Good Afternoon,
I wanted to give you a heads up about tomorrow's all school hike and Monday's trip to the Flynn Theater.
HIKE: Today your child chose from 1 of 3 hikes that they can do tomorrow. The students will be leaving around 9:00 and will be back by 12:30. The kids will eat lunch up at the mountain. Please have your child pack a lunch. Lev, Kane, Liv, Noah, Clara, and Sam have signed up for bagged lunches (from school). We will eat snack before we leave school. Your child should empty out their backpack, except homework bag, and put a water bottle in it. They should dress in layers and have good shoes for hiking.
FLYN TRIP: On Monday (about 8:00 am) we will head to the Flynn Theater to see My Father's Dragon. We will be traveling with Mr. Hubbard's, Mrs. Belknap's, Ms. Hale's classes. We will be back in time to eat lunch at school.
With talking animals, a daring rescue, a flying dragon, buried treasure, and lots of humor throughout, this fabulous adventure is brought to the stage using puppets, masks, inventive scenic effects and original music. Enchantment Theatre Company presents the story of a compassionate and courageous young boy and his unlikely friendship with a splendid yellow and blue striped dragon.
I hope everyone enjoyed the Open House. It was nice to see so many of you. The classroom is always open to you, please feel free to stop by anytime. I apologize for not having the classroom tree finished in time. However, here is a picture of the finished product.
This week also marked the unveiling of Caroline's caterpillar. She brought it on a few weeks ago and we have been patiently awaiting to see the arrival of this particular monarch,
I need to apologize. I forgot to post that the all school hike will be Friday, switched from today's date. It looks like it was a good call because the heat index has cancelled many outdoor activities today (high school & middle school).
I hope you are all ready for tomorrow's Open House. This is a very exciting time for your children and they love showing off their classroom and work. My request is that you have them be your tour guides and ask them lots of detail related questions. They will have a checklist (that they create) to help them guide your through the tour. I will be in the room, please feel free to ask me any questions about the blog, logging into Zearn and/or homework. Please understand if you ask me how your child is doing my answer will be "GREAT!". The reasons being, they most likely are doing great and I wouldn't talk about a specific child's progress in front of other families. The open house runs from 5-6 pm.
PARENT VOLUNTEERS: Your child will have a volunteer form, in their homework bag, this afternoon. Please take a look and decide if you are able to sign up to volunteer during any oft the times. I would like all responses by Friday and will post the schedule next week. Volunteers will start October 16th. Please note that the district policy requires anyone volunteering to drive on a field trip to be fingerprinted and have a background check done. If you are simply volunteering in the room while I am supervising, no background check is needed.
I hope you all have had a great week. This week we finalized all of our routines and are ready to get into our full schedule next week. There will be reading groups and reading homework. Many of our younger readers will have a book from our group to read and a book of choice. They should read the book from our group to you (you can help when needed) and then you can handle the book of choice anyway you wish.
We are creating a tree for our classroom. This week the students used food coloring and water colors to create "fall colored" leaves. They had fun exploring how the colors could mix into each other and created deep shades of reds, yellows, and oranges. I hope to have the tree up by next week.
If you stop by our classroom, you will see a huge super hero cape hanging on the wall by the cubby area. The cape has illustrations of a special power (talent) that your child feels they have. We talked about each student having a special power and that if we each put our power together and used them to help the whole class we would be like a super hero with great powers. A special thanks to Mrs. McDonough for helping with the cape.
Mindfulness Moments: This week we talked about anchor spots and asked each child to identify where their spot was. An anchor spot is a place where a person can place their hand on their body and feel their breaths go in and out. For many this is their chest, hand, elbow, leg, or even their nose. Ask your child about their spot and how they can use breathing to calm their bodies.
That is all for now. I hope you all have a great weekend.
Good Afternoon,
I hope you all had a great weekend. Today we introduced are 3rd Daily 4 choice. This is called read to self. The kids will be using the software called Tumble Books. This is a subscription web based site that allows for kids to listen to a variety of books read to them. The great thing is that you can use it at home too. If you have a night where your child is too tired to read and you have a million things going on, let them go to the Tumble Book site and listen to a story read to them. Here is the information:
Also, be sure to check out the iTunes App Store and Google Play to download our new APP! The app will greatly simplify the way your students log in from mobile devices like Tablets and Smart Phones!
FIRST GRADE MATH:
As in past, first grade math homework is optional. I use a program called Zearn and it is something that I use as part of my daily instruction as well. Today, your child will bring home a black composition book that has their log in information taped inside the cover. What is nice about this program is it is individualized for each student and allows them to work on skills that they need. Below is a video on how to access Zearn at home.
That is all for now. I hope you all have a great week.
Good Morning, We have had a very busy week in 1st and 2nd grade. We have introduced and practice many of the routines that will be used all year long. The students also received their first set of words for their sight word spelling rings. These sight words are practiced each morning upon arrival. We do this for ten minutes prior to morning meeting. Each kid will work at their own pace and are tested on them every two weeks. When they demonstrate mastery, they get new words added to their rings. If your child arrives on time each day, they will have the opportunity for 50 minutes of practice a week.
Yesterday was picture day (I wished I would have remembered that when getting dressed). The students looked great and we even took a picture day selfie.
Notes:
*We will have an all school hike on Monday, September 25. We will be leaving around 8:00. Please make sure your child has appropriate attire, a snack, and a water bottle. They should also have a backpack to carry their items in.
*I will be out of the building on Thursday of next week. A few years ago, I was appointed to the Vermont Standards Board for Professional Educators. We meet once a month and this is our 1st meeting this academic year.
*Your child does not have their Weekly News in their bags today. I needed to wrap up a few things this afternoon and decided to put this off until next week.
I hope you all had to enjoy the wonderful weather that we had yesterday. My wife and I were able to get up to Stowe and access the fitness path. It was certainly a beautiful day.
This week I will continue to introduce and practice the 4 options that kids have during our Daily 4 time. Today they all were able to work on Core 5 (a phonemic and sight word program) and read to self for 12 minutes.
We also started to work on posters that incorporated our PBIS expectations (We ROCK) into a variety of school settings. The students each teamed up and took of setting to illustrate kids being safe, kind, respectful and engaged. We should have these completed by week's end.
NOTES:
*Please send your child's book and homework bag back each day.
*Your kids are welcome to leave a sweatshirt here at school. Some find that they want one to wear during class.
That is all for now. I hope you have a great week.
Good Afternoon,
I need to apologize. I forgot to post last week's video, on Tuesday, as promised. Please find it below.
This week we started to dive into our routines more deeply. We have been learning to read to ourselves. This is one part of our language arts block called the Daily 4. The Daily 4 consists of 4 different language arts activities that students can choose from. While I am working with kids in small, differentiated, "reading groups." the rest of the class is engaged with these. It allows for student choice and interests to drive their own learning while still accomplishing the required learning outcomes.
We also spent some time creating our class rules. I asked the students to think about their Hopes and Dreams illustrations and what they would need in place for rules that would help them achieve their goals. The class initially came up with 16 rules. We all agreed that this was too many and one student had the idea of putting them into categories. This narrowed the list down to 5 simple rules or should I say 4 rules and a suggestion. Below is the poster that they all signed agreeing to follow these simple requests.
We were also visited by three different dogs this week. Kane, Steele, and Caroline all brought in their dogs and shared them during our morning meeting. Steele's dog gave Anna Mae & Kane more kisses than my great Italian aunts do a a family wedding. Let's just say it was a lot.
I am very excited to announce that my friend Ajay Rastogi will be able to lead our class in some yoga this year. He lives in India and is know for his love a sustainability and yoga. He just got back from a glacial trek (see picture below) and was hoping to be able to be able to connect with the group this year. He will be traveling to Princeton in September to work with some students but will be
back in India by October. We will have our first session on October 11th. We will use Skype and the Smart board to make this happen.
On Thursday we had an all school assembly. The school found out that we are working toward an all school celebration that will involve pumpkins, pizza, our families, and a stroll on the mad path in the evening. I hope our school wide work toward our expected school behaviors will pay off and we earn this fun filled event. Ask your child about tickets and rocks and why he/she gets them.
This October, our class will be participating in a Climate Action project. It is being run by a friend of mine in Belgium and involves over 50 countries and 150 different schools. Our focus will be as follows:
Students will focus on 4 different topics during the Climate Action project:
- week1: Introduction - What is climate change?
- week2: Causes and effects in your own country
- week3: Action - How do avoid/solve the effects - Action on a personal/local/global level
- week4: Let's talk about it - Exchanging insights and findings via Skype sessions
We will work collaboratively as a class and learn how others are dealing with this global issue at the same time. If you would like to learn more about this project, see our class page, and/or see other schools and classes participating, check out http://www.climate-action.info/
NOTE: Your child has their 1st Weekly News entry in their homework bag. Please take a look and a moment to respond to them. We will read the responses at Morning Meeting on Monday morning.
That is all for now. I hope you all have a great weekend.
Good Afternoon,
I want to thank all of you, who were able, for coming to the informational meeting and potluck last night. It was nice to start off the 1st week with a gathering and a chance to get to know all of you. Please let me know if you have any unanswered questions. I truly feel this is going to be a fabulous year and a special group of students and am quite excited for things to come.
The 1st week has flown by. On Tuesday, Katie Babic came in to review a talk regarding zones of regulation in regards to our personal mood. We are creating a chart that will help kids identify how they are feeling and strategies to help them regulate their behavior, mood and/or feelings. If you would like to know more about this, please check out this link.
The students had each special this week with the exception of French (which will start at the end of September). I asked that each specialist teacher come to our classroom to explain their expectations as we enter their space (the gym, art room, music, etc.). These conversations are important and allows all of us to remind each other what is the desired expectations of each class.
We read a few more 1st week of school books during our class read a loud time. The 1st was The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak. It is exactly as titled and has no pictures. I used this book to get the kids laughing and to allow them to see me being goofy and having fun at my own expense. The 2nd book was This School Year Will Be the Best! by Kary Winters. This book helped us think about things we may want to see or accomplish this year and got kids thinking about their own goals. The final book was Dear Teacher by Amy Husband. This book had a student writing his teacher a variety of notes, throughout the summer, on why he wouldn't be able to make it to school for the 1st part of the school year.
We have introduced many of the tools that we will use throughout the year. I use a process called guided discovery. It allows the students to explore the items, think about ways of using them, and developing shared expectations on appropriate use. There is a bulletin board in the classroom that has a lot of their work from this displayed. The kids also completed posters about themselves. These can be found in the hallway outside our room.
As I mentioned above, the kids did create goals for themselves. I call these our Hopes and Dreams. The students all decided on a hope or dream they had for the coming year. They then illustrated these and shared them with the class today. We will use these as a guiding force in developing our shared expectations for behavior in the classroom. This allows the class rules to be both relevant and personal. The kids illustrations can be found in the library area of our classroom.
NOTES:
*This week's video will be posted on Tuesday's post (no school Monday).
*I type the post quickly during lunch. Please excuse any typos.
*There is no reading homework tonight. Enjoy the long weekend.
That is all for now. I hope you all have a great weekend. We are off to a great start!
FLYN TRIP: On Monday (about 8:00 am) we will head to the Flynn Theater to see My Father's Dragon. We will be traveling with Mr. Hubbard's, Mrs. Belknap's, Ms. Hale's classes. We will be back in time to eat lunch at school. 
