Torringford Tigers

Dear Torringford Families,

It’s a lucky month to be at Torringford School. Our Torringford Tigers continue to shine in every way, and we couldn’t be more proud. We are thrilled to share that our St. Jude’s Telethon raised an amazing $2,666! Thank you to everyone who contributed. Additionally, our Read-a-Thon continues through March 19th, and we’re excited to see even more participation as we support literacy and learning.

We also had a wonderful time at the PTO-sponsored Winter Wonderland Festival, with so many families in attendance, and enjoyed empowering stories at our Family Literacy Night last week. Events like these, which bring our families together, are what make Torringford School such a special and vibrant place.

With parent-teacher conferences coming up soon (March 24th, 25th, and 26th), we are excited to connect with each of you to celebrate your child’s progress and discuss how we can continue supporting their growth.

Wishing you all a fantastic March filled with joy, learning, and new adventures!

Mrs. Galullo (Principal) & Mrs. Austin (Assistant Principal)

We encourage all families to sign up for a spring conference with your child's classroom teacher! Sign-ups have been sent out through ParentSquare. Translators will be available to ensure all families can participate.

If you need assistance setting up a conference, please reach out to Georgia Austin.

Your partnership is essential in supporting your child's growth and success!

The Torringford PTO's Read-a-Thon encourages students to develop a love for reading while supporting their overall growth. This year, we're aiming for 100% participation and 10,000 minutes read! The classroom with the most minutes logged and dollars raised will win a class prize, and the top reader in each grade (K-3) will earn a special grand prize if the school-wide goal is met.

Families are invited to sponsor students through digital or cash donations, with all funds benefiting student enrichment activities. For more details or questions, contact torringfordpto@gmail.com.

If you haven’t already, please take a moment to activate your student’s personal reader page by clicking on the following link: CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP!

In February, 378 Pawsome cards were awarded. Congratulations to the following Torringford Tigers:

We appreciate your partnership in promoting a positive learning environment for all students. Please be sure to celebrate your student when they share with you a PAWSOME award received at school.

To report your student's absence,

please call the school office at 860-489-2300 (option 1)

before 9:00 AM.

If you have any health concerns,

please don't hesitate to reach out to Nurse Allison or Nurse Denise!

Come to school each day on time,

When you're feeling healthy and fine!

There’s so much learning we can do,

Reading, writing, math games too!

Science sparks a big "Hooray!"

Music, art, and time to play.

In the gym, we jump and run,

Staying active—so much fun!

The library’s a place to go,

For stories that help our minds grow!

With friends to see and things to share,

School is better when YOU are there!

So pack your bag and head this way,

Let’s make it a great school day!

Please reach out to Georgia Austin or Deb Mordecai with any attendance concerns.

• March 14: Hats Off to the Graduates - - $1.00 to wear your hat all day!
• March 24, 25, 26: Early Dismissal (1:00); Parent Conferences
  
• March 27: Early Dismissal (1:45); PLC
  
• April17: Early Dismissal (1:30); PLC
• April 18: Good Friday; NO School
• April 21-25: NO School - April Recess

PreK has been solidifying those foundational skills with a focus on letter formation!

We represented amounts with shape magnets, numerals, and drawings.

We are learning all about 3D shapes through fun, hands-on activities!

In ELA, we are working on writing expanding our sentences to tell more information.

We continue to build our reading skills every day with hands-on practice!

We concluded our opinion writing unit with a show and tell. Students brought in a favorite item from home to show to the class and provided supporting reasons to explain why that item was special to them.

We are authors! We finished our opinion writing unit and now we’re starting to write our own narrative stories.

In SEL, students are learning about problem solving, playing fairly, and showing kindness to others. We made decorated conversation hearts with ways to be kind and friendly.

Social Emotional Learning teaches us how to have fun and respectful interactions.

During Play, students are continuing to explore the construction and engineering skills they learned from last month’s science unit.

We enjoyed visits by guest readers for Read Across America.Thank you to Mayor Carbone for reading to us.

In addition to dressing up and making crowns for the 100th day, we also played a race to 100 math game, did 100 exercises, and wrote about what we’d buy with $100!

We are 100 days smarter, taller, kinder, and empathetic! We counted to 100, made 100 pieces of Froot Loops cereal necklaces, and shared 100 kindnesses.

On Valentine’s Day, we celebrated our classroom community by sharing Valentines with each other.

We celebrated friendship and kindness on Valentine’s Day! After passing out our valentines, we made friendship bracelets and loved monsters, played kindness bingo, and created Valentine’s designs with pattern shape blocks.

We learned about Ramadan and made our own decorations.

We had so much fun spreading kindness on friendship day!

Writing compliments on each others bags was a nice way to

let our friends know we care about them on Friendship Day!

These first graders really know how to spread kindness!

We love spirit days! Pirate day was one of “argh”favorites!

First grade LOVED Read Across America week! We had a special guest reader from Torrington Public Works tell us all about how he uses reading at his job! He also read us and gifted us a book! We got to enjoy an assembly and get our own backpack filled with goodies to take home!

First grade had an author come to visit!

Mrs. Haller talked about what it is like being an author

and read her books to us!

We want to be published authors when we are older too!

Using our thinking boards to sort ai and ay words!

We are becoming such great readers and writers!

After reading “Bartholomew and the Oobleck, we had to make it ourselves!

Making oobleck in the classroom was so much fun! Did you know if you mix one part water and two parts cornstarch you can make oobleck yourself?

Mrs. Campbell’s Class Celebrates 100th Day

We are 100 Days Smarter!

On February 11th, Grade 2 was cordially invited to The Nancy Marine Studio Theatre to view The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful and Her Dog. We absolutely LOVED this mystery science musical based on the children’s book. Special thanks to the performers, ushers, theatre staff, and chaperons for making this event possible!

Grade 2 has been studying measuring! We have been practicing measuring various objects using different units. When you are measuring the distance of a longer object you should use a longer unit. For example, when measuring the length of a marker, use inches.

When measuring the length of a window, use feet.

When measuring the length of a field, use yards.

Be efficient when measuring different lengths.

• 12 inches equal 1 foot

• 1 foot is equal to 12 inches

• 3 feet is equal to 1 yard

Drum Break! Grab 2 drumsticks (a.k.a. pool noodles) and drum to the beat of Mr. Hamilton’s drum session! Mrs. Deloy’s class enjoy motor breaks in between learning. We often drum to pop songs (kids’ versions) while we reset our brains! You should try it!

In Reading and Science we are studying technology and engineering. Therefore in writing students are creating opinion pieces on a technology they feel is really important. Students are learning to plan out their persuasive essays with reasons and examples that support their opinion.

In Mrs. Poklemba’s room we used our standing white boards to brainstorm ideas, helping our classmates along the way. Students were able to read their classmates’ reasons and add a few of their own. Great job working together second graders!

Chemical Engineering: How can we improve an existing play dough process?

Our love of vertical thinking and working in collaborative groups continues this month. As we move into our unit working on adding and subtracting within 1,000 and composing numbers, we continue to share strategies and support each other’s learning. Together the students are able to work to find solutions in more than one way to the same problem. We focus on working to find the correct solution and not getting finished first.

As part of our class community building we work towards the goal of earning a directed drawing activity, usually on a Friday. During this activity the students listen to and follow directions the first time to create their own version of a drawing. The students then trace with permanent markers and finally express their creativity painting with watercolors. These activities help to soothe busy bodies and chaotic minds after an intense week of learning as well as to build community within the classroom where each student can build confidence in their artistic abilities. The masterpieces hang for the month and then are compiled throughout the year to culminate at the end with a portfolio of second grade work.

In Math Workshop, third graders are using vertical white boards to solve problems. Solving problems in partnerships or small groups on a vertical whiteboard is a strategy known as Making Thinking Visible.

Making Thinking Visible routines help students to make connections, share their mathematical thinking and communicate their ideas while solving problems. As students work together to solve math problems, their engagement and thinking skills increase, making it a win-win situation for all!

On Friday, February 14th, students in Mrs. Markelon’s third grade class took time out for a quick craft to show and share their love, kindness and friendship with one another.

The Valentine Dogs were fun to make, as students traced, cut and glued symmetrical hearts to form the base and details of the pup. A good time was had by all!

Children have been busy working on skills that will help them become better readers. We work on phonics (sounding words out), fluency (reading clearly and at a good pace), and writing words and sentences.

Each group works on skills that are targeted to what students in that group need to move to the next steps in their reading growth. Our students love to use their skills to read words, sentences and books.

We also play lots of games to reinforce our literacy skills. At home parents can best support their readers by reading with and to their children. Check out the pictures to see some of our hard work and fun play!

Our books support readers at the challenge level that is just right for them!

Playing games makes learning to read even more fun!

Torringford School is a safe and welcoming community where we take care of people and foster positive relationships. Our team spirit supports and acknowledges everyone. Optimists persist to meet challenges with the flexibility and empathy to create healthy, enthusiastic, life-long learners.

Educate. Explore. Inspire.

Email: gaustin@torrington.org
Website: http://torringtontorringford.ss16.sharpschool.com
Location: 800 Charles Street, Torrington, CT, USA
Phone: (860)489-2300
Facebook: facebook.com/TorringfordTigers