December 2007
Kindergarten
A special thank you to all kindergarten parents for scheduling and attending parent-teacher conferences. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to talk with each of you. Even though “formal” conferences are not scheduled again until the end of the school year, please feel free to call anytime if you have a question or concern.
During November, kindergarten children learned what it might have been like to live at the time of the arrival of the Pilgrims. They heard stories of the Mayflower voyage ad explored living conditions when the Pilgrims arrived. They learned of the contributions made by Samoset, Squanto and other Native Americans. All of the activities culminated with our own “First Thanksgiving”, complete with Pilgrim and Indian costumes made in class and a delicious dinner prepared by our school food service staff.
With our own “Thanksgiving” behind us, we now begin to prepare for our stage debut, the annual Tuftonboro Holiday Music Concert which will take place on the evening of December 13. Kindergarten children will sing several songs. First, second and third grade students will also participate as well as members of the Tuftonboro School band and chorus. The concert will begin at 6:30 PM on that evening. The children are very excited about having this first opportunity to perform in front of families and friends!
Welcome back to school after a (hopefully) restful five days off. It was nice to see so many of you during parent/teacher conferences to talk about your child’s progress for first grade.
First graders have been very busy learning about Veteran’s Day, Pilgrims and Native Americans during the month of November. During December we will be learning about winter holidays such as Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Christmas. The students and their teachers are proud to see so much progress being made with reading. Thanks for all of your help and support at home. Math continues to spiral with learning concepts. First graders are learning to recognize a variety of ways to solve problems using patterns, money, time, addition and subtraction. Our next unit will introduce standard use of measurement for length, finding sums of missing addends and to calculate combinations of mixed values of coins. We know December is a busy month and we wish you well during the upcoming holidays!
Second Grade Happenings
The second graders have been very busy the last few weeks and very excited about the holidays. During the month of October, our learners put on their creative hats and produced some wonderful spooky stories. We had ghastly ghosts, fiendish phantoms, giant pumpkins, wicked witches, terrifying trolls, monstrous monsters and more. The students also wrote some fantastic alliteration poems about their favorite animal. In November they continued by writing some terrific Turkey Tales where the children made up stories of how the turkey got away from the dinner table. We have some very clever comedians and storytellers in our midst.
These past months in math our focus has been on learning our math addition and subtraction facts to twenty, doubles facts, tens facts, turn-around facts, fact families and different addition and subtraction strategies. We have also dabbled in weights, measurement and frames-and-Arrows.
Presently the students are learning about Native Americans, their homes and culture. Many of them have been reading of their way of life through trade books on this topic during their reading groups.
It’s been a busy November for fifth graders! Thank you to all the fifth grade parents who helped out during our Halloween parade and celebration that followed. A good time was had by all! We’d also like to thank everyone at school and in the community who has contributed to our penny drive!
Fifth graders have been enjoying spending time with Mrs. Klauck from Starting Points, who has been helping us learn and talk about bullying and healthy relationships. Our goal is to make Tuftonboro Central School a “Taunt Free Zone” and fifth graders are learning and practicing applying the skills necessary to make it happen!
Guided reading groups are as busy as ever. Students continue reading different genres and reading for a variety of purposes. Fifth graders have completed a reader’s theater activities that go along with American History. Reader’s theater is a fun way to practice reading fluently. Fifth graders continue to meet with their first grade buddies. Recently, fifth graders shared how to pick a good book by looking for award winners with their reading buddies!
We all know that the upcoming holidays keep us very busy, but please see to it that your child sticks to doing his or her twenty minutes of independent reading per night! Good readers read often!
In writing and social studies, students have been researching American Presidents. The research process has led us into the report writing process. Students are reporting on what they have learned about their President based upon different biographies, encyclopedias and websites.
Geometry is our current unit in mathematics class. Students have been learning geometry vocabulary, types of angles, types of shapes and measuring angles using a protractor. Students also continue to practice computation, place value, estimation and many other key concepts throughout each unit. As always, please utilize the family letters that are sent home at the beginning of each unit to help your child with the homework and to look for ways to enrich math topics at home!
November is the shortest month between Thanksgiving break and parent conferences. Conferences involved a meaningful exchange between students, parents and teachers sharing work samples and refining goals for the year ahead. It was good to celebrate accomplishments as well as set out new plans for continued progress and growth toward sixth grade standards.
Reading this month was related to our theme of positive peer and social relationships. Various groups read The Great Gilly Hopkins, Confidence, and Tangerine in guided reading activities. These books fall into the category of realistic fiction and demonstrate good and bad peer interactions to illustrate the consequences of peer pressure, teasing and bullying. Students can easily relate these stories to personal choices and challenges as they learn strategies to help them make better choices in their own lives.
Math saw the end of the first module and we began module two with a review of geometry. Here many see strengths they didn’t know they had as they experiment with transformations and tessellations. Spatial reasoning is a necessary skill to help develop abstract thinking. Hands on activities will provide many applications in this module.
Our unit in science thrust us into experimentation with pumpkins, popcorn, pendulums and planes. The lessons all focus on changing one variable to carefully observe and note the effect that has on the independent variable. Students make their hypotheses, set up an experiment, observe and graph results to make sound scientific conclusions. Flight is our current exploration and you may see some controlled flying objects around the school!
Music Notes
It’s that time again! Winter is approaching and so is the Tuftonboro Central School’s annual holiday concert! Though you probably already know, this year’s concert takes place on Thursday, December 13 at 6:30 pm in the TCS gym. This year the students in grades K-3 will be presenting “The Littlest Christmas Tree” as their holiday musical. The band and chorus will also be performing holiday selections. We ask that band and chorus students dress up, but they do not need to wear black and white. All K-2 students need to be at school 6:15. Band students please arrive at 6:10, third graders please arrive at 6:00. Students arriving later than that may have a harder time getting into their spots.
For the K-3 presentation of “The Littlest Christmas Tree,” the third graders will be the actors and the K, 1, and 2 students will be the singers. The K, 1, and 2 students should wear a plain green top and brownish colored pants to look like a forest of trees (any shade of brown pants is fine, including khaki) OR they may also wear festive Christmas attire. We are working on the 3rd grade costumes here at school. All third grade “trees” should wear a plain green top and brown pants (any shade of brown - dark brown Is great, but khaki is fine, too). All “elves” should dress in solid holiday colors for top and bottom - red, green, white or black. Several parent volunteers will be needed in the third grade classroom to assist the students in donning their costumes. If you can help, please contact Mrs. Johnson so she can add you to her list.
CAN YOU HELP US???
As we are putting together the 3rd grade costumes, we find ourselves with various costuming needs. We are in GREAT need of:
- 9-10 yards of 1” thick black elastic
We will gladly accept any donations of time, talents, and/or materials! Contact Mrs. Johnson ASAP if you are able to help. Thanks! We look forward to seeing you at the TCS Holiday Concert!
PTCO News
Check out our new bulletin board across from the library. We will include items to give away (ex. Ice skates, bicycles, etc.) If you would like to post an item or announcement, drop your notice in the PTCO box in the office.
Monday and Tuesday, December 3 and 4, there will be a free winter gear giveaway in the gym from 3:15-4:30. This is a collection of gently used coats, snow pants and boots. Come help yourself!
Upcoming events:
*Please see the December calendar for a quick overview of all scheduled events.
December
3 King Pine safety/measuring clinic 10:00
11 PTCO 7 PM
12 Delayed Opening 11:15
13 Holiday Concert 6:30 PM
12/22-1/2 Holiday Recess