St. Joe’s News
Inside This Issue:
From the desk of Mrs. Dunshee
Pre-K
Kindergarten
First Grade
Second Grade
Third Grade
Fourth Grade
Fifth Grade
Counselor’s Corners
Speech News with Mrs. Leduc
Literacy Corner
Art News
OT with Mrs. Vivlamore
Nutrition Nuggets
Home and School Connections
Birthdays
December/January Calendar
FROM THE DESK OF………………..Mrs. Dunshee, Principal
Thank you to the many St. Joe’s families who donated items for our food drive this
year. The cupboards of our school food pantry are well stocked for those families who
may need assistance. A special thank you goes out to Harrison Hungerford for doing an
excellent job as Project Manager and his superb team members Evan Dumas, Caleb
Rogers and Owen Lockwood. Some of the food donated was delivered by the team to
Davis Elementary, Malone Middle School and Franklin Academy to assist their families.
Please do not hesitate to call St. Joe’s at 483-7806 and ask to speak with Mrs. Debbie
Maguire, our parent facilitator, if your family needs help with food or winter clothing for
your children. Any requests will be handled in a dignified and confidential manner.
The holiday season has arrived and is in the air at St. Joseph’s! Our students have been
joyously practicing their songs for our upcoming Winter Concert on December 10th which
will be held at Malone Middle School beginning at 6:30 PM. Please be sure to join us for
this very exciting evening.
We are very excited at St. Joe’s to offer a special holiday program for our students on December 23rd. Mr. Scoville-Upham (a former music teacher at St. Joe’s!) and the students
from Franklin Academy’s Swinging Sounds ensemble will be at St. Joe’s for holiday singing!
The December PBIS theme at St. Joe’s is sharing. Our students will be making holiday
cards this season for residents of the Alice Hyde and Franklin County Nursing Homes.
Each month at St. Joseph’s we have “special days”. On December 5th students and staff
are asked to wear their St. Joe’s t-shirts, on December 16th to wear blue for Rachel’s
Challenge/Karen’s Hope and on December 23rd students and staff are encouraged to
celebrate Pajama Day/Comfy Day!
In January on the 9th students and staff are asked to wear their St. Joe’s t-shirts, on
January 20th to wear blue for Rachel’s Challenge/Karen’s Hope and on January 30th we
will enjoy Hat Day! These are good ways for all of us to have fun and share our unique
spirit at St. Joseph’s! Please encourage your child to participate and show their St. Joe’s
pride!
Please be sure to mark your calendars now for our Academic Showcase/Parent Appreciation Dinner on January 21st! It is sure to be a wonderful evening.
As we approach the mid-way point of the year in January, parents are reminded to please
check with your child to be sure they have all of the school supplies they need since
throughout the course of the year they may need replenishing.
Thank you for all you do to support us at St. Joe’s. May each of your homes be filled with
the gifts of good health and happiness in this holiday season.
I have included some dates of interest for your information:
December 5
Wear SJ T-shirt Day
December 5
Emergency Go Home Drill
December 10
PTO Meeting- 4:00 PM- SJ LMC
Winter Concert – 6:30 PM – MMS Auditorium
December 16
Wear Blue for Rachel’s Challenge/Karen’s
December 23
Pajama Day/Comfy Day
December 24-January 2
Christmas Vacation
Hope
Looking Ahead:
January 9
Wear SJ T-shirt Day
January 19
No School-Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
January 20
Wear Blue for Rachel’s Challenge/Karen’s Hope
January 21
Academic Showcase/Parent Appreciation Dinner4:30-6:30 PM
January 29
Second Quarter Ends
January 30
Hat Day
Mrs.Decosse with Pre-K News
The class had a lot of fun for their first school party and their costume parade. I would like to thank those
that sent in a class snack for our Halloween party. I would also like to thank Debbie Cook, Logan Collin’s
grandma, and the Community Bank for the special invitation and treat they provided the class. The students
really enjoyed themselves!
I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families! Christmas is quickly approaching. We
are looking forward to many exciting activities. The students have been working hard. Please continue to
practice skills at home to reinforce what we are doing at school.
Our room has been slowly getting decorated for Christmas, and the children are very excited. Our Christmas
party will be on Monday, December 22nd. Our class is going to have a pajama party that day as well. You can
send your child into school with their pajamas on, but please make sure they still have a regular pair of shoes
to wear. Please refer to the class snack schedule and letter I have provided you for the remainder of details.
Now that we have gotten some snow the reality of winter has set in. Every day that it is above 20 degrees we
go outside, so it is crucial that your child is prepared with warm clothing and boots DAILY so they can play.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas holiday with their family and a Happy New Year! See you in
2015!
~Mrs. Decosse~
Kindergarten News
Mrs. Leahy’s Kindergarten Class
It is hard to believe that winter is almost here and the holidays are rapidly approaching. The Kindergarten classes had a
great time making holiday bulbs with the third graders. I thank the 3 rd grade teachers for giving us the opportunity to work
with their students. We had a lot of fun!!!
This month we will continue to learn to blend and segment words, listen and name the beginning, middle and ending
sounds of words, and how to read simple words in sentences. We are learning to read new books from the Reading Wonders Program and how to ask and answer questions about the text. Our weekly themes for the month are: the different
sounds we hear, the different places we go during the week, and what people use to do their jobs. We will continue to
learn new letter/sounds and high frequency words. Please continue to read with your child at home.
In Math, we are learning to count to 100 by ones and by tens. We are also learning how to add two groups of objects in two
different ways to represent the same number (ex. 3+1=4, and 2+2=4). I thank you for your help in checking your child’s
Math homework and returning it to school.
Happy holidays to everyone and I wish you a Happy New year!
First Grade News From Mrs. LaBare and Mrs. Andrews
December proves to be an exciting time in our first grade classrooms. The magic of the holiday
season is in the air. We will be looking at various Christmas celebrations and traditions in different
countries around the world. The students will be able to compare and contrast the varieties of
ways people in other nations celebrate the holidays.
The boys and girls are looking forward to perform in the annual St. Joseph’s Winter Concert held
Wednesday, December, 10th at the Malone Middle School at 6:30p.m. This special event will showcase their singing and musical talents.
On the last day of school before our Christmas vacation, the students are invited to wear their pajamas to school. Children always enjoy this cozy and comfortable day.
We would like to remind families to send in winter clothing and boots for outdoor recess. We are
fortunate to go outside and enjoy the fresh air each day the temperature is above 20 F. Also, our
Book-It Program continues. Keep up the good reading!
The first grade teachers would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone all the best in 2015!
Second Grade with Mrs. Wheeler and Mr. Wheeler
Where has the time gone? December is here already! We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and
friends.
Second graders have been working hard to learn many new skills. We’ve been working with beginning consonant blends and
long vowels with the silent e. We’ve been reading fables, expository text about animals and their habitats, and poetry. Students have learned to identify the main idea and supporting details in a nonfiction text. They’ve learned to ask themselves
questions and then answer them as they read. We’ve also read poetry working with rhyming words and rhythm. We learned
that words can have multiple-meanings, and we changed words by adding prefixes and suffixes. We continue to explore text
features that accompany expository, or nonfiction, text. In writing, students have been learning to create paragraphs using a
main idea and supporting details. We have worked with graphic organizers, helping us organize a paragraph.
In math, students learned to subtract one and two digit numbers. They learned how to borrow, or regroup, from the tens to
increase the number in the ones column (when necessary). Students learned to check their answers and create fact families.
Students continue to work on mastering their basic addition and subtraction facts. As we move forward, we will be working
with place value to 1,000.
In social studies, we continued to learn about communities and different cultures. They discovered that different communities
around the world speak different languages, eat cultural foods, and read stories and listen to the music of their cultures. Recently, we’ve been learning about how cultural holidays and celebrations impact a community and honor their histories. Students learned about community birthdays, Pulaski Day in Chicago, Juneteenth in Texas, Cinco de Mayo, and Independence
Day. Students were surprised to learn that in Kenwood, California people celebrate Independence Day with a friendly pillow
fight! We’ve also learned about Thanksgiving. Students learned that in 1620, the Pilgrims sailed from England to the New
World on the Mayflower. They learned that the Pilgrims faced hardships once reaching America. The Wampanoag people
helped the Pilgrims. They gave them tips on hunting and how to plant crops. In 1621, the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims had a
feast. This was the first Thanksgiving!
It certainly is getting to be a lot like winter outside. Please note that we will all be going outside for recess when the temperature is 20 or above. Please send in your child with the appropriate outerwear for this activity. Thank you.
Third Grade News & Notes
We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family and relaxation.
December is off to a quick start. We will be continuing multiplication and division
facts this month beginning with 3’s, moving to 4’s then ending with 0 and 1’s facts.
Mixed in there will be problem solving and hands on for understanding. We have already covered the 2’s, 5’s, 10’s facts and have gone over (and repeatedly go over)
strategies to be successful in solving multiplication and division problems. Flashcards
will be sent for production at the print shop in hopes you can take home at least the
0-5’s facts for holiday break!
Third-Fifth grade classes will be participating in a Christmas Tree Decorating contest sponsored through the House of History. Each grade has one tree to decorate.
We are pairing up with the kindergarten classes to help us with our “Helping Hands”
tree. Each student will be decorating an ornament with their hand print and the PreK class will be pitching in with some additional decorations that showcase how students at St. Joe’s help out. We tried to combine our theme with Rachel’s Challenge/
Acts of Kindness we are working on daily at school.
The holiday concert is approaching, and we are looking forward to seeing all their
hard work pay off. The students seem very excited to dress up and perform for you.
They only practice during music class so we are eager to hear what they’ve been
practicing for many weeks now.
As always please contact us with any questions or concerns. We wish all of you a very
Merry Holiday Season and a Bright New Year!!
Mrs. Kelley and Mrs. Fournier’s Classes Tell you about 4th Grade
5th Grade with Mrs. Kent & Mrs. Marlow
The second quarter is well underway and the sounds of sleigh bells and Ho, Ho, Ho’s are in the
air! Tis such a beautiful time of year for all, with glistening snow and whispering voices of children everywhere as they share their Christmas Lists and Wishes! May the spirit come alive for all
and may all your families receive the greatest memories and enjoy time spent together!
We hope to see you all at our Christmas Musical on December 10th @ the Malone Middle School
beginning at 6:30 pm. It’s always a magical performance that is sure to put a smile on your face.
Through the festivities, your children continue to actively engage a Common Core based curriculum.
In Math, students have been faced with the challenge of dividing by a two-digit divisor, and will
soon be adding and subtracting decimals. They will also be learning to multiply and divide by
decimals as well as working with fractions to determine the greatest common factor, the least
common multiple, comparing fractions, and understanding how to be certain that a fraction is in
its simplest form.
In Reading, students will investigate questions about nature, reflect to identify when a plan has
helped them accomplish a task and what it takes to put a plan into action, and finally to recognize what motivates them to accomplish a goal through close reading. Students will work on the
skills of summarizing, sequencing, predicting, identifying homographs, and comparing texts.
Within the context, students will also understand personification, theme, repetition and rhyme,
and the characteristics of a folktale as well as narrative and free verse.
In Writing, students will bring to closure their personal narratives as they present them in their
published form. They have been working very diligently on using strong word choice to make
their writing come alive. We are so proud of them! Students will begin researching a famous
historical figure of the American Revolution as they begin writing to the genre of a biography.
They will then proudly present their collected data on a presentation board as well as make a
biography bottle to represent their historical figure which will collectively be displayed at our upcoming Academic Showcase in January. This is an extensive project, but we are confident that
this amazing group will accomplish the task with extreme perseverance and put forth their very
best efforts until completion.
The 5th grade would like to extend the very best of holiday wishes to all our St. Joe’s families and
friends! May all your wishes come true and may the upcoming year be filled with love, lasting
memories, and only good health to all!
Happy Holidays!
Counselor’s Corners
It is hard to believe that December is here already. The first round of Lunch Bunch
groups came to an end before Thanksgiving break. It was a great first quarter having students K-5 participate in a variety of groups. The second round of Lunch Bunch starts in December.
Classroom guidance lessons this month will be from the Rachel’s Challenge curriculum and will focus on sharing the gift of kindness to others. Sharing is also the PBIS theme
of the month. St Joe’s students will demonstrate sharing kindness by making holiday cards
for the elderly in our community.
In other news, perhaps you have heard your child or children talking about “Dunshee
Dollars.” Dunshee Dollars were created by PBIS as a way for all faculty and staff to recognize positive behaviors displayed by students during the day. Students can collect Dunshee
Dollars by helping others, being respectful, using kind words, and making safe choices. Students will be able to cash in their Dunshee Dollars from the rewards menu each teacher has
in their classroom.
As always, please contact me if there is anything I can do to help serve your child.
Have a wonderful holiday season!
-Mrs. Poirier
School Counselor
Speech with Mrs. Leduc
Ideas for Language at Home – Language Through Cooking
Cooking is a great activity to do with your children—you spend time together, make
something delicious, and have fun! As well, cooking can help children learn and practice many skills. When helping your children learn to cook, pick simple recipes with just
a few steps and a few ingredients at first. Then progress to more complex recipes with
more steps and more ingredients. If your children cannot read yet, read the recipe to
them and have them repeat the ingredients and steps back to you. And…be creative
with cooking! Besides food, you can make fun things like homemade clay or soap. Creating your own “special recipe” is another fun idea. Here are some things children can
learn from cooking:
Language skills – When cooking, children must understand certain vocabulary. They need to know vocabulary for cooking tools like oven, mixer, and whisk. Flavors—salty, sweet, bitter, etc.—and textures—
sticky, gooey, melted, etc. are also important to know.
Math skills – Math is a very important cooking skill. Children need to know numbers and
counting in order to measure and add ingredients. They must be familiar with measurements like teaspoon, liter, and “a pinch.”
- Critical-thinking skills – Recipes provide opportunities for children to practice skills
like following directions, sequencing, and recalling details.
Fine-motor skills – When cooking, children manipulate (move with their hands) different ingredients and
cooking tools. Getting supplies out of the pantry, mixing ingredients, and placing toppings are examples
of fine-motor skills to practice in the kitchen.
Healthy-living skills – Cooking healthy foods is important for your children’s growth and development. As
you cook together, you can teach your children about the Food Groups, good nutrition, and the importance of physical activity combined with a healthy diet.
Literacy Corner
Mrs. Hardin, Mrs. Eldridge and Mrs. McClain
We would love to share some of our favorite read alouds for this time of year. Find a warm, cozy spot and
curl up with one of these great books:
Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner
The Story of Snow by Mark Cassino
Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
A Stranger in the Woods by Carl Sams
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
Here are some questions you may want to use when talking about these books or any books you are reading
with your child:
Before reading:
• What do you think this story or book will be about? Why?
• What do you already know about____?
During reading:
• Can you picture in your mind what is happening? What does it look like?
• Has this [event that occurs in the story] ever happened to you?
• What do you think will happen next? Why?
After reading:
• What did you think would happen? Were you right?
• Who or what is the story about? Where does the story take place?
• What happened in the story that surprised you?
Have a safe and enjoyable winter!
Art News
In Kindergarten, we are working on a rooster based on the Eric Carle’s book Rooster Off
to See the World”. The students are working on painting, cutting, and gluing skills in this project. They are learning about warm, cool and neutral tones. When the roosters are finish, they
will be very colorful.
In first grade, we are working on our jungle picture based on the artist, Henri Rousseau. In
this project, the students are using paint, crayon rubbings, markers, and cut paper to create jungle
pictures. The finish art works will look very colorful.
In second grade, we are working on our owl unit. We create an owl wheel with different
kinds of owls on it. Then we create a guided owl drawing, and add color to it with oil pastels.
We will be working on drawing and blending skills with the oil pastels.
In third grade, we started our aboriginal drawing unit. The students learned about aboriginal
art and few facts about Australia. The students traced one of the aboriginal’s animal and then
they made a border around the animal. The top and bottom border must match, and the two sides
must match. The students will color in the animal and the border with oil pastels, and then use
watercolor for the background.
In fourth grade, we are working on the pointillism technique. The pointillism technique just
uses dots to create the finished art work. This technique was developed by a French painter,
Georges Seurat. The students created unique and colorful art with this technique. They are learning that the pointillism technique takes a long time to complete.
In fifth grade, we are working on our 3-Vu picture, which creates three different pictures base
on sequence of events. We studied the American watercolorist artist, Charles E. Burchfield who
created landscape scenes in the Buffalo area. The students will use markers and crayons to finish off their art project. The finish art work, we be viewable from three different sides, right,
front and left. Each view will have a different picture in the sequence.
Occupational Therapy
Margo Vivlamore, C.O.T.A.
Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant
10 Games to Practice Drawing and Handwriting
Here are a few quick, simple activities to practice drawing, pre-writing strokes and/or letter formation:
Squiggle Drawing: draw a squiggly line on a piece of paper. Pass it to someone else. Let
them add to the squiggle line to create a picture.
Themed Squiggle Drawing: Draw a squiggle on a piece of paper. Write a theme on the top of
the paper (i.e. – farm animal). Pass the paper to someone else and they have to create a
farm animal from the squiggle on the paper.
3.) Group Shape Picture: Pick one shape (i.e. circles). Hang up a large piece of paper on an easel or the wall. Each person should add one circle to the paper, whatever size and color they
wish. Add to it each day to create a nice work of art. Change shapes the next time.
4.) Drawing to Music: Turn on different types of music and draw while listening.
5.) Simon Says Draw: Just like the active game of Simon Says except the leader calls out
phrases like: “Simon Says draw a circle” “Simon Says draw a face” Simon Says Draw three
lines,” “Draw an A”…
6.) Follow the Leader: Put the easel in the front of the room or use a whiteboard. Choose one
student to be a leader. That student draws an object. Each student at their seat follows the
leader and draws the same object. Keep going and compare everyone’ pictures at the end.
7.) Hot Artwork: Put a piece of paper on a clipboard and put several different writing utensils in
the middle of a circle. Have the children sit in a circle. Turn on music and pass the clipboard.
When the music stops, the person holding the clipboard draws one object. Turn the music on
again and repeat until a picture is created.
8.) Hide the Drawings: Put two children near each other but put up a divider so they cannot see
each other’s paper. Call out directions such as: draw a house, draw a flower in the yard, draw
a bird in the sky, etc... At the end compare the pictures and see if they are similar. For letters
you could call out directions such as: write a capital letter “A” in the right corner, write a lowercase “b” in the bottom left corner, etc.
9.) Complete the Picture: Using a starting image on a piece of paper, have the child complete the
picture.
10.) Hide and Go Draw/Write: This is played like regular hide and go seek except the person hiding brings a clipboard along. While hiding they must draw a picture or write a word/phrase.
When the seeker finds them, he/she has to guess what was drawn or read the words.
Happy Holiday’s to all!
December Birthdays
Brock Gage
Pal Covey
Ethel Murzin
Emma Metzler
Lacie Robideau
Keegan Burke
Austin LaBrake
Braedan Fish
Alyssa Benware
Mary Cota
Brady Riley
Clara Emond
Jordan Dear
Rachel Baker
Troy LaFlamme
Estella Guerin
Blake Gale
Brandon King
Addison Gokey
Mrs. Blank
Ethan LaVare
Mrs. Decosse
Autumn Boardway
Ms. Gordon-Walbridge
Lukas Reyome
Mrs. Maguire
Derek Berard
Mr. Stromer
Carlie Danussi
Ms. White
January Birthdays
Blaine Barney
Sean Tracy
LanDinh Countryman
Rylee LaVare
Harrison Hungerford
Elijah LaBrake
Carl Rivera
Kylie Rivera
Michael LaGrave
Keenan Gervais
Kennedy Quinn
Deisha Barney
Mrs. Leahy
Mrs. McClain
Mr. Wheeler