Mannie, a top 10 professional biker, wowed our students with his amazing skill and his message of kindness, determination and respect. Thank you to the PTO for sponsoring this assembly!
The Westfield Fire Department gave us a visit today to discuss fire safety to our 1st through 3rd graders. They played this video below as part of the assembly. We are sharing it so you can reinforce the need to have a family plan in case of a fire and to use your senses to keep you safe. There is more detail in this video.
https://youtu.be/jpEeQw5zq3c?feature=shared
Math is fun in 1H!
We hope to see you at "Understanding the HIB Process," an important session for all Westfield Public Schools parents/guardians tomorrow (Tuesday), October 8 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Wilson Elementary School. Please remember to register: https://bit.ly/HIB-Session-Oct8-RSVP
Celebrate your child's birthday by sponsoring a book for the Franklin School Library! Your participation enriches the library, helps foster a love of reading, and gives your child a special connection to our school.
To participate, select the book you would like to donate from the pre-selected titles on the Sign Up Genius form and send a check for $20 to the Franklin School Fund (no cash please) attn. Mrs. Kennedy.
Mrs. Kennedy will then purchase the book and place a bookplate inside with your child's name and birthdate on it. Your child will be presented the book for their birthday and be the very first student to borrow the book before it is added to the library collection for all to enjoy.
Click here to get started! https://tinyurl.com/FranklinBirthdayBookClub
Recess Runners started today! How many laps did you run?
Week of Respect kick off assembly!
We discussed our theme, "Kindness Starts With Me" and the Pillars of Character. 5th graders took on key leadership roles by leading the pledge and explaining the Week of Respect activities! Dr. Duncan read, A Big Guy Took My Ball and related some of the themes to our Words Matter and Think Before You Speak posters.
More Walk To School pictures!
It's Walk to School Day! Brennan and Ms. Morano enjoyed their walk with other families, crossing guards, and safety patrol!
Gaga-mania! Thank you to Project Playground and the Franklin PTO for our playground upgrades and improvements! Students loved the refurbished Gaga pit. This is just the start! Before and after shots!
The streets are safer with our Safety Patrol on the corner!
We try to provide our 5th graders with special leadership opportunities. Safety Patrol is one of the most popular and visible. They help keep an eye on the arrival locations, carline and assist the crossing guards! We thank them for being great role models!
Whenever possible, we use a multi-sensory approach to learning. It helps to see, hear and feel whatever we're learning about. Even for 5th graders (and even for adults) it can help to build a model to get a better sense of a concept. For example, how big is a cubic inch? How about a cubic foot? What about a cubic meter? 5th graders are exploring volume. Here's what 5G discovered.
Somehow we got through almost all of September without a rainy day. Today was our first indoor recess day. A spontaneous chess tournament broke out in 5G. Jenga was a big hit. Coloring, board games and card games were other popular activities. Some students even managed to read in our busy, noisy gym and we learned that Mrs. Romano leads a mean game of Simon Says.
Teaching and Learning: How do you help someone become a better writer? It’s more than just writing in complete sentences using proper grammar. A great example of how we teach writing was happening in 5Du today. Mrs. Bloch and Mrs. Dunning were combining forces to lead these young writers. Being a good writer involves generating ideas, finding inspiration, communicating clearly (or better yet, vividly). Teachers are always helping students develop the craft of writing. They provide graphic organizers and mini writing prompts. They work on writing “hooks” that will grab the reader in the first few sentences of their piece. Today they were exploring flashbacks and foreshadowing (how to identify them in their reading and how to weave them into their writing). They “conference” with each student. They build a writing community. They encourage students to take risks and try something new. They want them to be brave and share their ideas. They expect them to listen carefully to the ideas and stories of others. They read great books by amazing authors and use those texts as “mentor texts”. A lot is invested in nurturing students to become better writers. They “stop and jot” their ideas into a notebook. They also make sure they eat snack because who can be inspired on an empty stomach?! We want students to find their voices--while doing so they will probably discover something about themselves or the topic they are writing about. In 5Du today, I was reminded once again how great it feels to be in this type of creative space. Not only is it fun and exciting, the results it produces are pretty amazing! The room is intermittently noisy with chatter and silent as students write the ideas that sprouted in their heads when they were engaged in a vibrant discussion about their assignment--memoirs.
Music class update from Mr. Geyer: Third graders creating melodic contours with pipe cleaners, and then playing them on xylophones. Fifth graders, recognizing Hispanic heritage month by performing a folk dance from Mexico. First graders singing a song working on our pitch set of sol, la, and mi while encouraging, independent singing
We love our buddies! Our buddy program matches 5th graders with 1st graders, 4th graders with 2nd graders and 3rd graders team with other 3rd graders (we're looking for kindergarteners!). This program is a great chance to build community outside each classroom community and for older students to take on leadership responsibilities. They can be great writing mentors, help with math problems or simply take the lead on collaborative projects! Plus, it's fun and super cute! 2V met with 5G to get to know each other.
Chorus started this week! Mr. Geyer always gets the most out of our students! Chorus starts in 5th grade and is a required part of the curriculum for all students.
How do we teach students to read? Well... we don't have enough space here to explain ALL of what we do but here is one small, important thing we do when working with our youngest students. We start by teaching students the sounds that letters make. This can help them more easily decode (sound out) words like cat and hat. But, what about words that are not spelled like they sound? These are trickier, hence their name "trick words". Trick words like "of" "the" and "was" don't follow the rules for sounding out. Plus, they are high frequency words so students will encounter them constantly which is likely to frustrate them (or they might just skip them all together). Not knowing these words can quickly get in the way of reading, understanding (and enjoying) their books. These two students were working hard in a small group with their teacher practicing reading and writing some common trick words. Keep up the great work boys!
Teachers are life long learners! Here are some teachers participating in a Lunch and Learn about Canva. Canva is a great resource for teachers. It has many materials that can be added to Google Classroom and is a great way to create more engaging instructional materials. This session as run by our Instructional Technology experts Mrs. Rygiel and Ms. Gottko.
