I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend and enjoyed the weather. I found myself at a x-country meet in Burlington, a shrimp boil in Fairfax and on a boat in Lake Fairlee. All in all a wonderful weekend to be in Vermont.
Today we started our first official lessons in the new Bridges math program. This is a K-5 district wide implementation. I have to say it is a hefty program and requires an extensive amount of prep time to get ready for each lesson. I hope the students find it both engaging and exciting. If you would like to learn more about the Bridges click here.The students spent some time illustrating their Hopes and Dreams for the start of school. We share these illustrations tomorrow and then use them as we start to develop our classroom norms (rules).
Today your child brought home a very attractive yellow piece of paper. This is for volunteer opportunities in the classroom. If you are looking to be a driver on field trips or a field trip chaperone, I need you to make sure you have completed the required background check. Please contact Kaiya for information on this.
We also started our daily mindfulness focus today. Over the past 5 years I have seen the need for students to learn techniques too help self regulate their energy and emotions, when needed.. I have found that introducing mindfulness techniques has helped many of my students develop these skills. This year, Katie Babic, our guidance counselor, will join us for two of our sessions each week. Today we focused on breathing from our diaphragm.
Notes:
*Picture day is Friday.
*Tomorrow your child will have a blue form in their homework bag. Please fill this out and send it back to school. We will be using this information for part of our Social Studies Families and Traditions.
*Please make sure your child's homework bag is returned each day with the book inside it. It is the easiest way for me to keep track of books and to get you any information you may need. I really appreciate your support with this.
Have a great week.
Peace,
Tommy
