Happy December Mason Road Families! To those who celebrate, Happy Hannukah! I hope that this newsletter finds you all well and filled with the warmth of the holiday season. November was a very busy month but December is already off to a busy start! Here are Mason Road, we are trying our best to inform students of the various celebrations taking place. I know I am not covering them all, but if there is anything you celebrate and could share with me, that would be great! Morning announcements are a perfect opportunity for just that!
Kindergarten & Grade One students will be visiting Shepherd Hill on Monday, December 11th to see the amazing Holiday Spectacular show that is put on by the high school students. While this show is truly amazing, it is also very Christmassy. If you prefer your child not to attend, we will make sure there is a staff member available to share some fun activities, while providing instruction, here at MRS while students and teachers are at the show. Permission slips have already gone home and I believe that the majority have been returned. If you did not return the form, please do so ASAP. Please know that we will not bring your child to the show without your permission. Students will be bussed back and forth between MRS and SHRHS.
Now I have to share the stuff that isn't the best kind of news to read. Unfortunately, many students have been having a difficult time following the rules and expectations that we try to enforce each and every day. Some students are having a difficult time with invading personal space and touching other students, inappropriate language, physical encounters, and bus behavior. I can assure you that the staff at MRS are working hard with all students so that better choices are made for appropriate behavior. If bus behavior does not decrease, children could lose the privilege to ride the bus for a few days, weeks, or even the rest of the school year. It is extremely important that we have your continued support so that we can distinguish these behaviors. If you are seeing behaviors at home and could use some help, please do not hesitate to contact me. We need to work together!
I am looking forward to the remaining weeks of school before the well-deserved winter break. While the foot will still be on the pedal for teaching and learning, there will some fun things as well. Be sure to check out the School Spirit information that is listed below.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at jdesto@dcrsd.org or check out our website page at MASON ROAD SCHOOL.
Sincerely,
Jen D.
If you need assistance with providing your child with a coat, hat, and mittens, please send me a private email and I will see what we can do to help!
Hello MRS Families!
There continues to be an uptick in common school-age illnesses such as the common cold, stomach flu, conjunctivitis (pink eye), RSV, Covid and influenza (flu). Please notify Crissy Harris (charris@dcrsd.org/ 508.943.4312) or myself for health-related reasons (smoisan@dcrsd.org/ 508.943.4312 x5) via email/phone if your student is going to be absent from school. All students are doing a fantastic job washing their hands and working hard to cough/sneeze into their elbow or a tissue while at school.
Yearly physicals and updated immunization records are required for all Kindergarten students. If your student’s documentation here at school is not up to date, you should have received a yellow note in their backpack this past week. This state required paperwork can be emailed (screenshot/photo accepted), faxed (508.949.1005), or sent in with your student as soon as possible. Thank you for your assistance!
I hope you all have a wonderful winter break and are able to enjoy time with those you love the most.
Stay healthy,
Nurse Moisan
Greetings families!
Happy December! We hope you enjoyed practicing the Five-Finger Breathing technique with your children at home. Did anyone have any success with it? We’d love to hear your stories! Let’s take a look at the skills we’ve highlighted in December.
Growth Mindset
Growth mindset is one of the most important SEL skills your child can learn as it is the foundation for all other SEL skills as well as the foundation for positive self esteem. What exactly does it mean to have a growth mindset? Mindset can be described in two different ways: fixed or growth. A fixed mindset is one in which an individual sees their mistakes as failure and unable to change. Having a growth mindset occurs when an individual believes things can change and improve; their thinking is flexible. Let’s look at an example:
A child with a fixed mindset may say, “I can’t do the Monkey Bars.”
Learning to have a growth mindset can be difficult at first. One of our favorite ways to teach young children to have a growth mindset is through the power of “YET”. One simple 3-letter word has the power to provide flexibility and growth and promote a positive view of oneself.
“I can’t do the Monkey Bars, yet.” Can you see how that one word, “yet”, can change the meaning of that statement?
At-Home Practice: Rainbow Breathing
Let’s face it, the holidays are busy, fun, and they can be stressful. This is also true for children. There is a lot of excitement and stimulation. So having a calming technique at the ready may help keep the spirits bright at your house. Being present is a great present that we can give ourselves and our loved ones.
While we have a “fancy” breathing board for this one in our counseling office, nothing special is required to practice this skill. All you need is something to write on, and something to draw with (paper and pencil, napkin and crayons, chalk and sidewalk- you’re preference!). Whatever you have on hand, draw a rainbow. It can have as many arches as you’d like. Starting with the left side of the outer arch, have your child slowly trace their finger up and back down the arch while slowly breathing in through their nose as though they’re smelling a flower. Moving in one arch and starting on the right, have them trace back up and down while breathing out slowly with their mouth positioned as though they’re blowing out a candle. Repeat this process until you complete the final arch.
Sincerely,
Rachael Shelburne, Adjustment Counselor
Kathy Kenyon, School Psychologist
News from Mrs. Gajewski: Kindergarten Newsletter Representative
Kindergarten Happenings – November 2023
We began the month of November by completing the Stories Unit from our Core Knowledge Language Arts program. The children learned about characters, settings, and the plot (events from story) for each story that we read. Our lessons focused on the classic tales Chicken Little; The Three Little Pigs; Goldilocks and the Three Bears; The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids; The Bremen Town Musicians; the Japanese folktale, Momotaro the Peach Boy; the Native American tale; The Story of Jumping Mouse; and the story, The Tug of War. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) lessons were also incorporated into our CKLA theme. Kindergarten students needed to help the Three Little Pigs engineer homes that could withstand the huffs and puffs of the Big Bad Wolf and they also engineered chairs that could hold the weight of the Three Bears.
The children continued to focus on learning letter sounds and blending sounds to read real words and nonsense words in our CKLA Skills lessons. Our lessons have included writing letter strokes and words using pencils, crayons, and markers. One of our favorite activities is called “Chaining”. Chaining is when the children read or write a consonant-vowel-consonant word and then one part of the word is changed to make a new word. For example, the word ‘cat’ becomes ‘bat’ by changing the first sound. The word ‘bat’ becomes ‘bet’ by changing the vowel sound in the middle of the word, and to continue the chain, ‘bet’ becomes ‘bed’ by changing the last sound. This is a great activity to play with your child at home as well.
Our math lessons were all about collecting data and classifying the data. The children then learned how to use the data to compare the groups. The children determined if the groups were equal, greater than the other group or less than the other group. The children also learned about using tally marks to compare the groups.
We began studying plants in our science lessons. The children are learning about what a plant needs to grow, the parts of a plant, and the life cycle of a plant.
We are very grateful for all of the learning that we have had in November!
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
It was a pleasure to meet many of you at Parent Teacher Conferences. If we didn’t get a chance to meet at the Storybook Literacy Event in October or at Parent Teacher Conferences in November, please feel free to contact me. I would love to meet with you if you have any questions, concerns, or comments about your child, or our curriculum, please reach out to me. Many of you already receive newsletters from myself or your child’s classroom teacher, but if you don’t receive a newsletter with the Phonological Awareness skills we are working on through the Heggerty program, the following is the why and what of the importance of Phonological Awareness..
Why is Phonological Awareness Important in early elementary levels? Phonological awareness is a strong predictor of reading success. It is especially important at the earliest stages of reading development and is a foundation skill for reading and writing. How Can You Support Phonological Awareness at Home? Phonological awareness is simple to support at home–all you need is language! Help your child understand that the words they hear in speech are made up of parts and sounds. We are very lucky to be working with all students (PK-1) at Mason Road School.
You can begin building phonological awareness in your child by:
★ Reciting nursery rhymes
★ Reading books with rhyming words
★ Playing with alliteration (words that begin with the same sound) ○ Example: Seven silly sisters said surprise!
★ Playing “I Spy” focusing on beginning sounds. ○ Example: “I spy something that begins with the sound /b/.” (books, ball, etc)
PreK Parents and CaregiversAt school your child is engaging in Heggerty Phonological Awareness lessons. Over the next few weeks, your child will continue working with syllables. A syllable is a part of a word with a vowel sound in it. For example, the word pencil has 2 syllables: pen - cil. Each part has one vowel sound. Your child will learn to blend and segment with syllables, and these two skills will help students as they learn to read and write words. Daily phonemic awareness instruction is critical to becoming a successful reader. “Phonemic awareness is central to learning to read and spell.” (L. Ehri, 1984). The phonemic awareness activities below are oral and auditory language play, and none of the words would be written out or shown in print to the students. When having conversations with your child, consider using some of these activities with words and language they are familiar with:
★ Name Game: Choose a sound and ask your child to name people, places or things that begin with that sound. For example, say, “can you name some things that begin with the sound /m/?”
★ Categories: Think of a category (animals, sports, things at school). Ask your child to blend (put together) the syllables to make the word. For example , say “I am thinking of some pets, can you tell me what they are…?” ham - ster, hamster pup - y , puppy kitt - en, kitten
★ Ask your child to listen for the sound they hear at the end of a word you say aloud. ○ What is the last sound we hear in the word dog? Answer: /g/ ○ What is the last sound we hear in the names of friends, pets, or family members?
★ Be a Ninja: Say a word and have your child act like a ninja by “chopping” words into syllables. For example, say “Be a ninja! Chop ‘frozen’ into syllables!” (fro - zen). See below for more words to practice: elbow (el - bow), candle (can - dle) recess (re - cess)
★ Books to enjoy together: Listen for the rhyming words! ○ Little Red Rhyming Hood by Sue Fliess ○ Mary Had a Little Jam and Other Silly Rhymes by Bruce Lansky ○ Rhyme Crime by Jon Burgerman
Kindergarten Parents and Caregivers,
At school, your child is engaging in Heggerty Phonemic Awareness lessons. Your child has worked with larger parts of words (compound words, syllables, and onset-rime/body-coda). Your child will blend and segment words with two individual sounds or phonemes. Phonemic awareness teaches students to hear individual sounds in words, supporting the development of strong reading and writing skills. “Phonemic awareness is a powerful predictor of later reading achievement. Phonemic awareness is a better predictor than more global measures such as IQ or general language proficiency” (Griffith and Olson, 1992).
★ Books to read and enjoy together: ○ Naturally Me by Crystal Swain-Bates ○ One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root ○ LMNO Peas by Keith Baker
First Grade Parents and Caregivers,
At school, your child will continue practicing phonemic awareness by identifying and manipulating individual sounds in words with digraphs (two letters that spell one sound) i.e., th, sh, ch, ck and blends (two consonants that go together but keep their individual sounds) i.e., st, pr, cl, mp. Your child will work with blends and digraphs at the beginning and end of words. This practice is crucial, as “phonemic awareness is the most potent predictor of success in learning to read” (Stanovich, 1994).
Phonemic awareness activities take place orally and are about having fun with language play. Therefore, there is no need for any writing or reading during this practice.
★ Books to enjoy together: Look for these books at the library that support phonological awareness! ○ Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney ○ Billy Milly Short and Silly by Eve B. Feldmen Make it Multi-sensory!
Use legos, blocks or pop-its to represent the sounds when blending and segmenting! For example, using legos, have your child touch or slide down one lego piece to represent each sound they hear. For blending, have your child slide their finger quickly under the legos (sounds) to read the word. Or, using a pop it, have your child push in one bubble for each sound in the word. View our lesson demonstrations to see how our fun hand motions can also support your child.
Anything you do with your child can help support reading early reading skills!
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me at (508) 943-4312 or mgray@dcrsd.org.
It is almost unbelievable that December is already upon us! We enjoyed meeting many of you at Parent Teacher Conferences and value strong school and family connections. If you did not get the chance to meet with us and would like a conference, please email us (cconnor@dcrsd.org or spontbriand@dcrsd.org ). We would be more than happy to speak with you! We hope you all enjoy a very cozy Holiday and wish you happy, healthy New Year! Family memories and time spent together are so important.
What’s Happening in First Grade?
In Language Arts, we are continuing to practice the Dolch Primer Word list. If you need a copy of the list, please let Mrs. Connor or Ms. Pontbriand know. We have practiced reading and writing words with Magic e (ex. like, make, hope, mule) and the ee sound (ex. need). We are also learning more about nouns (person, place, thing, animal) and identifying common and proper nouns while reading and writing. We will continue to practice these skills in the New Year. Please continue to read with your child as often as possible. Practicing reading books at their independent reading level helps build fluency. Listening to an adult read fluently also helps children understand what fluent reading should sound like.
In Title 1 Math, we are continuing to work with addition and subtraction to twenty. Students are using part part whole mats, number lines and pictures to solve problems. This month we worked on determining if equations are true. An addition or subtraction equation is true if the values on each side of the equal sign are the same. Students then needed to find the missing numbers in equations to make them true. This is a very challenging skill that we will continue to work on in the coming months.
What’s Happening in Kindergarten?
In Kindergarten Language Arts, while we are still practicing letter sounds, we have shifted our focus to sounding out and even spelling CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words! Sometimes I will say a word such as “bat” and have the students break it down into the beginning, middle and end sounds (/b/ /a/ /t/). I may ask them to think of what letter captures the sound /b/, then what letter says /a/, and finally /t/. With some support, many of your children are able to spell words such as “bat” when they connect the sound with what letter they need to write. Along with writing CVC words, we have practiced reading them as well.
In Kindergarten Math, we have continued practicing adding to 10. This is sometimes done in a game where students roll two(or 3) dice and have to add the numbers together to find the sum. While we continue practicing this skill, some students still need to solidify skills with counting objects with one to one correspondence and identifying numbers 6-10, so I do my best to work these activities into our time together as well. We have also begun subtracting numbers up to 10. Using manipulatives(physical objects children can count then take some away and count again) is very helpful when practicing this skill as well.
Make it Fun!
The kiddos love when you prompt them that something is going to be a “challenge”! When they are able to be successful with this challenge, it makes them feel like they accomplished something so important and impressive! We want our students to feel like rockstars, if they are constantly feeling defeated, then school is no longer fun. It is okay to work on skills that are previously mastered sometimes instead of always pushing a new skill. This builds their confidence. Think about the books that you have read and really enjoyed lately, I know for me they haven’t been challenging literature, but instead something I can relax with and simply have a pleasant experience with. We want students to associate school with happy feelings so that they can be lifelong learners!
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