtraction on the number line. There are even more different modules going on at this time. Primary A is working on addition and subtraction and all of the numbers that makes 10. Other primary students are working on an introduction to fractions, addition and subtraction skills, and measurement. Intermediate students are working on place value, multiplication, fractions and decimals, and long division. Middle is working on equations, inequalities, solving equations in geometry, and using prior math skills to solve multi-step algebraic equations.

In science, all of Primary students are working on living and nonliving. Primary A is learning about what it means to be alive or not alive. All of Primary B and most of Primary C have presented their projects on living and nonliving. We will be moving into a new module on animals. All of Intermediate is working on a module on Earth’s Systems. Intermediate A is working on their projects about weather, fronts, and how our weather moves around the Earth. Intermediate B is working their projects for erosion and deposition. Intermediate C is working on their projects for the water systems and climate change. Middle school is working on their projects for Motion of Objects.

In Social Studies, Primary A is working on a history module. Their focus is on a personal timeline and United States holidays. Primary B and C are working their projects for a module on history. Intermediate A is working on their projects for New England and Massachusetts. Intermediate B is working their projects for the module about U.S. Regions with State Capitals. Middle school is working on their projects for their module for Ancient Egypt and Phoenicia.

Homework: Students ages 4-5 should read a minimum of 15 minutes, ages 6-7 should read a minimum of 20 minutes, ages 8-9 should read 30 minutes, and students 10 and up should read a minimum of 45 minutes. Please remember that if students leave early or are out sick they will need to make up that reading at home. Students should also be studying their spelling words every night.

If you have any questions or concerns about your child and what they are learning please let us know and we will set up an appointment to discuss it. Thank you!

Mary Harding & Renee Avilla