October 23, 2026

We had another wonderful week in 1st and 2nd grade! It was especially nice to have such pleasant autumn weather for our outdoor recess times this week, giving the kids plenty of fresh air and active time together. Here is a look at what our class worked on this past week.

1st Grade Math: Addition Within 10, Counting On, & Doubles

In 1st grade math, students focused on addition facts within 10, practicing the strategy of counting on from the largest number when solving unknown equations. We used dominoes to visually support this strategy, and today the kids were introduced to doubles facts and played a game to practice them. Learning to count on from the larger number and recognizing doubles facts are essential stepping stones for math development, as they help children transition from basic counting by ones to flexible mental math strategies.

2nd Grade Math: Friendly Numbers, Doubles, & Plus 10 / Minus 1

Our 2nd graders solved equations by combining doubles facts with "plus 10" and "minus 1" strategies, introduced through the concept of a "friendly number" (like 10). Utilizing friendly numbers and derived-fact strategies deepens students' understanding of number relationships and place value. These mental models allow children to break complex multi-digit calculations down into simpler, more efficient steps.

Writing Workshop: Stretching Words & Word Wall Tools

In writing workshop, our lessons focused on phonics, spelling, and stretching out words aloud to hear and record each individual sound on paper. We also reviewed how to use our classroom Word Wall as an independent resource when spelling high-frequency words. These foundational habits empower young writers to express their thoughts on paper with growing independence and confidence.

Global Read Aloud & Writing: After the Fall

For this week's Global Read Aloud, we read After the Fall (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again) by Dan Santat. This inspiring story follows Humpty Dumpty after his famous fall as he struggles with a newfound fear of heights, ultimately finding the courage to face his anxiety and transform into something extraordinary. The book highlights the vital importance of resilience, perseverance, and having the willingness to pick yourself up and try again after a setback. After our reading, the children wrote personal pieces about a time they experienced a "fall" and chose to pick themselves back up—these meaningful stories are coming home today in their homework bags!

Civics Unit: Change-Makers & Classroom Action Project

In our civics unit, we had a special guest speaker on Thursday! Jen Peterson visited our class to share how everyday people can become powerful change-makers. Almost 17 years ago, Jen collaborated with Kaiya to bring the Everybody Wins! literacy mentoring program to our school. Inspired by her story, our students identified a classroom "action project" that we will be working on together as a group to make a positive impact in our school.

Flat Stanley Travels Update

We received exciting updates from Flat Ellie and Flat Sariah this week! Both completed journeys to various towns in Massachusetts, with adventures that included a thrilling go-kart ride, relaxing time at the beach, and plenty of delicious food!

Halloween & Seasonal Schedule Note

Teachers across the nation are celebrating a rare milestone this year: Halloween falls on a Saturday! (It practically brings tears of joy to my eyes as I write this!). As a reminder, our school does not hold Halloween parties or wear costumes. Next week, I will be reading several seasonal read-alouds and will provide a small treat during Friday work time, but Friday will remain a regular instructional day. Additionally, on Wednesday afternoon, we will join our 5th & 6th grade buddy classroom to carve pumpkins, which serves as our school's contribution to the local community's Saturday festivities.

Notes:

*Weekly News Journal: Your child has their Weekly News Journal in their homework bag today. Please review their entry together, read the note inside the cover, initial it, and return the journal in their bag on Monday.

*Backpack Clean-Out: With the changing season, now is a great time to go through your child's backpack and clean out unnecessary items. They will soon need plenty of extra space for winter hats, gloves, and boots!

That is all for this week. I do hope you all have a great weekend.

Peace,

Mr. Young

October 16, 2026

As the leaves fall, the days seem to follow—I can't believe we are already halfway through October! Our students continue to bring steady focus and great effort into the classroom every day. Their work habits are strong, and it is wonderful to see them navigating our daily academic routines with such independence and care.

Writing Workshop: Small Moment Personal Narratives


In writing, students started their second 'small moment' personal narrative story. We are really homing in on capturing a tiny moment and 'exploding' it with vivid details on our pages. I introduced a few graphic organizers to help students with their writing preparation and to help generate ideas to focus on.

As part of their pre-writing routine, students are learning to tap across blank pages and tell their story aloud before writing a single word. This pre-writing process helps young authors map out a clear beginning, middle, and end while ensuring they know enough about their event to write in detail rather than rushing through the action.

Ask your child: "What small moment story are you exploding on your pages in writing right now?"

1st Grade Math: Dominoes, Fact Families, and Number Bonds

First graders focused on dominoes, fact families, and number bonds through a variety of hands-on math games. Working with dominoes, number bonds,and fact families reinforces how numbers can be composed and decomposed in multiple ways. This deepens part-whole visual understanding and builds a strong foundation for mental addition and subtraction fluency.

2nd Grade Math: Linear Measurement, 200s Chart, and Bundling
Second graders worked on linear measurements, navigating the 200s chart, and bundling numbers for multi-digit addition. Working with linear measurements and 200s charts helps students visualize number distance and place value relationships across larger numbers. Bundling numbers into tens and hundreds provides a concrete strategy for multi-digit mental math and addition efficiency.

Literature & Art Project: Leaf Characters
For our literature project, we re-read Fletcher and the Falling Leaves, a sweet story about a young fox who worries when his favorite tree loses its leaves in autumn, only to be surprised by its magical winter transformation. Afterward, students went outside to find their own perfect fall leaf, brought it back to the classroom, and transformed it into a magical leaf person, character, or animal. They finished the project by writing about their leaf creation. I have to say they turned out so cute! You can check them out on the bulletin board right outside our classroom door.

Social Studies & Civics: Everyday Change-Makers

In social studies, students watched a message from Kid President about young people solving problems by coming up with creative solutions of their own. We also read The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade to see how an everyday student can speak up and solve a big problem at school, reinforcing the idea that you don't have to be famous to make a difference. Today, students read about everyday people whose decisions made them historical change-makers.

Ask your child: "Who was the historical change-maker you researched today during our online read-alouds?"

Read-Aloud Spotlight
• I Say Ooh, You Say Aah: An interactive story that naturally encourages group participation as students respond to silly visual rules and cues throughout the read.

• Dog vs. Strawberry: A funny tale exploring a dog's curious and determined encounter with an unfamiliar garden strawberry.

• Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!: An interactive classic where the pigeon tries to persuade the audience to let him drive, prompting enthusiastic group participation as the class sets firm boundaries.

Flat Stanley Travels Update
Flat Stella and Flat Olive have returned from their exciting travels in Miami, Florida, and Needham, Massachusetts! Flat Olive enjoyed her time visiting her uncle and his 4th-grade class It appears she may have even eaten part of a student's lunch! Meanwhile, Flat Stella enjoyed some time in the weight room, spent time at the track with horses, and enjoyed a sunny day at the beach. We are so excited to see where our Flat Stanleys travel next!

Notes & Reminders
• Weekly News Journal: Your child brought home their Weekly News Journal in their homework bag today. Please read the note inside the cover, review your child's writing, initial it, and send the journal back in their bag on Monday.

• Clothing Reminder: As autumn temperatures drop and wet weather sets in, please make sure your child brings a jacket, sweatshirt, or a raincoat to school every day so they stay warm and dry during outdoor recess and fresh-air breaks.

• PTA Ski & Skate Sale: The annual PTA Ski and Skate Sale is an important upcoming event that helps fund so many wonderful projects, initiatives, and events for our students. I would love to see every family from our classroom sign up to help in some form. I am doing my usual Friday night shift—a tradition I've held for many years and look forward to every November! You can

sign up for a volunteer shift that works for you by clicking this sign-up link

That is all for now. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Peace,

Mr. Young

October 9, 2026

I hope everyone had a great week. It is amazing how fast time goes by! Here is a look at what our class worked on this past week.

1st Grade Math: Dominoes, Fact Families, and Comparisons
In 1st grade math, our focus was on dominoes, fact families, and comparing numbers using greater than (>), less than (<), and equal to (=) signs. Understanding fact families helps children see how addition and subtraction are directly connected rather than separate skills. Practicing with comparison signs and visual domino models builds strong number sense and prepares students for more complex math reasoning down the road.

2nd Grade Math: Base Ten Concepts and 3-Digit Numbers
Our 2nd graders focused on base ten concepts, learning what each digit represents in a 3-digit number and solving base ten math riddles. Mastering place value with hundreds, tens, and ones is essential for building a solid foundation for multi-digit addition and subtraction. Working through math riddles also gives students a fun way to practice flexible problem-solving and mental math.

Writing Workshop: Small Moment Personal Narratives
In writing workshop, we officially started our personal narrative unit on "small moment" stories. I am teaching the students how to zoom in on a single, specific event rather than trying to write about a huge topic. We use the visual of a watermelon to contrast a big general topic—like "my vacation"—with a tiny watermelon seed story, such as "splashing in the pool with my cousin."

Before writing, students physically touch each page of their blank booklet and tell their story out loud, planning out a clear beginning, middle, and end. This habit helps them sequence their ideas and ensures they stretch their story across the whole book. Focusing on that tiny seed moment allows them to capture real details, actions, and feelings from a specific memory.

Ask your child: "What watermelon seed story are you telling across your pages in writing workshop right now?"

Global Read Aloud: The Adventures of Beekle
Our classroom has joined classrooms around the world for the Global Read Aloud, a six-week program where we are exploring books by author and illustrator Dan Santat. This week, we read his Caldecott Medal-winning book, The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend. The story follows an imaginary friend who leaves his island to find his real-world friend.

After reading, the kids created their own imaginary friends and wrote short stories about the adventures they would share. Their artwork and writing are now displayed on the bulletin board outside our classroom! Moving forward, Mr. Mongeon and I will collaborate each week to read the next book and lead a connected project.

Civics: Exploring Community Helpers
In civics, we focused on community helpers and read the book Whose Hands Are These?. To give the students a firsthand look at how helpers support communities, Nurse Aubrey joined our class via video call from Moretown School to talk about her role in keeping students healthy and safe.

NOTES:
*Since we had Friday off, I did not send home Weekly News Journals this weekend.

*Please try and make sure your child reads, is read to, or jointly reads a book each night. It is amazing how these minutes of reading add up and the success kids have because of it.

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

Peace,
Mr. Young

October 2, 2026

I hope you are all enjoying the wonderful start of October! The autumn colors across our community have been absolutely spectacular this week. Inside our classroom, we are officially in full swing with our academic learning, and our students are continuing to show incredible focus and growth. There is a beautiful magic happening in our classroom right now. It is incredible to watch them put their absolute best foot forward every morning, stepping into each day with growing confidence, eager minds, and a wonderful sense of community.

1st Grade Math: Complements of 10, Story Problems & Graphing

Our 1st grade math students focused on finding complements of 10, solving story problems, and playing an interactive graphing game where they collected and interpreted their own data. Developing fluency with complements of 10 and solving story problems lays the groundwork for algebraic thinking and flexible mental computation. Interpreting self-collected graphing data connects abstract mathematical concepts to real-world contexts while building foundational statistics skills.

2nd Grade Math: Open Number Lines & 100 Charts

Our 2nd graders focused on utilizing open number lines and 100 charts as tools for both addition and subtraction. Using open number lines and 100 charts provides students with powerful visual models to understand distance between numbers, place value, and jump strategies. These flexible mental models deepen numerical fluency and prepare students for complex multi-digit computation.

Writing & Upcoming Narrative Unit

In writing, students continued crafting structured paragraphs and applying their editing checklists to refine their work. It has been wonderful to see their self-monitoring editing habits develop. Next week, we are excited to kick off our new personal narrative writing unit, where students will learn to tell engaging true stories from their own lives!

Open House & Flat Stanley Adventures

It was great to see all of you at this year's Open House! I hope your child was a wonderful tour guide, as I always love seeing the genuine excitement they have when showing you what they do every day. 

We also launched our Flat Stanley projects this week! The children wrote personal notes to their selected recipients, carefully addressed their envelopes, and mailed them on Wednesday. We are thrilled to track each Flat Stanley's travels on our classroom map. As each Flat Stanley returns, I will send home a new form so your child can select a new destination!

Civics & Our Class Charter

As part of our social studies civics unit, our students collaboratively created a Class Charter—a shared poster that describes how everyone wants to feel when they come to school each day. Grounded in our classroom expectations, the core words our students chose are feeling valued, safe, calm, accepted, and practicing acts of kindness. This living document helps hold all of us accountable to our actions and words, ensuring our classroom remains a warm and supportive community.

Read-Aloud Spotlight

• Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn: A gentle, beautifully illustrated journey of a young girl walking through the woods and town to greet the subtle signs of changing seasons.

• Fall Mixed Up: A silly, imaginative rhyming story where autumn traditions and nature get hilariously jumbled, encouraging children to spot the funny mistakes.

• The Biggest Apple Ever: Clayton and Desmond work together in a spirit of true cooperation to harvest apples and bake the largest apple pie ever for their school contest.

• The Circles All Around Us: A heartwarming story showing how simple acts of kindness, inclusion, and empathy expand our personal circles to connect us with the wider world.

Classroom Volunteers:

The classroom volunteer schedules will start next week. Below is the schedule: Each session will start promptly at the listed time. I appreciate that so many have the ability to do this. If you see an opening that you would like, please let me know.

Notes & Reminders

• Weekly News Journal: Your child has brought home their Weekly News Journal in their homework bag. Please take a look at their entry together, read their writing, and initial the inside cover. I hope this provides a meaningful way to connect about an event from your child's week at school! Please return it in their bag on Monday.

• Cooler Weather Gear: As the autumn weather cools down, please ensure your child brings a warm jacket or sweatshirt to school every day for outdoor recess and fresh-air breaks.

That is all for now. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Peace,

Mr. Young

September 25, 2026

Our students have had an incredible week! The children have truly mastered our daily classroom routines, and we are now in full swing with our academic learning. Their dedication, focus, and stamina during independent and small-group work time have been remarkable as we dive deeper into our grade-level units.

School Fall Hike Reflection
Our entire school went on a fall hike today, and the weather was absolutely spectacular. The children did a fantastic job completing their hikes and were thrilled with their accomplishments. Turning back and looking down the hill as the kids climbed up against such an incredible backdrop certainly reminded me how lucky we are to live and learn in such a wonderful place.

1st Grade Math: Part-Part-Whole & Combinations to 10
In 1st grade math, students completed Unit 1, Module 3 (Sessions 1, 2, and 3) of the Bridges curriculum. Our work focused on part-part-whole relationships, combinations of 10, and solving missing-addend problems using number racks, ten-frames, and coin-spinning games. These concepts are foundational for early math learning because understanding how numbers decompose and relate to one another builds mental math flexibility, moving children away from simple counting by ones toward addition and subtraction fluency.

2nd Grade Math: Complements of 10, Doubles, & Near-Doubles
Our 2nd graders focused on developing fluency with complements of 10 as well as doubles and near-doubles addition facts. Students used visual arrays and mental strategies to quickly recognize pairs that make 10 and leveraged known doubles (such as 6 + 6 = 12) to efficiently solve near-doubles problems (such as 6 + 7 = 13). Mastering complements of 10 and doubles provides crucial mental benchmarks, allowing students to decompose and reconstruct multi-digit numbers flexibly in higher-level mathematics.

Classroom Community: Responsive Classroom Logical Consequences
This week, we introduced the three core logical consequences from the Responsive Classroom framework: You Break It, You Fix It, Loss of Privilege, and Take A Break. We discussed how and why these consequences are used in our classroom. These are not punishments, but are supportive boundaries that help us repair mistakes and regain self-control. We also emphasized that our classroom rules apply to everyone, including Mr. Young. We discussed how it is never positive or fair when someone believes the rules do not apply to them, and how shared accountability keeps our community safe and respectful.

Civics: Defining Community & Human Rights

In civics, our unit focused on defining what a community is and identifying the various communities we belong to both in and out of school. Using a book published by UNICEF, we explored the fundamental human rights that all children share. The class had rich discussions about what it means to respect the rights of others and how honored rights help every community member thrive.

Read-Aloud Spotlight
Our read-aloud time featured four engaging, thought-provoking stories:

We Don't Eat Our Classmates: Penelope Rex is excited to start school, but she discovers it is hard to make friends when your classmates are delicious human children. After a funny role-reversal lesson from the class goldfish, Penelope learns empathy and how to treat her peers with care.

Leonardo, the Terrible Monster: Leonardo tries his best to be scary, but he just cannot seem to frighten anyone no matter how hard he tries. When he meets Sam, Leonardo realizes that being a wonderful, supportive friend is much better than being a terrible monster.

Creepy Carrots!: Jasper Rabbit loves eating carrots from Crackenhopper Field until he starts noticing spooky carrots following him everywhere he goes. In a clever twist, Jasper builds a fence around the field to keep the carrots in, while the carrots celebrate keeping Jasper out.

The Capybaras: When a family of capybaras seeks safety on a farm, the chickens enforce strict rules and keep their distance from the wild newcomers. Over time, mutual kindness and shared experiences break down prejudices, showing how opening our hearts enriches the entire community.

Puppets In Education:
This past Wednesday, our students had a wonderful time watching a special presentation from Puppets in Education! Through interactive storytelling, songs, and movement, puppet characters like Hermie the Hermit Crab helped our class explore important social emotional skills like building resilience, managing anxiety, and handling big life changes—just like Hermie learning to adapt when outgrowing his shell. It was a fantastic experience that gave our kids fun, relatable tools for navigating new challenges, growing their emotional confidence, and showing empathy to one another.

To build on what we learned, I also read the class the story The Magical Yet, which explores how we can overcome challenges through a growth mindset. Afterward, the kids created their very own paper hermit crabs and wrote down a personal goal inside their crab's shell to represent something they are working hard to achieve!

NOTES:
*Parent Volunteers Schedule will start October 5th. Below is the schedule and slots that are still available. Please let me know if you want to sign up for a spot.

*Your child has their Weekly News Journal in their homework bag. Please read their entry and initial it.

*FLAT STANLEY: In your child’s homework bag, you will find a sheet about our FLat Stanley project that starts next Wednesday. If you could please read it, fill it out, and send it back Monday, that would be great.

That is all for now. I hope everyone has a great weekend. I am headed to the North Shore of Boston for a Family Weekend at Abby’s college. I am thinking it might be a little wet and windy!

Peace,

Mr. Young

September 18, 2026

We have had a wonderful week! The children are doing exceptionally well with their daily classroom routines, and they continue to be super focused during their work time. Alongside our academic learning, we have focused on kindness, friendship, and how the two are deeply intertwined. We discussed how small acts of kindness nurture lasting friendships and help build a supportive, caring classroom community.

1st Grade Math: Tallying, Numeral Writing, and Missing Addends

In 1st grade math, our learning centered on students working through the concept of determining missing addends and amounts taken away when starting with a given number of dots. They also worked on finding ten and some more with numbers ranging from 10-20. The students also used the greater than and less than notations in a card game with these numbers. These activities are essential for early math development because they build subitizing skills, reinforce proper numeral formation, and deepen part-part-whole reasoning, establishing a crucial foundation for addition and subtraction fluency.

2nd Grade Math: Venn Diagrams, and Data Analysis

The 2nd graders engaged with converting their Venn diagram data into picture and bar graphs and wrote mathematical comparison statements about their findings. Sorting attributes and graphing data are vital for mathematical development because they lay the groundwork for set theory, data literacy, and logical classification, while writing comparison statements teaches students to construct clear mathematical arguments grounded in data.

Language Arts & Daily 5 Assessments

In language arts, students continued practicing their independent Daily 5 routines. Having these self-monitoring routines established allowed me to conduct a variety of district-required language arts assessments individually with students while the rest of the class stayed productively engaged in meaningful literacy tasks.

Science Notebooks: Thinking Like Real Scientists

In science, our students were introduced (and for 2nd graders, re-introduced) to Science Notebooks! Science notebooks serve as a central place for young learners to record observations, track their developing ideas, and act like real scientists. They fulfill five core purposes in our classroom:

• Recording Observations: Students use drawings, labels, numbers, and simple sentences to capture what they see, predict, and discover during hands-on experiments.

• Building Scientific Thinking: Notebooks help children ask questions, test ideas, and look back at past entries to see how their thinking changes over time.

• Integrating Literacy: They support early writing and reading skills by combining science concepts with English Language Arts (ELA) through vocabulary lists, sentence frames, and reflections.

• Formative Assessment: I review the pages to understand what students comprehend, spot misconceptions, and offer guidance.

• Fostering Ownership: Keeping an organized log gives students a sense of pride and personal accountability for their learning.

To practice this process, students learned how to make a realistic diagram, label it, use a magnifying glass to zoom in on close-up details, and write "I notice..." and "I wonder..." statements. We practiced this using real apples and flowers, and these notebooks will be used across every science unit we explore this year.

Read Alouds:

Our read-aloud time focused on the arrival of autumn with four seasonal books:

• Mouse's First Fall: A sweet story following Mouse and Minka as they discover the vibrant colors, shapes, and crunchy leaf piles of autumn.

• We're Going on a Leaf Hunt: An adventurous tale of three friends hiking over mountains and through forests to collect colorful fall leaves.

• When the Leaf Blew In: A humorous chain-reaction story showing how a single blowing leaf sets off a silly sequence of events among farm animals.

• Hello Kitty, Fun Fall Day: A cheerful seasonal book following Hello Kitty and her friends as they enjoy classic fall activities outdoors (a huge hit with our classroom Hello Kitty fans!).

Everybody Wins! Literacy Mentoring

This week, Marcy Lutzky visited our classroom to introduce the Everybody Wins! literacy mentoring program. This is supported locally by the Rotary Club of the Mad River Valley, the program pairs adult community volunteers with students in grades 1–6 for one-on-one reading and relationship-building during a weekly "Power Lunch" on Tuesdays or Thursdays (11:15 AM – 12:15 PM. Mentors act as caring adult friends rather than tutors or academic testers, sharing books and conversation to build reading enthusiasm, self-confidence, and social connection. An informational page was sent home with students. If you would like your child to be considered for the program, please return the completed form by next Tuesday.

Notes & Reminders

• Weekly News Journal: Today your child will bring home their Weekly News Journal in their homework bag. It is their chance to write about something they did this week that they want to share, with the goal of working on quick paragraph writing. For some children, they will write a lot, and for others, they may only write a sentence at this point in the year. When you see the journal, take a look at the note on the inside of the cover. Then read the writing and initial it. Please have your child bring it back in their bag on Monday.

• Parent Volunteer Sign-Up: Your child also has a parent volunteer sign-up sheet. Please take a look at volunteer time opportunities and sign up for any slots that could work for you so I can create a schedule. If you want to do more than 1 slot a week, please indicate that on the bottom of the paper. If you would like to alternate every other week with a slot, please note that as well. Please return these by Thursday of next week.

• Everybody Wins! Forms: Due back by Tuesday.

That is all for now. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Peace,
Mr. Young

We have had a fantastic week of learning, growing, and building community together! Here is this week's update on everything our class accomplished this week.

Classroom Community: Week 3 & Responsive Rule Creation
As we wrapped up Week 3 of the first six weeks of school, our primary focus was continuing to build academic stamina across content areas, practicing daily routines, and watching our classroom expectations come to life. This week, we engaged in the Responsive Classroom rule creation process, a cooperative approach where rules are generated directly from the students' own aspirations. We began by having each child articulate their personal "hopes and dreams" or learning goals for the school year. From there, we discussed what conditions and expectations need to be in place so that every class member feels safe, supported, and able to accomplish those goals. By grounding our class rules in supporting everyone's individual goals, our students gain a deep sense of shared ownership, responsibility, and teamwork.

1st Grade Math: Counting On & Number Bonds
Our first graders focused on strengthening key addition strategies and mental math models. Students learned and practiced the counting on strategy, where they start with a known quantity and count forward (e.g., starting at six and counting "seven, eight, nine" to add three) rather than starting back at one, reinforcing this skill through engaging cooperative math games. We also introduced number bonds, which are visual mathematical diagrams showing how a whole number is split into parts (for example, showing that the whole number eight can be decomposed into parts of five and three). Understanding number bonds is essential because it builds mental flexibility with numbers, deepens part-whole reasoning, and lays a strong foundation for mastering addition and subtraction facts.

2nd Grade Math: Attribute Blocks & "I Noticed..." Statements

Our second graders engaged in higher-level spatial reasoning by sorting geometric attribute blocks using overlapping Venn diagrams based on multiple characteristics like shape, color, size, and thickness. In connection with our interactive modeling practices, students shared structured "I noticed..." statements to describe specific patterns and visual observations. Working with attribute blocks and Venn diagrams is vital for early math development because it lays the foundation for classification, logical reasoning, and set theory. Furthermore, using "I noticed..." statements encourages mathematical communication and critical thinking, teaching students to analyze data carefully and justify their mathematical reasoning with precise language.

Writing & Self-Editing Habits

In writing, students were introduced to an editing checklist focused on core grammar and mechanics skills, including capitalization, punctuation, word spacing, and spelling checks. This tool establishes the essential habit of re-reading written work and making thoughtful edits before considering a piece complete. Applying these new editing strategies, the children wrote personal pieces reflecting on their favorite parts of school.

Read-Aloud Spotlight
Our read-aloud time featured four wonderful books that sparked lively classroom discussions and deepened our love of stories. We read Gilbert Goldfish Wants A Pet, the story of a goldfish eagerly searching for a pet of his own to keep him company; Guess Again!, a playful rhyming riddle book filled with unexpected, silly answers that encouraged creative thinking; You're Going to Love This Book!, an interactive tale designed to generate excitement for reading together; and Problem Solved!, an engaging book about identifying challenges and working step-by-step through creative solutions.

Daily 5 Literacy Block Routine

We officially launched our Daily 5 routine, which forms the core student-centered structure for our reading and literacy block. The framework centers around authentic literacy choices: Reading Group with Mr. Young for guided instruction, Lexia Core 5 digital phonics, Read to Self to build independent stamina, Writing, and Word Work for hands-on vocabulary and spelling practice. Built on the core principle that purpose combined with choice drives student motivation, Daily 5 empowers children to manage their own learning through explicitly taught routines, visual I-Charts, and kinesthetic practice that becomes habit. Students learned that there are valid ways to read a book (reading the pictures, reading the words, and retelling the story) and began using the I-PICK framework to independently select "good-fit books" for their personal book bags. The children did an amazing job learning expectations and transitioning smoothly between stations. Establishing this routine creates a structured, self-monitoring environment that allows Mr. Young dedicated, uninterrupted time to deliver highly individualized reading instruction tailored to each child's needs.

Notes

• Scholastic Book Orders: Book orders are due by September 14, 2026. An informational sheet was sent home in your child's homework bag on Tuesday.
• Homework Bags: Homework bags will not go home today. Everyone did a great job of bringing them back each day, and the kids are so excited about the books they get to bring home!
• Birthday Shout-Out: A big shout-out to Sariah, who celebrated her 7th birthday today! Thank you for sending in the yummy muffins and sharing them with your friends.

We had an amazing week and the class is already in a great rhythm. I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy the early fall season.

Peace,

Mr. Young