Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
A P R I L 2 0 1 7
The Reeds Ferry
Tigger Times A Message from the Principals
Mrs. Yarlott and Mr. Coler
Dear Parents,
It was wonderful seeing so many of you during
our Parent Teacher Conferences. These conferences are always great opportunities to
build a strong working partnership between school and family. Our teachers had so many
positive conversations with parents about their children’s successes in math literacy and writing.
We appreciate the PFA’s support to bring Brian Lies to Reeds Ferry School as this year’s visiting
author. Mr. Lies is an author and illustrator best known for his books about bats. (Please see the
article about his visit from our Language Arts Coordinator, Mrs. Cote).
Speaking of reading, enjoying time reading with your child can create special memories, while also
strengthening their skills and building a lifelong interest. Here are a few suggestions that might
help promote a lifelong love of reading.
Try to have your children read daily. Choose a regular time of day such as bedtime, and develop a routine where reading can be part of
winding down at the end of the day;
Take turns choosing books to read with your
child and explore a variety of titles and
authors, including fiction, non-fiction and
poetry books;
Before starting a book, take a “picture walk”.
Look through the book or read the back to predict what the story is about;
It is ok to re-read favorite books! Re-reading
helps build fluency;
Have fun and laugh by using different voices
for the characters in the story as you are reading;
Help your child to make inferences about what they are reading;
Encourage them to tell you where the story is set after hearing or reading a few pages;
Have them look for lessons when reading a
fable, or explain the main idea that the author was trying to convey;
Ask them, “Why do you think…?” And ask them to provide reasons from the story;
Also, help your children to expand their vocabulary by identifying new words, and
be sure to explore different types of words (nouns, verbs and adjectives);
For younger readers, play word games such as, see how many words that you can make by changing the first letter of a word;
These are just a few ideas that can make your
children stronger readers, and help them to build a passion for enjoying literature for a
lifetime. Just a reminder that Smarter Balanced Testing
for fourth grade students will occur from April 11 – April 21 and in early May for third
graders. Please help your child to prepare for the testing by ensuring that they get a good
night sleep and hearty breakfast each morning. This will help them to do their best. We look forward to seeing parents at our many
upcoming school events! Please check the school and PFA websites to remain informed.
MEET Brian Lies
Author and Illustrator
On behalf of Reeds Ferry School and the P.F.A., we are excited to announce that we will host a visit by Brian Lies, children’s author and illustrator.
Thanks to the financial support of the Reeds Ferry PFA, Brian Lies will visit our school on Thursday,
April 6, 2017. Brian always liked to draw for fun. He attended college to study literature and psychology, but after
graduation, he began thinking about pursuing a career that involved art. He later enrolled in classes at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to study drawing and painting.
From there, Brian has gone on to illustrate over two dozen books including his bestselling bat series.
He says one of the best parts of his job is visiting schools, talking about his books, and working with young writers and illustrators.
Brian lives in Massachusetts with his wife and daughter. When he isn’t working on a new book, Brian’s hobbies include bicycling, woodworking, and tending a big vegetable garden.
You can learn more about Brian Lies by visiting his website: brianlies.com.
Library News April is National Poetry Month!
Spring is here! Along with warm and windy weather, we
will be celebrating Poetry Month in the library! Poems are perfect for reading aloud and sharing together. Why should we share poetry with each other? Poems
are a wonderful way to help children hear language. Poems usually contain rhythm,
rhyming words and lyrical language which helps build reading and writing skills.
In the library, we have many books written by popular and favorite poets such as Shel
Silverstein, Bruce Lansky, and Ken Nesbitt. If you don’t have a poetry book at home, try this fun
website: http://www.poetry4kids.com/. It has a variety of poems and games designed for children. Another
entertaining and child friendly site is http://www.gigglepoetry.com/. Poetry can be fun and engaging! Give it a try!
“Paper People” By Lisa Wheeler From the book: One Minute till Bedtime
Every book you’ve ever read
makes a home inside your head.
Characters that you adore gather round your noggin’s floor.
You travel widely with each one and do the things that each has done.
Their paper lives are fragile, true… The reason they exist is YOU!
NH Principal of the Year: Mrs. Yarlott! NHASP Elementary Principal of the Year 2017
Kimberly Yarlott, Reeds Ferry School Merrimack
According to her Assistant Principal Nick Coler, Kim has always engaged
staff in reflective thinking about how to improve instruction and
assessment practices. Last spring, she challenged staff at each grade level
to identify instructional challenges and to think about ways to provide learners with more integrated learning experiences. After several months
of work, the team developed a new ten-day schedule that provided more
time for writing instruction, and more importantly, two days in each cycle
for students to engage in integrated learning experiences. Each
Professional Learning Team developed standards-based integrated units,
inquiry tasks and performance based assessments. Under Kim's
leadership, teachers took on the challenge of recognizing that they needed
to be willing to take on risks, embrace failures as part of the learning
process, and work for a more student facilitated learning environment.
Kindergarten News
THE REEDS FERRY TIGGER TIMES APRIL 2017
1st Grade News
First graders have been learning all about matter. They recently did some fun projects to learn about the states of matter including making Jello and making fizzy leprechauns. (Both projects
allowed students to explore all three states of matter.) At the end of March, first grade students had the opportunity to visit the SEE Science Center. While there, they made their own silly putty (to
enhance their unit on matter), learned about electricity, did a moon walk, had fun with bubbles, saw some cool Lego structures, and had time to explore many other science activities. We look forward
to doing some planting in April. We are also excited about Bed Time Story Hour, a fun evening event for parents and first grade students to be held on April 20th.
March certainly came in like a lion! Snow and cold! When will the spring get here? The skiing has been wonderful but we are all ready for some nice warm weather.
March has been an incredibly busy and exciting month in Kindergarten! We had a blast celebrating
“Read Across America” with Dr. Seuss’ birthday. We made “Thing 1 and Thing 2”, hats, measured “socks” and had some great math activities with blue fish and red fish! We read all kinds of books
that Dr. Seuss wrote and we learned about his life. We continue with our narrative writing unit and have been concentrating on “small moments” and zooming in on details. We enjoyed some St. Patrick’s Day writing and focused on “how lucky we were.” The writings are hanging in our
hallway, we hope you were able to see them during our conferences. Other writing has been about our weekends as that is always a great point to start with when writing narratives.
We have been piloting our new math curriculum Envisions, and the students seem to be enjoying it.
It is a nice blend of lessons, centers, manipulatives and technology. The mini lessons on the computer are a big hit. We are continuing our study of decomposing numbers, but have moved up to the teens! Ten frames and counters help us through.
As you know, we introduced some new “students” in the class…..the H Brothers….Sherman,
Chuck, Theo and Whit! We are concentrating on one, with word sorts, picture sorts and visually seeing the blends in words. The students love looking at the beginning, middle and end! An
accumulating activity will be at the end of the unit. The students continue to work on sight words in our guided reading groups and concentrating on
getting those foundations nice and strong for first grade. In April, we will begin our Farm Unit and celebrate Earth Day. Never a dull moment in Kindergarten! As always, we love spending our days with your children, and hope that you have a wonderful start to spring!
[TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT]
THE REEDS FERRY TIGGER TIMES
2nd Grade News
As part of the second grade social studies curriculum, students have been exploring each of the
seven continents. During the month of March, the focus was on Asia. Each classroom focused on a landmark, celebration, or geographical feature in Asia to further investigate. Here are some of the
projects that were created.
Great Wall of China
Cherry Blossoms and Origami
Taj Mahal
Chinese New Year Dragon Puppets
APRIL 2017
[TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT]
THE REEDS FERRY TIGGER TIMES
3rd Grade News
Third graders applied what they learned within their States of Matter unit to
perform different experiments in each of the 5 grade level classrooms. Upon
visiting a new teacher they were expected to follow the Scientific Method by:
reading background information and focus question
forming their own hypothesis
following a procedure
collecting data
forming a conclusion based on their findings
[TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT]
THE REEDS FERRY TIGGER TIMES
[TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT]
THE REEDS FERRY TIGGER TIMES
[TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT]
THE REEDS FERRY TIGGER TIMES
4th Grade News In Math, we are wrapping up Unit 8, which focuses on area and perimeter. Many of us measured the area of both our hand and our classroom!
In Writing, we just completed our final opinion essay. We noticed a lot of growth when we compared our first attempt to our final attempt.
In Science, dissecting owl pellets has been an enormous hit! We loved trying to determine what it
was the owl had eaten by trying to piece together such small skeletons.
Also, we have begun a study of the Human Anatomy. We are participating in a wonderful program entitled Fit Kits. The program includes weekly visits from one of their volunteers. Check it out at http://www.granitestatefitkids.org/index.html.
[TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT]
THE REEDS FERRY TIGGER TIMES
Mr. Gidari created a unit on the 2016 Summer Olympic Games for the fourth graders. He had the children do P.E. homework that included researching Rio, the sight of the Summer
Games, and designing a flag from either Jamaica, Portugal, Australia, or Argentina. He also had each student find a map that included an Olympic country, the USA, and Rio. The activities that the students participated during P.E. classes included hockey, basketball shoot,
jump rope, Frisbee toss, long jump, high jump, Nerf javelin, long distance run, and a relay race.
[TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT]
THE REEDS FERRY TIGGER TIMES
Gold, Silver & Bronze medals were handed out to the top 3 girls and 3 boys in the fourth grade for
each Olympic sport.
[TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT]
THE REEDS FERRY TIGGER TIMES
Wellness Committee News The RFS Wellness Committee enjoyed hosting its annual Winter Wellness Week. Students in kindergarten through fourth grade had the opportunity to "ski," "skate," "luge," and "bobsled" in the gym at the end of winter. Thank you to everyone who attended. We hope you had fun and we hope to see you next year.
[TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT]
THE REEDS FERRY TIGGER TIMES
Presented by the 4th Graders on April 5, 2017 at 6:00pm. Imagine a world where all weapons were replaced by musical instruments! Welcome to the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table like you’ve never
seen it or heard it before.
President: Rebecca Mimms [email protected]
Vice-President: Lindsay Murray ReedsPFAVicePresident@Gmail
Secretary: Hillary Maye
Treasurer: Shannon Rand [email protected]
Board Member at Large:
Andrea Andris [email protected]
Volunteer Coordinators:
Natasha Bairamova
Jennifer Szela [email protected]
Reeds Ferry School
15 Lyons Road
Merrimack, NH 03054
Phone:
(603) 424-6215
Fax:
(603) 424-6238
On the Web:
http://www.merrimack.k12.nh.us/Reedsferry.cfm
The PFA (Parent Faculty Association) is a volunteer organization dedicated to the support and
enrichment of education at Reeds Ferry Elementary School. Our goal is to provide enrichment to
both the faculty and students by establishing the means to offer additional programs, field trips and
materials to the school. All faculty, staff and parents of students at RFS are members of the PFA
and are always welcome at the general meetings. It is with the continuing support of our members
that we are able to offer all of the enrichment programs. It is the unselfish giving of time and effort
by our many volunteers that have allowed our children the benefit of these extra resources. Please
help us continue our goal by actively supporting the PFA in any way you can. We are always looking for volunteers to help make the many programs and activities at Reeds Ferry a
success! Check the Volunteer Page on our website often for the latest opportunities or contact our volunteer coordinators with any questions or comments about volunteer opportunities at Reeds Ferry @ Aimee Piccolo [email protected] or Lindsay Murray [email protected]
[TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT]
THE REEDS FERRY TIGGER TIMES
Pennies for Patients Update The grand total for the Pennies for Patients collection was $2,128.46! Way
to go everyone!
Mrs. Rosswaag’s Class collected the most money with $182.51!
A big thank you to everyone who participated.
We Need……
Wipes of all kinds!!! All our Reeds Ferry classrooms are in need of: Anti-
bacterial Hand Wipes, Baby Wipes and Clorox Disinfecting Wipes (Any
brand for wiping down surfaces)
These are an on-going need at our school, but are especially important during
cold and flu season. If you would like to help, please send your donation in
your child’s backpack or drop it off in the front office. Any contribution will be greatly appreciated and will benefit the entire school!!!
[TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT]
THE REEDS FERRY TIGGER TIMES
Don’t forget to record your at-home volunteer hours on the calendar and send it in with your
child. Thank you for all your help.
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1
2 3 School Board Meeting
4 5 4th Grade Musical
6 Author visit
Garden Club
7 8
9 10 11 12 3RD GR Field
Trip 4TH GR Art Club
Run/Walk Club
13 14 15
16 17 School Board Meeting
18
19 4th Gr Art club Run/Walk Club
PFA Meeting
20 Garden Club
1st Gr Story
Hour
21
22
23 24
***SPRING
25
RECESS
26
****** 27
******* 28 *******
29
30
