Dear Parents and Guardians:

It always amazes me how fast each school year goes! I can’t believe that we have been in school over 100 days! That equates to more than 600 hours of time spent with your students. The students and staff have been busy during those 600 plus hours.

We continue to work with students on the year long theme of empathy. Putting themselves in someone else’s shoes is a difficult concept for children of this age. At this developmental stage, we are working toward having stu-dents consider how what they say and do impacts other students. We begin each morning with our announce-ments and we end each announcement with a student reminder: “At MES before we speak, we look, think, ask and be smart, it’s hard to fix a wrinkled heart.” This re-minder is for students to 1) look at the person with whom they are interacting 2) think about how their ac-tions are impacting the other person 3) ask the person if they can help or what they need to feel better and 4) make a smart decision. I am proud of our stu-dents every day for their demonstration of these skills.

Principal’s Message

We had a very busy second quarter for the PATT. We started November with our Fairy Book fair. It was quickly followed up with our Breathe NH discount books and Santa Breakfast in December. All of these events exceeded our fundraising goals. This money will go to many programs planned for our students such as assemblies, author visits, and an Artist in Residence. We also provide dinner for the teachers during Parent Conferences.

These events would not be able to take place without the help of volunteers. This quarter we will be having our PATT board elections. The 2 board positions that are up for election are Secretary and Volunteer Coordinator. Without a full board we cannot put together fundraising events and programs for our students. If you have any questions about these positions, feel free to email Sam Heighton jmespattpresident@gmail.com. We also welcome anyone to our PATT meetings. Our next meeting will be on February 20th at 6:30pm in the JMES library. We hope to see you all there!

PATT Presidents’ Message

February 2019

Did You Know…

Assistant Principal’s Message

… on November 13th, we held our annual Principal’s Sto-ry Hour where Preschool, Kindergarten, First Grade and Office Staff all came together in costume and act-ed out and read a story book to the audience? Stu-dents came with their families and dressed in their pajamas and came with sleeping bags and pillows to get comfortable for the exciting night. If you missed it this year, stay tuned for this event next year!

… our first round of Parent-Teacher conferences were held in November and we were at school on two different nights for parents and guardians to come in and discuss student progress to date? The PATT group was even kind enough to put dinner out for the teach-ers and staff who were here for the two different nights! A big thank you goes out to all of the parents

Principal’s Message Cont’d Page 8

1

Sam Heighton

PATT President

Did You Know… Cont’d Page 7

Preschool December brought snow and winter celebrations to both classes. Both classes focused their literacy activities around the famous Gin-gerbread stories, complete with gingerbread playdough to “bake” with in the kitchen. Their holiday celebration was a pajama day when the students had the opportunity to make cookies and participate in a

special reading of The Polar Express together!

Afternoon classes (Rooms 2 and 4)

Morning class (Room 2 and Room 4)

Since returning in January both classes have been talk-ing, creating, reading and learning about such winter things as polar animals, the math magic of snowflakes,

and some themed reading and activities about mittens!

This week, Ms. Angi’s class moved on to focus on PEACE in honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday and the dreams he had for a

peaceful world. We are learning the poem:

“Hand in hand, across the land. For Martin’s dream, we choose to stand! We say it loud! We say it clear! PEACE and LOVE throughout the year!”

Kindergarten We have been quite busy in Kindergarten! The children have been enjoying their full day program including going to specials, library, participating in our science STEM experiments along with their time as a whole grade level during lunch and recess! We have been con-tinuing to emphasize our school theme this year regarding empathy. The students receive daily positive messages and reminders on the morning announcements, during guidance visits from Ms. Early as well as through our “Gotcha” tickets where students can earn a “Gotcha” for following the Big 3 (Safety, Respect and Responsibility)

as well as Empathy!

In the classroom students are working with numbers up through ten and practicing how to count and compare numbers as well as learn-ing how to do basic addition! We often incorporate math into calendar time by counting up the days of the month, counting backwards and how to represent a number based on its place values (tens and

ones).

We also have our writer’s workshop where students have been hard at work learning how to become a stronger writer. We talk a lot about the writing process using our three page stories that students create. Students are practicing stretching out words to spell them out based on the sounds they hear and putting “finger spaces” between each word. We have also introduced capital letters and punctuation! The children have really come to enjoy writer’s workshop and creating

their own stories!

We have also been busy with guided reading groups in which stu-dents are placed in small groups by levels to practice the fundamental skills needed to become readers. Students really enjoy this time and

discovering their new group book each week!

The children have been working hard these past few months. It is amazing to see the growth from the first month of school until now! We look forward to continue watching them grow! Thank you for all of

your support! Please call or email if you have any ques-

tions.

First Grade

As the cool winds of winter blow through the first grade hallway stu-dent learning is heating up. From writing teaching books to reading non-fiction texts, students are discovering the joy of reading to learn. Our writing is very purposeful as we reflect on our own knowledge and teach our classmates using diagrams, pictures and sentences.

Math wakes us up each morning as our brains learn to “think” about math. We are applying skills in challenging ways that deepen our knowledge of place value and number sense. We are building a strong foundation of skills!

Miss Boghigian Mrs. Bolduc Mrs. Fournier Miss Ricard

Miss DesRoches Mrs. Lubelczyk

2

Miss Mills Mrs. Steadman

Mrs. Perron Mrs. Womersley

Second Grade

Second graders have worked very hard this quarter! Not only did our mathematicians learn many different strate-gies for solving addition and subtraction problems within one hundred, they applied these strategies to real world problems. They finished publishing their narrative writing, which we call “small moment stories” in the classroom, and began learning about lab reports and the scientific method.

Students have also conducted science experiments related to force and motion and are now starting to write formal lab reports.

In reading, we continued to work on applying reading comprehension strategies in both fiction and non-fiction texts.

Lastly, we learned about different holidays celebrated around the world. We are proud of all of our students’ hard work and look forward to future accomplishments.

Third Grade

We are sliding right into winter! We have been busy working

on Opinion/Persuasive Writing during Writer’s Workshop. Stu-

dents have enjoyed learning about the structure of this type of

writing and giving good evidence to support an opinion about

a topic.

In literacy we have been focusing on College and Career Readi-

ness Standards to help students better understand what they

are reading using fiction and nonfiction texts. We are also

learning about genres in partnership with the library. We have

also been utilizing online research tools through Merrimack

Links, as well as QR Coding for texts and learning about the

Solar System.

During these cold winter months, have your child access Xtra-

Math from home. This activity is a great way to reinforce the

multiplication and division facts taught in class. We have been

creating Dream Houses connecting our knowledge of Area and

Perimeter. Check out the square footage of rooms in your

homes for fun!

Our students have been busy exploring the solar system as we

journey to the planets and learn about our galaxy. We went on

our field trip to the McAuliffe/Shepard Planetarium. We are

excited to have you join us for an afternoon of Space Explora-

tion! Hope you can all join us on February 8th!!

Fourth Grade

Throughout the second quarter in fourth grade, students completed their persuasive writing essays and shared them with their peers. They also read nonfiction texts, analyzed text fea-tures, and generated “I wonder” statements. In math this quarter, students practiced multi-digit multiplication using a variety of strategies. T

The NH Fit Kids program visits our school to encourage fourth graders to practice healthy habits. This coincides with the structures of the human body science unit which we will begin at the end of this month. In social studies, students researched the regions of NH. They are looking forward to our cul-minating project of creating a commercial for a NH attraction.

Mrs. Champigny Miss Ireland Mrs. Peña Mrs. Pearson

Mrs. Adams Mrs. Bradford Mrs. Ortega Mrs. Theriault

Miss Ackroyd Mrs. Cordeiro Mrs. Donahoe Mrs. Marble

3

Kindergarten and Grade 1 students have mastered basic mouse skills and web-site navigation! Students can inde-pendently open their assignments and move from one activi-ty to the next. It is wonderful to watch them become more self-sufficient with their work. Grade 2 students have been exposed to word pro-cessing with Microsoft Word. They completed activities themed to Halloween and Thanksgiving that reinforced their typing skills along with how to work with images within the Word document. 3rd and 4th Graders worked with images in PowerPoint through activities themed to Thanksgiving and Winter. For-matting skills such as crop, order, and copy/paste were ad-dressed. Grade 4 students were introduced to stop-motion animation with a fun activity that had them turn themselves into a dancing elf. All of our students participated in the Hour of Code during Computer Science Education Week in December. With the start of the new year, all grades began a full coding unit uti-lizing grade-level courses through Code.org.

Technology Corner

Math Corner Our MES Mathematicians!

This quarter in math, kindergarteners are learning how to write and understand double digit numbers. They will venture as high as the

number 20. Keep on counting!

First grade is practicing their place value. They are working with ones, tens, and hundreds. They are learning the importance of each

number and its value.

Second grade is exploring time and money. They are practicing solving problems using coins and dollars. For time, they are working

within five minutes as well as time before and after the hour.

Third grade is wrapping up multi-digit addition and subtraction. They will be soaring towards fractions shortly!

Fourth grade just finished diving deep into division. They are now starting their fun with fractions!

4 Important Reasons to Read to Your Child

Reason #1: Children who read often become not on-

ly good readers, but develop stronger

writing and math skills!

Reason #2: Reading to a child or having a child read

to you for twenty minutes a day, exposes

the them to about 1.8 million extra vo-

cabulary words a year!

Reason #3: Reading at home provides children with

opportunities to practice the skills taught

in school, which helps develop confi-

dence in the classroom!

Reason #4: Reading positively affects a brain’s cogni-

tive ability.

Excited to read?

Start a routine with your child today!

Mrs. Robie ETI

Literacy Corner

Mrs. Newcomb Language Arts Coordinator

4

Mrs. Donahoe

Math Facilitator

Art

The Music room was a very busy place during the second quar-ter!

In Kindergarten we continued exploring (and correctly using) our speaking, shouting, whispering, and singing voices. We met some new furry friends who have helped us begin creatively using our singing voices through arioso song tales!

In first grade we explored the celebrations of Kwanzaa, Hanuk-kah, and Christmas. We spent time learning about each holiday and it’s customs, symbols, and dances. We learned songs re-lating to each celebration and then compared and contrasted the three holidays to see the similarities and differences be-tween them.

Second Graders learned about many different holidays celebrat-ed around the world and the music that accompanies those celebrations. In music class, we learned new songs and games representing each holiday.

Third Graders have been counting and clapping rhythms in songs, dances and games. We’ve spent a lot of time learning all of the line and space notes in the treble clef and memorizing them in preparation for our upcoming recorder unit!

In fourth grade, students learned how to play the hand chimettes. These instruments are a great classroom tool as every child receives one note that when put together with the entire class, can create a song. Students really enjoyed playing in the classroom bell ensembles and we learned a lot about music along the way!

Fitness Fun News

The Kindergarteners have completed most of their

locomotor movement units and are moving into an

introductory Physical Fitness unit. After which they

will start working on Non-locomotor movements and

then move into manipulative skills.

The 1st & 2nd graders have also completed locomotor

movements and are fully into their Fitness unit,

learning the 5-Health Components of Fitness and

how to maintain their fitness. They will also be mov-

ing into non-locomotor movements and manipula-

tive skills after the fitness unit.

The 3rd & 4th graders have completed their Running

& Striking Games Unit (Kickball). They are also in

their Fitness Unit now learning how to perform the

Fitness Tests that they will need to complete next

year in the Upper Elementary. They will next be

moving into their Net & Wall games unit.

Music

Rainbow songs, rainbow chicks, rainbow monsters combined with drawing, water color painting and cut paper collage and a good dose of imagination was the rage this quarter in kindergarten art.

Inspired by Ed Emberley’s book Go Away Big Green Monster wild and crazy monsters now “reside” in the art room created by grade one artists.

Building their body awareness and with fun physical activity grade one learned about the importance of the joints of their bodies. Then we moved on to creating some very “Funky characters” using mosaic tiles and adding the limbs and joints to the body to show action.

Second graders were reminded that all drawings begin with simple lines and shapes and skillfully drew dragonflies. They were introduced to the important concept of overlapping to create visual depth in their art. They ended by using water color resist to achieve stunning results.

Third grade is crazy about squirrels! After reading about the influx of the squirrel population and the environmental impact in the newspa-per we couldn’t resist drawing them in the art room. The lesson emphasis was on texture, line quality and drawing with simple shapes.

Early in the term grade four lessons went forward with new learning in their shaded harvest drawings. The kids learned about the qualities of different types of pencils, gray scale and using shading to create the illusion of depth and shape. This project also gave me an opportunity to introduce one point perspective. This was an exciting first time experience for grade 4 students. This art making project included many fine art lessons and the children were excited to be able to enhance their plain pencil drawings

Mr. Croteau

PE Teacher

Mrs. Bosiak, Art Teacher

5

Music cont’d on page 7

Library News

I have enjoyed settling in to the library and getting to know

the children this quarter. Since I became the librarian on No-

vember 6, 2018 a total of 4,417 books have been checked

out of our library! A few of our favorite new books include

the Phoebe and Her Unicorn Series, The Bad Guys Series, and

the “Who Would Win?” Series. My favorite new picture

books include A Small Thing, but Big by Tony Johnson, and

Did You eat the Parakeet? By Mark Iacolina

All of the classes have come down to the library to meet me,

review library expectations, and learn how the library is orga-

nized. Preschool and kindergarten classes come once a week

to hear a story, and learn beginning library skills. We begin

each group lesson with a “Would You Rather?” question. This

helps us learn about each other, supports reasoning and de-

cision making, and incorporates early math skills. An a few

examples include “Would you rather have M&MS or

Skittles?” and “Would you rather be invisible or be able to

fly?” – The students overwhelmingly chose being invisible!

First through fourth graders check out books in small groups

throughout the week in a flexible schedule. First graders

have had lessons on identifying parts of a book and classify-

ing books as fiction or not fiction. Second grade students are

learning to use the online catalog to find books searching by

title, subject or author.

First graders are completing their weather unit. They have been learning to identify different types of weather conditions and what types of tools are used to make recordings and observations.

Second graders have begun their Force and Motion unit, which ties into their informational writing unit. Students are busy experimenting with race cars and writing lab reports!

Third graders have been hard at work learning about our solar system. They will be visiting the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium.

Fourth graders have just begun the “Fit Kids Pro-gram.” This is a one hour lesson, once a week, on nutrition and fitness that coincides with the human body science unit. Ask your fourth grader what it takes to be a fit kid!

Scientists at Work!

Wellness Notes

Mrs. Cordeiro

Science Facilitator

The Wellness Committee

Library News cont’d page 8

6

The Wellness Committee has been working on many activities for both the students and

staff. They are currently asking students and staff to bring in picture of what they did for

activities over the holiday break. These will be posted around the school hallways.

We are looking at having a school wide Winter Activity day in February and possibly a 4th

grade (team) vs staff (team) basketball game in March.

Some of Mrs. Robie’s Computer classes are currently looking to create some new 5-2-1-0

wellness posters for the building to replace the older ones that we are running out of.

Nurse’s Corner Let’s Talk About Lice

The school year always brings a few cases of lice, this year is

no exception. Hearing the word lice often makes children

and parents scared, but I hope that you will find the infor-

mation below helpful to remove any myths you may have

heard about lice.

Management of head lice has changed since you went to

school. Lice do NOT live on animals. Lice do NOT hop, jump,

or fly! They are transferred by head to head contact, most

often at sleepovers, NOT school. Head lice are NOT a sign of

uncleanliness, clean hair is much easier to latch onto. Hats

and coats touching are NOT sources of lice. School wide

head checks are NOT effective management nor is it recom-

mend by the CDC, National Association of School Nurses or

the AAP, (American Academy of Pediatrics). No Nit policies

are also NO longer recommended, as such, students will

NOT be excluded for head lice. If head lice is found on a

student, the parents will be notified with a strong recom-

mendation to start proper treatment.

What Should You do as Parents?

Frequently check your child’s head at home. Early De-

tection is key!

Teach your child not to share any personal items, such

as clothing, brushes, combs, hats, etc.

Treat your child if lice are found and remove all nits

(eggs).

Social Studies

JMES students are continuing to work hard in the area of So-

cial Studies. We celebrated Veterans Day with a school wide

assembly. We were lucky have some heroes join us! A big

THANK YOU to all family members who are veterans. We ap-

preciate your service to our country. Later this quarter we

celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. and learned what a coura-

geous man he was. Children across the school started the

new year reflecting on 2018 and thinking of goals for 2019.

Mrs. Adams Social Studies Facilitator

Mrs. Beaudet

Music Teacher

7

Nurse’s Corner cont’d Page 8

and guardians who were able to come and discuss all of the milestones we are seeing your students make this year, as well as a big thank you to the PATT for helping teachers eat dinner on the nights that we are here late for conferences! Thank you, all!

… the first day of December was marked by our annual Santa Breakfast at the Merrimack High School? Student, parents, friends and staff came down on a Saturday to take pictures with Santa Claus, eat pancakes, play games and make crafts. Thank you very much to the PATT who puts on the event and does all of the cooking to make this fun event possible!

… on December 13th of 2018, third and fourth graders had a chorus concert led by Mrs. Beaudet and they rocked the house? Students sang their hearts out and were festive in spirit and attire. Thank you again to Mrs. Beaudet and all of the teachers and staff who came out to make that night such a memorable occasion.

Kind Regards,

Alisha Hansen-Proulx

Did You Know… Cont’d

The 3rd and 4th Grade chorus was busy too, preparing for the winter concert! In December the chorus presented, “Sing A Song This Winter Night” for both the school and parents. This was a fun yet rigorous concert where we presented many different styles of music while learning how to sing in two parts, rounds, and partner songs. We also added bell chimette and boomwhacker instrumentation generating some great holiday cheer!

Music cont’d

Preschool Cont’d

8

Principal’s Message Cont’d

(Nits are tiny plump, pearl gray colored, oval-shaped

attached to the hair and cannot be easily moved)

Wash bedding with hot water and use a dryer

Non-washable items can be put in a HOT dryer

for 20mins

Things that cannot be washed or dried should

be sealed in a plastic bag for 2 weeks

Soak combs/brushes for 1hr using rubbing alco-

hol, Lysol or soap and hot water

Communicate – call all your child’s friends and let them

know so they can check their children. Wouldn’t you

want to know?

If you do not know how to identify lice or nits, talk to me or

call your child’s pediatrician. I am more than happy to help!

Let us work together to help stamp out the social stigma of

Pediculosis (head lice).

If you have any questions – please call

me!

Take care,

Michelle Webster, RN

Nurses Corner Cont’d

Mrs. Compton Library Media Specialist

I am grateful for the amount of volunteers that we have here at Mastricola. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all you do for our students and staff. Our volunteers spend thousands of hours over the course of the year copying, working in the library, chaperoning field trips, ripping out workbook pages, cooking soups for parent con-ferences, creating and hanging artwork, and helping in the lunchroom. These are just a few of the invaluable ways that parents support us. If you are interested in volunteering, please don’t hesitate to contact Sarah Summerfield at jmes-volunteercoordinator@gmail.com. She will be happy to answer any questions you may have. As a reminder, all volun-teers, including chaperones and Field Day volunteers, must complete online training through Primex on bullying and sexual harassment. These training videos can be found at: www.nhprimex.org. Thank you!

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or concerns you may have about your student. I can be reached by phone: 424-6218 or email: michelle.romein@sau26.org. Thank you for being a partner in your child’s educational experience at MES.

Respectfully,

Michelle Romein Principal

Library News cont’d

Third grade students have come to the library to learn how

to use online research tools for to find information on Na-

tive Americans.

We also created space dictionaries using both online and

print resources. Fourth graders have been learning how to

use online data bases to research regions of New Hamp-

shire. They have visited to library to learn map skills as part

of their New Hampshire unit.

In the last few weeks I have hosted book talks for many

classes, I selected great series books to introduce to stu-

dents, who used our Mimiovote system to vote on whether

or not they would read the books. The children found the

technology engaging and discovered some new books they

may not have found on their own.