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