February 10, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

Wee Deliver started this week.  Students have been writing letters to friends and siblings in other classrooms that are delivered by the third graders.  Students may write letters at home to bring in.  The return address should have your child’s name and address (115 Aquarium Dr., Burlington, MA 01803).  It should be addressed to the student they are writing to.  If you don’t know the address it is going to, just write down the room number and we can help your child fill out the rest.  A sticker works in place of a stamp.  Wee Deliver will continue until Valentine’s Day.  You are also welcome to write letters to your children.

Students finished writing letters to me trying to persuade me to get a certain class pet.  I will have to check the availability of the animals from the Burlington Science Center after vacation but I was impressed with all the hard work that went into the letters.  They made some pretty good points!

We also learned a little about penguins this week!  The students decorated one of our bulletin boards with a special penguin project and facts they learned about it.

We will celebrate our 100th day of school on Friday, February 17th unless we have another snow day between now and then.  In preparation for that day, we ask that all the children make a collection of 100 small objects (pennies, toothpicks, crayons, etc.) that can fit into a baggie. No food items, please.  Please have your child count out the 100 objects and label the bag with his/her name. They should start bringing in their collections when they are complete. All collections should be in by Friday, February 17th.

The Friday before vacation will also be a whole-school Pajama Day!  That was the reward for our students showing outstanding effort at school!

We will be celebrating Valentine's Day on Tuesday, February 14th.  We will be opening valentines that afternoon and eating a special snack (sent from home).  Students can bring two snacks to school that day…one for the morning and one for the afternoon.  Students made envelops this week that they will use to put their valentines in.  Students can bring in their valentines for their classmates on either Monday or Tuesday.  Please be sure not to attach any food items.

Have a great weekend!  Enjoy all the snow!

Melanie Duncan

February 3, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We had a very exciting week in Kindergarten!  The students enjoyed the Superfish Presentation on Monday from the Burlington Science Center and we had a wonderful field trip to the Aquarium on Tuesday.  The students stayed busy the rest of the week writing persuasive letters, making a class book about birthdays, practicing sight words, and exploring addition and subtraction in math.

We have started a unit on persuasive writing.  The students are currently writing letters to me, trying to persuade me to get a certain class pet.  They are off to a great start!  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!

Our school will be participating in an all-school post office mailing system from February 6-14. Each class has an address (ours is 115 Aquarium Dr. Burlington, MA 01803).  Students can write letters to each other, to siblings, or to teachers in the building and the third graders will deliver them.  It will be a great way for our students to practice letter-writing!  You are also welcome to participate.  You can write a letter to your child and mail it in the blue post office box that is either outside the main office or by the lost and found.  Real stamps are not necessary.  You can use either a sticker or draw one.

Our 100th day of school should be on Thursday, February 16th, unless we have a snow day before then.  We have some fun 100th day activities we will do on that day.  I would like to encourage students to bring in a collection of 100 non-edible items that we can use to practice counting to 100 on our 100th day.  Collections could be made from toothpicks, buttons, pennies, crayons, or other small items.  They should be counted at home and put in a labeled baggie with the student’s name on it.  These will be returned afterwards.

We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on Tuesday, February 14th.  Students are welcome to bring an extra snack to eat while we open our valentines.  Just a reminder...valentines need to be food/candy free.  Stickers, tattoos, pencils, etc. make nice alternatives.  Students are welcome to bring their valentines in any time next week.

Other reminders:

February vacation will be February 20-24.

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

We will be going to library this Wednesday, February 8.  Please return books.

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

Have a great weekend!

Melanie Duncan

New England Aquarium

We had a wonderful trip to the New England Aquarium today and want to give a special thank you to Ms. Murphy, Mr. Carlson, Mr. Trowbridge, and Mr. Callahan for joining us!  The students had a lot of fun seeing many of the sea creatures we  have been learning about.  We especially enjoyed the new octopus exhibit that is brand new!