Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Book Bower Field Trips for Macdonough School

Did you know that many of our classes take walking field trips to the Book Bower on Main Street? This wonderful store provides gently used books for very reasonable prices. They have a wide selection of children’s books.

As part of our walking field trips, every child at Macdonough School gets to select a book for free!
 

Monday, February 27, 2012

Kindergarten is off to Mexico!





Our bags are packed and passports in hand. We're ready to go!

Liberty Bank's School Savings Program Coming to Macdonough!

Macdonough School fourth graders will now have the opportunity to participate in Liberty Bank's School Savings Program! 

The program helps students learn the importance of saving for the future.  Students will be able to make deposits right at school.  Additional deposits and withdrawals can be made at any Liberty Bank branch.  Students receive savings register and a monthly statement sent to their home. 

Thanks to our fourth grade teachers for making this opportunity available to our students!

Bob's Discount Furniture Supports Macdonough School

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Macdonough School received a donation from Bob's Discount Furniture's Charitable Foundation to support our families.

The mission of Bob's Charitable Foundation is to support those members of our community who are in need.  Their web site includes the quote “A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world will be a different place because I was important in the life of a child.”

Friday, February 24, 2012

Kindergarten is going to Mexico!














Over the next three weeks Kindergarten will be exploring Mexico. Our bags are packed and ready to go. Stay tuned for updates straight from Mexico!

New Books + Eager Readers = SMILES and SMILES and SMILES!

Smiles of excitement were seen far and wide this week as a collection of classic books was donated to Macdonough School's library.  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Time Machine, and A Little Princess, were among the new novels added to our growing collection.


Special thanks to Associate Superintendent Barbara Senges for this wonderful donation!

Macdonough Students Heading to Big East Championship!

Students from Macdonough School are participating in this year's Homework from the Hardwood program sponsored by the XL Center and the 2012 BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Championship.

Each participating student will receive one free ticket voucher to the Big East Women's Basketball Championship game on Friday, March 2nd.

Special thanks to Miss Sarah Claffey and Miss Michele Lavoie for coordinating this wonderful opportunity for the students of Macdonough School!


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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Learning to Sign

Each Wednesday, students from Wesleyan University come into the first grade classrooms to teach students sign language. The college students teach the first graders vocabulary words that go along with the stories they are reading in school. This week, students learned signs to accompany their story "The Red Eyed Tree Frog." Here they are learning the sign for "tree!"

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

A Book for Macdonough

Special thanks to Associate Superintendent Barbara Senges for her recent donation of a class set of books on Connecticut!


Our fourth grade classes are enjoying learning more and more about our state in preparation for an upcoming field trip to the State Capitol in Hartford.

Middletown District Art Show

The Middletown District Art Show is just around the corner. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, March 10th from 5:00-7:00 p.m.  Artwork from students, K-12, will continue to be on display through Sunday, March 18th at the Zilkha gallery at Wesleyan University.

Congratulations to our young artists and special thanks to art teachers Mrs. Alison Kaye and Mr. Sean Callahan!

Gallery hours are as follows:


Saturday and Sundays: 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Monday- Friday: Noon to 7:00 p.m.

New Books for Macdonough Students!

Macdonough School has been selected for a special book grant by Reading is Fundamental (RIF). The grant, funded by Macy's, will provide one new book to each student from pre-school through fifth grade.


The children will receive the books in conjunction with a springtime reading celebration!

Macdonough School's participation in the RIF program is coordinated by Mrs. Mary Beth Brick.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Poetry and Potluck

In celebration of Bring Your Family to School Week, Ms. Waterman's and Mr. Ferrero's classes came together with family members to create color poems and enjoy fantastic treats. Parents and students worked together to brainstorm ideas for their poems by answering questions such as what colors look like, what colors feel like, sound like, and smell like. Students then used these ideas and thoughts to create poems about colors. Students later completed a final copy in the computer lab. Thanks to our wonderful families' help and participation, our gathering was a success!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

4th Graders share Smoothies and Stories with their Families!

Miss Morello's class hosted their families for Smoothies and Stories during Bring Your Family to School week. Throughout the month of January, students wrote narrative stories. They learned about the writing process of drafting, editing and revising, and publication. Students also illustrated their own stories. Families enjoyed fresh fruit smoothies while listing to students read.


Dallas read his story outloud and was very proud of his hard work!

Michael and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Katz are displaying stories written by Michael.

Here is Mariah with her dad!

Kenny enjoyed some family fun!

Here is Jenna and India and Mr. Weston!

Sean's little brother suprised Sean and took part in listening to his awesome story.

Anthony was shared his story with his grandmother, mother and two sisters!








First Grade Family Reading

First graders invited thier families into school to read. Students wrote books which included a page about each one of their family members. The first graders read these books to their moms, dads, grandparents and siblings! We had a great time sharing the love of reading with each other!


4th Graders share Smoothies and Stories

This morning, 4th graders hosted Smoothies and Stories! They shared stories they have been working on in writing and healthy smoothies with their families and friends! They had been working on their stories all week and so they were very excited and proud to share them with all who came!

Here are Haley, Karon,and Ivan sharing with Haley's mom and Ivan's dad!

Here is Amir sharing his story with his mom!

Here is Cynthia reading her story to her mom and Alanna and Alijah!


Here are Anija and Cody sharing with their families. Cody is very proud of his story!

Here is Ms.DiBacco preparing the delicious smoothies!

Food Drive at Macdonough School

Students and staff at Macdonough School brought in lots and lots of non-perishable food items this week to donate to our friends at the Amazing Grace Food Pantry!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Kindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of School!





















Kindergarten celebrated the 100th day of school by counting 100 fruit loops to make a necklace. Then we enjoyed a one hundred snack.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Learning with Love











Today the Kindergarten children invited their families into school. They made candy graphs and a Valentine heart. The families even got to feast on some wonderful red fruit and vegetables.

Valentines Day in Kindergarten!

Today is Valentines Day! In Kindergarten, we passed out valentines to each other to put in our valentines bags. We had lots of fun seeing what kind of valentines everyone made for each other.











Monday, February 13, 2012

First Grade Works on Teamwork!

During our second step lesson with Mr. Nat today, we played a fun game called Jenga. We learned skills on how to work as a team and how to give each other positive reinforcement. Thanks for a fun team building lesson, Mr. Nat!

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