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