Frenchtown March Newsletter
March 2016
Growth Mindset
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL, MRS. CHERYL VAUGHN
I recall having a conversation with my 5 year old granddaughter that really struck me. This precocious little Kindergartener was telling me about the “smartest kid” in her class. I thought for sure she saw herself as intelligent and capable! When I asked her why she
thought Matthew was the smartest student, she informed me that he knew the name of
the first president. I pointed out that she did, too. As a matter of fact, she has learned the
names and the terms of the first 20 presidents. She then told me that Matthew knew George Washington’s name and birth date. I suddenly realized that something has happened in this little girl’s life to make her doubt her abilities and compare herself to others. In the mind of a grandmother, there is no room for comparison! In the mind of an educator, this mindset was a very dangerous one for her… a fixed mindset. What I wanted more than anything for her was to see herself once again as a capable and lifelong learner. We spent time reviewing some of the many things she has learned over the course of her life. In the end, she understood that a truly “smart” person is one who takes the opportunity to learn everyday!
Do you have similar conversations with your child? Does it sometimes knock you off your feet when you hear your child compare himself to others? What’s a parent to do? Help your child see himself as a learner rather than a superstar. Help him to see that what matters is that he went to school, tried his very best and learned something new. Rather than asking, “What did you do at school today?” ask “What did you learn today?”
Our mission at Frenchtown states “The mission of Frenchtown School is to ensure the development of each student’s intellectual, physical, social and emotional growth. We are a collaborative learning community nurturing excellence by engaging in problem solving, critical thinking and reflective learning.”
We believe that developing the potential of each student begins with a thorough understanding of each student. We recognize that the learning path of each child is not a pre-designed plan, rather one that emerges over time.
The teachers at Frenchtown have engaged in a four part professional development series on Differentiated Instruction. We focused on looking at learning goals through the lens of student interest, readiness and learning profiles. Teachers know that a growth mindset means a focus on learning rather than absolute achievement. Teachers are encouraged to focus less on grades and more on growth. Does performance below a district benchmark determine future success for a child? Hardly! For children at this developmental stage, our conversations need to be sending the message that each child is a capable, lifelong learner.
Thank you for joining us in this journey of creating learning as a process rather than a product!
Wellness Policy
Why do we have a WELLNESS POLICY?
As you may have read in the various news/health publications, childhood nutritional issues are a big concern in our country today. National and local mandates no longer allow us to operate as we have in decades past. In a young child’s life, both the family and the classroom models have tremendous impact on the formation of ideas and habits a student carries forth through his/her entire life. For this reason, we know we are obligated to consistently model healthy habits and to avoid unintentionally endorsing others. At Meadowbrook Farms Elementary we have been trying to adjust our practices for the health and well being of our students since 2004. It has come to our attention that some of our school policies have been inconsistently practiced or misinterpreted in the past. I would like to take this space to clarify the policies regarding food, snacks and beverages, and hopefully answer any questions you may have as well as solicit exciting new healthy ideas for school use.
School Implementation
We ask that within our school day or extended day programs, food not be used as rewards for academic, classroom, sports performances, or activities. Foods of minimal nutritional values should not be sold, given away or used as prizes by school administrators, staff (principals, coaches, teachers, etc.), students, student groups, parents or parent groups or any other organizations. Food can with certain protocols be used as part of a learning curriculum. The activity should have a valid learning connection and enhance the established curriculum. Parents will be notified of these activities at least one week ahead and will be informed of the ingredients to be used as part of the lesson. Parents will have the opportunity to exempt or modify food items for their child, if they wish. The food will be prepared according to Health Dept. guidelines for safe food handling.
Parent’s Rights
This policy in no way restricts what parents may provide for their own child’s lunch or snacks. Parents may provide whatever items they wish for their own child’s lunch but they may not provide food items to other children at school. School nurses are exempt from these policies, if necessary, in the course of providing health care to individual students as directed by the student’s physician. There may be times when the school asks parents to voluntarily avoid sending a particular item in their child’s lunch due to an allergy of a child or children in the class or group. Those that can not comply with the request can certainly be reasonably accommodated by contacting the teacher or principal.
New Ideas
There is certainly much to celebrate at our school throughout the year. School celebrations are important. They provide an opportunity for us to engage in many different types of activities such as music, dance, sports, physical movement, art activities, treasure hunts, outdoor exploration, raffles, special visitors, etc., without using food as the main event. If you have ideas for non food celebrations or fundraisers please let us know. We are very interested in exploring new concepts in this area.
Thank-you to all of you in our school community for respecting these policies which we believe help us to encourage good health, maintain a safe environment for individual student health concerns and respect the dietary/ nutritional practices of all families.
Mrs Simmons would like your feedback for Frenchtown's Wellness SIT Subcommittee!
BOKS! Volunteers needed!
BOKS (Build Our Kids’ Success), an initiative of the Reebok Foundation, is a FREE before school physical activity program aimed to get children moving in the morning and their brains ready for a day of learning. Exercise optimizes the function of our brains, so what a way to start the day!
This has been very successful in the past at Frenchtown. We are now looking for a team of 5-6 volunteers to lead this initiative!
For more information or to lend your assistance, please contact the Rhode Island BOKS mentor, Nancy Day at boksinri@gmail.com or learn more at www.bokskids.org
Automated Attendance Calls
If your child will be absent or tardy, please call in to the absentee line at 884-4713 by 8:30.
Wacky Wednesday!
WACKY
‘SDRAWKCAB’ (BACKWARDS)
WEDNESDAY
Dear Staff and Students,
In honor of Dr. Seuss’ Birthday and inspired by his book, Wacky Wednesday, you are invited to join us for "Wacky Backwards Wednesday" on Wednesday, March 4th.
On this day, we will be dressing “WaCKy” and doing things backwards. We plan to wear our clothes backwards or inside-out and/or wear mismatched socks or shoes or strange hairdos or hats. Let your imagination go WiLd !
Happy Birthday to our Frenchtown Friends:
February 27: Benjamin S.
February 28: Zoe S.
March 4: Emma P.
Upcoming Events:
March 24 and 25: No School
In the classrooms:
Parent links to curriculum:
Math:
Understanding addition as adding together and subtraction as taking apart.
Newsletter:
E/LA
L.K.1
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
Print many upper- and lowercase lettersFundations:
Trick Words: is, his
Decoding Words
Sentence Structure
Grade 1:
Math
- Sorico 3.1
-Envisions Unit 5: doubles, doubles plus 1 and 2, two-question word problems
ELA
- Unit 3.1
-Continuation of compare/contrast main ideas and details of stories in whole group and guided reading groups
Science/SS
-Dental Health
-Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss
-Continuation of Plants Kit
Grade 2:
Math
Second graders will be learning about data and measurement. They will practice graphing various data using bar graphs, pictographs, and line plots.
Newsletter: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5ig7132x2nwtv12/AAC3vEn8s_syQZUm1Hpqzl77a/2.3.2%20Parent%20Newsletter%20.pdf?dl=0
E/LA
Students will be reading different versions of George Washington biographies. They will practice taking notes from the text , focusing on relevant details. We also will be discussing the importance of looking at more than one resource when researching a specific topic.
Reading
Students continue to read both fiction and non-fiction texts in class. They are doing an excellent job identifying text features.
