alstead primary school newsletter

A L S T E A D P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

Calendar & Events

Alstead ~ The Musical A Production By: The Alstead Primary School Alstead ~ The Musical is a fun, informative play that gives an overview of Alstead’s history. Through historical dialogue, enthusiastic actors, and original music, the students will present important details about events and interesting people that have influenced our town. This is a lighthearted performance by our Pre-Kindergarten to Fourth Grade students under the musical direction of Lillie LeBlanc.

April Newsletter

April 3 Bingo for Books presented by PTO @

6pm in the Vilas Cafeteria

April 4 PTO Meeting 3:15pm @ APS

April 5 – Spring Pictures

April 8 School Board Meeting @

FMRHS 6:30 pm

April 11 – Reports Go Home

April 17 Alstead Primary School Play

First Show @ 1pm - Vilas Gym Second Show @ 6pm – Vilas Gym

April 19 – Arbor Day @ 1:30pm

April 22 – April 26

April Vacation

April 29 - School Board Meeting @ NWS 6:30 pm

May 1 Alstead Attendance Area Art

Show @ 4:30 – 7:30 pm

Dear Alstead Community, Alstead Primary Students and Teachers would

like to thank everyone for their support of the 2013-2014 school budget.

A Note from Mr. Young April is off to a great start. This past Friday the students were visited by Ribby to begin this years APS reading challenge. The PTO bingo night is fast approaching. Please join us Wednesday at 6pm in the Vilas Cafeteria for Bingo for Books sponsored by the PTO. To keep up with PTO events, please check out their

facebook page. Students have also been working hard preparing for the Alstead Play. It is going to be amazing.

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APRIL NEWSLETTER ALSTEAD PRIMARY SCHOOL

The Learning Center is Dino-Might

Mrs. Pogorzelski

Dinosaurs roamed the Learning Center in February. The children in the Learning Center researched dinosaurs on the web and read books and stories about the different dinosaurs. They learned about what they ate, what they used for protection, how big they were and when they lived. All of their learning came together by creating a diorama of their favorite dinosaur. They then wrote a report on their dinosaur.

The fourth graders continue to impress teacher and staff with the work they are doing at school. Every student’s travel brochure is displayed on the bulletin board near the main entrance and many teachers have commented on how fantastic they are! In reading students have been

exploring the world of communication and how we use different methods of communication to stay connected. They have been using their skills of sequencing and using graphic sources to increase understanding of text. In math, students have been relentless in their dedication to learning more about fractions. We have been focusing on comparing and ordering fractions when there is a different denominator. Students will now be transitioning to adding fractions with unlike denominators. The class continues to grow in their writing skills and is practicing using hooks to grab the reader’s attention, as well as sequencing their writing in a way that makes sense to the reader. In science, students have been applying their scientific method skills by completing experiments. Our latest inquiry task was a sled pull experiment. Students investigated how much force would be needed to move the sled if the weight of it continued to increase. Ask them what we discovered!

Ms. Ketchum ~ Grade 4

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Ms. Harmon ~ Grade 3

Dear APS families, This week, Elizabeth Lyman, Alex Booth, and Serena

Rathke have created this newsletter for you! We hope you enjoy reading it! During Reading Street, we have begun our fourth unit and are in the fourth week of it. We are learning about women

in history. Gertrude Ederle is one of the amazing women we have been reading and learning about! In 1926, Gertrude was the first woman to swim across the English Channel. She broke the men’s record by two hours. She then went on to win three medals during the 1924 Olympic games. In Bridges math, we have been working on mental math! Our games have been Break 200, Make 200 and Sum it up. What is mental math, you ask? It is when you can complete math problems in your brain without using paper, or pencils, or fingers. Ms. Harmon’s rule is, you cannot use your fingers to add; you can only use them for the nines trick! Well, the nines trick is, say you

have 5 x 9, you can put down your fifth finger on your left hand. Then you count how many are up on your left hand, before that finger and then you count the ones left on your left and right hand. You should end up with 4 fingers on your left and 5 fingers on your right, which makes 45. Now you try! Can you solve 3 x 9?? Over the past few weeks we have been working on a research project

about NBA basketball players! Not only have we been working on how to research information, we have also learned how to create a power point presentation! ! They will be ready to go next week, and we will be presenting them to our class and hanging the power point slides outside our classroom door! We would like to give a big, big THANKS to Mimi, for completing TWO Easter projects with us! ! Thank you for reading our newsletter article. Sincerely, Elizabeth, Alex, Serena and Ms. Harmon

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Ms. McGuirk ~ Grade 2

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they stay the same? We are also continuing to work on reading fluency and understanding what we read. In writing, we have continued to work on friendly letters, journals, weekly writes in our reading program, and special writes. In Fundations, we have been hard at work learning and using our 8 syllable types. We have just finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I look forward to reading Charlotte’s Web to the class this spring. Happy Spring from the 2nd grade classroom!

Pennies for Patients

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I can’t believe we are going into spring in the 2nd grade classroom! We just welcomed two new students to our room, Aaron and Madison. The students are being very helpful teaching them our routine. We also just finished an Easter project with Mimi!! In Bridges, we are doing the unit called Branching into Larger Numbers: Money and Place Value. We are also continuing with automaticity with math facts to 20, and we are also continuing to practice adding with regrouping and subtraction with borrowing. In Reading Streets, our Unit theme is Our Changing World! How do things change? How

do

Our Pennies for Patients program was a huge success this year! Thanks to all who contributed to our fundraising campaign. Together we raised $402.79 to donate to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The class with the largest amount collected was Kindergarten - Mrs. Chaffee's class - with a whopping $123.25! Mrs. Chaffee's class will be receiving a Bronze Pennant from Pennies for Patients to proudly display in their room! Great job everyone! ~ Mrs. Therrien

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Mrs. Hanatow ~ Grade 1

The First Graders have just completed a geometry unit. They used polydrons, pattern blocks, geoboards, and paper shapes to explore 2 and 3 dimensional shapes. Presently, we are preparing to begin our second integrated unit. In this unit called My Little Farm, each child will have an opportunity to create a paper model of a small farm. They will use “farm bucks” to buy farm buildings, land, machinery, and animals. The math skills they will use involve place value, money, area, perimeter, mapping, and computation. Let the fantasy of farm life begin! In reading, the students have been learning about fact and opinion, contractions, and summary writing. We are continuously talking about authors’ purpose, main idea and details, and cause and effect. In addition, they are always working on finding evidence in the text to support their answers.

RTI has moved along to word problems. The students are using the CUBE method to figure out how to solve problems. The word CUBE means the following: C means to circle all numbers, U means to underline important words, B means to box in questions, and E means to evaluate what strategy to use.

Looking forward to seeing you all at our 250th Alstead Anniversary Play.

Mrs. Neilsen Kindergarten Happy April from Kindergarten! This month we will be working hard on preparing for our spring concert! In honor of Alstead's 250th year, we will be learning a little bit about what Alstead was like when the original settlers came to this area! We will also be building a magnificent display outside our doorway, so please come check it out in the next 3 weeks! In Reading this month we will focus on reviewing the many skills we have developed during the school year. We will still continue to learn new sight words, become better readers, and strengthen our writing skills!

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Mrs. Chaffee’s Kindergarten

In Math we will practice telling time, naming coins and their values, building models for numbers 20+, adding and subtracting within 10, naming 3-D shapes, and much more!

Kindergarten has been very busy getting ready for the big Alstead Anniversary show. We are learning about the history of Alstead. Our class is focusing on the Shedd-Porter Library. Our historic display will soon be outside our door! ! We are finishing up a math unit on Measuring. We are learning to tell time with analog and digital clocks, using thermometers to find the temperature, reading scales to find the weight of things and using rulers to see how long, short, tall and wide things are. We are also learning about the numbers that go together to make 10. We call them our “10-friends”. We continue to work in our reading and writing groups. It is fun to see all the progress that is being made! We have at least 50 sight words that we can read in addition to the words that we can sound out! Thank you to Mimi for helping us make a cute bunny decoration! Looking forward to seeing everyone at “Alstead~ The Musical”!

In the Pre-K we are beginning to study trees. We will be observing and comparing trees to learn about what lives in them, what they’re made from, and who cares for them. We hope that this study will help children explore and appreciate nature. As we study trees, we will use literacy, math, the arts, and technology to explore the topic in depth. We will learn important social studies and scientific concepts through firsthand investigations.

Mrs. Smith’s Pre-K

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Reading

Reading tips to try at home: First Grade

Mr. Gilbert

Reading tips to try at home: Kindergarten

Mr. Gilbert

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Parent Forum FMRSD Parent Forum

Parents and Guardians Welcome!

April 11, 2013 Thursday

5:30 PM – 7:00 PM FMRHS Library

Elizabeth Webster

Easter Seals Autism Family Support Specialist

Presenter of “Autism Awareness 911”

Safety Issues… What Families Need To Know About

Returns to FMRSD to present

Organizing Autism Autism Spectrum Disorders involve behaviors that challenge every little thing about every day life- at

home at school and out in the community....

This workshop will provide an overview of tips and ideas for organizing, managing and coordinating ASD in four areas:

Community Connections

Educational Efforts Family Fiascos (Managing the Mob)

Keeping Track of Your Child

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