Hello Families,

     I’d like to take this opportunity to catch you up on the happenings in Room 117.  Today, students finished taking the Math MCAS.  As with the ELA MCAS, results will not be sent to you until the Fall.  The students worked very hard and I’m proud of them for their perseverance.

      In Writer’s Workshop, the students have begun writing the first draft of their autobiography.  They are very excited for this and are looking forward to writing in their very own hard-cover books, which will be shared with you at our Author’s Day on June 17^th.  A formal invitation will be going home soon.

      In Reader’s Workshop, we have begun the second bend of our Research Unit.  Students have begun to research facts about the Titanic.  They are busy taking notes and will be given a choice of project they would like to use to present their research.  This is always a fun way to end the school year~

      We will continue to have weekly multiplication and division quizzes.  Students should continue to practice these into the summer.  In Grade 4, the expectation is that all students will be fluent in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, in order to use them to build upon new concepts.

      We continue to learn more about Medway.  Our Bus trip is scheduled for next Tuesday afternoon.  Please have your child wear our class’ light blue shirt.  It is also “Teal Day” at our school, where students wear teal in support of food allergies. Our students will be given a teal ribbon to pin to their blue shirt to show their support.  We will not require chaperones, as this is more of a driving tour and students will not be getting out of the bus.

As always, thank you for your home support,

Mary-Ellen G.

Hello Families,

I hope you enjoyed our school vacation week.  I want to let you know that Mrs. Luizzi has asked us to send home a notice about next year’s placement.  Please be on the lookout for a 2-sided blue paper coming home with your child today.

We continue to work in small groups during our Research Clubs unit.  During this unit, students have formed groups to use their nonfiction reading skills to gather information.  Students are using a collection of texts to read on the topic and synthesize facts and information.

Our Writer's Workshop will build upon the above research, continue writing /adapting Fairy Tales, and in a few weeks, students will also begin work on their own biographies.  I will be sending home a graphic organizer soon for them to collect information prior to writing.  Students will share their autobiographies and other writing pieces at our Author's Day on the afternoon of June 17^th at 1:15.  (Can you believe I am already scheduling end-of-year activities?!?)

I am happy to report that our class will be having our own school garden plot soon.  We will be planting during the first week of May and harvesting/selling towards the end of the school year.  I wonder which kind of seedlings our class will be given?  We will let you know, as during the planting, watering, weeding, harvesting, etc. students will be writing in their Garden Journals.

Tomorrow, Grade 3 students will be treated to a Science performance by Garry Krinski. Be sure to ask them after school tomorrow what they learned about Simple Machines and other Science topics.

We will spend some of our Math time reviewing previously learned concepts to help the students prepare for the Math MCAS, which will take place May 7^th & 8^th.

Wishing you all a great week,

Mary-Ellen G.

Hello Families,

  It’s hard to believe that we are approaching April vacation!  I actually love this time of year because the students are very engaged in their learning. 

The first round of MCAS testing is over.  I am very proud of the hard work and stamina many students exhibited.  Results should be mailed home to you in the Fall.

   We are finishing up our Geometry unit.  We will review in class on Monday and there will be a unit test on Tuesday.   We will begin to learn more about our town of Medway, beginning with Colonial Medway and comparing that to today’s Medway.  Next month students will be taken on a guided tour of Medway’s historical sites.  Permission slips should be going home after vacation.

Next week we will begin our “Research Clubs” unit in Reader’s Workshop.  The students will be in small clubs.  Each club will be studying about a different animal.  In this unit, students will learn to:

• Preview a collection of texts and order them from easier to harder
• Take notes on non-fiction in a smart way (boxes and bullets, time lines, sketches, etc.
• Grow their thinking with the facts they have learned about their animal
• Synthesize what they learn about a subtopic across texts

This unit is more than a unit on informational reading.  It is a unit on research and on “learning to learn” from reading.

   In Writer’s Workshop, students have begun to plan and draft an adaptation of a well-known fairy tale.  Some of the adaptation to original fairy tales include:

• Change the character from a boy to a girl
• Olden days to modern day
• small village to New York City
• going to a ball to going to a New England Patriots game

Wishing you all a great weekend~

Mary-Ellen G.

Hello Families,

   Happy March!  This will be a busy month in our schools as you will see when you view our calendar.  In addition to the activities listed below, students will be finishing up our Poetry unit, beginning a Geometry unit, and completing some literary review lessons.  Mrs. Luizzi has asked that we share the following information with you:

   The Scholastic Book Fair will be returning to Memorial School the week of March 18th. Students will have the opportunity to shop for books during their assigned Library time. Family shopping will be available during the following date and time:Thursday, March 21st from 2:45 - 7:00 pm.

On Thursday, March 21st at 6pm, we will celebrate Music in Our Schools Month with the 2nd Annual Memorial School Open Mic Night! Come and hear performances by Memorial School students. Students may play an instrument, sing a song, or read an original poem. We look forward to this sharing a night of music with you. 

HAT DAY

Faculty, staff and students are welcome to wear a hat to school on Friday, March 8th in support of our student athletes who will be participating in the 5 Town Special Olympic Games. Students, faculty and staff are invited donate $1 to wear a hat to school. All proceeds will be donated to the Special Olympics of MA in honor of Memorial School's Student Athletes! Let's aim to raise over $500 for this special cause!

Once again, our third grade students will celebrate Music in our Schools Month with our annual concert. This year’s theme is All Music, All People.  (Our class will be having a dress rehearsal on 3/21 and the actual concert will take place on 3/29 @ 9:00 am.)

Students will be taking a practice MCAS 2.0 online next week.  It should only take about 30 minutes.

Please continue to send in snow pants and boots as the students will be going outside most days.  In addition to that, we are running low on tissues and liquid hand soap. If you are able to send in a box, we would appreciate it very much.

Yearbook order form information will be going home today.  Please be on the lookout.  Also, there is a blue notice from the office regarding our Ice Cream Social and Basket Raffle Night.  We have already received a few games for our basket.  Thank you to those who have donated already.

This week's multiplication and division facts focus on the 10's and 11's.  Students reviewed the tricks for each.  There will be a weekly fact quiz on Friday this week due to the snow day yesterday.  Beginning next week, students will be tested on all facts previously learned.  Please continue to practice nightly with your child.  It is expected that these facts have been mastered with automaticity.  If your child doesn't know certain facts, it would be very helpful for them to sign on to Reflexmath.org and/or use mult/div flash cards with you.

As always, please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns,

Mary-Ellen G.

Hello Families,

     I hope you all enjoyed spending time with your child looking over his/her portfolio during out halfway point of our school year.  The students have made very good gains.  Portfolios will go home again towards the end of the school year.

  I'd like to share with you some of the latest information coming out of Room 117:

  Students have finished their final opinion piece and hopefully have shared it with you.  We are finishing up the Mystery unit in Reading. Our next unit in Reading and Writing is Poetry.  Students will be exposed to the different elements of poetry, such as rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, etc.  They will be comparing poems.  Yesterday, they learned the difference between Poetry and Prose. Today we spoke about the Poet’s message.

   I was hoping to finish our Measurement and Date unit this week and test prior to February vacation, however with early dismissal yesterday and special snack/passing out Valentine’s on Thursday, it will not be given until after vacation.     Following that, we will be working on Geometry during the end of February and March.  Our Geometry unit has four main areas of focus:

To investigate line segments, rays, and lines

To explore polygons, including triangles and quadrangles

To draw and measure angles

To explore area and perimeter

Tomorrow---Valentine’s Day-I sent home a notice last week asking for you to send in an extra snack for your child to have during our Valentine celebration.  On the back of the notice you will find the names of our students should your child wish to make Valentine cards. 

Speaking of cards, one of our Room 117 friends, Stone DeLuca will be leaving us as of this Friday.  I would like students to make a card at home to give to him on Friday.  Please tell your child that this is a surprise and to hand it to me when they are finished, either tomorrow or Friday morning, when they arrive at school.  I will hold on to them until Friday afternoon.

You have probably heard by now that the para in our room, Mrs. Lussier, has left to take another job.  Mrs. Davis has been the substitute and has taken over her duties until a permanent para is hired.  Mrs. Davis has eased right into the role and has a quiet, gentle way with the students.

February vacation will soon be upon us.  I hope that you are able to enjoy some down time with your child.

Best,

Mary-Ellen G.