St. Joe’s News

Coming Events:

March 2nd— Dr. Seuss’ Birthday

March 3rd— Wear your St. Joe’s shirt

Interim period ends

March 12th—Daylight Savings Begins

March 16th—Spring picture day

March 17th—St. Patrick’s Day

March 21st—Wear blue for

Rachel’s Challenge/Karen’s Hope

March 23rd—Staff Development Day

Dismiss at 11:00 AM

March 24th—Staff Development Day—

No School

March 28th—March 30th—

NYS ELA Exam for grades 3—8

Inside this Issue:

From the Desk of Mrs. Dunshee

Pre-K

Kindergarten

First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Fifth Grade

Speech News with Mrs. Leduc

Literacy Corner

OT with Ms. Vivlamore

Physical Education News

Home and School Connection

Nutrition Nuggets

Birthdays

March Calendar

FROM THE DESK OF………………..Mrs. Dunshee, Principal

March 1, 2017

Dear Parents/Guardians:

All of us at St. Joe’s are hoping that spring is truly just around the corner!

I would like each of you to be aware of the upcoming registration dates and locations for Pre-K and kindergarten for

the 2017-18 school year.

Pre-K Registration

Dates: March 1-31

Time: 8:00 AM- 3:00 PM

Location: MCSD Transportation Center at 22 Bus Garage Lane (formerly the area of the bus garage and maintenance

buildings)

Kindergarten Registration

Dates: March 1-31

Time: 8:00 AM- 3:00 PM

Location: MCSD Transportation Center at 22 Bus Garage Lane (formerly the area of the bus garage and maintenance

buildings)

***Please note that students currently enrolled in Pre-K do not need to register for kindergarten. They are auto-

matically enrolled for kindergarten for next year.

Parents are reminded that students will have a half day of school on Thursday, March 23rd. Students will be

dismissed at 11:00 AM so staff may participate in professional development activities. There will be no school for students on

Friday, March 24th.

Thank you for the support you provide to all of us at St. Joe’s.

Pre-K News

I hope everyone enjoyed their time off during Winter Break. Hopefully,

the weather will improve so the children can go outside to play. Continue

to send them in prepared with winter snow clothes in the event we do go

outside.

Thank you to those parents and students that sent in a treat for our little

Valentine’s party. The students enjoyed everything!

Please make sure you watch the calendar that I send home for important

dates and events that will be coming up for the month. There are days in

March, that we do not have school.

The students have been learning how to play the game Trouble. This

game helps them identify some colors and numbers to six, counting oral-

ly, taking turns, and good sportsmanship. You can pick up the cheaper,

themed version of this game at a variety of stores. Plus, you will have a

lot of fun as a family!

Our class has been reading a lot of books, both fiction and non-fiction.

Reading with them daily is so important. Not only do they enjoy it, but

they learn a lot from you as a role model. Don’t be afraid to use different

voices or become theatrical, because the children absolutely love the vari-

ation!!! At this age, it doesn’t matter how you think you sound, they

think you are AMAZING!

~Mrs. Decosse~

Mrs. Leahy’s and Ms. Walbridge’s Kindergarten Classes

We would like to thank everyone who came to our Academic Showcase. The children really enjoyed showcasing their work for you to see.

We are working very hard to build our reading skills to prepare us for First grade. We are reading many leveled books, both fiction and non-fiction. We are continuing to blend and segment words. Please continue to practice sight words and read at home with your child.

We are continuing to focus on the topic weather and how the seasons are different. We will discuss the different types of weather and how we can be safe in bad weather.

In Math, we have been using ten frames to make and take apart numbers 11 to 20. We will continue to work with addition and subtraction number sen-tences.

There will be a half day of school (11:00 dismissal) on Thursday, March 23rd and no school on Friday, March 24th due to Superintendent Days. Thank you for all that you do!

Second Grade News from Mr. Wheeler and Mrs. Wheeler

The students have been busy in second grade. They learned how all children around the world have sim-

ilarities and differences. Students explored folktales and learned how they can help us to understand

nature. Students have also been reading poetry and learning about the exciting things in nature. Stu-

dents have learned about visualization, that as they read they can visualize the characters, settings, and

events. This is a strategy that can help them to better understand the story. In spelling, students have

worked with or, ore, oar, ar, eer, ere, ear, are, air, ear, and ere blends. In writing, students have used

graphic organizers to choose a main idea and then write supporting details. Then, they use the graphic

organizer to create a paragraph.

In math, students subtracted three digit numbers with regrouping. They’ve learned to start in the ones

place. We worked with Base Ten Blocks to build a foundation for regrouping. Students learned that 1

ten can be regrouped as 10 ones and 1 hundred can be regrouped as 10 tens. They also subtracted

across zeros.

In science, students worked with measurement. They discovered that the length of a blue whale is 30

meters or 23 second grade students long. They found that a python was 10 meters or 7.5 second grade

students long. They were surprised to learn that a Tyrannosaurus Rex was only 6 meters tall or 4.5 sec-

ond grade students tall. We also learned about properties. Students experimented with Ice orbs. They

worked together to see how salt and lemon juice would affect the ice orb.

In social studies, students learned about maps, globes, continents, and oceans. Students labeled the 7

continents and 5 oceans on world maps. They also learned about presidents and patriots. We learned

about Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Paul Revere, Harriet Tub-

man, and Frederick Douglass.

Second grade students performed at our P.B.I.S. assembly in February. Students made a banner, sang a

song, and shared acts of kindness with the whole school. The students did a great job and were very

proud of themselves.

In third grade, we are reading “James and the Giant Peach.” We are also reading “The Cricket in Times Square.” We learned about book reviews and we are about to make our own. We play knockout to help memorize multiplication. That’s what we are learning.

Lillyan Miller

We learned about the associative property. We are also learning about area and perimeter. We are writing pen pal letters. In reading, we are learning about how to find the main idea. We are learning how to make the best book reviews.

Reese Manley

In third grade, we are learning about multiplication.We have been doing spelling words. We do math. We do homework. We take tests.

Landon Boyea

In math, we have been learning about area. In book club we have been reading Amber Brown is Not a Crayon. In reading we are reading A Series of Unfortunate Events and watching the episodes.

Eve Legault

In math, we are learning area. We can use A = L x W (length and width). In writing, we are going to write book reviews. We also learned about family trees.

Max Benardot

In math we have been learning about area. In our reading club we have been reading Amber Brown is Not a Crayon. On our iPads we have learned a new app. It's called epic! In writing we are going to do book re-views. We have been talking about family trees.

Raegan McArdle

Third Grade News from Ms. Gravel and Miss Gordon

Mrs. Fournier’s 4th Grade News

In the morning we start with morning work. We are reading Weekly News. In the Weekly News, we are learning about

American Indians. At 8:00 we start with Typing Club. It’s where we learn how to type properly. We learned how to do long

division during Math. Now we are starting to learn how fractions name the same amount. Sometimes we go on our Chrome-

books and play math games. After lunch we work on writing and Google Docs. Google Docs is where we type freely. We just

finished our Haiku poems! In writing we are doing two point written responses to our stories. For our whole group reading, we

are reading poems. We are building circuits with light bulbs, a switch, battery, battery holder, bulb holder, and copper wires for

Science. If we are caught being good and helping others, we can pick prizes with Dunshee Dollars. Sometimes we go to the li-

brary and play library games. Also, we get to pick two books. We have our own classroom library with tons of different books

like fiction, non-fiction, poetry, mysteries, and a lot of funny and interesting books. We are really excited for Valentine’s Day

because we get to do many different fun filled activities for Valentine’s Day!

By: Ava Lilliock & Carmen Lunan

Fourth Grade News from Mrs. Kelly’s Class

In Math we have been learning fractions. We used manipulatives to work with the fractions. We even learned how a Hershey

Bar can be used to compare fractions! We also played a game called Nacho Sort, where we sorted fraction chips and simplified. I have had a lot of fun in Math! In Science we have built circuits and used switches. –Makenna Chevrier

In February we learned fractions in Math. We used fraction tiles. When the tiles are all together it looks

like a pie. In Science we have been making circuits. It is lots of fun! We have also been reading to The Giv-

er as a read aloud. It is a really good book! -Kylie St. Mary

March Birthdays!!

Owen Rousseau Cooper Hungerford

Fredrick Peck Sophie Eells

Erin Butchino Carter Johnston

George Thomas Sebastien Dumas

Ashton Patnode Alyvia Preve

Thomas Cota II Lillyan Miller

Lily-Ann Legacy Logan McArdle

Olivia Bruso Arianna Santamore

Mia Franklin Aurora Santamore

Destiny Rivers Bonnie McKee

Makenna Chevrier Ms. Vivlamore

Joseph Jarvis Mrs. Andrews

John Jarvis Mrs. McGibbon

Saphire Golden Mrs. Kelley

Tanner Andrews