A Message from the Office
Thanksgiving Pie Donations
If you signed up to donate a pie for our faculty and staff members for Thanksgiving, please bring it on Tuesday, November 21 to the Cafeteria between 7:30 and 8 a.m. Thank you so much for your dedication to our school and teachers! Thank you to Jayme Simovic, our parent volunteer, for graciously coordinating this year’s Pie tradition.
PreK
K1
This week K1 students were whisked back in time to 1620 and learned about life as a Pilgrim. Their journey began on the Mayflower, in our dramatic play area, where the children participated in activities much like the pilgrims would have: fishing, adding their names to the Mayflower Passenger List, crossing off the number of days aboard, cleaning the ship, steering the ship, playing counting games with dried beans, rationing out food (cheese, beans, dried meats, and fish) and taking care of their babies, etc. Their experience continued when our Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock and the children learned all about life as a pilgrim in Plymouth, MA., meeting the Native Americans and the very first Thanksgiving.
K2
Over the last few weeks, students in Ms. Tiney and Ms. McAuliffe's K2 classes have been building their understanding of the 5 senses. On Thursday, students learned about taste in a fun way by tasting 5 different snacks. Each snack had a different flavor profile, helping them better understand the vocabulary of salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. The salty pretzels seemed to be the class favorite!
Grade 2
Looking ahead to next week in the core classes, students will be reading "Balloons Over Broadway" by Melissa Sweetand to learn more about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Then they will take a virtual field trip to NYC to see how the parade comes to life! They will even create their very own upside-down marionette, practicing their STEM skills.
Grade 5
5th grade students have been studying Early American Colonies throughout the trimester. They were tasked with answering the following questions. To what extent was North America a land of opportunity and for whom? And why did England have the greatest influence on the country that became America even though other countries explored it? In two-person groups, they had to collect the information they had learned over the trimester and best answer the question through a Google slideshow. The presentations were well done and very informative!
Grade 8
As the 8th grade continues to learn about the foundations of America, they analyzed the failures of our first government, the Articles of Confederation. In class they used visuals to understand the failures of the document and discussed why this original system of government did not succeed. Some of the failures that were discussed were having no chief executive and the federal government not having the ability to tax individuals.
In 8th grade math, students learned how to solve systems of equations through multiple methods of graphing, elimination, and substitution. By solving problems on the board, the students practiced their presentation skills problems and reinforced the concepts through teaching others. Next week, the 8th graders will move into the real-world system of equations, solving word problems and creating their own scenarios that require multiple equations to solve.
