ECO, Movement Lessons, and Hike Day!

We had a great variety of lessons this week!  On Wednesday morning, we went outside for our first ECO lesson of the year.  Throughout the year, our lessons will focus on comparing habitats.  This time, we played games, chose our animal names for the year, shared nature stories, and had some warm cider.  Ask your child whether it was easier to play hide and seek in the woods or the field.  Thank you to Alex Rob, our ECO teacher (and Williams' dad)!  Thank you also to our volunteers, Julia Haynes (Christin's mom) and Mary Colleen (ECO volunteer) for joining us for this lesson!

Earlier in the week, we worked in small groups to figure out movements for the rest of our summary of the book, Chrysanthemum.  Then, we put our dance/movement phrases together and it was exciting to see how it looked as one longer piece.  Afterwards, students reflected on the movements people had chosen and on how well teams had worked together.

In math class, we practiced telling time to the nearest hour with our partners using small clocks.  We also discussed how many hours are in a day and what we are usually doing during each hour of our day.  We filled out a September calendar and talked about the number of days in a week, why months don't always start on the same day, and what months come before and after September.  The most fun part was adding in students' birthdays and other important events, such as ECO and our hike day.

Important Dates:

The EMES All School Hike will take place tomorrow Friday, September 26th.  Students should wear appropriate clothing and footwear for the hike.  Please remind them to bring lunch (unless you already ordered one from the cafeteria), a water bottle, and snacks for the day.  Also, students should not bring lots of extra items in their backpacks to help keep their bags light enough to carry.

The EMES Open House and Ribbon Cutting will be on Thursday, October 2nd from 5:00 to 7:30 pm.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Our second grade homework packets are due next Friday, October 3rd.  Please help your child find time to read for at least 20 minutes every other day and to complete the math work.

Please note that there will not be school on Friday October 10th (Teacher In-Service Day) and
Monday October 13th  (Columbus Day).

Enjoy the warm weather this weekend!

Classroom News

 It is always amazing to look back on the week and think about everything that students accomplished in just five days!  This week, students continued to put great effort towards their work in all areas.

During our literacy workshop, we listened to the stories, Chrysanthemum and Sheila Rae, the Brave.  We continued to work more independently on identifying the story elements (character, setting, problem, and solution) in these stories.  Then, we worked as a whole group to create a summary of Chyrsanthemum.  On Friday, we started to use the sentences of our summary to create movement phrases that we put together into a group dance.  We will continue this movement project next week. Check out some of the photos that show parts of our dance.  Throughout the year, we will use movement and drama to help us explore a variety of texts.  It is fun to see the wonderful collaboration and creativity of your children!

Our writing workshop is going full speed ahead!  Students have been working on creating introductions for their "small moments" narratives that will grab their readers attention.  We also are working on stretching out our stories to add details and descriptions that will keep our readers interested.  Our class brainstormed ideas to help us plan out our writing, such as talking it out with a partner, sketching, jotting down ideas, making a list, and making a picture in our heads about what happened.

Today, we had a special classroom event to celebrate a classmate who is moving.  She will be greatly missed!  Best wishes to her and her family!

Reminders and Upcoming Events

Our first ECO (Educating Children Outdoors) lesson will take place on the morning of Wednesday, September 24th.  Please help your child dress appropriately for an extended time outside.

The EMES All School Hike will take place next Friday, September 26th.  Students should wear appropriate clothing and footwear for the hike.  Please remind them to bring lunch, a water bottle, and snacks for the day.  Also, students should not bring lots of extra items in their backpacks that day to help keep their bags light enough to carry.

The EMES Open House and Ribbon Cutting will be on Thursday, October 2nd from 5:00 to 8:00 pm.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Our second grade homework packets were sent home this week in a purple homework folder.  The completed packet is due on Friday, October 3rd.  

Classroom News

We had another busy and productive week!  It has been wonderful to begin the "sharing" part of our Morning Meeting this week.  It is a great time to learn about each other. 

During math class, we closely examined pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters to help us better identify them and tell them apart.  We learned several new math games this week:  Plus 1 or 2 Bingo, Build a Number (with place value dice), and Collect 25 Cents.  We made great progress with learning the values of each coin, trading coins, and counting groups of coins this week!

During our literacy block, students completed writing and illustrations on several story maps for various Frog and Toad stories.  In writing, we finished our writing prompts and launched our "small moments" narrative unit.  We read the beginnings to two beautiful stories, Owl Moon and The Leaving Morning.  We looked at ways that published authors write strong introductions to their stories.  On Thursday, we started writing our own introductions, describing when and where our stories take place and trying to grab our readers' interest.

Starting next week, I will just print the newsletter/blog for families who requested a paper copy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Hope everyone enjoys the weekend! 

Important News and Dates:

Our second grade homework packets will be sent home early next week in a purple homework folder.  I will send home a homework letter, too.

Our first ECO (Educating Children Outdoors) lesson will take place on the morning of Wednesday, September 24th.  Please help your child dress appropriately for an extended time outside.

The EMES All School Hike will take place on Friday, September 26th.

The EMES Open House and Ribbon Cutting will be on Thursday, October 2nd from 5:00 to 8:00 pm.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Classroom News

This week, we have been busy getting to know many classroom routines in second grade!  We start each day with a morning meeting, which allows us to greet each other, talk about the calendar and our daily schedule, listen to sharing, and participate in fun team-building activities. 

During our literacy times, we have been learning about basic story elements:  characters, setting, problem and solution.  As a whole group, we have listened to several Frog and Toad stories and have worked together or in pairs to fill in a story map telling about the story elements.   We also participated in a movement activity in which students had to choose ways to move like Frog or Toad during the Lost Button Story.  One favorite part was moving like Toad when he was very upset that the world is full of buttons, but he cannot find his button!

Students have been doing an amazing job during our "Read to Self" times each day.  They already have stamina to read independently and are making great choices when picking "just right" books for themselves.  The "Helper of the Day" can use this time to use the listening center with a classmate.

During our writing workshop, each student has been writing a personal narrative in response to a writing prompt as part of a pre-assessment.  Next week, we will start this exciting writing unit that allows students the opportunity to focus in on these special moments and stretch out their writing to include great details and descriptions. 

In math, we discussed place value as we played a "build a number" game using base 10 blocks and white boards.  We have also been learning our "turn around" facts, such as 5 + 4 = 9 and 4 + 5 = 9 using Cuisenaire rods.  We talked about how we can switch the order of numbers when adding and it does not give us a different answer, since the value of the numbers stays the same.  We also practiced all of the ways to make numbers, such as 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4.

During "discovery" time this year, students will learn about many science and social studies skills and concepts.  Our first social studies unit focuses on world geography.  We have started this unit by learning about the difference between maps and globes and about the various types of information we can find on them.  We colored in a world map and learned a fun "continents chant" to help us learn the names and locations of the continents and oceans.

Thank you to everyone who has returned the many beginning of the year forms that we have sent home!  Please return them early next week if you still have any at home.

Important reminders:

This Tuesday, September 9th is Picture Day!  Please remember to send in your picture orders and payment.

Sharing starts next week during our morning meeting.  Please help your child remember his or her sharing day.  

Please return the ECO forms as soon as possible.  We are hoping to start ECO lessons very soon!  I will keep you posted about dates.

Hike forms are coming home today.  Please return them by the due dates next week.

Homework Packets will be coming home next week.  I will send a letter in the homework folder that explains how our monthly packets work.

Have a great weekend!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back!  It has been wonderful getting to know everyone this week!  We have been enjoying our colorful classroom and all of the other new features of our school!

On Monday, we started the day with a special PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) celebration.  We played team-building games with Mr. Sherwin and the fifth graders outside.  Next, we went on a “passport” scavenger hunt around the school to help us get to know where to find places in our building.  Then, we wrapped up the special event with a tour of the outside of the building with Ms. Lyford.

 

In our classroom, students had the opportunity to write about their Hopes and Dreams for the year.  Next, we discussed expectations for classroom behavior that will help us to create a positive classroom community in which we can learn and reach our all of our hopes and dreams.  These expectations will be posted on our classroom PBIS tree.

It was so much fun to watch students completing their All About Me books this week.  We have been sharing these books with partners.  We also went on a class scavenger hunt to find out more about our classmates.

I will continue to send home paper copies of my classroom newsletter/blog for the first few weeks of school until I receive everyone’s paperwork letting me know if you would prefer a paper copy or to read the information on my classroom blog.  I will also attach our sharing and specials schedules to this newsletter.

The classroom blog is found on the EMES website under classrooms.  You can click on the "Follow by Email" box on the blog.  Then, you can add your email address so you will receive an email whenever new posts are added.   

I am looking forward to an exciting school year with this fantastic class!

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

What a Week!

What a fun and busy week!!!

On Tuesday, we were visited by Ms. Dunkling, Mr. Christensen, and Mrs. Lyford who told us about schools in East Montpelier. Ms. Dunkling and Mr. Christensen talked about their experiences going to the two room school houses around town for different grades. They also told us what it was like to go to school at EMES when it first opened in 1966. Mrs. Lyford gave us lots of information about the future of our school and what to expect when we return to the newly renovated school in August. Very exciting!

Technology Night was a wonderful success! Congratulations to all of our presenters who did a fantastic job telling about our Lego Robotics projects.

On Thursday, we participated in a World Cup soccer presentation in the gym. Thanks to Mr. George Cook for visiting us!

We participated in the East Montpelier Scavenger Hunt field trip on Friday morning. A big thank you to all of the family members who volunteered to help us for this special event! Please ask your child to show you his or her passport book and tell you what they learned today about East Montpelier.

Reminders and Upcoming Events:

Please return all library books as soon as possible. Also, please send in any lunch money before Thursday.

Monday, June 16th- Field Day (raindate Tuesday, June 17th)- All Day!

Please remind your child to wear his or her team color and appropriate footwear for running and outdoor activities. (No flip-flops, please). Students should bring a water bottle with their name on it. Also, students should wear/bring sunscreen, as we will be outside for the full day.


Thursday, June 19th- Last Day of School  Dismissal is at 12:30 after lunch.

Report cards will be mailed home after the last day of school.

Thank you to all families for being so supportive!  I have greatly enjoyed teaching your children this year!!!  I hope you all have a great summer!

 

Classroom News

The second and third graders did an amazing job at the concert on Thursday night!   It was so fun to see them up on stage performing.  They should be very proud of this accomplishment!

This week, the students in each class on our 2/3 team had the opportunity to share their learning with the other classes.  Our class focused on learning about schoolhouses in the past and present in East Montpelier.  Students choose a one or two room schoolhouse to research and then created a poster with facts about their schoolhouse, as well as other general facts about schools in the past.  Later, in our own classroom, we participated in a "build a space" movement lesson during which students created a one room schoolhouse of their own using their bodies to make the shapes of the objects and furniture that would be found inside.

On Thursday afternoon, we were visited by John Hall and his granddaughter, Clara, from Fairmont Farm.  They shared about the history of their farm and about dairy farming in Vermont.  We also learned about some of the new technology that has been developed to make farming more efficient and better for the environment.

Some important dates to remember:

Wednesday, June 11^th is the EMES Technology Night:  6:00- 7:30 pm

Second and third graders have been invited to present their Lego Robots at the EMES Technology Night.  They can come for all or just part of this event to share about their learning.

East Montpelier Scavenger Hunt Field Trip-  Friday, June 13^th

Thank you to everyone for returning this permission slip.  If you are a driver or other chaperone, please remember that there will be an informational meeting prior to the trip at 8:45 am.

Field Day- Monday, June 16^th (raindate- Tuesday, June 17^th)

Have a wonderful weekend!