Mrs. Scalamonti

Kindergarten has been busy, busy, busy!
We are learning our beginning alphabet sounds and are working on our book handling skills.  Our skills are improving everyday because we never say we can't- we say we can try and we can learn! 
We are also learning to sort objects by color, size and pattern.  This helps us with our math skills.

Mrs. Benedict, Mrs. Johnson, and Miss Iozzi

We have just completed our first reader, and now we are starting "Picture Perfect."  We've been studying vowels, consonants, and  many special sounds.In math we have been using our "Function Machines" to help us add and subtract.  Computation has never been easier!
Mrs. Benedict's class has had a terrific time learning  about autumn.  The children learned a poem, made leaf people and observed the changes go on outdoors.  The boys and girls are really enjoying this colorful new season.

Mrs. Kusher and Mrs. Turi

The second grade has been getting in touch with their feelings through literature.  The children have been reading various books and writing about emotional experiences. 
We are becoming great authors and illustrators.  The classes worked on "fangtastic" and "spooktacular" stories with are displayed in the classrooms.

Mrs. Daum and Mrs. Smith

We have been learning so many exciting things.  We have written personal narratives, as well as informational paragraphs on owls, and we have also worked on descriptive paragraphs.  We had a lot of fun making our compound word puzzles, and our sunflower synonyms, which are on display in the hall outside our classrooms.  We also spent time learning important fire safety rules. Learning how to write in cursive has also been so much fun.

FOURTH GRADE

Mr. Falik
Our class  enjoyed listening to Stories from the Wayside School that were read aloud.  We couldn't wait to hear what happened next at their thirty story high building.  The humor elements of Louis Sachar's book taught us about puns and jargon.  We listed the aspects of reality and fantasy at the Wayside School.  After viewing a model of a compare/contrast between Miller School and the Wayside School, we each selected two things for our own compare/contrast paragraphs. This was our first attempt at expository writing and it was hard to do.  We read our paragraphs aloud and saved them in our portfolios.  After doing one or two a month, we will evaluate our progress.

Mr. Terranova
The fifth grade students are well under way with projects and studies that promise to make this year their greatest school year yet.  Expectations are high and everyone is happy to be back in school.  We have so much to learn, trips to take, letters to write, friends to make, and a show to present.

By the way , if you think you smelled cooked chicken in the hallway, you were right!  Both fifth grade classes participated in a hands-on lab dissecting a chicken wing.  We observed the skeletal, muscular, and circulatory systems.  We used forceps, a plastic knife, and a magnifying glass and followed the procedure in our lab report.  We had a lot of fun.  Too bad you can never eat anything from the Science Lab!  ( I bet it would have tasted better than Mr. Coscia's rubber chickens!!)

Mrs. Butterwick
LANGUAGE ARTS/LITERACY-
First Grade- - First graders are practicing the sounds of the letters and learning lots of new words.  We enjoy reading and rereading our Poetry Journals and small books.  WE also practice writing in our Writing Journals.
Second and Third Grade -  -  Reading and writing activities help us to understand and enjoy the selections from the reading series.  We continue to review sound and letter patterns and and word attack strategies when we learn the new story vocabulary.  Creating story maps, summarizing, sequencing, retelling as well as other activities help us to more fully understand the story.
Fourth and Fifth Grades - - Through reader response activities we learn to analyze the reading selections and extend our understanding of  what we read. 
MATH-
We are practicing basic facts, as well as working with word problems.  In fourth grade we begin with multiplication and division.  In fifth grade , we begin with decimals

Mrs. Director

ESL students this year come from Switzerland, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Russia, India, Lebanon and Egypt.  The students from first through fifth grade have started a new series of content based ESL books and  are ejoying them very much!
Kindergarten children have completed their first rhyme: Humpty Dumpty.  They loved the magnetic board and puzzle they made.
A fourth grader  wrote the following sentences about how it feels to move to a new place