May 29, 2023

 Good Evening,

writing time in the gazebo

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend. It was nice to have time with friends each day, some time to work on house projects, and even squeezed in some time for report card work. Sunday night, I found myself at Trapp's listening to some music and staring at the beautiful backdrop of the green mountains. We certainly are lucky to live in such a beautiful area.

Last week, the students took an end of the year literacy and math test using the Star 360 assessment that the district requires.  The students have also been taking an end of the year sight word test and reading test. The reading test allows me to see what level each kid finished the year at. This week the 1st graders will continue working on an end of the year comprehensive assessment.  This assessment has a written component and a 1:1 interview.  Ms. Figdor has been awesome in helping with this testing.

Most of the kids are finishing up their final non-fiction writing piece. After the students are finished with this, their writing time will allow them to have more of a self directed direction in the type of stories they want to write to finish out the year.

We will be starting our final science unit of the year.  This is a coding unit and Mr. Mongeon will be in to help teach this unit. This is always a fun unit and this year the kids will focus on making their own digital game. If you would like to learn more about coding and why we teach it to young students, check out this article https://educationandbehavior.com/benefits-of-teaching-coding-to-elementary-school-children/.

This past week also wrapped up our three week inspiration hour event.  Over the past three weeks, the students have been using Wednesday afternoons to seek out activities of self interests. The activities have been fantastic and the students demonstrated great enthusiasm for this time. 

NOTES:

A product of inspiration hour

*Many of the students have been asking for more snacks during the day.  The PTA has been providing extra snacks all year.  As the year winds down, please talk with your child and see if they need more snacks packed (from home).

*WATER BOTTLES.  Please make sure your child continues to bring in a water bottle for use during the day.  

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

Peace,

Mr. Young

kids completed another 300 piece puzzle

May 15, 2023

Good Morning!  I want to wish all of the classroom mothers a Happy Mother's Day.  Hopefully your child gave you the picture and letter they wrote about you. I know they were all very excited about their work.

I wanted to wait until today to publish the blog, so that I had all the information regarding the concert this week. We have a very full schedule with lots of extras going on.

Wednesday:  Inspiration Hour will happen again from 12:45-2:15.  This will be the 2nd of the 3 session event. I know the kids were thrilled with their sessions last week.

Thursday:  We have have lunch at 11:55-12:25.  We will then get on a bus and head to the Art Show at Larue Farm.  We will do this until 1:15.  We will then get back on the bus and head to Warren School for our concert rehearsal. At 2:00 we will head back to Waitsfield Elementary.

The concert will be at the Warren School at 6:00.  We ask that students arrive between 5:45-5:55.  The concert will promptly start at 6:00.  The kids will be sitting as a class and then go to you once the concert is done.  

I wanted to thank everyone for the kind PTA teacher lunch, the cards, and the gifts that were sent in.  I am very luck to teach at such a  supportive, kind, and appreciative school.

I hope you all have a great week.

Peace,

Tommy

 Good Afternoon,

I hope you all had a wonderful break and your kids feel ready to go for the final stretch.  I have touched base with them each day about how much school we still have left.  I word it this way to get them to understand we still have a lot of work to do. We have used our morning meetings to remind each other about our focus and ability to give our best. The kids have been FANTASTIC as a whole and the work this week has been outstanding.  

We started our final writing unit of the year.  The focus is non-fiction writing or writing to inform. We started this week by looking at a few "mentor text" and the parts of a non-fiction book. We also looked at how the author introduced the topic and the structure of each section or chapter. As a class and small groups, the students have been writing a book about the school. Eventually they will research a chosen topic (based on their favorite activity) and write their own non-fiction book.

First grade math focused on comparing equations and determining if they are equal or not. They have also been working on complements of 10, 20 or 100 depending on their own abilities. We have also been looking at counting by 10s and 1s on the number grid.  Second grade math has been focused on more division and multiplication facts.  They also have been conducting surveys and learning how to display the results. 

Inspiration Hour will start next Wednesday and run for three weeks.  Each student has signed up for 3 choices and will find out which choice they got at the start of next week. This is a great offering and the kids really get excited for it and always seem to enjoy their experiences.

 NOTES:

*I think it is safe for kids to just wear their sneakers to school now.  The mud is mostly dried up and boots can stay at home.

*Please make sure to send your child's reading bag and book back each night.  I won't send them home on Fridays.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Peace,

Mr. Young

April 18,2023

 Good afternoon everyone. I am writing this as I wait for my flight to Germany. Already received a picture from the class from Mrs. V. I will be out all this week and Steve Magill will be the sub. I’ve left some good sub plans and the kids will be doing some good work, and not just on computers all week. 

We finally completed our persuasive unit and the kids did some great work. I will be scoring these over break. When we get back from break, we will be introducing a non-fiction writing unit.

I hope you all have a great break and look forward to coming back from April break and attacking the final academic push with tenaciousness. 

Peace

Mr. Young. 

April 7, 2023

It was so nice to have a 5 day week.  There is something about a routine that helps the students with their learning momentum. This week we wrapped up our teaching lessons in our persuasive writing unit. Next week the kids will start their final assessment piece on this unit.  Each student will be asked to write a piece (independently) and show off all of the skills and techniques they have learned during this unit.  I am excited to see what they can do on their own.

This week was a busy week in Social Studies.  We finished up our study of Ramadan and our writing pieces about the celebration itself. On Wednesday, we talked about the celebration of Passover. One student shared what the Seder at her house looked like. Today we focused on Easter as we learned about the holiday and also shared what our own traditions looked like.

In math, we have been learning about how to use a variety of addition strategies that we have worked on all year. Students were using doubles facts, doubles +1/-1 facts, making 10 and some more, and the adding nine strategy. The first graders also took a Number Corner assessment to see how they were doing with time, fractions, and geometry concepts. The 2nd graders have been working on multiplication and division facts.

This week, in gym, the kids have been working with gymnastics concepts and trying a variety of apparatus. They have been excited about this unit.  One of the challenges they could try was the climbing rope. Several kids successfully climbed the rope and rang the bell.  There are pictures of them in this post.

NOTES:

*I think we are now safe from having to wear boots to school.  Hats and gloves are still a good thing. Please keep an eye on the weather and send boots when appropriate. 

*My daughter is looking for some summer nanny/babysitting jobs too.  She asked me to share the following.

"Hello! My name is Abby Young I am a senior at Harwood Union High School, I plan to attend Endicott College in the fall of 2023, to pursue a degree in Elementary Education. I am hopping to find a family to nanny for this summer. I have lots of experience in working with kids. I have been nannying for the past three summers and babysit in my free time. I am willing to do housework during downtime, when nannying I tend to take the kids on fun adventures and avoid electronics as much as possible. I have my license and a car so transportation is not a problem. If interested please reach out! My phone number is 802-382-7345."

Have a great weekend.

Peace,

Mr. Young

March 31, 2023

Good Afternoon,

Hard to believe it's already the last day of March.  However, I am not going to lie, I am psyched that April Fool's Day is on a weekend. This week Marc Thomas has joined our staff and in particular will be working in my classroom.  Marc is also my neighbor and I have known him for quite some time. He is a retired Vermont Sate Trooper and was looking to do some meaningful work with kids.  I can tell you the class is very excited to have him in our room. 

Many of the kids are working on elaboration in their writing.  This week we have primarily focused on this skill.  I use the term twin sentences.  When a student writes a sentence (of evidence) to support their opinion, they try to write two more sentences (twin sentences) to elaborate on their first sentence.  The students have done a wonderful job with this concept and I was extremely pleased with their work this week. 

During Morning Meeting, on Monday, I pointed out how good my handwriting was (with writing the morning meeting).  I told them it was so good that I was going to take a selfie of it.  The kids found this very funny and laughed about it.  Then I told them that they can also do the same thing.  If they have a piece of work with great handwriting, they can their picture with their writing too. This had them captured and also refocused on doing their best with their handwriting. 

As part of our look at traditions and celebrations, we spend the latter part of this week looking at the celebration of Ramadan and and specifically Eid Al-Fitr. We watched an informational video, ready a story and created a flip book about the celebration.  We then talked about mosques and looked at the Blue Mosque in Turkey. The students used oil pastels, markers, and glitter crayons to create a picture of the mosque.  We will continue our learning and writing with this next week.

NOTES:

*Please keep sending your child's boots in until the mud goes away.  I also make your children wear their coats if it is under 40 degrees.  They don;t always like me for this but I feel it is needed.  Over 40 degrees, I allow them to wear sweatshirts or a fleece.

*Many of the kids are looking for more food during the day.  I have some stuff here (provided by the PTA) but could use an extra snack thrown in your child's bag (for them) each day. 

That is all for now.  I hope you all have a great weekend.  I am headed off to Endicott College for my daughters accepted student day.  

Peace,

Mr. Young

March 9, 2023

Good Afternoon,

I hope everyone found a way to enjoy the snow, the break or even both during out time away from school. I want to thank all of those who were able to come to some of our basketball games at the end of the season. It was so great to get two games in our gym and have such a huge audience. 

Here is a quick review of our three day week.  On Wednesday, we had a new student arrive in our classroom. Her name is Amelia and she is in 2nd grade.  She came to us from Florida and was born in Russia. She has quickly jumped into our routine and the students seem to enjoy engaging with her.

Our specials this week were PE, and French.  In PE class, the kids have been playing a version of capture the flag. There is lots of communicating and running going on in this activity. In French, the students are practicing using french words that deal with feelings. 

The students also finished up their President's Day writing that we started before the break. The students read a book about, took notes on and shared out their findings on President Washington and President Lincoln. They then wrote about their learning.

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

Peace,

Mr. Young