Agnes Gray/Legion School

Holiday concert
There will be a Holiday Concert that includes PreK through Grade 4, chorus and instrument players, on Monday, December 16, at 12:30p.m. Miss Harrison and Mrs. Potter look forward to having parents and family attend.
Students in Need
If your student is in need of boots for winter or you are in need of a Right Start application, please contact Darlene in the office. Right Start applications have to be in by December 5.
Fundraiser
The teachers of 5th and 6th grade are planning to take their students to Boston in the spring. This means the students need to raise money to ride the train and pay for other expenses (museums, etc.). The first fundraiser will be for online Yankee candles and students will receive 40% of the profit. This will be done online only. The information for this fundraiser will be sent home next week. Thank you for your support.
Mrs. Clarke
We enjoyed a wonderful visit from some of the veterans living in our West Paris community. Our sixth graders sponsored a breakfast Friday morning as a thank you for their service. The conversation was full of questions about what life was like during deployments. Our own Mr. Onofrio attended the breakfast in uniform. Mr. Rainey spoke of the moment he heard of President Kennedy’s assassination while aboard a warship on November 22, 1963.
Enjoy your weekend.
Beth
Classrooms
Pre-K – In Pre-k we have been reading one of my favorite
books, “Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza.” Our centers have
been themed with this book. We have pizza art at both the easel and the art table, pizza pan washing in the sensory table, pizza morning work, and letter matching.
On Tuesday, November 12, we had our first family fun group. These events will happen monthly and we look forward to seeing you. Remember, the whole family can come and children are welcome.
It is getting cold out, so please try to remember to send in a jacket. If you are in need of one, please call, email, or text me and I can help provide one.
Have a great 3 day weekend.
Ms. Larracey
Kindergarten – We’ve had a busy week. We have begun building up new “snap” words (the, is, to, go and see). Please practice spelling and writing these words at home.
For math, we have been measuring items in the room, using a 10 cube tower as our measuring “stick.” At this time, we are merely measuring to see if something is shorter or longer than the tower.
As we continue to learn letters and their sounds, we are also working on sounding out words and writing down what we hear. At this time, it is still hard to create a sentence.
Starting next week, children who know at least 30 letters, will be bringing home books to “read” with you..
Mrs. Biggers
Grade One – This week we welcomed Miss Holly in for another month of “Pick a Better Snack” and the students tried cauliflower (raw and roasted) and there were so many kiddos that enjoyed the flavor of them both!
We’ve become detectives in our literacy work, studying words and figuring out how to solve tricky ones. Ask your first grader what strategies they know for solving words (aside from “sound them out.”)
Next week we will be teaming up with fifth graders and starting our Book Buddy program. Once a week, first graders will visit their fifth grade buddies and read to them and listen to stories. We are looking forward to forging new relationships with our older students!
Have a restful weekend,
Mrs. Chafin
Grade Two – We started an exciting time in second grade this week! We began our nonfiction units in phonics, reading and writing! It’s so exciting seeing the students be so hungry for facts and knowledge on new topics, and then see them “teach” about it as a writer!
We are in our geometry unit currently but still working with telling time and counting coins. Please continue to work with them with these essential skills.
Please continue to check your child’s folder nightly as this is how we send home important paperwork. Also, please ensure your child is reading 15-20 minutes nightly; this is
considered their nightly homework and it helps increase reading fluency.
Mrs. Puiia
Grade Three – This week launched 3 new curriculum directions in Third Grade. In math, we have moved away from computation and we’re now working with data collection, organization and analysis. Our first activity involved sorting animals into categories by body coverings
and by number of legs. We noticed that we couldn’t find any animals with 3 legs!
In reading, we are finishing up our focus on mystery stories and beginning some informational reading. We are exploring Scholastic n News, which provides good material for opinion writing. In third grade, opinion writing shifts from writing about favorites to promoting change through persuasive writing.
Mrs. Cooper
Grade Four – We are ready to move forward with some science/social studies project based learning.
We are beginning a unit on animal adaptation, focusing on animals in our state. Students may need some help at home to create dioramas for their Maine animal project. More information will follow. Empty shoe boxes will be needed, preferably small ones!
We are completing Unit 2 in math on data collection and interpretation of information.
Students did a terrific job collecting data on the long jump, running 100 meters, and standing and balancing on one foot. Sawyer had a record of 8 minutes, but was challenged by Ava, who managed to balance for 16 minutes. I had to call it, because she seemed like she was quite able to continue for a while longer!
My students are an impressive group of mathematicians!
Mrs. Toita
Grade Five – We started book talks this week; 5th graders now have the opportunity to complete this online (through google classroom) or on paper to prepare before they share in front of the class at morning meeting. They’ll need to complete two this month (before the trimester ends at
Thanksgiving break). I’m looking forward to hearing more about what they’re reading!
In science this week we conducted experiments with the red wiggler worms that live in our room, determining whether they prefer damp environments to wet ones, and taking careful observations and notes. Students have the opportunity to extend their learning with further experiments of their own design (for a 4).
In other news, the after-school garden club has wrapped up, but we’ll be starting in on knitting on Thursdays. See the Explorers FMI!
Mrs. Timm
Grade Six – Eggs are in! Unfortunately, it’s day two and we are down to only 6 (7 including my own). No student egg has ever survived the week! Those dear eggs previously lost are replaced during engineering so our teammates are still actively participating. They simply are not in the
running for the grand prize! I think I am safe from such a fate for another year.
Boat building is tomorrow.
We continue to dig into the relationships between characters. Students’ Writing About Reading journals should all be filling up fast.
So many of our young people are really putting themselves into this work, digging deeper and
practicing crucial inferential learning.