January 30, 2026

 I hope you have all had a great week. There is a thought (in education) that momentum is an important factor when teaching kids. January's weather and holidays have certainly put that thought to the test. I am looking forward to moving on to February and hopefully what will lead to three solid weeks of learning before our winter break.

Step right up! Our classroom has officially transformed into a center of wonder as we begin our immersive unit on the circus. This curriculum, which I developed over the summer, serves as the foundation for our upcoming Artist in Residence program with Troy Wunderle. We kicked off the unit by exploring the historical and cultural significance of the circus "coming to town," using a blend of engaging read-alouds and informational media to build a shared knowledge base. To document their journey, students are maintaining "Circus Journals" to capture new facts and personal reflections. This week, we tapped into our artistic side by analyzing vintage circus posters and designing our own advertisements for our February performance. The energy in the room is electric—further amplified by having Mr. Hubbard’s class join us for these collaborative lessons—and we can’t wait to share the students' hard work with you during our open house on performance night! If you would like to learn more about Troy, check out his website here.

This week, our math classes focused on building a strong visual and conceptual understanding of number relationships. The first graders dove into the world of relative magnitude, using 0–100 number lines to visualize how numbers relate to one another; they practiced identifying that numbers to the right represent "more," while those to the left represent "fewer," helping them grasp the physical distance between values like 20 and 80. Simultaneously, they sharpened their skip-counting skills by 5s and 10s to navigate these larger scales with ease. Meanwhile, the second graders expanded their fractional thinking by exploring the concepts of halves and wholes. They moved beyond simple identification to analyze relative size, determining whether specific numbers were "more than" or "less than" half of a given total, which strengthens their foundational number sense for more complex operations ahead.

This week's read a loud's focused on the author Audrey Wood. We did get to the stories Piggies and the Napping House. Unfortunately we lost two of our read a loud times to weather and one to the time constraints with the winter program. If you would like to listen to the other books (that we didn't get to) please check out the list below and the links.  These books are also available in our classroom library. 

Quick As A Cricket

Silly Sally

Little Penguin's Tale

This week's writing focus led us to our 2nd lesson in our persuasive writing unit.  All of the January events (mentioned at the start) had caused us to miss a chunk of writing time. It was great to get back into it.  The kids picked up with their favorite toy discussion and chipped away at trying to convince me why. We will use these as anchor pieces as we elaborate and expand our learning and work.  

NOTES:

*Your child does have their Weekly News Journal in their homework bag. Please take a look at it and talk with your child about their entry. 

*We will have the winter sports program this Wednesday. Please make sure your child has all of their gear. This group has been exceptional at getting ready and helping each other. It might be my most efficient group ever!

*The kindergarten class is collecting paper towel and toilet paper tubes. Please send them in if you gather any over the next two weeks.  

That is all for now.  I hope you all have a great weekend. Please stay warm and enjoy the snow.  

Peace, 

Mr. Young

January 16, 2025

It has been a busy week full of learning and community moments. The students have had a full week and many have persevered through illnesses and feeling a bit tired. I think the long weekend is coming at the perfect time. 

Winter Sports & Important Dates

The students had a wonderful second week of the Winter Sports Program. This group is becoming incredibly efficient at getting ready, and it is heartwarming to see so many students helping others with their boots—such kindness!

Please keep in mind that there is no school this coming Monday and Tuesday. Our first day back will be a ski day, so please ensure your child arrives with appropriate warm clothing and all required gear. Additionally, if you haven’t yet sent a photo of your child with their collection or three favorite things, please email that to me at your earliest convenience.

Curriculum Highlights

• Reading: We enjoyed a week of "Bears! Bears! Bears!" Our read-alouds included favorites like Bear Snores On, Bear Says Thanks, and The Berenstain Bears' New Pup. It was a treat to have so many student bear stuffies joining us for stories each day.

• Writing: The class dove into persuasive writing. Using a collection of stuffed animals, students voted for the "best" one, formed teams, and wrote pieces explaining their choice to convince others.

• Science: We welcomed Luke for his final visit of the unit. Students experimented with animal pelts, water, and various seeds to see how they travel through the environment. While students are currently finishing their final unit assessments and posters, we are happy to share that Luke will return in the spring to work with us on erosion.

• Math: Our 1st graders practiced doubles and near-doubles facts, explored number lines, and created their own story problems. Meanwhile, our 2nd graders completed their end-of-unit assessment and practiced skip-counting by threes.

Community Moments

On Monday, we hosted a visitor from the Barre Vocational Center who is exploring a career in teaching. She spent the day observing our community and even joined us for read-aloud time.

We also want to celebrate our Student of the Week! He is a 7-year-old 2nd grader who loves the color orange, watermelon, and the Fly Guy series. He enjoys traveling to Florida to play in the sand and dreams of being a Formula 1 racer one day. We are so proud of him!

NOTE:

As part of our upcoming classroom activities, I am still looking for a few more photos of the students with their special collections or three favorite things.

If you haven’t had a chance to send one in yet, please email a digital photo to me at your earliest convenience. The kids really enjoy sharing these personal items with their peers, and we want to make sure everyone is included!

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I hope you all have a restful long weekend. Thank you for your ongoing partnership.

Peace,

Mr. Young

PS:  With a short week upcoming, there will be no blog post next week.

Welcome Back and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope you had a wonderful December and were able to enjoy some restorative family time. It was lovely to spend the holidays with my own daughters and extended family. It has been a week of transitions in my household: my oldest daughter headed back to New York, and my youngest just left for a semester in Madrid this past Wednesday. I am already looking forward to visiting her during our April break!

Back in the classroom, we hit the ground running with a focus on fresh starts and community. Here is a look at what we’ve been up to during our first week of 2026:

Our read-a-louds this week all centered on the theme of New Year’s and the idea of a "refocus." I took this opportunity to remind the students of our overarching class goal from the start of the year: "Thinking of Others." To bring this goal to life, each student created their own personal New Year’s Resolution centered on how they can help us achieve that classroom mission. Their resolutions are now proudly displayed on our walls! Our literary inspiration came from:

Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution
Carter and the New Year’s Resolution
The New Year's Resolution Checklist
The Night Before New Year’s

Math Highlights
We dove right back into our numbers this week with some targeted skills practice:
1st Grade: Students focused on complements of 10 and 20. They also practiced their "detective skills" by finding missing addends and subtrahends in both addition and subtraction equations.

2nd Grade: The focus shifted to fractional parts. We also spent time playing a math game that challenged students to use doubles and "doubles +/- 10s and 1s" to solve problems quickly.
Science & Exploration
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Today, we had a fantastic science session with Luke. We explored the world of nocturnal animals, specifically investigating which creatures are active at night right here in our own schoolyard habitat. The students will start working on their assessment posters next week.

STUDENT of the WEEK:

This week's Student of the Week is pictured here. This 2nd grader joined our classroom in October. She is 8 years old. She has a brother and a sister who also go to Waitsfield. Her favorite colors are pink, purple and blue. She also loves celebrating holidays. Her favorite thing to do is to paint pictures.  She also just loves school. Her favorite foods are watermelon and celery. She wants to be an art teacher when she grows up.

ACTION ITEMS:

Please take note of the following two things as they are pertinent to work we will be doing next week. 

1. Next week's read-a-louds will all focus on books about bears. I thought it would be fun to allow the kids to snuggle with their own bear stuffy as I read the books next week. They are welcome to bring them in and leave them for the week (if they wish).  

2. As we dive into our persuasive writing unit, I will need the students to identify a collection of their own (toys, cards, hair bands, etc.) and to take a picture of the favorite three things from that collection. If you could take a picture of your kid with each item and dump them in this folder, the students will use these as prompts for their writing. 

NOTES:

*The students will always bring home their homework bags on Tuesdays (of a ski week). Please make sure they bring them back on Wednesdays. If your child uses a ski bag and not their backpack, please make sure to slide the bag into their ski bag. I will not send homework bags home on the Wednesdays we ski.

*I did have the students all bring home their sneakers over break. If your child wants to leave a pair at school, they can do so. A few kids forgot sneakers this week.

*The students had a very successful Winter Sports Program this week. The weather was great and there were lots of fun stories the next day. We are very fortunate to have the PTA fund this, the many volunteers who make the mountain visit possible and Kaiya and Susan who put in a ton of time and help it run so smoothly.  

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

Peace,

Mr. Young

Ski Phots by: Photos by Kintz