L. G. Nourse Blog

June 17, 2011

2011-06-17T12:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

It has been a great week for Norton and a great week at the L. G. Nourse School!
Our week started with the Tricentennial Parade Last Sunday. Jake M., Abby L. and Amy E. were the lucky winners of the raffle we held to see who would ride with me on the Elementary School float. We had a great time, it was a wonderful parade and we were proud to represent the school!

We had a fantastic spirit week this past week! Thank you for the effort that the students (and the parents) made to dress up for our theme days and show their LGN spirit. Today the students and staff surprised me with a special "dress to impress" day, I loved seeing everyone dressed up in their finest!

We were thrilled that Mrs. Capalbo's fifth grade class was able to visit Mrs. Gallagher's third grade class today. The two classes have been pen pals all year long, and it was nice to finally meet in person today.

Today was preschool graduation for our Project Early students going to kindergarten next year. It was a wonderful ceremony, thank you to the Project Early staff for working so hard to make today's graduation special. Good luck in kindergarten!

Until next week...

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman, LGN Principal

June 10, 2011

2011-06-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

It was another fun and exciting week at LGN! Kindergarten enjoyed their field day on Tuesday, and the third graders visited the Yelle School to see their new school and meet the teaching staff. Third grade parents, don't forget that there is a 3rd Grade Parent Night on Monday, June 13th at 7:00. Mrs. Farrell will present to parents about the HAY school and answer any questions you may have about 4th grade.

We enjoyed the annual LGN Ice Cream Social on Thursday evening. The stormy weather didn't keep people away, and we all had a fantastic time. Unfortunately, all of the great pictures I took were erased from the camera today. :(

Today was a big day for our kindergarten students. Mrs. Hanewich, Mrs. Sedell, and Mrs. Branco's classes presented "The Grouchy Ladybug" and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" plays to their family and other guests. The students did a wonderful job with the production.

Sunday will be the big Norton Tricentennial Parade! The parade will begin at the HAY School and go all the way to the JCS School. The parade begins at 12:00. Lucky LGN students Jake M. from Miss Grant's class, Amy E. from Mrs. Bjork's class, and Abby L. from Mrs. Charpentier's class will be riding with me on the elementary school float. Be sure to look for us at the parade!

Have a great week!

Mrs. Klingaman

June 3, 2011

2011-06-03T05:55:00.000-07:00

Greetings from LGN!

Today was one of our favorite days of the year! We started the day with field day for grades 1-3. Thank you to Mrs. Rezendes for getting everything set up, and to our parent volunteers who came in to assist with the grade level actvities.

Johnny the K visited the school this afternoon for his annual performance sponsored by the PTA. He entertains the students with music and a wonderful message of being respectful and kind to others. It is a wonderful show for our students and the adults alike.

Yesterday the thrid graders went on their walking field trip to Wheaton College. While there, they were able to learn about the history of Wheaton College from Wheaton's archivist, visit the solarium, and participate in the traditional hoop rolling that has been enjoyed by many present and former Wheaton College students. A big THANK YOU to Susan Hayes who works in the president's office at Wheaton College for organizing our trip.

Just a reminder that there are many important events occurring next week. Monday is the Norton Town Meeting where the high school building project will be voted on. The meeting will take place at Norton High School at 7:00. Get there early!

On Tuesday, June 7th, the 3rd graders will visit the Yelle School to prepare for their transition next year. There will be a 3rd Grade Parent Night on Monday, June 13th. More information will follow about this Parent Night.

Congratulations to the Norton High students who are graduating this evening. We are proud of all of you and wish you the best of luch as you move forward!

Danielle E. Klingaman, Principal

May 27, 2011

2011-05-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

Today our second grade graders did a wonderful job with their two Memorial Day concert performances. This morning, they performed for the preschool through third grade students, and this afternoon they performed for their families and friends. We were so impressed with their rendition of the National Anthem and recitation of the preamble of the constitution. A great big "THANKS" to the second grade teachers: Mrs. Bjork, Mrs. LaConte, and Mrs. O'Hear as well as Mrs. Morley who has done an awesome job as our substitute music teacher this spring. Thank you Tom Araujo for all his help with setup for the concert rehearsals and performances. We were proud to have several veterans in the audience today: Mr. Albert Watson, Mr. Warren Winship, Staff Sgt. David Schepis, Staff Sgt. Ryan Thurber, and Mr. John Francis.

Our third graders enjoyed "international food day" and brought in samplings of their favorite family recipes. There was a variety of delicious offerings from mutton to breads, to rice and beans, and cush cush. Thank you to all the families who took the time to bring in different foods for the students to sample.

We hope you enjoy the long weekend! Just a reminder that there will be no school for kindergarten students on Thursday, June 2nd. Next Friday is field day for grades 1-3 and all students will enjoy our Johnny the K concert that afternoon.

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

May 20, 2011

2011-05-20T12:56:00.001-07:00

Greetings from LGN!

We had another busy and fun week at LGN! Our third graders finished their last round of MCAS testing this week. The third graders worked extremely hard on the math MCAS and enjoyed a fun "crazy, mix-up" day today to end the week. Great job third graders, we are proud of you for doing your best on MCAS!

Last night we had our incoming kindergarten parent night and it was great to be able to share the exciting kindergarten information with the incoming K parents. Any parents who missed the meeting should contact Mrs. Flynn next week to set up your child's K screening appointment.

Today was a big day for our current kindergartners who presented their DINOSAUR MUSEUM to their family and friends. Mrs. Sedell's class, Mrs. Branco's class, and Mrs. Hanewich's class all completed many dinosaur activities: a sock-o-saurus, dinosaur fossils, dinosaur bones Q-tip counting, dinosaur eggs, and dinosaur stories, to name just a few. The kindergartners were so proud to share their work with their families.

Also in kindergarten, the chicks finally hatched! The kindergarten teachers and students are the proud parents of many adorable chicks that hatched earlier this week. The students have enjoyed learning about the life cycle in science and about how to care for their adorable little chicks.

Check out the article about Tom, our famous custodian, that appeared in today's Norton Mirror.

Mrs. Bjork's second grade class had a special manatee celebration today! For this priject, Mrs. Bjork's class worked hard to collect bottles and cans and raised over $100. With their donation, they were able to adopt a mischievous manatee named Howie. Today, the class received their certificates for the adoption and lots of information about manatees during their manatee party. To learn more about how to adopt a manatee, click here for the Save the Manatee Club.

Hopefully the next week will bring some much needed sunshine!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

May 13, 2011

2011-05-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

We had a great week at LGN! The students in kindergarten through third grade ended their week today with a fun assembly from the Officer Phil Program. Officer Phil is sponsored through the Norton Police department and teaches the students about safety and respect. The students thoroughly enjoyed the magic and JT's sense of humor during the performance.

Today, Tom had his second "Tom for the Day" assisting him with his custodial duties. Mason G. from Mrs. LaConte's second grade class enjoyed spending the day with Tom cleaning the school, sweeping the floors, picking up the classroom recycling, setting chairs up for our assembly and conducting safety checks of the buildings and grounds. It seems like Mason had a great day and worked very hard at school, just like Tom!

Last Saturday's Butterfly Garden Open House proved to be a fantastic day! LGN thanks Norton High School student Emily J. for choosing our school as the site to do her Gold Award Girl Scout project. The students and families that visited the Butterfly Garden Open House had a wonderful time doing the activities and seeing Mrs. Walsh's butterflies set free. We all had a great day!

Mrs. Charpentier's first graders recently completed a "Space Shapes" project. The students learned all about 3-dimensional shapes such as cones, cylinders, spheres, triangular prisms, cubes, and rectangular prisms. They then used common household "junk" or recyclables to create awesome robots, tanks, ice cream cone machines, and many other designs using their imaginations.

Next week is a big week for our third graders! They will be taking the math portion of the MCAS test on Tuesday and Wednesday. The teachers have done a great job preparing the third graders in math this year. There is a giant banner wishing them luck in the third grade wing!

Don't forget that Thursday, May 19th is an early release day for the district elementary students. Students in full day K through grade 3 will be dismissed at 11:30 AM. There will be NO PM kindergarten or PM Project Early that day.

Also on May 19th, we will have our kindergarten parent night at 6:30 PM in the LGN cafeteria. We will share a general kindergarten overview with parents and assign students a screening appointment on June 2nd. The Champions program will be there to share information about after-school care. We hope to see all entering kindergarten parents there!

We hope you have a great weekend!

Mrs. Danielle E. Klingaman, Principal

May 6, 2011

2011-05-06T06:41:00.001-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

We had a great week at the L. G. Nourse School! Fridays are always the busiest day of the week. Today we had our spring pictures and Tom and I enjoyed having student helpers of the day.

Ryan T. from Mrs. Walsh's class spent the day with me as "Principal of the Day". Ryan was able to help with bus duty, administrative tasks, announcing the Norton weather report over the intercom, and walk throughs. Ryan even gave the students in his first grade class extra recess for being the top class for returning Box Tops for the month of April.

Ryan D. spent the day with Tom as "Tom for the Day." Ryan D. was able to clean the cafeteria, sweep the hallways, complete a playground safety check, vacuum, and get foods out of the freezer for lunch. Ryan also assisted Tom with the various other work he completes during his busy days.

Tomorrow, which is Saturday, May 7th- will be the LGN Butterfly Garden Open House. Emily J., Norton High School senior, who created the Butterfly Garden for her Girl Scout Gold Award project will host students and their families at the LGN back playground from 11:00-1:00 PM. The beautiful perennial plants are beginning to grow in now that some warmer weather is arriving. We hope you can join us!

The Third Grade Writers/Workers of the Week were as follows:
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Kyle s. and Morgan S.
Miss Carlson's Class- Victoria W., Nathan T., John B., and Jahlil T.

Don't forget that Monday, May 9th at 7:00 PM is Norton's Town Meeting. It is so important for our Norton parents to attend the upcoming town meetings and ballot voting on June 11th. Please note that the deadline to register to vote is May 21st. Go to the Norton Town Hall for more information.

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

April 29, 2011

2011-04-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

We had a great week at the L. G. Nourse School! This week we finished our Friday afternoon with an All-School Meeting. Mrs. Young, our Reading Specialists had some of our star students read poems from Wednesday's "Poem in Your Pocket Day". We also announced our April birthdays and the Bucketfillers for the month of April.

Before April vacation, we had another successful "Spring Spruce-Up Day". I would like to thank Blueview Nursery for the mulch and perennial donation and Mansfield Home Depot for the perennial donation. A great BIG thanks to Mary Lou Brooks, Kerry Reynolds, Chris O'Brien, Carol Bratt, and the LGN students who worked hard with the clean-up and planting. Also, thank you to Norton Tree Warden Michael Tierney for donating and planting a flowering cherry in the front of the school. The school looks great thanks to our volunteers!

Thanks again LGN PTA for funding our in-school field trips! In the past couple of weeks different grade levels have enjoyed the Southwick Zoo Program, Rainforest Reptiles, Rhode Island Biomes, Barn Babies, and MA Audubon.

Don't forget that Monday is the School Committee 2012 Budget Presentation at 6:30 PM in the Norton Middle School auditorium. Parents should definitely make an effort to attend to hear about the budgetary plan for the 2012 school year.

Check out Norton Patch for local and school news! www.norton.patch.com. Check out the article about Mrs. Bjork's second grade class going paperless for two days this week.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

April 8, 2011

2011-04-08T06:01:00.001-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

Today the students of LGN celebrated the Red Sox home opener with our Red Sox school spirit day! Hopefully today's game at Fenway Park marks a turnaround for the Red Sox! We all enjoyed wearing our Red Sox gear, and the LGN students and staff love it when Tom, our school's head custodian, breaks out his guitar and sings some Fenway favorites while the students eat lunch. Mrs. Bjork's class, Mrs. O'Hear's Class, and Mrs. Gallagher's class had the highest percentage of students wearing Red Sox gear. Nathan D. and Mrs. Walsh worked hard on some Red Sox math today. Thanks for the school spirit everybody!

Today, I spent the day with Victoria W. from Miss Carlson's third grade class. Victoria was the "Principal for the Day" silent auction winner from last month's Winter Carnival. Victoria was here at school bright and early this morning, looking very professional. Victoria assisted with bus duty, LGN Math Night planning, organizing playground equipment, conducting classroom visits, lunch duty, and many more principal tasks. It was a wonderful day! I asked Victoria about her day:
Q- What was the best part of being "Principal for the Day"?
A- Making photo copies and learning to use all the different office machines.

Q- What was the hardest part of being a principal?
A- I think it was working on preparing the brown paper grocery bags for the LGN Earth Day Project. The bags were heavy.

Q- Was there anything that surprised you about being a principal today?
A- No, nothing really surprised me because this is my second time doing "Principal for the Day."

Thanks to our generous PTA, the kindergarten students enjoyed seeing the "Rainforest Reptiles" program on Thursday. Some amazing creatures visited our school and the kindergarteners enjoyed meeting the creatures up close.

Also, today, the Barn Babies program visited our Project Early preschool students. The preschoolers had so much fun petting the little farm animals. It was a great program!

Victoria and I enjoyed eating lunch with the third grade Writer's of the Week. Today's writers were as follows:
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Tim S. & Darcey M.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Thomas A. & Megan A.

Don't forget that our annual Spring Spruce-Up Day is on Tuesday, April 12th from 2:15-4:00!

Also, our first preschool through third grade "Math Night" is on Wednesday, April 13th from 6:00-7:00 PM. Come join us for some Math fun!!

Have a great week!

Mrs. Danielle E. Klingaman & Victoria W.

April 1, 2011

2011-04-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

This week at LGN was a busy one, but we are proud that our third graders finished their ELA MCAS tests. All of the students worked hard and did their best! The third graders enjoyed having a special "Pajama Day" today to finish off their busy week.

Today, Lillian C. from Mrs. LaConte's second grade class took over as "Teacher for the Day." Lillian was the lucky winner of this silent aution prize at our Winter Carnival last month. I talked to Lillian about her special day:

Q. What was your favorite part about being the teacher of the day?
A. My favorite part was writing on the SMART board, correcting papers, and giving the kids their spelling test.

Q. What was the hardest part of being the teacher today?
A. It was hard to get the whole class to be quiet.

Q. Do you think you would like to be a teacher when you grow up?
A. Yes, I would like to teach third grade because it will be the kids' last year at LGN before they go to a new school.

Check out the slideshow on the LaConte's Learners webpage!

Our third grade Writer's of the Week were as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Sarah T. and Payton B.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Dolan W. and Rebecca C.
Great job writers!

Look out for information about our Spring Spruce Up Day on Tuesday, April 12th which will be from 2:15-4:00 PM.
Michael Tierney, Norton's Tree Warden, will be donating and planting a flowering Cherry Tree in front of the school. Blueview Nursery is generously donating mulch and perennials for our front garden. We will be doing a clean-up of the LGN grounds. Parents and students are welcome to join us- we had a fun time last year and the school looked great when we were finished!

Next Friday 4/8 is the Red Sox home opener and will be a Red Sox school spirit day at LGN! Students are invited to wear their Red Sox, team colors, or baseball gear.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

March 25, 2011

2011-03-25T06:04:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

It was nice to see so many parents visiting the school for the spring parent conference cycle this week! We are now entering the home stretch of the third term of the school year. The next few months are going to fly by very quickly!
We finished the week off with an All-School Meeting and MCAS Rally for our third grade students who are going to be taking the ELA MCAS test next week. Our third graders are ready and we know they are going to do their best work on MCAS!
In today's rally, many classes showed their support of our third graders: Miss Holly's PM preschool class spelled out "good luck 3rd graders". The kindergarten classes led by Mrs. Branco, Mrs. Sedell, and Mrs. Hanewich performed an awesome cheer for the third graders and Mrs. Sedell finished off the cheer with a spectacular back walkover and one-handed front walkover. We were all very impressed with her gymnastics ability!

Mrs. Charpentier's first graders did a fantastic line-up and cheer with encouraging words for the 3rd graders. Mrs. Walsh and Mrs. Bjork led their first and second grade classes in an impressive choreographed dance/singing routine entitled "Time to Rock the MCAS". We were all so proud of the students for learning the song and routine and could tell that they worked very hard to prepare.
Mrs. LaConte's & Mrs. O'Hear's second grade classes made beautiful signs encouraging the third graders which will adorn the third grade hallway next week.

The highlight of the Rally was when the third graders got to "burst" through the paper as they entered the gymnasium!! Good luck next week third grade, we know you'll do well!!

Also during our All-School Meeting today, Horace Mann Insurance generously donated 4 bicycles to our school that were awarded to students who worked extra hard on our recent Reading Incentive. The bike winners were as follows: Kindergarten- Hailey W. from Mrs. Hanewich's Class Grade 1- Stefanie D. from Miss Grant's Class Grade 2- Jared C. from Mrs. LaConte's Class Grade 3- Cassandra S. from Mrs. Gallagher's Class A great big THANK YOU to Joe Mattei from Horace Mann Insurance and congratulations to our bike winners!

Emily J.- a student at Norton High School did her girl scout gold award project at the L.G. Nourse School last summer. With the help of many people, Emily designed and planted a Butterfly Garden in the back of our school. Right now in the L.G. Nourse lobby, Emily has sent up an information table about the butterfly garden. Be sure to check it out if you're here!

We have been enjoying watching the majestic Bald Eagles and their three eaglets on the live Eagle Cam streaming from Norfolk, Virginia. Click on the Eagle Cam link to see this amazing glimpse into nature. Until next week, thanks for reading!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

March 18, 2011

2011-03-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

Spring is in the air at the L.G. Nourse School! This week the staff and students worked hard and enjoyed the nice weather at the end of the week.

Last weekend's Winter Carnival was a big success! Hundreds of students, parents, and friends made their way through the carnival enjoying the food, games, raffles, and auction. Our PTA deserves a hugh THANK YOU for their hard work planning and volunteering to make our carnival such a wonderful success each year. Many L.G. Nourse teachers also volunteered at the carnival, and we couldn't have run the event without the help of the many volunteers.

During school this week, the students in preschool through third grade attended dental presentations where they learned about dental hygiene, and how to take good care of their teeth and gums. A big THANK YOU to Dr. Gamm and Dr. Bob who both have offices in Mansfield for taking the time to come into the school to teach the students about dental health!

Mrs. Anderson calculated the results of our "Pennies for Patients" drive and the results are as follows:
Total Collected by LGN Students- $1349.33
Top 3 Classes- Miss Carlson's Class- $283.41
Mrs. Bjork's Class- $136.54
Mrs. Charpentier's Class- $135.43
Thank you to all of the students and classes who brought in their pennies and participated. Thank you Mrs. Anderson for organizing this fundraising opportunity for a worthy cause!

Our grade 3 "Writers of the Week" were as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Jahlil T. and Ashley S.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Timothy S., and Zeina D.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Katrina A., and Nolan T.
Congratulations writers!

If you haven't already been reading Norton Patch-you should check it out! You can find great information about the town happenings, school events, and the polical scene in Norton. visit www.nortonpatch.com

Have a great week!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

March 11, 2011

2011-03-11T12:20:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends of LGN!

Tomorrow is one of the busiest (and most fun) days of the year when we host our annual Winter Carnival. Be sure to come by from 10:00-2:00 PM to enjoy the food, games, and prizes! There is something for everyone...games and raffles for the kids, and a fantastic silent auction for the adults. We also have a 50/50 raffle, last year's winner walked away with close to $1400! See you there...

Mrs. Anderson our school nurse is once again doing the "Pennies for Patients" drive which raises much needed funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Every class decorated a box to collected their pennies, and Mrs. Bjork's second grade class won a Popsicle party for creating the most creative box. This drive will go until March 18th, Miss Carlson's class is in the lead for most pennies raised with $163.72!

Our grade 3 Writers of the Week were as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Victoria W., Keraliz H., and James F.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Trevor C., and Haleigh D.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Katrina A., and Cassidy F.
Congratulations writers!

Have a great week and Happy St. Patrick's Day

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

March 4, 2011

2011-03-04T12:34:00.000-08:00

Greetings LGN Community!

It was one of our busiest weeks of the year this week with our "Read Across America" celebration on Wednesday and our grade 3 Science Fair on Thursday!

On Wednesday, we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday by having some special guest readers visit our school. A special 'thanks' goes out to our guest readers:

Ms. Beth McManus from the Norton School Committee
Deputy Fire Chief Paul Schleicher
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patricia Ansay
Norton High School Principal Mr. Ray Dewar
Retired L.G. Nourse Reading Specialist Ms. Mae Myers
Ms. Marge Werner from the Norton School Committee
Mrs. Mary Steele Norton Board of Selectmen
Dr. Amy Berdos Director of Curriculum and Instruction
Mr. Andrew Mackie from the Norton School Committee
Mr. Mike Vitelli Norton Middle School Assistant Principal
Mrs. Lisa Farrell Henri A. Yelle School Principal

We were so proud of our third graders for the wonderful job that they did on their Science Fair projects. All of our third graders created a compound machine invention and backboard explaining how their invention works and the steps they used to create it. We saw many useful inventions that assisted with pet feeding, household chores, and even snow removal! Check out the Science Fair pictures in this week's photo gallery.

We had our monthly All-School meeting today, and we loved hearing Ryan S. from Mrs. Walsh's first grade class read his "If You Give A Mouse A Goldfish" story. We also announced the February birthdays and the Bucketfillers of the Month.

The following students were Grade 3 Writer's of the Week:
Miss Carlson's Class- Sophia K., and Matthew B.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Andrew C., and Sean D.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Justin K., and Katrina A.
Congratulations writers!

Tonight is the Kathy Bailey "It Takes a Community" basketball game at Norton High School. We hope to see many of you there. Next week we will be preparing for our biggest fundraiser/event of the year with our annual Winter Carnival. This year's Winter Carnival will be on Saturday, March 12th from 10:00-2:00PM.

February 18, 2011

2011-02-18T12:21:00.000-08:00

Greetings LGN Community!

Well, we made it to February vacation! We hope that all the students and their families have and safe and restful vacation week!

There are many events coming right up when we return to school after vacation.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011- Site Council 6:00 PM, PTA 7:00 PM
Wednesday, March 2nd- Read Across America Day, Guest Readers
Thursday, March 3, 2011- Grade 3 Science Fair 6:30-7:30 PM
Thursday, March 10th- Early Release Day preK-3, 11:30 dismissal
Saturday, March 12th- LGN Winter Carnival 10:00 AM-2:00 PM
Monday, March 21st- Report cards
Wednesday, March 23rd, and Thursday, March 24th- Parent Conferences
Wednesday, March 23rd, and Thursday, March 24th- Scholastic Book Fair, LGN Lobby
Thursday, March 23rd- Early Release Day K-3, 11:30 Dismissal, there IS PM Project Early
Tuesday, March 29th, and Wednesday, March 30th- Grade 3 MCAS

As you can see, March is a long, but very busy Month!

Mrs. Wroblewski announced her Spanish award winners for the month of February today. They were Jared C. from Mrs. LaConte's Class, Abigail M., from Mrs. Bjork's Class, Nathan T. from Miss Carlson's Class, and Hannah H. from Mrs. Quinn's Class.

The Third Grade Writers of the Week were as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Logan G.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Lei'Aja C., and Jessica V.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Hannah H., and Marisa K.
Congratulations Writers!

Lakeshore Learning Store is having a big sale on Saturday, February 26, 2011 from 11:00-3:00 PM because of Dr. Seuss' birthday on March 2nd. Click on this link to learn about the sale.

Third graders, don't forget to work on those Science Fair projects!

Have a fantastic February vacation!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman, Principal

February 11, 2011

2011-02-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

Greetings LGN Community,

We were so please to finally have a full week of school! The teachers took advantage of 5 consecutive school days to get lots of work done with the students!

We enjoyed another successful Family Movie Night last Friday evening. Thank you to all of the PTA members who volunteered their time, and thank you to Mrs. Weeman for organizing the event and donating the water, and a copy of the movie and video game that were raffled off. Our raffle winners were Morgan S. from Mrs. Gallagher's class, Noah C. from Mrs. LaConte's class, and Cassidy F. from Mrs. Gallagher's class. A wonderful night was had by all, thank you to all of the families who attended.

Our grade 3 Writer's of the Week were as follows:
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Derek A., and Cassandra S.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Michael D., and Megan A.
Miss Carlson's Class- TBA on Monday
Congratulations writers!

Mr. Rappold from Personal Best Karate came to the school today to spread the message about ways to prevent and deal with bullying as part of our BullyGuard initiative. He joined the students at lunch and at part of their recess. Thanks Mr. Rappold for visiting us!

We look forward to Valentine's Day on Monday, it is always a fun day at school. Our front bulletin board is filled with all of the things our students love about LGN. We all love our school!

We hope you all have a great week!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

February 4, 2011

2011-02-04T09:56:00.000-08:00

Greetings LGN Community,

It has been another snowy and icy week here in Norton! We are hoping that mother nature takes a week off from precipitation next week so we can have a full five days of school in a row!

Tonight is our annual Movie Night where we will be showing "Despicable Me." Parking continues to be limited due to the snow mounds, so car pooling is recommended. Please be careful walking to the school if you park on the street.

Today the staff of LGN participated in National Wear Red Day in support of women's heart health. To learn more visit www.goredforwomen.org. Our dress down day donations will go to "Go Red for Women" sponsored by the American Heart Association.

The Site Council and PTA meetings that were scheduled for February 2nd have been rescheduled for next week: Wednesday, February 9th. Site Council meeting will be at 6:00 PM, and PTA meeting will be at 7:00 PM in the L.G. Nourse cafeteria.

The Title I sponsored Parent's Night that was scheduled for February 2nd has been rescheduled for Tuesday, March 15th at 6:00 PM in the JCS Library. The topic of this parent night is "Reading and Math Activity Night".

Our grade 3 Writers of the Week were as follows:
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Nolan T. and Dolan W.
Congratulations writers!

Have a great week! We hope to see you at Movie Night!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

January 28, 2011

2011-01-28T12:09:00.000-08:00

Greetings LGN Community!

Another snowy week comes to a close at LGN! We had a fantastic time at our Family Literacy Night last Thursday. Many families came to enjoy some of the many literacy activities offered by our staff. The following students were the raffle winners for each grade level:
Project Early- Noah E.
Kindergarten- Alanna T.
Grade 1- Evangeline W,
Grade 2- Nick A.
Grade 3- Justin K.
Each student winner received a book and a Target gift card!

Check out the pictures from Literacy Night in the slide show...we look forward to hosting a Math Night on April 13th. Mrs. MacKinnon, our elementary literacy coach posted the following poem on the front bulletin board. I had a request to post the poem here on the blog:

An Art Lesson for Parents

If you read to your child recently, draw a body, for you have begun to build a very basic part of him.
If you have read to your child about a child like himself, a neighborhood like yours, or a family like yours, put arms on the body; for you have helped your child to find a place in the world, and to reach and embrace this world.
If you and your child have used reading for a specific purpose; to look up a phone number, to read a recipe, to follow a map, to discover an advertised product, draw a head on your child's shoulders; for you have given him a key for unlocking information.
If you read to your child about something far from him, different customs, values, or environments, then put legs on him; for you have given him a way to walk into the world.
If you read a comic, a funny story, or enjoy a poem together, you have given your child something extra that will add color in his life.
Finish drawing by putting clothes on your child; for you have given your child warmth, color, and style.
You have put beauty into your child's life.

Author Unknown

Thank you Mrs. MacKinnon for sharing that touching poem!

Miss Grant shared the following news about her first grade class:
"This week our class has been working on creating and using calendars. This activity reinforces the concepts of days, weeks, months, a year, writing numbers in teens and twenties, capitalizing holidays and months and identifying “special days”. The students are very excited about sharing their work with their families.

Writing directions has been the focus of our Writer’s Workshop. The students have been very busy creating written directions on many topics."

The following students were our Grade 3 Writers of the Week:
Miss Carlson's Class- Caroline B., Aunnesha B., and Caroline D.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Andrew C., and Cassandra S.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Nolan T., and Madison B.
Congratulations writers, keep up the great work!

We had our all-school meeting today where many students were recognized for their hard work and kind, "Bucketfilling" behavior. We also announced all of the December and January birthdays.

Next week brings the start of a new month- February. Don't forget to join us at PTA meeting on Wednesday 2/2 at 7:00 PM to hear more about the school happenings. Also, next Friday at 6:15 PM is our annual Family Movie Night where we will be showing "Despicable Me". Don't foget to bring a pillow and blanket to sit on! We hope to see you there!

Thanks for reading!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

January 14, 2011

2011-01-14T11:28:00.000-08:00

Greetings LGN Community,

This week flew by due to the crazy mid-week snow storm! We decided to postpone our Literacy Night until next Thursday, January 20th due to a lack of parking because of all of the snow! We hope that our students and their families are able to attend Literacy Night. Students in preschool through third grade are invited to come back to LGN from 6:00-7:30 PM to enjoy some family literacy games and activities. All of the teachers have worked hard to prepare fun activities to reinforce literacy skills. Don't forget that kids are welcome to wear their pajamas!

We are now taking applications for the 2011-2012 Project Early preschool program as well as registration for kindergarten. Parents are asked to come to the school in person to pick up regitration/application materials. Mrs. Flynn is available to assist families from 8:00-2:00 PM each day. Remember that you will need a birth certificate, updated medical immunizations, and proof of residency.

Have a great long weekend!

January 7, 2011

2011-01-07T10:39:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year 2011!

We hope you all had a fantastic holiday and vacation week! It was so nice to get back into the normal school routine this week.

We are excited to have our first all school Literacy Night next Thursday, January 13th from 6:00-7:30 PM. Doors will open promptly at 6:00 PM. There will be fun literacy activities available for students and their families in grades preK-3. We hope you can join us!

Before vacation, our kindergarten classes celebrated "Holidays for the Birds" and created special bird feeders for the birds that live in the L.G. Nourse Nature Trail forest. I am sure the birds appreciated all of the snacks during the big snowstorm we had over vacation. Check out the pictures of our kindergartners in the slide show.

Our third grade students performed a fantastic holiday concert for the L.G. Nourse students and the third grade families on December 22nd. The concert is available on the Norton Cable TV website. We were so proud of all of the students for their hard work and for doing such a great job during the two performances. A big THANK YOU to Mr. Arieta for preparing our third graders and to the third grade teachers for their hard work and assistance with the concert preparation.

Our third grade Writers of the Week were as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Noah B. and Sofia K.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Hannah H. and Jenna F.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Dolan W. and Ryan A.
Congratulations writers, keep up the great work!

Beginning this month, third grade students will be receiving important MCAS homework every week. It is so important for students to have support while completing this homework and to keep up with the Study Island program that the LGN PTA purchases for our third graders. Every student has their own login, and can access this program from home at http://www.studyisland.com/ MCAS is just around the corner and we are always trying to reach our school achievement goals. MCAS is just one piece of the "total education" puzzle, and we want our students to do their very best.

In early December, Mr. Christopher Rappold from Personal Best Karate presented a BullyGuard training for elementary parents. The information presented was excellent, and you can now access his presentation on the Norton Cable TV website. It is so important for educators and parents to have bullying prevention and intervention at the top of our priority list and Mr. Rappold is a fantastic resource.

We are now taking applications for the 2011-2012 Project Early Preschool program. You can pick up a registration packet and information from Mrs. Flynn in the LGN main office between 8:00-2:00 PM, Monday through Friday during the month of January.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

December 17, 2010

2010-12-17T11:35:00.001-08:00

Greetings LGN Community!

We had another fun but productive week at the L.G. Nourse School!

This morning, Mrs. Wroblewski announced her Spanish award winners for the month of December:
Destiny M. from Mrs. Bjork's class
Tony P. from Mrs. O'Hear's class
Victoria W. from Miss Carlson's class
Madison B. from Mrs. Quinn's class
Congratulations winners, keep up the great work in Spanish!

On Thursday, Miss Grant's class learned about Christmas in Germany. As part of lessons, they made gingerbread houses. Each student then wrote directions explaining how they made their house. Later that afternoon, the students invited family members to join them to decorate the houses and share their book of directions. Miss Grant wasn't sure who had more fun- the adults or the children!

Miss Grant's class also said goodbye and thank you to Zachary Mann their pre-practicum student from Wheaton College. We hope to see him again in January.

Miss Erin Gray, our Stonehill College student teacher from Miss Carlson's third grade class, had her last day at LGN today. We wish Erin the best of luck in the future!

The kindergarten classes all participated in "Holidays for the Birds" this week. The students decorated pine cones with shortening, bird seed, and other yummy bird treats, then hung the pine cone feeders on the Nature Trail. The birds will be grateful for the food during the cold winter months ahead. Check out the pictures in this week's photo gallery.

Third Grade Writer's of the Week were as follows:
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Julia A., and Marisa K.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Justin K., and Hannah H.
Miss Carlson's Class- TBA
Congratulations writers, keep up the great work!!

Don't forget that our third grade holiday concert will be next Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010 at 6:30 PM. Our third graders, under the direction of Mr. Tom Arieta, will be performing a variety of holiday songs.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Klingaman

December 10, 2010

2010-12-10T11:25:00.000-08:00

Greetings LGN Community!

It was a busy and productive week at the L.G. Nourse School!

Our third grade Writers of the Week were as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Keralis H.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Sydney B., Abby S., Francisco E., Rebecca C., and Rachel G.

Before Thanksgiving Break, our third grade classes were visited by Chelsea R., a Norton student working on her Girl Scouts Gold Award. She taught our third grade students about "Letterboxing"- which is a mix between a treasure hunt and hiking. Chelsea shared that throughout the United States and the world are hidden waterproof boxes waiting to be found. There are Letterboxes hidden throughout Norton! Go to www.letterboxing.org to find the clues to go on your own family adventures. Bring a small notebook to be your "passport", a stamp pad and a rubber stamp that represents your family. The stamp could even be just a thumbprint. Once the box is found, you stamp the log book inside the box with your family stamp, and record your "find" in your passport notebook. Letterboxing is a great way to get fresh air, exercise, and spend time together as a family while enjoying nature! Thanks Chelsea for sharing this wonderful information with us!

This week at school:

Mrs. Quinn's third grade class finished working on writing "great beginnings" using Empowering Writers. Now they are learning how to describe story critical characters, settings, and objects using specific instead of general adjectives. In math, they just finished a big geometry unit and are now on word problems.

Mrs. Gallagher's third grade class made Oobleck in science this week, check out the pictures in the photo gallery.

Today, the kindergarten classes enjoyed making Gingerbread Houses , and this week the Project Early classes made delicious smelling cinnamon ornaments. We enjoyed listening to the sounds of the musicians in Miss Monica's AM and PM classes. They created and played their own instruments while singing some favorite holiday tunes!

Today, Mr. Christopher Rappold from Personal Best Karate came back to visit the students in Mrs. O'Hear's second grade classroom. We look forward to Mr. Rappold coming back to visit LGN this January to follow up with the bullying prevention work we have been doing.

Mr. Christopher Rappold from Personal Best Karate did his Bully Guard Parent Night last evening at the JCS School. We were grateful that Norton Cable TV was able to videotape his presentation. Please tune into Channel 15 or 99 to watch the presentation or visit their website at Norton Cable TV

Just remember that our upcoming school events include:
Cookie Dough/Soup Pick-up- December 15th from 1:30-5:30 PM
Project Early Sing-Along (PM Students only)- December 23rd at 1:00 PM
Grade 3 Holiday Concert-December 22nd at 6:30 PM

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Klingaman

December 3, 2010

2010-12-03T05:56:00.000-08:00

Greeetings LGN Community!

We had a great week at LGN! The students enjoyed getting a jump start on their holiday shopping at the PTA sponsored Holiday Shoppe. Our PTA elves did a fantastic job stocking up with wonderful and affordable gifts for our students to pick out for their family members. We are looking forward to Breakfast with Santa tomorrow, which is another favorite activity for our students and families.

This week Mrs. Nora Jestus, one of our teachers received the Crystal Apple Award from Horace Mann Insurance. Mrs. Jestus was recognized by her peers for going "above and beyond" every day in her work with our students and families. Also recognized was Mrs. Marie Flynn, our main office secretary who received the Crystal Owl Award. Mrs. Flynn is an amazing lady who keeps LGN up and running on a daily basis. We are so appreciative of her hard work and efficiency. Congratulations to both Mrs. Jestus and Mrs. Flynn!

We had our first parent conferences on Wednesday and Thursday. It was so nice to see many parents visiting the school to hear about their child's progress so far this year.

Some news from the classrooms:
~Mrs. Gallagher's third grade class has been writing pen pal letters to the students in Mrs. Capalbo's fifth grade class at the Yelle School.
~Miss Grant's first grade class the students have been learning about holidays around the world. They are learning about Hanukkah, Christmas around the world, and Kwanza. In reading, the students have been practicing including character names and settings when retelling a story. In math, the students have started to write their own subtraction story problems.

Grade 3 Writers of the Week were as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Victoria W. & Logan G.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Andrew C. & Cassandra S.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Michael D. & Megan A.
Congratulations writers! Keep up the great work!

We had our all-school meeting today where we recognized many students who were Bucketfillers during the month of November as well as our November birthdays. We finished off the meeting by singing out school song, "Celebrate LG". It was a lot of fun.

Don't forget that next week we have our PTA meeting on 12/8 at 7:00 PM in the LGN cafeteria, and we have our Bullying Parent Night on 12/9 at 7:00 PM at the JCS School library. The evening will be hosted by Christopher Rappold from Personal Best Karate. I hope to see many of our parents there that evening.

Have a great week!

November 19, 2010

2010-11-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

Greetings from LGN!

This week went by in a flash!

A few quick announcements and reminders...

On Monday, Project Early will be holding their annual Family Feast. The Feast will be held in the LGN cafeteria at 9:30 AM for morning classes, and at 1:30 PM for afternoon classes. Please note that cars should not be parked in the bus circle during the afternoon Family Feast. We look forward to seeing our preschool families on Monday!

Our Third Grade Writers of the Week were as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Aunnesha B. and Helen K.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Madison B., and Sean O.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Tim S. and Finn M.
Congratulations writers, keep up the great work!

Our PTA Game Night that was held on Wednesday evening was a big success! Lots of LGN families enjoyed the opportunity to come to the school to play some of the sample Gamewright games with their children. People who attended were also able to sample the delicious Otis Spunkmeyer cookies and Soul Warming soups. Today was the last day for our fall fundraiser, all orders should have been returned. After Thanksgiving break, we will hold our annual Holiday Shoppe and Breakfast with Santa will be on Saturday, December 4th. Please be sure to return your Breakfast with Santa tickets if you haven't already done so. Thank you for supporting all of our PTA events. The PTA provides the students and teachers of L.G. Nourse with many worthwhile student enrichment activities, classroom technology, and school supplies.

Don't forget that Norton's 300th birthday is coming up soon! The Tricentennial Committee is planning many exciting events for the town, and the Opening Night Celebration on New Year's Eve is just around the corner. Check out the Norton Tricentennial website and keep informed about upcoming "Norton's 300th" events!

From all of us at L.G. Nourse, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Until next time,

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

November 12, 2010

2010-11-12T09:42:00.001-08:00

Greetings LGN Community!

We had a short but eventful week this week at L.G. Nourse!

Today we were pleased that Master Christopher Rappold from Personal Best Karate was here to present to all LGN students in grades K-3 about the Bully Guard program. This program teaches children what to do if they are being bullied or if someone is behaving inappropriately around them. The students are taught to use their words to tell the other person to stop, and then if the other person doesn't stop, they need to report the incident to a Bully Safe adult. The students did a great job in the workshops. Mr. Rappold will be back here at LGN throughout the year to continue to assist us with bullying prevention and intervention. Thank you to our PTA for funding this important program!

Our third grade Writers of the Week were as follows:
Caroline B. and Caroline D. from Miss Carlson's class
Finn M. and Timothy S. from Mrs. Gallagher's class
Lei'Aja C. and Nolan T. from Mrs. Quinn's class
Congratulations writers! Keep up the great work!

Snowflakes will be available next week for our annual "Joy the the Children" holiday gift drive for local families in need. This project is coordinated by Community Partnerships/Self Help which we are a part of due to our Project Early preschool program. If you would like to donate a gift, please stop by the school and take a snowflake off of our front bulletin board in the main lobby. Gifts should be returned by Friday, December 10th. We anticipate that the snowflakes will be up by next Wednesday. Thanks in advance for your generosity, LGN staff and families have made this program a success for the past several years.

Don't forget that our Gamewright Family Game Night is next Wednesday, November 17, 2010 from 6:30-8:00 PM. It should be a great time! Samples of the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies and the Soul Warming soups from our current fundraiser will be available. Games will be available for families to play together, and all games will be available for sale that evening. We hope to see you there!

Don't forget to send in your Breakfast With Santa tickets early to ensure that you are able to attend your preferred seating time. Breakfast With Santa is a yearly LGN tradition, don't miss it. This year Breakfast With Santa is Saturday, December 4th, 2010.

On Sunday, December 5th, the Norton Parks and Recreation will be holding their Festival of Lights at the Norton Town Common. The event begins at 5:00 PM. Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus will be there as well as holiday music, and hot chocolate.

On Monday, December 6th, the Norton Tricentennial Committee will be holding a fundraiser at the Chateau Restaurant. 20% of all food and beverage profits will go back to the Norton Tricentennial Committee. This includes all dine-in and take-out orders. Fundraiser tickets are available in the LGN main office.

Until next week,

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

November 5, 2010

2010-11-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

We had another busy week at the L.G. Nourse School! We had our monthly Site Council and PTA meeting on Wednesday. We are excited that our fall fund raiser has begun. Check out some of the delicious cookies and soups being sold in the Otis Spunkmeyer catalog that went home with students this week. The Blount soups are the same ones that are served at Panera. There will be samples of the soup and the cookies at our Family Gamewright Game Night scheduled for Wednesday, November 17, 2010.

Mrs. Wroblewski our World Language teacher for second and third grade students awarded two students with the Spanish award for the month of October. Our lucky winners this month were Rachel G. from Mrs. Quinn's class, and Trenton L. from Mrs. O'Hear's class.

We continue to focus on our schoolwide goal of improving our writing instruction and increasing student writing achievement. Our first through third grade classes all hold a writing intervention block three days per week. Our students are becoming fantastic writers!

Our Third Grade Writers of the Week were as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Helen K., Logan G., Sofia K., Noah B., Jahlil T., Payton B., and Matthew B.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Dolan W. and Cassidy F.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Jenna F., and Hannah H.

Wheaton College Students are sponsoring a "Babysitting Day" on Veterans Day November 11th. Children of all ages are welcome from 8:00-4:00 PM. There will be games, outdoor fun, arts & crafts, stories, and snacks. The cost for the day is $35 for the first child and $20 for an additional child. For more information email sykes_heather@wheatonma.edu.

Don't forget that we have no school next Thursday, November 11th in observance of Veterans Day.

We are pleased to announce that Master Chris Rappold from Personal Best Karate will be providing the parents of students at the LGN and the JCS Schools with a Bully Guard Parent Night. It will be on Thursday, December 9th at 7:00 PM in the JCS library. More information will follow. If you have even attended one of Master Rappold's presentations you know that he provides parents with strategies and practical solutions designed to help children learn about and deal with situations of bullying.
Have a great week!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

October 29, 2010

2010-10-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Fans!

What a busy and wonderful week we had here at LGN! We thoroughly enjoyed our Horribles Parade this afternoon where the first graders had a chance to share their costumes with their parents, staff, and LGN students. Today was Mrs. Walsh's birthday and she led the Horribles parade of costumed first graders.

Mrs. Sedell's birthday is tomorrow, and she was dressed as the lovely Snow White today at school.

On Thursday, we had an All-School meeting where we honored all of the LGN students who celebrated October birthdays. We also awarded Bucekfiller Certificates to many LGN students who were "caught being kind" during the month. The second grade did a fantastic job performing a song for the school, "The 12 Days of Halloween". Thank you grade 2 teachers, Mrs. LaConte, Mrs. O'Hear, and Mrs. Bjork, for teaching the second graders this fun song about Halloween treats!

The November Nourse Newsletter was sent home today, and the electronic newsletter has been updated in the "Parents and Students" tab on our Edline site.

School picture retake day is scheduled for Thursday, November 4th. If your child was absent on picture day, or if you were unhappy with your child's picture, feel free to take advantage of the picture retake day. Return the original picture package to school with your child on retake day.

From all of us at LGN, we hope the students have a fun and safe Halloween this Sunday. Be sure to get to bed early Sunday night so everyone is rested and ready for school bright and early Monday morning. Don't forget that Tuesday, November 2nd is a professional development day for teachers, so students preK-12 have the day off.

Thanks for reading!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

October 22, 2010

2010-10-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

We had another great week at L.G. Nourse!

We started our program of recognizing our Third Grade Writers of the Week this week. Improving the writing skills of our students is one of our top school priorities. Every grade level has incorporated specific writing interventions in an effort to raise our student writing achievement. Since third grade is the first MCAS year, we recognize our third graders who put forth their best effort on written language tasks in the classroom. You can see our student work on the bulletin board in the lobby outside of the principal's office.

Our Writers of the Week this week were:
Hannah H. and Katrina A. from Mrs. Quinn's Class
Sean D. and Zeina D. from Mrs. Gallagher's Class
Caroline D., Caroline B., Aunnesha B., Hunter S., Nathan T., and Daniel C. from Miss Carlson's Class

If you didn't make it to one of the Norton Flu Clinics held at the HAY School this week, don't forget that there is one final clinic on November 17th, from 4:00-6:00 PM at the HAY School cafeteria. Flu Mist and Flu Shots are available, and the best part is: you do not need separate H1N1 shots this year!

Don't forget that the L.G. Nourse students will be able to march in the Chartley Parade this Sunday, October 24th. Students interested in marching must have an adult with them and should report to the Planet Fitness(41 Pleasant Street) parking lot at 11:00 AM. Students may bring a bag of candy to toss out along the parade route, but this is optional. Thank you Mrs. Anderson, Mrs. Sedell, and Mrs. Brooks for designing our new L.G. Nourse banner!

There were lots of pumpkin activities going on in school this week! Check out the pictures in our slide show.

Next Friday, October 29th at 12:30 PM will be our annual Horribles Parade. First grade students will have the opportunity to march around the playground in their awesome Halloween costumes in front of all of the other students and staff members. It is a day that we all look forward to here at LGN.

Don't forget that next week will be the LGN Fall Scholastic Book Fair. The Book Fair is a great time to pick up great books for holiday gifts. The students will be visiting the Book Fair during their library times on Monday and Thursday, and parents may also visit the Fair throughout the week. The Book Fair is open for extended hours on Wednesday 10/27 from 2:00-5:00 PM, and Thursday from 2:00-4:00 PM. Visit Scholastic's website for a sneak peek at their featured books!

Until next week, thanks for reading!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

October 15, 2010

2010-10-15T12:40:00.001-07:00

Greetings from LGN!

This short week just flew by! Just a couple of quick announcements:

-Don't forget that next Thursday, October 21st is an early release day. Students in full-day K through grade 3 will be released at 11:30 AM. AM kindergarten and AM Project Early will be in session, PM kindergarten and PM Project Early will not have classes.

-Don't let this be your family this winter!

Next week kicks off several flu clinics for Norton students. The clinics will be held on Monday, 10/18 and Wednesday, 10/20 from 2:00-4:00 PM at the HAY School cafeteria. Information is available on the LGN school web site. Go to the "Parents and Students" link and look in the "Epack". The is a printable insurance form to fill out and bring with you to the clinics. Both the flu mist and flu shots are available. There will be one additional clinic on Wednesday, November 17th, from 4:00-6:00 PM also at the HAY School cafteria.

-The LGN PTA is hosting a fall Book Fair the week of October 25th. The fair will be open to students during their library time, and open to parents 2:00-6:00 PM on Wednesday, October 27th and 2:00-4:00 PM on Thursday, October 28th.

-Don't forget that LGN students are invited to march in the Chartley Halloween parade on October 24th at 12:00. More information will follow in backpacks this week.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman, Principal

October 8, 2010

2010-10-08T05:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

It was a great week of learning at the L.G. Nourse School! Today our third graders went on their field trip to Plimouth Plantation. They enjoyed a wonderful day learning about the pilgrims and the Wampanoags and how they lived back in 17th century Plymouth Colony. This field trip aligns very nicely with the third grade Massachusetts social studies curriculum frameworks. Plimouth Plantation is a great place to visit in the fall. Thanks for our great PTA for funding this educational trip!

Instead of creating a float for the Chartley Parade on October 24th, LGN students will be able to march in the parade. More information will follow in backpacks.

Mrs. Wroblewski our Spanish teacher announced the winners of the September Spanish award. The winners were Liam M. in Mrs. Gallagher's class, and Nicholas A. in Mrs. LaConte's class. Congratulations!

This week, our three first grade classes enjoyed their Parent Lunches! Parent Lunch is when the parents of the first graders are invited into the cafeteria to dine with their children during their lunch period. Thank you to the parents who were able to come in for this special event, and thank you to Miss Linda and Miss Lori in the cafeteria for your hard work cooking and preparing delicious food for all to enjoy!

Winslow Farm invites Norton residents to visit the farm on October 10th from 11:30 AM-3:30 PM for their "Turn of the Century Craft Demonstrations." Winslow Farms is located at 37 Eddy Street in Norton and is 8 1/2 acres of forest sanctuary for over 300 animals rescued from abuse or neglect.

The Attleboro YMCA will again be hosting the Fall Festival and Haunted Happenings at the Norton Outdoor Center. All proceeds from this event go towards scholarships for local families.
Fall Festival
Saturday, October 23, 10:00 AM-4:00 PM
A day of family fun, including hayrides, crafts, games, entertainment, pony rides, and more!
Haunted Happenings
Friday and Saturday, October 22nd and 23rd, 7:00-9:30 PM
Take a stroll through the haunted woods...if you dare!

October is Bullying Prevention Month. Here at LGN, we are committed to increasing student awareness about bullying and to addressing all instances of bullying promptly following our district bullying procedures.
Remember that bullying is:
-the repeated use by one or more students of a written, verbal or electronic expression, a physical act or gesture directed at a victim that:
causes physical or emotional harm to the victim or damage to the victim’s property.
Bullying may also:
-place the victim in reasonable fear of harm to himself or of damage to his property;
-create a hostile environment at school for the victim;
-infringe on the rights of the victim at school;
-materially and substantially disrupt the education process or the orderly operation of a school.
Bullying also includes cyber-bullying.
Click here for information for parents about bullying from MARC (Massachusetts Agression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State College.

We hope you have a wonderful Columbus Day weekend!

Mrs. Klingaman

October 1, 2010

2010-10-01T06:57:00.001-07:00

Happy October!

Parents should have received our October Nourse Newsletter, but if you have opted to view the newsletter on-line, it is now available under the "Parents" tab of the LGN web site.

Looking for something fun to do with the family this weekend? Click on the link for events happening around the state. Massachusetts Event Calendar

Today we held our first All-School Meeting. During the meeting we announced the September birthdays, and read the students "Have You Filled a Bucket Today: A Daily Guide to Happiness for Kids" by Carol McCloud. This book emphasizes that everyone carries an invisible bucket that holds our good thoughts and feelings about ourselves. When you feel happy and good, your bucket is full. When you feel sad and lonely, your bucket is empty. The LGN students learned how to fill each others buckets through smiles, kind deeds, and thoughtful actions. They also learned that people that say or do mean things are "bucket dippers." We will continue to be a Bucketfilling school this year.

Also, at our All-School Meeting, the LGN students learned our new "LGN Song" that was written by two LGN teachers, Mrs. Walsh and Miss Carlson. Mrs. Walsh's first grade class, Mrs. Bjork's second grade class, and Miss Carlson's third grade class performed the song, then taught the rest of the students and staff the song. Our song emphasizes the positive attitude and sense of teamwork that all LGN students and staff share, sung to the tune of "Celebrate" by Kool and the Gang. Today was a lot of fun, check out the pictures of the fun we were having this afternoon.

Congratulations to Mrs. Ginny Charpentier, our LGN Staff of the Week!

LGN hosted School Committee meeting on Monday night, and several articles in the local newspapers summarized the discussion that took place. Click on the links below to view these articles:
The Sun Chronicle
The Norton Mirror

Have a great week!

Danielle Klingaman

September 24, 2010

2010-09-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

Hello LGN Community!

It was an enjoyable second full week of school here at LGN! It is hard to believe that next Friday is already October 1st!

Today was school picture day! The pictures should be back in approximately two weeks, and if for some reason you were not happy with your child's picture, return the package to school and have your child participate in Picture Retake Day on Thursday, November 4th. If you have any questions, click on the link to visit the Lifetouch website.

Looking for something fun to do tonight? Visit the Blue Bunny (577 High St. Dedham, MA) and meet bestselling local children's author, Brian Lies who will be reading his popular books, "Bats at the Beach," "Bats at the Library," and his newest book "Bats at the Ballgame."

Miss Lassey brought to my attention that tomorrow is "Museum Day" in museums across the country. Participating museums are providing free admission to one person, plus one guest. Area museums participating in this event include:

-Boston Children's Museum
-Boston Museum of Science
-Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Those of you with a Stop and Shop card can still enroll in the A+ School Program. Click on the Stop and Shop link, then go to "My Stop and Shop", and look for the A+ Schools program.

We are still hoping to add an LGN float in this year's Chartley Parade. Anyone interested in helping or sharing the use of a trailer should contact me at school.

Have a great week everybody!

Danielle Klingaman

September 17, 2010

2010-09-16T18:47:00.000-07:00

Greetings from LGN!

This week the teachers and students quickly got back into the school routine. It is great to have all of the students back in school and excited for a new school year. We know it is going to be a fantastic year!

Please take a moment to vote for L.G. Nourse in the "Touchdowns for Technology" contest sponsored by Kaspersky Labs. If our school is chosen, we would have the opportunity to win new computers for our school based on the number of touchdowns scored by the Patriots the week were are chosen. The more votes we have, the better our chances being selected.

Please take a moment to re-register your Stop and Shop card for the A+ School Rewards Program for the 2010-2011 school year. L.G. Nourse is re-registered for 2010 and ready to go! Our school PTA receives money back based on purchases you make when purchasing groceries. This program works if you use Peapod as well. Click on the link to register your card, or contact me at school to register your card for you!

Over the summer, we were thrilled that a Norton High School student, Emily J., completed her Girl Scout Gold Award by creating a butterfly garden here at L.G. Nourse School. The students will be able to appreciate the garden and the butterflies that it attracts while learning many valuable science lessons. Emily is still looking for additional donations of perennial plants. Contact me at school if you would like to make a donation to our beautiful new butterfly garden.

Don't forget that our school picture day is next Friday, September 24th.

We are planning to add a float in the Chartley Parade on October 24th. If anyone is interested in helping or has ideas for our LGN float, please contact me at school.

We had a great response with our Summer Learning packets. Families did a wonderful job completing the summer work and making sure that students turned them in the first week of school. Mrs. Young chose several grand prize winners this week: Megan F. from Mrs. Grant’s classroom, Emma O. from Mrs. O’Hear’s classroom, and Rachel G. from Mrs. Quinn’s classroom. We all know how important it is that our students continue their learning during the summer!

We hope you have a great week!

September 10, 2010

2010-09-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

Happy New School Year!

This week, LGN got off to a great start with our teachers returning to school on Tuesday 9/7, our students in grades 1-3 starting on Wednesday 9/8, and our Kindergarten students starting today, 9/10. We look forward to Project Early students returning to school on Monday, and then we will have the whole LGN crew back in the building!

As you read in the September newsletter, we welcome two new staff members to the L. G. Nourse School. Mrs. Katrina Hanewich will be joining our kindergarten team and teaching our AM and PM kindergarten students. Mrs. Karen MacKinnon joins Norton Public Schools as our elementary Literacy Coach, and she will be working at the L.G. Nourse and J.C Solmonese Schools. Both Mrs. Hanewich and Mrs. McKinnon are very talented teachers who will make strong additions to our staff.

Please be aware, our school picture day has changed from the date indicated in the September newsletter. LGN School Picture Day will be on Friday, September 24th for students in grades preK-3. More information will be sent home to parents in the upcoming weeks.

Our first PTA meeting will be held next week on Wednesday, September 15th. PTA meetings begin at 7:00 PM, and we are always looking for new parents to join us.

We had a very successful fundraiser at our L.G. Nourse 11th Green Concession Tent last weekend at the Deutsche Bank Championship. We all enjoyed preparing and serving concessions at the golf tournament, and we were thrilled that many of the LGN staff, LGN parents, and LGN family members joined us to work a shift in our concession tent. We made some great money in tips, and we look forward to finding out what our net profit will be. We hope that many more parents will be able to join us for a shift at our tent next Labor Day weekend!
A big THANK YOU to Dana Cohen for co-chairing this event with me and to the following volunteers for their hard work:

Beth Blakeley
Greg Dunham
Chris Romaine
Frank Reynolds
Jim Peers
Annie Givens
Mac Givens
Beth Strojny
Beth Morley
Ronnie Isenstadt
Glen Jestus
Nora Jestus
Dana Cohen
Anne Marie Bingel
Allison Isenstadt
Kirsten Sedell
Tricia Hubler
Holly Butler
Paula Abouzeid
Kris Maciejko
Ginny Charpentier
Carol Clark
Judy LaConte
Janine DelGrosso
Rob DelGrosso
Darren Young
Cory Hanson
Becky Magan
Rachel Young
Nancy Grant
Lauren Alves
Jenn Kubinski
Judith Daly
Tom Golota
Kathy Golota
Gail Douglas
Lloyd Douglas
Jerusha Bjork
Frederick Pope
Melissa Marsolais
Gene Marsolais
Mark Borges
Julia Moore
Jenn Carlson
Kristen Walsh
Marie O'Malley
Joseph O'Malley
Linda Naughton
John Munger
Karen Giatrelis
Danielle McNeill
Donna Ross
Max Marcotte
and Erin Brennan

Thank you all so much! I am proud to be a part of such a strong and dedicated group of people here at LGN!

Have a great week!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

June 18, 2010

2010-06-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

Dear LGN Community,

The reality that we only have a few days of school left is finally beginning to sink in. We had a wonderful week at school with many fun end-of-the-year activities.

This was a special week for the third graders. On Wednesday, they enjoyed a fantastic third grade barbeque where they had lots of food and fun, a water balloon toss, and then received their 2010 t-shirts and Norton jackets. A big THANKS to the LGN PTA for purchasing the jackets for our third graders. Also, thank you to the parents who came in to the barbeque to volunteer and help make the event a success.

Today, the third graders visited Wheaton College and learned about the history of the college, visited the inflatable planetarium, and had the opportunity to roll the traditional "hoops" on the lawn. The third graders all said how much fun they had and they all enjoyed the opportunity to go on this special "walking" field trip. Check out the special pictures in the photo gallery.

Today the second grade enjoyed their Ice Cream Party and said "farewell to second grade."

Bucetfillers of the Week were as follows:
Abbie D. from Mrs. Sedell's class for cleaning up an activity without the teacher asking.
Samantha G. from Mrs. Sedell's class for going "above and beyond" with cleaning up the classroom.
Caroline D. in Mrs. Sedell's class for complimenting her classmate and making her feel good!
Congratulations Bucketfillers!

Remember that Monday is the last day of school for the kindergarten students and Tuesday is the last day of school for students in grades 1-3. Tuesday will be an early release day with a special release time of 11:00 AM.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

June 11, 2010

2010-06-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

This week I am going to let the pictures do the talking! We are down to only 7 days of school (6 for kindergarten). The classrooms teachers are continuing to challenge the students every day, but we are finishing up the year with many important activities and events. A lot happened this week!
On Monday, the first half of Town Meeting took place. Thank you to the many parents that were in attendance. We will need your continued support as we work to improve the conditions of the Norton Public Schools' budget and funding in the future. The Norton High School Feasibility Study article passed overwhelmingly which was the first step towards approval for a much-needed Norton High School renovation and/or addition.
On Tuesday, the third grade students visited the Yelle School. The students toured the school and met many of the fourth grade teachers and staff. The third grade parents also attended the HAY Parent Night on Tuesday evening hosted by Mrs. Farrell, the HAY School principal.

Also on Tuesday, the kindergarten students enjoyed a fun-filled Field Day!

On Wednesday, Town Meeting was continued and the town budgets were approved. This year's school budget will again represent a significant number of cuts to our staff and programs.

On Thursday, we awarded another bike to a student who has demonstrated exceptional effort at school. Katie G. from Mrs. Andrade and Mrs. Walsh's first grade class was awarded a bike by Horace Mann Insurance. Congratulations Katie!

On Thursday, we had another successful Ice Cream Social, sponsored by the PTA. The event was successful due to the many parent and teacher volunteers as well as the many families that attended the event.

Mrs. Young, our Reading Specialist, organized our second annual LGN Book Swap at the Ice Cream Social. Students were able to swap books to built their summer reading libraries.

On Friday, we had a very busy day! The kindergarten students did their Hungry Caterpillar Play (which was also taped by Norton Cable, click on this link then go to "education").

Mrs. Weber's third grade class hosted a "Poetry Cafe" and "International Foods Day". The students enjoyed reading their original poetry as well as reading some of their favorite poems by authors.

Mrs. Charpentier shared: "We let our painted lady butterflies go free today. It was really neat to observe their metamorphosis. As we watched them take off, one by one, we remembered a story we recently read called Mole and the Baby Bird. Mole wanted to keep Baby Bird in a cage as a pet forever. But, he finally realized that birds need to be able to fly free….that when you love someone or something enough, you have to be able to let them go. The children loved watching their butterflies, but they also knew it was time to let them go!"

Finally, we finished off the week with our Project Early Graduation. We congratulate the graduates who will go off to kindergarten next year and thank the Project Early families for two wonderful years of Project Early. Thanks to the teaching staff who did a great job organizing graduation today: Miss Dee, Miss Monica, Miss Holly, Miss Carin, Miss Tammi, Miss Diann, Miss Jody, Miss Meg, Miss Mary, Miss Sandy, Miss Susan, Miss Anielia, and Miss Emily.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

June 4, 2010

2010-06-04T11:51:00.000-07:00

Greetings L.G. Nourse Community!

Today was one of our favorite days of the year! Grades 1-3 enjoyed field day this morning and the whole school enjoyed the Johnny the K concert in the afternoon. Johnny's concert sends the message of being kind to others, being appreciative, showing respect, and taking care of the environment. Our students and staff loved the show and enjoyed singing along to many old favorites. Clink on this link to visit Johnny's website. Thanks to our PTA for funding this wonderful performance!

Congratulations to Mrs. Carin Tessier our Project Early teacher who was awarded the Crystal Apple Award from Horace Mann Insurance! Carin was nominated by her peers for her outstanding work and dedication to teaching.

Tonight is Norton High School Graduation. We would like to congratulate all of the graduates on their special day! Best of luck in the future!

Next Tuesday, our third grade students will be visiting the Yelle School since they are (sadly) finishing up their time at the LGN and moving up to Yelle next year. Grade 3 parents- don't forget about the Parent Night at the Yelle School on Tuesday, June 8th at 7:00 PM.. Mrs. Farrell, the HAY School principal will be presenting to parents about the HAY School and answering any questions you may have.

There are many important school events happening next week:
6/7- Town Meeting, HAY 7:00 PM
6/8- Grade 3 visits Yelle, Grade 3 Parent Night, 7:00 HAY
6/10- Project Early "Hello to Summer" event, 10:00 AM
6/11- Kindergarten "The Very Hungry Caterpillar Play" 9:30 AM & 11:45 AM
6/11- Project Early Graduation- 12:30 PM
6/11- Mrs. Weber's Class, Poetry Cafe 10:00 AM

Please remember that Town Meeting is on Monday, June 7th at 7:00 PM at the H. A. Yelle School. It is important that our parents attend this meeting as decisions that directly impact the schools will be made at the meeting.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend and week ahead! It is hard to believe that there are only 12 days of school left! Time flies when you're having fun!

Danielle Klingaman

May 28, 2010

2010-05-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings from LGN!

Today the second grade students performed a fantastic Memorial Day concert for their family and friends. The concert was taped by Norton Cable TV, follow the link to get to their website.

On Monday, Ms. Goold, one of town's historians, visited the third grade to share some historical slides about the town. Her visit provided a nice background for the students' trip later in the week.

On Thursday, the third graders enjoyed a wonderful "Trip Around Norton." They started their day at the town common and went on to the "Meeting House" at the Unitarian Church. The students learned about Paul Revere's Bell and about how the town was incorporated. The students went on to Schoolhouse #3 where they listened to Ms. Goold take them through a school day in the 1800's. Mr. George Yelle taught them about the school barge, a whetting stone, and an 1800's bicycle. After eating lunch at the Poor Farm, they set our to explore the Devil's Rock, the Crane Homestead, Winnecunnett, William Wetherell's house, and King Philip's Cave. The students had a great day. This was a great day for the third graders!

We are looking forward to field day and Johnny the K next week. It is hard to believe that there are only 16 more days of school!

Have a great long weekend!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

May 21, 2010

2010-05-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

This week ended with a busy Friday and beautiful weather for the weekend! Today we enjoyed having a special "Math Day" where students in every grade level participated in math centers or other exciting math activities. Our Math Specialist, Mrs. Jill Milton and our Math Liaison, Mrs. Elizabeth O'Hear, have been busy with our Math Month activities. This afternoon, Mrs. Milton read a special math story to the first, second, and third graders. Don't forget to work on student math calendars throughout the month of May. Calendars are due back to school by Friday, June 4th.

Today was a big day for our kindergartners with the Dinosaur Museum! Many family members were able to visit the Dinosaur Museum and enjoyed investigating all of the work that our students had completed in preparation for this big day. The kindergarten students also enjoyed seeing their baby chicks hatching from their eggs this week. They are all proud parents and have had fun naming the newest additions to the kindergarten classrooms!

We had our incoming kindergarten parent night on Wednesday evening. We seem to have a big class of new kindergartners coming to L.G. Nourse next year. Kindergarten screening for our "new crew" of kindergarten students will be on Wednesday, June 2nd. Parents who did not attend the parent night should have received their screening appointment time in the mail.

Bucketfillers for the Week were as follows:
Alexa S. from Mrs. Gallagher's Class for helping a classmate get their folder into their backpack
Griffin M. from Mrs. Weber's Class for helping up a friend who had fallen down
Dolan W. from Mrs. Bjork's Class for helping up a friend who had fallen on his knee
Great job Bucketfillers!

Next week we continue with our Math Month activities, and the students in grades prek-3 will practice their estimating skills and have the opportunity to earn a special prize at the "Estimation Station". We also have our second grade memorial Day Concert, as well as our third grade "Trip Around Norton."

Our Talent Tuesday performers were as follows:
Jack O. from Mrs. Weber's Class showed off his "Ripstick" talent.
Sydney B. from Mrs. Bjork's Class did some fabulous singing.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

May 14, 2010

2010-05-14T10:11:00.001-07:00

Greetings from LGN!

On Monday, our LGN students were happy to take home their seedlings donated by National Grid. We hope the students checked with their parents before these little trees were planted out in the yard. Be careful when lawn mowing for the next several months!

Our third graders completed their Math MCAS testing on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and I am happy to report that the boxes have been picked up by UPS and sent back to the state! The third graders worked extremely hard on the tests this year, and we feel confident that they all put forth their best effort. The MCAS is just one part of the overall academic program for our students.

Can you believe we had a Large Red Kangaroo in our gymnasium on Thursday? Our kindergarten and first graders enjoyed their in-school field trip when Southwick's Zoo visited the school yesterday. The students learned about some of the interesting animals from Southwick's Zoo including a talking Parrot, a Bush Baby, a kangaroo, a tortoise, a Blue-Tongued Lizard, and a baby alligator. Follow this link to learn more about Southwick's Zoo.

Our first grade "Teddy Bear Night" was last evening and we all had a wonderful time. The first graders and their families enjoyed an evening of Teddy Bear-fun. Thanks to the staff who organized the event, and thanks to the parents for attending with their first graders!

We would like to wish Lacey's Mom the best of luck as she begins her deployment! We have two parents (Lacey's Mom and Ashley, Emmalee, and Kaitlyn's Dad) who are serving their country overseas right now. We are thinking of you!

Today the third grade enjoyed a "Crazy Hair and Clothes Day" that they earned because of the hard work on MCAS this week.

Just a reminder that the last day to register to vote for the June 7th Town Meeting is on May 18th. You can register to vote at the Norton Town Hall.

We will be having another COSI benefit night to raise funds for the LGN PTA. COSI is a restaurant at the Mansfield Crossing Plaza and LGN will receive a percentage of the total sales on Tuesday, June 1st from 4:30-8:30 PM. This is for dine-in or take-out food purchases. Click here to connect to the COSI menu.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Danielle Klingaman

May 7, 2010

2010-05-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community,

The first week of May was a busy and productive one at L.G. Nourse! Today was picture day, I love seeing many of the girls in dresses and some of the boys even sported ties today!

This week was teacher appreciation week. I'd like to thank our hard-working, dedicated, and talented teaching staff that help to make our school a special place for our students every day. LGN is a wonderful place to be because of the staff. Thank you to the PTA for putting together a delicious and relaxing teacher appreciation luncheon. It was so special and everyone truly left feeling appreciated.

Grade 3 has been busy preparing for the grade 3 Math MCAS test next Tuesday and Wednesday by reviewing important math concepts that have been covered during the year.

On Friday, we were pleased that David Donoghue, Senior Arborist from National Grid, visited our kindergarten through third grade students to talk to them about Arbor Day (which was April 30th but continues to be celebrated the first weeks of May), planting trees, and the importance of being careful around power lines. On Monday, every K-3 student will receive a seedling that they can plant and care for. We thank Mike Tierney, Norton's Tree Warden, for connecting us with this wonderful National Grid program.

This week on Talent Tuesday, we saw more impressive talents from our students. Jessica V., Jenna F., Lei'Aja C., Hunter S., Sarah T., Sarah O., and Sydney B. from Mrs. Bjork's class performed a song, Jasmine H. from Miss Carlson's class did some fantastic baton twirling, and Niamh R., Amanda R., Morgan G., and Aunnesha B. from Mrs. O'Hear's class played more songs on the piano, and finally Zoie P. from Mrs. Quinn's class did a karate demonstration.

Mrs. Wiegel, our awesome district technology director recently visited Mrs. Charpentier's class to read a special story, "Ish" by Peter Reynolds. Check out the link to Peter Reynolds' store Blue Bunny in Dedham Center. Mrs. Wiegel came back today to have the class sign their "Ish" pledge, see the picture below:

Emily Jestus, a junior from Norton High School is working on her Gold Award project for Girl Scouts, USA. In the next few weeks, she will be working on creating a "Butterfly Garden" for the students, staff, and families of LGN to enjoy. Part of her project will be teaching and sharing about the garden she creates with our students. If anyone is interested in donating any sun-loving perinneals for her project, please contact the LGN office. We look forward to seeing this new Butterfly Garden develop, thanks Emily!

The Southeastern Regional Technical High School, located at 250 Foundry St. S. Easton, MA 02375, will be holding a "Safety Day on Saturday May 15, 2010 from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM Safety Day will be providing free digital child identification kits through the MA Amber Alert Program for all those who attend.

Have a great weekend, and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms reading this!

Danielle Klingaman

April 30, 2010

2010-04-30T04:21:00.000-07:00

Greetings from L.G. Nourse!

We had a busy post-vacation week at the L.G. Nourse School!

Today the kindergarten students enjoyed the Rainforest Reptiles in-school field trip sponsored by the PTA. They were able to explore the world of the Rainforest while learning about endangered species.

On Tuesday, students in grades K-3 attended the Think First assembly focused on bicycle and seatbelt safety. Students met "Bobby" the melon and learned about the importance of wearing a helmet while riding a bike, and seatbelts or car seats while in the car. Students also learned that the safest place for them to sit is in the back seat in appropriate booster seats.

On Tuesday, we enjoyed another round of "Talent Tuesday". Hannah K. played a lovely rendition of "God Bless America" on her wood flute. Logan G., and John B. did some awesome break dancing, and Kiley R., and Sarah K. We love Talent Tuesdays, the kids are so supportive of each other as some students display their special talent.

Mrs. Butler shared this Project Early update: "April has been a fun and exciting month in Project Early. During this month we began to look for signs of spring by observing and learning about spring weather, baby animals born in the spring, and flowers and trees blooming. Through a variety of classroom activities we learned about animals that live around the pond, such as turtles, frogs, and ducks. We began to sequence the life cycle of pond creatures and part of this topic. During this month we talked about Earth Day and ways to keep our planet clean and decorated brown bags for Roche Brothers!
Now that it is spring will being going outside more so please remember to apply bug spray or sunscreen before school and no sandals please."

We had our second Bike Rally today in school. Teachers in grades 1-3 were able to nominate students for improved effort or achievement. All students nominated received a certificate and an ice cream coupon. This month's bike winner was Jessica V. in Mrs. Bjork's class. We would like to thank Horace Mann Insurance for donating the bike. We hope that this is a memory that Jessica will never forget!

Today at our bike assembly, we also honored our students who celebrated an April birthday, students who received a Bucketfiller award during the month of April, and all students nominated for the bike raffle. It was an exciting day and we were proud of the students who received awards, but we made sure to let all of the kids know that we are proud of all of our LGN students! We have great kids here at LG!

Mrs. Wroblewski announced her Spanish award winners for the month of April. They were Dolan W. in Mrs. Bjork's class, Alisha B. in Mrs. LaConte's class, Colten H. in Mrs. Gallagher's class, and Kaitlyn H. in Mrs. Weber's class. Congratulations to all!

Miss Lassey wanted to share the following information with parents:
Hasbro Children Hospital and Bradley Hospital’s Speaking of Kids program is offering a 2 hour program on Managing Difficult Behaviors in Children and Adolescents on May 20th.
The program is free and is being held at the gym in Bradley Hospital in East Providence.
The flyer is attached. Info also at: http://www.lifespan.org/bradley/events/speaking_of_kids.htm
It is recommended you call to register for the program as they sometimes get very full!

Grade 3 Writer's of the Week were as follows:
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Kevin L., and Joey H.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Amanda R. and Dawson M.
Miss Carlson's Class- Rona C. and Cameron H.

Bucketfillers of the Week were as follows:
Cooper P. from Mrs. Sedell's Class for helping a classmate pick up a spill at lunch
Colten H. from Mrs. Gallagher's Class for tying a classmate's shoe
Hunter S. in Mrs. Bjork's Class for helping a classmate with their folder
Shawna M. from Miss Carlson's Class for sharing her highlighter
Ryan S. in Mrs. Sedell's Class for helping a classmate clean up a spill
Katrina A. in Mrs. Bjork's Class for helping a classmate clean up her crayons
Michelle B. in Mrs. Gallagher's Class for helping a classmate with her math paper
Alexa S. for helping a classmate with their work
Esme B. in Miss Grant's Class for giving her drink to a classmate
Caroline P. in Mrs. Sedell's Class for helping Mrs. Brook's when Mrs. Sedell was busy
Kayla S. from Mrs. Gallagher's Class for helping a classmate up who had fallen down
Congratulations Bucketfillers! Keep up the kind deeds!

Have a great weekend and enjoy the weather!!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

April 16, 2010

2010-04-15T17:03:00.001-07:00

Hello LGN Community!

This was a very busy and fun-filled week of learning at LGN! Tuesday was our busiest day as we enjoyed Talent Tuesday, a visit from Mr. Grasso's freshmen Geometry class, Spruce-Up Day, and our Cyberbullying Parent Night!

This week on Talent Tuesday, we enjoyed watching Jenna F. and Sarah T. from Mrs. Bjork's second grade so some fancy acrobatic moves. We also enjoyed Zoie, Amanda, Catherine, and Niamh doing some awesome dance moves to the sounds of Selena Gomez.

Mrs. Quinn's and Mrs. Gallagher's third grade classes had a great time learning about fractions when Mr. Grasso's freshmen geometry class came over to complete lessons for the students. The freshmen were very creative and incorporated movement and music and successfully engaged the students as they taught them the fundamentals of fractions. We hope that they will be back soon for another math lesson!

Our first Spruce-Up Day was a big success! We would like to extend a heartfelt "thank you" to Blueview Nursery for donating 2 yards of mulch as well as some beautiful Day Lilies. Michael Tierney, the Norton Tree Warden, also donated and planted a beautiful Dogwood tree in the front of our school. The Givens family donated some beautiful perennial plants, and Mrs. Brooks donated some bulbs and Bleeding Heart plants. We had many staff, student and parent volunteers and the Champions students and staff also worked hard to clean-up our grounds. I will try to remember all of the volunteers, but please forgive me if I forget anyone:
Champions program, Mrs. Branco, Mrs. LaConte, Mrs. Brooks, Miss Lassey, Mr. Golota, Mrs. Kerry Reynolds, Mrs. Alicia Reynolds, Mrs. Mulvaney, Mrs. Gomm, Mrs. Abouzeid, Mrs. Givens, and many LGN students! Thanks for working so hard, the school looks great!

The Cyberbullying Parent Night was a great success! Thank you to the Norton PTAs for funding this event. Dr. Englander did a fantastic job presenting parents with the realities of bullying in our current technology age. Please look for her presentation in Norton Cable TV, and check out the parent links on the MARC Website.
Dr. Englander also wanted to share the following links with parents:
www.safeyouth.org
www.kidshealth.org
www.stopbullynow.hrsa.gov
www.familyinternet.about.com
www.pacerkidsagainstbullying.org

The LGN students worked hard to decorate our Earth Day Bags! Please visit the Norton Roche Bros. during April vacation week and ask for a paper bag with an Earth Day message. Thank you Roche Bros. for allowing us to participate in this Earth Day initiative again this year!

In honor of Earth Day, Mrs. Bjork's class is "going paperless" on April 27th for the whole day! Sounds like a great way to celebrate Earth-friendly practices!

Mrs. Sedell's kindergarten class made some edible art this week. See pictures below...

Our week ended with a wonderful assembly by the Tanglewood Marionettes sponsored by our PTA!

Grade 3 Writers of the Week:
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Sajind J., and Michelle B.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Catherine W., and Zoie P.
Mrs. Weber's Class- Lacey S., and Matthew A.

Have a wonderful April vacation!

Danielle Klingaman

April 9, 2010

2010-04-09T07:09:00.001-07:00

Happy Friday from LGN!

We had a very busy week here at school and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Today we had a "Pink Day" to remember former LGN student Sarah Caffelle. Mrs. Sedell's and Mrs. O'Hear's classes will be putting some butterflies on Sarah's tree on Monday.

On Monday, we were lucky to have the Officer Phil Program visit our school. JT presented the students in grades K-3 with an entertaining program focusing on safety and community awareness. Visit the Officer Phil program website for more information.

Please be aware of the important upcoming dates:
Tuesday, April 13th 7:00-8:30 PM NMS- Parent Cyberbullying Presentation
Monday, April 26th- 6:30 PM NMS- Public School Budget Forum
Tuesday, April 27th- 6:00 PM NHS Public Tour
Wednesday, April 28th- 7:30 PM Joint School Committee/Finance Committee/Select Board Meeting- Shown on Norton Cable TV
Monday, June 7th- TOWN MEETING, HAY SCHOOL*

There will be important decisions made at the June 7th Town Meeting regarding the Warrant article about the Feasibility Study to move forward with NHS renovation project. Elementary parents are strongly encouraged to attend the June 7th Town Meeting as these decisions will directly impact the elementary students when they become of high school age!

We had a great Red Sox school spirit day on Tuesday. We enjoyed Tom's entertainment in the cafeteria at lunch as he played "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and "Sweet Caroline" for the students. We thought the students looked great in the Red Sox or baseball gear and team colors.

Also on Tuesday, we had our weekly "Talent Tuesday" event in the lunchroom for the second and third grade students. This week, Kalman B. showed us his awesome ability to walk on his hands, and Jenna P. in Mrs. Gallagher's class played a couple of fabulous songs on her flute for us. Talent Tuesday has become a favorite weekly event for the students and they look forward to seeing the talents of their classmates.

This week started the second session of the LEAP After School Program. This session we were able to offer students a great variety of courses including; Homework Helpers, Kids Just Wanna Have Fun, Homework Club and Learning Games, Kids in the Kitchen, Rockin' Readers Theater, LGN Fit Club, Sensational Science, and The Adventurer's Club 2. The students had a great first week in these wonderful enrichment classes.

On Thursday and Friday, Tom and I were joined by our special helpers from the Winter Carnival auction and raffle. On Thursday, Victoria W. from Mrs. LaConte's Class and on Friday, Sarah J. from Miss Carlson's Class served as the "Principals of the Day". They helped me with a variety of tasks: Victoria helped me with bus duty, lunch duty, recess monitoring, and organizing our Spruce Up Day (Tuesday 4/13 from 2:15-4:00). Sara helped me with organizing our Earth Day Bag project, distributing notices, bus duty, lunch duty, and classroom walk-throughs. It was fun having these special helpers for the past two days!

Tom had help from his 2 "Toms for the Day." On Thursday, Ryan T. from Mrs. Sedell's class helped Tom with cleaning, sweeping, and putting away materials with the hand truck. On Friday, Kayla S. from Mrs. Gallagher's Class assisted Tom with cleaning duties and leading the school in the Friday Sweet Caroline rendition.

Thursday was "Poem in Your Pocket Day" here at LGN, which Mrs. Young did a great job organizing. Every student received their own special poem that they were able to share with other adults and students throughout the day. Three first grade students were even able to recite their poems to the whole grade level in the microphone at lunch!

Mrs. Andrade and Mrs. Walsh's class set their butterflies free on Tuesday. Check out the pictures of the release.

We will be participating in the Earth Day Bags project again this year with the help of the Norton Roche Bros. For more information about this project visit Earth Day Bags

The Bucketfillers of the Week were as follows:
Breanna in Mrs. Gallagher's class for helping a classmate get their lunch together.
Olivia in Mrs. Gallagher's class for getting her classmate's bag when she was busy.
Kevin in Miss Carlson's class for getting his friend's homework from Champions.
Sarah J. in Miss Carlson's class for getting a music stand for Mr. Arieta.
Rona C. in Miss Carlson's class for helping a friend understand math.
Michael C. in Mrs. Branco's AM class for always helping others.
Jacob in Mrs. Quinn's class for sharing the sweet and sour sauce!
Congratulations Bucketfillers!

The Grade 3 Writer's of the Week were as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Sarah K., and Katie G.
Mrs. Weber's Class- Jacob F., and Julia M.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Jenna P., and Julia S.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Morgan, Alex, and Isaiah C.

Have a great weekend!

Danielle Klingaman

April 1, 2010

2010-04-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

Happy April Fool's Day!

Well, the rain has stopped and we enjoyed a nice day at school after our unexpected day off on Wednesday due to the severe flooding. We hope that everyone is drying out and getting their homes and yards back in shape.

On Tuesday, April 6th, the staff and students will be having a Red Sox school spirit day in celebration of the start of the 2010 Red Sox season. We hope that the students will wear their Red Sox or baseball gear, or they can come to school in the red, white, or blue team colors.

There will be an important Cyberbullying Parent Night on April 13th at the Norton Middle School Auditorium from 7:00-8:30 PM. Dr. Elizabeth Englander will be presenting to parents and a laptop donated from Horace Mann Insurance will be raffled off to one lucky parent in attendance. Dr. Englander is a foremost expert on the subject of bullying and is the founder of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC) at Bridgewater State College. Understanding cyberbullying is more than just monitoring your child's Internet use, and parents of elementary age students are encouraged to attend as we see cases of bullying and cyberbulling occurring at younger and younger ages each year. Click here to learn more about the important work they do at MARC.

This week on "Talent Tuesday", we saw three more exciting student talents. Trever C. from Mrs. LaConte's class and Daniel C. from Mrs. Bjork's class "wowed us" with their awesome pogo-ing. Caroline D. from Mrs. Bjork's class played "Sweet Caroline" on the piano for us, and Cassandra S. in Mrs. LaConte's class drew a rabbit in under 30 seconds. It was another week of spectacular talents!

We are so excited that one of our "LGN dads" is in the running to play in the U.S. Open Golf setup with Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, and actor/producer Mark Wahlberg. Norton's own, Mr. Eric Hunt needs our vote in the Golf Digest contest. Click here to place your vote! Good luck Mr. Hunt!

Check out the bottlecap art by Miss Carlson's class in the front lobby! The class learned that plastic bottle caps cannot be recycled and found a great new use for the caps. They were inspired by Art Grange, click here to see some of their beautiful bottle cap art.

Mrs. Sedell has started another mural...Miss Frizzle and her Magic School Bus will be coming soon! We can't wait to see how it comes out!

Our third grade writers of the week were as follows:
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Alec W., and Aidan M.
Miss Carlson's Class- Brian D., and Thomas W.
Mrs. Weber's Class- Kim H., and Kylie M.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Jacob C., and Hannah K.
Great job writers!

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a Happy Easter! Enjoy the warm weather that is coming our way!

Danielle Klingaman

March 26, 2010

2010-03-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community!

This week we were pleased to see many of our parents during our second parent conference cycle. We hope that all of our parents received positive reports from the school and good information about student progress. We have a lot more learning to do during the last three months of the school year!

The third graders worked very hard on the ELA MCAS tests this week. We were so proud of their effort and positive attitude towards the tests. We have two more Math MCAS days coming up in May and then we wait for the results! The third grade classroom teachers, title I teachers, special education teachers, and grade three teaching assistants have worked extremely hard to prepare the students this year.

We would like to thank Mrs. Gauvin for organizing the Scholastic Book Fair again this year. The teachers would also like to thank the many parents who generously purchased and donated books to the teachers this week. We hope our students have lots of great new books to read over the next few weeks!

We had an exciting assembly at our school on Friday afternoon where Timothy T. from Miss Carlson's room won a brand new bicycle donated by Horace Mann insurance! The teaching staff nominated students who have displayed outstanding effort or improvement this year. Each of the students that were nominated received a certificate, a free ice cream, and an extra recess. We will be awarding two more bicycles to students this year.

Miss Grant shared some first grade news: "The students have been doing a Readers Theatre called the “Where Are My Animal Friends?” The children have been working very hard at becoming fluent and expressive readers.

My class has been doing an experiment, called “Flippers and Feet” to learn why sea turtles have flippers and land turtles have clawed feet. It is an introduction to animal adaptations.

The students have combined math and science by creating “feeding tools” to feed our stuffed turtle. The students are keeping track of the amount of food that lands in the turtle pool while using their math skills of counting by 10s and 1s." Thanks for the update Miss Grant!

This week on "Talent Tuesday" we had another exciting round of special talents from our students. Aunnesha B. from Mrs. O'Hear's class started things off by doing a poetry reading of two poems she had written (see below). Rebecca C. from Mrs. Weber's class performed a Selena Gomez song, and Hunter S. from Mrs. Bjork's class did an array of special tricks including hula-hooping and magic tricks. She definitely tricked Mrs. Bjork with a plastic cockroach! You can see the pictures from "Talent Tuesday" in this week's photo gallery.

Mrs. Jill Milton, our title I math specialist got some great news this week! Mrs. Milton says. "I found out last Friday, March 19, that on April 19 I will be holding the 19th Mile Marker Sign in the Boston Marathon. That is a lot of 19s." No wonder she is one of our resident math expert! Mrs. Milton will share a picture of herself holding the mile marker sign for our blog after the marathon.

Thursday, April 8th is going to be our second annual "Poem in Your Pocket Day" organized by Mrs. Young our reading specialist. More information will follow, last year the students and staff enjoyed learning about poetry and each student had their own special poem that they could share throughout the day.

Aunnesha's Poems:

Message in a Bottle

I send messages in a bottle
Through the oceans and the seas
Nothing could go past it
No whales, no bees
Across the ocean someone will find it
As they say
They will read my poem, songs, and speeches
And will send one back right away

I Licked the Lava Inside a Volcano

The volcano erupted on me.
The burning precious lava went inside the snow.
I was chilling for a while.
But when the volcano erupted,
I was hotter than the inside of a dragon.
I stuck my tongue out and
there it was
a drip of lava on my tongue!

Next week the students will be participating in the rescheduled "Think First" program.

Our Bucketfillers of the Week were as follows:
Matthew M. from Mrs. Sedell's class for helping a friend with her drawings.
Sarah K. from Miss Carlson's class for being a great helper.
Jeremie C. from Mrs. Sedell's class for putting away supplies without being asked.
Jaqui P. from Miss Grant's class finding and returning 2 quarters at recess.
Destiny M. from Mrs. Charpentier's class for finding and returning 2 quarters at recess.
Nathan D. from Mrs. Sedell's class for helping Mrs. Brooks pick up the puzzles.
Lily D. from Mrs. Charpentier's class for playing with a friend who was feeling sad at recess and being responsible in the classroom.

Have a great week! Thanks for reading!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

March 19, 2010

2010-03-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

Greetings LGN Community,

Whew! This has been one of the busiest weeks of the year! We were lucky enough to have the Blue Ribbon Team of Mr. Teal and Mrs. Morgan visiting our school this week. They were very impressed with our school, our teachers, and the amount of parent involvement we have. We will be getting a full report with our strengths and recommendations for improvement in the very near future. Thank you to all of the parents who took the time to fill out surveys.

Last Saturday's Winter Carnival was a huge success and a fun time was had by all. Check out the pictures in this week's photo gallery. Thank you to all the family and friends that came to the Carnival.

We had our first "Talent Tuesday" this past week. During their lunch, 3 second and third grade students were able to showcase their talents. This week, Alana L. from Mrs Quinn's class did a fabulous job singing "Country Rose" for us. Lacey S. from Mrs. Weber's class wowed us with her impressive cup stacking, and finally special guest, Nathan D. from Mrs. Sedell's class did some spectacular loud clicking sounds. We are looking forward to next week's performers. We didn't realize that we had such multi-talented students here at LG!

On Thursday Night, the second grade teachers hosted our annual "Seuss Curriculum Night" for our second graders and their families. The students enjoyed completing many Seuss-Activities throughout the evening. Thanks to the families that attended and the staff members who volunteered their time at the event. There are many pictures of Seuss Night in this week's photos.

We enjoyed our first big MCAS Rally wishing the 3rd grade students good luck on the ELA MCAS test next week. Every class did something special for the MCAS Rally:
Mrs. Branco's Class did a cheer.
Mrs. Sedell's Class spelled out MCAS with their bodies and Mrs. Sedell did a cartwheel!
Mrs. Walsh wrote and taught her class the M-C-A-S song (sung to the tune of YMCA). They were even asked to do an encore performance!
Miss Grant and Mrs. Charpentier's Class made thumbs up signs and did a cheer for the third graders.
Mrs. LaConte and Mrs. O'Hear's classes performed a poem for the third graders.
Mrs. Bjork's Class sang a raggae-like MCAS song that included some dancing.
Several grade 3 students from Miss Carlson's, Mrs. Gallagher's, Mrs. Quinn's, and Mrs. Weber's classes read about how they know they are ready for the MCAS.
Mrs. Weber and Mrs. Quinn's girls also did some fancy cheers for their classmates.

We know our third graders are ready for the ELA MCAS test starting next Tuesday morning. We've done everything we can to prepare and believe that our students have what it takes to achieve proficiency on the test this year.

This was our last week for "Pennies for Patients" and LGN students raised a total of $1072.29 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Miss Carlson's Class raised the most money $305.95, Mrs. Bjork's class came in second with a total of $161.35. Thank you to all the families that made donations.

Miss Grant’s class welcomes Miss Gay, as their new student teacher. The students are very excited about starting a poetry unit with Miss Gay. Their first project was to create an Acrostic Poem using their first names. Wow what a way to start the unit!

Grade 3 Writer's of the Week were as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Shawna M. Sarah J., Kiley R. Jasmine H., and Elise M.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Alexa S., and Colten H.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Alex K., and Cameron R.
Mrs. Weber's Class- TBA

Don't forget that next week is parent conferences and our Scholastic Book Fair! Thursday, March 25th is an early release day for students in grades K-3. There will be PM Project Early on Thursday.

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman :)

March 12, 2010

2010-03-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

Greetings All!

We are looking forward to two very big school events...the annual LGN Winter Carnival tomorrow from 10:00-2:00, and our Blue Ribbon Assessment next week. If parents have not yet completed their Blue Ribbon survey, there is still time to do it. Please contact the main office if you have any difficulty with the survey. Your feedback about our school performance is very important to us. You can get to the survey by clicking on the link below. We have many extra "logins", call us if you need another one.

1. Go to www.assessment.blueribbonschools.com and click on “Continue to Assessment” button.
2. Enter your participant login (sent home to you on yellow letter) and click
on the “View Instructions” button.
3. Review the instructions, then click “Continue”
4. Complete the On-line survey

The Blue Ribbon Team will be visiting our school next week. If any parent would like to be interviewed, please feel free to contact me at school.

The LGN Winter Carnival should be a great event! Join us from 10:00-2:00 tomorrow, March 13th for a fun-filled day of food, games, and prizes as well as a 50/50 raffle and awesome silent auction. There will be face painting, a cake walk, and many more fun activities for the whole family. We hope to see you there!

Check out this week's Norton Mirror for great pictures of our students at the Science Fair. We were so proud of our third graders!

Pennies for Patients to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is going strong. Mrs. Anderson reports that we have counted $393.57 so far, with more pennies and change still to be counted. This program will continue through next week.

Note from Mrs. Young, LGN Reading Specialist "Snow Better Time to Read was a great success this year thanks to the terrific amount of student reading, teacher and parent support! I hope that reading is an enjoyable part of the daily life of our LGN families. I know that your children had a great deal of fun reading for snow bricks and building their class igloo! Miss Grant’s class, Mrs. Weber’s, and Mrs. LaConte’s class each won Hot Cocoa and books!" Congratulations! Remember, Books Are Better Than Gold!

This week, Mrs. Quinn's third grade class made the layers of the earth with Mr. Golota and Mrs. Kubinski. They used playdough and labeled the layers inner core, outer core, mantle and crust.

Mrs. LaConte's class is going to start the Great American Mail Race...thanks to an elementary school in Alabama. Guest readers continue to visit second grade classes...check out the guest reader photos in this week's photo gallery!

Mrs. Weber's students painted their pet rocks this week and wrote stories about the adventures of their rock.

The first grade students applied their lessons about counting coins to a real situation. The students sorted the coins in their Pennies for Patients boxes, grouped them into dollars and then counted the total amount of money in their boxes. We have one more week to collect coins. The children will be able to again count the coins and compare their totals to this week’s totals.

Miss Grant shared that her first grade students applied their lessons about counting coins to a real situation. The students sorted the coins in their Pennies for Patients boxes, grouped them into dollars and then counted the total amount of money in their boxes. There is one more week to collect coins. The children will be able to again count the coins and compare their totals to this week’s totals. Also, first grade students compared the plots of several Frog and Toad stories this week. They also compared real and fantasy frogs and toads.

Next week, we are excited to begin our "Talent Tuesdays" for grade two and three students. Every Tuesday at lunch, three lucky second and third graders will be able to showcase their special "talent" for the other students. This program was started by Caroline D. in Mrs. Bjork's class and Rebecca C. in Mrs. Weber's class because many of our LGN students have special talents to share.

Have a great week and we will have many pictures to share from the Winter Carnival when you read next week's blog!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

March 5, 2010

2010-03-05T06:27:00.000-08:00

Greetings LGN Community!

We had a very busy and exciting week at the L.G. Nourse School. On Tuesday, we were thrilled to have many wonderful guest readers come in to celebrate "Read Across America Day" with us. Each classroom had a special guest come in to read a Dr. Seuss or other selection. A big THANK YOU to the special guests that took the time out of their busy schedules to come to our school:
Fire Chief Gomes
Deputy Fire Chief Schleicher
Police Chief Clark
Police Sgt. Jacob Dennett
State Senator James Timilty
Mr. Tom Golota- School Committee
Mrs. Marge Werner- School Committee
Mrs. Beth McManus- School Committee
Dr. Ansay- Superintendent
Mrs. Mae Myers- Former LGN Reading Specialist
Mrs. Lynn Wiegel- Director of Technology
Dr. Amy Berdos- Curriculum Director
Mrs. Lisa Farrell- HAY Principal
Mrs. Jeanne Sullivan- Director of Pupil Personnel Services
Mrs. Sharon Roberts- Literacy Coach

Last night was one of the biggest events of the year for our third graders...the Science Fair! The third grade students each created a compound machine and the projects this year were absolutely amazing! It was evident that the students created the projects themselves (with the adult support needed), and each student was able to eloquently share how their project worked to the many people visiting the Science Fair throughout the day. I was touched by how proud our third graders were of their projects. They will never forget their Science Fair. Thank you very much to all of the parents who assisted the students with their projects, and a special thanks to the 3 sets of parents of twins we have in third grade this year. Check out the projects in our photo gallery.

Mrs. Wroblewski announced her Spanish Award winners for the month of February today. The winners were Caroline B. from Mrs. LaConte's class, and Amanda R. from Mrs. Quinn's class. Congratulations girls!

The third grade Writer's of the Week were as follows:
Mrs. Weber's Class- Rachel G., Taylor S., and Josiah S.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Alex L., and Molly G.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Amanda R., Kyle G., and Kalman B.
Miss Carlson's Class- Rona C., and Cameron H.
Congratulations writers, and don't forget that you will be joining me for an ice cream sundae party at the end of the month!

Abigail from Mrs. Walsh and Mrs. Andrade's class came to read me a story she wrote about a time she was impatient. Click here to hear her story. Abigail's Story

Beginning next week, all of the classrooms will be collecting pennies and spare change to support the "Pennies for Patients" program to support leukemia research. The program is sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The class that collects the most money will receive a pizza party. Thank you for supporting this worthy cause.

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

Danielle Klingaman

February 26, 2010

2010-02-25T17:15:00.000-08:00

Greetings LGN Community!

February certainly went by in a flash and now we are preparing for the longest and busiest month of the school year. The March newsletter went home today, and as you can see, we have many activities and events coming up this month:

March 2nd- Guest Readers for 'Read Across America Day'
March 3rd- PTA meeting 7:00 PM
March 4th- Grade 3 Science Fair- 6:30-7:30 PM
March 13th- LGN Winter Carnival 10:00-2:00
March 18th- Grade 2 Dr. Seuss Family Curriculum Night
March 22nd-March 25th- Scholastic Book Fair
March 23rd-24th- Grade 3 MCAS Test
March 24th and March 25th- Parent Conferences K-3

Mrs. Charpentier’s first graders have been doing some introductory geometry this week working with plane and space shapes. After identifying, describing, and sorting 3 dimensional space shapes using recycled boxes, paper towel rolls, party hats and balls, the children constructed their space shape creations. They then wrote about their creations using terms such as cubes, spheres, rectangular prisms, cylinders, and cones. Check out the photos….It looks like we have some future design engineers in our midst!

This past Wednesday night, some of us went to Dream Dinners in Plainville for a fun demonstration night. Throughout the month of March, LGN will receive 10% of the profits from any families that purchase meals through Dream Dinners. Be sure to mention our fundraiser if you decide to try out some wonderful family meals from Dream Dinners.

On Monday, the Norton Grange came to LGN to present each of our third graders with their own dictionary. The Norton Grange #218 meets the third Monday of each month at the Unitarian Church. They are always looking for new members, for more information contact Kathy Baker at 508-285-4669 or Alice Baker at 508-285-9080.

This past Monday, Miss Carlson's class had a balloon launch in honor of Shawna's birthday and in memory of Erin O'Handley. Check out the pics in the photo gallery.

This week, we held our preschool screening for model students for the 2010-2011 school year. Some of the students are as young as 2 1/2 when they come to the school for their screening day, and everybody did great! The lottery for the preschool model spots will be held at the March 8th school committee meeting and families will be notified that week if they were selected for the lottery. The full-day kindergarten lottery will also be held at the March 8th school committee meeting.

I am pleased to announce that we are partnering with Horace Mann Insurance company who are dedicated to providing resources for schools, teachers, and students. Beginning in March, LGN teachers will have the opportunity to nominate students for hard work or improvement, and a brand new bike will be raffled off each month for students entered in this raffle. Horace Mann has also offered to provide our grade 3 Writer's of the Week with a monthly ice cream sundae party. We are pleased with this partnership and look forward to the opportunity to provide our students with these wonderful incentives for their hard work or improvement.

Our grade 3 writer's of the week are as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- TBA
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Olivia S. and Joe F.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Nicholas C., Catherine W., and Cameron R.
Mrs. Weber's Class- Jack O., Emily T., and Kylie M.

Bucketfillers of the Week are as follows:
Amy E. in Mrs. Andrade and Mrs. Walsh's first grade class for always being kind and helpful to students and teachers.
Madison in Mrs. O'Hear's second grade class for helping Kyle clean up his water.
Aunnesha in Mrs. O'Hear's second grade class for helping Andrew pick up his crayons.

Thanks for reading! Have a great week!

Danielle Klingaman

February 12, 2010

2010-02-12T05:03:00.000-08:00

Hello LGN Community!

The day before February vacation and Valentine's Day is always one of my favorite days of school. It is so wonderful to see the children getting off the buses dressed in their "Valentine red," with their bags of Valentines for their classmates and teachers. We delivered Valentines to the EPOCH Senior Living Center and Daggett Crandall home to brighten the Valentine's Day of some of Norton's seniors. It was a happy day at school!

Don't forget that the 2010 Winter Olympics begins tonight in Vancouver! The opening ceremonies tonight are supposed to be awesome.

We celebrated the 100th day of school on Thursday. Second grade read a "100 Day" story to kick off the centers, and the teachers all hosted a different activity in each of the classrooms that the students rotated through. Mrs. LaConte had students complete a math/art activity, Mrs. O'Hear completed a Language Arts activity where the students came up with 100 nouns, and Mrs. Bjork led a wellness/math activity (how many jumping jacks in 100 seconds, etc.). The second graders had an exciting day!

On February 24th, we are excited to be doing an interesting fund raiser for busy families. Our school will be participating in "Taste of Dream Dinners" at 7:00 PM, at Dream Dinners, 51 Man Mar Drive, Plainville, MA. We'll have a chance to create Creamy Bow Tie Past & Chicken, Raspberry Glazed Chicken with Green Beans Almondine, and Kentucky Pork Chops. You can prepare the meal with all of the ingredients and recipes they have on hand for you, then you bring the meal home to freeze and serve at a later time. Call (508) 809-9180 to RSVP for the 24th, it should be fun!

As many of you know, we were lucky to receive NEED grant funding this year to be able to purchase and implement the Second Step social/emotional learning, violence prevention/anti-bullying program. The teachers have found that this program has been beneficial and has allowed for many important conversations to take place in our classrooms. Miss Lassey our adjustment counselor, found this Second Step video with interesting facts and wanted to share it with our parents.

It is very important that we talk to our children about bullying beginning at a very young age. As I am sure many of you have heard, there have been several bullying and cyber-bullying situations right here in Massachusetts that have ended tragically in recent months. We need to teach the children to treat their classmates with respect and kindness, to understand and embrace the individual differences of others, as well as teach the children steps to take if they feel they are being bullied.
Dr. Ansay shared this link to cyber bullying information for parents.

Did you know that the current US population is 308,669,449? Census 2010 is quickly approaching and you will be receiving a Census questionnaire in the mail in March. It is very important for everyone to return their Census information in a timely manner. Census is when a count of everyone living in the United States is conducted. Census is important to schools because much of our state and federal funding relies on accurate Census data. Click here for Census information for students, teachers, and parents.

The "Bucketfillers for the Week" were as follows:
Mrs. LaConte was nominated by Helen for "being there for her students every day"
Aunnesha from Mrs. O'Hear's Class for helping another student pick up his crayons
Jack from Mrs. Charpentier's Class for very nicely helping a friend who was sweeping up a mess on the floor
Jake from Mrs. Charpentier's Class for getting the dust pan and broom out on his own to clean the mud from the floor in his classroom
Hannah in Mrs. LaConte's Class for tying a classmate's shoe
Nicholas H. in Miss Grant's Class for telling his classmate where to put his paper
Michael C. in Mrs. Quinn's Class for helping a classmate find his bottle
Nicholas C. in Mrs. Quinn's Class for acting like a gentleman to Mrs. Sedell in the hallway
Sean R. in Miss Grant's Class for moving to a different seat in the lunchroom so a classmate didn't need to sit alone, and for helping a classmate clean up the center table
Dolan W. in Mrs. Bjork's Class for sharing his crayons with a classmate
Noah B. in Mrs. Bjork's Class for changing his seat in the cafeteria to sit with someone who had been sitting alone

Wishing everyone a fun and safe February vacation and a happy Valentine's Day!

Danielle Klingaman

February 5, 2010

2010-02-04T12:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday!

It is hard to believe that we only have one more week of school until February vacation!

Last week's Movie Night was a great success. I wasn't able to take any pictures because I was distracted by my job of making sure the audio/visual equipment was working properly, but we had quite a crowd! The families enjoyed the showing of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." Thank you to all the families who came and a big "THANKS" to our awesome PTA for organizing this fun family event.

We have a great opportunity to raise money for our school PTA this summer. We have reserved a concession tent at the TPC/Deutsche Bank Golf Championship this Labor Day weekend. Prom Catering is looking for us to fill 75 shifts at our "11th Green" concession tent. We have 3 shifts available per day from Thursday through Sunday (September 2-5) of the tournament. We will receive 8% of the total concession profits, divided by our number of volunteers. I will be available at parent conferences to sign volunteers up for our LGN concession tent. Any LGN parents, relatives, or family friends are welcome to volunteer. Let me know if you have questions!

This week and last week with Mrs. Quinn’s and Mrs. Weber’s class, Mrs. Milton-our Math Specialist, taught the students a fun and easy way to remember volume measurements in the customary system using Gallon Man. The large rectangle represents the gallon (his body) and the rest of his body is made up of gallon equivalents (4 quarts, 8 pints, 16 cups). There was a story that went along with the lesson. It can be found at http://www.edb.utexas.edu/eml/lvoges/visionCMS/VisionBoard/Files/doc/embooks/embook-gallonman.pdf#search=%22gallon%20man%22

Mrs. Wroblewski our grade 2 and 3 Spanish teacher announced the Spanish Award winners for the month of January. Congratulations Madison S. and Jenna F.!

Mrs. Quinn's class is completing their compare and contrast essays. They had to compare and contrast two things in nature. The kids are very excited by this week's Reading Street story on Volcanoes. Mrs. Quinn decided to integrate the ELA topic with a geology unit in science. Students are investigating what soil is, and types of rocks etc.

This week in Math, students in Mrs. Andrade & Mrs. Walsh's made "space shape" creations. In math they have been learning about the different kinds of shapes: cones, cylinders, cubes, rectangular prism and spheres. They all pitched in by searching their homes for space shaped recyclables and bringing them in to turn them into wonderful creations. Students made robots, animals, rocket ships and even a little mouse (to name a few) using the different shapes. They had a lot of fun!

This week, Miss Carlson's class enjoyed a game of "frictionless baseball", made paper mache volcanoes, and got interviewed by the Sun Chronicle on their bottle cap art recycling project. Look out for the article in next Wednesday's paper. Check out the pics of frictionless baseball in the slideshow.

Mrs. Gallagher's class has been exchanging pen pal letters with fifth grade students at Yelle in Mrs. Susan Capalbo’s class since the fall. They will soon exchange with Mrs. LaConte’s second grade students as well. Great letter writing practice!

Mrs. Weber's class is working on writing compare/contrast essays about things in nature. Some of the students are enjoying a book club, where they are reading The Tale of Desperaux, Because of Winn Dixie, and The Good Dog. They are also finishing up simple machines!

Miss Grant’s class has been creating and illustrating calendars to learn about days, months, seasons and holidays. The calendars will be arriving home this week or next week.

In honor of Groundhog Day, Miss Grant’s and Mrs. LaConte’s classes learned about the science of making shadows.

Mrs. Young came across some interesting sleep information this week. Sleep promotes alertness, memory, and performance. With MCAS season quickly approaching, good sleep is especially important for the students. www.sleepforkids.org, a service of the National Sleep Foundation. The website states that children who get enough sleep are more likely to function better, but it also offered good routines and solutions for having a better night's sleep. The website includes developmental information, "Snooze Clues," "P.J. Bear’s Time," sleep sheets, and activities.

Mrs. Young says, "The L.G. Nourse reading incentive, "Snow Better Time to Read," is plowing right along! Five classes have turned in over 100 snowbricks! That is over 1,000 minutes of reading (or math practice) for a first grade class, over 1,500 minutes for a second grade class, and over 2,000 minutes for a third grade class in one week! This is amazing practice! L.G. Nourse children are preparing for the challenge! Keep up the great work!"

Kindergarten is learning the names of plant parts and their functions!

Our Bucketfillers of the Week were as follows:
Jamie F. from Mrs. Branco's Class
Sean B. from Miss Carlson's Class
Sean O. from Mrs. Bjork's Class
Alaina A. from Mrs. Bjork's Class
Kiley R. from Miss Carlson's Class

Our Grade 3 Writers of the Week were as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Kiley R., Timothy M., and Shawna M.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Austin C., and Michelle B.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Trinity W., Catherine W., and Alex K.
Mrs. Weber's Class- Griffin M., and Rebecca C.

Have a great week!

Danielle Klingaman

January 29, 2010

2010-01-29T07:44:00.000-08:00

Hello LGN Community!

This week just seemed to fly by! The students had an early release day on Thursday allowing the elementary teachers to participate in various professional development activities.

Keep your eye out for more information about the Blue Ribbon Assessment process that our school will soon be going through. A team from Blue Ribbon will be surveying our school staff as well as our parent group to provide us with important feedback about our strengths and areas to improve upon. Feedback from our parents is extremely important, and the surveys will be able to be accessed on-line.

Last night, the Project Early Staff, Miss Dee, Miss Monica, Miss Holly, and Miss Carin, ran a special "Family Night" for preschool students in both the AM and PM sessions. The students and their families were able to make a gingerbread house, make a gingerbread man with Miss Emilie, complete an obstacle course with Miss Anielia, and listen to a special story from Miss Susan. Thanks Dr. Pummell for greeting families at the sign-in table and helping out with the event. We were thrilled with the number of families that were able to attend, and a fun time was had by all.

Today, Ryan G. from Mrs. Walsh and Mrs. Andrade's class came to read to me. He sounds awesome. Click here to hear Ryan read!

Last week, Mrs. Rezendes and Mrs. Young integrated language arts into the first grade physical education classes. They read "Move Over Rover" by K. Beaumont and had students use movements to represent the actions in the story. Of course, using movement reinforced the children’s ability to recall the text. It was also very fun and it was very motivating! Move Over Rover ‘poem’ is in the LGN parent reading resources section, also where you’ll find extra copies of the reading Snow Bricks! Snow Better Time To Read is really doing GREAT! Miss Grant’s first grade class brought in 108 reading/math snow bricks this week! That’s really amazing work at home!

Kindergarten Pajama Day was lots of fun! They decorated their own personalized pillow cases and played fun flashlight games! They were all warm and cozy in their snuggly pajamas with their stuffed animal friends!

Project Early students also enjoyed a Pajama Day today! Check out the pictures in the photo gallery.

Mrs. Charpentier’s First Graders didn’t let the cold air and lack of snow stop them from making a wonderful snowman…a paper one that is. The children all worked together, and were as industrious as the bees they recently read about, in planning and building their snow friend. In doing this project, the children reinforced the concept of “steps in a process” as well as experienced a community effort while working toward a common goal. Such fun!

The third grade classes have been utilizing a new technology that we have available to us called AlphaSmart Neos. Mrs. Sullivan, our director of pupil personnel services, and Mrs. Wiegel, our district technology director were able to utilize a portion of our ARRA funds to purchase these devices for the students. The third grade classes are using the new Neos for their writing. The teachers find that it helps students spend more time editing their work when they use the spell check, as well as allowing them to improve their keyboarding skills. The students love them!

Mrs. Anderson was able to schedule the "Think First" National Injury Prevention program for students in grades K-3. This program is sponsored through Children's Hospital Boston and their mission is to help prevent brain, spinal cord, and other traumatic injuries through education of individuals. When Think First visits our school in February, they will be reviewing helmet safety, passenger restraint safety, water safety, playground safety, pedestrian safety, and violence safety. Thank you for Mrs. Anderson for arranging this important safety program.

Stand for Children is an organization that uses the power of grassroots action to help all children get the excellent public education and strong support they need to thrive.
They are the leading voice for Massachusetts’ children, and the Commonwealth’s only statewide grassroots education advocacy group. They bring together people from all walks of life – parents, grandparents, educators, and concerned citizens – in order to make children a top political priority. Contact Mrs. Klingaman if you are interested in more information about the Norton chapter of Stand for Children and upcoming meetings.

We will be picking new writers of the week next week and Miss Lassey is going to start picking new Bucketfillers on Mondays. I will update the blog when these students are chosen.

We can't wait for movie night tonight! The popcorn has arrived and we are about to start the process of getting the audio/visual ready to go! We hope to have a great turnout of families for our showing of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."

Until next week....

Danielle Klingaman

January 22, 2010

2010-01-21T18:20:00.000-08:00

Hello LGN Community!

Today the students in grades K-3 enjoyed a special school spirit "Pajamas Day". The students and staff were able to wear their pajamas to school and make a voluntary donation to support relief efforts in Haiti through the Red Cross International Response Fund. We were able to raise a total of $700 for the Red Cross. Thank you to all the LGN students, staff, and parents who assisted with our fundraising efforts today. A big THANK YOU to Caroline and Rebecca for coming up with this wonderful idea!

Mrs. Quinn's class enjoyed a special pizza party today at lunch for having the best attendance at our MCAS Parent Night back in November. We had a great time at lunch and the students were very excited to finally be able to enjoy this prize that they earned. We were so pleased to have almost 100% attendance of parents and students back on the MCAS Parent Night. This is a tradition that we look forward to continuing for our third graders and their families in school years to come.

The other day, Mrs. Walsh sent one of her students to my office to "knock my socks off" with his awesome reading. Click here to hear William read a "short a" passage. I am so proud of you William and I can tell you have been practicing!

Mrs. O'Hear's second grade class conducted a "mock election" for the open U.S. Senate seat this past Tuesday morning. The results were as follows:

Brown 14
Coakley 6

It looks as though Mrs. O'Hear's class had a pretty close prediction to the actual election results!

Our Grade 3 "Writers of the Week" are as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Jonathan G. and Hayley H.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Julia S. and Breanna S.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Hannah K.
Mrs. Weber's Class- Emily T., Chadi B., and Jack O.
Great job writers! Keep up the hard work grade 3, MCAS is right around the corner!

Bucketfillers of the Week were as follows:
Molly G. in Mrs. Gallagher's Class for helping a classmate pick up spilled crayons.
Hayley H. in Miss Carlson's Class for helping a classmate clean up spilled juice.
Hunter S. in Mrs. Bjork's Class for sitting with a classmate who had been sitting alone at lunch.
Jack in Mrs. Weber's Class for helping his classmate clean up a water spill.
Sarah J. in Miss Carlson's Class for helping a classmate pack up her books when her hand was hurt.
Nathan D. in Mrs. Sedell's Class for helping a fellow student work on a project.
Justin K. in Mrs. Bjork's Class for lending his gloves to a classmate at recess.
Nathan T. in Mrs. O'Hear's Class for helping his classmate untie a knot in her shoelace.
Shane M. in Mrs. Sedell's Class for allowing a classmate to get her things to go home before him.
Nicole W. in Mrs. Sedell's Class for helping clean up the resting mats without being asked.
Austin N. in Mrs. Charpentier's Class helps gather and pack up his friend's things to go home.

Don't forget that our 2nd annual Movie Night next Friday night. Door open at 6 PM and our featured presentation "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" will begin promptly at 6:30 PM. Remember to bring some pillows and blankets to get comfortable with during the movie. It should be a fun family night!

We are still accepting Project Early and Kindergarten registrations for the 2010-2011school year. Project Early students must be 3 by August 31, 2010, and Kindergarten students must be 5 by August 31, 2010 to be eligible. For more information, stop by or call our main office.

Have a great week!

Danielle Klingaman

January 15, 2010

2010-01-15T12:45:00.000-08:00

Greetings LGN Community!

It has been another fun but busy week at L.G. Nourse!

We were happy to kick off our first week of the new LEAP-after school enrichment program. This session, we were able to offer courses in Arts and Crafts, Homework Helpers, Scrabble, Board Games Galore, Girl Power Language Games, Technology, Adventurer's Club, and How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World! We hope to offer one more session at the end of the school year with even more courses.

Two students, Caroline in Mrs. Bjork's class and Rebecca in Mrs. Weber's class approached me about doing some kind of school fund raiser to assist the victims of the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti. Look out next week for information about a school-wide "pajama day" next Friday 1/22 where students and staff can make a voluntary donation of $1. All proceeds will go to the American Red Cross International Response Fund
Thank you Caroline and Rebecca for the wonderful idea!

Mrs. Sedell's class held a dog show today! Checks out the fancy dogs in the photo gallery!

Our grade 3 writer's of the week were as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Kiley R., Sarah K., and Katie G.
Mrs. Gallegher's Class- Joey H., and Molly G.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Dawson M., and Alana L
Mrs. Weber's Class- Kim H., and Rebecca C.
Congratulations writers!

Don't forget that Project Early registration for the 2010-2011 school year is underway! See Mrs. Bettencourt in the main office for paperwork.

Kindergarten registration for the 2010-2011 school year has also begun! Mrs. Flynn in the main office is available to answer any questions you may have. Students must be 5 by 8/31/10 to be eligible.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Danielle Klingaman

January 8, 2010

2010-01-08T10:55:00.000-08:00

We are off to a great start at LGN in 2010!

You may have noticed our new "Got Books" bin located near our second driveway. This bin can be used for books (children's or adult books), DVDs, CDs, or audio books. The Got Books company sends these materials overseas to our troops, to other local charities, and offers them to local educators at discounted rates. The L.G. Nourse PTA will receive funds from the Got Books company based on the total weight of the donated materials. For more information, contact Got Books at (978) 284-2500 or check their web page at GOT BOOKS

Before vacation the students enjoyed a fun holiday sing along with one of our music teachers, Mr. Arieta. There are some pictures of this LGN sing along in this week's photo gallery.

Also before vacation, the students in grades K-3 enjoyed a fun school-wide "LGN Story Tree" activity. This past fall, Mrs Kirsten Sedell painted a beautiful story tree mural filled with many favorite book characters in our main hallway. Mrs. Rachel Young and Mrs. Rebecca Murphy came up with the idea to celebrate the tree by having groups of students visit other classrooms to listen to the teachers read stories about the characters on our LGN tree. Some of the stories that the students heard that day included; The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Verdi, Madeline's Christmas, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Frog and Toad, Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Click, Clack, Moo- Cows That Type, Where the Wild Things Are, Green Eggs and Ham, and The Kissing Hand. This school wide event was great fun for the students and staff alike. Thanks for the great idea Mrs. Young and Mrs. Murphy, and thanks again Mrs. Sedell for this wonderful mural!

Later in the month we are looking forward to our 2nd annual LGN Family Movie Night which is being organized by our fantastic PTA. The movie night will be on Friday, January 29, 2010 and the doors will open at 6:00 PM. Look out for the flyer which will be coming home with students next week. We are asking families to return the bottom of the form if they are planning on attending so that we have a rough estimate of the number of people to expect.

Next week we will be the first week for our new after school enrichment program called LEAP (LGN, Enrichment, After-school, Program). We will be offering Scrabble, Girl Power, Arts & Crafts, Homework Helpers, Board Games Galore, Technology Fun, Adventurer's Club, and "How to make an apple pie and see the world." We are excited to begin this exciting new offering.

The grade 3 Writer's of the Week were as follows:
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Joe F., and Michelle B.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Jacob C., Amanda R., and Nicholas C.
Miss Carlson's Class- Shawna M., and Hayley H.

Great job on the writing!

The Bucketfillers of the Week were as follows:
Brian D. from Miss Carlson's Classroom for picking up a classmate's jacket and helping him find his lunch
Michael B. from Mrs. O'Hear's Classroom for straightening out the boots outside of his classroom
Nathan from Mrs. Charpentier's Classroom for solving a friendship problem and apologizing for a misunderstanding
Sean R. from Miss Grant's Classroom for offering to stay in from recess with a friend who couldn't go out
Jenna B. from Mrs. Charpentier's Classroom for inviting a friend to play with her
Michelle B. from Mrs. Gallagher's Classroom for sitting with a classmate at lunch who had been sitting alone
Caroline B. from Mrs. LaConte's Classroom for helping a friend tie their shoe

Have a great week everyone!

Danielle Klingaman

December 18, 2009

2009-12-18T09:46:00.000-08:00

Hello LGN Community!

This week at L.G. Nourse the students continued to work hard on their studies despite being very excited about the holiday season. The staff and students enjoyed hearing the third graders perform on Wednesday during their dress rehearsal for the upcoming holiday concert on Monday night at 6:30 PM. It is going to be a great show led by Mrs. Alise MacAllister and Mr. Tom Arieta our music teachers.

I would like to sincerely thank all of the families who generously donated to our Joy to the Children gift drive. We were able to support 26 families and 50 children. Mrs. Lisa Anderson and Mrs. Cheryl Lassey did a wonderful job organizing this project and spent countless hours ensuring that all the families in need were able to be supported. We would also like to thank Wheaton College for sponsoring 2 families for us this holiday season. Wheaton College was extremely generous with their donation and certainly made the holidays a happier time for these families.

We had a great response to our new after school enrichment program that will be starting in January. We are looking forward to this new program and we would like to see it run during the school year and in the summer in the future.

Mrs. Weber's class wrote stories this week using a picture from a holiday/winter card as their inspiration. The stories came out great, stop by to see them in the third grade wing if you are here next week. Mrs. Gallagher's class is comparing two versions of The Mitten: one by Jan Brett, the other by Alvin Tresselt. They’re focusing on setting, characters, and events. They will continue next week with various ELA activities pertaining to vocabulary, comprehension, genre, and author interpretation of a folktale.

Our grade 3 writers of the week were as follows:
Mrs. Gallagher- Olivia S., and Aidan M.
Mrs. Weber- Kaitlyn H., and Lacey S.
Miss Carlson- Cameron H., Jonathan G.
Mrs. Quinn- Niamh R., and Nicholas C.
Congratulations third grade writers!

The Bucketfillers of the Week were as follows:
Kevin M. in Miss Carlson's class for holding a friend's lunchbox while she put on her gloves, helping with the trash/recycling, inviting a friend to join his math group, and throwing away his scrap paper without asking. (Kevin received 5 nominations)
Meagan A. in Mrs. O'Hear's class for packing up for a friend at the end of the day who was out of the room at the time.
Olivia S. in Mrs. Gallagher's class for holding a friend's coat while she was washing her hands and for helping a friend pack her backpack. (Olivia had 2 nominations)
Marisa K. in Mrs. O'Hear's class for packing up for a friend at the end of the day who was out of the classroom.
Devin W. in Mrs. LaConte's class for offering his teacher a "sore throat" lollipop after she had been sick.
Sarah T. in Mrs. Bjork's class for helping a friend pick up her papers.
Zeina D. in Mrs. O'Hear's class for helping a friend get a knot out of his sneaker.

Many classes will be making gingerbread houses this week and next week. The Project Early, Mrs. Andrade & Mrs. Walsh's, and kindergarten classes made their houses this week. Miss Carlson, Miss Grant and Mrs. Weber will be working on their with their classes next week. Mrs. Milton our math specialist has been working with the teachers on a graphing activity based on the story The Gingerbread Girl. Mrs. LaConte's class will be decorating gingerbread cookies on Monday to follow up with the Gingerbread Girl math acitivity. They also read that The Gingerbread Man today, and did a comparison Venn diagram and an interactive "share the pen" paragraph.

Next week we are looking forward to our first sing along with Mr. Arieta. He will be leading the school with some holiday songs on Wednesday afternoon before our holiday parties. It should be a fun event!

Don't forget that we are collecting non-perishable food items for the Norton Cupboard of Kindness. I will be dropping off all of our donations on Wednesday of next week.

The students and staff came to school today dressed to show their holiday spirit! It was nice to see all of the festive clothing.

On behalf of all of us here at L.G. Nourse, we would like to wish everyone a happy holiday season and a fabulous 2010!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

December 11, 2009

2009-12-11T10:44:00.000-08:00

Good Afternoon LGN Community,

This week Mrs. Young our reading specialist organized our first "Book Bingo" night. LGN students and their families were able to learn to play Bingo and win books. We had an excellent response to the event and hope to do it again in the future. Thanks to Mrs. Young for organizing that fun night!

Today the kindergarten classes celebrated "Holidays for the Birds". Each student made homemade bird feeders for the birds and went out into the LGN Nature Trail to hang the feeders for them. The birds are going to enjoy their holiday feast this weekend!

Before Thanksgiving, Mrs. LaConte's second grade and Miss Grant's first grade classes made cornbread as a "Math in the Real World" application. They actually had to revise the recipe by 12 to accommodate 41 children...and two hungry teachers! The students shared what they were thankful for after listening to a FAVORITE Thanksgiving book called Thanksgiving at the Tappletons.

This afternoon, State Representative D'Amico came in to read to our Project Early students. He spoke to the students about the State House in Boston, and read them Bear feels Scared and Rocketship. The students enjoyed meeting State Representative D'Amico and we thank him for visiting our school today.

Our grade 3 Writer's of the Week were:
Sarah J. and Rona C. from Miss Carlson's class
Colten H. and Alex L. from Mrs. Gallagher's class
Kyle G. and Kalman B. from Mrs. Quinn's class
Emily T. and Nicholas D. from Mrs. Weber's class
Congratulations writers! Keep up the great work!

Our Bucketfillers of the Week were:
Ryan T. in Mrs. Sedell's class for bringing another student his lunch box in the cafeteria
Sarah K in Miss Carlson's class for lending extra mittens to a friend
Alec W in Mrs. Gallagher's class for helping a kindergartner find her way to class
Julia S. in Mrs. Gallagher's class for helping a classmate find her poem
Aidan G. in Mrs. Branco's class for gathering a classmates papers for him while he was out of class.

Thank you to all of our generous L.G. Nourse families who donated gifts to our "Joy to the Children" project. We were able to collect gifts for many Norton families in need which will make their holiday season brighter. We will continue to collect non-perishable foods for the Norton Cupboard of Kindness food pantry throughout the month of December.

Until next week...

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

December 4, 2009

2009-12-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

Greetings All,

It is hard to believe that it is already December! We had some more wild New England weather this week resulting in a partial power outage on Thursday morning, but the teachers and students didn't miss a beat and we went on with business as usual on our early release day Thursday. Unfortunately we had to cancel our AM and PM Project Early sessions because of the lack of power, which is always a last resort.

Look out for information on a new after school enrichment program we will be offering starting this January. Registration forms will be coming home with students next week. The classes will be taught by teachers on a variety of fun and enriching topics. We hope to success with this new program that was initiated by our Site Council.

Did anyone see the beautiful tree mural with book characters that Mrs. Sedell painted in the hallway recently? Mrs. Sedell has really brightened up our school with her murals, thank you Mrs. Sedell! The are some pictures of the new storybook tree in this week's photo gallery.

Just a reminder that the early release time is always 11:30 for students in full day kindergarten through grade 3. The preThanksgiving early release day is the only super-early 11:00 dismissal time of the year.

We are still hoping that the last few gift tags hanging on the front bulletin board will be taken by people who would like to donate a holiday gift to a child in Norton. There are about 30 tags still available, and gifts should be returned in gift bags by Monday, December 15th. Thank you to the many people who have already taken tags and donated gifts.

Mrs. Wroblewski announced her Spanish Award winners for the month this morning over the intercom. They were Daniel C. in Mrs. Bjork's class and Sarah K. in Miss Carlson's class. Congratulations Spanish Award winners!

Our grade 3 writers of the week are as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class TBA
Mrs. Gallagher's Class Alexa S., Kayla S. and Colten H.
Mrs. Quinn's Class Jeffrey G., and Alana L.
Mrs. Weber's Class Rebecca C., and Taylor S.

The Bucketfillers of the Week are as follows:
Jack I. from Mrs. Sedell's class for making his friend feel better
Joe F. from Mrs. Gallagher's class for helping his friend find his paper
Molly G. from Mrs. Gallagher's class for helping a substitute
Andrew T. from Mrs. Sedell's class for pushing all the chairs in after snack
Jacob M.om Mrs. Walsh and Mrs. Andrade's class for keeping the classroom environment positive

Miss Lassey and Mrs. Giatrelis would like parents to know that the Second Step program parent video will be available for parents to sign out and view at home. The video includes topics to be covered at school as well as strategies to assist children at home. Miss Lassey has posted the Second Step parent brochure on her school counselor Edline page.

Many parents ask me about they can access MCAS information for parents on the complicated Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Website. The DESE website has an entire MCAS section including Test Questions and Student Work/Scoring Guides Samples. I am always happy to meet with parents to talk about MCAS, Study Island, or resources on-line to assist parents working with their children at home.

We enjoyed having our preschool families in for the Project Early Family Feast before Thanksgiving. The students enjoyed making breads and homemade butter to share with their families. There are some pictures of the Family Feast in the photo gallery for this week.

We had another successful Holiday Shoppe this week at school where all of the LGN students are able to shop for holiday gifts for their families. The PTA runs this event and it takes all year for the organizers to shop for the many gifts that are available for the students to choose from at the Holiday Shoppe. We are also looking forward to Breakfast with Santa this Saturday, another PTA event and next week Mrs. Young our reading specialist, has organized a Book Bingo for the students. It should be a lot of fun.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Klingaman

November 20, 2009

2009-11-20T09:53:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

We had another great week at L.G. Nourse!

Our first (hopefully) annual MCAS Parent Night was on Tuesday evening and it was a huge success! The third grade teachers and students did a wonderful job preparing for this important night for parents. The intent of the night was for parents to understand exactly what is being asked of the third graders on the ELA and Math MCAS tests. This knowledge will be helpful to parents when they are working with their children on MCAS homework throughout the year. We were so pleased with the attendance, most classes had only 1 or 2 students missing. I would like to thank all of our third grade families for attending. By working together, I know we can make great gains in our MCAS scores this year. Reaching our goals needs to be a consistent group effort!

Thank you to the families who registered their Stop and Shop cards for the A+ Bonus Bucks program. There are some special bonus bucks items this week. Check them out when you are doing your Thanksgiving holiday shopping.

Bucketfillers of the Week are as follows:
Emma from Miss Grant's class for helping a friend write a sentence!
Sophia from Mrs. O'Hear's class for helping a friend clean up!
Michael from Mrs. O'Hear's class for helping out a friend!
Jasmine from Miss Carlson's class for helping a friend up who banged her head!
Julia from Mrs. Weber's class for helping her friend clean up a mess!
Nicole from Mrs. Sedell's class for always helping her teacher without needing to be asked!

The Third Grade Writer's of the Week were as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Timothy T., Timothy T., Kyle M., and Thomas
Mrs. Weber's Class- Kylie M., and Kaitlyn H.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Nicholas C., and Morgan G.

Check out their writing on the bulletin board near the cafeteria entrance!

I checked in with the second grade teachers about the new happenings in their classrooms:
They have all been working on solving word problems in math and deciding what information is necessary and what information is extra. The 2nd graders all read the Bremantown Musicians play in their reading anthology, and Mrs. Roberts our reading coach has been working with the students on answering open-response answers in writing. Mrs. Bjork shared that her class will be doing a "cranberry taste test" next week.

Mrs. Milton our new math specialist did a great "hands-on" math activity with some of the second graders...BUY YOUR TURKEY PARTS...to practice coin values, addition of coins to $2.00 and making change! The kids and teachers loved it!

Miss Lassey shared some information with me this week after attending a sleep conference recently.

Good Sleep Habits for Children...(according to Dr. Judith Owens and Hasbro Children's Hospital)
-Children should go to bed and get up at approximately the same time each day
-3-5 year-olds need 11-12 hours of sleep per night and 6-12 year-olds need about 10-11 hours of sleep per night
-Set up a regular bedtime routine and stick to it
-Make the last 30-45 minutes before bed a "wind-down time"
-Make bedrooms a "media free zone"
-Avoid using the bed or sleep as a punishment
-If kids are having trouble going to bed by the specified time, gradually move towards that time in 15 minute intervals

Have a great weekend and Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Danielle Klingaman

November 13, 2009

2009-11-13T07:19:00.000-08:00

Greetings from LGN!

Today I have a very special person working with my as a co-principal of the day. Jonathan G. from Miss Carlson's class sold the most Entertainment books in the school for our fall fundraiser and won the prize of being "principal for the day." So far we have had a busy but fun morning doing classroom walk-throughs, preparing materials for MCAS parent night, meeting with teachers, and scheduling an extra recess for the third graders. I interviewed Jonathan today and here are his interview responses:

Favorite Food: Chicken Kiev (this surprised me)
Favorite Snack: Pringles (He can eat the whole can, but his mother doesn't let him.)
Favorite Color: Greenish-bluish
Favorite Sport: Soccer. He plays every fall.
Favorite Animal: Dog. He has two dogs named Sox and Bruin. He also has 2 cats named Dolly and Twister.
Favorite Thing at School: Being principal of the day (I didn't even tell him to say that)
Favorite Thing to Do: Play games, like board games, video games, outdoor games
Brother and Sisters?: 1 brother and 2 sisters
What he wants to be when he grows up: He wants to open a dog kennel where he can watch people's dogs while they are away.
Favorite Movie: Harry Potter
Favorite TV Show: Star Wars the Clone Wars
Favorite Holiday: Christmas and Halloween, actually he likes them all.

Mrs. Weber's class and Mrs. Quinn's class held their special Veteran's Day program on Monday. The area veterans that came in to be interviewed last month were honored by these two classes in a special ceremony. The veterans were very touched and truly appreciated the program by the third graders. The Sun Chronicle came and took some wonderful pictures. Sun Chronicle pictures

Grade 3 Writer's of the Week:
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Jeffrey G., Dawson M.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Troy S., Alec W.
Mrs. Weber's Class- Sarah K., Julia M.
Miss Carlson's Class- Katie G., Hayley H., and Brian D.
Great job with the writing, keep up the hard work!

I recently visited the Blue Bunny Bookstore in Dedham Center. This bookshop is owned by the Reynolds family and Peter Reynolds is an award-winning children's author and illustrator. One of his books "The Dot" is featured in our grade 1 anthology. He is an advocate for keeping creativity alive when educating the children of today and he has a website called Fablevision.com where some of his media and interactive technology for students is featured.
While I was at the Blue Bunny, I met a woman who has started a nonprofit organization that promotes volunteerism in preschool and elementary aged children. Catching Joy. Here's what Joy has to say about this non-profit organization.
"Catching Joy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that promotes volunteerism in pre-school and elementary aged children. Our mission is to teach children that “catching joy” means giving to others. We guide children to use their skills and talents and empower them to make a positive change in the world. Catching Joy’s premise is that by supporting young children doing charitable works, we are raising more caring, compassionate, confident and joyful children who grow up to be productive, responsible and happy adults. This counteracts materialism, self-pity, low self-esteem and depression. My hope is that Catching Joy starts in the home and spreads in a ripple effect."

Other happenings at LGN:
Miss Monica's class enjoyed making "Stone Soup" today.
Miss Holly's class has been learning about turkeys, pilgrims, food, and families
Mrs. Walsh's class has been learning about the three things to do when you get stuck on a word (think about what makes sense, look at the picture, think about the sounds).
Mrs. Branco's class has been thinking about what they are thankful for.

Remember that we have our grade 3 MCAS Parent Night on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 from 6:30-8:00 PM. This event is for 3rd graders and their parent(s) and we have babysitting available from the Champions program for siblings. We hope to see you there!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

November 6, 2009

2009-11-06T05:59:00.000-08:00

Hello LGN Community!

We are finishing up another fun and productive week here at LGN!

Our students in preschool through third grade were thrilled to attend special grade level assemblies with Master Chris Rappold who taught them about the Bullyguard program. Each assembly began with a review of what it means to show respect for others. Master Rappold taught the students the 5 steps to remember if they are being bullied or if they see someone being a bully:
1. Don't talk, walk.
2. Look left and right to see all in sight.
3. No matter what they say, keep walking away.
4. Know that you're right by avoiding a fight.
5. A true Bullyguard knows when to leave making an example for all to see.

We would like to thank our PTA for funding the Bullyguard program again this year. We are looking forward to Master Rappold coming back to see us throughout the year.

We had quite a list of Bucketfillers of the Week! There were many students recognized by their peers and teachers for showing kind and thoughtful behavior.
Andrew K. from Mrs. Andrade and Mrs. Walsh's class sits with friends at lunch if he sees them sitting alone.
Christopher C., Griffin M., & Bruno F. from Mrs. Weber's class- Christopher gave a sincere compliment to a classmate, Griffin gave a classmate a prize when he had won fair and square, and Bruno gave his classmate his snack.
Nicholas H. from Miss Grant's class wrote his teacher a very kind letter.
Helen K. from Mrs. LaConte's class shared her pencil sharpener.
Kevin M. from Miss Carlson's class shared his pencil with a classmate.
Ryan D. from Mrs. Branco's class offered to untwist all of the ties on his friend's lollipops at the class Halloween party.

Great job Bucketfillers!

In third grade, the classes continued their hard work in all areas, especially writing. Our third grade writers of the week were as follows:
Kaleigh H. and Sarah K. and From Miss Carlson's third grade class
Rebecca C. and Matthew A. From Mrs. Weber's third grade class
Olivia S., and Breanna S. From Mrs. Gallagher's third grade class
Brendan M. and Kyle G. From Mrs. Quinn's thid grade class

This morning, Mrs. Wroblewski announced her Spanish Raffle winners for October! Finn M. in grade 2 and Julia S. in grade 3 were the big winners, and I have heard that Mrs. Wroblewski has some really awesome prizes in that prize box of hers!

Mrs. Gallagher's class was the big winner for bringing the most Box Tops to school in October. They earned an extra recess for bringing in the most Box Tops and Campbell Soup labels. Remember, when you see your relatives over Thanksgiving, ask them to save Box Tops and Campbell's Soup labels for LGN!

Don't forget that there is no school next Wednesday 11/11 in observance of Veteran's Day. We are looking forward to the special Veteran's Day assembly on Monday with Mrs. Weber's and Mrs. Quinn's third grade classes.
Have a great weekend and week ahead!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

October 30, 2009

2009-10-30T08:33:00.000-07:00

Hello LGN Community!

Today was a busy and fun day at LGN! We enjoyed our annual grade 1 Horribles parade. The first graders looked wonderful in their costumes. The third grade writer's of the week were thrilled to lead the first graders around the playground. It is always so much fun to watch the first graders proudly march around showing off their Halloween costumes. We were happy to see many parents and other Norton residents at this annual LGN event!

Our writer's of the week for third grade were as follows:
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Trinity W. & Hannah K.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Alex L. & Julia S.
Miss Carlson's Class- Kylie R. & Jasmine H.
Mrs. Weber's Class- Emily T., John C., and Griffin M.

Great job third graders!

Our Bucketfillers of the Week were as follows:
Jillian is Miss Grant's class who helped a friend pick up their crayons
Isabella in Mrs. Branco's class helped a classmate when Mrs. Branco was busy

Congratulations Bucketfillers!

This week, Mrs. Charpentier's class completed their special paper mache jack-o-lanterns. Mrs. Charpentier said, "Mrs. Charpentier's First Graders have been using pumpkins to learn about life cycles, sequencing steps in a process, social skills and descriptive writing. Everyone enjoyed making their paper mache pumpkins and the activities that accompanied them!" Take a look at their pumpkins in our blog slide show pictures from this week.

Mrs. Walsh and Miss Carlson's first and third grade classes did a writing activity together where they wrote about their favorite fall treat from their own perspective as well as the perspective of the pigeon in our hallway. They plan to do more interactive writing using the storybook characters that Mrs. Sedell painted throughout the school.

In Mrs. Bjork's class, all of the students needed to work for their Halloween treats this afternoon. They built spiders out of marshmallows and pretzels, popcorn monster hands, and created their own spooky cookies with frosting and sprinkles.

Mrs. Quinn and Mrs. Weber's classes worked on their project boards for their Veteran's Day interviews this past Wednesday. The students enjoyed decorating their boards and showcasing the memorabilia that was shared with the students by the veterans when they came in for an interview. We are looking forward to the Veteran's Day assembly on Monday, November 9th.

Happy birthday to all of our staff who had October birthdays; Mrs. LaCivita, Mrs. Pell, Mrs. Fox, Mrs. Young, Dr. Pummell, Mrs. Walsh, and Mrs. Sedell!

Wishing all of the LGN students and families a fabulous and safe Halloween! Don't forget to turn back your clocks when Daylight Savings Time ends on Saturday night.

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

October 23, 2009

2009-10-22T07:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

I am updating our blog a little bit early this week and I will again update on Monday with some of the fun things that we have going on at school tomorrow.

Our grade 3 "Writers of the Week" are as follows:
Miss Carlson's Class- Sean B., Brian D., and Thomas W.
Mrs. Weber's Class- Kimberly H., and Jacob P.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Molly G., and Aidan M.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Brendan L., and Michael C.

Keep up the awesome grade 3 writing! I have been very impressed with the writing samples I have seen so far from grade 3.

GRADE 3 PARENTS- Save the Date for our special MCAS Parent/Child Curriculum Night. We are going to be holding an interactive parent night for the third graders on Thursday, November 18, 2009 from 6:30-8:00 PM. We will have prizes and raffles and are hoping to have 100% attendance.

Miss Lassey, our school adjustment counselor has done a "Bucketfiller" lesson in every K-3 classroom. Next wee we will start selecting our "Bucketfiller's of the Week". We are looking for students who are good friends to others, who demonstrate kind deeds, and generally show "Bucketfilling" behavior. CLick Bucketfiller for more information on this book and program.

Also, most students have completed the first two Second Step lessons. Parents, please look out for the take home letters that accompany the lessons in this anti-bullying, violence prevention program.

Tomorrow, we are looking forward to the "Barn Babies" visiting our AM preschool students. We are grateful that our PTA funded this fun and educational event for the AM Project Early students. The PM Project Early students will enjoy a different special activity later in the school year.

This evening (Thursday), our kindergarten staff is holding a special Kindergarten Curriculum Night for K students and their parents. There will be many activities for the kindergarten students to share with their parents. Look back on Monday for some pictures from this event. The event will begin at 6:00 PM.

Did you hear about the school in Attleboro that won 8 new computers for their school because of the Patriots blowout over the Tennessee Titans last Sunday? If you haven't entered us already, please visit Touchdowns for Technology sponsored by Kaspersky Labs to enter the L.G. Nourse School to win computers when the Patiots score touchdowns this year.

Thanks for reading and check back on Monday, October 26th!

October 16, 2009

2009-10-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

We had an eventful week at L.G. Nourse. This week I was visited by Shelley, the granddaughter of Laurence G. Nourse whom our school is named after. Shelley and her husband Dave travelled down to Norton from New Hampshire to bring us the beautiful handmade certificate that L.G. Nourse received at the testimonial banquet of his retirement back in 1958. It is signed by many of the prominent Norton residents and school officials who attended his banquet. They also brought us some newspaper articles, programs, and pictures that were handed down to her from her grandfather. I will be contacting the Norton Historical Society to share these wonderful artifacts. Shelley and Dave enjoyed touring around the school for the first time. It was very nice to meet them and to learn about the former Norton superintendent that our school in named after. One important fact that I learned is that the correct pronunciation of "Nourse" is "nurse".

Mrs. Weber's third grade class and Mrs. Quinn's third grade class welcomed many area veterans to the school on Thursday as part of a special Veteran's Day project. The third graders in these classes interviewed a veteran and will be putting together project boards with the information they learned about their special veteran. The veterans will be invited back in for a special Veteran's Day assembly in November where the student project boards will be on display and the students in the 2 classes will honor the veterans for their service to our country.

We are very thankful to our PTA for purchasing the Study Island program for our second and third grade students to use at school and at home. Study Island is a web-based program offering students practice opportunities in math and English/Language Arts based on the Massachusetts state standards. Study Island is fun and motivating for the students, and they are eager to try to set state records on the games in the program. All second grade and third grade students brought home a parent letter with their username and password this week. Study Island is a great way for parents to work with their children at home. Visit Study Island to login and for more information.

Today I enrolled our school in the Stop & Shop A+ Bonus Bucks program. This program gives money back to your school just for using your Stop and Shop card when purchasing groceries at your local Stop and Shop. Click here to join the program yourself A+ Bonus Bucks
or stop by the main office with your Stop and Shop card and we will be happy to enroll you in the program. All proceeds will be deposited into the LGN Unrestricted Gift Account which is used to make instructional purchases for the students. We hope that you will take advantage of this simple program that will provide important funds to our school. I already enrolled LGN as my A+ school, and my family goes through a lot of groceries!

Finally, last night many Norton school employees past and present, former students, families, relatives, and friends paid tribute to Mrs. Mary E. Rezendes Brown who served the Norton Public Schools for 42 years. Last June, Mrs. Brown retired after serving as the principal of the JCS elementary school for 18 years. Mrs. Brown was a dedicated educator who made Norton Public Schools a better place due to her charisma, hard work, and dedication to the students. The planning committee from JCS did a fantastic job planning this special event.

I will be updating our blog with the third grade writer's of the week on Monday October 19th. Have a great week!

October 9, 2009

2009-10-09T11:51:00.000-07:00

Greetings from LGN!

This week was a very busy week at L.G. Nourse! We enjoyed having all of the first grade parents and family members in for lunch this week. The first graders are so proud to have a parent or family member join them for lunch. We appreciate all of the parents and family members taking time out of their busy schedules to join us in the L.G. Nourse cafeteria for this special event.

The third grade class and teachers just returned from their fantastic fall field trip to Plimouth Plantation. We had a wonderful day and the rain held off until we boarded the buses to return to the school at 12:45. The third graders were well prepared with great questions to ask the Wampanoags and the pilgrims. Check out the Plimouth Plantation web page where you will find lots of information about upcoming events as well as activities and coloring pages the kids may enjoy. It is a wonderful place for a fall family outing. Thank you so much to all of the chaperones that accompanied our third graders on their trip today. Also, a great big thank you to our generous PTA who funded this trip for us.
Plimouth Plantation link

I came across an exciting contest where sponsored by Kaspersky Lab. Every time the Patriots score a touchdown this season, schools will be selected to win free computers. It is quick and easy to enter L.G. Nourse and increase our chances of winning. You can only register once per email address. Click on the link to sign LGN up for a chance to win new classroom computer equipment. Touchdowns for Technology

This week, the second grade finished up reading "A Walk in the Desert" and learned all about the Sonoran and Sahara deserts. Ask your second grader to tell you what they know about these deserts. In math, the second graders are finishing up a unit on addition and have learned all about fact families and math mountains.

The third grade continues to work very hard on improving their writing skills and this week read a story about what they would do if they had a million dollars. Third grade just finished their first unit in math and will be starting their next unit on measurement and geometry. We will be choosing 2 more writer's of the week next week; the students are really working hard to improve their skills and be chosen as writer of the week. We are so proud to see how motivated they have become to improve on their writing.

Mrs. Milton, our title I math specialist recommends a great website to work on math with the students. Click on Mathwire to see some of the activities here for the students to practice their math skills.

Enchanted Learning has some great Columbus Day activities to work on with the children. If you are looking for some things to do this weekend, this is a great place to look.

We hope you have a fabulous long weekend!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

October 2, 2009

2009-10-01T10:37:00.001-07:00

Happy October!

This week at LGN we again choose third grade writers' of the week. The students in our third grade classes are working on an Open Response writing prompt based on the story they read "Alexander who used to be rich last Sunday" by Judith Viorst,Ray Cruz, and Robin Preiss Glasser. The writers' of the week were chosen for showing great improvement in their writing or for demonstrating a strong third great writing sample based on the criteria selected by the teachers.
Mrs. Gallagher's Class- Alexa S., Jenna P.
Miss Carlson's Class- Sarah J., Sarah K.
Mrs. Quinn's Class- Amanda R., Zoie P.
Mrs. Weber's Class- Kimberly H., Jacob P.
Congratulations everybody!

Mrs. Wroblewski our new grade two and three Spanish teacher has an incentive program where students earn tickets for super behavior and/or super effort in Spanish class. At the end of the month, Mrs. Wroblewski draws 2 names from her container for the winner of that month's Spanish prize.
The Spanish prize winners for the month of September was Zeina from Mrs. O'Hear's class and Kylie from Mrs. Weber's class. Zeina and Kylie had their names announced over the intercom today, which is always very exciting. Keep up the great work in Spanish second and third graders!

Next week, we are thrilled to be having our first grade parents in for lunch on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Mrs. Andrade & Mrs. Walsh's class will host the parent lunch on Tuesday, Mrs. Charpentier's class will have their parents in on Wednesday, and Miss Grant's class will have their special lunch on Thursday. The delicious menu selections for each day are as follows:
Tuesday- Hamburger/Cheeseburger or Hot Dog
Wednesday- Pancakes or Hot Dog
Thursday- Pasta & Meatballs or Hot Dog
We are looking forward to having all of our first grade parents in for lunch next week.

Next week will be our third grade field trip to Plimouth Plantation funded by the LGN PTA. The third graders have been learning about the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims in social studies for the past month. The staff at Plimouth Plantation are always impressed with the knowledge that our LGN third graders have and the great questions that they ask while on this field trip. We hope that we will have nice weather for the trip!

Mrs. Andrade and Mrs. Walsh's first grade class was the Box Top/Cambpell's Soup Label winner for the month of September. Our goal this year is to raise $1700 for the school by collecting Box Tops for Education. If you have any relatives or friends that do not have children in school, we would really appreciate it if they would save their General Mills Box Tops and Campbell Soup labels for LGN. Click to see the products that have Box Tops for Education.
Box Tops

Have a great week!

Mrs. Klingaman :)

September 25, 2009

2009-09-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

Greetings from L.G. Nourse!

As I have mentioned in previous blog entries, writing is going to be a huge focus area for all of the teachers and students at L.G. Nourse this year. We have formed a writing committee to examine our writing curriculum from kindergarten through grade three. We hope to really examine the process of writing and the scope and sequence of writing skills. We encourage parents to find ways to encourage their children to write; journal writing, pen-pals, even emailing relatives is a great way for students to practice writing. Like any other skill; the more time students spend writing, the more stamina and skills they will develop. Feel free to ask any of us for other ideas about how to get your kids to love writing.

Our third grade writers of the week were Jacob and Kalman from Mrs. Quinn's class, Sarah and Bruno from Mrs. Weber's class, and Austin and Kayla from Mrs. Gallagher's class. Their writing is hanging on the bulletin board in the front lobby. Great job third graders.

The third grade classes read Boom Town last week and Miss Carlson's class made pies as a follow-up activity. The pie making reinforced vocabulary, following directions, parts of speech, sequencing, and fractions. There was quite a selection of pumpkin, raspberry, chocolate, banana cream, apple, and blueberry. Thank you to all the parents that assisted with this pie-making endeavor.

The kindergarten classes have been learning about their colors this week. Each day had a color theme:
Monday- Red Day, read Little Read Riding Hood
Tuesday- Blue Day, read Blueberries for Sal
Wednesday- Green Day, read all about Frogs
Thursday- Black Day, read Harry the Dirty Dog
Friday- Brown Day, Read Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Next week the kindergartners will continue with their special color days...Monday is yellow day, Tuesday is Purple Day, and Wednesday is Orange Day.

We are always looking to maximize the time we have with the students. Our classroom teachers may be doing math facts in the hallways, or reading orally to the students at snack time. Mrs. Young, our reading specialist, uses her time in the cafeteria at lunchtime with the kindergarten and first graders to practice reading and understanding poetry. Each month she has the students learn and recite a poem. She chooses a first grade student every day to come up and use the arrow "pointer" to follow along. This month's poem is called "How the Leaves Come Down"

Leaves red and brown
Fly on down
Leaves gold and yellow
Jump down fine fellows
Leaves all orange bright
Slip down on a cold night!

Ask your first graders to read it to you!

Have a great week!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

Week of September 18, 2009

2009-09-18T11:53:00.000-07:00

Hello LGN Community,
This week we were happy to have all of the L.G. Nourse students back in school. Our Project Early preschool students started their school year on Monday. The preschoolers have already done a fantastic job getting into the school routine and started right in with their fun activities led by our enthusiastic preschool staff. Please look at this week's pictures of our preschool students completing their choice time activities.

We had our first Site Council and PTA meetings this past Wednesday. I am looking for another parent representative to serve on our Site Council. The Site Council meets the first Wednesday of each month at 6:00 PM, and is responsible for creating the LGN School Improvement Plan, as well as reviewing school and district policies in order to give feedback to Dr. Ansay and the school committee. It is a nice way to get involved with the decision making at our school. Please email or call me if you are interested in serving on this council. PDPs are available for parents who may be educators in other school districts.

At out first PTA meeting we discussed the initiatives and events scheduled for the upcoming school year. The PTA meeting minutes have been updated on our Edline page under "contents." We are looking for volunteers for many of our upcoming school events, especially the Holiday Shoppe and Winter Carnival. One initiative in particular that we will be planning for throughout the year is the TPC golf championship event next Labor Day. We have the opportunity to raise a considerable amount of money for our school if we are able to staff shifts at the golf tournament concession stands throughout the tournament weekend next year. If you would like to volunteer for any of our school events, please contact me at school and I will put you in contact with the PTA. Our next meeting is Wednesday, October 7th at 7:00 PM in the LGN cafeteria. The PTA meetings are a great way to get involved with the school and meet new people. The PTA meetings are always fun.

We will be starting our Bucketfillers of the Week and Safe and Quiet initiatives emphasizing positive behavior in the next few weeks. Miss Lassey our adjustment counselor and Mrs. Giatrelis our school psychologist were awarded a NEED grant for a new Character Education/Anti-Bullying program called "Second Step." They attended the training this week and will soon train the rest of the staff on how to implement this program. For more information about Second Step click on the link below:
Second Step
We will also be participating in the Bully Guard Program that is led by Master Chris Rappold from Personal Best Karate. The students and teachers will all be trained on the Bully Guard program in early November. We are able to participate in this program due to the generosity of our PTA.

Throughout the year, the big focus areas at LGN will be on increasing our student achievement, especially in the areas of open response writing in ELA as well as open response in math. We are looking at all the ways we can improve our MCAS scores. We will be inviting third grade parents in for a special MCAS open house. Please look out for more information on that soon.

We are hosting the Norton Public Schools school committee at LGN for their upcoming meeting on September 28th. The meeting will take place at 6:30 in the LGN cafeteria and all LGN parents and community members are welcome to attend.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Danielle Klingaman

Back to School- September 8, 2009

2009-09-11T12:03:00.001-07:00

Welcome Back!
We had a great first week of school! Last week we had a successful Open House for students in grades 1-3 on the evening of September 2nd. The students were able to ease some of their 'first day jitters' by meeting their new teacher and some of their new classmates before the first day of school. On Tuesday, September 8th our first through third graders returned to school and had a wonderful first day. We enjoyed hearing about the fun trips and adventures that the students had over the summer. The students did a fantastic job getting right back into the school routine.

On Wednesday, September 9th, the kindergarten students and their families came in for their kindergarten orientation. The kindergarten students had the chance to meet their new teacher and classmates and spend some time alone in their classroom. We were impressed with how brave the kindergarten students were. The kindergarten students began school on Thursday and did such a great job learning the kindergarten routine. The first day of kindergarten is such an important milestone- a nerve wracking but exciting day for children; and an emotional day for parents.

Finally, today we had our orientation sessions for Project Early students and their families. We look forward to having our full L.G. Nourse student body in school on Monday when the Project Early students begin their school year.

Today, I spoke to some of the students about the new school year and they shared some of the things they were surprised to discover about their new classrooms:
The new third graders were happy to find out:
-About daily SSR (sustained silent reading)time
-About the field trip on October 9th to Plimouth Plantation
-That some of their old friends were in the same class with them this year
-That their new teachers were really nice
-That they get to play koosh ball and Simon Sez
-That third grade "is more funner than we thought it was going to be."

The second graders said:
- "We have a new special this year...Spanish."
- "I was surprised how nice my new teacher is."
- "I was surprised that we get to sing "Sweet Caroline" in the cafeteria on Fridays."
- "We get to help Tom with the chairs in the cafeteria after lunch."
- "We have computer and gym on the same day!"
- "We get gym 2 times in a week!"

We are looking forward to an exciting and productive school year. We will be focusing on improving our student achievement, particularly in the area of writing throughout the school year.

Danielle Klingaman

July 14, 2009

2009-07-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Summer!
I just wanted to thank all of the Covidien employees that generously donated their time last week at our school. We had a large group of Covidien volunteers that came to our school last Thursday morning to do a few hours of hard labor. The company allowed their employees to do some volunteer work and we were lucky to be chosen as one of the volunteer sites. The volunteers completed a variety of tasks that helped to prepare our school for the fall including cleaning and gardening. It was very overwhelming to see all of the people working so hard at our school on a completely voluntary basis and their hard work was certainly greatly appreciated by all of us. Thank you so much Covidien! The school looks great!

Danielle Klingaman

June 19, 2009

2009-06-19T09:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Last Day of School 2009!
This is always a day filled with mixed emotions; while we are happy to have some time to relax and rejuvenate ourselves with a less hectic schedule, it is difficult to say goodbye to the students and staff that will not be returning next year. We will greatly miss the third graders who "graduated" from LGN today. They are a wonderful group of students and the Yelle School is lucky to be getting them.

Our Bucketfillers of the Week were as follows:
Jack O. from Mrs. O'Hear's class was chosen because he has been a nice friend to others throughout the school year.
Trinity W. from Mrs. Quinn's class was chosen because she is always kind to others.
Josiah S. from Mrs. LaConte's class was chosen because he helped pick up a mess in the cafeteria without being asked.
Rebecca C. from Mrs. Bjork's class was chosen for playing with a classmate who had nobody to play with one day.
Colten H. from Mrs. LaConte's class helped a classmate clean up a mess without being asked.
Congratulations to the Bucketfillers!

The third graders started the week with the annual grade 3 BBQ. The students enjoyed yummy foods and BBQ brought in by the third grade parents. A water ballon contest and a spray from the fire truck were the highlights of the festivities. The third grade students all recieved their Norton jackets courtesy of the PTA. We will miss this group of third graders!

This week I had the chance to listen to the students in Miss Carlson's third grade class read their partner poems. The students all had a partner and together read a poem from "Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices" by Paul Fleischman. They did a great job staying together in unison and speaking with fluency and expression. Miss Carlson's student's also received a copy of Room 44's greatest hits this week which included songs that they sang all year.

The students in Mrs. Weber's third grade classroom enjoyed their poetry cafe earlier this week. Mrs. Weber's students read their poems to Mrs. Bjork's second grade classroom, and all poetry had a tropical luau theme. Each student group made their own poetry book. Mrs. Weber's students also finally filled their marble jar and enjoyed watching a movie as a special treat.

In Mrs. Sollauer's kindergarten and in Mrs. Bjork's second grade classroom the students watched a slide show of pictures of themselves throughout the year. Each student received a copy of the slideshow to keep as a memory of the school year. Mrs. Bjork has been with her second grade class for two years since she looped with her class, so saying goodbye today was difficult.

Second grade students all enjoyed their ice cream sundae party this week. Overall, all of the classroom teachers worked very hard this week to "wrap things up" for the year, and to make sure that the students had a productive but enjoyable last week of school.

I can't believe the 2008-2009 school year is over! It has been a wonderful, busy year, and the students learned and experienced so much. We hope that all of our students and their families have a safe and happy summer with lots of fun adventures.
Please remember that our grades 1-3 Open House will be on Wednesday, September 2, 2009 from 6:00-7:00 PM. I will send an Alert Now message to remind families at the end of August.
The first day of school for grades 1-3 will be Tuesday, September 8, 2009. Kindergarten orientation will be on Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 9:30 AM.
First day of kindergarten will be Thursday, September 10, 2009.
Project Early orientation will be Friday, September 11, 2009.
First Day of Project Early will be Monday, September 14, 2009.

Until September,
Danielle Klingaman

June 12, 2009

2009-06-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

Hello Fans of LGN!

We didn't let the cold, rainy, June weather stop us from having another great week at LGN.

The annual LGN Ice Cream Social was Thursday night and we were busier than ever! We enjoyed ice cream from Bliss Dairy, and our scoopers prepared many sundaes for the eager customers. This year, we added a free Book Swap to our Ice Cream Social night, and Mrs. Young our Reading Specialist did an awesome job organizing the swap. We are so pleased that the students walked away with some new books for their summer reading.

I had the chance to interview Tristan G. from Mrs. Weber's third grade classroom. here are his responses to my questions:

What is your favorite color? Light blue
Favorite food? Crab Rangoon
Least favorite food? Herring salad (sorry Oma- that's Tristan's grandmother who makes Herring Salad every year at Christmas).
Favorite Movie- Land of the Lost
Favorite TV Show- "Total Drama Action," this show is about campers who have to do crazy, wacky things, and then they compete for $100,000 at the last challenge. Whoever loses challenges has vote off a person who then has to go on the "dock of shame."
Favorite book- Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the first book especially.
What do you want to be when you grow up? An actor. He would like to learn how to act by being in some school plays and theater productions. Over the summer, he is going to theater camp, which he is very excited about.
Now that Tristan is graduating to the Yelle School, what has been your favorite part of being an LGN student? Doing the grade 3 Science Fair, and completing the Veterans interviews last fall. He really liked all of his LGN teachers through the years, Mrs. Branco, Miss Grant, Mrs. Quinn, and Mrs. Weber.
What are you best at? Tristan says that a bunch of people say that he is best at acting and being funny.
What are you most proud of? He is most proud of the machine that he made for the Science Fair. It was an automatic dog feeder that really worked. He had lots of pictures of his dog using it.
In the picture of Tristan he is holding his planet Zengot that he made out of clay. The red circles are giant storms the size of Earth, and Zengot is as big as 10 billion suns.

Our Bucketfillers for the week were as follows:
Madison M. in Mrs. Andrade/Walsh's class for helping to pick up trash.
Francisco E. in Miss Grant's class for using his words to solve a problem.
Congratulations Bucketfillers, we are so proud of you!

Mrs. Sedell's and Mrs. Branco's kindergarten classrooms performed an excellent play on Friday morning, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." All of the students did a great job speaking their lines and were adorable in their costumes. If you missed the play, don't worry, Norton Cable TV was here to videotape. You can catch the performance on channel 98 or you can access the taping through Norton Cable TV's website Norton Cable TV
Click on the Education link and the play is called "LGN Play".

Mrs. Sejkora's 7th grade reading students visited LGN last week. The seventh graders presented books they had written to our second grade students. It was so nice hearing the interesting stories from the middle schoolers.

The children in Mrs. Charpentier's class have started getting replies to the letters that they wrote, addressed and mailed to a special someone. They are pretty excited to be able to "talk on paper" and are even more excited when they get a letter in return. The class has also been able to witness metamorphosis. The children watched as ten tiny caterpillars grew before their eyes and then changed into chrysalis. How fortunate for all ten to later emerge as painted lady butterflies. It was particularly neat to see the tenth butterfly actually slip from its chrysalis and then watch as its wings uncurled. As Sofia K. exclaimed, "It's a work of art!" After feeding the butterflies with sugar water and fruit for a few days, the children set them free by the flowering vines along the edge of the playground.

Miss Carlson's class held a fabulous Poetry Breakfast this week. The students were able to recite their partner poems, their wish poems, and sing a few songs for their parents or family members.

Project Early enjoyed their Summer Party on Monday. The preschool students had a blast doing lots of outdoor activities such as the parachute, painting, games, and much more.

Some of the kindergarten and first grade students had a visit from the Southwick's Zoo program this week. The students were able to learn about many animals and they were even able to pet a large snake. The rest of the K and 1 classes will participate in this in-school field trip this coming Monday.

It is hard to believe that next week is the last week of school! We will have one more blog entry next Friday that will include important dates for the fall. Next Friday is a super-early release day...LGN students will be dismissed at 10:30 AM. This year has been such a positive one for the students and the staff. We are lucky to have such a strong school community.

Danielle Klingaman

June 5, 2009

2009-06-04T16:32:00.001-07:00

Hello LGN Community,

Today was one of the best days of the year at LGN...we enjoyed field day in grades 1-3 in the morning and our favorite singer, Johnny the K, performed for the students in the afternoon. His music sends such a positive message to our students. To visit Johnny's website or to order a CD of his award-winning children's songs click Johnny the K.

We have so many special and interesting students at LGN, I am going to be adding a new feature to my blog, a weekly interview with one of our students. This week, I had the opportunity to interview Elise from Mrs. O'Hear's second grade classroom.
I asked Elise the following questions, and here are her responses:
What is your favorite food? Pesto chicken that her mom makes
Favorite color? Bluish purple
Favorite TV show? Phineas and Ferb, a show about two boys and their sister who catches them making inventions while their mom and dad aren't home.
Favorite movie? Her favorite movie is Hotel for Dogs, it is very good but also very sad.
Favorite subject in school? Elise enjoys Art the most. Elise takes private Art lessons in the summer, and loves Art class with Mrs. Ruby. Elise has also been working on making her own magazine with her own original illustrations. Elise is holding her magazine in the picure I took of her.
Do you have any pets? She used to have a pet fish named Lincoln the second. She called him Lincoln the second because she had a pet fish named Lincoln before. Someday Elise would like to get a bird, like a canary.
Brothers or sisters? Elise has one brother named Ryan in kindergarten. They usually get along except for this morning when he pulled her shirt.
Are you afraid of anything? She is kind of afraid of phantoms and also spiders under her bed.
What are you most proud of? She is most proud of the magazine she wrote. She thinks she did pretty good on it and it is her best Art through the years.
What are you best at? She is best at Art, especially designing girls and drawing princesses and fairies.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Elise wants to be someone who watches pets for people. She would like to open her own pet sitting business.

Our Bucketfillers for the Week are as follows:
Nick C. from Mrs. Quinn's second grade class helped a girl reach her backpack up on a shelf and then helped her put it back up when she was done getting her snack.
Jared C. from Mrs. Sedell's class did a favor for Mrs. Sedell by switching his center choice so a friend wouldn't be lonely.
Katrina A. from Mrs. Charpentier's first grade class is a very hard worker who is always so happy when a classmate successfully meets a challenge.
Krystal M. from Mrs. Andrade/Walsh's first grade class gave each of her classmates a pin.
Zachary S. from Mrs. O'Hear's second grade class wrote Mrs. Klingaman a letter and cheered her up!
Congratulations Bucketfillers!

The Grade 3 to 4 Transition Night took place on Thursday night. The Yelle principal, Mrs. Farrell and some of the Yelle staff shared information about their school with the JCS and LGN parents. The Yelle School will again be participating in the "One Book, One School" initiative this summer, and all incoming 4th and 5th grade Yelle students will read the same book, The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling. I have copies of the book for sale in the main office for $5.50, and we will also have copies for sale at the Ice Cream Social/Book Swap next Thursday evening 6/11/09 from 6-8 PM.

Our third graders enjoyed their visit to the Yelle School on Monday, and they all came back positive and excited about moving on to Yelle next year. We will miss all of our third graders, and we hope to see them return to all of our fun LGN events in the future so that we can keep in touch.

The curriculum directors Dr. Berdos and Mrs. Roberts put together some excellent web pages for parents and students to use to keep up with reading and math skills this summer. The websites are "boxed" in Simplybox (a cool way to bookmark pages). The websites can be accessed on the LGN EdLine page under "Information" and "Summer Learning." Click here for a quick link to our EdLine site summer learning.

Thank you to all of the families that participated in our Cosi Restaurant fund raiser. It was a really fun and easy way to raise money for our school, and I know I enjoyed a night off from cooking dinner at this busy time of year.

The second graders worked very hard on their dioramas and we love to see them on display in the main hallway. If you are at the school, be sure to take a peek at the creative and artistic work of our students.

The third graders have been busy at work on their timelines, and these are also on display in the main hallway. It is so fun to look at the third graders as babies and now as "big kids" ready to graduate from the LGN! All of the baby pictures are adorable and it takes the staff a long time to walk down the hallway because we can't resist looking at all of the timelines and special pictures. We appreciate the work that the parents do with the students at home on these special projects.

Until next week, thanks for reading!

Danielle Klingaman

May 29, 2009

2009-05-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

Hello again from LGN!

We are officially experiencing the end-of-the-year whirlwind! Teachers are finishing up assessments with the students and completing the task of documenting each student's record with the growth they have made throughout the year. This is when we can all truly appreciate the amazing gains that the students have made and we can see how far they have come since the beginning of the year.

Remember that our Cosi restaurant fundraiser is on Tuesday, June 2nd from 4:30-8:30 PM. We will receive 10% of the profits which is going towards the purchase of a new Smartboard for our school. Cosi is located in Mansfield Crossing, you can dine-in or take-out your order to help our fundraiser. Click the link to see the Cosi Menu.
Cosi

The June Nourse Newsletter came home with the students today, and the on-line version on our Edline page has already been uploaded. Please take a moment to look at the calendar on the newsletter or the calendar on the LGN Edline page for all of the upcoming June events.

This week, the third grade students enjoyed meeting Mrs. Farrell, the principal from the HAY school when she came for a visit on Friday afternoon. The students had a lot of interesting questions about the Yelle school for Mrs. Farrell. Next week, the parents of our third graders will have the opportunity to ask Mrs. Farrell any questions they may have at the Yelle Parent Night (6/4/09, 6:00 PM Yelle Gymnasium). The third graders will be visiting the Yelle School Monday on morning next week and will meet the fourth grade teachers, see the classrooms, and get a little preview of what they have to look forward to in fourth grade next year.

I had the opportunity to hear Jenna from Mrs. Andrade/Walsh's first grade class read me a story this morning. To hear Jenna's story, click below. Jenna was very proud to have celebrated her birthday earlier this week.
Jenna's story

Our Bucketfillers of the week were as follows:
Brendan from Mrs. Quinn's class was nominated because he picked up the basketballs at recess without being asked.
Rachel from Mrs. O'Hear's class was nominated because she asked if she could sit with a classmate who was eating lunch alone.
Jessica from Mrs. Andrade/Walsh's class was a great friend to a classmate at recess.
Sean from Mrs. Andrade/Walsh's class helped clean the cafeteria without being asked.
Great job Bucketfillers! The students love to hear what they did as an act of kindness and are truly honored to be chosen as a Bucketfiller.

Have a great week! Thanks for reading!

Dnielle Klingaman

May 22, 2009

2009-05-21T12:07:00.001-07:00

Hello LGN Community!

This week I received a very interesting email from the granddaughter of L.G. Nourse, whom our school is named after. She asked me if we would be interested in her family donating the large certificate and plaque that was originally presented to L.G. Nourse many years ago when the school was named after him. It seems to have been signed by everyone in Norton! She will also be putting together some information about her grandfather for us because the students often ask questions about him such as what does the "L and G" stand for) and I have very limited information on Mr. Nourse. We should be getting the plaque in the fall, and it will be an honor to have this important piece to the history of our school.

The third grade enjoyed a wonderful trip around Norton on Thursday. We were so pleased that Mr. Paulus and his juniors from Norton High School were able to come on the trip with us and share their knowledge about Norton's rich history with our students. The students began with a visit to the Unitarian Church to see Paul Revere's bell, the went on to Schoolhouse #3 where they saw the old school barge, and many other artifacts that were shared by Norton's historians Mrs. Gould and Mr. Yelle. The 3rd grade students were also welcomed to Wheaton College where they were presented with the history of Wheaton by Wheaton's archivist, and then the students were able to practice using the traditional "hoops" and had lunch and popsicles near Peacock Pond. Finally, the third graders finished their tour with a visit to the Devil's Pitchfork at the JCS School, a ride past the Crane Family Homestead, a visit to the Wetherell Homestead, and ended their trip with a visit to King Philip's Cave.

The second grade presented their Memorial Day Concert to parents and other guests on Friday afternoon. We were pleased that the following veterans were able to attend this performance; Mr. Albert Watson, Mr. Tom DeLuca, Mr. Joe Keenan, Mr. Herb Church, Mr. Fred Williams, and Mr. Malcolm Givens.

The Bucketfillers of the Week were:
Brandon C. from Miss Grant's first grade class
Matthew B. from Mrs. Quinn's second grade class
Trevor P. from Miss Carlson's third grade class
Congratulations to our Bucketfillers!

The kindergarten classes presented their "Dinosaur Museums" to parents and family members on Friday. The kindergarten students have been busy learning about dinosaurs and creating paper mache dinosaur eggs, different types of new dinosaurs(such as the "Dance-osaurus"), fossil imprints, and many other dinosaur activities.

Mrs. Weber's third grade class completed interviews with the characters from Because of Winn Dixie. Click here to watch the interview.
Weber Winn Dixie Interview
The students in Mrs. Weber's class also read the poem, "Paul Revere's Ride." Click here to hear the poem.
Weber Paul Revere's Ride

We had our kindergarten parent night on Wednesday and were able to share information with the parents of our incoming kindergartners, the class of 2022. Kindergarten screening will take place on June 1st and 2nd.

We had lots of excitement in our three kindergarten classes this week as they welcomed the addition of some new baby chicks, ducklings, and frogs. The ducklings are Chloe and Puddles, and the chicks are Cutie Pie, Early Bird, Ms. Polak, Spongebob, Lemon, and Mr. D. The kindergartners have enjoyed the participating in this Life Cycles unit in science.

We hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Danielle Klingaman

May 15, 2009

2009-05-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

Another Week at the L.G. Nourse School:

Don't forget that the Solmonese Spring Fair is this Sunday, rain or shine, from 10:00-3:00. It should be lots of fun!

The LGN Bucket Fillers of the week were:
Craig C. from Mrs Powers' class for helping a classmate pick up their pencils.
Emily T. from Mrs. Bjork's class for teaching her classmate how to play basketball.
Lei'Aja from Mrs. Charpentier's class for moving her seat in the lunchroom when she noticed a classmate sitting alone.
John B. in Mrs. Charpentier's class for helping to clean up other people's "gross mess" in the cafeteria.

We will be doing an LGN funraiser night at Cosi Restaurant at Mansfield Crossing on Tuesday, June 2nd from 4:30-8:30 PM. 10% of the total sales will go to the LGN PTA towards the purchase of a new classroom Smartboard. Keep your eye out for more information.

I enjoyed hearing Ashton from Mrs. Andrade/Walsh's class read me story today. Click on the link to hear him read.
Ashton Reading

This week the third graders completed their Math MCAS test. They all worked very hard on the testing and should be proud of themselves for doing their very best work. The third grade classes enjoyed extra recess, special snacks, and raffles. We are relieved that the MCAS testing is finished for the school year. Parents will receive MCAS results from the Yelle school in the fall.
Next week grade 3 is looking forward to their "Trip Around Norton" on Thursday.

We will be moving to more of a "paperless" system of notes and correspondence from the school during the 2009-2010 school year. Parents will be able to access school information on our Edline site in an attempt to save paper and be more environmentally conscious. If families do not have computer access, we will be glad to send information home in hard copy on an individual basis. I am going to start to prepare parents for this transition by posting notices from the school for the remainder of the school year in the "EPack" link on our Edline site as well as in hard copy. I will also send several AlertNow messages to parents next year when information has been posted to our school "EPack." The district has decided that Wednesday will be the day when new information will be posted to the school "EPacks".

Here is the link to the "Seuss-Inspired" stories from Mrs. LaConte's second grade class.
Seuss Link LaConte

Miss Carlson's third grade class had a "Culture Fest" today where foods from all over the world were shared. Some of the delicious dishes included: tortellini and sausage, Irish Bread, baked ziti, sushi, macaroni and sauce, Kale soup, Scottish Sweet Bread, Biscottis, Kaloria (Greek Cookies), Trigona (phyllo and cheese), eggrolls, pizzelles, Swedish Coffee Cakes, Kugel (Noodle Pudding), and perogis. The students enjoying tasting some foods that were new to them. Thanks to all the parents that cooked or brought food in for the Fest.

Thanks for reading! I am so excited to see the "hits" to our school blog on the Clustrmap!

Danielle Klingaman

May 8, 2009

2009-05-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

Greetings from LGN!

This week the first grade students enjoyed their annual "Teddy Bear Curriculum Night." The first graders and their families came to the school Thursday evening to participate in lots of fun and educational Teddy Bear activities. Sean O. from Mrs. Andrade/Walsh's class made the closest estimation in the Gummy Bear jar and won a new book as a prize. To end the night, Miss Polak our music teacher led the students in a concert of Teddy Bear themed songs. Thank you to all the families who attended and to the teachers for all of their hard work preparing for this special event.

Check out our front bulletin board throughout the month of May. Mrs. O'Hear and Mrs. Murphy have come up with a month of Math themed bulletin boards, and all of the classes in the school will be involved with sharing some of the math skills they learned throughout the year. This math theme is timely because the third graders will be taking the Math MCAS test next week on Tuesday and Wednesday. We feel that the third graders have worked hard all year and are ready to "show what they know" on the Math MCAS. On Tuesday morning, every third grader will receive an inspirational letter from one of the LGN teachers wishing them "good luck" on the MCAS test. There will also be extra raffles and prizes for the third graders throughout the week.

Zachary A. from Mrs. Branco's kindergarten class was recently honored as one of LGN's most improved students at a PawSox game. He represented LGN well by leading the other Most Improved Students onto the field. His name appeared on the scoreboard during the game. Great job Zachary!

Mrs. Andrade/Walsh's class recently did a play to go along with the story "Where Are My Animal Friends" in the grade 1 Reading Street program. Click on the link to see their fabulous production.
Animal Friends Play

Mrs. Cashton, our technology teacher has been working with the second grade teachers and students on a special integrated activity. The second grade students wrote a rough draft about a "Seuss-inspired" character in their classroom, then brought their rough drafts to the computer lab to create a picture on KidPix and recording of their story. Click on the links below to hear some of the stories, Mrs. LaConte's class will be posted as soon as they finish...
Mrs. Quinn
Mrs. Bjork
Mrs. O'Hear

This week we had to pick 3 Bucketfillers because all 3 of these students deserved recognition for their special deeds and we couldn't pick just one.
The Bucketfillers for this week were:
Michaela from Mrs. Sedell's class who shared her donut treat with her friend Elizabeth.
Catarina from Mrs. Charpentier's class who is always happy when her classmates do something good. She is like their own classroom cheerleader.
Jacob from Mrs. Quinn's class who was especially kind to one of his classmates.

Mrs. Weber's class had a "Culture Fest" today where the students brought in delicious foods from different cultures. I was able to sample some Herring Salad, Fried Meat Pies, Cous Cous, cookies, Irish sausage, and many other delicious treats. The students surprised us by bravely sampling foods they weren't sure they were going to like. Thank you to all the parents who sent in food today.

Have a wonderful weekend and see you next week!

Danielle Klingaman

May 1, 2009

2009-04-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

It was back to school this week after a fun-filled April vacation for the LGN students!

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the dedicated and hard working teachers that we have here at LGN and throughout the Norton School District. It is your hard work and commitment that make our schools the successful and welcoming places that they are. Thank you so much for all you do!

Please note our new Clustrmap on our Blog that shows us where in the world our Blog is being viewed (thanks Miss Lassey for helping me get the Clustrmap on there). The school Blog and the EdLine classroom teacher websites are a great way for grandparents or other out of town friends and relatives to see what is happening at the L. G. Nourse School.

Our awesome head custodian Tom was recently featured in the Sun Chronicle. Tom and our other custodians, Al, Dan, Wayne, and Mike work hard to keep our school clean and looking great. We are so lucky to have such a dedicated custodial staff. Here is a link to the article in case you missed it.
Tom's Article

Two of our second grade girls in Mrs. O'Hear's class came to share some information with me about taking care of their pets. Click the links below to hear their journal entries:
Kiley Reading
Kayla Reading

Miss Lassey, our school adjustment counselor, recently started a new initiative based on the book Have You Filled A Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Children, by Carol McCloud.
"Bucket fillers" are those who help without being asked, give hugs and compliments, and generally spread their love and good feelings to others. The simple metaphor of a bucket helps even preschoolers understand the importance of consideration and love, particularly towards those who bully. For more information visit
Bucket Fillers
Students at LGN can be nominated by teachers or their classmates to be the "LGN Bucketfiller of the Week" for helping and spreading good cheer. The Bucketfiller of the Week has their picture on display on the bulletin board outside Miss Lassey's office all week. Our first Bucketfiller of the Week was Hunter S. in Miss Grant's first grade class. Today's Bucketfiller of the week was Jahlil in Mrs. Andrade/Walsh's class who was nominated by Miss Connolly for helping a classmate carry some supplies back from Art class. Congratulations Hunter and Jahlil, we are all very proud of you!

We enjoyed our first "Poem in Your Pocket Day" today which was organized by Mrs. Young our Reading Specialist. Each student had their own poem that they were able to share with teachers and other students throughout the day. We celebrated this event in honor of National Poetry Month.

Today marked the last day for our Wheaton College student teachers:
Miss Lipsett- Mrs. LaConte grade 2
Miss Grunes- Miss Grant grade 1
Miss Connolly- Mrs. Andrade/Walsh grade 1 and Miss Dee Project Early
We would like to thank our student teachers for the hard work and enthusiasm they showed throughout their student teaching experience. The LGN students in these classrooms certainly benefited from having such wonderful student teachers in their classes this spring. Best of luck to all of you!

Mrs. Sedell's class and Mrs. Branco's class are each expecting a new batch of chicks! Both of these kindergarten classes have incubators with 12 chicken eggs which take 21 days to hatch. The incubator must be set at 100 degrees and every six hours the eggs are gently turned. The chicks are expected to hatch on Tuesday, May 19th. We will keep everyone posted with any new developments.

On a less "fun" note...if parents have any questions about speaking to their children about the Swine Flu (or H1N1 Flu) click on this link for information from the National Association of School Nurses:
Talking with Children About Swine Flu

Our newsletter link on our EdLine home page has been updated for the month of May, check out this month's newsletter!

Have a great week!

Danielle Klingaman

April 17, 2009

2009-04-13T12:43:00.001-07:00

The week before a vacation is always a busy one in elementary schools, and this week was no exception!

On Monday, Mrs. Bjork's second grade class celebrated the adoption of an endangered West Indian Manatee as part of their Earth Day/Ocean Studies Units. The students collected bottles and cans and raised $76.85 that they donated to the "Save the Manatee Club." As a result of their donation, they were able to adopt Ginger, who lives in the waters near Marco Island, FL. To find out more information about Manatees or the Save the Manatee Club, visit www.savethemanatee.org. Great job Mrs. Bjork's class!

The students at LGN all decorated paper grocery bags with Earth Day messages about recycling and saving our Earth. If you have a chance to go to Roche Bros. in Norton on Wednesday, April 22nd (which is Earth Day) you will see our grocery bags being used for customers.

The Tanglewood Marionettes assembly was today and the students really enjoyed the performance of The Dragon King. Take a look at the pictures of the show taken by Mrs. Brooks. For more information about The Tanglewood Marionettes visit www.tanglewoodmarionettes.com. A great big thanks to the LGN PTA for funding this wonderful assembly for the students.

Mrs. Young, our Reading Specialist, has been putting together ideas for April's Poetry Month. When we return from vacation, we will celebrate "Poem in Your Pocket Day" on Friday, May 1st. Each student will receive a poem that they will keep in their pocket throughout the day. Students will have the chance to read their poems to their fellow students and members of the staff during the day. Look for your child's poem before you throw the laundry in the washing machine that day, and ask your child to read their poem to you! Mrs. Young has also been teaching the kindergarten and first grade students about poetry at the end of their lunch period in the cafeteria each day. The kindergarten and first grade students recite a new poem each month. This month's poem is "The Jellybean Brigade."

The LGN students wore their Bruins gear and colors today on our "Bruins School Spirit Day." The LGN students wish the Bruins lots of luck in their playoff bid.

I hope you all have a safe and fun April vacation!

Thursday, April 8, 2009

2009-04-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

Hi Again!

We didn't let the rain on Monday ruin our Red Sox School Spirit Day! The LGN students came to school decked out in their Red Sox attire or in the team colors. The students in Miss Carlson's class are a very musical group and I had a chance to record them singing along to Kenny Rogers' baseball song "The Greatest." Click on the link below to see the class video.

Miss Carlson's Class

Also on Monday, the staff enjoyed a "dress down for a cause" day on our Red Sox Day, and the proceeds were sent to the Jimmy Fund's "Rally Against Cancer." We will be doing a Bruins School Spirit Day soon to support the Bruins in the playoffs.

I had the opportunity to hear some of the students in Mrs. Branco's kindergarten class read Bud the Mud Bug by Alex Jordan. Click the link below to hear awesome readers Trenton, Amy, Aine, and Mauricio.

Mrs. Branco's Readers

Mrs. Sedell's class recently wrote a class book with their "Popcorn Reading Words." Below is the link to hear Mrs. Sedell's class read their book.

Mrs. Sedell's Popcorn Reading Book

I also had a chance to hear Hunter from Miss Grant's class demonstrate her excellent reading skills. Click the link below to hear Hunter read from one of her books.

Hunter

Finally, Mrs. Powers' class had their last Skype lesson with Mr. Grasso's freshmen geometry class. Our third graders have really enjoyed the experience of working with Mr. Grasso and the NHS students. The high school students really outdid themselves with the lessons they created for the third graders. We think some of them have the potential to be elementary teachers someday! We will be inviting Mr. Grasso's class to LGN for a pizza party to thank them for helping us to prepare for the Math MCAS test with their Skype presentations. Click the link below to see one of the Skype lessons live.

Skype Lesson

Have a great Easter weekend! Thanks for reading!

Danielle Klingaman

Friday, April 3, 2009

2009-04-03T06:59:00.001-07:00

The staff and students at L.G. Nourse had another busy and exciting week! Mr. McGurr is sitting with me as I write this entry. He was our second "Principal of the Day" winner and he had a busy and productive day with me. He completed many administrative duties including bus duty, handing out Math Award certificate winners, having special lunch with Mrs. Sedell's and Mrs. Powers' classes, and making an announcement over the intercom at the end of the day.

The third graders completed their ELA MCAS tests this week and we were all very proud of their hard work and perseverance. We will be happy to go back to the usual routine next week in third grade.

Tom our head custodian had "Tom for the Day" winners with him today and both Griffin and Ben worked hard helping Tom clean the school and collect the recyclables. Tom and his assistants entertained the staff and students with their electric guitar playing in the cafeteria during lunch, and we enjoyed the coffee-house vibe while we were dining.

Below this post you will see a link to the News Video completed by Mrs. Walsh's Class last week. Missing from the credits are Victoria and Madison. The students were so professional and impressive giving their newscast. I am also attempting to add links to some of our LGN students reading poetry and writing samples. Robby, Felicia, and Julie from Mrs. Weber's class, Morgan from Mrs. Quinn's class, and Natalie and Liam from Mrs. Branco's class came to see me today to dazzle me with their work. Thank you Mrs. Wiegel for helping me learn how to attach these podcasts to my blog!

Robby
Julie
Felicia
Liam
Natalie
Morgan
Mrs. Walsh Newscast

March 27, 2009

2009-03-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

Today was a very busy day at the L.G. Nourse! We had two special staff members working with us; Bobby P. and Ben B. both from Miss Carlson's class. Bobby was our "Principal for the Day" and Ben was "Tom for the Day." The boys had the opportunity to do these jobs because they were the silent auction winners from our Winter Carnival. Bobby allowed the third graders to have some extra recess this afternoon, but was busy completing administrative duties for the rest of the day. Ben was hoping to play his electric guitar on stage with Tom, but we will have to plan that for another day this year. Ben lead the second and third graders in a fantastic rendition of "Sweet Caroline" after lunch. The boys did a great job all day, and it was nice to have some extra help!

As the culmination of our fantastic "Math Month" all LGN students had the opportunity to estimate on some awesome prizes. The estimation winners were as follows:

Project Early- James W. from Miss Dee's class won the "rubber ducky" bonanza. Ryan T. from Miss Monica's and Courtney K. from Miss Dee's also won ducks due to their excellent estimating.

Kindergarten- Carleigh D. from Mrs. Sedell's class won the Play Doh Fun Pack with her close estimate.

Grade 1- Timothy S. from Mrs. Charpentier's class won the Jenga Game with his super-close estimation, while Noah R. from Mrs. Charpentier's class and Francisco from Miss Grant's class also made great guesses.

Grade 2- Kimberly H. from Mrs. LaConte's class made an exact estimate to win the Apples to Apples prize for the second grade.

Grade 3- Nicholas C. from Mrs. Powers' class had the closest estimate on the K-Nex prize for third grade.

Great job to all of the Estimation Station Winners!

The third graders are ready for their ELA MCAS test next week. We have many special motivational activities planned and the front bulletin board is decorated with a good luck message in their honor. All third graders will have a special snack the morning of the MCAS tests, daily raffles, and extra recess. Please make sure students are well rested and ready to do their best!

The Future of Norton Education Open Meeting is coming up on Monday Night 3/30/09 at 6:00 PM at the Norton Middle School Auditorium. This committee has been working very hard all year to determine what our focus will be for the future of instruction, technology, and 21st century learning from K-12 here in Norton. The committee is comprised of students, teachers, and administrators, and all subgroups will be presenting on their findings Monday evening. We hope to see you there!

Dr. Bob was here today teaching the children in kindergarten and grade 1 about good dental hygiene. Dr. Bob is a pediatric dentist from Mansfield who was kind enough to come to our school and do this free presentation. Thanks Dr. Bob!

Parent conferences and the Book Fair were also successfully completed this week. It was nice to be able to report on the progress of our students and see many parents here at the school this past week. The Book Fair was very well run by our dedicated PTA and many families visited the Fair as they traveled through the lobby this week.

Take a look at some of the pictures from the week, and we'll see you next week! Thanks for visiting our Blog, and feel free to comment!

March 20, 2009

2009-03-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

Today (Friday) the L.G. Nourse students enjoyed "Math Day." Students came to school dressed in their "numbers" gear and participated in special math activities and centers in different classrooms. This special Math Day was part of our LGN Math Incentive Month. Don't forget to work on those math calendars! Next week, the students will participate in our "Estimation Station" in the cafeteria during lunch where students who make the closest estimation will have the chance to win an exciting prize.

Grade 2 hosted its annual "Dr. Seuss Family Curriculum Night." Grade 2 students participated in the many Seuss centers and completed an activity in the computer lab. Thanks to all the families who attended this special night, and thank you to the teaching staff who made this night possible.

State Representative Barrows came in to read "Oh the Places You'll Go" to Mrs. Bjork's second grade class. We have had so many wonderful guest come into the school to read during the month of March.

Our Winter Carnival was a success last Saturday and we look forward to the Scholastic Book Fair next week. Thank you PTA for making these opportunities available to the LGN students.

Don't forget that parent conferences are next week, and Thursday is an early release day for students in grades K-3.

Have a wonderful weekend!

March 14, 2009

2009-03-14T05:49:00.000-07:00

What happened at LGN this past week?

Mrs. Walsh's first grade class recently completed "How to" videos using our new Flip video cameras. The students wrote a "how to" paragraph explaining how to do things from getting dressed to go outside in the snow to Irish step dancing. The students acted out their writing. Check out Mrs. Andrade/Mrs. Walsh's EdLine page to watch the videos.
https://www.edline.net/pages/LGNourse_ES/Classes/Andrade_Walsh

The PTA has been busy planning our big Winter Carnival which is Saturday, March 14th from 10:00-2:00. We are looking forward this this fun day of food, raffles, and games.

Lasy Monday, Miss Polak our music teacher brought the Norton High School Chorus to perform for all of the LGN students. The high school chorus performed music from many of the classic Disney movies, and we were so impressed with the talented singers and piano players from the high school. Miss Polak wanted to showcase for our students what they will someday be able to do if music is an interest area for them.

Thanks to the PTA, the Rhode Island Biomes brought in the tanks with marine life for each of the second grade classrooms. Each week for a month the marine life will be changed allowing the students exposure to many interesting creatures. Be sure to ask your second grader about their classroom tank.

Friday, March 6, 2009

2009-03-06T12:51:00.001-08:00

Whew! It has been a busy week at L.G. Nourse!
We didn't let the snow day Monday stop us from celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday and Read Across America Day throughout the week.
The students enjoyed being read to by the many wonderful guest readers who visited LGN this week.
School Committee Members: Mr. Tom Golota and Mrs. Andrew Mackie
Norton School District Staff: Dr. Ansay, Mrs. Wiegel, Mr. Dewar, Mr. Baratta, Mrs. Farrell, Mrs. Berdos, and Mrs. Roberts
Norton Deputy Fire Chief Paul Schleicher
Sun Chronicle Reporter: Mike Gelbwasser
State Senator: James Timilty

We held our Project Early preschool screening for incoming three year old students on Wednesday morning. Lottery names will be picked on Wednesday, March 11th, and letters will go out to parents with the lottery results on Thursday, March 12th.

The third grade students outdid themselves with their spectacular Science Fair projects that focused on simple machines. We were so proud of the students' effort and the professional way they were able to present and explain their projects to the many people passing through the Fair. Thank you to all of the parents for helping the students complete their projects at home...we know how much time many of you spent working with your third grader.

The PTA purchased a great new web-based computer program for our grade 2 and 3 students to use in preparation for the MCAS tests. The program is called "Study Island" and can be accessed through out LGN EdLine page or www.studyisland.com. Mrs. Cashton explained how to use this program with the students during their computer special on Thursday and Friday. Letters went home with all grade 2 and 3 students on Friday explaining the program, and the letter included each student's individual user name and password. Thank you PTA!

On Friday, Mrs. Powers' third grade class used the "Skype" program to do an interactive fractions lesson with some of Mr. Grasso's Norton High School math students. It was exciting use of technology and 21st century learning skills. We look forward to more interactive lessons with Mr. Grasso's class.

What happened in school last week?

2009-03-02T08:47:00.001-08:00

Last week we got right back to work after our February vacation!

Mrs. Charpentier's class has been working on snowflakes...
"We just completed our language arts/science/social skills snowman project based on the uniqueness of each individual and the importance of each individual contributing to our class/team."
Mrs. Charpentier's class created these two wonderful quotes:
"Just like a snowflake, each one of us is unique!" and "A snowflake is one of the most fragile things in nature. But, just look at what they can do when they stick together!"

All students in Kindergarten through third grade enjoyed the "Mad Science" assembly on Friday and participated in and observed several interesting experiments. Scientist Lee, was very impressed with the science vocabulary words that our L.G. Nourse students knew. I added a picture of Scientist Lee demonstrating how to get his friend "Eggbert" into a jar. Be sure to ask the children about some of the experiments they witnessed.

Our March Math Incentive is underway. All students preschool through third grade should have brought home the Incentive packet. It is going to be a fun month of math at LGN!

We are looking forward to hosting many wonderful guest readers as we celebrate Read Across America Day on March 2nd.

Look out for information on the "Study Island" program. The LGN PTA has graciously agreed to fund this fantastic web-based program that will assist our grade 2 and 3 students in preparing for the ELA and Math MCAS tests! The teachers are being trained this week, and parent information will be coming home as soon as we understand everything this program has to offer. The students will be able to log in at school and at home with their parents to participate in motivating activities aligned with the Massachusetts MCAS test.

What happened at LGN this week?

2009-02-06T12:16:00.000-08:00

Our early release day on Wednesday, March 4th has been cancelled. It will be a full school day.

This week students in grades K-3 participated in the Officer Phil Program. The students learned about safety in a program set up through the Norton Police Department and received free activity books. Ask your kids about it!

The third graders are busy thinking about ideas for their Simple Machine Science Fair Projects. The ideas were due a few weeks ago, so please make sure your child handed their idea sheet in to their teacher. February vacation will be a great time to work on those projects because the Science Fair will be here before we know it on Thursday, March 5th!

Mrs. Powers' third grade class had a special visit from Mr. Eric Grasso, math teacher from Norton High School. Mr. Grasso's high school students will be working with Mrs. Powers' class as we prepare for the math MCAS test in May, and will be exploring some technology together through Skype.

Check out our front bulletin board where the students listed the "100 Things They Love About LGN."

Don't forget that 09-10 Kindergarten registration is underway. Stop by the main office to pick up paperwork. We are not sure about funding from the state for the full-day kindergarten program for next year, more information will follow when the state funding allocations become available.

Future of Norton Education

2008-12-22T12:05:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in the January newsletter, this school year Dr. Ansay and Mrs. Wiegel our Technology Director started a committee called the “Future of Education in Norton.” At our first meeting we discussed the status of technology use in the classroom, what hindrances we are faced with, and where we need to go from where we are now. At a subsequent meeting several teachers showcased the use of technology in their classrooms. The showcases included use of the Mimeo, Smart Boards, Epals, robotics, and use of the multi-media server. Norton is on its way to using these 21st century tools, but we need to find ways to expand our technology use. In our subgroup, Dr. Ansay and I have been meeting with some of the students from Yelle, the Middle School, and the High School to determine how they feel they learn best and what they are looking for in their 'ideal' classrooms.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (formerly DOE) created a task force looking at 21st century learning. They said that "to compete successfully for tomorrow's jobs, today's students will need to learn to be future leaders who can think creatively, work collaboratively, use technology to solve problems, and take initiative." The task force recommendations included:

Educator Training and Development- Recruit and retain high achieving educators who have a background in up to date knowledge of 21st century skills
Standards- Raising the bar on embedding 21st century skills in the curriculum frameworks of every subject area.
Assessment- Integrating the measurement of 21st century skills throughout MCAS
Accountability- Hold teachers and administrators accountable for incorporating 21st century skills into the curriculum.
Demonstration Vehicles- Establishment of 21st century districts, 21st century schools, and increase number of expanded learning time schools.

Our work on this committee will continue throughout the year. At our January meeting we will discuss what the 21st century classroom should look like, what 21st century learners will look like, what 21st century teachers need to look like, and the future of curriculum and instruction.

First Post

2008-12-10T14:42:00.001-08:00

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