It's Snowing at Macdonough...

A new bulletin board appeared in the main office today!

The board came complete with a snowman and two snow-women bearing an uncanny resemblance to our office staff.

Thanks to our clever and talented artists for decorating the main office as we get ready for the winter weather!

Fourth Graders Visit the

Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam

Students received a behind the scenes tour of the opera house. 

The dance workshop got students moving and exposed them to the different genres of music from the 40's through present day. Dances included ballroom dancing, disco, and hip hop.  

Before heading to the Norma Terris Theatre in Chester to see the production Hello, My Baby, students had the opportunity to learn and sing songs from the musical. They also learned how musicians warm up their vocal cords and mouths for singing.

Fall Book Swap

Students at Macdonough School participated in a book swap! Thanks to the students and their families for donating books. Each student was able to choose 2 books to take home for their enjoyment. :)

SURFS Bike GiveAway

A number of Macdonough students received their very own

bike today as part of our Thanksgiving SURFS up assembly.

Each student also got a new helmet to take home.

Much thanks to the organization who donates the bikes,

they have generously given away 13,000 bikes as of today.

Thanksgiving Feast

Macdonough had the opportunity to enjoy their Thanksgiving Feast as an entire school community the day before Thanksgiving. Our 3rd grade class shared a slideshow of what they are all thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving, Gobble Gobble!

Author Coming to Macdonough!

Children's author and biographer Jane Sutcliffe is making a special visit to Macdonough School in December.

She is the author of more than a dozen biographies written especially for children.

Jane's visit will be made in conjunction with Connecticut's "Tis the Season to Be Reading" celebration.

Season of Giving

With the Thanksgiving holiday only days away students at Macdonough School each received their own butternut squash to take home and add to their family feast. Each student also went home with a recipe to prepare their butternut squash.

Book Donation for Macdonough School

Broad Street Books, Wesleyan University’s Book Store, donated an autographed copy of Jan Brett’s newest book, Home for Christmas, to our school library.

The story is about a wild little troll named Rollo who runs away from home because he doesn’t want to do his chores. Rollo tries living with various woodland animals, but he finds out that there is no place like home, and returns to his family just in time for “the best Christmas ever.”

Kindergarten students made invitations inviting all staff members to sit with our class during the Thanksgiving Feast! Hopefully everyone will be able to join :)

3D and 2D picnic!

Today in Kindergarten we learned all about 3D and 2D shapes. Each student got to sort different snacks into two groups, 2D and 3D. Then they were able to enjoy the tasty snacks!

Turkeys in the office

Yes, a flock of turkeys made their way down to the office. The kindergarten classes wore their turkeys hats and sang 3 songs for the office.
Gobble, Gobble

Cajun Fiddlers at Macdonough

Today, musicians David Greely and Joel Savoy, both from the Bayou country in Louisiana came to Macdonough to play a couple Cajun songs for the 3rd graders. Students even had the chance to get up and dance to a song sung in French. Thanks to Ed McKeon, parent and Board of Education member, for arranging the concert.

3rd Graders Meet Author/Illustrator Mike Artell

The 3rd grade is fortunate to be a part of the Writing Buddies program, organized and funded by LEARN, a regional educational service, as one of their interdistrict programs. As part of the program, our 3rd grade classes have "buddy" classes at a different school. Our buddy classes are from Cromwell. On Thursday, November 17th, we traveled to Clark Elementary School in Hartford. First, we met with our "buddy" classes. We shared a snack and particapated in a scavenger hunt. Second, we heard Mike Artell, a talented and funny author and illustrator from New Orleans, Lousiana, talk about how to draw cartoon characters and how our drawings can inspire the written word in new ways. Mike Artell is best known for writing, Petite Rouge: A Cajun Red Riding Hood story. Every 3rd grader received an autographed book. Fun was had by all!

Wild Thing

The 3rd graders have been working on writing use good descriptions. Today, students tried to guess which wild thing picture belonged to who by just listening to the written description. Good description helps having good visualizations.

2nd Grade Visits NUMBER KIDS Buddies

Tuesday Ms. Jukins and Miss Cruz-Viera's 2nd grade visited their buddy class at Essex Elementary School. The students made, shared and compared fraction pizzas and learned how math and music are related by playing various instruments to a beat. NUMBER KIDS is a Math Enrichment Program that all second graders enjoy six times a year.

Tomorrow students from Essex will be visiting Mrs. Raney/Miss Green's class to be doing more math activities.

Liberty Bank Recognizes Macdonough School

Representatives from the Liberty Bank Foundation awarded Macdonough School a check for one thousand dollars in support of the Scholars Academy program.  Scholars Academy, a before school program, provides students with additional support in math and reading.

Staff members from Macdonough School donated a book to the school library in honor of Liberty Bank.  Hooray for Reading Day, by Margery Cuyler, is the story of a girl who initially struggles with reading.  Thanks to the support of her family and teacher she improves and finally says "Hooray for Reading Day!" 

Thanks to this generous donation, many of our students will be saying "Hooray for Reading Day!" too.

Trick - or - Treat!

Due to the storm Kindergarten had to celebrate Halloween a little late. Students were able to dress up in their Halloween costume and surprise the other classes with a trick-or-treat parade!

4th Grade Musical Field Trip

MacDonough 4th graders are going to see a musical on November 21st!

They will be seeing Hello My Baby, a brand-new, all-American musical valentine for all ages, at the Goodspeed Opera House. It is a comic romance about a song-plugger who meets a factory girl in Tin Pan Alley, in the early 20th century, when the songs of such great composers such as George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and more filled the streets. 

Here are Josh and Cristine from the Goodspeed Opera House.

This week they had a pre-trip class about the show and the music of Tin Pan alley. On the 21st, they will not only see the show but also engage in workshops with performers in the show and Goodspeed Education Department staff. We are so excited!

Math Scholars Esca Trip

 

The Macdonough Math Scholars that completed their CMT skill sharpening activities over the summer enjoyed an evening of fine food and excellent company at Esca restaurant on Main Street in Middletown in recognition and celebration of their effort and achievement in math. The Scholars were treated to a tour of the Esca kitchen, were able to make their own pizzas, and learned how to use math to run a restaurant effectively. Special thanks to Mr. Bernie Bucholz, Chef Joe Bucholz, and the rest of the Esca staff for the generosity that made the evening such a success. The pizzas were delicious and the experience delightful! It was a blast to spend some time with students outside of the classroom!

 

The Mayflower has Arrived

The kindergarten children learned about Pilgrims and the Mayflower. They are going home today wearing their new Pilgrim hats.

Hand-in-Hand Participating in Walking Wednesday

Students were happy to be back at school & participating in Walking Wednesdays again. A kindergarten friend from Mrs. Lenihan's class was excited to get the opportunity to walk hand-in-hand to school with her very own Principal, Mr. Romeo!

Professional Development introduces Braidy

Kindergarten, First grade and Special Education teachers at Macdonough
participated in a workshop during professional development on The Story Braid,
Braidy Doll. The doll helps teach and understand character, setting,
plot, and sequence of events in a story. Above, Miss Vullo is sporting her
very own Braidy Doll. While Mrs. Spaman excitedly volunteered to
read-aloud "The Paper Bag Princess" in order to demonstrate
the use of the Braidy Doll.

Congratulations!

Reading teacher, Miss Michele Lavoie, took third place in her age group at the ninth annual Middlesex Community College Foundation $cholarship 5K Road Race. Despite the frigid temperatures, Miss Lavoie was excited and ready to run her very first 5K race. She was also joined by Miss McKenzie, Principal Romeo, and Miss Claffey. Special thanks to Mr. Nelson for cheering on the runners.

Mock Voting

Students in third, fourth and fifth grades participated in mock voting today. They talked about the candidates for Mayor; Dan Drew, Christine Bourne and Sebastian Giuliano. Students were very enthusiatic about being about to cast their votes in the same voting booths that town members will be voting in on election day. After all the ballots were cast, the votes were counted, and the winner of the Macdonough school Mayoral election was...

Sebastian Giuliano!