February News - Granby Public Schools

F.M. Kearns
February News
2015
Wonder Day at F.M. Kearns
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Letter from Mrs. Dessert
Preschool News
Kindergarten News
On Wednesday, February 11 the students will be given
a “wonder notebook”. They will use this notebook to
write down their curiosities and wonders about the
amazing world we live in. Our school is a curious and
wondering environment where children’s minds and
hearts are filled with wonder and awe. It is a place
where curiosity, creativity, and exploration are encouraged. It is a place
where children’s questions and observations are part of their daily work.
First Grade News
Second Grade News
PE with Mr. Gates
Music with Mrs. Lucas
Art with Mrs. Miller
Spanish
Reading Center News
Media Center News
Math News
Self-Advocacy Skills
Kindergarten Registration
Integrated PreK Playdates
CAS Elementary Celebration
Happenings at Kearns
February Calendar
Check out www.wonderpolis.org for some fun with a “wonder of the
day!” Look for these “wonder notebooks” to come home.
Friends
With Valentine’s Day in the month of February, it is a great time to celebrate
friendship and learn about friends.
“Friends at school are big and small. Friends at school are best of all!”
We need to follow our How to be a Bucket Filler at Kearns School in order to
be a good friend to everyone at F.M. Kearns School.
Friends
February 16 & 17
NO SCHOOL
Toot & Puddle
by Holly Hobbie
Everyone is included
Always a positive attitude
Respectful and responsible choices
Never give up!
Safe at work and play
Special Events
by Helme Heine
Kind words and actions
Poppleton and Friends
by Mark Teague
Frog and Toad Are Friends
by Arnold Lobel
Preschool
News
In February the
preschool will
be learning
about jungles
and deserts. We
will talk about the climates
and discuss the different
animals that live there.
Talking about the hot
temperatures might
bring us some warmth!
First Grade
News
In reading, first
graders will be
comparing and contrasting characters in stories.
As writers, we will be exploring how to
write realistic fiction. We will learn
strategies for adding and subtracting larger
Numbers in math. We will be celebrating the
100th Day of School, Wonder Day and Friendship
(Valentine’s Day) Day with our classes.
Second Grade News
Kindergarten News
Brrr!! We will keep warm this
month and cozy up with some
“LOVE”ly Valentine literature.
We will be learning about the five
senses and are looking forward to
our “in school” field trip. High
Touch/High Tech will be facilitating
this hands-on experience.
In reading, the 2nd graders will be reading, analyzing
and comparing fairy tales. In writing, the students will
write realistic fiction narratives and their own
versions of fairy tales.
We will continue
exploring matter in
science. In math, we will
complete our unit on adding
and subtracting within 1,000 and
begin a unit on money.
PE with
Mr. Gates
Physical education classes will
be taking part
in our annual
Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser
starting February 9th. Our fundraiser supports the American
Heart Association and involves
students completing heart
healthy stations during PE class.
Fundraiser packets will be sent
home at the end of January. If
you choose to fundraise and help
support the AHA, please return
the packets on February 13th. For
more information, please visit
our PE website!
kearnsphysed.blogspot.com.
MUSIC WITH MRS. LUCAS
February brings a lot of excitement to the
music room. In kindergarten music classes,
we are continuing to explore the music from
the “Carnival of the Animals” by Camille
Saint-Saëns. We try to be music detectives
and listen for musical clues to guess which
animal we are listening to!
First graders will continue to explore reading, writing, and
playing music. We will even have the chance to play music
on xylophones!
The second graders have been working very hard learning
and rehearsing the music for their upcoming performance.
This not only includes learning the music, but also learning
what it means to be a performer and how to be a respectful
listener in the audience. At the end of the month we will
be practicing how to perform on the risers and on stage.
We can’t wait to share our performance with you! Below is
a reminder of our performance date and times. Hope to
see you there!
2nd Grade: March 11, 2015
10:00am: Scata, Sherman, Venezia 2:00pm: Bush, Meng, Meskevich
If you ever have any questions about the music room, please
feel to contact me or explore my website.
~Mrs. Lucas
with Mrs. Miller
Kearns’ art students are
learning about Andy
Warhol and print making.
Spanish in
Second Grade
In February, second
graders will learn to talk about animals, such as “oso” = “bear” and
“caballo” = horse, and other fairy
tale characters, such as “unicornio”
= “unicorn” and “rey” =
“king”. They will learn to tell what
their favorite animal is and why.
Students teaching
students Mono Printing.
Doña Raquel y Doña Alicia
READING CENTER NEWS
Media Center News
Valentine’s Day is a wonderful time
to practice reading and writing.
Write special notes for family and
friends!
Send an email to a far-away loved
one!
Write an acrostic
poem for someone
you care about!
Merry
Open-hearted
Magical
Read this poem at
home, talk about the meaning and
find the rhyming words!
I Love You More Than Applesauce
by Jack Prelutsky
I love you more than applesauce,
Than peaches and a plum,
Than chocolate hearts,
And cherry tarts,
And berry bubble-gum.
I love you more than lemonade,
And seven-layer cake,
Than lollipops,
And candy drops,
And thick vanilla shake.
I love you more than marzipan,
Than marmalade on toast;
For I love pies
Of any size,
But I love you the most.
Second Grade has
learned how to search
our Library Catalog!
Ask them to show you
how by visiting
www.kearnsmediacenter.blogspot.com
(or click on “media center” from our
Kearns website) and click on Destiny
Quest on the right-hand side. When they
log in they can access book lists, book reviews from their friends, place holds on
books that are checked out and even
check out our E-books on our Follett
Shelf! Their library cards have been sent
home with their log in information! If
your child lost their card they can pick a
new one up in library or you can email me
at [email protected] for the
information.
First Grade explored and travelled
the world through Google Earth.
Ask them to take you on a journey to one
of the places we visited! Check out their
travel journals to see where they chose
to go.
Kindergarten has been exploring
non-fiction digital resources and
alphabet games on the computer.
In the library…
All grades are getting ready for the announcement of the 2015 Caldecott Award
Winner!! To prepare, we’ve been
reading a variety of picture books
in hopes that we can predict which
one will be the winner.
Celebrate the 100th day of
school on February 10th by
trying some of these math
related activities. . .
Count out 100 beans, buttons,
toothpicks, or other small item.
Make groups of tens, fives or twos.
Count out 100 pennies.
Trade 10 pennies for dimes.
How many dimes can you make?
Trade 25 pennies for quarters. How many quarters can
you make?
Time your child for 100
seconds and see how
many of the following
things they can do in
that amount of time:
write their name,
draw stars or smile
Mrs. Lupoli and Mrs. DiCiancia faces, jumping jacks.
Dear Families,
With winter weather in
full swing and frigid
temperatures in the air,
our very energetic
students have been
spending their days
in-doors! This is a great time of year
to review problem solving strategies
to help students when challenges arise.
Whenever a student experiences a
problem, we encourage them to use
their self-advocacy skills to first try
and solve it themselves. We ask them
to use their words, and make a
statement about the problem and a
possible solution.
For example, a student might say,
Read and then count the amount of words
read in 100 seconds.
“Please stop bumping me in line,
I don’t like it!”
Write math problems that equal 100.
Examples: 26+74, 90+10, etc.
Our students know that it is their
responsibility to stop if someone asks
them to do so. If the problem persists,
we encourage the children to find a
trusted adult for help. Encouraging
the kids to advocate for themselves
using their words helps build
resilience as well as social, emotional,
and behavioral well-being.
Find a book that has 100 pages. (If you cannot find
one that is exactly 100, find one that is the closest.)
Add the dates of all of the birthdays
in your family. How close to 100 do you get?
Find out what the 100th day of the year is. What is
the date?
If you traveled 100 miles, where
would you end up?
Sincerely,
Lauren Garneau, M.Ed., Ed.S.
School Psychologist, Kearns Primary School
F.M. Kearns
Integrated Preschool
March 16 between 5-7:00pm
Kearns All Purpose Room
Children who will be five years
of age on or before January 1, 2016 must be
registered for the 2015-2016 school year.
Parents choosing not to enroll their eligible
child for Kindergarten must complete an
option form exempting their child from school
attendance. Children need not be present
at registration.
All forms can be downloaded from the
Kearns School web page of the Granby Public Schools website: www.granby.k12.ct.us.
Forms will also be available at Kearns
School and Central Services.
We are now accepting applications
for preschool peer models.
{Child must be 3 or 4 years old by August 31st.}
Please call for details and
to schedule a playdate
for one of the following dates:
February 6, 13 or 20
860-844-3044
CAS Annual Elementary Celebrations of the Arts recognizes students
who have demonstrated outstanding artistic ability in performing or visual
arts as well as citizenship and cooperation skills.
This year F.M. Kearns Primary School will be honoring
Alec Quagliaroli and Addy Sanzo. They will participate in an awards
ceremony at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington this month
to celebrate their accomplishments.
A big thank you to the Granby PTO
for bringing the Hartford Ballet to
Kearns. The kids loved all the
unique performances!
Mrs. Scata’s class “bucket filling” celebration, snowshoeing!
Game Day at F.M. Kearns.
Did you build a snowman on the snowday?
What did you do to fill someone’s bucket?
Do you know the answer?
F.M. Kearns
FEBRUARY 2015
Sun
1
Mon
2
Tue
3
Wed
4
Thu
Fri
Sat
5
6
7
12
13
14
High Touch/High Tech
Grade 2
8
9
10
11
Wonder Day
Valentine Day
Celebration
Jump Rope for Heart
starts in PE
15
22
16
17
NO SCHOOL
NO SCHOOL
23
24
18
19
20
21
27
28
High Touch/High Tech
Kindergarten
25
26
Grade 2 goes to
Kelly Lane for a
Drama Production