How Do We Know It is Autumn?
By: Kindergarten Room B6
Kindergarten and Junior Kindergarten students focus on experiencing and making observations of the world around them. Students begin to learn to use these observations as evidence to support a claim through their growing language skills. As part of a year-long unit of study on seasons and weather, we read the books Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn (K. Pak) and Have You Seen Trees? (J. Oppenheim). Then, students sketched an autumn tree in our own CitySprouts Garden. We are looking forward to noticing other trees around the Morse School as we observe the changing seasons during the school year.
Fall Activities = Lots of Fun!
By: Junior Kindergarten Room B8 & K-1 Room A6
This fall, Room B8 (Junior Kindergarten) and Room A1 (Kindergarten/1st) did a series of fall activities integrating literacy and science. First, we read the story of "The Little Red Hen" as retold and illustrated by Byron Barton, our JK "Author Study" for the month of November. We discussed how the Hen persevered by completing all the steps of making bread, from planting wheat seeds, to harvesting the grain, to grinding flour, and finally baking bread.
Then, Ms. Shay showed us how to plant winter wheat seeds in the Morse garden! We learned that these special seeds will start growing even as the weather turns colder. We used our science notebooks to document our planting experience. Ms. Shay came back to our classroom, and showed us how to make bread, just like the Little Red Hen: we mixed yeast, flour, water and salt together to make dough. Then we let it rise, and baked it in the oven. It was delicious!
Morse School Sends a BIG “Thank You!”
Pictured here is Kelly Graeber playing the piano donated by Ms. Pamela Ferrante. Ms. Ferrante is a long time neighbor who once was herself a student of the Morse School. In fact, generations of her family have attended the Morse School.
The piano is in absolute pristine condition and will bring many years of musical enjoyment to the Morse School Community.
Thank you, Ms. Ferrante!!!
What's New with Technology
at the Morse?
By: Jen Lavalle, Morse School Instructional Technology Specialist
Students in all grades are practicing how to apply the Morse Code while using the technologies in their classrooms and in the Computer Lab. In 3rd - 5th grade, students are learning about digital citizenship - the expectations for appropriate, safe, and productive online behavior. Students are learning to distinguish between public and private information and how to make safe choices, including what makes a strong password!
Here are some resources for speaking to your child about being safe online:
Kids.gov: Online Safety Activities and Games for students
Kids.gov: Resources & articles for parents
Commonsense Media: Privacy & Internet Safety information for parents
Questions or comments? Please don't hesitate to reach out! Jen Lavalle, Instructional Technology Specialist, [email protected]
International Fall Festival – Hosted by the Friends of Morse
This year's International Night was a huge success. Hear all about it – and see pictures! Read on >>
What is Growth Mindset?
Has your child come home and said the words Growth Mindset? Or doesn’t seem to “give up” so easily on tasks? It could be the result of what they are hearing every day at the Morse School. Below are a couple of templates that offer an explanation to Growth Mindset. If you have questions ask your child’s teacher or any other Morse School staff member.
See growth mindset resource #1 >>
See growth mindset resource #2 >>
Exploring Cambridge
More than 60 staff members from the Morse School recently participated in a first-of-its-kind learning expedition called Exploring Cambridge. Hear more >>
A Night at the Garden
By: Aizza, Amelia, & Angelene
Officer Ortiz, our police liaison from the Cambridge Police Department, got eight tickets to the Boston Celtics game on November 11th, 2016. Eight grade five students earned tickets to the game for positive behavior, strong effort in academics, being kind, and being a leader.
We met at the police station and had pizza and drinks with Officer Ortiz and some kids form the Amigos School. We boarded the bus and headed off to the TD Gardens. When we got there, we waited, and waited, and waited for the sales person to bring us to the court level seats where we were going to watch the team practice. But, she was a no-show! We were a little disappointed but were so happy to be there, so off we went to our seats. When we got to the seats, we couldn’t believe how high we were. It was a bird’s eye view of the entire Gardens! During the game, Isaiah Thomas, #4 for the Celtics earned so many points for the team. A couple of players from the Nicks got ejected from the game for being rude to the referee . . . not a good idea!
We all worked very, very hard to get on the Jumbotron. We danced. We screamed – almost bursting the eardrums of everyone around us! Through perseverance, we got on! It was just for a few seconds, but it was worth it! We freaked out! We felt so lucky and would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Officer Ortiz!
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