The Moreau Messenger
December 2015
Principal's Note!
Hello Moreau Elementary School,
I hope the first few months of school have gone well and everyone is settled into their academic routines at school and home. Over the next few weeks Moreau will be transitioning leadership to our new principal, Mrs. DeLair. Our principal and friend Mr. Conrick has moved to Tanglewood Elementary School and I have been asked to fill in as interim principal until Mrs. Delair can start in January. I am currently the district CSE chairperson and have worked closely with Mr. Conrick and Moreau personnel. My intention is to support Moreau staff, students and parents through this transition with minimal changes to the structure and routine of the day, as well as enjoy the many festive activities this time of year brings. Please feel free to stop in with any questions or concerns regarding this transition time. With that said, we have many activities on the school calendar.
12/8 - District Capital Building Project Vote
12/11 - Hour of Code - The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics. https://hourofcode.com/us
12/10 - Holiday Concert - 7pm
12/16 & 12/17 - Breakfast with Santa
12/22 - 1/3 School Break
I look forward to being a part of an amazing school community and helping to welcome Mrs. DeLair. I wish everyone health and happiness through the Holiday season.
Jessica Spellburg
Interim Principal
CSE Chairperson
Kindergarten Update!
December is one of the most exciting months in Kindergarten! The children are learning so much in school and are really looking forward to the snow and Winter activities. Your child will really begin to work on sound spelling and writing in class. Math has been really fun because we are experts with the numbers and 2D/3D shapes. We have begun to introduce Module 3 in Mathematics which is comparing length, weight, and capacity. We will also be learning about the December celebrations around the world and the beginning of a new season, WINTER!
The children will need to have all the First Trimester sight words, letters and their sounds mastered. Now that the letters have all been introduced, practicing letter formation and printing neatly from top to bottom is an important skill to work on nightly, as well as independently applying their letter sounds to read and write.
Please be sure to dress your child in layers and look for notes from your child’s teacher to see if we will be going outside to play in the snow or make a snowman!
A big THANK YOU to our homeroom parents and classroom helpers who have been graciously organizing parties and working in our classrooms this year. You may be getting a phone call to send in party supplies for our future celebrations. Thanks again for all that you do to make Moreau School a great Place to be!
We look forward to a wonderful 2016 year!!!
Mrs. Johnson
Mrs. Howk
First Grade News!
Hello parents and happy holidays to you all!
The month of November came and went so fast. For such a short month, it sure was filled with lots of learning!! November was also a time to learn more about your child through our parent conferences. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to meet with us.
Now here we are starting the month of December! There is still a lot of learning taking place this month along with some fun filled events. The First Grade Teachers would like to invite all of our First Grade Parents to come in and help out with Christmas Centers on Thursday, December 17. The centers will start around 1:30 and end at around 2:50. The children will be making all sorts of Christmas crafts. They may use these crafts as gifts or they may choose to keep them for themselves. Please be on the lookout for information about this fun-filled event. We are also sending home a family project for the children to complete. The children will need to decorate a Christmas tree that has been drawn on a piece of oak tag. Please have all decorated trees in by the date listed with the assignment. If you get a chance, please come visit our Family Christmas Tree display outside of our classrooms. Thank you for working with your child on this holiday activity. We enjoy looking at them every day.
Happy Holidays,
Mrs. Carayiannis and Ms. Kerr-Weir
Second Grade!
Thank you all for coming in and meeting with us at Parent/Teacher Conferences. It is always exciting to sit down with you and discuss your children. Even though conferences are over, please feel free to contact us if any new questions popped up after we met.
We have heaps of holiday activities planned for the month of December. We will need plenty of parent volunteers to help us pull them off. Please be looking for information coming home about helping us. Thank you in advance.
We are working extremely hard in the third New York State Math Module and E.L.A. skills are progressing nicely. Please keep discussing place value with your students and read, read, read!
We can’t wait to see you in our classrooms this month. It should be a spectacular one.
Third Grade!
It was so nice to have a chance to speak with all of you at conference time. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to come in. We hope you all had a terrific Thanksgiving holiday.
We have been working hard to cover all of the skills that will be assessed on the NYS ELA tests in April this year. The students are tackling skills such as main idea and making inferences. These are critical thinking skills that we will work on all year. We have also begun discussing fluency with the students. Fluency is reading like the author would say it. Rereading familiar books at home is one way to improve reading fluency. Ask your child to pick up a book that they know all of the words in and have him/her read it to you. Praise them for stopping at the punctuation and changing their voice to sound like the character in the book!
In Math, we have finished Module 2 (addition, subtraction, estimation, and measurement) and have moved onto Module 3. In Module 3, we return to multiplication and division with multiplication/division facts up to 10. We will continue to use the RDW (Read, Draw, Write) process to help us solve word problems. Remember to study number facts frequently (addition, subtraction, and multiplication). Quick recall is the key to success in Math.
As we move into the Winter months, please make sure your child is dressed for the weather. It can get very chilly on the playground! It is also a good idea to have an extra sweater or sweatshirt with your child as the temperatures in the classrooms fluctuate! Although we would like to migrate for the winter, we must adapt instead!
Enjoy your Christmas recess and holidays!
Miss Baker and Mrs. Becerril
News From Fourth Grade!
Mrs. Lange, Mrs Pisani and Mrs. Reinemann
Fifth Grade!
Fifth Graders continue to work along steadily. In Reading, Fifth Graders finished reading Esperanza Rising. We found this book to be a challenging, but interesting to read. Many Fifth Graders describe it as their favorite book!!
In Math, we have moved on to our unit on fractions. We have been very impressed with the problem solving abilities of our Fifth Graders.
In Social Studies, students will participate in our annual trade fair. Students are required to make 24 handmade items to barter and trade with their classmates. Our Fifth Graders have come up with some interesting and creative crafts. They will become very savvy at bargaining with their peers. It is great fun!!
Many amazing Science projects were submitted in November. Students modeled the digestive system using common household items. They are currently being proudly displayed outside the Fifth Grade rooms. We are learning about the respiratory and circulatory systems. We used bubble solution to measure our lung capacity. My, what large bubbles we could blow!
In Writing, our Fifth Graders are working to write and illustrate their own hardcover children’s books. We learned all about the fantasy genre and now are working to create our own winter fantasy stories. Boy and girls also will have the opportunity to share their books with other classes at Moreau. What creative authors we have!!
Mrs. Cormie, Mr. Edwards and Ms. Pike
Maker Space!
Donation Request for Moreau’s Makerspace
Has your child mentioned the new MakerSpace in our library? It is a very exciting location where students can complete exploratory activities like computer coding, student driven projects, and electronic circuitry. These activities build technology skills that will be useful for future technological careers.
As we build this space, we wanted to send out examples of items we need in case anyone would like to make a donation. Many of these items are ones that might be found tucked away in basements or spare bedrooms. If anyone would be interested in making a donation of these items, they can be brought to Mrs. Kiernan in the library. Any assistance you can give would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Makerspace Supply List (Suggestions)
Sewing supplies (Needles, thread, scissors, fabric, sewing machine)
Ribbon, yarn, string
duct tape
Legos, Knex, Blocks
All types of paper (Wrapping paper, card stock, construction paper, printer paper, scrapbook)
Post-it notes
Markers, Pens, Crayons, etc.
Cardboard of any kind, ranging from boxes like cereal or Pop Tarts to large appliances (flattened please)
Cardboard tubes (wrapping paper, toilet paper, paper towel, etc.)
Play-Doh
Circuitry Kits (can be purchased online)
Craft supplies (cotton balls, popsicle sticks, paint, tape, low temp hot glue gun, glue gun sticks, regular glue/sticks, toothpicks)
Canvas, art supplies
Dominoes, marbles Playing cards (used for building items)