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Newsletter
Fall/Winter 2004 |
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First Grade News
Submitted by Mrs. Tracy Bush |
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Second Grade News
Submitted by Mrs. Tracy Bush |
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 We
have had a very exciting and eventful start for the school year!! We have
spent time getting to know each other and the classroom through story
writing and, of course, story telling. These first graders are great
storytellers, now we just need to put them in writing. We have been
working on personal narratives and adding characters, setting, details,
and dialogue to our stories.
We have also been working on our 25 Book
Campaign since September. Students are reading books at home and logging
them for our campaign. Our class goal is 35 books by the end of the
year.
October and November have proven to be
busy months with our Fall Festival, Parent Conferences, Book Fair, and now
Report Cards. In December we will begin working with our CAT buddies, Mr.
Brown’s ninth grade class, on writing projects and other activities. |
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 "Be
a Good Citizen"
is the second grade motto. Each second grader has a good citizen notebook
to help them remember the rituals, routines, and behaviors for success in
school this year.
They have been hard at work reading about
good citizens and writing about times when they were good citizens. They
will continue to study Citizenship in November. There will be election
excitement and patriotic reports to work on.
Our writing genre study is Narrative
Writing. We have been creating stories that share events in our lives and
some that stretch our imagination. We are learning to take "snapshots" of
action, events, characters, and/or settings that are important to our
stories. We are crafting our stories to "show" more using details rich in
vocabulary. Our "Race For Reading" is on as we read across America, the
theme for our 25 Book Campaign.
Math is challenging! We have just
started unit 4 in our Everyday Math Journals. Double and triple digit
addition strategies are introduced in this unit.
The second marking period will begin
soon. What exciting things lie ahead for the second graders? They will
write reports and how-to stories. They will work with 2 and 3
dimensional shapes. They will plot data on a bar graph. They will
explore the science of living things. They will be busy, busy, busy!
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Third Grade Word Challenge
Submitted by Paula LaDeau |
 At
the beginning of the school year, the third grade students were challenged
to learn to read, spell and write 50 new sight words by November 1, 2004.
Each student worked on this skill and was able to achieve their goal. We
celebrated with a "Word-Fetti" Party. The 900 words they learned (a class
total) were shredded and some of the confetti was thrown in the air in
celebration. Thank you to Jill Spring and Melissa Stoddard for providing
some refreshments. We are now working on a calendar project! |
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Third Grade News
Submitted by Mrs. Lori Slattery |
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 Wow,
we are off and running! Much has
been happening in third grade for the past 2-˝ months. In our Writer's
Workshop, we are finishing up on our Memoirs. Students are learning the
conventions of writing (indenting, paragraphing, and punctuation) along
with good writing strategies. These strategies include good beginnings,
using details to describe, and how to provide closure to our pieces of
writing.
In our Reader's Workshop we are busy
reading Charlotte's Web by E. B. White and discussing character
traits, making predictions and seeing what great beginnings to a story
really look like with each new chapter we read. We are also learning how
creating suspense really draws the reader into the story. We are learning
to visualize what is happening during the story by reading all the
describing details in each chapter. I think everyone is enjoying
Charlotte's Web.
In Math we are busy adding and
subtracting, graphing, skip counting (getting ready for multiplication),
figuring out how to find the missing part in math problems. We are still
working with money and time, which are hard concepts for most students but
we are working very hard on all concepts to improve our math skills.
We split our time between Science and
Social Studies for one forty-five minute block and we are now into Social
Studies. In Social Studies we are just starting to learn about our
community and all the wonderful things that there are to do in Crown
Point. I think we were all surprised by the list students generated during
one class period of activities to do in Crown Point, local businesses and
historical buildings/areas. In Science we finished up our Gardening Unit
and learned a great deal about plants, photosynthesis, and food chains. We
also learned what producers and consumers are. |
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I asked Samuel LaPointe if it
would be all right to share his Memoir, My Vacation, in
The Panther Press. He
looked up at me thoughtfully with his blue eyes and hesitated just for a
moment and replied, "Oh, all right!"
I hope you enjoy his Memoir
as much as I do. It is so nice to see the efforts of our Writer's
Workshop from kindergarten to third grade
really show up in all
of our students' writings. The progress that the students are making is
undeniable and as an educator, very rewarding to see.
My
Vacation by Sam LaPointe
Every year me, Noah, Mom and Dad go to
Cape Cod for the week to visit my grandma. On the way there I usually
play with toys I brought from home for the 6 or 7 hours we drive.
When we get to where we’re staying we
stop and get out. Me and Noah grab our stuff, bring it inside and look
around. Then Mom and Dad unload our stuff. Then when we’re done we
visit my grandma and do things for the week like go to the beach, the
super market, Boston, and other places. Most of all I like going to
Boston. There, I go on a whale watch boat, on the subway, the science
museum, stay at a hotel with a pool, watch movies and other things. I
have fun there but its always nice to be home. THE END
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Candy Corn Count Contest Winners
Submitted by Mrs.
Jaci Pockett |
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Young Citizens At Work
Submitted by Mr. Randy Pertak |
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 Runners-up
(from left to right) included Courtney Meachem in 4th Grade,
David Landon in 5th Grade, Crystal Wyatt, Grand
prize winner in 2nd Grade, Jodi Brown in 4th Grade,
Jerrica Manley in 6th Grade, Ford Trepanier in lst
Grade, Spencer Russel in Kindergarten and Paige Harris in 3rd
Grade.
Elementary school
students participated in a candy corn counting contest during the Fall
Festival on October 29, 2004. Students K - 6 were asked to estimate the
number of candy corns in a container, and the winner would receive a
fabulous painted pumpkin! A student from each individual classroom was
rewarded for being the closest in their classroom, and received a smaller
version of the grand prize.
The grand prize winner was Crystal
Wyatt from 2nd grade. She guessed 465 candy corn and there were 468
candy corn in the container.
 Great
job! Many thanks to Mr. Kordziel and Mrs. Olsen for decorating the
pumpkins for the contest!
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 During
the month of October, our school celebrated the book of the month, E is
for Empire, by Ann E. Burg. The value of the month that was being
celebrated to go along with the book was Citizenship. As a way of giving
back to our community, the 4th grade class created a book
called, C is for Crown Point. The students created a list of
special places, people and items that are special to Crown Point. At the
end of the month celebration for the book and value, the students
presented Mr. Dale French, Town Supervisor, with a copy of the book to put
on display at the Town Office. (A copy is also being sent to Senator
Betty Little.) The students did a wonderful job and should be very proud
of their hard work! A special thanks goes out to Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Ryan
for all of their hard work in doing this project.
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A Journey Back In Time
Submitted by Mr, Jarad Andersen. |
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 On
September 28, students in grades 4, 5 and 6 had the opportunity to visit
the historic schooner Lois McClure. The Lois McClure is a historic
replica of a schooner from the canal era. Scientist used schematics from
sunken vessels to build an exact replica of a schooner from the 1800’s.
We visited the schooner at the pier in Port Henry. Students got a tour of
the boat and also had an opportunity to spin the wheel to see how the
rudder worked, and operate the crank and pulley system that pulls up the
anchor. Students really enjoyed this hands on learning experience.
“Ding, Ding,” imagine you just woke up on the boat called the Lois
McClure, one of the best boats in New England! “Oh my Gosh, this
isn't what we expected. ”
We thought this boat would be a lot smaller, like a sailboat! Everyone
was surprised to see a very long, very wide boat with sails. We were
shocked that it fit all of the 5th and 6th graders
on the boat.
As we boarded
the Lois McClure it was
like going back in time. The first thing that stood out in our minds were
the masts, they resembled giant telephone poles. As we looked around we
saw a wheel that steers the rudder.
 As
we turned the wheel we had to look out for the shin crusher. This was a
giant beam that helped the rudder turn. We were surprised by how easy it
was to turn the wheel. We then went from the stern to the bow to see the
anchor. They were able to remove the anchor from the
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water by
using a crank and pulley system. When we tried to pull up the anchor buy
hand it was extremely hard. Then we used the crank and pulley system and
it was a lot easier.
We
then went below deck in the bow of the boat. This section is called the
fore-castle. The forecastle is a storage area and a sleeping quarter for
teenage boys or hired hands. They
stored pulleys, ropes, extra chains, and navigational lights. It smelled
musty in the room because of the older ropes. The middle of the ship was
used for storage of goods. It was cold enough to give you goose bumps.
The
pieces of limestone that we used
as seats weighed over one-ton each. It was kind of uncomfortable to sit on
these large rocks. It made you feel even colder than we did when we first
went below deck. In the stern we saw the Captain's quarters.
 It
was small but it made you feel warm and cozy. This section served as the
sleeping quarters, kitchen, and dining room for the Captain and his
family.
We
had a really fun time visiting the Lois McClure. We learned how
that boat transported products from place to place. We found it much more
interesting to see and hear about the Lois McClure in person. We learned much more than
we would have reading about it in a book.
We hope you liked our report on the Lois McClure. The 4th,
5th, and 6th graders.
Picture by Mrs.
Silke Huntington. |
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