October 14, 2021

 Good Evening,

  I am writing you on Thursday instead of Friday because I won't be in school tomorrow.  My wife and I are headed to my daughter's (Julianne) college for parent weekend.  I am really excited to get out and see her and to take part in something that wasn't an option last year.  

This week we read the book One by Kathryn Otoshi.  This book shows how bullying can hurt peoples' feelings and make people small. "One" shows how when people do not stand up to bullies that things can get out of hand. It raises awareness that sometimes when one person stands up to a bully then it gives everyone else the courage to stand up for themselves too.  After reading the story to the kids, I asked them to think about a bullying incident they have seen or think of one that could happen at school.  The students then filled out a brainstorm sheet on what the incident would look/sound like and how they would respond.  The students then drew a picture of the scene and wrote a little paragraph about how they would handle it, what they would say, and who else they would tell. Each child brought their work home today to share with you.

Today, for science, we learned about the Watts Towers out in Los Angeles California.  The Watts Towers are a folk art assemblage built by Simon Rodia, between the years 1921 and 1955 in the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. The students were then broken up into teams of two and given 50 toothpicks and a stick of clay.  Their STEM challenge was to build the tallest building they could with the materials.  The tower had to be free standing and they only had 40 minutes.  The winners had a tower that was just around 2 feet tall.  

VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSE:

This year our Open House will once again be virtual.  You will be getting an email from Kaiya Korb that will tell you how to access everything.  If you would like to just access it from here, please continue reading,

I ask that you do three things with your children. Look at the photos at the top of my classroom web page. They can be found at www.waitsfield school.org (and then go to our classrooms and click on my name). Ask your child; "What is going on here?" Then watch the open house video that is linked here HTTPS://YOUTU.BE/OIXPBLOYOFU.

To finish off your open house experience, go to this LINK to hear the story your child made about themselves and if you wish to learn about some of their friends.

When you are done, email me 1 thing you enjoyed about the virtual open house. My email is tyoung@huusd.org

I hope you enjoyed seeing some your children's work and learning about their day.

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

Peace,

Mr. Young