December 14th, 2017

Good Afternoon,
  I am going to write one post for this week.  It will be rather lengthy but please read through the whole thing.  Several of my 2nd graders have asked that we do Secret Pals again this year.  The purpose of this event is to celebrate each other and enjoy the idea of trying to surprise a friend.  Today, in your child's homework bag, there will be a yellow note for you to read and sign your child up.  The note MUST be returned by tomorrow.  I will use our Art time tomorrow to create a list of each other's Secret Pals and send home a note with your child's Secret Pal. 

  Yesterday, my friend from India, Ajay led the class in a yoga session.  I have to say it was absolutely amazing.  He led them through a variety of poses and was impressed with their knowledge of so many yoga poses.  For me, I was thrilled that they got this opportunity.  What was great was the excitement by both the students and Ajay.  We will try and do this again in January. 

  Wednesday afternoon, we finally finished our map work with town, state, country, continent, and world.  Next week the kids will present their understanding to each other. I am hoping to record a presentation or two so that you all can see the work that they have been doing. 

  We have been using read a loud time to study a particular author or illustrator.  Last week we read a lot of Lauren Castillo book.  This week we have been reading books by Tomie De Paola.  One of the books we read was Pancakes For Breakfast.   The class has decided that we need to have a pancake breakfast.  We will do this on the last day of school before vacation.  Please go to this link to sign up to with food, plates, or drinks.  I will provide the pancakes.  This will be better than having a "sugary party" on the last day.   

That is all for now.

Have a great weekend.

Peace,
Tommy

December 8, 2017

Good Afternoon.  We finally finished up the video for our project that has us helping Ella from Harwood.  Take a look at the video below.  It truly is a product of the kids work and they created everything you see (with the exception of the last slide).  In order to finish this work, we postponed our literature/reading time today.



Enjoy your weekend.
Tommy

December 4th, 2017

Good Afternoon,
  I hope this find all of you well and rested as we head into the blur we call December.  It is hard enough to believe that we flew through November so quickly.
Last week we had a visit form local author Lou Bevaqui. He shared his book and used games and art activities, to introduce the concept of emotional self-awareness. Lou was able to really connect with the kids, drawing from them their thoughts and ideas, and making it fun so they could learn without ever realizing it!

Lou and the children used art and descriptions and their five senses to explore various emotions. They were were introduced to the idea that these emotions do not define them (“I am angry”). Rather, the emotions are something they “feel,” and feelings change. Lou ended by introducing the children to ways they change how they feel.

Here is a description of Lou’s book and message:

Sarah’s day leads her into one emotional storm after another. Can Sarah weather these storms and find ways to turn her day around? Vibrantly illustrated, Changing Your Weather is intended to help children and their parents identify and understand their emotions, increase their emotional self-awareness and create mental tools that allow them to choose the way they want to feel. When children learn language and tools to identify and govern their emotions they become more attuned with what is going on both inside and outside of them. The fun glossary and journal included in this book provide tools to enable parents and their children to interact as they build these important skills.

You can learn more about Lou at: http://loubevacqui.com/

  Today we headed to Moretown to hear from Sam Drazin.  He is a person who deals with  Treacher Collins syndrome.  You may have heard of the new movie out or read the book Wonder.  The main character deals with the same syndrome.  Here is a link to hear more about Sam.  

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

Tommy

Last week's Estimation Winner!

November 21, 2017

Good Afternoon,
   A bit of a whirlwind two days.  Yesterday Ella Gannon, a sophomore at Harwood and one of my basketball players, visited our classroom.  Ella will be headed to Kenya in January with her family.  Her dad and uncle are doctors and will do some work in a clinic there.  Ella will be working with students in a prek-2 grade school.  Ella talked to the class about why she goes and what she hopes to accomplish.  She has asked for our help.  She would like to fill a backpack full of pencils (ones with fun designs), colored pencils, chalk and stickers.  Her goal is to distribute these items to the students during her visit.  After our break, the class will create a presentation and enlist the help of the entire Waitsfield School.  Stay tuned for more details.

  Today the students finished their Thanksgiving writes.  This is one of maybe two activities that I repeat each year.  I feel it is important to have the students reflect on how much they have in their lives and how fortunate they are.  Look for their Turkey themed writings today.

  I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I am looking forward to a little down time and some needed time with family.  I know that I am truly thankful and fortunate to teach in such a great community and for that I am grateful.

Peace,
Tommy

November 17, 2017

Good Afternoon,

  I hope you all had a great week.  We spent Wednesday afternoon looking at maps.  The point of the exercise was to learn about some geography terms, identify our town, state, country, continent, and world, and to identify that their is water in many places.  We didn't have time to complete our all of the work and will continue the week after next.  This will lead us toward the science concept of erosion and how water has impacted the shape of many land forms.

  Yesterday morning, we had a visit form three members of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.  They were three string players that go by the name Fiddlesticks.  They took time to explain and demonstrate some of the instruments that they play.  They then treated the students to a variety of songs and got the crowd involved too.

  The students spent time today writing in their Weekly News journals.  Please take time to respond.  There are a couple of kids that need a few more minutes to finish their writing at home over the weekend.  Thank you in advance for your help with this.

NOTES:
*Please make sure all of your child's winter gear has their name written somewhere on or in it.  It makes it easier to get it back to them if they drop something in transit.

*There is reading homework over the weekend.  Everyone has something they should read a a few have some questions to answer too.

Have a great weekend.

Peace,


Tommy

November 13, 2017

Good Afternoon,
  I want to start by thanking everyone for the help with the ski and skate sale.  Once again the PTA was able to exceed their expectations.  I find the whole process to be both amazing and incredibly beneficial on so many levels. 

  Today we continued writing our letters to our pen-pals.  Most kids are on their final revisions.  We hope to get those in the mail this week.  We also started a new read a loud titled Stuart's Cape.  "Stuart's got problems. It's raining. He's bored. And worst of all, he's new in town, so he's got a lot to worry about. What does a kid like Stuart need in order to have an adventure? A cape, of course!" I can't wait to find out how Stuart tackles his boredom.

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

Peace,
Tommy

November 10, 2017

Good Afternoon,
  I would like to start by wishing any and all of you who have served a Happy Veteran's Day and thank you for your service.  I have two brothers who are both Marines and truly appreciate what comes with being a member of our armed services. 

  This week we received our first letters from our pen-pals.  Once again, our pen-pals will be from Mr. Thurston's 1st & 2nd grade at Thatcher Brook Primary School.  We read through the letters and I asked the students to highlight any questions that were asked of them.  We then came up with other criteria that would need to be include in their responses.  We will try to meet up with our pen-pals at least twice this year as well as write a few letters to each other. 

  In science, we continued to focus on our fist unit of the changing Earth.  The 1st lesson had us focusing on maps and directional points.  We will expand on this notion next week as Mr. Mongeon and I work with them on terms such as town, state, country, continent, oceans, lakes, rivers & compass rose.  I am rewriting each science unit to meet my satisfaction and to maximize your child's learning and engagement.  I am also trying to weave in parts of the new social studies curriculum to be able to cover the topics that are being asked of us.  Our next unit  of study will be States of Matter and Local Traditions.  I am looking at developing a uni that focuses on the sugaring process.  More to come on this.

NOTES: 

*Ski and Skate Sale this weekend.

*Your child has reading homework this weekend.  Please take a small moment from your weekend to have them complete their tasks.

Have a great weekend.

Peace,
Tommy