Kind Words for Kind Kinders

As we prepared to open our class post office we brainstormed all the nice things that we might want to write to friends when communicating via hand-written notes.  This discussion led us to the conclusion that we should always do our best to demonstrate the attributes of good friends.  To help us practice living up to the expectations of good friends we decided to wear the words.  As you can see we are cheerful, loving, polite, kind, wonderful and smiling!

Super Bowl Bound and Contributing to the Souper Bowl!

The home team is Super Bowl bound and we at Pine Glen are joining in the fun!  Students are invited to dress in New England Patriot's gear for school on Friday.  No Patriot's clothes, no worries.  Wear the team colors!  This is an optional, fun activity to get everyone in the spirit to cheer on our team over the weekend!

Pine Glen students are also participating in a Souper Bowl! Contributions of ready to eat, canned soup are being collected and will be donated to the Burlington Food Pantry.

The pantry is available to any Burlington residents who meet certain financial qualifications to be eligible for assistance. 

Currently, the pantry serves between 120 to 130 Burlington families per month, or around 350 people, according to recent data. While the majority of those served are adults, 35 percent are children and 11 percent are seniors.

For information on how to qualify for food assistance or to volunteer, send email to burlingtonpantry@gmail.com, or call 781-270-6625

Perfect Square

Mrs. Fortunato visited room 103 today and read the Michael Hall book, Perfect Square.  Following her reading she invited us to explore shapes with her. 

Students were each given a square piece of paper and were challenged to create a picture with it if they cut it up.  The only rule being they had to use all the parts of the square to create the design.

Students also demonstrated their knowledge of shapes by creating shapes in shaving cream!  What fun! Squares, circles, rectangles, triangles,pentagons, hexagons and octagons were all drawn.  We have some impressive geometric wizards!

The Post Office Is Open!

The writers in room 103 have a new way to hone their skills!  The Post Office is open.  Students are invited to write notes and letters to classmates and teachers.  Assorted note cards and paper are available along with stamps, and a variety of writing tools.

Boxes Wanted

Do you have any small jewelry or trinket boxes?  Consider donating them to room 103 for a future project! 

Thank you!

Learning By Sharing Our Time and Experiences - Thank You Adults!

Our Friday morning started with guest readers on Friday!  We love to read and be read to.  It is very motivating to know so many people enjoy reading.  Thank you to our guests: Mrs. Parwani, Mrs. Jalbert, Mr. Ochi and Mrs. Zhang and Mr. Lyons!

Mr. Lyons joined in and read with us too!

After our guest readers departed we learned about Africa and the country of Nigeria from David's dad who grew up there!  

Mrs. Fallon is a retired kindergarten teacher and the mother of Pine Glen art teacher, Ms. Fallon.  She now visits Room 103 and supports Pine Glen as an occasional guest teacher.  Not long ago she had the opportunity to meet the author, Jan Brett who chatted with her and signed a copy of her newest book, The Mermaid.  Mrs. Fallon was kind enough to tell us about her experience of meeting the author and then stayed and read her book to us!

 We continue to learn from and about one another through our blanket, quilt and afghan sharing.  Tommy's blanket has lots of cats on it and he has cats at home!  The area of the blanket is 12 kindergartners sitting up.

Impressed with all the Hoot cards earned since returning from December break we were awarded with a school wide movie event.  Room 103 watched a Magic School bus episode that went underwater and explored food chains!  We loved it.

All Around The World!

Room 103 has learned about the 7 continents!  We are now in the process of learning a little more about some of the countries in the continents.

The best way to do this is to gain some first hand knowledge from people who have lived all around the world!  Room 103 parents have been visiting us and sharing about childhood experiences!

Last week we met Terry's mom who grew up in Thailand.  She shared that kindergarten was a 3 year program and that everyone wore a uniform.  We also learned that she ate rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Friends in room 103 do like rice but could not imagine eating so much of it.

Coconuts are in abundance and yummy to eat, but we also learned that there are cool things to be done with coconut shells, like making a walking game.  We had fun learning about homemade games that were played in Thailand since Terry's mom did not have toys and toy stores in the same abundance that are here!  We all enjoyed trying out the homemade jump rope.




Both of David's parents grew up in Nigeria, which is in the continent of Africa.  On Friday Mr. Ochi shared a little about life in Nigeria. 

Students asked lots of questions such as: What foods do you miss that you no longer have in the USA? (fish nuggets),  What was school like for you?, Did you play video games?(Nintendo)  

There are lots of yummy foods in Nigeria!  Plantains, rice and yams are some of the foods Mr. Ochi mentioned.  We learned that the area Mr. Ochi grew up in is full agriculture and lots of grains are grown there. 

In the coming weeks we will be learning about Morocco and Uganda from other parents. 

If you had the opportunity to live in other parts of the world, perhaps you would like to share your experiences with our kindergartners.  Please contact Mrs. Hoyt about scheduling a visit!

Super Bowl Is Reason For A Souper Bowl!

 

Pine Glen Souper Bowl

The Pine Glen community is invited to   support the Burlington Community through donations to the People Helping People food pantry.  We will be collecting cans of soup through Friday, February 2.

Students are invited to bring in cans of ready to eat soup.

(No condensed soup please)

Keep Healthy Room 103!

This post originally appeared on Mr. Lyon's Blog.

Guidelines for Sickness

Burlington Public Schools

Below please find a few guidelines for you to follow when your child becomes sick.  These guidelines can be helpful when deciding whether or not to keep your child home from school.  They have been put in place to ensure the health and well being of all Burlington students and staff.

Red Light Symptoms: Children don’t attend school!  Fever (100.0 or higher), diarrhea, vomiting, or sore throat (sore throats could be strep, which is highly contagious).  Children need to be free from these symptoms for 24 hours before returning to school.  If a child is taking an antibiotic they need to be on it for a full 24 hours before returning to school.  Also, red or pink itchy eyes with crusty and/or green/yellow drainage should be evaluated by a physician -- child may return to school the day after he/she is examined by a physician and treatment has begun.  If your child has any type of flu symptoms (fever, chills, body aches, low energy) please keep them home from school.  The nurse also has the discretion to send a student home with a rash of unknown cause that needs physician evaluation and clearance to return to school.

Yellow Light Symptoms: Children could or could not attend school; you need to use your best judgment.  If your child has cold symptoms and you feel they should go to the doctor, please keep them home from school. If your child has a runny nose that is green and thick or a severe/hacking cough, they should stay home.  If your child has a bad cold, has no energy or requires any type of medicine to get through the day, they should probably stay home.  Remember, children are not available to learn if they aren’t feeling well.

Green Light Symptoms: Children can attend school. Your child has allergies and has a clear runny nose or mild cough. Your child has been sick but is feeling better and has been fever-free for 24 hours (not taking fever-reducing medication).  If your child has been sick and has been put on an antibiotic, they must be on the antibiotic for a full 24 hours plus fever-free for 24 hours (not taking fever-reducing medication).

We request that you call your child in sick if they are going to miss school.  Please include in your message what is wrong with your child.  This is helpful for us to track different types of colds, viruses and infections going around.  If your child has had a fever or is contagious, i.e. strep, please call your Nurse’s office

       Fox Hill Elementary School

Suzy Shields, RN, BSN 781-270-1792

Absentee Line 781-273-7638

Francis Wyman Elementary School

Jennifer Hazen, RN, BSN 781-270-1702

Absentee Line 781-270-1707

Memorial Elementary School

Lynn Sakey, RN, BSN 781-270-1724

Absentee Line 781-273-7647

Pine Glen Elementary School

Joanne Ferrick, RN, BSN 781-270-1713

Absentee Line 781-273-7644

Burlington Early Childhood Center

Jessica Gearin, MEd., BSN, RN 781-273-7622

Absentee Line 781-270-1808

Marshall Simonds Middle School

Tracy Nicholas, MSN, RN 781-270-1779

Absentee Line 781-273-7657

Burlington High School

Mary Sullivan, RN, BSN 781-270-1862

Absentee Line-Freshmen and Juniors

781-270-1838
Absentee Line-Sophomores and Seniors

781-270-1839

REV 9/17 BC/CW

Maps, Mice, Math and More!

The Pine Glen Learning Commons have some new furnishings!  Room 103 friends were one of the first classes to visit and test out the new seating options.  We love the new seats and the options that they offer for future learning opportunities at the Learning Commons!  For today we all opted to sit on them and enjoy the Kevin Henkes book, Egg.  We carefully observed the illustrations as our librarian, Ms. Small read us the book.  We have been voting on our favorite illustrations as part of our mock Caldecott voting experience!

Mr. Donoff has been teaching us about coding and we are applying that skill as we move our mouse across the map of the world.  Students are challenged to find and identify various continents and the move the mouse from one spot to another.

CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant) can be fun to sound out when you work with a partner and build a tower of cups with them!  Students read words on cups.  For each correct word read they added them to the tower.  We can read a lot of words!

Mrs. Kim, one of Pine Glen's ELL teachers is helping us learn to write procedural texts.  To help us prepare to write about building snowmen she invited us to act out the process with her!  We were warm and dry but build some very large and beautiful imaginary snowmen!

The Qball continues to be a fun tool!  Students can share a common voice when they speak into it together!

 Math rockstars work on subtraction in completing math mats, increase competence by working on skills using the ST Math app, and have fun while completing math puzzles!

Sharing and measuring continues with our blankets, quilts and afghans! The area of this one is 11 kindergartners lying down!

Kindergarten Visits Aquarium

We had a wonderful day exploring life sciences today at the New England Aquarium!  Students used all their senses as they listened to touched, smelled and saw a wide range of reptiles, fish, birds and more.  

We traveled to the top of the giant tank to see Myrtle, the 90 year old sea turtle. 

Students rolled up sleeves and dunked hands in the giant touch tank.  They were able to touch sting rays and sharks!

Students were lined up and mesmerized by all they witnessed!

We even saw the skeleton of a giant whale!

Aquarium staff helped us to explore the creatures found at a tide pool!

A special thank you to the Pine Glen PTO!  The PTO supports the kindergarten program by supplying us with t-shirts to wear for our trips and helped to offset some of our transportation expenses!