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