By: Becky Welch
Faculty, staff and students at East Chester are in a thankful mood these days! Teachers are thankful for the staff that takes care of them and the students they get to teach each day. Students are thankful for a safe place to come to learn and for teachers who care.
We are all thankful for this week off from school to spend time with friends and family.
Pre-K welcomed parents, grandparents and other special guests for their annual Thanksgiving feast on Thursday.
Kindergarten filled the school with visitors as they performed their annual Thanksgiving play on Thursday and had their feast on Friday. There were so many cute Pilgrims and Indians at East Chester.
They also learned about Native Americans, Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving.
In math they decomposed numbers as well as worked on addition. In ELA they learned about syllables (counting and producing).
First graders at East Chester were excited to be studying outer space! They learned about Earth’s rotation, tilt and orbit as well as about the moon and its phases! In Mrs. Leah’s class they studied about the moon phases. Last week they enjoyed using cookies to create the phases of the moon, and, of course, the best part was eating them afterward. Mrs. Nancy Burns’s I/E kids worked on a space project. Students learned about the ISS and how living on it would be different than living on earth. Students learned how to eat, sleep, wash their hair and brush their teeth in space. Students made a graphic organizer of information and did their writing on a big poster to finish up. First graders learned skills in math, including comparing numbers and measurement! First graders at East explored time periods of U.S. history about the first Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, the students will be learning about their relationship to the state of Tennessee!
Second graders completed their study of change makers in American history. They wrote about people who inspired them to be a change maker today. Some of the change makers they are inspired by are the “sit-in” kids, Wilma Rudolph, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Elizabeth Blackwell, Rosa Parks and the children of Birmingham. In math second graders worked hard on their biggest math standard of the year – adding and subtracting with regrouping! Practice those basic math facts at home! All second graders worked on designing a new suit for Santa. They designed a new suit for him as well as wrote a letter to Mrs. Claus and Elvin the Elf explaining why their suit is the best one for Santa. We can not wait to see what great designs come back after break! Be sure to check out the LARGE Christmas tree at the City Hall! East Chester’s second graders made recycled ornaments for the tree!
Third graders in Mrs. Murphy’s math enrichment class designed their “dream tree house.” The students drew blueprints and found the area and perimeter of each item in their tree house. They had such a great time with their designs! They continued to work on becoming fluent with multiplication and division facts.
We also solved problems involving multiplication and division. We are gearing up for area next! In Mrs. Amy and Mrs. Murphy’s CKLA reading class, the kids learned about the invertebrates and vertebrates in the animal kingdom. Last week, the kids read about the taxonomy of birds.
The kids will next begin their mammal study.
We hope that everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving Break. Parents, please be aware of some BIG IMPORTANT events happening after our break. On Monday-Thursday after Thanksgiving Break, our students will be taking their iReady Reading tests. Monday will be K; Tuesday, first; Wednesday, second; and Thursday, third. Saturday night, Dec. 7, will be our Cookies with Santa event. Dec. 9-13 will be our iReady Math test. Santa Shop also will begin this week. Make plans now for our Christmas Chicken Dinner and Program on Thursday, Dec. 19! More information will be coming home soon! Dec. 20 will be our last day of school before Christmas Break. We will be getting out of school at 11 a.m. that day!
Big things are happening at East!
