Frenchtown School Academic News
For the week of May 9, 2016
Volunteers Needed!
The second graders have started working on their insect reports. Before long, the students will be creating their insect models.
We are looking for parent volunteers to travel to our local Resource for Rhode Island Educators Recycling Center (95 Hathaway Street, Providence 401-781-1532) for supplies. If you are available, please see Mrs. Kehoe to check out the RRIE membership card.
Some examples of items the students will need are:
* pieces of fabric,
* paper towel tubes,
* egg cartons,
* poster boards,
* yarn, or any other items that can be used to help the students create their insects. We can leave this box of supplies in our 2nd grade pod for easy access to any all/students who will need them.
Thank you kindly for your support.
Sincerely,
The Second Grade Teachers
Save The Date: Grade 2 Moving ON Ceremony: June 15 9:15-11 a.m.
Grade Level Transitions
Over the past few years, Frenchtown faculty and staff have grappled with a transition plan for all students to enable them to get acquainted with new teachers, new pods, and new classrooms. For the past two years, we held Transition Nights. Last year, the impact of Spring sports had a notable impact on participation.
That being said, we will be hosting Transition Days during the school day on the following dates:
June 1: Grade 1 students visit Grade 2
June 2: Kindergarten students visit Grade 1
Grade 2 students visit E;dredge School
We hope that this helps to ease the transition for each of our students and calms the worry associated with the unknown.
Reading Fair
Grade 2 Reading Fair
Kindergarten Reading Fair
Happy Birthday Frenchtown Friends!
May 13: William L.
Upcoming events:
Thursday, May 12: Art and Science Night
Friday, May 13: Bug Guy Grade 2
Academic focus for the week of May 9th:
Kindergarten:
Math
Writing and representing numbers to 20
Parent Newsletter:
Fundations
Spelling words
Fluent reading
Changing sentences
Trick words: of, have
E/LA
RF.K.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills
in decoding words.
Grade 1:
Math
Unit 4.1 Continuing to strategically solve addition and subtraction word problems within 20; drawing a picture, writing a number sentence and by using a hundred chart and mental math.
-Envisions Topic 11 Subtracting with Tens and Ones. Subtracting multiples of 10 in the range 10-90 from multiples of 10 in the range 10-90.
- Continuing to develop addition and subtraction fluency within 20.
Parent Newsletter Link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3uhztp3o6duugxd/AABqEZREeA3nl8pFX4mprWIra
E/LA
- Unit 4.1 Reading stories the comparing and contrasting the adventures and experiences of characters in the story.
- Information writing. We are still learning to write a teaching book, writers are telling information across their fingers, sketching and then writing.
Science
The big news this week is the baby chicks. We have watched them for over 21 days, from an egg, to the shell cracking, to a chick being born. In a few hours, they could eat and walk by themselves.
Other:
- The Frenchtown Reading Fair and Book Fair were great successes. Thank you to all who participated.
- Happy Mother’s Day! Enjoy!
Grade 2:
Math
Students will continue solving repeated addition problems by drawing arrays. They will also practice partitioning rectangles into rows and columns.
E/LA
Students will continue improving their narrative writing skills and their responses to literature.
Reading
We will continue reading a variety of literature and practice identifying the author’s purpose.
Science
Second graders will be very excited to begin a science unit on living things.
We will be discussing the life cycle of insects and viewing live specimens.
Frenchtown is awarded an EGEF grant!
Congratulations, Mrs. Pat Rakovic!
A noted researcher, Dieter Breithecker from the University of Virginia School of Architecture has argued that since children sit ten hours a day on average, school furniture should also accommodate their developmental need to move—to shift position, rock, rotate, and roll. He suggests that these kinds of movements are critical to intellectual growth since they stimulate circulation and enhance attention and concentration, or as he states, “Body in Motion, Brain in Motion”
Frenchtown submitted a grant “ Goldilock’s Chairs” to the East Greenwich Education Foundation to assist us in the analysis of which seating arrangements would work best for our students. However just as Goldilocks needed to ‘try’ out several seating options to find the one that is ‘just right’ so too this project looks to begin to match what will work with our students. We proposed a research project using four different seating arrangements to determine if these dynamic seating arrangements increase the time on task and work completion of students. This ‘seating laboratory’ could be utilized by the whole school however the research project will be designed around those students who have been selected by their teacher at having difficulty completing seatwork despite understanding the content of the lesson. This will be a team approach with the occupational therapist Jenna Evans and the speech pathologist Patricia Rakovic doing the initial analysis after the classroom teacher’s recommendation and then the ultimate goal will be integration of the seating into the classroom.
We are thrilled that we have been awarded a grant from the East Greenwich Education Foundation and grateful for their support in assisting our students.