Curriculum & Instruction Newsletter
Fair Haven Public Schools
February 2021 - Volume 3, Issue 3
Thank you for joining me, once again, in celebrating some of the wonderful happenings in our Fair Haven schools! As I visit classrooms, as teachers share their lessons and successes, and as I scroll through the #FHLeads Twitter feed, I continue to be so grateful for our educators, students, and families. It warms my heart and brings a smile to my face to see how much our students are learning and growing.
In these challenging times, the thought, planning, and creativity I have seen, bringing engaging lessons to students, has gone far beyond what words can express. Content is brought to students in new and inventive ways, as we address the priority standards detailed in our curriculum.
As this semester has come to a close, I am looking forward to what the second half of our school year will bring! For now, stay safe and stay warm, Fair Haven!
Sincerely,
Cheryl Romano
Director of Curriculum & Instruction
Twitter: @FHCurriculum
"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Counseling Corner at Sickles
Mrs. Greenhall also discussed how to be a "feelings detective" because when students know how other people are feeling, they can show them kindness and help them. Mrs. Greenhall and students across Sickles read the book, “The Way I Feel,” written and illustrated by Janan Cain, to inspect how characters are feeling and to learn how to empathize with them.
Math is SNOW Much Fun!
In Ms. Milanowycz's math class, she engages students in a math review by creating problems in the snow. Students have been working on square and cube roots, Pythagorean theorem, and identifying rational and irrational numbers. What a creative way to study for an upcoming test. If I had an option to study in the snow, I am sure I would ace the test!
Working Hard Is Important - But So Is Taking Breaks
Below, you can see how hard Mrs. Bufano's students are concentrating on a socially distanced math challenge activity, but then how they reinvigorate their brains and bodies for more learning through a planned "brain break."
Nonfiction in 4th Grade
PS - It may have been pajama day :)
A Day in the Life of a Virtual First Grade Class
We are learning how to write opinions! It is important to hook your reader in and grab their attention.
Readers get to know characters by performing their books.
During content we got to learn all about polar bears and how they stay so warm in those freezing temperatures.
Not only can we create beautiful artwork, but we can also raise our hand and follow our virtual classroom rules.
During content time, we create cloudscapes as we learn about the weather.
Moments of Change
Mrs. O'Grady's 8th grade students have been using their TIER class to study the history of voting rights legislation in our country and some "snapshot moments of change," such as the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Students have traced suffrage movements and considered just how long change takes.
Here, students used their "notes templates" taken after multiple video viewings on these topics to write a CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) framework.
Reading Between the Lines
Inferences are the key to helping students advance in their reading comprehension. By taking what they know and using the clues in the text, students are able to understand characters without an author directly stating the information.
In Mrs. Gennusa's class, students make inferences by creating both speech and thought bubbles, inferring what Piggie or Gerald may think or say, based on a picture of the characters from Mo Willems' book, "Are You Ready to Play Outside?" Take a look at what some of the students inferred about the characters. I certainly wouldn't want to be stuck in the rain!
Applying What We Know ... en Français!
Gifted Education Programming in Fair Haven
Through this process, the Gifted Education Committee created a Gifted Education Guidance Document, which was shared via a parent workshop in September and is also linked on our Gifted Education site. This document was put together utilizing the National Association for Gifted Children's master checklist of gifted programming elements. This is a document we intend to use regularly to evaluate our new program.
In order to gain important feedback on the program, this March, the district will run a pilot of the Gifted Education Program. Through this pilot, we will utilize new assessment measures and share components of the new program with a small group of identified students from each grade level. Through student feedback, the team will be able to make meaningful changes to the content, ensuring success in the fall. Letters were sent to families on Friday, January 29th, if their child was selected for the pilot program. Children that are not part of the pilot will be able to participate in the fall program, based on teacher recommendation and a collection of data points.
The district is right on target with the rollout of the program. Feel free to check out the district timelines and gain access to the full presentation by clicking here. For more information about our Gifted Education Program, the link to our website is below: