February 1, 2019 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We had a wonderful and exciting, fun-filled and very “fishy” week!  We enjoyed a special fact-filled presentation with Mr. Musselman from the Burlington Science Center on Wednesday.  He taught us all about several of the cool sea creatures we would see at the Aquarium the following day.  We learned about penguins, mollusks, sea stars, sharks, octopus, and more!  We even got to see and touch a real, dead octopus!

We had a wonderful trip to the New England Aquarium on Thursday.  The students enjoyed seeing so many of the sea creatures we have been learning about.  We want to say a special thank you to Mrs. Shaw, Mrs. Lewandowski, Mrs. Rosolino, and Mr. Carlson for being such great chaperones!

We ended the week with our Annual Fish Day.  The students got to visit all the different Kindergarten classrooms to complete various fish projects.  These projects are now beautifully displayed in our hallway.  It looks like our very own aquarium!  We want to say a very BIG thank you to Mrs. Lewandowski and Mrs. Rosolino for their willingness to help with these projects.  We also made a class book about arctic animals that will start circulating next week.

We have been working a lot with uppercase letters in Fundations as well as tapping out words.  I have also been teaching the students how to sign each letter with sign language.  We have learned letters A-R so far.  You will have to see if your child remembers any of the signs!

We have started a unit on persuasive writing.  Next week we will be writing letters to Miss P. from the Science Center trying to persuade her to give us a class pet!  Students have also been learning the difference between facts and opinions and have been sharing their opinions about whether or not parents should let them stay up late, which animals make better pets, what foods are the best, etc.  It has been fun listening to their opinions and reasons why they believe certain things!  The students will eventually be writing persuasive letter to their parents about a topic of their choice!  Get ready!

The list of students’ names for Valentine’s Day went home last week.  We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on Thursday, February 14th by opening our valentines and having an extra snack.  Students are invited to bring two snacks from home that day, one for the morning and one for the afternoon, both need to be nut-free.

Our 100th day of school should be on Wednesday, February 13th.  Students should try to bring in a collection of 100 non-edible things such as Q-tips, toothpicks, crayons, pennies, erasers, etc.  These collections should be in a labeled baggie and can be sent in any time before the 13th.

A few reminders: 

Don’t forget that Winter Vacation will be February 18-22.

Please don’t forget to return the blue progress report folder.

Keep working on sight words and addition fluency facts.  I just did a quick assessment to see how students are doing.  They are making progress but still need practice!

The Lost and Found is getting pretty big here at Francis Wyman.  If your child is missing something, please come by to take a look.

Have a great weekend!  Go Patriots!

Melanie Duncan