Student Leadership Conference at Wesleyan University

Students from high schools around the state were at Wesleyan University on Friday for the annual Student Leadership Conference.  As part of the conference, high school student leaders read books to Macdonough School students.  After the read alouds, each Macdonough School student was presented with a brand new book!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Kindergarten

Kindergarten visits La Boca

Today, as a culminating activity for our studies of Mexico, kindergarten took a walking field trip to La Boca restaurant located on Main Street. When we arrived, children were given chips and salsa as a snack.

For our lunch, we had Mexican rice and beef tacos with cheese. Yummy!!

Our teachers even helped to serve us our lunches!

We had a great time! Thank you for having us La Boca!

Colorful Creations

Kindergarten has been learning about Mexico for the past few weeks. Earlier in the week we paper mached our muracas. Today we were able to paint not only our muracas but also our serapes (mexican ponchos). It might have been messy but we sure did have fun!

Stay tuned for our post this afternoon about our trip to La Boca!!

Hartford Courant reporter gets interviewed by Macdonough School Third graders!

The kids enjoyed seeing Mr. Beals Press Pass!!

Parent - Teacher Conferences

Parent - Teacher Conferences are being held on March 28th, 29th, and 30th!   

Did you know that our goal is for every single family to attend a parent-teacher conference? That is how much we value the opportunity to share the highlights of our students' growth.

Please contact your child's teacher for more information on spring conferences!

Preparations for the Kindergarten Spring Show

The Kindergarteners are still practicing for their Spring Show, which will take place on April 3rd at 10am and 6pm. The Kindergarten teachers have been working extra hard to get everything ready. Mrs. Spaman helped with costumes.

Maracas for Mexico

To continue learning about Mexico, kindergarten made some music! We made maracas with cups and beans, and then we made papier mâché to cover them. Maracas are native instruments in Mexico that you can shake to make music. Soon, we will also paint them just like they do in Mexico.

Green Fruits and Vegetables

In recognition of St. Patrick's Day, students at Macdonough School will have special green fruits and vegetables this week. Be sure to ask your child about this wonderful St. Patrick's Day treat!

 

 

Thanks to Mrs. Raney for coordinating our Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program and selecting such delicious snacks for us to enjoy!

Macdonough Volunteers Build Garden Boxes in Middletown

FROM THE MIDDLETOWN PRESS [March 11, 2012 by By JIM SALEMI Press Staff]

MIDDLETOWN — The Macdonough Garden Club is “bigger and better” than its been in recent years thanks to the help of a small group of Wesleyan students who lent their expertise in the practice.

The Wesleyan students, along with Macdonough students and their parents and school staff, rolled up their sleeves Saturday to construct raised garden beds where vegetables will be grown over the summer as part of a “garden-based nutrition and environmental education” program, according to Adin Vaewsorn, a Wesleyan freshman who volunteered to work on the program.

Hard Work Pays off for Hardwood Homework Packet

Six students earned the opportunity to take a trip to Hartford to take in
a game at the XL center for the Big East Women's Championship
Basketball game. The students were split down the middle as we cheered
on the USF vs. Pitt game. With seconds to spare those cheering for USF
walked away from the game very satisfied.
Much thanks to the hard work each student put in to complete
their Hardwood homework packet and Miss Claffey and Miss Lavoie for
taking them on the field trip!

Annual Early Childhood Conference

Macdonough staff members and families will be attending the 19th Annual Early Childhood Conference being held in Cromwell on April 19th.

Nurturing Parents Class at Macdonough School

Miss Morello's 4th Graders won the Popcorn Machine Again for Perfect Attendance!

Miss Morello's 4th graders had 97% perfect attendance in the month of February. They won the popcorn machine for the second time in a row! Students wanted to experiment by seeing what would happen if they put food coloring into the popcorn. There were a lot of blue smiles! Congrats Miss Morello's class!

Here is Christopher showing off his blue popcorn smile!

Beard Shaving- CMT Incentive!

As a CMT incentive, students who wrote THREE pages on their CMT writing prompts were rewarded by taking part in a special Beard Shaving event. They got to shave the beards of THREE individuals: Mr. Romeo, Mr. Ferrero and Mr. Nelson! Students also got to shave Mr. Nelson’s head as a bonus!


Here is Kenny giving Mr. Romeo a close shave!



Here is Nora shaving Mr. Ferrero!



Here is Deziar shaving Mr. Nelson's head!

Kindergarten Guests!

Kindergarten is being visited this week by two special guests, Sophie and Channi. They have been very helpful in the classrooms and have even gone out to recess to play with us!

Mobile Dental Clinic Coming to Macdonough School

Our Health Center will be transformed into a dental clinic on March 26th when the Mobile Dental Clinic arrives for a spring visit. Many of our students will have the opportunity to see the dental hygienist for check-ups and cleanings!

The Mobile Dental Clinic visits Macdonough School twice each year - once in the fall and again in the spring.

If you would like your child to have access to this program, please call the school and ask for information on the Community Health Center at Macdonough School.

Kindergarten Spring Show

The kindergarteners are practicing for the Kindergarten Spring Show, which will be held on Tuesday, April 3rd at 10 AM and 6 PM. They are working really hard to learn songs and practice their best singing voices for their audience.

We are all so excited to see their show! It is going to be great!

Dr. Seuss Day

On Dr. Seuss Day, the teachers each had a family member come in and read a Dr. Seuss book to their classes. In Kindergarten, Mrs. Lenihan's mom, Mrs. Nelson, read My Many Colored Days, and the students made Dr. Seuss hats to celebrate.

Thing 1 and Thing 2, Sam I Am, and the Cat in the Hat also stopped into the classroom to say hello. The students really enjoyed meeting the characters from their favorite Dr. Seuss books.

We had so much fun on Dr. Seuss Day!

4th Graders are Learning about Habitats!

As part of the BioBuddies program, Mrs. Stewart visited both 4th grade classrooms and taught students about habitats. Students played a game called Oh Deer in which they "became" deer in order to learn more about habitats! As part of the game, students identified food, water and shelter,as three essential components of habitats, and looked for them in thier "habitats" through roleplay! They also learned about natural variations in habitats and the importance of good habitats for animals. 

Here are the students roleplaying as deer!

Here is Mrs. Stewart discussing the changes in the "deer" population as a result of their habitats!

Here are students dilligently taking notes!

Macdonough's New Friends

March Bulletin Boards

We had a friendly competition this month putting up new bulletin boards.We all worked hard on making the bulletin boards look fabulous! At the end of the friendly competition, we all agreed there could be no winner because they all came out so wonderful.

Saint Patrick's Day bulletin board.

Dr. Seuss bulletin board.

CMT's bulletin board.

The Newspaper Club is up and Reporting

A Sweet Field Trip for Third Grade

This week our third grade students learned about making maple syrup at 4-H education center at Auerfarm in Bloomfield. There they met with their writing buddies through the LEARN program. Students were taught how to identify sugar maples, tap trees, and then they headed to the sugar shack to see how the sap is boiled until it becomes syrup. Students were able to taste sap right from the tree and some delicious maple syrup on some pancakes. It was a fun and educational day for all!

Do the (clap, clap) Potty Party!!

Miss Morello's 4th Graders Celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday!

Miss Morello's 4th graders celebrated Dr. Seuss' Birthday by reading and eating Green Eggs and Ham! Miss Morello's sister, Jessica, and Mr. Giuliano shared in the festivities by reading Dr. Seuss books to students. Jessica read Green Eggs and Ham and Sneeches. Mr. Giuliano read Bartholomew and the Oobleck. Then students themselves got to make oobleck, a slime which has both liquid and solid properties! It was a very fun morning!


Here are Kenny, D'Andrew and Deziar making Oobleck!

Here is Mr. Giuliano and Dallas and Anthony working on their Oobleck mixture!

Here is the finished product: Oobleck!

Second Grade Celebrates Dr. Seuss with Oobleck!

After hearing the Dr. Seuss story of Bartholomew and the Oobleck, Ms. Jukins' second grade made their own ooey, gooey, sticky, Oobleck!! Miss Hannah joined us for the day and was the Master of the Oobleck! Miss Kolman read us the story of the Lorax who speaks for the trees. Next week we will make our own Truffula Trees. It was a fun day celebrating the life of Theodore Geisel, also known as Theo. LeSeig, also known as Dr. Seuss!

4th Graders are learning about Probability!

Miss Morello's 4th graders experimented with spinners and other activities, such as Heads and Tails and the Penny Game, to learn about probability.  Students also made spinners and generated questions pertaining probability outcomes. They also made predictions based on probability by playing Double Dice addition facts, a game in which students roll dice to see which sums come up most!

Here are Michael and Jenna playing a probability memory game!

Turtle Time

Pancakes with My Principal

Three Macdonough School students took a field trip to O'Rourke's Diner to have pancakes with the principal.

They were treated to a delicious pancake breakfast. The group also saw important people like Firefighter Al, spent time with Miss Maley (a former Macdonough teacher), and met Brian O'Rourke (the owner of the diner).











It was a fun morning!

Students were selected for exhibiting SURFS up behavior (Self-responsibility, Understanding, Respect, Fairness, and Safety).