March 31, 2015

Good Afternoon,
  We continue to explore and discover the concepts of sound in science.  Yesterday, the students finished up their lesson on Kazoos and today they used rulers to explore ways of varying pitch.
Yesterday, the students were treated to a preview of Sensical the Musical performed by members of Harwood Union High School.  Students saw beloved Seuss characters come to life to tell their stories through song and dance!  This is a great opportunity for families to enjoy.  The performance will be at Harwood on April 9 - 11.  Below is some more information on the performance.

Shows:

Thursday, April 9 @ 7:30pm
Friday, April 10 @ 7:30pm
Saturday, April 11 @ 1:30pm & 7:30pm

Tickets are available at the door. Adults $10; Students $5

For more information, check out their website at:  http://friendsofharwoodmusic.org/spring-musical/


Notes:

*We have our last Winter Sports program this week.  Please make sure your children have all of their clothing and equipment.  

*There is homework in your child's bag.  Please make sure they do it tonight.  In honor of the last ski day and April 1st, I will not send anything home tomorrow.

I hope you have a great night.

Peace,
Tommy

Yesterday we ventured to Harwood to work on editing our narratives.  The students were very excited and a little nervous.  I was excited to see the enthusiasm and focus that so many demonstrated.  Here is a video of our morning.

Today, the students were asked to write a persuasive piece that asked them to convince me why their choice for the Red Clover Book Award should win.  The students were asked to write a letter to me and present their argument.  These pieces will be used as an assessment piece and shared at our next district wide Early Release Day.

What is a Red Clover book?
Each year a committee of librarians, teachers, and sponsors reviews all picture books published in the prior year and chooses ten stellar picture books as the Red Clover books for the next school year. The books are considered in their entirety when chosen; both text and illustrations must be considered exemplary.  To learn more about the books and the Red Clover program, visit the Vermont Center for the Book.

A Local Connection to Red Clover

The Red Clover book program was started in Windham County, the brainchild of Eileen Christelow, author of the Five Little Monkeys books, The Great Pig Escape, and many other books.  Jessie Haas, another of our beloved children's book authors, best known for her horse books and her picture books of rural farm life, named the program after the state flower of  Vermont, the red clover.  After one year as a Windham county program, the Red Clover book program went statewide, and today children in grades Kindergarten through 4th grade throughout the state of Vermont read the Red Clover books and vote for their favorite each April.

What is a picture book?

The picture book combines words and pictures to tell a story.  Text and images work together to bring a sotry to a new level.  Illustrations can extend the meaning of a story or alter a book altogether.  So while a picture book is simply word and pictures, when viewed as a whole, it becomes a work of art.  (MM Del Rosario, http://hubpages.com/hub/what-is-a-picture-book)

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Peace,

Tommy

March 24, 2015

Good Morning,

  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  It was a pleasure to be able to speak with you about your child's progress and how wonderful they are.  I hope you found the conferences both meaningful and insightful.  If you still have questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

  We will be headed to Harwood on Thursday.  We will leave school around 9:50 and return just before 11:30.  So far Ken Wilson and Sheila Fiaschetti have offered to drive.  I will also drive.  If anyone would like to join us, please let us know.

  This week we are scheduled to have a ski day on Wednesday.  I will be at a district math meeting in the afternoon.  If skiing is canceled there will be a sub in for me for the afternoon.

  I hope you all have a great week.

Peace,
Tommy

March 16, 2015

Good Morning,

  I hope everyone enjoyed the circus performance on Friday evening.  It was wonderful to see so much enthusiasm and so many smiles form all of the students.  Below is a video from the evening event.





   I would like to take the students to Harwood on Thursday, March 26th.  We would leave school around 9:45 and leave Harwood around 11:15.  The purpose of the trip is to have the students work with a freshman writing class.  The students would be sharing their narratives and would receive editing help from the high school kids.  I need a few drivers.  If you are able to help, please let me know by this Thursday.

  As we continue our study of sound, I am looking for clean plastic containers with lids (i.e. yogurt).  If you have any, could you please send them in.  I am also looking for shoe boxes for our light unit.  Please send in any that you are willing to part with.

  I hope you all have a great week and I will see you at our scheduled conference.

Peace,
Tommy

March 13, 2014

Good Morning,
  It's SHOWTIME!  The students' excitement for tonight's performance is inspiring.  They are truly ready for the show to begin.  Here are the final details about tonight:

*Kids should go to their classrooms between 5:45-5:50.  Please don't be late.  I ask that they wear boots to the performance and change into shoes once they arrive.  This way none has to sit in mud and snow during the performance (we will be on the gym floor).  The kids will leave their coats and boots in the hallway (by their classroom) and be able to pick them up after the performance.

*The kids should wear brown or black (or dark colors) to go with our monkey skit.  There is one person who is a banana and they should wear dark colors as well.

I look forward to seeing everyone tonight and look forward to a great show.  I will create a video of the show after tonight's performance.

Notes:

*We only had math class today.  The kids had health, art, French, and rehearsal during the rest of the day.  So, there is no homework tonight.

*Several kids are still showing up to school with just boots.  Please help them remember to pack shoes for class.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Peace,
Tommy

Good Morning,
  I wanted to write to fill you in on the Circus Residency and the needs for Friday.  The class has really been enjoying Troy and he has a wonderful demeanor with the students.  He has been able to capture their excitement and energy and focus it toward a class routine (for the performance).  Our students will be monkeys.  If your child could wear brown or black on Friday evening that would be most helpful.  Please don't go out and buy something just for the evening.  If you don't have brown or black just go with something dark.

**There is reading homework this afternoon.  Please make sure your child takes the time to read.

**I will be out tomorrow afternoon.  My daughters both have dentist appointments.

**If you haven't signed up for a conference time please do so.

Have a great day.

Tommy

March 6, 2015

Good Morning,
 I hope you all had a great break and for those who had time off found it rewarding and restful.  We are in the midst of fishing up our 1st drafts of our narratives.  The next step will be to meet with a group from Harwood to help the kids edit their stories.  Next week we will be starting our next science unit.  This unit will be on sound and light waves.  It will be a 20 lesson unit and will Take us through the end of April/beginning of May.  As I was writing the sound lessons, I kept finding myself singing Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys.  Now it is stuck in my head!

Next week will mark the start of the school's one week artist in residency.  This year we will be guided by the work of Troy Wonderle.  Troy is returning to our school to lead us through a week of circus adventure.  If you would like to find out more about Troy and his talents, check out http://www.bigtopadventures.com/home.html.

Our residency schedule is as follows:
Monday:  1:45-2:15 (in place of PE)
Tuesday:  10:15-10:45 (in place of writing)
Thursday: 9:50-10:20 (in place of PE)
Friday:  12:45-2:15 All School Rehearsal (no reading/Weekly News in the afternoon)

There will be an evening performance on Friday, March 13 @ 6:00.  All are encouraged to attend.

Notes:
*Your child has reading homework and their Weekly News in their backpacks.

*Please make sure your child brings a change of shoes to school.  It would be helpful and appreciated if they weren't wearing their boots all day long.

*Wednesday is an Early Release Day.

PARENT CONFERENCES:  On Monday, the online parent conference scheduler will be available to you.  You will see that I have a lot of slots on Thursday and only a couple on Friday.  I have a meeting at the Department of Education at 9:00 on Friday.  If you can't find a time that works for you, please let me know and I can work with you to find a time.  If you don't plan on attending a conference, could you please let me know.

I hope you all have a great week.

Tommy