January 9, 2012
On Friday December 16th, Ms. Tassinari, Tyrrell’s French Teacher came to talk to our 5th Grade students to discuss taking the Foreign Language in Middle School. She talked about the coursework, statistical reasons to learn French and had some of her students share stories and taught translations of basic French words. At the end of the presentation, the students made Eiffel Tower ornaments and ate a French snack (cream puffs and eclairs).
What a busy month for kindergarten at Wakelee School! We not only celebrated the different holidays but also discussed accepting others’ differences and celebrating those as well. For example, Ms. Stec's class had a "Celebrations Around the World" party where each family was asked to bring in a cultural dish to share.
This month kindergarten also started collaborative afternoon learning stations where Mrs. Murphy's literacy station used different versions of Gingerbread Man, Gingerbread Girl, and Gingerbread baby to begin learning about text to text connections. Both classrooms have made the classroom display as a reminder to students as suggested from Barbara Peck. Mrs. Murphy's class followed up with this lesson by making gingerbread houses! YUM!
The kindergartens also paired up with the fifth grade classes and watched the Polar Express while drinking hot chocolate in pajamas! What fun! |
Mrs. McCasland (grade 4) and Miss Marino’s class (grade 3) participated in a cookie decorating day. The students baked sugar cookies and donated decorations for the activity. The purpose of the activity was to “give back” to the community by donating all the decorated cookies to the Waterbury PAL Children’s Toy Giveaway Party which occurred on December 16th. The classes discussed the importance of volunteer work and helping others in their surrounding communities.
On Friday December 23rd, the whole school participated in a Holiday Sing-Along in the Gymnasium. This event was attended by both Mr. Macary & Dr. Eberle and put us all in the Holiday mood. A very special thank you goes to Mr. Fontaine for his professional musical accompaniment on the piano during the 30-minute program.
Patrick Smith, from the Museum of CT History, came to talk to the fifth grade students about inventions that were made in CT, as well as the inventing process. First, he gave students a challenge; inventing a solution to keep his dog’s ears from falling into its food bowl when it eats. He then described some of the many inventions from Connecticut, including the can opener, wiffle ball, helicopter, and the Frisbee from Wolcott. Finally, student groups were given Legos and asked to build a specific type of invention.
On Tuesday January 3rd, all district elementary Project Explore students along with Mrs. Calabro’s class went to the CRRA Trash Museum in Hartford as well as the Connecticut Historical Society. At the Trash Museum, students learned about different types of recyclable materials and how they can recycle, reduce, and reuse items. They also learned that they can refuse to purchase items if they cannot be recycled or the item has too much packing. Students also observed the working recycling plant and how items are sorted and packed up for shipping to other plants where the materials will be made into other objects. For example, a #1 recycled items will be shipped to South Carolina to be melted down and made into fleece clothing.
At the historical society students built their perfect community. They had to incorporate civic buildings, homes, commercial, green spaces, and entertainment venues. They had to think about what types of buildings a community would need to become successful and thriving. The exhibit also had furniture made from trees that have fallen down over the years in Connecticut.
That’s the news from Wakelee School.
December 12, 2011
First of all, I and the staff at Wakelee School would like to thank the Board of Education for the wonderful Breakfast presented to us at the end of November. We all appreciated it and it was nice a gesture by the Board to show their appreciation for the hard work of all of our staff. Thank you again.
Just prior to the Thanksgiving Holiday, Wakelee School hosted not one but 2 Thanksgiving Feasts. Our first Feast was coordinated by Bobbi Thompson and her Life Skills classroom. This was a district-wide event and we would like to thank all that attended, participated and contributed to this annual event. Our other Thanksgiving Feast was sponsored by our PTO and was for our 4th & 5th Graders. Our students did a nice presentation of what they were thankful for and the luncheon was concluded with a medley of Holiday songs. I would like to thank everyone who supported the event and attended including our wonderful PTO, Town Officials including Mayor Dunn and the Board of Education, including Mrs. Kelly & Mrs. Cordone, and former Board Member Mrs. Audibert.
On Saturday December 3rd, the PTO sponsored our annual tradition of having Breakfast with Santa at the school. We had about 60 families attend the event, where they were treated to a pancake and sausage breakfast, light shopping in the Gymnasium for the Holidays, and the opportunity to take a picture with Santa. Again, thank you to the PTO for organizing such a family-oriented event.
The Fire Prevention Poster Awards were presented to 4th and 5th Grade students at the Youth Center on Thursday, December 1st. Wakelee School had 9 winners out of 14 overall winners. These students were: (5th grade) 1st place-Colin Lagasse, 2nd place-Cecilia Pasquarella, 3rd place-Sarah Hull, Honorable Mention-Tyler Brzankalski, Honorable Mention-Makenzie Alsdorf and (4th grade) 2nd place-Rose Bannon-Woods, 3rd place-Collin Casey, Honorable Mention-Camryn Conroy, Honorable Mention-Justin Swanson. Congratulations to all of the winners, especially those from Wakelee School.
Finally, the ConnCAN report card had come out last week, which you will hear more about from Dr. Eberle later. We were informed that Wakelee School ranked 5th in performance gains with 20.5 percent change in students scoring at or above goal from 2010 to 2011. All of us at Wakelee are very proud of this accomplishment and we credit the students and teachers for their hard work in achieving this impressive accomplishment.
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