K-3 News

                                     Mrs. MacIntyre

           

              You and Your Family are Cordially Invited to

                       Our Kindergarten Holiday Concert

                          Thursday, December 21, 2017

                  Melrose School Multi-Purpose Room

                                      

The performance will begin promptly at 9:15. K-3 will be on the right hand side of the stage( if you are facing the stage.)

Please have your child wear their best Holiday red.

If you are taking your child home with you after the show, please let me know and you must sign them out in the office.

Happy Holidays,

Mrs. MacIntyre

                                    Mrs. MacIntyre

                                    K-3 Newsletter

Dear  Families,

December 1, 2017

Happy December! I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving with your family and friends. The students were very excited to bring home their Native American projects. I hope you enjoyed them and hopefully they were able to tell you about them and how we made everything! Our trip to McQuades was a wonderful success. The class had a great time and I think they realized how a little turns into a lot when we all add something to the collection. The amount of food we collected just outside our classroom was wonderful as well. Thank you to the parents who came along on the walk to McQuades and to all of you who sent in cans for our classroom box. I appreciate all of you. We are moving swiftly into Holidays Around the World studies. The students will learn about Hanukkah, St. Lucia Day, La Posadas, Kwanzaa and Christmas.

                            IMPORTANT EVENTS

Our Holiday Concert will be Thursday, December 21st at 9:15 in the multi-purpose room. Students should wear their best Holiday Red for the show.

Please let me know if your child will not be here for the show so that we can plan accordingly.

It will be a wonderful show and the students are looking forward to singing to you!! Your child can leave with you after the show or they can stay in school for the remainder of the day. All I ask is that you PLEASE let me know if you are taking them and you must sign them out in the office if you do. Thank you in advance.

We will also be having a Polar Express Pajama Day… I will let you know the date as soon as I decide.

Our letter of the week was “Uu”. Our tongue twister was, “Ursula’s uncle stays under an umbrella.”

In Writer’s Workshop, we are working on drawing pictures with detail, incorporating spaces into our writing and discussing ending punctuation. Even if you do not see this in your child’s writing, it is okay, know that they are discussing it in class and point it out to your child when you are reading to them at night. I am sending home the November Writing Folders. It was a very short month but nevertheless we were able to get a lot of writing done!

The homework books seem to be going well. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Remember to always read the title to your child and take a picture walk through the book before they begin writing.

Thanks for your cooperation on this.

In math, we have been working on addition as well as shapes and writing our numbers 0-10 in correct formation.

Please remember to send your child a morning and afternoon snack, even if they are getting hot lunch. Also, remember to send a beach towel and a couple of books for rest time. If your child would like to bring a small notepad and pencil that is fine also, just no markers please. Thanks in advance.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Hopefully you will be able to attend the Jamestown Tree Lighting on Saturday night downtown at 5:30.. It is a lot of fun and the Lawn Avenue band will be there playing Christmas songs as well.

Enjoy!

Mrs. MacIntyre

                                                      HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

                    K-3 Newsletter

                   Mrs. MacIntyre

Dear Families,

November 17, 2017

Happy Friday! I am excited to take the class today to McQuades on Monday. We have our bags of change ready and our shopping cards all set to go. Thank you also for your donations for our classroom basket. As of this year we are a Feinstein School. We are dedicated to helping our students value being a good person and doing good deeds for themselves and others. Kindergartener has always collected food at thanksgiving but this year with all the grades participating we have collected an enormous amount. Great work Melrose students!

Thanks to all of you for coming in for parent/teacher conferences. It is always nice to talk to the parents and families of the students I spend so much time with. Thank you so much for your support and trust. It makes my job so rewarding to work with such great students and families. Please feel free to email me anytime if there is anything I didn’t cover during our time together.

The students have been working very hard on their Native American crafts. We will continue to work on them next week.  We have been making drums, pattern necklaces, and headbands.  The students have also learned about How Native Americans lived off the land and now they often had to move their tepees to a new area. It led to the reading of some interesting literature and some nice classroom discussions.

My hope is that everything will be sent home on Wednesday the 22nd. If you are not going to be here due to travel plans please let me know in advance and I will send them home what we have so far.

The class is very excited about Thanksgiving and we are comparing the First Thanksgiving to the way many of us celebrate Thanksgiving now.

On Thursday, we were treated to a practice performance by the 2nd graders and their Thanksgiving play. It was a great show! I am glad we were able to attend the performance.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mrs. MacIntyre

 K-3 Newsletter

                          Mrs. MacIntyre

Dear Families,

November 3, 2017

Happy November! I hope you all had a Happy Halloween. I know the students were very excited! For those of you who were able to attend the Scarecrow festival at Godena Farm you enjoyed a real treat! The entire school did such a wonderful job creating scarecrows. It is so nice to see everyone working together and enjoying the event.

Visiting the farm added a nice connection to community and harvest. This ties nicely into our new month of November as we will about harvest, changes in weather and trees,Thanksgiving, Native Americans and Pilgrims. I am using Thanksgiving to also talk about what it looks like to be thankful and how much the words “thank you” mean when they are said to others. We have been working hard in Writer’s workshop. We are writing about things we like and things that we know about. I have also introduced the period, question mark and comma  The students love recognizing these punctuation marks in our morning message.

In honor of Thanksgiving, we will be collecting canned goods for the Jamestown Food Bank here in K-3. You may start sending your canned and boxed food items at any time. We will also be walking to McQuades this month to buy a food item for Thanksgiving Baskets to be donated to families in need.

I ask that you have your child do some chores around the house to earn $1.00 to $2.00 to spend at the grocery store. Your child can use coins to pay. He or she will not need more than $2.00 at the most!!

Please send the coins in a labeled bag with the amount and your child’s name on the bag. We will be cutting out items from the McQuades flyer. Each student will be responsible for finding and buying a specific item to put into the Thanksgiving basket. They will even be responsible for carrying it back to school! I think this gives the student a real feeling of helping others and it is important for them to know that even though the are small they can help others.

                 

I will be sending home conference reminder times. Please let me know if you will not be able to make your conference. Also please remember the conference time is only 15 minutes long. It is a time for you to ask me any questions you may have about your child. If we find that you need more time, we can set up another time to meet. I am happy to do that.

In other news, out letter of the week was, “Hh.” Our tongue twister was, “Hannah hugs Harry the happy hound.”  I hope you enjoy the October writing folders that I sent home. You can see how your child is growing already!

Please be sure to return your child’s reading book in the bag with the log so I can give you a new one each week.

In math, we continued with one to one correspondence of numbers 0-10,  writing our numerals 0-10 and comparing numbers.

In science, we are observing leaves and are learning new vocabulary to describe how leaves are the same and different. Trees and weather has been a very exciting science unit especially given all of the changes that are taking place right outside our window.

Reminder!! NO SCHOOL on Friday, November 10th!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Sincerely,

Scarecrow Event at Godena Farm

      North Road Jamestown

 Saturday, October 28, 2017

  4-7 p.m. ( I may have accidently said Friday in one of my letters)

K-3 Newsletter

                       Mrs. MacIntyre

October 20, 2017

Dear families,

We had some beautiful weather this week here in Jamestown.Thanks to our trees and weather unit, I have been taking advantage of the weather and taking the class out to look at our adopted trees and collect data on the changes that are taking place. Thanks for doing the homework with your child.. They were very proud to show the leaves that they found. If you didn’t get a chance to find any, maybe you can look this weekend. Enjoy the beautiful foliage.

Our letter of the week was “Nn”. Our tongue twister was,” Nick and Natasha nibble nuts.” Writer’s Workshop is going well as we continue to write the sounds we hear and not worry about perfect spelling. This is a skill that is important to as it promotes phonemic awareness and the confidence to become an independent writer. One day this week, we even wrote a story with no words. I asked to students to draw a picture with extra detail that could tell a story with no words. They did a fabulous, fabulous job! In math, we continued to practice naming and identifying 2D and 3D shapes. We also practiced number writing and one to one correspondence. Next week will be an exciting week with Halloween right around the corner.  I will send home details about the event at Godena Farm featuring the scarecrows made by the entire school.October is Fire Safety month, in recognition of that, we will be walking to the Jamestown Fire Station on Wednesday, October 25th. I am missing many permission slips. If you have not returned it please send it back on Monday. If you lost the permission slip, you can just write a handwritten note of your own giving your child permission to go on a walking field trip with the school and sign and date it.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,

Mrs. MacIntyre

Dear Families,

October 13,2017

Once again participating in a Scarecrow event to be held at Godena Farm in Jamestown. Each classroom is creating a scarecrow for the farm. This year the theme is farming. We decided to create a scarecrow from the book The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything

We are in need of the following items to create our scarecrow:

1. Two old shoes
2. One pair of green pants
3. One white shirt
4. Two white gloves
5. One black hat
6. One pumpkin head

You can send these items in with your child on Monday. They items will not be returned so please don’t send in anything nice!!!

The project is a lot of fun! The students are able to view all of the scarecrows at the Godena Farm Scarecrow Night which will be held on October 28th. There will be refreshments, a bonfire and hayrides.

Happy Halloween!!!

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. MacIntyre

  K-3 Newsletter

                              Mrs. MacIntyre

October 6, 2017

Dear Families,

I hope you all are enjoying the beautiful Autumn weather. We had a nice week here in K-3. Right now we are digging right into our Trees and Weather unit and the students are really enjoying watching the changes in the trees right outside our window. We have “adopted” three trees on the playground and we are going to be using our science eyes to watch the changes that occur with each tree throughout the seasons. You may notice your child paying special attention to trees or even naming different parts of a tree. Enjoy and encourage this with them!

Our letter of the week was “Bb. Our tongue twister was “Brianna and Ben bounce beachballs.” I hope that you enjoyed reading your child’s September writing. I will send a folder home at the end of each month.I will also be keeping one writing sample from each month in a folder here at school. At the end of the year you will get the folder and you will be amazed at the growth your child makes!

In math, we continued to practice with our numeral formation. We also began naming and identifying 2D and 3D shapes.

On Friday, we will meet with our 4th grade buddies for the first time. Your child will have one buddy, a couple of students have two because of an uneven number of classmates, which they will meet with every Friday. The 4th graders generally will come down to our classroom at the end of the day and read to their buddy and then we will go outside on the playground together. It is a great interaction and they are always very excited when they see each other in the hallway throughout the year.

You will have a chance to meet your child’s 4th grade buddy at our Annual Holiday Concert in December. It is always on the the last day of school before the Holiday break and it will be in morning.

I hope you all have a great long Columbus Day weekend.

See you Tuesday.

Sincerely,

Mrs. MacIntyre

K-3  Newsletter

                                          Mrs MacIntyre

Dear families,

September 29, 2017

I can’t believe it is the last day of September! The class has come a long way in just one month. We are still getting used to our schedules but I think everyone feels comfortable and happy and secure in their K-3 environment.

This week our letter of the week was “Dd”. Our tongue twister was “David and Dominique dance with Dalmations.”

In our Writer’s Workshop, we worked with our Being a Writer program. We read a great book called Titch. It’s message pertained to all the things small children can do and how there are many things they can do to help their family and friends even though they are little. We also read Leo the Late Bloomer, which explains in a sweet way how children grow at their own pace. A definite important message for children.  The students loved the book! I am excited to send home the September Writing Folders next week so they can share with you how hard they have been working.

In math, we are practicing writing our numbers 0-5. We are also counting by the number of days we have been in school and breaking it down into tens and ones. We also graphed our eye colors and found out which eye color is most common in K-3. We incorporate a lot of math and literacy into our Morning Meeting. Your child should be able to clap out the syllables in their own name and they have a good understanding of what a syllable is.

Thank you all for the donations of tissues and Lysol wipes. I will definitely put them to good use!

Enjoy your weekend. Keep sending in those awesome signs of autumn!

Sincerely,

Mrs. MacIntyre

 K-3 Newsletter

                   Mrs. MacIntyre

Dear Families,

September 22, 2017

Happy Autumn!

We are began our science unit Trees and Weather so that was a perfect introduction to the unit. We labeled the parts of a tree and we also learned some new vocabulary. We learned about Conifers and Hardwood trees and are learning how to recognize their differences. If you have time, discuss with your child what you notice about the trees this fall. Maybe you have a tree in your yard that you could pay special attention to. Observe its trunk and branches and the changing color of the leaves if you can. Also maybe you can find an evergreen and notice how it is different than other trees.

On Wednesday we also visited Makerspace. Makerspace is a room upstairs that has many different materials that the students can explore and create with. This was our third week in Maker’s Space and the class as a whole loves it!  There are blocks and nuts and bolts that the students can use to create a variety of structures and moving creations. Students experiment and figure out how to put things together on their own  with no specific goal in mind other than to just create. It is a great opportunity for learning.We will go up every Wednesday throughout the year.

In math, we worked on writing our numbers 0-5. I also introduced 5 frames. The students are learning to color in the correct amount of squares to the corresponding number ( up to 5).

Next week, I will begin sending home out Wednesday homework. It should not be hard for your child. If they become frustrated about doing it or struggle with it, PLEASE do not worry about completing it. Send it back to me with a note and I’ll work with them. I would prefer that  kindergarten students not get  frustrated with homework at this early age. Thank you in advance.

Our letter of the week was “Ee”. Our tongue twister was “Elizabeth and Ethan eat eclairs.” We even learned what an eclair is!

We are making great gains already in our Writer’s Workshop program. The students are becoming more familiar with their letters and sounds

through the Wilson picture cards that we review every morning. You should be very proud.

Thank you all so much for coming to Open House on Tuesday. Your children really enjoyed the notes you left them. I appreciate all your support.

I hope your child is enjoying kindergarten and that if you have any questions you know that I am here.

Keep sending in your signs of fall.. our fall table looks great!

Have a nice weekend.

Sincerely,

Mrs. MacIntyre

** class wish list… Kleenex and Lysol wipes

                        K-3 Newsletter

                       Mrs. MacIntyre

Dear families,

September 15, 2017

Happy Friday! The students had a lot of fun this week and seem to adjusting well into our routine. As I said, there is a lot for a new kindergartener to learn about and we will take one day at a time getting to know one another and learning our routines. Already, I see the students understanding how predictable our schedule is and when they know what is coming next, they feel confident and ready to learn. If your child is still a little nervous and apprehensive about school, don’t worry, it is perfectly okay. By the end of the month we are usually in great shape! Thank you for returning the blue folders everyday, I greatly appreciate it. I use these to send home any notes or work that your child has done. Next week, I will send home a little homework. I only send homework home ONCE A WEEK. It is always sent home on at Wednesday and it is almost always pertaining to math.

As the year progresses, usually around November, I will begin sending home little reading bags for you and your child. Most importantly, I encourage you to read to your child every night. Make it fun, short and enjoyable!

In class, we have begun our Being a Writer program which intertwines literature and writing. This is something we do everyday and it is a very structured and FUN part of the day. Each week we will also focus on a letter of the week. We learn them in the order of the way they are formed per our Handwriting without Tears program. Our first letter was “Ff”. Our tongue twister which went along with the letter F was, “Felicia and Freddy follow funny footsteps.” Practice with your child at home! Every week your child will learn a tongue twister that goes along with the letter of the week.

In math, we are exploring our BIG Go Math workbooks as well as learning about shapes, numbers 0-5 and left and right. We also voted on what our class frog..(not real) should be named, ask your child what the winning name was, they should be able to tell you.

Next week, we will begin our ongoing science unit about Trees and Weather. If you happen to see any signs of fall this weekend..( acorns, leaves changing color.. Or anything else) please bring them in and we can put them on our fall table.

In class we also made a K-3 class rules chart together. It has 3 rules:

                                    

                            BE KIND
                           RAISE YOUR HAND
                  WORK HARD AND DO YOUR BEST

Please note  OPEN HOUSE is Tuesday, September 19th from 6-7pm

This is an opportunity to check out your child’s classroom and meet their teacher.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Mrs. MacIntyre