Our week of kindergarten and first grade was wonderful! The boys and girls are doing a nice job remembering our school rules. As of now, boys and girls are working on keeping their hands to themselves and listening to directions the 1st time. If you can continue to reinforce this at home that would be great! This week, we finished our unit on community helpers in social studies. 1st grade did a great job staying focused and trying their best on the NWEA state testing.

Next Tuesday will be our Open House. It is from 5:30-6:30. We hope everyone will be able to make it. It is a time for your child to show you some of the things in our classroom, and meet the staff! Hope to see you there!

Ms. Sanchez's class has really been showing Lion's PRIDE. They have been earning PRIDE Paws when they show our school's core values. At FES we work hard to: Be Positive, Responsible, Independent, Determined, and Show Empathy for others. The second grade had set a goal of 40 paws and met that goal. They chose to celebrate with Stuffie Day! They wrote stories, took selfies, did stuffie games, and so much more!

Grade 3-4 has been shifting toward more academic work, using apple picking as a theme for literacy this week. We have begun to think about the Earth, and students generated impressive lists of details they want to learn about our planet. We may need to bring in geologists and physicists... These are very bright kiddos who ask astounding questions!

In our Nature Notebook this week we used a pumpkin to learn how to drop our "little kid" idea of what a pumpkin looks like and really, really LOOK. This builds better observation skills.

I am so glad to be back as your librarian. For those of you who are new to our community my name is Charlotte Brett and I am the librarian at Pierce, Francestown and Hancock Elementary Schools. This year I will be on a weekly rotation between schools. I will be in each school every three weeks. Half of those weeks will be Library as a special and the other half will be Library Media Residency which is when I collaborate with teachers on projects in their classrooms. For example, this week was library so in three weeks when I come back it will be a week of LMR, then the next time will be library and so on. Kindergarteners and first graders will check out one book on Monday to keep in the classroom until Friday. They will then get another book to keep in their classroom until the next time I come. The rest of the students may check out two books but only one may go home at a time. The other is for reading in class. When they return a book they will be able to check out another one.

This week has been a fantastic start to our time in the library. We all practiced using the library to check out books, work collaboratively and grow as learners. This year we are starting the library with a quiet reading time. This is a time when students can read, look for books or write up reviews of books they want to share with their classmates. The time has been extremely powerful and I have enjoyed seeing kids immerse themselves in books.This year we will also be doing a few different reading challenges. The first is that everytime the students read a book from the library they get to fill in a card which we will put in the hallway. Each class has set a goal of how far they think they can get and if we read enough reviews that they reach their goal we will do something fun! We are off to a great start and I can't wait to see where reading takes us this year.

I also have a library website which I have linked below. The library website is also linked on our school website. The library website has links to many student online resources. I also use the website to post pictures and news about the library. Please check it out. If you have any questions or thoughts please email me at cbrett@conval.edu . I look forward to working with you and your students this year.

Happy Reading,

Ms. Brett

Library Website: https://sites.google.com/conval.edu/ms-bretts-library-link/home

There is a wonderful beginning to our school day!

It is our Morning Meeting, and it lasts about twenty minutes each day right after morning recess.

After gathering in a circle, we begin by greeting each other by name in a friendly and cheerful way. Next, the students have a chance to share any new and exciting events with the class. This allows them to work on their speaking and listening skills. After sharing, there is an activity for the whole class. We might sing a song, read a poem, play a math game, or do some other activity. This allows the students to work together and problem solve as a whole group while having fun! The last part of our meeting is called Morning Message. During this time, students connect to the previous day’s learning, and think about the day ahead. They read the chart together or individually which allows them to practice reading/speaking skills. We also “work” the chart, which means that we use the chart for learning. We may practice reading, language, or math skills.

The Morning Meeting is a great way to build community, increase excitement about learning, and improve academic and social skills.

September 25th

September 26th from 5:30-6:30

October 6th

October 17th from 3:30-4:30

October 20th

11:30 PRIDE Meeting K/1 will present

12:00-12:30 Community Lunch