Good Afternoon,
Happy Halloween! There is no homework tonight. I want the kids to be able to just enjoy the evening. As a reminder, I ask that kids don;t bring in candy for snack or in their packed lunches.
I am looking forward to meeting with everyone at conferences this week. As a reminder, it is expected that your child attends the conference with you. Below is a copy of the schedule. As you can see the conferences are scheduled back to back so please be on time. I can;t extend your conference if you are late.
Wednesday:
4:10 Caroline
4:30 n/a
4:50 Navin
5:10 Hannah
5:30 Logan
5:50 Zach
6:10 Graycen
Thursday:
2:30 Adelaide
2:50 Brynley
3:10 Clara
3:30 Wyatt
3:50 Waylon
4:10 Sam
4:30 Kane
Have a safe Halloween.
Tommy
October 31, 2016
October 28, 2016
October 28, 2016
Good Morning,
Another week is officially in the books. It seems like October was nothing but a flash. Here is the scoop from this week. In writing, the students continued to focus on the editing process and finding ways to make their story interesting. A few students have really gotten into the use of exaggeration. One story talked about a zip line that was "as tall as a sky scraper." On Wednesday, the students continued focusing on adaptations. This week they were asked to design clothing for a traveler that was heading to the extreme environment that they studied. The class worked on this for over
Election Update: We will be heading to the new town hall on Friday to vote. I have worked with the town clerk to set up some activities around the vote itself. On Wednesday, the class will use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the 2 candidates. I can;t wait to see the results of our class vote. If you pick up next week's issue of Seven Days, our class will be mentioned in an article about the election.
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| Golden Bucket Victory Photo |
Yesterday, we learned that we won the coveted Golden Bucket. The class has really taken on Joe's challenge of cleaning up after ourselves, respecting our space, and Joe and Roy's work. Needless to say the kids were psyched and there is already talk of a 3 Peat next month. That's right, Back to Back Baby!!
NOTES:
*Halloween: UNFORTUNATELY Halloween is on a Monday this year. I am already lowering Tuesday's expectations by a bit. However, I want to ask that the kids not wear their costumes during the day on Monday. I would like to keep it as much of a normal day as I can. That being said, if someone want to bring in a treat for the class, feel free to do so. We will enjoy it right after lunchtime. FYI: If I ever become president, I will mandate that Halloween is the last Saturday in October!!.
*Weekly News and Reading: Your child has their Weekly News journal and a book or two to read over the weekend. Remember, these are books that you can read to them too. What ever works for your family works for me.
*BOOTS: Boot season has come upon us. Please remember to pack your child a pair of shoes on the days they wear boots. Wearing boots all day is "clunky" for them and also causes other problems. We spend a lot of time on the floor and sitting on wet carpet is not fun for anyone. Please feel free to leave a pair of shoes int he room if desired.
*THANK YOU!! I want to thank all of you for getting the conference forms back to me. I appreciate the quick turnaround an look forward to using them in my conference prep. I look forward to seeing all of you next week.
That is all for now. I hope you have a great weekend.
Peace,
Tommy
October 21, 2016
October 21, 2016
Good Afternoon,
I was trying to figure out how I wanted to wrap up a rather emotional and reflective week. On Monday, during our Morning Meeting, a couple of kids had questions about funerals and memorial services and why we have them. I was glad that the kids felt that they could ask and the fact that they would ask in front of the whole class. It ended up being a great conversation and resulted in a better understanding of the whole grieving process. I decided to read one of my favorite children's books to the class during read a loud. I felt it was appropriate to read about "unconditional love" at a 1st and 2nd grade level. I have included a video reading of the book for you to listen to (if you desire).
This week the students were introduced to writing checklists. These checklists are specific for each grade and focus on the genre of narrative writing. Mrs. Jane and I have been using these with the
kids as we edit their work. I also taught the students how to reflect upon a completed checklist to create a writing goal for themselves. The conversation during writing instruction has been around building writing muscles and ways in which a writer can become stronger.
Once again, we spent Wednesday afternoon immersed in science. This week the students were introduced to the term environment (meaning physical surroundings/area in which an organism lives). As a class we watched a presentation and video about the Pacific Ocean. The students focused on what is found in that environment and learned about how an octopus and great white shark adapt in their environment. The class was then divided into teams of four or five and given a new extreme environment of their own. They had to use a media presentation to learn about elements in that environment and organisms that can sustain life there. The lesson wrapped up with the students documenting their learning and explaining how certain animal's adaptations (from their extreme environment) help the animal survive. Make sure to check in with your child about their environment.
Yesterday, Phil Scott joined our class via Google Hangout. I was able to project Phil on our Smart board and then used my laptop as the camera. Mr. Scott was great with the kids and answered the same two questions that we asked Sue Minter's campaign. Logan asked him about auto racing and Phil was more than happy to talk about his love for racing. Now that we have heard from both campaigns, I will contact the town clerk about holding our mock election. I am also looking at incorporating a few other things during election day itself. More details to come on this.
NOTES:
*WE NEED YOUR HELP! I am working with Nora, our art teacher, on a recycled art project. The goal is for the kids to work on a project this spring. However, we need to start collecting items now. The project will involve students using plastic bottle caps. These can be from soda bottles, water bottles, ice tea bottles, orange juice bottles, or any other bottle. Please start saving them and sending them in. I will have a collection box here at school. We will need a large amount of these, so please spread the word.
*Your child has their Weekly News journal in their homework bags.
Have a great weekend.
Peace,
Tommy
I was trying to figure out how I wanted to wrap up a rather emotional and reflective week. On Monday, during our Morning Meeting, a couple of kids had questions about funerals and memorial services and why we have them. I was glad that the kids felt that they could ask and the fact that they would ask in front of the whole class. It ended up being a great conversation and resulted in a better understanding of the whole grieving process. I decided to read one of my favorite children's books to the class during read a loud. I felt it was appropriate to read about "unconditional love" at a 1st and 2nd grade level. I have included a video reading of the book for you to listen to (if you desire).
This week the students were introduced to writing checklists. These checklists are specific for each grade and focus on the genre of narrative writing. Mrs. Jane and I have been using these with the
kids as we edit their work. I also taught the students how to reflect upon a completed checklist to create a writing goal for themselves. The conversation during writing instruction has been around building writing muscles and ways in which a writer can become stronger.
Once again, we spent Wednesday afternoon immersed in science. This week the students were introduced to the term environment (meaning physical surroundings/area in which an organism lives). As a class we watched a presentation and video about the Pacific Ocean. The students focused on what is found in that environment and learned about how an octopus and great white shark adapt in their environment. The class was then divided into teams of four or five and given a new extreme environment of their own. They had to use a media presentation to learn about elements in that environment and organisms that can sustain life there. The lesson wrapped up with the students documenting their learning and explaining how certain animal's adaptations (from their extreme environment) help the animal survive. Make sure to check in with your child about their environment.
 |
| A student shared her new puppy with the class. |
 |
| The students listened to a presentation from the High Fives Foundation |
Yesterday, Phil Scott joined our class via Google Hangout. I was able to project Phil on our Smart board and then used my laptop as the camera. Mr. Scott was great with the kids and answered the same two questions that we asked Sue Minter's campaign. Logan asked him about auto racing and Phil was more than happy to talk about his love for racing. Now that we have heard from both campaigns, I will contact the town clerk about holding our mock election. I am also looking at incorporating a few other things during election day itself. More details to come on this.
NOTES:
*WE NEED YOUR HELP! I am working with Nora, our art teacher, on a recycled art project. The goal is for the kids to work on a project this spring. However, we need to start collecting items now. The project will involve students using plastic bottle caps. These can be from soda bottles, water bottles, ice tea bottles, orange juice bottles, or any other bottle. Please start saving them and sending them in. I will have a collection box here at school. We will need a large amount of these, so please spread the word.
*Your child has their Weekly News journal in their homework bags.
Have a great weekend.
Peace,
Tommy
October 14, 2016
October 14, 2016
Good Afternoon,
Needless to say, this week (in our classroom) can be described with a variety of words but I think draining and emotional sum it up best. We also had a variety of fun and exciting things going on that I don't want overlook, so please take time to read this rather lengthy blog post.
Tuesday started with 4 or 5 of the students discussing the accident during snack time. The gist of the conversation centered around the fact that Waylon;s cousin died in the accident. I took time to discuss with the whole class that indeed this was true. We did not discuss the details and no details were brought up by the students. We did have a good discussion about death and what that meant. We all agreed that it meant to stop living and that seemed to meet each student's needs. Waylon also visited the class on Wednesday. He was abel to express that his need is that we don;t talk about the accident with him. He would like school to be a place where he can just be the student he was prior to the accident. At the same time, I reminded the students that if anyone needed to talk to an adult about this, that they should let Kaite, Kaiya, or I know and we will help them. Today Waylon returned to the class and you should all feel very proud of the empathy your children showed and the kind kids they truly are. On Wednesday, the class explored how and why three different types of bird beaks are shaped or adapted the way they are. The students used spoons, tweezers, and clothespins to try and grab onto different objects (that represented food). We then discussed why a pelican, a hummingbird, and a wood pecker have the beaks that they do.
Wednesday also had Kathy Haskell coming in to read during our read a loud time. Kathi chose to share the book Zachary's Ball by Matt Tavares. Zachary's father catches a foul ball at Fenway Park and gives it to him, something really amazing happens — Zachary finds himself on the pitcher's mound, wearing a Red Sox uniform and playing against New York! The students have really enjoyed our guest readers. If anyone else would like to come in and read, please let me know.
On Thursday, the students met a friend of mine from India named Ajay. Ajay is a wonderful human being who works with students in India and teaches them how to live sustainably. He is also a yoga instructor and led daily classes during my visit. I asked if he would be willing to lead a few yoga sessions with my class, via Skype. We had some technical difficulties, with his computer, and ended up doing introductions and a song this week. Our next session will involve a yoga class. Ajay was very excited to meet our wonderful class.NOTES:
*Picture retake will take place on October 19th. The pictures were sent home today. Please look for them in your child's homework bag.
*WE NEED YOUR HELP! I am working with Nora, our art teacher, on a recycled art project. The goal is for the kids to work on a project this spring. However, we need to start collecting items now. The project will involve students using plastic bottle caps. These can be from soda bottles, water bottles, ice tea bottles, orange juice bottles, or any other bottle. Please start saving them and sending them in. I will have a collection box here at school. We will need a large amount of these, so please spread the word.
*Your child has free choice reading books for the weekend as well as their Weekly News. Please take time to respond to their letter to you.
That is all for now. I hope you all have a great weekend.
Peace,
Tommy
October 8, 2016
October 8, 2016
Good Evening,
I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. This week we finished our work with the artists in residence and also had a visit form Sue Minter's campaign. David Goodman, Sue's husband, visited our classroom on Tuesday. He talked to the kids about why Sue wants to be governor and what she would do for kids. We are hoping to have Phill Scott's campaign in sometime in the next few weeks (they are working on it). In science, the students continued to look at how animals adapt, and explored the ideas of adaptation through the 4 categories that we identified last week.
The PLAYOFFS have started! Yes the baseball playoffs have started and it has become a focus in our classroom. Well, sort of . . . On Thursday, the students worked individually or in teams to pick their teams for this year's baseball playoffs. Although some of the students don;t even know who the teams are, they seemed to be psyched. I will use this competition to create a few graphing lessons for the class. We will see who ends up becoming the champion of the class.
It was certainly a quick week that had me out of the class.room for a conference on Wednesday and a meeting on Thursday. Please know that I am very selective about attending conferences, during the school year, because I don't like being away from my class. However, from time to time there are presentations that I feel are worth attending. On Wednesday I attended a conference on Social Emotional Engagement. Below is a quick description of the presentation that I attended. Social Emotional Engagement represents the “fuel for learning” in the classroom setting. School communities with knowledge of a social and emotional scope and sequence of skills and how to facilitate student growth in these domains can create a school climate that is focused on the success of every student. The outcomes of the Social Emotional Engagement – Knowledge and Skills (SEE-KS) program are focused on fostering social emotional engagement, presenting information in multiple ways, and promoting student participation. SEE-KS can be used for collaboration across teaching staff as a sustainable means to increase student initiations, independence, and emotional investment in classroom lessons. Research in the neuroscience of social emotional engagement fosters our ability to support children with social, emotional and communication challenges while supporting a universal design for learning for all. If you would like to read more about this, check out the following presentation. I was out of the building on Thursday afternoon so that I could attend the district leadership committee meeting (that I am a member of). This year, my schedule is set up so that the class has a majority of their specials, while I am out. This way I only miss a half hour of teaching time. I was very pleased that this worked out this way!
NOTES:
*The parent volunteers will start this week. Please check the volunteer schedule (located on the right side of the blog page) to see the schedule.
*Due to the short week, I will not publish a video. Look for a new one next week.
*Since we did not have school on Friday, your child did not write in their Weekly News Journals.
I hope you have a great weekend.
Peace,
Tommy
I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. This week we finished our work with the artists in residence and also had a visit form Sue Minter's campaign. David Goodman, Sue's husband, visited our classroom on Tuesday. He talked to the kids about why Sue wants to be governor and what she would do for kids. We are hoping to have Phill Scott's campaign in sometime in the next few weeks (they are working on it). In science, the students continued to look at how animals adapt, and explored the ideas of adaptation through the 4 categories that we identified last week.
 |
| Posing for a picture with David Goodman (of the Minter Campaign) |
The PLAYOFFS have started! Yes the baseball playoffs have started and it has become a focus in our classroom. Well, sort of . . . On Thursday, the students worked individually or in teams to pick their teams for this year's baseball playoffs. Although some of the students don;t even know who the teams are, they seemed to be psyched. I will use this competition to create a few graphing lessons for the class. We will see who ends up becoming the champion of the class.
It was certainly a quick week that had me out of the class.room for a conference on Wednesday and a meeting on Thursday. Please know that I am very selective about attending conferences, during the school year, because I don't like being away from my class. However, from time to time there are presentations that I feel are worth attending. On Wednesday I attended a conference on Social Emotional Engagement. Below is a quick description of the presentation that I attended. Social Emotional Engagement represents the “fuel for learning” in the classroom setting. School communities with knowledge of a social and emotional scope and sequence of skills and how to facilitate student growth in these domains can create a school climate that is focused on the success of every student. The outcomes of the Social Emotional Engagement – Knowledge and Skills (SEE-KS) program are focused on fostering social emotional engagement, presenting information in multiple ways, and promoting student participation. SEE-KS can be used for collaboration across teaching staff as a sustainable means to increase student initiations, independence, and emotional investment in classroom lessons. Research in the neuroscience of social emotional engagement fosters our ability to support children with social, emotional and communication challenges while supporting a universal design for learning for all. If you would like to read more about this, check out the following presentation. I was out of the building on Thursday afternoon so that I could attend the district leadership committee meeting (that I am a member of). This year, my schedule is set up so that the class has a majority of their specials, while I am out. This way I only miss a half hour of teaching time. I was very pleased that this worked out this way!
NOTES:
*The parent volunteers will start this week. Please check the volunteer schedule (located on the right side of the blog page) to see the schedule.
*Due to the short week, I will not publish a video. Look for a new one next week.
*Since we did not have school on Friday, your child did not write in their Weekly News Journals.
I hope you have a great weekend.
Peace,
Tommy
October 3, 2016
October 3, 2016
Good Afternoon,Holy October Batman! I can't believe we are already switching the classroom calendar to October and talking about all of the events that occur during this month. I hope each of you had a wonderful weekend. I had a nice but rather quick visit in Mane. The car ride home on Saturday evening sure seemed LONG!
Today we focused on writing with detail. I started by having the kids look at some sea shells that I had collected over the summer. I asked them to use magnifying glasses and to describe what they saw. Words like curvy, spirally, rough, and shiny were quickly exclaimed. I then tied this into how writers take small moments and use a "magnifying glass" to go in to detail with their writing. We created a poster (for them to use throughout the writing unit) of things that kids can think about when attempting to explode their moment with details. The students then worked with partners and on their own to try this technique out.
We had several kids complaining about how tired they were today. I know Monday's can be tough but please check in with your child about how they are feeling. Mondays and Tuesdays are our biggest academic days (the least amount of specials classes) and having the kids at their best and rested is optimal.
Notes:
*If you are reading the blog via email videos won't always appear. I am inserting a video about the blog, below. Please make sure to check it out at the blog site, if need be.
*We will be having artist in residency with Palo Coleman tomorrow. We will work with him from 12:15-1:15.
*A representative from Sue Minter's campaign (her husband, David Goodman) will be visiting our class from 1:15-1:45 tomorrow. Secretary Minter would love to join our class but her schedule doesn't allow it at this time. Mr. Goodman will fill us in about Sue's reasons for wanting to be governor and what she will do for the kids of Vermont. Phill Scott is arranging a time to come in during the month of October.
*Remember, no school on Friday.
That is all for now. I hope you have a great week.
Peace,
Tommy
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