Kindergarten News  - March

Spring is definitely in the air, and we see signs of it all around Brewster School!

We have completed introducing all of the phonics skills in our kindergarten scope and sequence.  Lessons have been centered around introducing all of the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet, introducing twenty six sight words and ten word families.  Other skills include sentence, syllable and word segmentation and blending, and rhyming.  Now that those skills have been introduced we will be spending the rest of the year spiraling back and providing more practice using them as we move the students toward mastery.

In math we are finishing up the chapter on “Geometry and Fractions”.  We have learned the names of plane and solid shapes, learned how to slide, flip and turn plane shapes, symmetry, equal parts and halves and fourths.  Our next chapter focuses on “Readiness for Addition and Subtraction” skills.

We are looking forward to celebrating our Young Author’s Day the end of this month.  We are working on a book that each of us has written to share with our second grade Book Buddies.  We will have some exciting news to share with you about what we’ll be doing with our Book Buddies in May!

The Kindergarten Team

First Grade News - March

The days in first grade are flying by!  The students have been studying families and the preparing for the One World Celebration. The post cards and journals from our Journal Journey Project are arriving daily. We have received post cards from all over our country and around the world. The postcards are displayed in the main hallway. Stop by and take a look!

The students have also been learning about animal groups. The first grade will be participating in a reptile and amphibian assembly with Roaring Brook Nature Center. The children will be observing various reptiles and amphibians and learning many new things! 

Also, the first graders will be learning about magnets. We have Mad Science coming to demonstrate all the fun things you can do with magnets. The student will be completing hands-on activities and experiments with magnets. It will be a fun magnetic experience!

The preparations for Young Author’s Day are under way. Each first grader will be writing and editing their own stories for Young Author’s Day. The students have been working so hard. Keep a look out for their published books coming soon in!

Welcome to the New Year!

The First Grade Team

Schedule for First Grade Nature Walks

Second Grade News - March

This month we celebrate Read Across America by coming to school at night in our pajamas for “Brewster Loves to Read Night”. We celebrate one of our favorite authors – Dr. Seuss! The 2nd graders read aloud “Dr. Seuss type” sentences or some history about Dr. Seuss for the kindergarteners and 1st graders. We’re enjoying many familiar and not-so-familiar books written by the famous, funny author this month.

Also, we are actively engaged in our own reading at school every day during Reader’s Workshop either working on Non-Fiction reading and comprehension or Author Studies. Second graders are learning about all the features of Non-Fiction Text such as labels, diagrams, photographs, headings, Table of Contents, index and glossaries. In our Author Studies, we are learning about where authors get their ideas and inspirations for their stories and taking note of the powerful language that makes the reading so rich and meaningful. Keep reading, 2nd graders!

Many of us have been working on our iMovie weather reports. We’ve brainstormed questions and researched information in the library. Following this, we wrote scripts and were videotaped role-playing as weather reporters.  We are in the process of editing our movies and look forward to watching these “Weather Reports."

As we continue to observe and track weather on a daily basis, we’ve noticed the weather has proven to be much “like a lion” coming into March with lots of snow and rain. We are now watching carefully to see if it “goes out like a lamb” by the end of the month. In the meantime, here in 2nd grade, we’ll be as “busy as bees” far into April, May, and June!

We look forward to meeting with parents this month during parent-teacher conferences. We are very busy reviewing while continuing to build on all the skills we’ve learned so far this year by being exposed to new and interesting information. Remember practice makes perfect, so keep practicing sight words, math facts, spelling words, and read, read, read!

The 2nd Grade Team