CONFERENCES
,
November 6- 8
. You should have received an email to Sign Up Genius to register for conferences. Please sign up and please be aware that there will be
NO SCHOOL
on Friday November 8 for conferences and EDP is
NOT
available.
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Don't forget to set your clocks back an hour,
if you have not already done so. Can you believe we are back on Central Standard Time? Can winter be far behind? Let me take this opportunity to remind you that we go out to recess every day except in rain or the temperature is below 20º. Snow does not deter us!! Please make sure your children have
jackets, hats, gloves, snow pants and boots
so they are prepared for any weather.
We are looking for light weight sleds. If you have any around the house that you do not want, please think about bringing them in for recess. There is a small hill in Alexander Park that is perfect for safe sledding.
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If you know of a prospective family who missed the Open House but is still interested in finding out more about Roycemore, please share that we will be holding a Lower School group tour next week. Please have them contact Amanda Avery Director of Admissions, to register, but also know that walk-ins are always welcome.
Lower School Tour
Tuesday, November 5th
9:00-10:00 am
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Grandparents and Special Friends Day
A fun annual tradition at Roycemore is Grandparents and Special Friends Day. This year, the event will take place on
November 26th
, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving break. Please make sure that we have up-to-date information in Parents Web for your student's grandparents. We love having these special family members visit us on campus and showing them what Roycemore is all about.
Grandparents and Special Friends Day
Tuesday, November 26th
8:30-11:00am
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What's Cool in Lower School
Reading, the Foundation of Learning
A love of reading can be a life changer. Teaching and motivating students to read may be the most single valuable thing teachers do, as reading influences every aspect of a person’s life. Roycemore’s Lower School has given much time, thought, and effort to developing a multi- dimensional reading program. While many schools are forgoing phonics instruction in favor of a “balanced literacy program” or “whole language program,” which includes reading comprehension, reading strategies, fluency and vocabulary, research is showing that phonological awareness and phonics programs are essential components for students to become good readers.
At Roycemore, our reading program is multi-dimensional. Phonics instruction begins in preschool where the Pre-Kindergarten students are taught the sounds through a multi-sensory program called
Zoo Phonics.
It is a fun experience for them. They say a phrase “Ally Alligator says /a/ (the short vowel). They see a picture of an alligator as the letter. They love it! They continue with
Zoo Phonics
in Junior Kindergarten, but add the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Program. Phonemic Awareness is an important and reliable predictor of later reading ability and has therefore been the focus of much research. Phonemic awareness is the specific ability to focus on and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words, which helps to develop automatic recognition of words. This continues through Second Grade.
In Kindergarten, instead of
Zoo Phonics
, we continue with Heggerty and incorporate two important programs, one provides phonics instruction and one focuses on comprehension, including reading strategies, fluency, and vocabulary. The phonics instruction is the Wilson Reading Program, which is a systematic, sequential, multi-sensory approach to decoding and encoding (spelling). Extensive research has shown that systematic phonics instruction leads to better word-level skills than does just whole-language instruction. For the language comprehension side of reading, we use the Lucy Calkins reading workshop. With these three programs (Wilson, Heggerty, and Calkins), our reading program contains all the elements for children to be successful readers: phonemic awareness, systematic phonics instruction, and reading comprehension.. With these three elements, our reading program provides excellent instructions to meet the needs of all our students.
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AFTER SCHOOL ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES
Each week I will list all the activities that we offer, but do know that sometimes, some of them will not go. Please check them to see which ones are going that week. This week because of conferences many clubs are not going. Please look carefully.
Lego Club
will meet Monday, November 4 in the First Grade Classroom from 3:15-4:00.
Drama
will meet Monday, November 4 in the LS Music Room from 3:30-4:15.
Martial Arts
will meet Tuesday, November 5 in the Gross Motor Room attached to the EDP Room from 3:15-4:00.
Ukulele
will meet Tuesday, November 5 in the LS Music Room from 3:15-4:00
Sprout
will meet Tuesday
November 5
in the LS Art Room 118 from 3:15-5:15.
Cross Country
will NOT meet Wednesday,
November 6
in the Grade 3 Classroom from 3:15-4:00. Pick up in the Dining Hall
Drama
will meet Wednesday,
November 6
in the LS Music Room. from 3:30-4:15.
Sprout
will meet Wednesday,
November 6
in the LS Art Room 118 from 3:15-5:15.
Math Club
will NOT meet Thursday,
November 7
in the 3rd Grade Classroom from 2:00-3:00
Fencing
will meet Thursday,
November 7
in the Dining Hall from 2:00-3:00.
Chess Club
will NOT meet Thursday,
November 7
in the Grade 4 classroom from 3:00-4:00
Fitness Fun Friday
will NOT meet Friday,
November 8
in the Gym from 3:15-4:00.
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What's Happening Around Lower School
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1.What is more fun this time of year, then Spooky Science with the Upper Schoolers. This class was learning about pumpkin DNA. Another class made lava lamps.
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2.The 2nd Grade Expo was fabulous as each child created a machine that incorporated all the simple machines they had learned and then explained how it worked and how they built it.
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3.The 3rd and 4th Graders have been doing pumpkin math with the pumpkins that they grew in the Roycemore garden. They measured the pumpkins, counted the seeds, made graphs of what they discovered and then made pumpkin bread!!
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PICTURES FROM THE WEEK!
Most of these are pictures from what you have read above.
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Please remember that Roycemore Lower School is a nut/peanut-free environment.
Please remember this when you send in birthday treats and snacks for your children.
There are many other allergies, specific to individual children, so please check with your classroom teacher before sending in treats.
Thank you in advance for caring about all of our children.
Please remember when you need more information, such as lunch menus, the weekly bulletin, and reminders of upcoming special events, go to the Parents' Page on our web site at
http://www.roycemoreschool.org/parents
As usual, if you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to call or e-mail me.
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