Good Morning,
  I hope you had a great weekend.  Below is the volunteer schedule for this year.  It will start on Tuesday, October 17th.  If you would still like to sign up, take a look at the schedule and let me know.

Parent Volunteer Schedule: 2013-2014

I want to thank everyone that was able to sign up to volunteer in the classroom.  Below is the schedule.  We will start Tuesday, October 17^th (no school on the 16^th). 

Mondays:  Marya Dungan (1^st, 3^rd, & 5^th Monday of each month) 10:30-11:25

                   Kelvey Wilson (2^nd & 4^th Monday of each month) 10:30-11:25
                   Rachel Rosenbloom (9:15-10:30)

Tuesdays:  Your name could be here!

Wednesdays: Sheila Fiaschetti (1^st, 3^rd, & 5^th Wednesday of each month) 9:00-10:30

                      Sheila will start in mid November.

Thursdays:  Your name could be here!

Fridays:     Lindsay Jernigan (1^st, 3^rd, & 5^th Friday of each month) 8:30-9:00

                  Sara Arman (2^nd & 4^th Friday of each month) 8:30-9:00

                  Leslie Badger  (every other week) 8:30-9:00

                  This will allow us to reach a lot of kids (for editing) in a short period of 

                  time.

The following parents will be typing stories from home:

*Leslie Badger

*Sharon Parks

*Carla Ryley

*Barclay Rappeport

I will send home a folder with the stories in them and directions on what to do. You can just type them in word or email and then email the story to me.  I will print htem at school.

  Today I introduced the 4th Daily 5 activity of Listen to Reading.  We established the routine and what it would look and sound like.  The purpose of this activity is to allow students to hear stories read to them and then test their comprehensions strategies.  I will be using the RAZ Kids web program for this activity.  There will be a note coming home about this in the coming weeks.

1st Grade Math Students and Parents, please check the video below about homework.

  I hope you have a great week.

Peace,
Tommy

Good Morning,
  I hope everyone has had a great week.  As I had mentioned, I have spent the last two days testing 1st grade math students on their number and operations skills.  I decided to stay in the classroom while I did this.  I wanted to see how well the class did with the substitute.  I was very pleased with the group and how well it went.  I was also extremely happy to see my second graders stepping up and being leaders in the classroom.  Each of them did a fantastic job and were a great resource for the sub.

  I will be sending home the volunteer schedule on Monday.  We will start with our volunteers on Monday, October 7th.  I am delighted to have 4 parents who are willing to type stories this year (from home).  This is a valuable resource and I appreciate your help.

Below is this weeks video.  I realized at Open House, how many of the kids really enjoy these each week.  I had set the computers up to help parents sign up for the blog.  However, the kids kind of pulled up the videos and went with it.  Pretty cool to see.

Have a great weekend.

Peace,
Tommy

September 25, 2013

Good Morning,
  I hope everyone enjoyed the Open House last night.  I always love to see the excitement that the students exhibit on evenings like that of Open House.  As you can see, there is a lot going on int he classroom and the children have been exposed to quite a bit of information in a short amount of time.

  Today, I led a discussion of students using their words when problems come up.  I also talked about the responsibility of the 2nd person in the conversation.  I am encouraging students to try to use their words to solve problems (that are not major or safety related) before telling a teacher.  Going to the teacher would be used if the 1st attempt with words was unsuccessful.

NOTES:

*Friday is Jersey/Uniform Day.  Let's beat Mr. Greenleaf's Class

*Friday will also be Annaliesa's last day.  We are sad to see her go but know that she will have a wonderful experience in her new school.

Have a great day.

Peace,
Mr. Young

September 23, 2013

Good Morning,
  I hope you had a great weekend.  I found myself staring at the many colors that are now starting to appear on the mountainsides.  What a beautiful place we live in!  Today, we continued to work on the three Daily 5 routines that have been introduced.  We will aim to start our normal reading group schedule next week.

  This year, one of our Social Studies themes is People Making A Difference.  I will be inviting people in to talk to the class about how they make a difference.  Our first guest will be visiting on Tuesday.  He is Armando Vilaseca, the Secretary of Education for the State of Vermont.  He is someone I traveled with last summer and am excited that he can visit our classroom.  After his presentation, the students will learn how to do a write up about the presentation.  This is the model that I will be using throughout the year.  Mr. Mongeon (our librarian) has also agreed to read about (throughout the year) some famous Americans that have made a difference.  It will be a nice way to integrate our curriculum into other areas of learning.

 NOTES:

*There will be a substitute in my room on Thursday and Friday.  I will be in and out of the classroom those two days.  I have to do one to one math testing with each 1st grade child.  This is a district wide assessment that gives me great information about your child's number and operation skills and allows me to differentiate both their classroom instruction and homework.

*Book Orders are due tomorrow.

*Please, please make sure to send your child's homework bag back each day and Weekly News Journals on Monday's.  I don't usually send the homework bags home over the weekend.

*Math Homework will start next week (for 1st Grade).

Have a great week.

Peace,
Tommy

September 20, 2013

Happy Friday!  This morning Mary Hong (Washington County Mental Health) presented about Autism and different aspects of how students with Autism learn.  I thought it would be good to hear some facts and allow the students to ask questions about one of their classmates and what we can do to help the child be fully integrated into the classroom.

Over the past few days we have continued working in our science notebooks.  The children are learning to create diagrams, write "I notice" statements, and label their drawings.  We have also worked on fully implementing the third piece of the Daily 5, Read with Someone.

Here is this week's movie trailer recap.  I hope you enjoy!

Have a great weekend.

Peace,
Tommy

September 18, 2013

Good Morning,
  Yesterday, we created our science notebooks.  I led a discussion about how scientist use the skill of observation to record what they learn and/or notice.  The students broke up into teams and spent 10 minutes observing apples.  Their goal was to record what they saw. We then gathered back, as a class, and shared the different strategies used to record observations.  I created a poster (for future reference) of the different techniques used.  I then gave the students each a hand lens and allowed them to add to their observations.  There was a lot of excitement for science and one girl even said, "I have never done science before, it was awesome!"

Notes:
*Assembly at 7:45 tomorrow.

*Please make sure your child wears some kind of jacket or sweatshirt to school.  THe playground temperature has been a little cool for some.

*I forgot to send home the book orders on Monday.  I will send them today.  They will be due next Tuesday, September 24th.

That is all for now.  I hope you have a wonderful day.

Peace,
Tommy

September 16, 2013

Good Morning Friends,
  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  I don't know about all of you, but I am always amazed how booked the weekends get.  This weekend, my oldest daughter, turned 12.  We had 12, 6th grade girls spend the night on Saturday.  Needless to say I am glad to be back at work!

This week we will continue to introduce the components of Writer's Workshop, and the 3rd Daily 5 routine of Reading With Someone.  I will also finish up the remaining Language Arts Assessments that I wanted to complete.

We will have an assembly on Thursday.  The assemblies have been moved to Thursdays this year.  If you are able to join us, they start at 7:45.

Notes:
*Book order forms will be sent home today.  If you would like to order any books, please send it back by next Monday

*Fridays are Jersey Day!  Mr. Geenleaf and I are huge sports fans.  We would love to have Fridays be Jersey/t-shirt day.  You child can wear a jersey or shirt of their favorite sports team or their own sports teams (soccer, dance).  I am convinced I can get my whole class to wear them before Mr. Greenleaf does.  I will also have a few extra basketball t-shirts at school, if someone needs one.

I hope you have a great week.

Peace,
Tommy

September 13, 2013

Nothing like the first full week of school ending on a Friday the 13th!  Thankfully, there are no horror stories to report.  We have had a fantastic week.  I have finished up most of the beginning of the year Language Arts assessments.  I will use these to customize each child's reading and spelling activities.  I will have to take two days near the end of September ( I didn't want to be out of the room before then), to test all of the 1st Graders on the Primary Number and Observation Assessment.  This is a 1:1 test and it takes about 30 minutes per kid.  Our entire district uses this test (K-2 grade) and the information allows me to identify specific number and operation skills to work on with your child.  The results also allow me to customize the math homework.  This homework will start in October.

This week's video focuses a bit more on the specials (music, PE, library etc.).  I was not able to get Art or French in this time.  I hope you enjoy it.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Peace,
Tom

September 11, 2013

Good Morning Friends,
  Yesterday, we talked about the idea of breaking rules, using your words, and correcting your actions.  We started by signing the song "I Gonna Tell."  After the song we discussed the idea of telling and the meaning of the song.  I emphasized the idea that you should always use your words and try to solve your problem first (unless it is an emergency or something that just isn't safe).  If that doesn't work, you should then talk to an adult.  We also reviewed our rules and what should happen if our rules are broken.  I explained that everyone (including me) will break a class rule at some point.  When this happens, you are not in trouble but you will be asked to think about your action(s) and how it can be fixed.  This led to the introduction of "Take A Break."  I modeled how the students will use "Take A Break" and that it is not a punishment (TIme Out) but rather a chance for them to identify his/her behavior and how he/she can fix it.  The student then returns to the activity when he/she is ready (own choice).  If you would like to read more about this, please check out this link:  https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/article/positive-time-out

Today's special was P.E.

  Today, we continued working on Read-To-Self and Work on Writing as part of our continued introduction of the Daily 5.  The students wrote for two 30 minute sessions today and read for two 20 minute sessions.

I hope you have a great day.

Peace,
Mr. Young

Monday, September 8th

Good Morning,
  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  Today we introduced our Writer's workshop routine.  This is something that we will have three times a week and each child will have opportunities during the Daily 5 (Reader's Workshop) to work on their writing as well.  We started by gathering on the carpet and talked about writing.  I wanted them to understand that each lesson will start with a mini lesson on writing, that will be led by me.  Then they will be able to go and write.  I quickly modeled what writing will look like (the actual process of writing), and we talked about sketching our story first and then using the sketch to help with words.  Each child made a list of things that he/she could write about, and then they got to work.  We also continued working on our Read to Self stamina and the students each went shopping for two more books for their Read to Self book bins.  It was great seeing students using the IPICK method to make sure that the book was a good fit.  Today's specials were Music and PE.

Reminders:
*Please send back you child's Weekly News Journal.
*We have our First All School Assembly on Thursday.

Have a great week!

Peace,
Tom

Friday, September 6

Good Morning Friends,
  Yesterday, we had an assembly to review bus safety guidelines and procedures.  Ms. Korb led the assembly and then had us all go out and load onto one of two busses.  The students learned what to do in case of an emergency.  Even though many of our students don't ride the bus on a daily basis, they will all have the experience at on point or another (i.e. field trips, ski program, etc.).

  We spent a lot of time on Thursday practicing the Daily 5 routine of Read to Self, introducing the routine of Working on Writing, and learned how to pick out a good fit book.  I related it to the idea of having different shoes for different reasons/purposes.  We used the acronym IPICK to learn how to pick out "Good Fit" books.

I choose a book.
Purpose of book
Interest, am I interested in reading the book
Comprehension, do I understand what I am reading
Know, I can accurately read most of the words.

Mr. Young demonstrating what happens when you don't pick a "good fit" shoe.  This was used to connect to the concept of choosing good fit books (not because he lost a bet!

  Today, we worked on creating self portraits and created a teamwork collage of our handprints.  I will focus a lot on the idea of working as a team and the idea of using all of our strengths to be the most successful.

WEEKLY NEWS:  Today your child will be bringing home their Weekly News Journals.  This is a journal that they will write in each Friday to someone at home.  The idea is you can talk to them about their writing (the focus will be about events from the week gone by).  You should then write a quick response back and send the journal back in on Monday of the next week.  PLEASE make sure these are returned each week.

Here is a video of week two.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Peace,
Tom

Wednesday, September 4th

Good Morning,
  I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend.  Yesterday we continued with our CAFE and Daily 5 introduction, modeling, and practice.  I introduced the students to a 4th reading strategy of reading appropriate level texts that are a good fit.  It is now placed on our CAFE Menu.  You should ask your child about our CAFE Menu.

  We have introduced the concepts of greeting and share into our Morning Meeting.  This week, the second graders will be modeling the sharing routine.  As for share, students sign up if he/she has something to share.  We allow for 4 students each day.  Students may bring in items they have created, written, or drawn.  Nature items are also welcome but I ask that toys do not come in.  Students do not have to bring in something.  It can be strictly a verbal share.

  Yesterday, we created our class rules.  We started with 16 of them (brainstormed by the students) and have trimmed it down to four rules.  I want to thank Tessa for coming up with the idea of consolidating the rules, so we didn't have so many.  Our rules are:

WE ARE AT OUR BEST WHEN WE ARE:
Engaged
Safe
Kind
Responsible

A student signs her name to the Classroom Rules Chart that the class created.

We will spend the next few weeks modeling and practicing these rules.

I hope you have a great day.

Peace,
Tom