Good Evening,

  We had a great final week of 2017.  Below is a link of each kids geography presentation.  I hope you enjoy them.  Click on your child's name and you can hear their presentations.

Caroline Kai Annamae Lev Liv Steele

Sam Kane Carley Noah Clara

The students also did a great job with their secret pals and had a great time with the pancake breakfast.  Below is a video of them from both events.  I was looking for the appropriate song to go with the pictures of them cooking. I figured how could you go wrong with the Sweedish Chef singing Rapper's Delight.



I hope you all have a wonderful break that allows for traditions, celebrations, and time with family. 

Peace,
Tommy

December 14th, 2017

Good Afternoon,
  I am going to write one post for this week.  It will be rather lengthy but please read through the whole thing.  Several of my 2nd graders have asked that we do Secret Pals again this year.  The purpose of this event is to celebrate each other and enjoy the idea of trying to surprise a friend.  Today, in your child's homework bag, there will be a yellow note for you to read and sign your child up.  The note MUST be returned by tomorrow.  I will use our Art time tomorrow to create a list of each other's Secret Pals and send home a note with your child's Secret Pal. 

  Yesterday, my friend from India, Ajay led the class in a yoga session.  I have to say it was absolutely amazing.  He led them through a variety of poses and was impressed with their knowledge of so many yoga poses.  For me, I was thrilled that they got this opportunity.  What was great was the excitement by both the students and Ajay.  We will try and do this again in January. 

  Wednesday afternoon, we finally finished our map work with town, state, country, continent, and world.  Next week the kids will present their understanding to each other. I am hoping to record a presentation or two so that you all can see the work that they have been doing. 

  We have been using read a loud time to study a particular author or illustrator.  Last week we read a lot of Lauren Castillo book.  This week we have been reading books by Tomie De Paola.  One of the books we read was Pancakes For Breakfast.   The class has decided that we need to have a pancake breakfast.  We will do this on the last day of school before vacation.  Please go to this link to sign up to with food, plates, or drinks.  I will provide the pancakes.  This will be better than having a "sugary party" on the last day.   

That is all for now.

Have a great weekend.

Peace,
Tommy

December 8, 2017

Good Afternoon.  We finally finished up the video for our project that has us helping Ella from Harwood.  Take a look at the video below.  It truly is a product of the kids work and they created everything you see (with the exception of the last slide).  In order to finish this work, we postponed our literature/reading time today.



Enjoy your weekend.
Tommy

December 4th, 2017

Good Afternoon,
  I hope this find all of you well and rested as we head into the blur we call December.  It is hard enough to believe that we flew through November so quickly.
Last week we had a visit form local author Lou Bevaqui. He shared his book and used games and art activities, to introduce the concept of emotional self-awareness. Lou was able to really connect with the kids, drawing from them their thoughts and ideas, and making it fun so they could learn without ever realizing it!

Lou and the children used art and descriptions and their five senses to explore various emotions. They were were introduced to the idea that these emotions do not define them (“I am angry”). Rather, the emotions are something they “feel,” and feelings change. Lou ended by introducing the children to ways they change how they feel.

Here is a description of Lou’s book and message:

Sarah’s day leads her into one emotional storm after another. Can Sarah weather these storms and find ways to turn her day around? Vibrantly illustrated, Changing Your Weather is intended to help children and their parents identify and understand their emotions, increase their emotional self-awareness and create mental tools that allow them to choose the way they want to feel. When children learn language and tools to identify and govern their emotions they become more attuned with what is going on both inside and outside of them. The fun glossary and journal included in this book provide tools to enable parents and their children to interact as they build these important skills.

You can learn more about Lou at: http://loubevacqui.com/

  Today we headed to Moretown to hear from Sam Drazin.  He is a person who deals with  Treacher Collins syndrome.  You may have heard of the new movie out or read the book Wonder.  The main character deals with the same syndrome.  Here is a link to hear more about Sam.  

That is all for now.  I hope you all have a great week.

Tommy

Last week's Estimation Winner!