P.E. Lab at the Millstone Trails in Barre!

On Wednesday, we participated in our very first P.E. Lab with Mr. Blanchard.  Students did a fantastic job setting goals, trying out new skills, and having a "growth mindset".  It was wonderful to see students challenging themselves and having a fun time with classmates and adults.

A big thank you to Mr. Blanchard for organizing this trip and sharing his expertise in rock climbing!  Also, thanks so much to our wonderful parent volunteers, Bobbi-Jo, Darci, Marlena, Rosemond, and Shawn, who drove students to Millstone and helped them as they tried rock climbing, slacklining, and hiking!  I appreciate everyone's support with making this special opportunity possible for our students!

Photos and News From Our Classroom!

Math Class:  We have been continuing to learn about place value by building and writing two- and three-digit numbers.  We have also practiced using efficient strategies to solve addition problems.  Students have done an amazing job sharing their math thinking with their classmates!

Choice Time and Class Celebrations:  We love our daily snack and choice time!  It is a fun time to chat, play games, and build with Legos and construction straws!  When we fill our classroom "tree", we often vote for extra indoor and outdoor choice times.  This week, however, we chose to have our celebration be a Comfy Cozy Day with stuffed animals.  It was so fun to meet our new stuffed animal friends during our morning meeting greeting! 

Literacy/Writing:  Last week, Mrs. Christy visited our class and taught us how to create Heart Maps about the people, places, things, and events that our important to us.  We had an opportunity to share  our Heart Maps during a "gallery walk", which gave some of us new ideas about things that we want to add to our own maps.  We will keep our Heart Maps in our writing folders to help us when we are looking for new topics for our "small moment" narratives.  This week, we will continue to learn how to stretch out our narrative stories to include meaningful details.

Read Aloud with Ms. Lyford:  On Tuesday, Ms. Lyford visited our class to read the book, Sixth Violin, by Hana Hashimoto.  This story connects with our classroom and PBIS group discussions about growth mindset.  We have been talking about how it can take time to learn something new and that there may be challenges along the way, but that having a growth mindset allows us to set and reach goals for new learning. 

Meeting with our class buddies!  On Thursday, we had our first meeting with our 5th and 6th grade buddies from Mrs. Shedd's classroom.  We started off with some partner reading time and then went outside to play.  What a fun way to end the school week! 

Important Info and Upcoming Dates

P.E. Lab: 
We will participate in our trip to Millstone in Barre for our first P.E. Lab this Wednesday, October 11th from 9:00 am to about 1:00 pm.  We are planning to leave school right by 9:15, so please help your child arrive on time for school that day.  If you have not returned your permission slip, please return it as soon as possible!  Students should come prepared to spend the day outside hiking and rock climbing.  They should wear/bring:

• Comfortable clothes and layers depending on the weather
• Sneakers or other appropriate footwear
• Bag lunch (unless they are signed up for a lunch from the EMES cafeteria)
• Water bottle
• Hat (optional)

School Store: 
The EMES School Store will have its Grand Opening for 2017-18 for students this Friday, October 13th from 8:30 to 9:00 in the gym.  They will have an assortment of items ranging in price from $0.25 to $1.50. 


Class Photos:
Picture Retakes will be on Monday, October 16th.  Please let Jane in the office know if your child needs to have his or her picture taken on that day.  Also, there seems to have been an issue with printing our class photo, but we should receive them soon.  Thanks for your patience!


Open House:
The EMES Open House for students and families will be next Thursday, October 19th from 6:00 to 7:00 pm.


EMES Holiday Feast:
The EMES Holiday Feast will by on Friday, November 3rd.  Look for more info in an upcoming school newsletter.


Conference Day: (no school for students)
Our first conference day of the year is coming up on Friday, November 10th.  I also plan to have some other evening times available for conferences as well.  Please keep an eye out for a conference sign up soon. 


Circus Residency and Performance:
EMES will participate in a Circus Residency from November 6th to 17th.  Please join us for the circus performance at U32 on Thursday, November 16th!

 

Classroom News

We had another busy week in second grade!  We started our first reading unit, "Second Grade Growth Spurt", by building our stamina to read for longer periods of time and picking "just right" books.

During our writing workshop, we started brainstorming topics and writing "small moments" narrative pieces. We talked about how writers choose meaningful stories to tell.  We have also been reviewing how to form capital letters and discussing when we need to use them in our writing, such as for names, at the beginning of sentences, and for the months of the year and days of the week.  Ask your child about his or her "small moment" story ideas!  It is great practice for students to tell their stories to others before writing them down!

My math class has been working on building, writing, and comparing 2-digit and 3-digit numbers.  Students have been learning about place value and working with partners to build numbers using base-10 blocks and Cuisenaire rods.  They have also practiced writing numbers in standard form (for example: 482) and expanded form (400+80+2).  Another fun way to practice these skills is to play Trash Can!  I will send home Trash Can game boards and a fun (but optional) geometry shape hunt soon.

During morning meeting and "discovery" times, we have been working on building our classroom community.  We created our class "expectations" tree, which lists our class rules/expectations that we have all agreed to follow, such as using kind words and actions, following the school-wide KHFOOTY (Keep Hands Feet and Other Objects to Yourself) expectations, and taking care of our classroom materials.  I have been so impressed with the way that students are learning new routines, collaborating, helping each other, and sharing their ideas with the group!

Important Dates:

Friday, September 29th:  All-School Hike
Please help your child come prepared with a lunch, plastic/metal water bottle, snacks, and appropriate footwear and clothing for walking/hiking all day. 

Wednesday, October 11th:  Our First P.E. Lab
We are looking for volunteers who can chaperone and drive students for this field trip.  If you are interested in participating in P.E. Lab or E.C.O. lessons, please let me know.  You will also need to complete the volunteer packet paperwork. Drivers will also need to fill out an additional form.  Please see Jane Badger in the office if you need this paperwork. You can also send me an email if you would like me to send it home in your child's folder.  We would love to have families join us!

Monday, October 16th:  Picture Retakes
Please let the office know if your child will need a picture taken on this day. 

Thursday, October19th:  Open House with Students 
Families are invited to join us for this special event!

Friday, November 3rd:  EMES Holiday Feast 
More info to come in an upcoming school newsletter.

"All About Me" books and Geoboards!

Sharing "All About Me" books:

Constructing and drawing polygons using geoboards and dot paper:

First Week of School!

It was wonderful to start a new school year with our amazing class!  Everyone participated well as we practiced important routines and expectations.  We listened to several read alouds, including First Day Jitters and Oh, The Places You'll Go.  Students worked on writing and drawing about themselves in their All About Me books, which they will share with each other next week.  My math class practiced counting forwards and backwards by ones and played the card game, Make 10.  On Friday afternoon, we wrapped up a busy first week by going outside for extra recess after we filled our first classroom "tree"!  Nice work, team! 

Please note that Wednesday is our first early release day with dismissal at 3:00 pm.  This Wednesday is also the EMES Information Night for parents.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Parent Information Night Schedule

Our Parent Information Night will be on Wednesday, September 6th.  Here is the schedule for the evening:

5:30-5:40 pm:  Everyone will join in the gym for welcoming remarks and an introduction to our all-new PE Lab.

5:40-6:00 pm:  Parents of students grades 4-6 who are interested in band will stay in the gym to meet with Samantha Gelfon, our music teacher.  All other parents will go to classrooms for classroom presentations.

6:00-6:30 pm:  All parents will be in classrooms for presentations.

6:30-7:00 pm:  Parents of students in grades 4-6 will go to the library for information on Digital Citizenship from Arlyn Bruccoli, Library/Tech Teacher; Mary Beth Langevin, Guidance Counselor; and Michael Sherwin, Behavior Coach.

As mentioned in the school newsletter, this event is an information night for parents and it is not the Open House for students.  The Open House with students will take place on October 19th.

I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday night!