December 13, 2024

I hope this finds you all well and ready for the weekend. I am sure all of your schedules are quite full as this is such a busy time of the year.  It is hard to believe that we only have one week left before the December break.  

This week we drove into the celebrations of Kwanza and Winter Solstice.  It has been so much fun watching the kids connect similar traditions and/or commonalities between the different celebrations. I think they were interested by how many of the Winter Solstice traditions are now part of so many other holiday celebrations. 

I used the book Kwanza by Rachel Grack. This book contained relevant images that matched informative text in this introduction to Kwanzaa. The students learned that black, red, and green are the colors of Kwanzaa, the celebration of African-American culture. Black represents African heritage. And red and green stand for the hard times of the past and hope for the future. Next Monday each student will make a kinara and learn about the principles of Kwanza. 

Today we looked at the Solstice celebration and used two different books to gain more information about the celebration. The first book was The Winter Solstice by Ellen Jackson. This book is the ultimate holiday book for readers of every persuasion. The kids got to see how the science and customs associated with the shortest day of the year have formed the traditions for every major winter holiday -- from Hanukkah to Kwanzaa and Christmas.  The second book was The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper. This book "captures the magic behind the returning of seasonal light, the yearning for rituals that connect us with the generations that have gone before - and the hope for peace that we carry into the future." We will finish up a Winter Solstice activity on Tuesday morning.

First grade math (this week) continued to focus on doubles facts, seeing groups of 10 and some more, complements of 10 and for some complements of 20. All of these are working on fluency and the use for a math strategy.  This month's Number Corner focus continued to look at clocks and telling time to the to hours, 1/2 hours and 1/4 hours and 3 dimensional shapes and terms. Second grade math has been focused on measuring with rulers and non standard units too. 

NOTES:

*I wanted to thank everyone for your willingness to supply our class with some items for next week's Secret Pal celebration.  As a reminder, you don't need to do anything for the Secret Pal part of this. I have this covered. The donated items should be sent in Thursday morning. Please don't tell them that I am their Secret Pal. I am looking forward to doing this with them. 

*Next week is Test Week.  Ms. Beattie and I will be doing a variety of math and language arts tests. Please do your absolute best to have your child in class all week.  These assessments are part of our district's assessment plan and allows us to look at statistical growth since the fall.  Most of these test are done 1:1 and in order to allow this to happen, I will use the reading group time to administer these assessments. Kids will also start their final narrative piece. I call these their Golden Stories (on yellow paper) and it allows them to show me their independence with their writing and what they have learned during this unit of study. Hopefully we will finish these before Friday.  If not, the kids will finish them the 1st week back from break. 

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

Peace,

Mr. Young

December 9, 2024

Good Morning! I am sorry I am just getting to last week's blog now but there are a few things I wanted to make sure you were all aware of.  As I have mentioned several times this year, our social studies curriculum has us looking at traditions and celebrations and how they can be the same or look different based on culture, family, etc. The month of December certainly provides for a chance to dive deeply into this. I have decided to look at the holidays and traditions that the students might see in our community. The focus will be on Hanukkah (last week), Kwanza and Winter Solstice (this week) and Christmas and New Years (next week).  This will give the students a chance to talk about what they do, to learn from how others may do it differently and to learn new information as well. 

Last week I used the book Hanukkah by Molly Aloian. This book gives a very simple explanation of the holiday from its roots to the present-day celebrations. We used the book to have a discussion about Hanukkah and why it last for 8 nights and 8 days. The students learned to play the dreidel game and should have brought some chocolate coins home (on Friday) to talk to you about their learning.

Over the years I have done variations of secret pals in our classroom.  This year I am going to try a different version of it. This version has you having to not worry about any of it.  Instead of the kids each creating items for their secret pals, I am going to do things for all of the kids 12/17, 12/18. and 12/19. We will have a little celebration on 12/19 (in the afternoon), if you would like to donate something for the party, please sign up here. On 12/17 I will have a holiday card for each kid, on 12/18 I will have a snack for each kid, and on 12/19 I will have a small present for each kid. This will make the final week fun, allow us to tie it in to our social studies curriculum and will also connect as a class.

NOTES:

*Please remember to have your child bring sneakers for wearing inside the classroom. They can't wear their boots all day long. Also, hats and gloves are a must each day. If you want  your child to just leave a pair of shoes at school, please send them in and let me know. 

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

Peace,

Mr. Young

November 22, 2024

When you look out the door and you see the brightest of double rainbows shining down on our school (area) you remember to take a breath and remind yourself that there are so many positive and beautiful events and people around us. I hope many of you got a chance to see the rainbow for yourself. 

This week in writing, the kids focused on writing powerful endings. We worked on a couple of collaborative endings (to stories) and the students also had the chance to go back and change some of their own endings. This allowed them to try and implement taught strategies. It was great to see that so many of the kids wanted to share their work with the class. I love the confidence that so many are feeling.

Wednesday had us looking at the final Minh Le book, The Perfect Seat. "This book has a child and their parent embark on a playful search for the "perfect seat" to read a story, exploring various options that are too rough, too slippery, too high, or too low, ultimately discovering that the best spot is right in the parent's lap, highlighting the comfort and closeness of laptime storytelling." After the students read the book, they each created their ultimate chair. They had an unlimited budget and could go wild with their ideas and designs. These will be completed next week and hung in the hallway outside our room.

Last week we had finished our science unit on Moon phases, the sun, and shadows. After the Thanksgiving break we will focus on the stars in the sky. This week I used the "between units" time to have the kids take part in a STEM Challenge. They worked in teams of three to each design and then build their own catapults. The goal is to be able to have their catapult launch a candy corn 10 feet. As you can imagine, when ever kids can fling things the engagement and excitement rises considerably.  Next week we will have our challenge of hitting the target at 10 feet, learning how to make changes, and then documenting their learning in their science notebooks. 

TRADITIONS AND CELEBRATIONS: As I have mentioned many times, this year's social studies curriculum focus is traditions and culture. We will use next Tuesday afternoon to learn from each other and write about how families in our classroom celebrate Thanksgiving. The kids will share their family traditions. In order to help with this, I ask that you please fill this Google Sheet out. It will help me guide the discussion and help them write too. If you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, now worries.  We will always talk about why people choose that too.  That way we learn from each other and gain an understanding of differences within our classroom community. This form will need to be completed by 11/25/24.

NOTES:

*I will be sending out a December book order.  In order to receive them by 12/19/24, the due date is 12/3/24. Please see the information below to order:

Family Order Due Date: 12/03/2024

Shop Our Class Page: https://orders.scholastic.com/K3277

Shop Flyers: https://clubs.scholastic.com/all-flyers

*There will be no homework bags sent next week.  Please remember that Tuesday is our last day of school.

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

Peace,

Mr. Young

November 15, 2024

 Good Afternoon,

It was great chatting with so many of you during our conferences this week. I always appreciate the opportunity to do so and the conversations that they allow for. Again, if you have any other questions please reach out anytime.

I am collecting any empty tissue or cereal box that you may have between now and next Thursday. If you, your friends, or neighbors have any, could you collect them and send them in. We will be working on a STEM Challenge on Thursday and Friday of next week. After 11/21, please don't send any more of the items in.  I appreciate your help with this.

Being that it has been a lot of late evenings this week and the fact that I have chatted with you at conferences, I am going to post some pictures from the week and just write some captions for each one. This will allow you to connect with your child and also allow me to finish this post before the kids get back from Wellness class.

I hope you all have a great weekend. 

Peace,

Mr. Young

Being very serious

Writing in our science notebooks about shadows

Working on telling time to the hours and 1/2 hours

Working with our 5th & 6th grade friends

Our work from Real to Me by Minh Le

Working on doubles facts in math class

Practicing Sight Words (spelling)

Our class monster

A students share from home

Dancing to the Tuesday song

Determination on the playground

Working on addition facts

November 8, 2024

 Good Afternoon,

Things are a little different today, as I write this post the kids are eating lunch in our classroom and our school is being transformed into a huge retail store. It seems fitting that the tradition of this sale is back onto the school grounds. I have a lot of fun memories from this tradition and look forward to seeing so many past and present students and families.

This week (Week 6 of the Global Read A Loud), we read the book Real to Me by Minh Le. "This a story about friendship, change, and the sadness of loss. It's told from the perspective of an imaginary friend who is inseparable from their human best friend until one day the friend disappears. The story explores the feelings of growing apart, the sweetness of first friendship, and the beauty of making new friends." It was great to see how this story engaged each student's imagination. After we read the book, the students started working on a project that involved creating an imaginary friend and also identifying a real friend they have at school. This work will continue next Wednesday and I will post pictures of the final work then. 

Next Wednesday and Thursday, mark the times set aside for our first parent conferences of the year. These conferences can be kid attended or not. That is your call. Below is the schedule for the two days.  Please be on time for these slots because I am back to back for many of them. Many families are also back to back and we all need to stay on schedule.  If you are late, it will eat into your conference time.  Thank you for your understanding with this. Since I am here for the two nights, I can't accommodate any last minute reschedules for a different day. I thank you in advance for respecting my time with this.  

Wednesday:

3:00 Annabelle, 3:20 Luke, 3:40 Finn, 4:00 Olen, 4:20 Meet with Santa about list update, 4:40 Landen, 5:00 Amelie, 5:20 Elowyn, 5:40 Wiley, 6:20 Nora, 6:40 Hewitt

Thursday:

2:40 Emma,  3:00 River, 3:20 Edith, 4:00 Unavailable, 4:20 Paxton, 4:40 Ava

November, Hunting Season and Sickness Season all arrived at the same time this year. We had a few kids out each day this week. This is an important reminder that most kids will miss a certain amount of school days because of sickness each year. Some years can be worse than others. It is with this in mind that I ask you to be mindful of how many "un-sick" days your child has this year. This way we minimize the number of days missed. 

NOTES:

*Please make sure that your child has weather appropriate clothing each day.  I ask that if they are wearing boots to school, they have a change of shoes to wear inside. ALSO, to save yourself some money and frustration, please label each piece of clothing your child has for winter/weather days. We really do hate creating a big pile of unclaimed lost and found.

*There will not be homework bags send on Fridays.  Please make sure the bags come back each day.  This is a routine that you will have to establish with your child.

That is all for now.  I hope you have a great weekend. For all of those who have volunteered to help with the skid and Skate sale, I truly thank you for your support.

Peace,

Tommy

November 1, 2025

 Good Afternoon,

I hope all of you had a safe and fun filled evening last night.  My wife and I met up with some friends and enjoyed the beautiful weather and walking around downtown Waterbury. There is something that warms the heart when you see the innocence of childhood at its best. 

Today marked Sloane's last day with us until the spring. As many of you know, Sloane and her family are headed west for a 5 month journey. She will be missed while she is gone but we will be excited to see her again in the spring.  

As I have mentioned, at the start of the year, our social studies curriculum has us focusing on traditions and celebrations this year. This past week, the class has been focusing on the tradition of carving pumpkins and other traditions that they do during the Halloween time. The students all created a sheet about their traditions as they celebrate this time (or how others celebrate it). It was a way to allow them to talk about their exciting things but still keep it in the world of academic focus. The kids writing pieces are hung up in the library area of our classroom.  You will get to see them during our parent conference. On Tuesday, we teamed up with our 5th & 6th grade buddy classroom to carve pumpkins and even tried eating some of the roasted seeds. Our Read Alouds all focused on pumpkins, the harvest and the celebration of Halloween.

This week's Global Read Aloud book was Built to Last by Minh Le. In this book "two friends are brought together with a “BANG” when they bump into each other, knocking over the block towers they were working on. The children, who both have warm beige skin and short black hair, leave their individual projects aside to let their imaginations run wild as they create together. The results are spectacular, if prone to disaster: Their Great Wall is dismantled by a Chinese lion, their lantern-lit boat is capsized by a dragon, and a monster levels their "cityscape." Still, the friends seem to find as much joy in the destruction as the building of each new structure. Then they start a new construction, one meant to “stand the test of time.” When this, too, collapses, the friends find themselves at an impasse. Can they find a way forward together? Readers will have fun comparing the fantastical worlds the friends occupy with the cardboard-and-tape reality in which they are actually working." After I read the book, Mr. Mongeon led the kids through a project where they were creating there own structures and then had to work together to come up with one that the teams of two could agree on. They used graph paper to map out these structures. 

NOTES:

*There is no school this coming Monday or Tuesday.

*Parent conferences will be November 13th & 14th. A few of you still have not signed up.  Please let me know if you don't plan on signing up for a slot.

That is all for now.  I hope you have a great weekend.  Don't forget to set your clock back!

Peace,

Mr. Young

The student work from Week 3 Global Read Aloud, Lift

October 24, 2024

We had a snowball fight!

In the words (sort of) of Montel Jordan, "This is how we do it. It's Thursday night and I feel all right." I truly feel this captures the week gone by. I hope the kids had as much fun as I did. Here is the week in review. 

This week in science, the students continued their look at the Moon.  They learned how the moon is lit up by the sun and why the phases happen. The students explored all of the different shapes of the Moon that can appear on different nights. They used their, My Moon Book, to observe photos of the Moon taken over the course of four weeks and drew pictures of the Moon's phases in their book. They used these observations to discover patterns in how the Moon’s shape changes and predicted when the next full moon will appear.

In writing, the students started their narrative or "small moment" unit.  We continue to focus on Capital letters and ending punctuation too.  The small moments concept asks the writer to think of a specific moment in time to write about.  I use the analogy of a watermelon. I explained that big topics are like watermelons – large and overwhelming. However, by focusing on a specific seed, they can explore a small moment in detail. If you would like to learn about this analogy, please click here. 

The Daily 4 Time is our literacy block rotations. This allows me to differentiate each reading group effectively. This week the groups all focused on some form of comprehension, sight words (if they have tested out), and specific phonetic concepts.  One group focused on the short /I/ & /o/ sounds, anther group focused on the /ay/ & /ai/ sounds, a third group focused on the /ch/ digraph, and the fourth group focused on the /aw/ sound. During this block (the other rotations) the kids also had time to read self selected books, work on spelling irregular sight words, and also used the Lexia phonetic program.  

First grade math had the students focusing on dominoes and the fact families that they can make with them. There has also been a month long focus on becoming fluent with the complements of ten. Students who are still reversing numbers, also continued to get extra support with that work (thank you parent volunteers for that!).  The students have also been working on creating addition story problems that have a part unknown or a total unknown.  This allows them to start thinking about information that is given on stories and thinking about what the problem is really asking them to solve.  

We also got outside on Tuesday morning and took a walk as a class. The kid worked on using their five finger breathing technique (for self regulation). The kids enjoy time to walk and talk with their friends and also get some extra movement in.  Monday's and Tuesday's have the kids going almost 4 straight hours of academics. This allows for a nice little break. 

This week's Global Read Aloud book was Lift by Minh Le. This is a story of a young girl named Iris whose favorite thing to do is push elevator buttons. After a serious family betrayal (her little brother dares to push the button himself), Iris discovers a magic elevator button that transports her to different fantastical places. After the story the kids made their own elevator button panel with Mr. Mongeon. They also worked with me on completing a picture and writing prompt of where they would go in their own elevator adventure. I hope we can finish these tomorrow or early next week. Your child should have brought home their elevator buttons panel and use it as a way to retell the story to you. If you would like to hear this story and/or listen to it with your child, please click below.

 

NOTES:

*We will be carving pumpkins on Tuesday afternoon (from 1:00-2:15). We will be doing this with our buddy classroom (Mrs. Smith's 5/6 grade class).  This will get a little bit messy, please have your child wear clothes that are good for this event.  If they have long hair, it may be good to pull it back.

*Halloween! Unfortunately Halloween falls during the school week again this year. I know we will see some tired kids on Friday morning and I totally understand that.  For some of them, this is their super bowl! As a school, we ask that no costumes or props from costumes come to school. This helps us keep the focus on academics during the day. We will certainly read books about the traditions and celebration of Halloween and do a write up about it on Thursday. I appreciate all of your support with this.

*Overall the kids have done great with the homework bags.  As a reminder, the bag and the book should come back each day,  regardless of whether or not it was read that night. Remember that bags don;t come home on Fridays. I will also not send it Thursday of this coming week. You all will be busy enough that evening. 

*It's not too late to sign up for the Ski and Skate Sale. Please use this link to do so.

That is all for now.  I just want to reiterate that this group is awesome and I love the energy they bring. I hope you all have a great weekend. 

Peace,

Mr. Young

Some art class photos and a two more from the snowball fight we had on Thursday during our class meeting.. 

October 18, 2024

Good Evening All.  I am sitting here watching a baseball game on TV and reflecting about the week gone by. Fall can be such a fun time of year for the beauty of nature, the excitement of so many sport happenings, and the flow that a classroom can fall into this time of year.  This couldn't be more true than the moment we are at right here and now.  The class is really working well together and have really bought into the "team concept." We have spent a lot of time talking about how our entire team has to be at their best and that we have to help and remind each other. This was so evident yesterday, when a 1st grade student used a technique that I use to help bring a classmate back to the group. It was amazing and just made me smile that the kid picked up such a subtle technique. 

This week's Global Read Aloud book was Drawn Together by Minh Li. "This is a story about a young boy who visits his grandfather, their lack of a common language leads to confusion, frustration, and silence. But as they sit down to draw together, something magical happens – – with a shared love of art and storytelling, the two form a bond that goes beyond words." After we read the story, the kids were asked to work in teams as they would each draw a single thick line on each others paper. Then they each had to run that line into a sketch.  This project was brought home by your child this week.  

Today we started a science unit that will look at the Moon, the Sun, and the stars. Some unit vocabulary was introduced and then we had a discussion about the moon, the idea of phases and a cycle. The kid screamed a Moon Phases book that we will complete next week. I did challenge the kids to get outside this weekend and draw a picture of the moon.  If they do this and describe it, they can bring it in for a prize on Monday. 

Our reading groups are in full swing. We have four different groups that I meet with during our Daily 4 rotation time (in the afternoons, everyday but Wednesdays). Each group is designed to meet their needs phonetically and as far as reading strategy needs go for each group. The students all seem to be enjoying this time of day and all of the activities that come with it. 

NOTES:

*Reading bags started to go home this week.  They will be sent Monday through Thursday evenings with the exception of ski day Wednesdays and holidays/vacations. This is a chance for kids to take any book they are interested from our classroom library. This may be a book they can read, one they may want to read with you, or even a book they just have read to them. PLEASE, PLEASE make sure the bag and book come back each day. Find a way that your child has a routine that has him/her putting this in his/her backpack before bed each night. 

*We need volunteers! "Have you signed up to volunteer for the sale yet? Please sign up here (and enlist your friends, neighbors and family to sign up as well)! There are over 75 volunteer shifts left to fill: There are many benefits to volunteering:- supporting our school (all money raised goes directly to support school activities),

- FREE entrance to the early shop Saturday morning
- entrance in a raffle for season's passes to MRG and Sugarbush
- this is a fun community event; its a great way to connect with others in the community.

The Ski & Skate sale funds so many important programs in our school: the winter sports program, our outdoor education programs, inspiration project, artist residency and so much more. It is also a GREAT place to find deals on winter gear and one of the top events of the fall here in the Mad River Valley."

*Please remember our specials schedule and note the items needed on those days

Monday: Art

Tuesday: Music

Wednesday: Art

Thursday: PE & Library, Kids need sneakers and their library books

Friday: PE and Health, Kids need sneakers

*As a reminder, homework bags are not sent home on the weekends. This way you won't need to scramble to find it on Sunday evening. 

*Classroom Volunteer Schedule:

Math (8:15-9:30)
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Pam Day	Elissa Meier	Eric Valentine	Helen Borrelli	Samantha Silverberg
Language Arts Block (1:10-2:25)
			Thursday	Friday
			Caitlin Fleckenstein	Keely Jordan
Writing Time (10:25-11:15)
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday
Ryan Kraman	Elaina Foxx

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Peace,

Mr. Young