Jeffrey/Mead Team Blog
April 11 - 30
Math
Each day students participate in a Number Talk which are designed to help students become flexible, accurate and efficient when making calculations. The strategies we are teaching help students solve problems across all four operations. We are working on subtraction and multiplication strategies as well as fraction strategies.
We wrapped up April Calendar Grid which was a review of volume. Each day the students had to determine the volume of a rectangular prism, as well as identify patterns.
Mrs. Mead's class is wrapping up Unit 5 next week and then will begin Unit 4. Ms. Jeffrey''s class began unit 4 with a focus on the multiplication strategies, such as halving & doubling, landmark numbers and half tens facts. This learning included seeing the connection between multiplication and division.
Math Stars
Students can work on their math stars worksheets independently at school and home. Worksheets should be handed in Thursday morning for double stars. They will have the opportunity to ask questions and get help on Thursday and resubmit their math stars for single stars. We hope kids have fun with this extra math opportunity!
Math Stars will wrap up by the end of May. Students should submit orders by Friday, June 3.
Read Aloud
Mrs. Mead's class is reading When You Reach Me. This is a Newberry Award winner from a few years ago. The story is about Miranda who starts receiving strange notes asking her to write a letter about something that happens but she doesn't know what it is yet. At the same time Miranda is naviagting life in New York City as an 11 year old in 1979. Her mother has the opportunity to go The $20,000 Pyramid and Miranda is helping her practice. Near the start of the story, Miranda tells the reader about her best friend Sal and the day he randomly got punched which was also the day Sal decided to not be Miranda's friend any more. Miranda starts to look for a new friend and lands on Annemarie who recently go into a fight with Julia who Miranda does not like. Annemarie and Miranda start working at Jimmy's sandwich shop during their lunch breaks with a boy named Colin who they befriend as well. Miranda explains a lot about life in New York City like about man experiencing homelessness on her corner who she calls the laughing man because he is always laughing. Miranda also meets the boy who punched Sal and has a conversation with him which she feels guilty about. As we read we are trying to figure out who Miranda is talking to as the narrator because she refers to "you" a lot but it is not necessarily the reader. We are also trying to figure out who wrote the notes and why.
Writing
Ms. Jeffrey's students finished their last informational piece before break and have since moved onto narrative writing. They are working on ways to collect and generate story ideas. They completed a lesson on using important people in your life as a springboard to story writing. They have also worked on people on things that are close to their heart.
Mrs. Mead's class is still wrapping up their final informational piece. Along side this we are beginning narrative writing. Students will be doing quick writes to start based on prompts. They will be trying to use the figurative language we are discussing in reading in their writing as well.
Reading
Ms. Jeffrey's class wrapped up nonfiction text by learning about text features and how they help the reader better understand. They also used these features to help them identify the main idea. Next up we are doing a unit on figurative language. Students will read the chapter book Poppy as well as picture books.
Mrs. Mead's class wrapped up our nonfiction unit and have moved on to figurative language. Students will also be reading Chomp as a whole class. Through picture books, our read aloud books, and our common book group we will discuss different types of figurative language. We will discuss how they affect their experience as a reader, as well as what they mean.
Social Studies/Science
Ms. Jeffrey's class continued learning about food chains and food webs. They completed a Mystery Science lesson on predator/prey relationships in a food chain. They did a yarn food web activity to see how food chains connect within a web. Starting next week they are working on a final project on food chains.
Mrs. Mead's class is focusing on water and how to make sure we are taking care of the water available to us. This past week we discussed and modeled how much water was in the ocean. Students created a tiny ocean and hypothesized what happened to the salt and how we can figure out if it is still there even though we can't see it. This coming week they will create salt flats and connect this lesson back to the Dust Bowl.
School Wide SEL
UVM Student Teacher
Student Technology Tools
The following is a list of online programs students may use this year. Others could be added as the year progresses. Individual student password documents will be shared with students. We will be send home a permission form regarding student technology programs in the first weeks of school.
Safari Montage
Scholastic News
eSpark
BrainPop
Spelling City
Book Creator
Typing Club
IXL
Khan Academy
Prodigy
Masks
Masks are now optional at school. We will still have masks available in classrooms if students decide they want them during the day. In our classrooms we have talked about what it looks like and sounds like to be respectful of other decisions around masking.
FMS Newsletter
Celebrations
Early Dismissal Procedure
IMPORTANT! Procedure for Early Dismissal
In the event that your child needs to be dismissed early, the following protocol must be followed:
On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday - you must pick up by 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday- you must pick up by 1:00pm.
Send your child’s teacher and Kim Kedzierski (kkedzierski@ewsd.org) an email first thing in the morning letting them know what time your child needs to be dismissed, the reason why and the name of the person picking them up. Or, you can also call the attendance line at 879-6326 and leave a message stating your child’s name, time leaving, the name of the teacher, the reason why, and the name of the person picking them up.
When you arrive to pick up your child, please pull up to the front of the building and call Kim at 879-6326 to let her know you’re here
Important Dates
May 30 Memorial Day - no school
June 16 Last Day of School (report cards go home)
Contact Us
Karen Jeffrey: kjeffrey@ewsd.org
Kelsey Mead: kmead@ewsd.org
Website: https://www.ewsd.org/Domain/379
Location: Founders Memorial School, Founders Road, Essex Junction, VT, USA
Phone: 802-879-6326