September 29, 2010

Good Morning,

  Yesterday Charlotte and Liza presented their journaling that they did on their recent trips.  Charlotte talked to us about a goat named Rambo, Fort Knox, and her time on the coast.  Liza talked about her experience as a flower girl and the fun dancing that she was part of at the reception.  This year, when your child travels (misses school), he/she will be asked to keep a 

journal of his/her trip and continue to read from his/her reading book.  Upon returning from the trip, he/she will present their experience during our morning meeting.  I will also ask that the parents set up a time to meet (after your vacation) to make a plan on catching your student up with the missed work.  The September 8th blog posting briefly outlined this plan.

  We continue to work on both our Family writes and our pen-pal letters.  The students are almost finished with the pen-pal letters and we hope to mail them by Friday.  During math, we have been working a lot on problem solving and learning how to describe your thinking and represent it with an equation.  This has been a real challenge for many and you may hear some +/- discussions about this process.

  I appreciate all of the feedback on the Parent Night idea.  After reviewing the input, I have decided not to hold a formal night.  If you would like to meet sometime after school, please let me know (Wednesdays work best for this).

  We will have a short Fire Prevention assembly on Friday morning and then visit the trucks and rescue workers in the school parking lot.

Have a great day.

Peace,

Tom

September 27, 2010

Good Morning Friends,

  This year one of our Social Studies Themes is Celebrations and Traditions.  This year we will be traveling around the country through children’s literature.  We will travel through the country focusing on the following 7 U.S. Regions:  New England, Middle Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, Mountain, and Pacific.  As we visit each region, I will be focusing on local traditions/celebrations related to that region.  If you have ever been to the region, grew up there, or are an expert of the area and would like to present to the class, please let me know.  This could include places to see, celebrations to be part of, or anything else related.  Pictures or slide shows are encouraged.  Next Monday, we will start with the Northeast Region.  We will be reading Make Way For Ducklings and focus on the greater Boston area.

  During our Morning Meeting we played a game called Earth, Air, Water, Fire.  After meeting we continued our map skills work.  Today we talked about the directions North & South East and North and South West.  During stations kids continued working on their pen pal letters, started this week’s Literature Circle assignments, and had reading group with me.  During math we focused on solving story problems with logical approaches.  Today’s specials were PE and Library.

 Notes For the Week:

*Homework Monday-Thursday this week.  Book Log and Math Survey due on Friday.

*We will not be going to the orchard this week.  We will be working in the classroom on the mapping project.

*I am still looking for small boxes.

*Remember to respond to last Friday’s blog:  Do you want a “parent night?”

*Send in your picture order forms.

That is all for now.  Have a great week and I will post again on Wednesday.

Peace,

Tom

September 24, 2010

Good Afternoon,
 Since my last post, our class has started writing pen-pal letters to my daughter's 3rd grade class at Thatcher Brook.  Wednesday was National Pen-Pal day (I hope your celebration was as wild as ours) and it just seemed like the right day to start this project.  My goal is to write back and forth a few times and then get together at the end of the year.

  Today we went to the orchard and labeled the remaining 25 trees.  The groups did a wonderful job with this and every team finished in the given time.  Next week we will use this information to finish our label cards.

  Homework:  I need your help!  I realize that everyone's schedule is quite crazy and our children have a "million" things going on, but I need to have the math survey and reading log completed each week.  I need the students to understand that this is part of their school job.  We have had a few discussions about this but reinforcement from home would be greatly appreciated.  I thank you in advance for your support with this.

  Would you like a parent night?  Would you like me to take time and go over what's new this year, the blog, and take time to answer any questions regarding the general classroom procedure?  I would be more than happy to organize this but I want to make sure that it is something that people want?  Please let me know if it is something that interests you.

*Next Week's Parent Volunteer Schedule:
Monday: Jennifer Stella
Tuesday:  Sharon Parks
Wednesday: Sandy Tarburton
Thursday:  Sally Kendall
Friday:  Bear Simmons

You may notice that I try an update the slideshow every weekend.  I am not keeping track of which kids appear on the blog.  If you notice that your child has not been pictured, please let me know.  I hope your family has a wonderful weekend.  I am hoping to take my family apple picking at some point.
Peace,
Tom

September 22, 2010

A Bird's Eye View of Open House

Good Morning,
  As I write to you, the kids are in music class singing their hearts out.  I hope everyone enjoyed yesterday's Open House.  I love to see kids excited about their work and/or classroom and proud of their work.  Today we continued working on our Non-Fiction Books.  The students are all writing about their families with each member being a chapter of their book.  This afternoon we had math and also continued working with our study of maps.

  Today was also "Dress Like Your Favorite Book Character Day."  We had three students participate this year.  Julia dressed as Cam Jansen and was "clicking" all day.  Bryn dressed up as Yoda and was hilarious with his Yoda walk.  Jacob looked very sleuth like as Nate the Great.

  We will be going to the orchard on Friday.  We need to finish labeling the last 25 trees.  Feel free to join us if you are interested.  PLEASE make sure your child has appropriate clothing.  Rain boots are highly recommended.

  Below are a few more notes for the days ahead:
*The PTA sponsored book fair is in full swing.  Please stop by and check it out.
*Our whole school will be participating in the Hike For Hunger Program.  I am thinking of having our class hike Sunset one Wednesday afternoon.  What do you think?  Any other suggested hikes?
*Flynn money was due last Friday.  I still have a few who are missing.  Connie has also sent out a reminder via e-mail (to those who still owe).  If you would like your child to attend the show, please respond to our plea.  I will assume a "non-response" means you would like your child to not participate.
*Picture day is October 5th.  The envelopes are in your child's blue folder.  Please let me know if you need a second form.
*Keep sending in the small boxes!
*There is an assembly this week.

That is all for now.  Have a great day.
Peace,
Tom

September 20, 2010

 Good Afternoon.

  Today we had our first fire drill.  All in all it went pretty well, except that half of us jumped out of our chairs when the loud bell went off.  This morning we started a new week of literature circles.  It involves your child reading a new chapter (or two) in their reading group book and then using the story to complete a given task.  We also continued our work with maps and using directional words such as north and south.  This afternoon we worked with groupings of ten and twenty and the commutative property of addition.

The specials for today were PE and Library.

Notes:

*Flynn money was due last Friday.  If you have not done so, please send in $4 a.s.a.p.

*The school's book fair started today.  The students had a chance to go through it today (during library class).

*Open House is tomorrow night @ 5:30.  

*Your child may want a sweatshirt for the classroom.  I tend to have the windows open on a daily basis.  It is important to keep fresh air in the classroom.

*Keep sending in the smaller boxes.  Please refer to September 17th's post for a further explanation.

That is all for now.  Have a great start to the week and I will post again on Wednesday.  See you tomorrow night at the Open House.

Peace,

Tom

September 17, 2010

Good Afternoon,

  We had an awesome day.  This morning Bear came in and read a bit of our read-a-loud to the class.  We are currently reading The Twits.  We also had a special presentation by Mallie Barnett.  She is working on counting all of the Box Tops For Education.  Each one is worth a dime to the school.  Please look for these on products that you buy and send them in.  Later in the morning we walked to the orchard.  Today we worked on labeling 25 of the trees.  The kids did a great job with this.  Other highlights of the day included our first Literature Group discussion, and finding ways to make 20 with three digits.  This is working with in our groupings of 20.

Don't forget:
*$4.00 for our Flynn trip (the trip itself is in January).
*Small Boxes (paper clip, staple, raisin sized) for an upcoming project.  I am hoping to get 100-200 of them.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  We are busy with soccer and a wedding on Sunday.

Peace,
Tom

September 15, 2010

Good Morning,

  We are off to a great start with our parent volunteers.  It is nice to have so many people who are able to help in the classroom, from home, or with field trips.  I am still looking for 2 slots to be filled (the second and fourth Tuesday and Wednesday of each month).  Please let me know if this is something you can do.

  Yesterday we started our first "official day" of Literature circles.  The students will work in groups reading a book together and then take on different roles in a Literature Circle.  The jobs include tasks such as Discussion Director, Literary Luminary, Artist, Word Finder, and Connector.

  We have also started to learn about the parts of a non-fiction book, and how to write a non-fiction story.  This will prepare us to write a longer report later in the year.

  We will be going to the orchard again on Friday.  Please have your child wear shoes that can get wet.  A change of pants or shorts might be a good idea.  Last week, the wet grass made for pretty soggy shoes and pants.

  This year I am asking the students to be leaders and talking to them about what that might look like in our school setting.  Today we met with the pre-schoolers and introduced them to the playground.  They will be joining us (the lower unit) at recess and I wanted them to feel welcome and safe.  Ask your child about the experience.

  **Remember that reading logs and the math survey will be due on Friday.
  **Each student needs $4 for our Flynn trip (later in the year).  Please send it in by Friday.
  **We need a variety of small boxes (i.e. raisin, paper clip, staple, cleaned juice boxes) for a project later on.

Have a great day.  I will post again on Friday.

Peace,

Tom

September 13, 2010

Good afternoon!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I was psyched with Saturday's weather and glad to be outside the whole day.  This week marks the start of our parent volunteers.  Please see last Friday's post for the schedule or check out the volunteer page by clicking on the title (Volunteer Schedule) in the right hand column of this blog.  This week marks the start of our literature block stations.  The students will work on writing, spelling, reading, and/or parts of our social studies/science projects.

Today's specials were PE and Library.  Most of our math time was focused on a few activities.  This time is called math workshop and it allows the students to choose activities that they are interested in.

There is math and reading homework tonight.

I hope everyone has a great evening.

Peace,
Tom

September 10, 2010

Good Afternoon,

I hope you like the look of the new blog page.  Please take some time to look at the different pages located on the right hand side of the page.  There is a "Handy Links" page that you will find useful.  This morning we went over to the orchard to map out the location of all 50 trees.  The students worked in teams of four as they tried to replicate the planting sight of each tree.  This proved to be a rather challenging task because the pattern of the trees was a bit difficult to sketch.  Next week we will create labels and attach them to each tree's protective cage.

Parent volunteers will start next week.  The schedule can be found on the volunteer page.  Next week's schedule would be the following:
Monday: Sally K.
Tuesday: Sharon P.
Wednesday: Jennifer S.
Thursday: Sandy T.
Friday: Bear S.

I want to wish Anda a very Happy 8th Birthday.  She brought in cupcakes for us to share today; however, she refused to wear the birthday crown :).

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.  Please make sure to look at your child's weekly news log and take time to respond to him/her.  We will share your responses at Monday's Morning Meeting.
Peace,
Tom

September 8, 2010

Hello Friends,

You may have noticed that I have been putting pictures on the blog.  I hope you are enjoying them.  However, I do have to delete them a day or two after they have been posted.  Unfortunately the pictures take up a fair amount of memory.  This blog sight is free but limited in the space that I can use.  There is an option to upgrade for a fee.  I am still trying to figure out if it is worth it.  If I do upgrade, I believe I can leave pictures on and even load video.  What do you think?  Do you like viewing the pictures?  Please let me know.

Homework is in full swing.  Please make sure to do the reading nightly and the math game 2-3 times a week.  Remember to fill out the math survey (on Thursdays) and book log (nightly).

**Parent Volunteers start next week.  Please see the schedule on the volunteer page.

**We will be going to the orchard on Friday.  Please dress appropriately.

**Book orders are due by Friday.

**Please check the Upcoming Events page.  It has been updated.

Have a great day.  I will post again on Friday.

Peace,

Tom

Important information from previous blogs site:
Making up work during sick/vacation absences:  This year I am going to give your child their work when he/she returns from an absence.  This way I can give hem/her exactly what we did in class and not have to have so much advance predicting.  If your child has an extended sickness, I will make separate accommodations.  I feel this will be easier for all.