Wonders, Growing, and Practice

   Another Week of Learning and Growing:

     Happy Spring to All- we are now in our 3rd Trimester.  The year has been flying by.

The children had a Distance Learning Day on Monday, while the faculty and staff attended workshops.

Our meetings/worshops consisted of training for the new curriculum in for Science and Wonders. Teachers are always learning too.  I tell the students that everyday.  We also need to keep up with our learning to better our students' performances.  

Pen Pals

The children get really excited when they receive the letters from theri pen pals.  Each class has gotten at least one letter from their new friends.  We will be sending out the 2nd batch of letters this upcoming week.  The excitement of them reading their letters is so nice to see.  After I distribute them, I sit back and watch as they read and start to think of what they will write next.  This is a wonderful experience.  They are building new friendships, finding out about different states and learning letter writing skills, something that we do not do too often anymore.  

Station Rotations

This week the children rotated through 3 stations; 1 was the Computer station, the children had the opportunity to sharpen their Language Arts skills on IXL.  Station 2 was the Writing Station in which they practiced their sequencing skills and in Station 3, they had the opportunity to choose a book, sit somewhere comfortable and read.  Love to see the collaboration that goes on.  They are getting so much better with the transitioning from one center to the next.

While in the stations, they were also able to redeem Dojo points.  Many little gadgets and useful items are offered to them.

                                        Update on Wonders

This year, as you already know, we implemeted a new Language Arts Curriculum called Wonders.  Teachers were trained in it and we are still learning the ins and outs of the program.  It is wonderful to use with the children on mnay different levels.  The Vocabulary sections expose the children to many words that they read in the Anthology of the series.  They provide great resources on the computer as well.

       

The Reading/ Writing consumable also serves as a wonderful resource to follow up on with the skills being taught.  They work together to complete the assigned work.  It provides them the opportunity to read short stories, respond to the stories and also has a section dedicated to writing.  As I walk around, I see and hear many amazing work and conversations occuring.  This upcoming week we will begin a new unit, there are 6 all together.  

                                             Writing for 3rd Trimester

Our third and final trimester is upon us.  Our focus in writing is all about Opinion and Persuasive Writing.

This is one that the children really show a great deal of interest in.  We all have opinions and we all love to express them.  This trimester they will have the opportunity to defend their opinions and try to persuade others to see their point of view.  

 

Final Book Project

Tomorrow I will explain the last book project of the year.  This one is called the 
Puzzle Book Report.  The children can choose any book and create a puzzle about the book they read.  It consists of 9 pieces and they will need to provide certain information on each piece.  Be on the lookout for the handouts.  

Report Cards

On Friday the report cards were made available on Skyward.  Please locate them and review with your child.  This last trimester tends to go even faster than the 1st and 2nd.  With your support, I want the children to realize that the school year isn't over and that we still need to be on task and working in our classes.  As a matter of fact, RICAS testing will be taking place- handouts from the district and school came home on Friday.  We will be reviewing various skills that will be beneficial to use during our state testing.  More to follow.  

A Week of Reading, Readers and Virtual Assemblies

Monday, March 7th

On Monday we kicked off Reading Week with Be You by Peter Reynolds.  Mr. Pacitto read to the entire school via google meet.  

It was a wonderful way to begin the week.  Our theme was; Be You, We Are Readers.  

The children also were able to view readings by our Masked Readers.  The readers did a fantastic job in disguising who they were.  We were stumped on a few.

We also began preparing our Idioms.

Tuesday, March 8th

On this day, the entire school took part in the Idiom Parade.  Everyone chose an idiom and displayed it in very unique and creative ways.  We had some great representations.

The children paraded on the 1st and 2nd floor of the school's hallways.  It was great to see such enthusiasm.

Our teachers and staff also took part in this wonderdul event.

 

Wednesday, March 9th

The children listened to Kyle Van Noy, a former NE Patriots player.  He read a very uplifting book titled, Our Diversity Makes Us Stronger.   Throughtout the day we listened to many more readers with very powerful messages in the books they read.  It was also Wordy Wednesday.  The children chose a word that they wanted to be addressed as throughout the day.  

We also have many poets in our school and some were chosen to read out to the entire school the poem they created about a certain place in town.  

Thursday, March 10th

The children continued to listen to guest readers and a story titled,Stephanie's Ponytail. 

It was so nice to listen to our readers from the community.  They shared the books with us, some live and some pre-recorded. 

Friday, March 11th

Our last day of Reading Week was also another day filled wih reading, the Scholastic Book Fair, and Patriot Time, to name a few.  The children seemed to have enjoyed the week and everything that it involved.  Our reading specialists went above and beyond to prepare a week filled with many activities and events for us to take part in.  

The pictures above show the children during Patriot time: pick a text, really ignites our thinking.  They found some quiet spots and read, uninterrupted and simply read.  It was so great to see that they had books in their hands and read for a certain amount of time.

The day ended with a virtual assembly by Mr. Deep Postivity.  He is a rapper and entertained the children with songs about school, staying healthy and following rules.  

It was very interactive and got the students up on their feet, dancing and moving around. 

Stephanie's Ponytail talked about a girl who wanted to stand out.  That was the inspiration for our Unique hair day.  We saw many different hair styles.  It was so nice to see so many children participating all week long with the various activities that were planned out.  Kudos to our reading specialists for coming up with all of these events.  The children and teachers had a ball.  We love to see the smiles and excitement on all of their faces.