K-3 Newsletter

                        Mrs. MacIntyre

January 13, 2017

Dear Families,

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The students have learned about the  importance of Martin Luther King Jr. and the effect he has had upon history. We describe him as a peacemaker. I have not identified it as a black and white issue only but as a person who wanted all people to be treated equal and be a peaceful problem solver. We wove him into a Writer’s Workshop prompt. After talking about King’s “I have a dream” speech, the students had to write what they would dream for if they were to make a speech. I am very fortunate to have such a caring and empathetic group of young students. They are so much fun to work with.

In Literacy, we have been reading many Jan Brett books. We have made a list of the books we have read so far and will continue to read more next week. We are paying special attention to The Mitten. We will be acting it out in class and doing many sequencing activities to practice with retelling and sequencing.

We are looking for items to put on our winter table…. If you see any signs of winter send them in .. no snow please!! Speaking of snow, this class definitely gets an award for the best prepared for snow class!! Everyone has snowpants, boots, hats and gloves !! Thank you so much!

You have probably been noticing some interesting things coming home that we have been creating in Makerspace We have always gone to the Maker’s Space room to work with legos, riga-ma-gigs and create things from scrap. We now have Miss Haley working in the Makerspace room. She has been teaching the students about 2D and 3D shapes as well as inclines. We have made various things from nature and from cardboard. If you have any questions about Makerspace feel free to ask me or come check the room out for yourself.. it is a great space for the students to be imaginative and creative.

In math, we continue to practice counting to 100 and writing our numerals 0-20. This is something you can practice at home. Most of the numerals should be going in the right direction at this point, but it is very common for them to be reversed at this age, so do not be concerned if your child is still doing that. I will begin introducing subtraction next week. The class is doing an excellent job at adding within 5 and writing the equation. Good work!

Thank you all for doing such a great job with the homework books. I am working with reading strategies here at school. Please encourage your child to use their pointer finger and place it under each word as the read. This encourages word matching and word correspondence. They are beginning to see some words have more than one syllable and this is something we practice at morning meeting. Thank you in advance.

Our field trip is planned  for the Bristol Audubon Society. We will be going on Thursday, January 26th.

We will leave around 9:00 am and should return around 1:30. If you would like to take the bus or meet us there please let me know. The entire trip for the students will be paid for by the school.The cost for chaperones is $10.00. We will be taking a nature walk and looking for animals prints.We will listen to a nature book and explore the indoor museum.It is a really fantastic field trip,

Remember to check my blog on the Jamestown School website for periodic photos.

Please remember there is no school Monday, January 16th.

Finally, Please send in a beach towel with your child on Tuesday for rest time. Many students are forgetting the towels and I really would rather that they not lay on the cold floor. Feel free to send a couple of books and/or a small writing pad.

Have a nice long weekend.

Sincerely,

Mrs. MacIntyre