Read Across America Celebration at Macdonough

Red and white stovepipe hats were all around Macdonough School today as students, staff, and visitors celebrated Read Across America Day.  Guests included Mayor Guliano, Associate Superintendent Senges, Deputy Fire Marshal Al Santostefano, Wesleyan students, Macdonough families, and relatives of Macdonough Staff members.

The event, in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday, brought guest readers into each classroom to share some time for reading.

Appearances by the Cat in the Hat, Thing One and Thing Two, and Sam (who loves Green Eggs and Ham) added to the magic of the day.

Macdonough Basketball

The annual Staff vs.Students Basketball Game was held on Wednesday, February 24th.  The teachers jumped out to an early lead but couldn't hold on as the students charged back to tie the game with a last minute shot.

The standing room only crowd was treated to a half-time show featuring the Macdonough School Cheerleading Team as well as a Staff Cheering Squad.

Reading is Fundamental at Macdonough!

Macdonough School has been selected as a Reading is Fundamental (RIF) school!

As Middletown’s only RIF program site, Macdonough will be participating in the “Books for Ownership” program designed to motivate children, families, and community members to read together through a triad of principles basic to the entire RIF organization: book ownership, motivational activities, and family involvement in children's reading.

• Book ownership: Macdonough School students will have the opportunity to choose and keep two to five books per year at no cost to the children or their families.

• Fun literacy-related activities: Macdonough school volunteers and staff will continue to motivate children to read with a myriad of festive book activities that accompany each book event.

• Family and community involvement: RIF headquarters will provide training and technical assistance to our volunteer RIF program coordinators.

Macdonough Mariners at Wesleyan

Coach Teresa Morello brought the Macdonough Mariners basketball team to Wesleyan University this weekend.  The team watched the Wesleyan Womens' Basketball team lose a close game to Bates College. 

At halftime, the Macdonough students took the court for a scrimmage before a packed house at Bacon Fieldhouse. 

Special thank to Miss K, a former standout on the Wesleyan squad, for making arrangements for this terrific experience!

Target Grant Awarded to Macdonough School

A group of Macdonough School students will be visiting the Connecticut Science Center thanks to a grant from Target. 

As part of its commitment to provide educational resources for America’s schools, Target launched the Target Field Trip Grants program in 2006. The program is designed to help teachers bring learning to life for students and enhance classroom studies.

Macdonough School teachers have planned for a spring field trip!

Third Grade Hosts Career Day Speakers

Two Macdonough parents came in to third grade classrooms to speak about their careers.  Special thanks to Mrs. Dunkley and Mrs. Gross!

Where in the World...

A huge map of the world was added to Macdonough School's center stairwell this afternoon. 

The map is a mural size representation of the world.  Each country is outlined in vibrant colors to allow for detailed views of current political boundaries.  The map also features major cities, bodies of water, and other geographical information.

Special thanks to Mr. Nelson and Mr. Jeremy for working to hang the map.

Recess Plus Club - Knitting with Nurse P

Visitors to the main office during one of the school's lunch waves are bound to see an unusual site: groups of students knitting!  Thanks to Nurse Parmelee, dozens of students are learning to knit. 

The school's third, fourth, and fifth grade children receive instruction, materials, and guidance in knitting as part of Nurse P's Recess Plus Club.

While most are new to knitting and focusing on the basics, Nurse P has some of the children off and running on some more complex projects.  The young lady pictured to the left is well on her way to completing a scarf, just in time for this cold blast of wintry weather!

Macdonough Goes Green!

Green Street, that is...

The students and staff of the Green Street Arts Center began the first in a series of weekly visits.  Each Friday afternoon during the next few weeks a variety of exciting activities will be offered at Macdonough School. 

Children made music with African drums, learned science concepts in the lab, painted murals in the gym, and danced the afternoon away in the library.

Grant Awarded to Macdonough School

Congratulations to Macdonough School! The school was awarded a $500 grant from the Community and University Services for Education (CAUSE) committee. The grant is targeted for use in supporting the Literature for Lunch program at Macdonough School.

Special thanks to Miss Sarah Claffey for coordinating the grant application!

The Ribbon Project

Students at Macdonough School had the opportunity to show caring and compassion by creating handmade pink ribbons for breast cancer patients in Connecticut.

"The Ribbon Project" is a community art project founded by highschool senior, Jenny Roach. Participants craft handmade pink ribbons using non-ribbon materials. These “ribbons” are then distributed by Jenny to breast cancer patients in local hospitals and cancer treatment centers.

The Kids’ Korner at Macdonough School program contacted Jenny Roach via The Ribbon Project website (http://www.theribbonproject.webs.com/) after the Hartford Courant had posted an article about her work. Jenny immediately sent out a publicity packet, including posters, postcards and websites about the project. Jenny agreed to visit our site and speak to the children about creating and planning service-learning projects, including how she turned her inspiration into a reality.

A PINK DONATION BOX can be found in the school cafeteria, looking for donations of fun pink materials for Jenny. She accepts a variety of materials, including fabric, ribbon, beads, fake flowers (and more!).

Before our holiday break, Jenny brought pink foam sheets that she had formed into ribbon shapes and bag full of decorative pink objects. Over 20 Macdonough students worked together to create several decorative ribbons that Jenny was then able to take for distribution to patients in Connecticut.

To date, The Ribbon Project has created well-over 1000 “ribbons” for breast cancer patients. We are glad to have contributed to this achievement.

Kids’ Korner CD Production Club

Twelve Macdonough School students participated in their second Kids’ Korner CD Production Club with Michael Arefeh of the Coffeehouse Recording Studio. As you may remember, our first project was an updated version of the school song, “Knowledge is Power.” This second CD, Holiday Songs, features four tracks. We’ve included “Jingle Bells,” “Deck the Halls,” and “Auld Lang Syne.” The final song on the track, “Auld Lang Syne” features several well-wishes from the students. There is also a special reading of Moore’s poem, “T’was the Night Before Christmas” where each child reads lines from the story. While walking to and from the Main Street studio, the children wassailed, delighting several people with their holiday cheer. Each child who was involved with the project received two copies of the CD, one copy for themselves and a copy for gifting this holiday season. Also, CD sales to Macdonough Staff went quite well. Hopefully these joyous carols will delight for years to come.

Holiday Concert at Macdonough

Thanks to our music teachers, Miss DeAngelis and Mr. D'Amato, for treating us to a wonderful holiday concert!

Students from kindergarten through fifth grade delighted the many parents and family members in the audience with a variety of holiday and winter favorites.

Between grade level performances, the entire school sang some classic songs including Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer (led by a group of teachers).

Recess Plus Clubs: Grade 4- "Literature for Lunch":

Sixteen fourth graders are now participating in new “Literature for Lunch” book clubs. These enrichment clubs are now part of Macdonough’s Winter Session of Recess Plus and will be held on Wednesdays and Thursdays for eight weeks.

On Wednesdays, the children will enjoy activities based on Astrid Lindgren’s book, Pippi Longstocking. Thursday’s students will participate in activities based on The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Activities during these clubs will include geography, sign language, fabric painting, poetry, character mapping, cooking, physical fitness, science experiments, and more.

Each child has received a brand new copy of their club’s book to keep. They have also received a special bound notebook with activities, games, and research suggestions based on the novel and club they have chosen.

Recess Plus Winter Session: Grade 3- Kids Are Authors Contest Clubs

During the Winter Session of Recess Plus, two groups of Macdonough 3rd Graders will take part in the “Scholastic Kids Are Authors Contest Clubs.”

“Kids Are Authors is an annual competition open to Grades K–8 and is designed to encourage students to use their reading, writing, and artistic skills to write and illustrate their own books.” (http://www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/contest/kaa_about.asp)

Our groups will meet on Mondays and Tuesdays for eight weeks. During the club, we will share many examples of picture books, including picture books that have been written and illustrated by children. We will discuss what we like and dislike about each story and its artwork. This will help us decide what type of book we would like to create. We will also discuss what type of artwork we would like to include.

Our completed works will be sent to Scholastic by March 15th, 2010.

Grand Prize winning books are published by Scholastic each year. Each Grand Prize winning team will receive 100 copies of their published book. The winning books are sold at Scholastic book fairs across the country.

Grand Prize winners and Honorable Mention winners will be notified by May 31st, 2010. Keep your fingers crossed.

Holiday Cards for Heroes

Thanks to Mrs. Ehnot for coordinating the Holiday Cards for Heroes program at Macdonough School.  Our students created more than 300 holiday cards to be sent to soldiers and sailors overseas.

Thanksgiving Feast at Macdonough

Students and staff joined together for a pre-Thanksgiving feast in the school's gymnasium.  They were treated to a wonderful holiday meal courtesy of our cafeteria staff, complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and more!

After the meal, I'm Thankful Each Day by P.K. Hallinan, was read aloud to the group.  This was followed by a slide show of various things that the Macdonough students are thankful for.  This list included our school, teachers, families, friends, books, and, of course each other.

Second Grade Visits their Number Kid Buddies

Second Grade NUMBER KIDS joined their buddy class in Essex on Wednesday. We visited many different math stations to practice our math skills. One of our favorite activites was the Hundreds Board Dice Game. We shared a snack and lunch with our new friends. In December we will be traveling with our new friends to Old Lyme for more Math Fun!!

Macdonough Takes 1st Place at Chamber Expo!

Macdonough School was chosen to be spotlighted by the Middletown Public Schools at this year's Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce Expo.  Students and staff put together a booth featuring photos, graphs, and data about the school.  A group of fifth graders challenged visitors to the Expo to participate in Macdonough School's version of "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?"

The effort paid off in the recognition of a first place ribbon for "Best Booth" by members of the Chamber of Commerce Expo Committee.

Firefighter Al Teaches Fire Safety

Did you know that October is Fire Safety Month? Firefighter Al visited 2nd grade on Wednesday to teach us about Fire Safety. He reminded us how fires start and what to do if there is a fire in our home. We talked about practicing Fire Drills at home and how important it is to have a meeting place outside of our home. Firefighter Al will return to 2nd grade in February with all of his gear when we read "A Trip to The Firehouse."

The First Tee National School Program Comes to Macdonough School!

We are thrilled to announce that Macdonough School has been selected to participate in the First Tee National School Program! The program provides opportunities for children to learn the game of golf through instruction during physical education classes.

Macdonough School will receive thousands of dollars in free equipment and opportunities for our students to play golf at local courses!

Special thanks to Mrs. Ehnot, our new physical education teacher, for bringing this exciting program to Macdonough School!

Chaelyn's Book Clubs

THIRD GRADE CLUB
The 3rd Grade Recess Plus Clubs have started work on their “Sideways Stories from Macdonough School” character chapters. Even though the Sideways School has 30 stories and stories, and Macdonough School only has 3 stories, our book will have 16, one for each student in the two clubs.
When they arrived to book club in the computer lab, the students found a special file folder for their club. In this file folder, they found that they each had a MS Word File with a special name for their “Sideways Stories from Macdonough School” character.
These special names were created by turning the clubs’ students’ names backwards, just like Mrs. Gorf is Frog spelled backwards. For instance, the character for Miss Chaelyn is Miss Nyleahc Odrabmol.
We are using our creativity to make our imaginary characters come to life. For now, we are including physical characteristics, personality traits, and other important information about our characters. Once we have compiled enough information about our new characters, we will begin writing the chapter about the character for the final book.
Both clubs’ chapters will be put together and each child will get a copy of the final book at the end of the club, along with the 3-book Sideways Series.

FOURTH GRADE CLUB
In Session 4 of “Spiderwick Chronicles Literature for Lunch” Club, we completed our “Character Card Contest.” Teams were given an additional 5 minutes to cram as many facts about their character onto their cards. Team mates worked together to eliminate other team’s character facts. The teams left with the most facts on their card after the elimination round took with them tasty treats and some other special prizes. Consolation prizes of Dum Dums Lollipops were handed out to the other hard-working teams. Students now have the first two books of the series.

Macdonough School Marathon Team

Macdonough teachers and students ran the streets of Hartford on Saturday, October 10th at the ING Hartford Marathon.  Nearly twenty participants from Macdonough School were among the more than 7,000 athletes participating in the race. 

Macdonough students and teachers took part as a relay team with each person running legs ranging from one mile to six miles.  Added together, the participants from Macdonough School ran a total of more than eighty miles!

Special thanks to members of the Wesleyan University Women's Ice Hockey team for helping to escort our runners to and from the mile markers. 

Special recognition to Mr. Nelson and Miss Claffey for running the entire 13.1 mile course!

Macdonough School at the ING Run for Something Better Day

Macdonough School students took their running skills to Hartford's Bushnell Park participating in the 2009 edition of the ING Run for Something Better Day.

T-shirts, medals, smiles, and lots of fun!

World Record at Macdonough School

Children in first grade at Macdonough School are going to break a world record by participating in the Jumpstart Read for the Record program!

Jumpstart’s Read for the Record, is an international campaign to bring children together with valued grownups in their lives to read the same book, on the same day, in communities all over the world. On October 8, 2009,  youngsters from near and far will be attempting to break the world record as nearly 700,000 readers will share Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

On this historic day, one amazing book will be read aloud in classrooms, libraries and homes from Japan, Germany and Brazil to cities and rural communities across America and at Macdonough School!

New Dictionaries for our Third Graders!

Special thanks to the Middletown Rotary Club for providing each child in third grade with a brand new dictionary.

The gift was made possible through the Dr. Wilfredo Nieves Dictionary Project.

New Mural at Macdonough School!

A unique partnership with the Green Street Arts Center will result in the creation of a new mural at Macdonough School.

The mural will be located on a large wall by the staircase leading to the school's cafeteria.  Designed by artist Anna Gawel, the mural features the words to the school's song, "Knowledge is Power" and showcases flags from around the world.

We expect the mural to be completed by the holidays!

Macdonough School Celebrates Hartford Marathon Weekend

Macdonough School students and teachers will be participating in this weekend’s Hartford Marathon festival.

On Friday, our new physical education teacher, Mrs. Ehnot, will be bringing more than 50 students to Hartford to participate in the ING Run for Something Better Program. Macdonough students have been training at home and school to run 12 miles during the past month. They each will run their last 1.1 "Final Mile", cross over the official ING Hartford Marathon Finish Line in Hartford's Bushnell Park, receive a Finisher's Medal and then enter the "World of Fitness” area.

The World of Fitness area contains exhibits and activities which focus on promoting healthy choices for kids. Presenters include the Hartford Wolfpack, the Connecticut Science Museum, the Hartford YMCA, and more!

On Saturday, nearly two dozen teachers and students will be traveling to back to Bushnell Park to join in the running of the 2009 ING Hartford Marathon as part of the Jeff’s Running Partners program. This program encourages children in Connecticut schools and adults to complete either the 13.1 mile Hartford Half Marathon or the full 26.2 Hartford Marathon as part of a relay team.

Teachers who will be running include Mrs. Spaman, Mrs. Lenihan, Mrs. Raney, Miss Claffey, Mr. Nelson, Miss Weindruch, Mrs. Paul, Mrs. Brick, Miss Melzen, Mrs. Taylor, Miss Antonucci, and Mrs. Broomfield. Added together, the Macdonough teachers will be running a total of more than fifty miles

WCNX Radio and Macdonough School

Macdonough School was selected to kick off the new school year with WCNX Radio and their School Lunch broadcasts.  Five lucky fifth graders represented our school by putting their reading skills to work - on the air!

WCNX Radio broadcast our first School Lunch Menu on Monday, September 28th - and the broadcast segment is up on their website!

To make it convenient for everyone, they will be uploading the School Lunch Menu week to week onto their website. Just choose Macdonough School from the list and click the link!  This way everyone can access the broadcast segment anytime if they missed the actual live broadcast on Monday.

Here is the link :
http://www.cnxradio.com/20809_8085.asp

or simply log on to :
http://www.cnxradio.com/ and click : SCHOOL LUNCH MENU

ING Run for Something Better Program

Our new physical education teacher, Mrs. Ehnot, has brought with her a new program for fourth and fifth graders to Macdonough School.

The ING Run for Something Better Program is designed to encourage a healthy, active lifestyle in the fight against childhood obesity for elementary and middle school students.

This program encourages students to train together to complete a half marathon, covering 13.1 miles in 6 weeks. On Friday October 9, 2009, students who complete 12 miles through the school program will run their last 1.1 "Final Mile", cross over the official ING Hartford Marathon Finish Line in Hartford's Bushnell Park, receive a Finisher's Medal and then enter the "World of Fitness” area.  The World of Fitness area is where 1,200 students will participate in the activities and exhibits available to them.

Chaelyn's Book Clubs

Sideways Stories from Macdonough School

Session 3 of the “Sideways Stories from Macdonough School” Club focused on Mrs. Jewls, the teacher who replaced the mean Mrs. Gorf on the 30th story. After Mrs. Gorf was turned into an apple and eaten by Louis the yard teacher, Mrs. Jewls came to the Sideways School expecting a class full of “terribly cute” children. Only, she thought were so terribly cute that they couldn’t be children. She thought she was called to teach a class full of monkeys!
Together, we re-read Chapter 2 and created a character poster of Mrs. Jewls. We discussed her physical characteristics, personality traits, and other important information. We even compared and contrasted her to Mrs. Gorf. They were quite different from one another, but strangely had some things in common.
Then, in honor of Mrs. Jewls foolish assumption, we played one-on-one Barrel of Monkeys, a game from Milton Bradley that was created in 1965…but surprisingly had never been played by any of the children in our club!
We called the game, “Barrel of Mrs. Jewls’ Students.” The rest of our time was spent trying to show each other our monkey-chaining skills and giving names to our monkey chains based on the children that are in the story.

Spiderwick Chronicles Literature for Lunch

During the third session of the “Spiderwick Chronicles Literature for Lunch” Club, we set the scene for our first Spiderwick Challenge, the “Character Card Contest.” We first completed a Character Card for Helen Grace, mother to the Grace children. Together we compiled as many facts about this female character as possible.

Then, the children in each group paired off into teams and were armed with a pencil, their book, their notebook, and their wits. On four pieces of cardstock, were pictures of our four main characters in Book 1; Jared Grace, Simon Grace, Mallory Grace, and Thimbletack. Each team picked a card from an upside down position. Many teams cheered when they received a character they had been “wishing” to pick.

The challenge was for each team to write as many facts about their character as possible in the time allotted. They could list physical characteristics, personality traits, important information, and more. The teams worked diligently, using their books and notebooks of self-compiled information to write as many facts as possible. By the end of the session the cards were filled.

At our next meeting, we will proceed with the challenge. Teams will try to eliminate other team’s answers, much like in the Hasbro game of “Scattergories.” If a team can match a fact, the other team has to cross it out. The team left with the most facts on their card after the elimination round will be victorious.

A special prize is at stake. Stay tuned.

All About Matter

The 3rd graders were excited to have scientist, Ms. Smith from High Touch-High Tech, visit and teach about matter, solubility and density. Everyone had to the opportunity to make predictions, conduct experiments and analyze data.

NAACP Rewards Dinner

On Friday, September 25th, representatives of the parents and teachers of Macdonough Elementary were presented with an award from the the Middlesex County NAACP chapter in recognition of our remarkable progress. Congratulations to the entire Macdonough Community!