NES Family Newsletter

Preschoolers have had "snow" much fun in their classes this month. Each class has enjoyed building snow forts, painting snowmen, playing inside a snow globe, and even pretending to ice skate around the rooms. Preschoolers are learning how winter animals survive outside. "If you were an animal would you want to hibernate, insulate or migrate?" Looking ahead, preschool teachers will be reaching out to their families to share information about Valentine Parties, Mass Wildlife visiting our classes, and Number Play All Day on the 100th day of school.

Kindergarten came back after Christmas break ready to jump into all our January themes! They took on new lessons in SRSD (writing) like CHAMPS!! We look forward to seeing how they become WRITING SUPERHEROS as we continue to work on our writing skills! Looking ahead into the next month, we will be celebrating the 100th day of school,Valentines Day, and President’s day! We also look forward to decorating our window with acts of kindness hearts! This will be a great experience for our kids to learn to spread kindness! Some of our themes include healthy hearts, teeth and bones, then towards the beginning of March we celebrate Dr. Seuss! As we continue along with math, we are looking at teen numbers, 2d/3d shapes, and continuing with our addition and subtraction facts! We had a visit by the fifth graders, and they came to read to us!! We hope to do that again soon!

We hope you look forward to February break to spend some fun time with your kiddos!!! Remember to keep reading with them and let them read to you!!!

In ELA, we learned phonic concepts of long vowels: i, e, o, and u. Students were exposed to the rules for soft c and g. A vowel digraph of oo (short /u/ sound) was taught. Topics included animals, folktales, and times of long ago.

We have started our next Science Unit about Plants and Animals. We will explore how they are similar and different. All students enjoy this unit and we can see their love of learning during every lesson!

In Math, we hit the ground running with addition stories, up to three addends, while using multiple strategies. Before the end of the month, we will move into subtraction stories.

We continue identifying our feelings, accidents, and how we can interact with our peers in positive and productive ways.

We have learned about Martin Luther King in Social Studies.

All month we have been busy with our mid-year assessments. It is nice to see the progress the students have made since September.

Can you believe that we are halfway through second grade?! February may be short, but it will be full of lots of learning. We will be starting our time and money units. There are many activities you can do at home to help reinforce these skills (ie- counting coins, looking at an analog clock, etc.). Over the next several weeks we will be focusing on opinion writing using our POW and TIDE graphic organizers. Lastly, children will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on February 14th. They are welcome to bring in valentines for their classmates and teachers. However, due to the district wide food policy, please refrain from sending in candy or treats.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of our families!

This month in ELA, students' focus will be reading informational text and evaluating key details to determine the main idea. They will practice inferencing to support understanding, and summarize material to maintain meaning and logical order. Students will continue to work on writing responses to demonstrate understanding by citing relevant evidence from the text.

In writing, students will write narrative stories to include descriptive details to describe the setting, create a clear sequence of events, and dialogue to make the writing come alive. Work with action verbs and subject-verb agreement along with suffixes will be executed.

Students will begin to explore fractions this month in math. They will learn to partition shapes into equal parts and understand how to represent fractions in different ways.

In science, students are learning about pushes and pulls, the effect of friction on an object, and the power of magnetic forces. Next, they will begin to investigate animal traits and variations.

Fourth grade Fun! Our fabulous fourth graders are diving deep into Division in our Math classes, working through Partial Quotients and moving to Interpreting Remainders as we rapidly approach our 100th day of school. In the ‘on deck’ circle→Measurements, such as area, perimeter, and line plots. In ELA, we are wrapping up all of our Midyear (MOY) assessments to help us determine growth, find any needs, and develop areas for enrichment opportunities. Our fantastic fourths have finished DIBELS, MAZE (for fluency and comprehension), Spelling Inventory, and this week, their ELA Benchmark. Science sees us delving into the Human Machine, exploring how our bones, muscles, tendons keep us moving. Students have created flexible, robotic fingers to analyze how their tendons flex and move in connection to bones and muscles. And finally, in our Social Studies classes, we are continuing to make our way through the USA, studying each region in depth, and highlighting their best features, industries, culture and food. Students have tested their mapmaking and test taking skills, and some have created a lapbook to show off their knowledge and creativity.

January was a month that certainly flew by in grade 5. All subjects completed many mid year benchmark assessments and your teachers are using that data to identify ways to build on our strengths and continue to improve weaker areas.

During the month of February, social studies and language arts will embark on a unit focused on learning about Civil Rights and Black History. We will celebrate the lives of Civil Rights leaders and other historical figures that helped pave the way for equality for all. In addition, most classes will begin learning about the causes of the American Revolution. As a grade we continue to see remarkable progress with our students’ writing. Our 5th graders are becoming more and more independent when responding to a text based question. We will continue POW/TIDE(ing) until they have mastered the skill.

In math, classes continue to work with division, starting to think more about how to connect decimals to division.

Upper RISE has been working on understanding the concept of same and different during our morning meeting time. The students have been enjoying sink and float activities and taking turns during their free time. The students are all working on improving their comprehension skills including the main character, beginning, middle, and end.

Students within the Lower Connect program have begun an introduction to Superflex and The Unthinkables! This curriculum provides visuals for students for changes that happen with their brains and provides strategies to solve these social problems. Students have been enjoying learning about Rock Brain, and learning strategies to get “unstuck”. We have also been working on word problems and units of measurement in math while also working to build our reading and comprehension skills.