This week at Winsor
Our Highlights This Week
Thank You- Teacher Appreciation Week
There is much to be thankful for this week. First, for our faculty and staff. Thank you for everything you do for our students. From the countless hours preparing lessons, to the passion for learning you display for our students, and for all the "above and beyond" endeavors you participate in to make Winsor a true community of learners. There are so many reasons that Winsor is a special place; and our staff is central to this culture.
Thank you to our PTO, who made Teacher Appreciation Week special. The generous donations of food, time, and kind sentiments made for a wonderful week. The creativity, care, and kindness shown to our faculty is deeply appreciated. It is worthy to note that our families continue to amaze us with how generous and thoughtful they are. Yet another example of this was our Pennies For Patients fundraiser. Due to the efforts of our students and families, Winsor was able to raise $1625.35! Way to go!
Finally, a special thank you to our outgoing PTO Executive Board:
Andrea Shepard
Mary-Kate Harrington
Dawn Guilmette
Jenna Howard
This group of extraordinary leaders has enriched the lives of our students. The specific events are too many to name but, in totality, any student fortunate to be at Winsor these past two years has been the beneficiary of this cohort group's amazing work. Thank you for all that you have done!
Please be reminded that Fun Family Fitness Night is scheduled for Wednesday, May 22nd, starting at 5:00pm at Old County Road School. Child care is available, so please join us.
https://forms.gle/Ydy58TFFRcSQABqM9
Keeping Up With Kindergarten
Finally, some sunshine! It has been great to get outdoors and enjoy the fresh air! Please remember to send you kiddo to school with layers. The “before school recess” can still be chilly, but as the day goes on, it tends to warm up pretty quickly! Also, feel free to change out your child’s extra set of clothes to keep in their backpack or our classroom stash.
In Reader’s Workshop, both classes have continued the fairy tale fun. We have used organizers to compare the silly versions to the regular version of the fairy tale. Some titles we have read are: Ninja Red Riding Hood, 3 Ninja Pigs, and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. The students get a kick out of these!
During math workshop, students continued exploring the rest of our 3D shapes. We solved and wrote riddles about their “faces and vertices.” We reviewed 2D shapes a bit through making new shapes out of the shapes we were given. Students made a hexagon out of just triangles or just 2 trapezoids. The classes loved this hands on activity.
We can’t tell you what we did in writing this week. Perhaps a special project is in your child’s backpack for Mother’s Day??
Have a wonderful weekend!!
Learning and Fum in Grade One!
It’s been as busy as buzzing bees around honey this past week in first grade. Everyone has worked so hard on all of their Mother’s Day surprises. We hope you enjoy each and every one, as they were all created with much love and thought.
In Math, we began fractions – yes, you heard us correctly – fractions in grade one!!! First graders learned about equal shares, halves, thirds, and fourths. Every student now knows, there’s no skimping on the pie or pizza slices!!!! They all need to be equal.
Points of interest – we are going on a field trip Friday, May 30, 2019 to the Vets auditorium to see the play “Pete the Cat”. Permission slips and chaperone forms have already been sent home.
And the Countdown continues!!! Everyone has been having such fun with our ABC Countdown. This past week, we danced our way backwards, sported our crazy hair while exercising our brains and reading books by our favorite author. Next week is Favorite snack day (yummm!), Game day (cards or board games), Hat day, Interesting fact day (can’t wait to hear all the new facts), and closing out the week with Joke day. Sounds like a fun and interesting week ahead!!! Can’t wait!!!!
We would also like to thank our first grade families for thinking of us during Teacher Appreciation Week. It was so kind and thoughtful. Finally, we wish all our amazing mothers of grade one, a very Happy Mother’s Day. Enjoy, Moms!!!!
What's New in Grade Two
To start, we would like to thank you for all your generosity during Teacher Appreciation Week!
We are so fortunate to work with such supportive families!
We truly appreciate all the students and their families every day of every week!
As a grade two team, we brainstormed a list of non-classroom teachers that we appreciate here at Winsor. The list included Mr. Brent/Mr. Rylander (custodians), Ms. Tracy (chef), Mr. Ackerman, Mrs. Ross, Mrs Beaudreault(paraprofessional), and many more! Each child chose at least 2 teachers and wrote them thoughtful thank you notes. Be sure to ask your second grader who they wrote to and why they chose that individual.
After reading 31 Uses for a Mom by Harriet Ziefert, we thought about ALL the jobs that our mothers have (outside of just being known as a mom). The list included more than 26 responsibilities that our loving mothers take on. Here are some examples...
Thank you, mom, for being a....
*hand holder*
*teacher*
*thermometer*
*navigator*
*opponent*
*tooth puller*
*nurse/doctor*
*coach*
*pillow*
*clock/timer*
*banker*
*friend*
For many, it was enlightening to think about all the different jobs that our mothers take on.
Their brainstorming was priceless!
A few quick notes...
*We will be taking a field trip to Roger Williams Zoo in June. More information to come.
*Please ask your child about their supplies and what they need. Our supplies have dwindled at a extremely rapid pace. Any donations would be greatly appreciated.
*Our classrooms can get very warm. We suggest that your child dress in layers.
*We have already had several conversations about self-control at school as the end of the year approaches.
Specifically, silliness, uncontrollable volume, talking at inappropriate times, being respectful to peers and adults, actively listening, and following directions when they are given. We would appreciate your support at home with reinforcing self-control and each student's role as a student.
Thank you, again, for everything you do at home!
THRILLS IN THIRD
We have had another busy week in third grade! In Math we have focused on several challenging concepts in Geometry. Identifying various polygons, determining their attributes and comparing and contrasting the attributes of different shapes has helped us to stretch our brains and become even stronger mathematicians! We also took a quick look at how to interpret line plots and will continue our study of graphs and data soon. In Reading we have continued to study different types of folk tales. We have learned the basic elements and structure of each one and have enjoyed exploring many of these classic stories. We wrapped up our study of Magnetism and Forces in Science by playing Kahoot and completing a challenging assessment. Our third graders are truly showing us that they are ready for 4th grade through all of their hard work and perseverance with difficult tasks! We have had a blast beginning the first week of ABC Countdown activities and can’t wait for more fun next week. Have a wonderful weekend!
Learning More In Grade 4
We have so much to look forward to this month! Students are busy working on Wax Museum projects. They have been reading and researching important people of the past and present. Some students have started typing their reports. The two other parts of this unit will be writing a summary card to be memorized and shared at the Wax Museum, as well as a drawing a portrait of their person. Students are excited about becoming someone who has made a difference in the world. The Wax Museum date will be Friday, May 31, 2019. Time to be announced.
Next week students will take RICAS Math. We have been doubling up on math the past few weeks, so students are familiar with some concepts that tend to taught at the end of the year. We feel they will be well prepared for this upcoming test.
We are all grateful for the sunshine, finally! Spring has sprung!
The Fabulous Five
Our 5th graders have been very busy preparing for the Science State Testing (NGSA) and RICAS-Math State Testing. We have been reviewing various skills in order to be well prepared and have worked on helpful test taking and problem solving strategies.
In reading workshop, each class focused on identifying the power and resistance continuum between the characters in their historical fiction novels. Students were required to create a power continuum map on the characters in their novels. As they read their chapters, they had to decide at that moment in the novel which characters had the most/least power in that place and time and who is resisting the power structure. The students recorded their thinking on their maps. As they worked in their guided reading groups on this activity, it was amazing to observe how their discussions led to how they cleared up text confusions and that many students asked difficult questions that helped uncover things about the text that they didn’t previously notice.
We are also reading Number The Stars, by Lois Lowry, as a class read- aloud for our historical fiction unit in reading workshop.The book takes place in Denmark during World War II when the country was occupied by Nazi Germany. The book depicts what life was like in Denmark during WWII through the everyday lives of two young girls. As part of our historical fiction unit and a connection to the book, we had Mrs. Eva Parrillo as a guest speaker on her native country of Denmark. We would like to thank Mrs. Parrillo for teaching us about Denmark and sharing stories of her family’s efforts during WWII. She gave us very insightful information about the country and shared some of her artifacts from her native country, such as the Queen’s silverware! The students were very engaged in learning about this fascinating country!
The students have been very focused in math as we finished up our unit on fractions. This was a very extensive and challenging unit and the students worked diligently as they learned to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions and mixed numbers. They have also done very well with further applying these skills to real-world problem solving. Our new unit on Geometry has us learning about polygons. This week, the students analyzed figures to determine if they are polygons and used the number of sides and the number of angles to classify them. They further explored polygons by measuring the sides and angles of triangles. They used the number of equal sides or the measurement of the angles to classify the triangles as isosceles, scalene, equilateral, acute, right, or obtuse.
We want to thank the PTO, 5th Grade Committee, and all of our students for truly making us feel appreciated during Teacher Appreciation Week and every day! We loved all the special treats, beautiful gifts and cards!!
Finally, we want to express our appreciation to all of the mothers in our school community. Thank you for all that you do. May you enjoy a well deserved Mother's Day!