Francis Wyman Used Book Store Announcement

IMPORTANT USED BOOKSTORE NOTICE:  Due to the higher cost of replacing books for our used bookstore, we will be raising the price of a book to 50 cents starting at our next bookstore on Wednesday, March 22.  Since we have not raised our price in close to 15 years, I think we have done well.  It costs $1 for me to replace each book that we sell. As always we love any book donations you would like to send in.  If you are cleaning out unused children's books, please consider donating them to us.  We also take children's magazines.  Just send them to the main office or to my office.  NEW USED BOOKSTORE PRICE IS 50 CENTS a book.

Thank you, Donna Murphy, Reading Specialist.

100th Day Fun!

We finally reached our 100th Day of School!  We enjoyed many fun hundredth day projects, including making crowns, counting 100 objects, writing about what we would do with $100, making 100 handprints, and reading several special stories.  Miss P. from the Burlington Science Center also dropped off our first class pet!  Maisey, the cornsnake will be visiting our classroom for the next couple of weeks!  It certainly was an exciting day!

February 17, 2017

Dear Parents,

I can't believe that winter break is already upon us!  The last month and a half went by very fast!

We had a lot of fun celebrating Valentine’s Day on Tuesday.  We have enjoyed making our special Valentine’s projects and everyone certainly enjoyed opening all the valentines.

After vacation we will begin our fine arts unit where the children will creatively paint, draw, sculpt, and build works of art for our Kindergarten Museum.  I will let you know when you can come in to see our museum!  It will be either at the end of March or beginning of April.  You won’t want to miss it!  I think you will be amazed at the artwork your children will produce!

The Monday after vacation will be our 100th day of school.  We have a lot of fun projects planned for that day.  We will be doing a lot of counting too.  Your child is welcome to bring in a collection of 100 non-edible items (crayons, buttons, paper clips, pennies, Legos, etc.) that day to practice counting.  Please put items in a baggie, labeled with your child’s name.

We spent a lot of time this past week working on persuasive writing.  The students wrote letters to their parents trying to persuade them about a topic of their choice.  Some wrote about getting pets, going out to dinner, going on a special trip, or even going on a cruise!  I put all their persuasive writing together and sent it home in their blue folders today.  Included are the letters they wrote to me about getting a class pet and the letters they wrote to you!  I would encourage you to sit down with your child and have them read their writing to you.  They worked very hard on them and should be proud of their work!

We will be transitioning to narrative writing after the break.  Students will be writing about themselves and things/events that have happened in their lives (birthdays, field trips, new experiences, etc.).  I am anxious to see how their writing will evolve over the next couple of months!

We talked a little about Presidents’ Day today and learned a little about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  The students even made a mask of a President and posed for a picture before we left today.  They all looked like Presidents in their Pajamas!

I would also encourage you to continue working on the sight words and addition fluency facts with your children.  We will be checking on their progress in the coming weeks after vacation.

Have a wonderful winter break!

Melanie Duncan

P.S...Please be sure to check the students’ backpacks and folders.  Vacation is a great time to clean them all out!

Also...We will be going to the library the Wednesday after vacation.  Please be sure to have your child return his/her book by then.  Thanks!

Presidents in their Pajamas!

Snowman Glyphs

Our technology teacher and school librarian worked with us on a special snowman project this week.  Ms. Carney, the librarian, read "The Snowman" by Raymond Briggs and then Mrs. Ardizzoni, our technology teacher helped students design a snowman based on things about themselves.  She then led a math activity where they counted and compared characteristics about the snowmen and then helped students write about their snowmen.  The students loved the project, especially since we've had so much snow lately!

Hedgehog Show

Miss P. from the Burlington Science Center visited our school today to teach us about some of the animals from Jan Brett's The Mitten.  We reviewed what we already knew about mammals and learned some really neat facts about hedgehogs, including what it eats, where it lives, and how it protects itself.  We even got to meet a real hedgehog and touch it too!