On Friday, February 18, LaPerche students celebrated Mrs. Thibault with a drive by parade! The kids showered her with cards, letters and handprint flowers. Mrs. Thibault has worked at LaPerche for 26 years and is retiring. Thank you for all of the students you inspired and colleagues you supported. You will be missed!!!!
Kindergarten registration is now open for the 2022-23 school year! Children who will be 5 years old on or before September 1, 2022, are eligible to register. Visit this site to begin the online registration process: https://www.smithfield-ps.org/page/registering-a-new-student
During preschool, the students heard the story The Napping House read aloud. After the story, they did the movements that matched each of the words from the story. The pictures were displayed, the teacher modeled the movements and the students used their whole body to join in. At the end, they each chose their favorite movement and graphed the information by adding the first letter of their name to the chart. There was a three-way tie between making the house, the cat and the mouse. So much learning happening in preschool!!
We are learning about our social filter in fourth grade. We use our social filter to process what we’re thinking and then determine if we should say it out loud, keep it in our heads, or filter it and change it so we are able to share it. The fourth graders created hand motions to go with each choice and then discussed situations with a partner from the other class and determined next steps. What a world it would be if we all used our social filter every day!
Every fifth grader at LaPerche serves on the LaPerche student council. The group changes every month. The January student council has run many morning meetings from the main office due to the cold temperatures. The kids practice their lines and then they line up and deliver. Speaking with inflection and showing their emotions is more difficult over the intercom but they have done a great job growing into polished public speakers.
Our PreK friends improved their fine motor skills by practicing cutting strips of paper. Each student uses scissors that are adapted to ensure their success. Next step, ripping. The students ripped the strips into small pieces. and combined all of the pieces together. The final step was gluing. The students chose different colors to glue into a confetti college to celebrate 2022! These activities develop the tiny muscles in their hands, develop hand-eye and bilateral coordination. What a fun activity!
Our hard-working fifth grade students prepared our outdoor garden beds for the winter. They cleared all of the old plants and weeds, turned over the dirt and added new soil so we will be ready to plant in the spring! The bags were heavy and the work was hard but they had a blast!
In third grade, students worked independently to solve math problems. Then, they worked with a partner to check their process and accuracy. It was the partners’ responsibility to give feedback and challenge the student to think of another way to solve the problem.
It is always important to have thinking time to process the problem and then productively struggle on your own before working with a partner. Third graders understand there are multiple ways to come to the same final answer. They understand the importance of showing their work. Third graders are growing their math knowledge every day!
Each morning in kindergarten at LaPerche, a student leader greets the students at the door. Each student chooses the type of greeting they would like, says good morning to the leader, the leader greets the student by name and they do the greeting type together. It is such a wonderful opportunity for the students to learn each other’s names, speak up for themselves, and learn to wait their turn. Being a greeter develops your leadership skills, public speaking capabilities and ability to follow multi step directions. What a great way to start the day!
In first grade morning meeting today, the student leader promoted the class to read the message chorally, reviewed the expectations for whole body listening and cheered out the heart words; give me an O, give me an N, give me an E, what’s it spell? ONE! First graders are ready to learn!
The annual food drive at LaPerche is in FULL SWING! The November student council are excited to report classroom totals tomorrow during our whole school monring meeting. Which classroom will lead the fight against hunger???
Details below:
From November 8th to November 19th, R.C. LaPerche is holding a food drive to help benefit our LaPerche community and others in need. With the items we collect, we will be putting together Thanksgiving food baskets for our families. The LaPerche PTA adds a $50 Stop and Shop gift card and a delicious pie to the basket to help supply a wonderful Thanksgiving meal. Mr. Feinstein has challenged us to have our own food pantry so the remaining items will be kept at school and available to our families until the winter recess. Then all items will be donated to the Smithfield Food Bank.
We are asking you to please donate to help support our food drive. This is a great opportunity for the kids to use their own money and to shop with you. Our November student council will keep a tally of the items we collect and each class that donates 50 or more items will earn extra recess with Mrs. Dorsey.
PreSchool-Instant Potatoes/Pasta
Kindergarten - Stuffing or Rice
Grade 1 - Instant Potatoes/Pasta
Grade 2 - Peanut Butter/Boxes of Cereal
Grade 3 - Cranberry Sauce/Canned Vegetables
Grade 4 -Peanut Butter/Boxes of Cereal
Grade 5 - Gravy (Plastic Bottles or Cans Only Please)/
Boxed Dessert Mix
Thank you for your continued support and generosity.
Every classroom at LaPerche begins with a Responsive Classroom morning meeting. During morning meeting in fifth grade today, students were partnered up and asked to create a secret handshake. Partners worked together to plan different moves that they performed for the rest of the class. What a fun, and engaging way to start the day!
Our third graders are studying crayfish and they are so excited!! Ask them what they learned and you will hear about their body parts, the difference between the males and females, their exoskeleton (carapace), and their habitat. You might learn they can lay over 100 eggs at a time which the female holds them in her tail. The kids are learning how to hold the crayfish carefully and respectfully so they do not getting pinched. Learning brought to live in third grade!!
In third grade fundations, students learned about trigraphs; three letters that make one sound.
The kids marked words with a breve (indicate a short vowel) or a macron (indicates a long sound). They also scooped words indicating closed syllables. Focusing on specific phonics skills helps student read more complex words. LaPerche students are always up to challenging themselves!
LaPerche Elementary's Cafeteria Rangers presented at the Smithfield School Committee meeting last Monday. The fourth graders shared their recycling knowledge and explained the school's pilot program for reducing food waste, recycling, and composting. The second and fourth grade students at LaPerche serve as captains and teach the rest of the students how to sort their waste.
Check out the Google Slide Show for all the details. Go Green Team!
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IJlOHTKagSqzlXtY6iy-psAC12oaH95-89qHl84UW7A/edit#slide=id.p
Principal Julie Dorsey, Teacher Torie Caldarone, and Superintendent Judy Paolucci are honored to be in Washington DC accepting an award recognizing LaPerche as a National Blue Ribbon School. The event included greetings by the US Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, networking with other award-winning educators, and hearing from the 2021 Teacher of the Year, Juliana Urtubey, who focused on efforts for a just and joyful education for all students. We can’t wait to come back and celebrate together next week!!
The afterschool classes at the LaPerche are a big hit with the students. In one class, slime time, the students made slime with googily eyes, colored beads and Halloween food coloring! What a fantastic sensory experience!
Preschool student at LaPerche have many opportunities to play. During play, the kids learn to take turns, share materials and engage in back and forth conversations. Each group has a leader who is in charge of gathering their group and moving to the next center. The leader moves the clip to the color that matches the center before hanging it back up. Student leader are leaders in every grade at LaPerche.
Third grade students explored nonliteral words within a text and learned how to decode their figurative meaning. Students applied their knowledge of idioms through the text The Case of The Gasping Garbage. As a cumulative activity, students chose their own idioms to portray to demonstrate an understanding of idioms. LaPerche students had fun guessing which idiom students represented during the parade today. Can you figure them out?
The Smithfield Youth Council did an excellent job yesterday and today painting words of inclusion on the Stillwater Scenic Trail under the George Washington Highway Bridge. The community was invited to join them today to add their handprint. Former LaPerche students were part of the organizing group and others added their handprint! Mrs. Dorsey, our school principal, added her handprint to the mural as well. If you did not have a chance to go today, take a walk on the trail and reflect on the words the kids chose to represent Smithfield. We are an amazing community when we come together.
