April 29, 2022

 Good Afternoon,

  It was nice to be back in the full swing of things after a fun April break.  I have to say it was a fun filled week and the kids were super enthusiastic about a few of the projects.  

Students continued to write teaching books or non-fiction books.  Most of the class was bummed we only have this type of writing three days a week.  The students shared that they love the ability to choose their own topics, and that they have to create detailed illustrations too.  This week we focused on introductions at the beginning of the books.  Several of the students shared the introductions that they created, with the whole class.

Wednesday was Pokemon day.  As you may  know, we have literature project time on Wednesdays.  This is a chance for me to use special projects to explore and enhance reading and writing concepts, as well as a time to bring in a variety of art mediums.  Many of our students are really into Pokemon this year.  So I decided to have them each make their own Pokemon card (I did this project about 5 years ago too).  First I asked all of our Pokemon experts to share cards and their features.  The students then took this knowledge and sketched their own Pokemon character.  The beauty is a character could be anything from a monster, a unicorn, or even a funny looking stuffy.  The students then started their sketches and took their sketch and designed the first part of their card.  Next week they will color them and then start the writing portion of the project.  Traditional cards have descriptions of powers, health points, and other data.  Our cards will have a persuasive piece that tell the reader why this is the best Pokemon card ever.  As you can imagine, their is lots of excitement around this project.  

Thursday brought us back to our final two days of our States of Matter unit.  I started the class by reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss.  We then had the chance to make our own Ooblec and use this substance to answer different questions about states of matter.  To paint a clear picture for you, picture giving 22 Sweedish Chefs (Muppet reference) the materials and then telling them to explore.  The pictures sum it up more clearly.  In all honesty, it was a lot of fun to try and figure out why something held two different states of matter at the same time. Needless to say, the engagement with this activity was quite high.

First grade math had us finding differences with a variety of games and activities.  We continue to look at how we can use addition to solve subtraction.  For some, we have been using number line jumps to model the subtraction situation.  Ms. Figdor was out today so I don;t have an update on 2nd grade math.

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

Peace,

Mr. Young

April 15, 2022

 Good Afternoon,

  Today marks the last day of Mr. Cadwell being with our classroom.  He has done a tremendous job and is more than ready for a classroom of his own.  The students have truly loved him and I know they are sad to see him go.  This afternoon we celebrated Parker.  The class had made a book of their favorite things that they got to do with him.  Each child read their page.  Parker had written a note to each kid as well.  Afterwards we celebrated with ice cream sandwiches.  

This week we continued looking at the effects adding or subtracting heat from an object has on its state of matter.  We spent yesterday and today making predictions about items, adding or subtracting heat, and then recording our observations.  We have two more experiments to do after vacation and we will then start our books about making maple syrup and the scientific concepts of the states of matter.

I spent a lot of time working with fact families and fact triangles this week.  The strategy was to use addition to check their subtraction work and to also use doubles +1/-1 facts to solve unknown problems.  We also discussed the idea of even and odd numbers.  None of the students understood this concept but we used some number racks to quickly gain an understanding.

Ms. Figdor had this to say about 2nd grade math:  This week in second grade our focus was area. We learned that area measures the space inside of two dimensional shapes. The second graders found the area of polygons using various pattern block shapes. They discovered that the same shape could have different areas depending on the shape used to measure the area. A shape with an area of 10 triangles would have an area of 5 rhombus shapes (The rhombus shape was twice the size of the triangle shape in our pattern blocks). After this initial exploration of area the second graders learned that mathematicians typically measure area in square units and so they had the opportunity to build shapes on their geoboards and find the area of those shapes. During Number Corner we continued to learn about fractions. We discovered two models to represent fractions, the area model and the set model.

That is all for now.  I hope you all have a great weekend and (if you have time off) a great vacation.  I will spend next week teaching in Lawrence, MA.  I will be teaching 4th grade math all week.  I am truly looking forward to it.

Peace,

Tommy

April 8, 2022

 Good Afternoon,

  I am excited to be back in the classroom next week.  I hope you all have a great weekend.  Here is Parker's post for this week.

Dear All,

I am writing as I finish up the last of my two solo weeks in Tom’s room. It has been no less than a truly wonderful experience––I’ve been honored to teach your children these past two weeks. Thanks to each of you for your wonderful kids.

In Math this week, first graders completed the Number Corner Assesssment 3 on Tuesday and Wednesday, which reviewed students’ number sense, time telling, and the geometry we have covered so far. On Thursday and Friday, we returned to addition and subtraction, working on addition skill of “Making 10 and some more”, e.g., 8+4=(8+2)+2. Students have been exploring problems like this with adult or baby penguins, which has been enjoyable for all. Mad Minute continues, with each student, again, making progress. I am amazed at how each student’s computational fluency is increasing day by day.

In Writing, students learned a new skill to add more details to their information books: assuming the role of a curious reader by asking questions of their topic, and then answering these questions in their writing. Students focused on volume in their writing––looking to stretch their capacity to produce lots of details and elaborating on their topics. I told them that I had read that six, seven and eight-year olds can produce a five page booklet in one day of writing, and they took that challenge head on! They produced volumes of work, which we shared at the end of Writing on Wednesday. Tom will continue this unit next week, when students will learn more techniques to structure their writing through chapters and tables of contents. This has been a great opportunity for each student to share their expert knowledge––indeed, they are each an expert on something!

I have been reading “Juana and Lucas”, an illustrated chapter book about a girl growing up in Bogota, Colombia, as a class read aloud this spring. On Wednesday, we started a project inspired by Juana’s illustration of her father—a hand-drawn portrait of him accompanied by all the things she finds special about him. Students chose someone special in their life, outside of school, about whom they care a lot, and illustrated this person, and wrote details about the things that make this person special. Students will take this work home today. They turned out really well––and this was meaningful for many students to think about.

I will be in Tom’s room next week, helping out here and there, as well as visiting some other classrooms before I leave WES for the year on April 15. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the school year.

Best,

Parker

Ms Figdor's Math Update:

This week in second grade math we explored polygons. We discovered that shapes are named by their attributes. This week we took a deeper look at triangles and quadrilaterals. We learned that all triangles have three sides, three angles, and three vertices. However, even with these common attributes triangles can look different. They can also be described and named by the length of their sides and the size of their angles. For example, a triangle with no equal sides is called a scalene triangle, a triangle with two equal sides is called an isosceles triangle, and a triangle with all equal sides is called an equilateral triangle. We sorted triangles and quadrilaterals by these attributes. For example, quadrilaterals with right angles versus those with none. During the number corner this month we will be exploring fractions and building fluency with our addition and subtraction facts. Next week during math we will focus on area and learn how to find the area of various polygons.

Good Morning,

As you know, Parker is conducting his solo teaching this week and next. I asked him to write the blog entry over these next two weeks. There is also an update from Ms. Figdor and her 2nd grade math class.    -Mr. Young

Ms. Ashley, our loved school counselor announced to the class
that she will be leaving us at the end of the school year.  She was
a fabulous opportunity at her own children's school and 5 minutes
from her house.

Hi all,
I am writing after wrapping up the first of my two solo weeks in Mr. Young’s room! This was a productive, fun-filled week––and I’m looking forward to next week already.

In Writing, students continued work on their informational books. This is a particularly exciting writing unit as it gives kids the ability to express their vast knowledge of their favorite topics. We have experts writing about how to make maple syrup, how to take care of chickens, all the types of venomous snakes in the world…the list goes on. In particular, we focused on planning these books: how to plan our topic––and the subtopics it comprises––across our fingers. Students also worked on sketching their book across several pages to develop the organization of their piece. Next week, these books will take greater shape and structure as we learn about the Table of Contents as a text feature.

In Math, first graders continued their work on fractions unit on Monday, playing a game of Fraction Bingo. Students are developing their awareness of fraction sizes, names and shapes, and fraction bingo challenges students to recognize various fractions, label them, and of course, win a game of bingo. On Tuesday we took our Unit 5 Assessment. For the rest of the week, we have turned back to our geometry work. Students are working on recognizing, naming, and comparing two-dimensional shapes and their attributes. A highlight has been playing “Guess My Shape”, where students are given a set of clues to be able to identify a mystery shape. Our daily Mad Minute practice continues at the end of each math lesson; there has been great progress made by each student on this front.

On Friday, we saw the cast of the HUHS musical perform some of the songs from their upcoming show, “Freaky Friday”. This was a great way to end the week, and fun to have all the students at Waitsfield in the same room together for the second (!) time all year.

"This week in second grade math we began a unit on geometry. Students learned a new game where they had to use different polygons (triangles, rhombuses, trapezoids,and hexagons) to fill a space. We read a book entitled “The Greedy Triangle” about a triangle that was unsatisfied with being a triangle and went on an adventure adding sides and becoming other polygons.This book helped us identify and name shapes with up to ten sides. In addition, students explored ways the triangle could have changed without adding an extra side. Next week students will explore specific attributes of each of the two dimensional shapes with up to ten sides."-Ms. Figdor

Reminders:
April showers have come in full force! Boots are essential for the mud on the playground. We’ve also had a few yard-sales in the mud at recess time, so an extra pair of pants can be helpful to pack.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend with your children.
Mr. Cadwell