There is so much energy and activity across our community right now! Between structural changes to how we educate our children, the upcoming PTA Ski & Skate Sale, and our recent parent-teacher conferences, I am deeply grateful for your engagement and support in your child's education. I hope you found our conferences helpful and insightful as we celebrated your child's growth and discussed our goals for the year ahead.

1st Grade Math: Multi-Addend Sums, Fractions & Time

In 1st grade math, I guided my students through finding combinations for sums with two or three addends and introduced basic fractions, including halves, quarters, and wholes. We also began exploring the analog clock, learning how the hour and minute hands work together to tell time to the hour and half-hour. Exploring multi-addend combinations and early fractions builds flexible mental computation and proportional reasoning. Learning to read analog clocks strengthens spatial orientation and connects math directly to real-world daily routines.

2nd Grade Math: Number Strings & 200s Grid

The 2nd grade mathematicians continued their work with multi-step number strings and navigated numbers within the 200s grid. Solving number strings helps students spot numerical patterns and practice efficient mental grouping strategies. Navigating the 200s grid deepens place-value understanding and extends number sense into larger three-digit ranges.

Outdoor Science: Animal Adaptations with Luke Foley

We officially launched our new science unit on Animal Adaptations! Luke Foley from Friends of the Mad River joined us to take our class into the woods as we searched for evidence of animal life, local habitats, and our surrounding environment. Luke will be working with us most Wednesdays and Fridays throughout this unit. Our weekly routine involves being "in the field" on Wednesdays, using classroom time to record our work on Thursdays, and having a Friday follow-up with Luke indoors and outdoors. The kids are thrilled to learn how local animals adapt for winter!

Read-Aloud Spotlight

Our read-aloud time featured four wonderful books that sparked great conversations in our room:

• Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter: A beautiful seasonal story following two children noticing the subtle shift from fall to winter.

• What Does It Mean to Be Kind?: A thoughtful book illustrating how small, everyday acts of empathy and gentleness make a community stronger.

• What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?: An interactive non-fiction book exploring how animals use their features to adapt to their environments.

• Knuffle Bunny: A heartwarming, humorous tale about a toddler's stuffed bunny getting left at the laundromat and the classic miscommunications that follow.

Global Read Aloud: Harold & Hog Pretend For Real

For this week's Global Read Aloud, I read Harold & Hog Pretend For Real by Dan Santat, a fun crossover with Mo Willems' Elephant & Piggie series where an earnest elephant and carefree pig pretend to be each other. Inspired by this author/illustrator crossover, I had my students select a family member to "cross over" with, drawing each other wearing that person's clothes and speaking in their voice! We will continue refining these fun projects next week.

Notes & Reminders

• PTA Ski & Skate Sale Thank You: I want to extend a huge thank you to all of you for signing up to volunteer for the Ski & Skate Sale! Every single family from our classroom has someone signed up to help. I am deeply appreciative of your service and dedication to our school and students.

• 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 on Monday.

• Mountain Film Festival & "We Rock" Celebration: Today, our whole school gathered to watch a selection of short children's films from the Mountain Film Festival! This special event celebrated our school community earning 1,000 "We Rock" tickets for positive behavior.

• FLAT STANLEY UPDATES: The travels of our Flat People continue to pour in. As you can see by the photo (in this post) the east coast continues to fill up. This week we got our first west coast update. It gave me a chance to talk about some geographical terms and the oceans that touch our country. We can;t wait to see what travels we learn about next week.

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

Peace,

Tommy