Read Across America Day 2018

“You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And you may. Try them and

you may, I say.”

Do you recognize this quote?  

It’s from the Dr. Seuss classic Green Eggs and Ham!

On Friday, Coleytown students and staff also tried to identify famous quotes from

Dr. Seuss books as part of our Read Across America Day celebration. Read Across

America Day is a nationwide reading celebration that takes place annually on March

2—Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Across the country, thousands of schools, libraries, and

community centers celebrate reading on this day.  At Coleytown, we celebrated Read

Across America Day with our Town Hall Meeting and special read alouds after

the meeting.  

The meeting began with a game called Guess that Quote.  Students and staff tried to

identify famous quotes from Dr. Seuss books.  

Mrs. Toth & Mrs. Kearney read Dr. Seuss quotes.

After, students and staff members recommended favorite books to the Coleytown community.

A Kindergarten student recommended a favorite book.

Mrs. Boyle’s class read a wonderful story titled One Smile to the entire CES community.

Mrs. Boyle's second graders read One Smile.

Finally, we found out the title for our One Book, One School event.  On the TV studio

this week, the anchors have been giving clues to the title of the book. Please watch the

video link to see how we introduced the book to the community.

One School, One Book Introduction Video

At the end of the video, Coley ran into the gym to introduce the book to the community.  

The children were very excited to learn the title!

After the meeting, all classrooms had special read alouds.  Teachers switched classrooms

to read to new students.

Mrs. Clarke and Mrs. Vergato read to Mrs. Love’s class.

Mr. Kopp read to Mrs. Garard’s class.  Mrs. Cummings’ preschool class joined them.

It was a fantastic day to celebrate reading!  We look forward to continuing this celebration

with our One Book, One School event in March.

ALS Hot Pepper Challenge

On Tuesday members of the Coleytown community participated in the ALS Hot Pepper Challenge!  Staff members ate hot peppers live on CES TV.  Watch the video below to learn more about this challenge.

ALS HOT PEPPER CHALLENGE

Fun fact: Patty is a former CES PTA President and her children went to Coleytown, too! Through her work at CES and in Westport, Patty has always exemplified our guiding principle of kindness with sincerity.  

To learn more about the ALS Hot Pepper Challenge, check out Dan Woog's blog post here or visit the ALS TDI website.

World Read Aloud Day

Today, Coleytown celebrated World Read Aloud Day!  Classrooms were gifted new picture books to enjoy together.  All staff members joined classroom teachers this morning to participate in our community read aloud. 

Ms. Roesler unwrapping her book with her students. Her class read A Greyhound, A Groundhog by Emily Jenkins.

Mrs. Carothers' class read After the Fall (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again) by Dan Santat.

Mrs. Crosby and Mrs. Kennedy read The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors by Drew Daywalt.

Mrs. Brown's class enjoyed Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers.

I encourage all CES families to enjoy a read aloud with your children tonight!

4th grade Makerspace

What is a Makerspace?

Fourth graders have been exploring this concept with Mrs. Syndercombe and Mrs. Perry. This week, each class had an introduction to Makerspaces in the library media center. Students watched a video introducing the idea of a Makerspace.

The video suggested that students break up the word makerspace. In three parts:
Make means to create
Er means to ponder
Space is an area

Makerspaces are spaces that allow students to be critical thinkers and creators. They are for exploring, creating, building, and discovering new ideas. They are collaborative workspaces where students can explore high tech to “no” tech, learn from each other, and invent.

After discussion, students participated in an activity to create a pop up card using different materials. Take a look at some of their creations:

Fourth graders now have the opportunity to explore in the CES Makerspace. Students are invited to create, play, invent, and launch imaginations into overdrive! New activities and materials will be introduced into the Makerspace every two weeks. Students can explore art materials, Legos, animation, and much more. We are interested to see what our fourth graders will “make” this year!

Staples Storytime

Today, we were thrilled to welcome students from Staples High School for “Staples Storytime!”

Students in Kim Herzog’s Gender, Sex & Identity: Analysis of the Self class came to read original stories to our Kindergarten students. For their final assessment, the high school students wrote and illustrated their own picture books to convey positive messages regarding gender. They read these original stories to the Kindergarten classes and facilitated discussions about each book’s message.

How did the Staples students prepare to write their picture books? They have been studying informational texts that discuss how children’s literature can impact its readers. The articles presented research about gender imbalances, gender stereotypes, and gender roles found in traditional picture books. The Staples students studied examples of children’s literature, such as The Paper Bag Princess, and William’s Doll, that present positive messages about gender to children. Finally, they wrote original stories to read to the Kindergarten students. The students used all of their learning from the course to generate topics and ideas for their kindergarten audience. Their stories had messages they felt were important to share with the Kindergarten students and messages that they also felt were lacking in children’s literature. Check out some pictures below:

After the session, Kindergarten students returned to their classrooms and discussed what they had learned from the stories. They charted their new learning for the high schoolers. See below:

I encourage you to ask your child about today’s Staples Storytime!

Rise & Pose

Photos from our first Rise & Pose event!

We hope to see more families at our next event.  It is a great way to start the day on a positive and relaxing note!

Kindergarten Scientists

What is motion?

What makes things move?

How do pushes and pulls affect the motion of an object?

These are just some of the questions that Kindergarteners are exploring at Coleytown!

In this science unit, Kindergarten students are developing common vocabulary, asking
questions and deepening their understanding about how objects move when forces and
interactions between objects are applied. Students are investigating and measuring how
an object’s movement is impacted by the relative strength or direction of pushing and pulling.

What does this look like in the classrooms?

Last week, all of the Kindergarten classes came together in the gymnasium to explore the

guiding question:

What happens when you use harder and softer pushes to move things?  

The gym set up for the investigation.

Students took turns rolling balls using different amounts of force. Students investigated how

changes in force caused the balls to move different distances.  They tracked this data and then
analyzed it as a group.

Check out some pictures below!

Ms. Roesler collecting class data.

Students getting ready to push the balls in the gym.

Students watching their "pushes."

Students observed patterns of motion and used these patterns as evidence of the effects
of different strengths of pushes on the motion of an object.

This week, the Kindergarten students are exploring the question:

How can you make something move without touching it?

Today, students in Ms. Deering’s class experimented with moving a marble along a foam

track.  Their challenge was to make the marble move without touching it at all! Students

discovered that by lifting the track, they could make the marble move different distances.

Summary table of experiments

Two students changing the height of the track.

Students experimenting on the track.

Questions to ask your children:

Was there a difference in how the marble moved at the different heights?
Why do you think the marble moved differently each time?

And that's how Kindergarteners at Coleytown roll...