March 22, 2026

I hope all of you had a great weekend. It was so nice catching up with all of you during our parent conferences. I hope you found them informational, allowed you to see the growth your child has and continues to make, and you see how they will continue to focus on learning goals as we enter the final 1/4 of the year.  Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Last week, our class took a trip to Living Tree Farm, and it was truly one for the books! This visit is always a personal favorite of mine, offering the perfect blend of outdoor exploration and "hands-on" discovery. The students dove deep into the sugar-making process, using it as a real-world lens to observe the three states of matter in action. From tapping trees to watching steam rise from the evaporators, the kids captured every observation in their science notebooks. We’ve turned those insightful entries and a collection of trip photos into a new display in our classroom—be sure to ask your child about it! We will continue our deep dive into the states of matter through the start of April break.

As a reminder, I will be in class this morning and then be out of school through April, 3rd. Zack Smithwood will be the substitute the whole time. Between he and Eileen, the class is in very good hands. I spent a vast amount of time creating lessons that are thorough and will not let up on the academic rigor that the class is accustomed too. I promise, there is no 45 minute block of "let them have free choice." 

Zack does have a school email if you need to get in touch with him. I will have access to email too and will respond if needed.  

NOTES:

*It looks like Wednesday will be our last ski day for the 2026 winter sports program. Please make sure your child has all of their stuff. 

*Homework bags will come home Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week (nothing on Wednesday). The Weekly News Journal will come home on Friday. The following week will have the bags coming home M-Th and the Weekly News on Friday. Please help your child remember to bring their items back each day.

*Kids still need boots and sneakers each day. If it is under 40 degrees they need a coat too.

That is all for now. I hope you all have a great 2 weeks. If I have time, I will do a blog post next week (from Serbia). You can show the class what I have been up to.  

Peace,

Mr. Young

March 15, 2026

Good Afternoon. I am sorry this is only coming out on Sunday, as I had a few things going on this week (outside of school) and spent the weekend in Boston. Each year my brother and I (and now more family and friends) head to Boston for the Dropkick Murphys' concert on St. Patty's weekend. It is such a fun time and experience.

I wanted to start with next week's volunteer schedule and field trip opportunity that is happening this week.

We will not have math class or Daily 5 on Tuesday of this week. So Tuesday's volunteers (Ryan and Helen) will not have to come in for those slots. On Friday, we don't have school that day. So those volunteers are off this week too.

The class will be going to a sugar house (in Moretown) on Tuesday. This is part of our science unit on the states of matter and connecting the sugaring process to it. If you would like to attend the trip (and are a volunteer that has had their background check done/weekly volunteer) you are welcome to tag along. Just let me know by Monday evening. We will have plenty of room on the bus and will leave school at 8:40.  Please arrive by 8:30 and you are welcome to just come in when your child arrives for school. Kids will need to dress for the weather and they need boots. They will not need a bagged lunch as we will be back in time for that.

As I mentioned last week, I will be out of school the afternoon of March 23rd through April 3rd. The weekly parent volunteers should plan on coming in during this time. The class will be following its regular schedule.

PARENT CONFERENCES:  The parent conferences will occur on Thursday, March 19 & Friday, March 20. As always, please make sure that you are on time as the schedule is quite full and I won't be able to extend conference times. Below is the schedule for next week. If you don't see your name, please sign up. 

Thursday: 2:40 Stella, 3:00 (open), 3:20 Luna, 3:40 River, 4:20 Hewitt, 4:40 Emma, 5:00 Ellie, 5:20 Olen, 6:00 Vinny, 6:20 Keegan, 6:40 Elsie

Friday: 7:40 Paxton, 8:00 Elowyn, 8:20 Olive, 8:40 Beau

These conferences are in person.  Your child is encouraged to attend part of the conference.

This past week the students were engaged with a variety of read alouds that I would categorize as "fun books." I chose these books (some new to me) because they seemed highly engaging and offered a nice variety. The books were as follows:

Mel Fell, Tops and Bottoms, I Don't Want to be a Frog, I Want My Hat Back, and Alexander and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Click on the links if you want to listen to these stories with your child. See if you like the same ones that your child did!

Our writing instruction had us reading two different books. First we read The Three Little Pigs by James Marshall and then we read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (told by A. Wolf) by Jon Scieszka. After reading each story, we brainstormed the pigs' arguments and the wolf's arguments. The students then had to choose a side, the wolf or the pigs and write an opinion piece about if the wolf was mean or not. The students included a hook, their opinion, support for their opinion and a closing. They each did some self editing too. These pieces are hung up in our classroom library. Make sure to check them out when you come in this week.

This week's science focus had us looking at solids and can an item be a solid if it is squishy. The students experimented with this concept as they explored some items from our classroom. They then had to record their observations and share out what they found. 

The class also wrote their next pen-pal letter. This started with an outline, then the students wrote their draft and edited with an adult. To change it up, the class worked with Eric Mongeon and recorded themselves reading their letter to their pen-pal. These can be heard by clicking this link. Then next time we connect with them, we will actually have each student do a video call with their pen pal and then write a summary of what they talked about. This allows me to tie in some of our communication goals in our curriculum.

NOTES:

• I want to give a special thank you to the PTA for their support with my field trip requests. They will be funding the sugar house field trip this week and for our trip in June to visit our pen-pals.
• It looks like we will be skiing this week, please make sure your child has all of their needed items.
• Remember that there is no school on Friday.

I hope you all have a great week,

Peace,

Mr. Young

March 5, 2026

I hope those of you that had some time off were able to enjoy it and were able to spend time doing things that made you smile or allowed you to feel rested. The students have been excited to share details of their break.  Instead of having the students write to you in their Weekly News (this week), I am having them write to me about their winter break. So, you will not see them in your child's bag over the weekend.

This week 1st grade math had the students looking at 3 dimensional shapes, their names, and characteristics. We specifically focused on cubes, cones, spheres, rectangular prisms, cylinders, pyramids, and triangular prisms and the characteristics of these shapes. We will wrap up our geometry unit at the end of next week.  The 2nd graders continued to focus on money, making traders and making change. They are really engaged with the hands on learning that comes with this focus.

We started a new science unit focusing on the 3 States of Matter. I will spend 10 lessons teaching the science concepts and then 5 lessons connecting it to the sugaring process. We may try and go to a sugar house as a field trip. If this comes to fruition, I may be looking for some drivers.  More to come on that.

I wanted to  let all of you know that I will miss the last week of March and the 1st few days of April. A few weeks back, I was contacted by Project Harmony and asked if I would go to Serbia to focus on some educational and basketball discussions/learning. After meeting with Kaiya and Dr. Mike, I was given the green light to take advantage of this opportunity. Zach Smithwood will be the substitute for the whole time. He knows the class well and will be able to execute very detailed lesson plans. I just wanted to give everyone the heads up.

Health Class Started This Semester

  NOTES

 *You children may tell you differently, but they will need a coat/fleece for any outdoor time until the temperature goes above 40 degrees.  Boots are a must until all of the snow and mud is gone. If kids don;t have them, they will go outside but will have to stay in areas that prevent mud from covering their sneakers. 

*Please send in a pair of sneakers for you children to wear each day. They can leave them here.  I sent them all home over break.

*Thank you all who were able to take time to vote on the school budget this year.  However you voted, I am appreciative to all of those who took the time to vote!

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

Peace,

Tommy