Ocean World

 Ellen Goethel, a marine biologist from Hampton Beach, NH came to Memorial School to teach the children about animals from the ocean.  She brought a touch tub with her so that the children were able to touch and hold live creatures from the ocean!! 

Thank you to the PTO for funding this wonderful hands-on experience for our students!

Room 5 Update

The children have settled in nicely to the full-day kindergarten routine.  They have already been taught the sounds and correct lowercase letter formation for ten letters, have been working on rhyming, counting out syllables in words and started learning some of our kindergarten sight words.  They know that good readers look at the pictures for help and always use their reading finger to help them.  They know that some letters are vowels and that every word has a vowel.

We have been working on listening to and telling stories.  Every child has a "Turn and Talk" partner that they share their stories and ideas with.  Every Monday the children work on drawing and sharing one thing they did over the weekend.  At this point, the children have been dictating their words to an adult and trying to label their pictures.  It is quite amazing to see how much they progress with their reading and writing skills during their year in kindergarten.

We are about to finish Topic 3-Numbers 6 to 10 in our Envisions math program and will be moving into Topic 4 which focuses on comparing numbers 0 to 10.  Our math block often consists of many hands-on activities and games as well as a daily lesson from the Envisions program. 

As part of our Foss Science program, we have been observing trees and weather. We have discussed how all plants need water, nutrients, light, air, and space to grow.  We had fun working on leaf rubbings from our class tree on Friday morning.  

The Choose to be Nice program introduced us to Riley the Responsible Mouse.  Every child drew a picture of one way to show Responsibility in school.  The children's drawings are hanging in the hallways, library, gym cafe and in our classroom.  We realized there are many ways to show responsibility at Memorial School.

I introduced the children to the class Teddy Bear Jar.  The class can earn little teddy bears to put in the jar when they work together as a class.  They can earn a teddy bear by receiving a compliment for walking quietly in the hallways, or when I pick them up from one of their specials and the teacher says they did a great job.  There are many ways to earn teddy bears in our class jar.  Once the jar is full the class will earn something from a list that we comprised together.

We like to end our week with Fun Day Friday.  On Friday afternoons the children have been exploring and creating with our Maker Space materials. It is a wonderful time to walk around the classroom and ask the children about what they are creating.  They love sharing what they have created from their wonderful imaginations.  They love Fun Day Friday afternoons.  Below are some pictures from our Maker Space time.  

We were so excited to see our names on the Choose To Be Nice banner.  We look forward to a great year where social and emotional learning is one of our top priorities!

Room 5 has been very busy working on storytelling and acting.  We recently wrote, illustrated, and acted out two class stories called The Candy House and Once Upon A Time.  We hope you enjoy reading them and looking at the wonderful illustrations.  What a great job the children did working together creating these pieces!

It is hard to believe that the month of October is already upon us.  The children seem to be getting into the routine of kindergarten and are enjoying forming new friendships. It has been fun getting to know each and every one of them.

Thank you to everyone who attended Parent Information Night.  It was great to meet parents I hadn’t met and to share with you a typical day in kindergarten. Thank you also for all of the supplies that you purchased at the beginning of the school year.

We are moving along with the rigorous kindergarten curriculum. Please see the attached home-school connections from our Literacy and Math programs.  

We had our Choose To Be Nice kick-off assembly and introduced the school to the Nine Nice Mice and our community video.  The pledge banner made its way around the school and will soon be hanging in our school hallway. After making the pledge and signing the banner, all students received a CTBN bracelet.  We encourage families to find a safe place for the bracelet so that the children can wear them throughout the year.

Choose To Be Nice Home Connections

September’s Value of the Month was Respect. Ryan helped us learn about Respect! In Kindergarten, we discussed what respect means and what respect looks like and sounds like.

This week we started our Foss science unit on Trees and Weather.  We adopted a tree that we will be observing throughout the seasons. 

I look forward to a wonderful year with you and your child.  Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns.  

I hope you all enjoy the long holiday weekend. Don't forget to take in some of the beautiful scenery that we are so fortunate to have here in New England!

Welcome to Kindergarten

The Teddy Bear class got off to a great start!  The children have been learning classroom routines and procedures.  We are getting to know each other through name games and free choice time.  During the first week of school, we went over our class rules.  There are only four, so hopefully, the children can remember them.  They are . . .

1.  We are safe.

2. We are kind.  

3.  We are good listeners.  

4.  We always try our best.

Please talk to your child about how important it is to follow the classroom rules.  

In keeping with our first rule of being safe, we practice a fire drill during the first week of school. The children did a fabulous job moving quickly, quietly and safely during the drill.  

I want to thank all of you who sent in supplies.  With flu season soon approaching we can never have enough wipes to clean our hands!  Please remember to send your child in with a snack and a labeled water bottle every day.  The water bottles are available throughout the day for children to sip from if they become thirsty.  I also ask that you send in a towel or blanket for rest and quiet time, which we will be having every afternoon.  If your child has a little stuffed animal or small pillow they would like for this time they are welcome to bring those in.

Please look through the Memorial School handbook for important information. Please be advised that Kindergarten Parent Information Night is coming up.  This night is for parents only so please look into babysitting for the evening.  

I am very excited about the year ahead.  Our classroom is beautiful and the curriculum is full of interesting topics.  If you have any questions or concerns throughout the year please do not hesitate to contact me by email at pgrace@email.medfield.net.  I will try my best to respond back to you as soon as possible.

Looking forward to setting sail with my new little teddy bears!