Metacomet News
November 2012
From the Desk of Mr. Nesmith
Metacomet teachers are making learning fun! On November
1st, teachers dressed up as their favorite literary characters.
Below you will see many characters such as Max, from Where
the Wild Things Are and Strega Nona, from the book Strega
Nona. Ask your child about who their teacher dressed up as!
Important Dates
November 9th -1st Cup Café
8:30am-9:00am
November 15th- Bloomfield
Teacher of the YearGeorganna Munz to be
recognized at The Bushnell
November 21-23 NO
School- Thanksgiving Break
November 30th-1st Cup Café
8:30am-9:00am
December 7-14 Book Fair
Metacomet
185 School St
Bloomfield, CT
(860)286-2660
www.bloomfieldschools.org
Box Tops for
Education
Book Fair
is Coming!
The Scholastic Book Fair
will be held December 7th
through the December 14th. More detailed
information will be coming towards the end of the
month. Be on the look-out!
Congratulations to
October’s Students
of the Month!!
This year we will continue to
collect box tops. With the huge
success of last year’s total ($1,073.00),
we felt that we should continue this
program. Remember to send in your
box tops to this year’s coordinators,
Donna Mims and Marissa DeFrancesco.
We have already begun to collect and
will be sending in our first set of box
tops. Thanks to all who have already
participated. Keep them coming!!
Technology
October was National Bully Prevention month
so to bring awareness to this issue students in
computer lab pledged to make
Metacomet Elementary School a bully free
zone. Lauren wrote, “I pledge to be nice to
everyone.” Jamari wrote, “Make people feel
important no matter how they look or act
everyone deserves to be treated nicely.” Sada
pledged to “stop spreading rumors about
others and to stop name-calling.” Metacomet
students have made a commitment to be model
citizens and treat everyone with respect. Check
out the board students created left and below!
1st Cup Café
Please join Mrs. Martinez at 1st Cup
Café. This is a great time to meet other
parents or guardians of students in the
school. Pictured right, you will find Ms.
Nealy making a candy wreath. The next
two dates are November 9th and
November 30th from 8:30am-9:00am.
So mark your calendars! We will see you
there! 
PTO
Meta Mentors
This year some of our students are lucky
enough to have the opportunity to work
with seniors from Duncaster. These
students get to read with their mentors
and spend some time outside of the
classroom. Pictured below are some
Duncaster volunteers.
Thank you to everyone who attended our
first PTO meeting! You can see in the
pictures below that we had an excellent
turnout, but we want to see all of those
seats filled! Remember, this is the chance
to let your voice be heard. Please consider
joining us for our next PTO meeting!
Third Grade News
We are soon coming to the end of our first unit of study. As you saw at Open House,
students have been working hard. Students have recently investigated the insulating
effect of various materials. Ask your children which insulator kept ice from melting.
Writing
Math
As you have seen through our homework, we are
working on representing and interpreting data. Ask
your child to tell you about the different graphs we
used to represent data. What is the difference
between a frequency graph and a tally graph?
When could you use a line plot to showcase data?
What is the difference between a bar graph and a
picture graph?
Here are some ideas to practice graphing at home:
- Graphing Colorful Goldfish
-Graphing a Bag of Skittles, M&M’s
-Graphing the number of minutes each family
member takes a shower (this would be a great
connection to our science unit- conserving our
resources)
Third graders are also learning
about the various purposes for
writing. Our most recent writing
genre is “How- To”. Students are
learning how to grab the reader’s
attention and how to write clear
and concise steps on how to do
ANYTHING! This is a great
opportunity to identify similar
writing in our everyday lives. How
about including your child in making
dinner or dessert? Following the
recipe is critical. Would you want to
eat a dessert where the steps where
followed out of order?
As always, please continue to encourage students to read nightly and practice
their math facts.
Thank you for your continued support!
Metacomet Third Graders in The Journal!
As you know our third graders visited the Old Farm School House Last month. The
following pages share an article that can be found in the October 19, 2012 Volume 4,
Issue 15 Journal.
Metacomet Third Graders Visit the 18th Century in
Bloomfield
(Frederick A. Hesketh, Correspondent)
For young children, the school experience heightens their growing sense of
independence and their relationship with people, places, and things outside their
immediate family. It must be hard for them to imagine how different that experience was
one hundred years or more ago. Bloomfield’s third graders at Metacomet Elementary School
recently visited Bloomfield’s Old Farms School, 153 School Street, where they explored how
children learned, played and traveled to school over two hundred years ago. The
Metacomet visit to the Bloomfield landmark provided the opportunity to explore the
similarities and differences of being a student in a one-room schoolhouse versus attending
their own modern school, multi-classroom, fully equipped, heated, lighted, air-conditioned,
where “smart boards” and other electronic tools are in everyday use.
The Old Farms School opened for the first time in the fall of 1796 near the
intersection of a dirt road (later to be called School Street for obvious reasons) and Park
Avenue. The latter street, an important arterial in Bloomfield today, was itself little more
than a dirt path on sunny days or a muddy rivulet during rainstorms. The school operated
for one hundred twenty years. During that entire time children attended a school with no
electricity, no running water and no plumbing.
Metacomet teacher Lisa Lamenzo and her associates arranged with
Wintonbury Historical Society President Richard Pierce for all of Bloomfield’s third grade
students, who were studying the history of Bloomfield in their classes, to visit Old Farm
School. The visits extended over four days so that all of the 120 third grade students had
their turn to visit the 216 year old school.
There they learned that boys and girls used to be seated on opposite sides in a
single room with no electricity, no running water, and no plumbing. They also learned that
students were responsible for bringing wood from their farms in order to provide heat from
the fireplace. Failure to bring such wood required the student to sit in the furthest seat from
the fire. The visitors were also surprised to learn that eighteenth century children would
undergo a health check each morning to ensure that they had washed hands and faces,
brushed teeth, combed hair, cleaned fingernails, and have a clean handkerchief in their
pocket.
Richard Pierce, Libbie Merrow, and Shirley Thompson of the Historical Society
assisted in describing the events of the old days. Lucy Wirsul provided historical research.
Merrow had prepared “200 year old” name tags for all students so that their historical
identities were evident to teachers and other students. Pierce explained how the students
in 1796 were each assigned a specific task every week, such as erasing the chalkboard at
day’s end, dusting erasers, emptying the ash bucket and wastebaskets, and carrying in water
from the well. The visitors also learned that one teacher not only taught all eight grades but
also was responsible for firing the furnace, scooping snow, overseeing recess and lunch time
and cleaning the school at the end of every day, for which he/she was paid one dollar per
week.
The lessons taught were similar to the basic subjects taught today—arithmetic,
reading, penmanship, spelling, geography and history.
All of the Metacomet third-graders wrote of their visit to the school in papers
which now line their classrooms. Samples of their description of visiting the old school
follow:
“My favorite part was when I learned about the people from Wintonbury.”—Ashley
“I learned that for fun, the kids had to play stick ball.”—Alondra
“I learned that the kids brought fire wood from home to keep warm.”—Matthew
“My favorite part was when I rang the bell.”—Three dozen students
My favorite part was when we learned what people did in the old days.”—Krysteen
I didn’t know that boys and girls don’t sit together and that people had to use the bathroom
outside.”—Nathan
“I didn’t know that teachers got paid one dollar each week.”—Jivonne
Pierce, himself a retired English teacher, praised the Bloomfield children, with
their neat school uniforms. They came to Old Farm School well prepared, he said, carrying
notebooks and pencils, brimming with questions, and eager to share what they had already
learned in class. Each one read aloud his/her 200-year-old name and brief description. For
instance, one of the boys read, “My name is Eliphat Eggleston. I live in that big house next
door. My father made the bricks that were used to build this school.” As the children left to
walk back to nearby Metacomet, each one was given a souvenir pencil and a sticker saying “I
visited Old Farm School.”
According to Mrs. Lamenzo, at a follow-up meeting, the children enjoyed the
visit immensely, and the school had positive comments from several parents.
For more information on the Historical Society go to www.bloomfieldcthistory.org or email
[email protected].
Photos: Courtesy of Richard Pierce and Carly Paine
Fourth Grade News
Academic standards continue to rise, and schools must form a partnership with parents to ensure that
these standards are met. Our goal is to build upon continued lessons in a positive effort to help your child
attain his/her maximum potential. Our Units of Study continue to challenge our students as well as open up
new panoramic views of how learning can truly be enjoyable. At home support of daily homework
completion is needed at this time. The fourth grade team is very appreciative of the Metacomet School
Parent community supporting their children. Remember, we are here to assist you and your child.
Literacy
In Reading, we are looking for students to demonstrate their reading comprehension skills daily in Guided
Reading. The reading strategy, making predictions, along with key vocabulary terms, and the most
interesting/surprising/important part of the text will continue to be emphasized. In addition, fourth grade
nightly reading (independent level) should be 30 minutes of sustained silent reading with a minimum of a
4-sentence response to their reading. Remember, the open ended format response (A.C.E.) should be used
to assist with written responses. Writing instruction will focus on main events, supporting details, personal
narrative, and story narrative writing.
Math
In Mathematics, nightly fact practice continues. Students will demonstrate their current level of mastery of
addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Flashcards are the most successful plan to aid learning. Using the
Go Math curriculum, students will also be working on multiplying 2-digit numbers. Problem solving skills are
our challenge. The following problem-solving steps seem to be the most helpful:
1. Read the problem. 2. Re-Read the problem. 3. Identify key words (Underline, circle, or highlight them)
4. Choose an operation Show the work!  5. Check the answer. Does it make sense? How do I know I am
right?
In Math, children also can work on the following website to increase student learning using technology:
www.mathplayground.com We have found that children really enjoy exploring on-line problem solving.
Social Studies
Science
During this month we will continue and culminate
our Unit Study on the Water Cycle. Emphasis will
be placed on the continuous cycling of water
between the earth and the atmosphere through
evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. The
students will design and conduct simple
investigations to determine how moving water,
flowing downhill or in ocean waves, causes
changes to the land. Afterwards, the students
will collect data about factors that affect erosion.
Students will begin to analyze how trade among
colonist with Native Americans in Connecticut
affected each group. In addition, they will compare
and contrast barter and cash exchanges from the past
to the present through the study of “Economics-Our
Way of Life.” The fourth grade students will be given
the opportunity to explain that when we buy
something, we are also giving up the opportunity to
buy something else. They will have a greater
understanding of how people use their resources,
and how spending and saving impact their life style.
Keeping a record of their own personal resources at
school, will provide the students with a fun, handson, real life experience that will enhance the
economic learning exposure needed.