JANUARY 2025

During the month of January the preschool themes will be Everyday Helpers:  How do people in our community help us?  The literacy program will focus on letters Cc, Nn, Ii, blending syllables, segmenting syllables and rhyming words.  The math program will focus on Geometry, equal groups and simple addition with objects.  

Happy New Year!! During the month of January, in science and literacy, grade 2 will be learning about the various landforms and bodies of water that exist in nature. This is such an exciting unit for students! We will continue to work with multi-digit addition and subtraction. Please have your child continue to practice addition and subtraction math facts by accessing the various apps and links through CLEVER and on Ms. DiMascio’s website. If your child has an assigned fluency passage please have him/her read it to you daily. Encourage your child to read in his/her free time as well. Mid-year DIBELS testing will be happening this month to check the progress of your child’s reading skills. Lastly, the grade 2 teachers would like to send out a special thank you to all of our grade 2 families for everything you are doing. We truly appreciate it! Let’s have a great New Year!!

Happy New Year! It's nice to start the New Year off with new supplies. Thank you for the classroom gifts! In writing this month, our kindergarteners will begin writing words and sentences independently using kid-writing strategies to sound out words. We're also excited to introduce poetry notebooks, where students will add new poems learned in class and illustrate them. In math, we'll be working on comparing numbers using number lines, exploring addition and subtraction, learning about measurement, and introducing the penny and nickel. The winter DIBELS testing will be conducted this month to assess student progress. A friendly reminder to send in warm weather gear for those cold recess days. We wish everyone a wonderful start to the new year!

Happy 2025! We hope you had a wonderful holiday and start to the new year! Please take a moment to check in with your student about replenishing their school supplies (pencils, erasers, glue sticks, etc.). Additionally, our Grade 3 classrooms could use donations of tissues, paper towels, and baby wipes. Any contributions are greatly appreciated! Be on the lookout for your student’s MA biography project directions, which will be sent home soon. This project is due on February 13th. Students will have two research blocks to gather information for their projects (one in Discovery Zone and one in class). In math, we are wrapping up Unit 3 with a focus on rounding and computational estimation. Students will also be introduced to the standard algorithm for addition as a strategy for solving multi-digit problems. We look forward to continuing this exciting year with your student!

We hope everyone enjoyed their winter break! During December, first graders began learning about and writing poetry. They will continue this unit in January and create a classbook with their poems to share with their families. The students have been loving both reading and writing poems! In reading, students have been working on building their listening and reading comprehension skills as well as spelling long vowel words. In math, we will be wrapping up unit 3 by exploring equations and comparing quantities. We will then begin unit 4 with a giant number line! Lastly, please have your student be prepared for the cold weather as we will have outdoor recess whenever possible. We are excited to begin this new year with all of you!

December was another busy month for our fourth graders! In Math, students have been hard at work collaborating, problem solving, and using hands-on materials to master their multiplication and division skills and to build a greater understanding of fractions.   In both literacy and science, students continue exploring various texts and conducting hands-on experiments to learn more about the physical and behavioral features that help animals survive! Next month, students will expand their study of animal adaptations even further with a research project involving Discovery Zone.  And in social studies, students are wrapping up their tour of the Northeast region and getting ready to learn all about the Southeastern U.S.  We are looking forward to a fun and prosperous 2025 in Grade 4, and we wish all of our Grade 4 families a safe and happy new year!

Surround Care
Surround Care will not be available on January 1 and January 20 due to the holidays. Please remember that weekly payments must be made at your weekly contracted amount regardless of a holiday or short week.

There will be an Early Release day on Friday, January 17. Surround Care will be available to Surround Care families from the time of dismissal to 5:45PM. Online Early Release Day Forms will be emailed to Surround Care families and will be due January 6.

Payment statements for 2024 are available UPON REQUEST. These statements will be very useful when filing your taxes. If you would like to receive an emailed copy of your 2024 statements, you will need to contact Michelle Terrien at #(508)822-9550 ext. 304 or send an email to mterrien@berkleypublicschools.org.

Surround Care will offer a full day program during the February and April vacation weeks. February vacation week sign-ups will be available online this month. The cost is a flat rate of $160 for the 4-day week regardless of the number of days needed.

We would like to wish you all a healthy, happy, prosperous new year!

Snowplow Naming Contest!

In December, we invited our classes to submit ideas to name Mr. McCarthy's Snow Plow! There were many great entries, but congratulations go out to Ms. Siedentopf's Class who chose the winning name... Flurious George!!