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NEWTON
NEWS
April 10, 2025
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Middle School Musical: Into the Woods
| | The following photos are provided courtesy of the Donaldson family. View more here! (password: EverAfter) | | | |
Kindergarten enjoyed a trip to Lebanon Opera House last week for the San Jose Taiko drumming performance. Since then, there has been a lot of fun drumming and rhythm games spontaneously popping up in the classroom and out in the forest! They learn so much from these opportunities. Thank you to the PTA for kindly funding this field trip! | | | | |
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Our first graders are diving into the fascinating world of bird feathers! They are crafting informational pieces about how these feathers help a bird survive. The students have been diligently working on their observational drawings and taking detailed notes, stepping into the shoes of real researchers!
We’ve begun reading Charlotte's Web! The students are thoroughly enjoying the story and are eager to see how it unfolds.
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Second Grade
Ms. Giampietro
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This week in second grade, students learned about centimeters and meters. They planted beans and peas, and will be tracking how tall the plants grow by measuring the height in centimeters during April.
In module, students presented their narrative stories about a time they found a fossil. This week, second graders will practice being paleontologists by using tools to excavate dinosaur bones in plaster. In Outdoor Ed, we observed the changes in the vernal pool and started to learn about the life cycles of the animals that live in this habitat.
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Third and Fourth Grade ELA & Social Studies
Ms. Cayer
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The third graders have been very busy writing their own Pourqoui Tales about frogs, such as glass frogs, poison dart frogs, and wood frogs. They have all created such great stories! As we were writing and editing, we worked hard and listened to classical music. We have also been learning about adjectives, adverbs, comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and learning how to use them in our writing.
The fourth graders have been working on writing summaries while learning about animal defense mechanisms. We have worked on taking notes, determining the main idea and supporting details, then compiling that information into a well written summary. The 4th graders have also started working with Northern Stage on a Shakespeare play. They have only just begun, but are doing an amazing job!
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Middle School Social Studies
Mr. Breen
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Fifth and 6th Social Studies have begun our unit on Europe. We've studied the bogs of northern Europe (and the things people have found in them), the roads of ancient Rome, and the travels and travails of the Vikings. Next, we'll be reading David Macaulay's Cathedral and looking at the design of Medieval cities and social roles therein.
Seventh and 8th grades are reading about World War I and the Great Depression. We'll do some learning on the ecological conditions that created the Dust Bowl as part of this. Seventh and 8th will also have a 1930's movie viewing experience at the end of the week: watching an authentic 1930's newsreel and short film (30's Looney Tunes), before watching Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times.
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Middle School Math
Mr. Pooler
| Grade 7 has just finished up their geometry unit, and we are heading into our statistics unit. Sixth grade finished up operations with fractions, and will be slowly working into statistics as well. The operations with fractions need to be revisited before we go into the vacation! | | | |
Middle School English
Ms. Simone
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Our Harkness tables have turned to poetry of late, and grades 7 and 8 were able to come together for a discussion around Momaday's "The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee". Both classes are currently reading plays by Momaday, so it was a good exercise to read his work in another genre. Grade six have been reading poems from Pakistan for their Harkness discussion; last week, we read "The Guest House" by Rumi, and this week tackled the modern work, "I Am Still Awake" by Yasmeen Hameed. Meanwhile, fifth grade has begun work on our first essay of the year! | | | | |
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Fifth and 6th graders are finishing up presenting their pitches for their Genius Hour projects, and are doing research and starting their projects! Ask your child about their project and what support they need. I am in awe of the wide variety of interests and passions students have and can't wait for students to share their work at the end of the year.
Seventh graders are beginning their Service Learning Project with the Rope Tow at Harrington Hill! We are excited to decide which improvement projects we will be working on, finish our planning, and get working on those projects in May. Eighth graders are all working on their Portrait of a Learner projects, where they are doing a project that combines personal interest and community impact. Students are doing a wonderful job!
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Newton School Artists have been busy working on a wide variety of projects!
7th and 8th graders: researching artists and designing independent art projects
4th and 6th graders: clay projects.
3rd and 5th graders: James Rizzi big city buildings
2nd graders: buildings of Strafford inspired by Marc Chagall's Over the Town.
1st graders: perfectly pleasing penguin paintings
Kindergarteners: literacy fun with Arlo Needs Glasses
Reach out anytime with questions or concerns!
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¡Hola familias! It was great to see families at conferences last week. Please know that you can always reach out with questions or concerns.
K-1 Spanish is finishing up our numbers and colors unit, and will be beginning to learn about family vocabulary after break! Over break, look at these videos from class with your child: Veo algo azul; Veo algo rosado; ¿Cuál es tu color favorito?; and ¿Cómo te sientes?
Second graders are finishing up our unit practicing the verb "quiere" (wants) to talk
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about food and other things we want! Next, we will be starting a unit on emotions and other high-frequency verbs. Third graders are working on expressing what they like ("me gusta"), don't like ("no me gusta"), prefer( "prefiero"), and describing what different people and things are called. We are also focusing on expressing this ("esto") vs that ("eso") in Spanish.
Fourth graders are focusing on the verb has ("tiene"), including what things they do or don't have, and understanding physical descriptions in Spanish. Watch La vaca Lola with your child, or ask them to show you the reading we did in class, all in Spanish!
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Fifth graders are in our unit about Perú, where we are learning about major landmarks like the Amazon Rainforest, Vinicunca, and Machu Picchu, and discussing physical features like mountains (montañas), rainforests (selvas), and rivers (ríos). We are also learning about the importance of potatoes (papas) in Peruvian gastronomy and agriculture, along with other foods like corn (el maíz) and quinoa (la quinoa). Check out this week's recommended Garbanzo lessons on your child's Google Classroom! This week's lessons are: 1. Vinicunca and 2. Datos sobre Perú.
Sixth-8th graders are beginning a new unit involving actions and objects around the classroom. The core vocabulary are: (se) sienta - sits (themselves) down, (se) levanta - lifts (themselves), and (le) grita - yells (at him/her/them/it). We have been using these words to recognize vocabulary for school supplies and furniture, common classroom commands, and we will be writing an original class story soon. We also learned some key body parts in Spanish with the song, "Cabeza, hombros, rodillas y pies" (Head, shoulders, knees, and feet). The recommended Garbanzo lessons this week are: 1. ¡Siéntate! and 2. El dibujo de Timmy. Check them out in your child's Google Classroom!
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