Classroom News: Lego Robotics, Chex Mix and E.C.O.

We have been keeping very busy during these past few weeks! Our class has been working on a Kindness Challenge.  This week, students reflected on their actions and wrote about ways they were kind to others on pieces of paper.  We each shared our "acts of kindness" and then each paper was added to a paper chain that is decorating our bulletin board.

During our Technology time with Ms. Arlyn, we have had the opportunity to work with our partners to build the Cheering Fans robots.  Students also collaborated to create programs for these robots that use motion sensors and solve math problems.  Ask your child about his or her programs!

Ms. Arlyn also introduced us to the newest robot at EMES, Bee-Bot!  We had a great time learning to program Bee-Bot to move in a big square on a mat.

Our E.C.O. lesson this week focused on winter survival.  We imagined that we were young bear cubs who needed to learn how to build our own dens to prepare for a cold winter.  Students worked in pairs or small groups to create their own bear dens.  It was busy, messy, and lots of fun!  Thanks again to Karen for helping with this lesson!

On Thursday, we prepared Chex Mix for our fundraiser to benefit the WORLD Santa Project.  This fundraiser was a great opportunity to extend our Kindness Challenge outside of the walls of our classroom.  Mrs. Christy and Mrs. Christiano helped groups of students mix the Chex Mix.  Thank you to everyone who donated ingredients!

A big thank you to Carolyn, Mrs. DeForge, and Mrs. Phillips who helped with mixing, baking, bagging, and cleaning up!

Gifts for Giving is this Monday, December 21st.  It would be helpful if students can bring a paper shopping bag or shoe box to help them safely carry their gifts home on this day.  

We will have our holiday party on Wednesday, December 23rd from 2:00 to 2:50 pm.  Please note the change in time.  (I forgot that it was a 3:00 dismissal day!)  Families are welcome to join us for this special event.  Thank you to Guili for coordinating and to everyone who volunteered to contribute food, drinks, and paper products!


Lego Robotics

Introducing Bee-Bot!

Building "Bear Dens"

WORLD Santa Project:  Making the Chex Mix

Classroom News:

Important Information and Reminders:

Homework:

Students will not have "official" homework until after the holiday vacation.  Mrs. Fitch and I know that the holiday season is very busy for many families.  Please encourage your child to read and practice math facts as often as possible.

E.C.O.:  Tuesday, December 15th

We have E.C.O. this Tuesday.  Please help your child bring appropriate clothing and footwear for spending the afternoon outdoors. 

Students should have:

• a jacket or coat
• gloves or mittens
• a hat
• warm socks
• boots

Chex Mix:

We will be making and baking the Chex Mix on Thursday, December 17th and selling it on Friday, December 18th.  

The donations of cereal and other ingredients for our Chex Mix sale have begun to arrive at school, but we definitely still need more ingredients.  Please remember that the ingredients do not need to be name brand, but do need to peanut free.  We are unable to use any products that may contain peanut or nut products.  Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far!

We are still looking for volunteers to help bake the Chex Mix on Thursday afternoon.  Please email me at lgiammusso@u32.org if you are able to help.


Gifts for Giving:  Monday, December 21st

It would be helpful if students can bring a paper shopping bag or shoe box to help them safely carry their gifts home on this day.  

We are still looking for volunteers to help with this special event.  Please check out the link to sign up if you are able to help with Gifts for Giving.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4aacab2daa8-gifts

WORLD Santa Project: Chex Mix Sale

CHEX MIX

Second and Third Grade Community Service Project

For many years the students in our classes have completed a community service project during the holidays.  The project is THE WORLD newspaper’s “SANTA PROJECT”.  This project collects money and buys new coats, hats, boots, and mittens for Central Vermont children.  This year, we will once again, make and sell “Chex Mix” as a fundraiser for this project.  We will make the mix on Thursday, December 17 and sell it on Friday, December 18to students, staff and families of EMES.  The cost will be $.75 per bag.

In order for this project to be a success we are asking families for donations of mix supplies.  It is truly amazing and fun for the kids to see all the great contributions we receive each year.  We need many, many boxes of cereal it can be Chex or a generic variety, it doesn’t matter the brand!  We cannot accept any nuts or products that contain any honey-nut ingredients.  Please check ingredients before sending in contributions, pretzels can be especially tricky!  Following is a list of types of cereals, etc. we can use:

• Wheat Chex                    Goldfish style crackers
• Corn chex                    Cheez-it style crackers
• Rice chex                    Small pretzels
• Cheerios (no honey nut)            Mini melba toast           

We will supply the spices, butter and baggies for the project.  Please send in your donations by Wednesday, December 16th so we can plan accordingly.

Thank you for your generosity in this important event.  We know how expensive groceries are, so we really appreciate your help in teaching this important lesson of giving to our students.

Please don’t hesitate to call or e-mail us with any questions!  If you can help bake or bag the mix the afternoon of December 17th, please let your child’s teacher know.  THANK YOU!!

Sincerely,

Jennifer Fitch and Laura Giammusso

E.C.O.: Becoming Squirrels!

On Tuesday, we learned about ways that squirrels meet their needs to survive winter, such as collecting and storing food.  Carrie taught us that squirrels need to eat 7.5% of their body weight every day in order to survive.  We discussed how that would be like a 50 pound kid eating almost 3.75 lbs of food every day!   Next, we acted like squirrels and tried to gather enough food for one winter day.  

E.C.O. Reminder

 We have E.C.O. tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon.  Please help your child bring appropriate clothing and footwear for spending the afternoon outdoors.  Last time, a few students were getting chilly by the end of the lesson.

Students should have:

• a jacket or coat
• gloves or mittens
• a hat
• warm socks
• boots

Students may also want to wear layers and bring rain pants or even snow pants to help them stay warm and dry since there is rain in the forecast.

Thanks for your help!

E.C.O.: The Track of the Cat

On Tuesday afternoon, we divided into two groups at E.C.O. time to explore the characteristics of two different groups of cats: bobcats and house cats.  Each group had a time to practice acting like either a bobcat or a house cat and learning a "rock, paper, scissors" game to win a mouse or a piece of string. 

Each group also took a turn being biologists visiting the other group and observing their behaviors.  Later, students had the option of writing their E.C.O. journal entry from the point of view of a biologist describing the similarities and differences between each group.

In our discussions, we talked about adaptations, inherited traits, and learned behaviors that connected with our learning about cats.

See if you can guess which group is featured in each set of photos!  Ask your child about the characteristics of each cat group. 

Group One:

Group Two:

Forest Choice Time:

Students found a group of moths on the leaves near their sit spots. 
Can you spot the camouflaged moths in this photo? 

School Store and Lunch Menu

Since we are experiencing problems with the EMES website, I will post information on this blog as often as possible.

School Store:

The EMES Student Leadership Team (SLT) sponsored school store will be open for the first time, this Friday, November 20th.  The store will be open in the cafeteria from 8:30-9:00 a.m.  Store items include pencils, pens, highlighters, notepads, erasers, and pencil sharpeners.  Items generally range in price from $0.25 to $1.00 each.  We are in the beginning stages of getting the store operating after a few years, we hope to be open every other Friday morning. 

Lunch Menu:

Here is a link to the EMES lunch menu. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzvh-sFg6pd4Q0w1N1M2dDhzVWs/view?usp=sharing 

Classroom News: Upcoming Events

I enjoyed meeting with everyone for parent/teacher conferences.  Thank you for coming in to discuss your child's progress. 

Upcoming Events:

The EMES Holiday Feast is this Friday, November 13th.  Family and friends are invited to join us for this special event.  Please sign up in advance.  You can fill out a form or email Susan Olander at solander@u32.org and pay at the door. ($3.25 for students and $5.50 for adults)

Please note that students will be eating in different lunch groups on this day.   

• Seating 1:  Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd Grades:  11:30-12:00
• Seating 2:  3rd and 4th Grades:  12:00-12:30
• Seating 3:  5th and 6th Grades:  12:30-1:00

Pre-school students and parents are welcome at any seating.


Our next E.C.O. lesson will be on Tuesday, November 17th from 12:30 to 2:30 pm.  Please help your child come prepared for an afternoon outdoors in the chillier autumn weather. 

Parents are welcome to join us for any E.C.O. lessons.  Please let me know if you are interested in joining us for a fun, outdoor science lesson.

Classroom News: Arts Integration in Literacy

After completing our movement phrase based on the book, Up North at the Cabin, students selected a favorite sentence to illustrate.  Everyone created colorful pastel drawings that showed the details and descriptions from the book.  Our illustrations are now displayed in our classroom and on our bulletin board in the hallway.

Classroom News: Reminders

Reminders:
Tuesday, November 3rd: E.C.O lesson  Bring warm layers for spending the afternoon outdoors.

Friday, November 6th:  Conference Day (no school for students)

Conference confirmation slips were sent home in Friday Folders.  If you did not send in a sign up form, I have either talked with you about possible dates or scheduled a time for you.  Please let me know as soon as possible if a time does not work for you and I can find another time.  I tried to give every family one of their first choices, but was not able to do so in all cases.  A big thank you to families who had to be extra flexible to help me schedule all 23 conferences!

(Somehow a message from last year was sent out again instead of this post.  Please disregard the upcoming events in that older post.)

Arts Integration: Up North at the Cabin

On Tuesday, we started an arts integration project in which we explored descriptive language in the beautifully written book, Up North at the Cabin.

Students worked in small groups to select sentences from the text that used interesting descriptions and/or comparisons.  Then, all groups brought their selections to the rug and shared one sentence which I recorded on chart paper.  We decided on the following sentences:

"The houses are made from logs that look like shiny pretzels."

"I am a smart angler… I bait my hook with peanut-butter-and-worm sandwiches."

"We can all watch the loons dance down the sun."

"I am a great gray dolphin.  The lake is my ocean."

"Rising in a sea of air-bubble balloons, I float on a carpet of waves."

"Like a house on stilts, a bull moose stands in the shallows."

"When I’m far away from summer… I close my eyes 
and once again, I am up north at the cabin."

Next, we began the challenging work of choosing creative movements that would best represent each sentence.  We put all of our movements together and it was exciting to see how it looked as one longer piece.  It was interesting to perform our movement phrase to two different types of music.  Students felt that one piece of music best fit our "dance".  Afterwards, students reflected on the movements and choices they had made throughout the process.  We also discussed some goals for the future, such as working on performing movements in unison.

On Thursday, we performed our movement phrase again and then started to create cray-pas illustrations of our favorite sentences from the text.  Students are making great choices about how to best capture the important details from these well-written sentences.

I was so impressed with students' hard-work, creativity, and ability to take risks with their learning.

Classroom News

Upcoming Events:

Saturday, October 24th, 6 to 8 PM:  Bingo Night- a fundraiser for the K-3rd grade E.C.O. Program We have received numerous donations from sponsors to use as prizes for bingo games and a silent auction. 

Monday, October 26th:  Homework due

Friday, November 6th:  Parent/Teacher Conferences (no school for students)


Conferences:

I will send home a conference sign-up form on Monday with times on a few different days.  Please indicate your top choices for conference times and then return the form as soon as possible. 

E.C.O. Photos:  Tree Life Cycle Game (with Rock, Paper, Scissors) and Investigating Trees and Parent Plants

First Week of Sharing!