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 HighlightsWe 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.
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
