With each passing month it is with great pride at Freetown Elementary School that we continue the deep, embedded tradition of Student of Month ceremonies. With each month a student from each classroom is nominated by peers and/or their teacher. Students nominated have put forth their best efforts in their school work, behavior, and efforts. For the month of December these students best exemplify what it means to be a Freetown Elementary Student. Congratulations to the December students that were nominated…

Kindergarten: Morgan Yentz, Abel Backstrom, Monroe Foye, Everly Tavares, Violet Raymond

Grade 1: Austin Benevides, Acein Aguiar, Rowen Isherwood, Gryffin Deneault

Grade 2: Mason Ventura, Carter Frias, Chase Rogers, Victoria Gravanis, Norah Frias

Grade 3: Jeremiah McSheffrey, Quinn Hebert, Logan Balderrama, Corey Boucher, Ashlynn Casey

Specialist: Kayleigh Baker

Please note this Student of the Month Recognition Assembly was slated for January 10th however with the school closing due to the heating issues the assembly was re-scheduled to January 24th. Congratulations again to our Student of the Month recipients.

Grade 3 News...Students in grade 3 across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts participate in their first MCAS exam. Students will be tested in English Language Arts and Mathematics. The MCAS exam is a computer based exam in which students will take the exam on the computer. MCAS dates for students in Grade 3 at FES will be:

• April 8 & 10 for English Language Arts

• May 13 & 15 for Mathematics

BINGO NIGHT!!

Registration for the FES PTOs 2nd annual Bingo Night is now open!

This is a family free event but registration is required!

This year we are offering two sessions to pick from.

This is NOT a drop-off event and the parent/guardian must remain with the student.

Registration will stay open till Thursday, February 6th or till spots fill up so register here now- https://signup.com/go/FSTADYE

Once spots fill up please email fesptovoluteering@gmail.com to be put on a waitlist.

CANDY LAND FUN!

THE FES PTO is partnering up with the Freetown Public Libraries for another FREE Family event!!

Join us during February vacation at the school auditorium for some Giant Candy Land!!

Sign-ups are encouraged, walk-ins welcome!

Feel free to sign up at the Freetown Public Library by calling (508)763-5344

Join us anytime during the following time slots-

Tuesday, February 18: 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Wednesday, February 19: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Thursday, February 20: 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

It is sure to be lots of fun for the whole family!

As we prepare for the winter season we will continue to use the Thrillshare Communication System to provide families with the necessary school cancellation and delay information. In addition to Thrillshare, we will utilize the school website and all local media outlets to communicate information in a timely manner for our families in Freetown and Lakeville.

Attendance Matters Weekly Update:

Goal: 94% of the Student Population will attend school daily.

• January 2 & 3: 94%...Goal Met
• January 6-10: 94%...Goal Met!
• January 13-17: 95%...Goal Met
• January 20-24 (excluding 1/24): 92%...Goal not met!

Pre-School: This week in preschool we continued our study of community helpers with a specific focus on construction workers. Projects included hard hats, tool belts, screwdriver math, and painting buildings with lego building bricks. We also learned about the letter M and the sound it makes.

Kindergarten: This week in kindergarten our letter was Dd. We practiced its sound in the initial and final position. We also practiced proper formation and how it sits in the lines. Our HFW was “do.” Our print concepts were parts of a book and matching speech to text. We continued with segmenting and blending and focused on sentence segmentation. Our comprehension skill focus was to ask/answer questions, character, setting and illustrations. In writing, we discussed and focused on stretching sounds to make words, supporting details and the writing process. In math our lesson was building with shapes.

Grade 1: This week in first grade we started unit 3 in Wonders. We focused on magic -e with long vowel a words. We also learned about contraction words with the word “not”. For comprehension we read a poem about time and discussed the purpose of reading. During math, we learned about numbers from 0-120. In writing, we finished the how-to unit. For science this week, we continued to learn about communication.

Grade 2: This week second grade students continued to identify coins and bills and solved word problems involving money. In phonics, we focused on the long vowel o sound and the various ways to spell the sound. In reading comprehension, we explored the point of view of different characters in a story. In writing, we continued with our personal narratives focusing on using sensory details. In science we learned about properties and states of matter.

Art: Kindergarteners listened to The Mitten by Jan Brett. We then designed colorful, symmetrical mittens that definitely would not get lost in the snow like Nikki’s mittens! Grade 1 completed their color wheel popsicle paintings. Grade 2 learned about the value of color as they used a charcoal stick to draw baby emperor penguins to add to the Antarctic landscape that we painted last week. Grade 3 chose analogous color markers to color their Georgia O’keefe inspired flowers. We sprayed water and watched the markers mix into tertiary colors.

Physical Education: Students improved their physical fitness by rotating through stations that worked on cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular endurance and strengthening, and flexibility.

Music: This week, students K-3 have started the 2nd week of their unit on listening. Grade 1 and Kindergarten will listen to music for dynamics, tempo and directions as well as music from Haydn. 2nd grade will listen to music of Beethoven and respond to vocal and instrumental musical elements. 3rd grade will listen to music to evaluate their own performance on the recorder.

Library: For library class this week, kindergarten and first grade students read an Ebook on Epic about maps and globes. Students shared what they learned on Seesaw. Second grade students listened to an article in the Britannica Elementary database about maps and globes and shared what they learned with their class on a Padlet. Third grade students continued to work on their folktale/fairytale green screen project. Students are finishing their graphic organizers and starting to draw their characters and props.

January 28: C.A.R.E. Meeting at ARHS from 6:00 - 7:30 PM

February 7: Early Release Day

February 10: February PTO Meeting

February 13: Bingo Night at Freetown Elementary School

February Vacation Week will take place the week of February 17-21. School will resume again on Monday, February 24th.

PTO meetings will be held in person and virtually. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 10th, 2024 from 6:30 - 7:30 PM. The meeting invitation will be shared out the week prior to the February PTO Meeting. Hope you will consider joining the FES PTO.