Winter Solstice

Hello families,

We spent the past week learning about how the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun at this time of year which makes longer nights and shorter days. With the beginning of Winter we will await the return of the sun as more and more sunlight is added to our days until the Summer Solstice. We also learned about Winter Solstice traditions all over the globe from thousands of years ago til today.

Winter Solstice is usually around December 21st so we were pretty close with our wonderful Winter Solstice celebration today. We sang our Winter Solstice song, lit candles to remind us that the sun and light will return, and made wishes to honor the tradition of hoping for good and happy things to come our way.

I was amazed that everyone kept their Secret Snowflake really secret until we exchanged gifts! It was amazing. We also enjoyed delicious Solstice Snacks. Thanks to everyone for contributing to make this a special celebration. Here are a few photos taken during our Solstice song & candle lighting ceremony.

    

    
      

 

I wish you all a happy, healthy, and safe holiday break. See you Tuesday January 5th when school resumes in the new year!

Best Wishes,
Theresa

Highlights on 12-18-15

December 18, 2015

Hello families!


What a wonderful week we spent together. It amazes me how hardworking these students are, even with the excitement of the holidays looming and enveloping us all.

Students have been busily publishing their holiday painted essays and working on their best handwriting—focusing on size and formation of lowercase letters. We finished reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Farm with Sarah before she left. We also read a few stories about Kwanzaa and Christmas traditions this week.


Tuesday was Sarah’s last official day of student teaching with us. We had a special closing circle to share our wishes for Sarah and her future in teaching wherever she goes. We also had great news—she’ll be with us for a few of our Winter Wellness Fridays in January! Sarah surprised the class with copies of her favorite childhood audiobook, Newberry: The Life and Times of a Maine Clam.


Second grade mathematicians worked more with open number line strategies for subtraction. They also got the basics of telling time on the hour and half hour on digital and analog clocks. We’ll continue this work this month and next with the goal of reading clocks with 5 minute increments this school year.


We’ve begun talking more about Winter Solstice and the science behind it this week. Next week we’ll study the history and legends of Winter Solstice in social studies. We’ll have our Solstice Celebration on Wednesday. Please note I did change the start time to 12:30 to make sure we have time for everything before our Guidance class at the end of the day. It’s a really special celebration and I would hate to rush things and miss out on this important classroom community event. Please remember to send your child’s gift exchange gift in next week labeled with your child’s name (i.e. From: Theresa). It stays a secret until the moment the gift is exchanged!


That's the news for now. Thanks for checking the blog--I really appreciate when you read our weekly news and announcements!

Dates to Remember:

Wednesday December 23 – School Spirit Day: Comfy clothes/PJs and bring a small stuffie to school day!

Wednesday December 23 - Winter Solstice Celebration 12:30 - 2:15 pm

Thursday Dec. 24 - Monday Jan. 4 -- Holiday Break, NO SCHOOL

Tuesday January 5, 2016 -- 1st school day in the new year!

HOW 12-11-15

Happy Friday!

This week we continued with our integrated social studies and writing unit on families and family traditions at home and around the world. Each of the children worked on writing the ‘Parts Of’ a holiday they know well, thinking about all of the traditions associated with this holiday. We also continued working on our ‘Painted Essay’ from the survey of family holidays and traditions that went home. We discussed how to write an introduction with a focus statement, how to organize the main points of our paper, and how to write a conclusion. Below are some photos from some of our lessons together about this writing process. They are now entering the editing process and will be able to start working on their final draft sometime next week!

    

In 2nd grade math we have moved into practicing subtraction with our doubles, near doubles, and two apart double the middle fact families. We will keep practicing with these same fact families with subtraction more next week. We have also been working on learning how to use a number line to help us with subtraction, finding the difference between two numbers. We will have more opportunities to work with this strategy next week. We will also start to work on telling time with analog clocks.

During read aloud this week we continued reading in Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm, discussing the character traits and making predictions. We also had some opportunities to read stories about some different holidays and traditions from different cultures. You should see an article come home that focused on the different parts of holidays using examples from many different holidays. We had a chance to read this article yesterday and the children really enjoyed it.

Here are a few pictures from our 4 Winds lesson with Honi and Abby about conifers and cones!

We are all looking forward to our Winter Solstice party and secret snowflake! Thank you to everyone who sent in forms about secret snowflake. We are still waiting to hear back from a few of you so please check to see if you have those at home. If you could send them in some time early next week that would be great!


One quick reminder to please send your children with appropriate gear for recess. We are approaching winter, though it doesn’t feel much like it today, so please start sending hats, gloves, warm coats, boots, etc. Boots are especially important right now because with this warmer weather there is also a lot of mud outside. Consequently, clean indoor shoes are equally important! Please send indoor shoes with your child each day or if you have an extra pair of shoes they can stay at school all week!


Thank you again for having such amazing children, we had another wonderful week together!


Important Dates to Remember:
Thursday December 17 - All School Meeting 2:30-3:15 pm
Wednesday December 23 - Winter Solstice Celebration 1 - 2:20 pm
Thursday Dec. 24 - Monday Jan. 4 -- Holiday Break, NO SCHOOL
Tuesday January 5, 2016 -- 1st school day in the  new year!

Have a great weekend
~Sarah and Theresa

Winter Concert Song Lyrics

12-9-15

Hello all,

Today Ms. Krikorian (Ms. K) announced the winter concert songs to our class. The concert will be Thursday January 28th at 6:30 pm. Please let her know (call her at school or email her directly) if there is an extenuating circumstance that will no allow your child to be there. She told the class that attendance is mandatory and reminded them that performance is part of their work and grade in music class.


Here are the lyrics to the 2 songs both 1-2 classes will sing in case your child wants to practice them at home.


Don’t Worry, Be Happy

Here’s a little song I wrote.

You might want to sing it note for note.

Don’t worry, be happy.


In every life we have some trouble,

But when you worry you make it double.

Don’t worry, be happy

(Don’t worry, be happy now)



Doo, doo, doo ------- (2x)



Ain’t got no cash, ain’t got no style.

Ain’t got no gal to make you smile.

Don’t worry, be happy.



When you worry your face will frown.

And that will bring everybody down.

Don’t worry, be happy.

(Don’t worry, be happy now.)



Doo, doo, doo ------- (4x)



Don’t worry, be happy!



Words and music by Bobby McFerrin

Arranged by Roger Emerson



You Are My Sunshine


You are my sunshine,

My only sunshine.

You make me happy

When skies are gray.

You’ll never know, dear

How much I love you.

Please don’t take my sunshine away.



I'll always love you


And make you happy,


And no one else can come between.


Now we will always

Be together.

You're the sunshine of my dreams.

Highlights from Sarah's 1st Leadership Week

Dear Families,

First, I want to start by saying that I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to get to know all of your amazing children. They are so kind and caring each and every day. It is such a wonderful community to be a part of!


This week we started an integrated social studies and writing unit on families and family traditions at home and around the world. Each of the children worked on writing ‘How-To’ instructions about a food tradition that was important to them. We also learned about the different parts of nonfiction writing in the form of a ‘Painted Essay’ and are now starting the process of writing our own painted essays from the survey of family holidays and traditions that went home before thanksgiving break.

In 2nd grade math we started the week reviewing our doubles, near doubles, and two apart double the middle addition facts. They had their first fact fluency quiz on Wednesday and they absolutely rocked it after just two days of reviewing! We will practice these same fact families more next week transitioning away from addition and into subtraction. In addition to reviewing these fact families we have also been working more on 2- and 3-digit number strings, practicing organizing and showing our math thinking when adding more than 2 numbers together at a time. We will keep working more on this next week.

1st grade mathematicians have been continuing their work with make-10 addition facts and using number lines to help with adding.


During read aloud this week we began reading The Fraidy-Cat Cure in Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm, discussing the character traits of some of the new characters introduced in this chapter (Phoebe & her family members). We have also been making some predictions about how Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle might cure Phoebe of her many fears. We also had a chance to read The Greedy Python, looking for juicy words to help expand our vocabulary, and practicing retelling the story afterwards to build comprehension.

This Friday Mrs. Fox talked to the children about the upcoming Winter Solstice party and the Secret Snowflake tradition. Please keep an eye out for letters with information about these events coming home.

This has been a great first week and I am so looking forward to next week!

Have a great weekend!

~Sarah

Highlights of the Week 11-20-15

Hello families,

This past month Sarah has been increasing her presence in our classroom. She has developed great relationships with our students and helps tremendously in our day to day learning opportunities, routines, and curriculum development. She has been incrementally taking over some whole group and small group instruction in reading, word work, writing, and math. After Thanksgiving break she will begin her two leadership weeks. During this time Sarah will be in the primary teaching role for whole group instruction while I will be in the support role co-teaching with her. (Small group reading and word work instruction will remain the same.)

This week we wrapped up our matter unit. These were the highlights students shared about their learning:

• Matter is everything, even a tick.
• Liquid, solid, gas are states of matter.
• Matter is made of elements.
• Plasma is a fourth state of matter.
• Without matter the world wouldn’t exist!
• Solid changes to liquid
• Liquid changes to gas
• Gas changes to liquid
• Liquid changes to solid
• Our bodies are made up of solids, liquids, and gases
• Sometimes matter can change and change again
• Sometimes matter changes and can’t change back.
• The water cycle shows how water changes through the 3 states of matter.

Next week we'll begin an integrated social studies and writing unit on families and family traditions at home and around the world. We will be writing a short report about one holiday and the traditions we have to celebrate it with our families. There is a letter and survey about that hopefully you received yesterday. Please help your child fill out the survey and send it back by Monday November 30th! We'll use these as the planning work for our report writing during the month of December.

I am excited to say that the 2nd grade math curriculum blog page that I've been working on since September is finally up and running! If you have a second grader please check it out for information about the math curriculum and student achievement standards used here. There are also A TON of links for online games and activities you could do with your child at home to support our math learning here at school. The link to my 2nd grade math page (as well as Ben's 1st grade math page) are in the righthand sidebar of this blog. For those of you who have first graders please also note that Ben Weiss will begin his paternity leave next Monday and will be back after the holiday break in January. Long-time Rumney veteran Scottie Brower will be his long-term sub until that time. Welcome back, Scottie!

We began to look at some Thanksgiving books and poems this week and read Scholastic News articles about the lives of pilgrims and natives during the first Thanksgiving. We also practiced these fluency reading strategies: back up and re-read & read smoothly!

First and second graders published their next small moment story this week, illustrated them, and shared them by reading to their peers. We had an All School Meeting on Thursday. Since our Thanksgiving songs were such a hit at Primary Sing we got the news before math that day that we would also perform our Thanksgiving song again for the whole school at the ASM! We played math games with our buddies on Friday.

This will be the last post this month even though we still have school on Monday and Tuesday next week! In advance we'd like to wish you a happy and safe holiday.

-Theresa & Sarah

Thanksgiving Song

Our class has been working on composing a song about Thanksgiving with Ms. K during music class. We performed it for Ben's class during primary sing. Check out the video of our performance - I recommend watching it in Full Screen!

Here are the lyrics to our song:

Thanksgiving Song

Written by Mrs. Fox’s 1/2 Class

Oh Thanksgiving, I’m glad you’re almost here.

I love to eat my dinner

With all my family here!

Turkey, stuffing, cranberries,

Pies, potatoes and gravy.

Oh Thanksgiving, I’m glad you’re almost here.

I love to eat my dinner

With all my family here!

Caramel apples, games and fun,

Yummy food for everyone!

Oh Thanksgiving, I’m glad you’re almost here.

I love to eat my dinner

With all my family here!

Oh Thanksgiving, I’m glad you’re almost here.

Oh Thanksgiving, I love you every year!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Highlights of the Week 11-13-15

Hello families,

What an incredible class we have! Even with a crazy week with me being out so much students were engaged in their learning and showed great Rumney CARES to Sarah and Mrs. Joslyn who held down the fort.

Students looked closely at the writing process and finished the steps in order to publish their next small moment story (personal narrative). On Friday our 6th grade buddies typed our stories.
These are our steps:
1) Planning
2)Writing/Drafting
3) Peer Review
4) Editing
5) Publishing

We practiced a few comprehension strategies with our Scholastic News, "Veteran Mom", as well as with our Read Aloud, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm by Betty MacDonald. This week we practiced: Ask Questions, Check for Understanding, and Infer (think about what you know; fill in; connect).

We did one last experiment seeing what happens to solid butter when heat is added. We also had a fun 4 Winds lesson with Honi and Abby about leaves. If you can help with our next 4 Winds lesson in December please let either Honi or me know! Here are a few pictures from this science adventure!

 

Second grade mathematicians continue gaining accuracy and/or fluency with their subtraction facts from the N+10 and N+9 families. They use number ladders, fact wheels, fact family triangle cards, and cuisenaire rods to build up their fact knowledge banks.They learned a few strategies for adding a string of addends (i.e. 7 + 9 + 5 + 11 = ___) and explaining their thinking verbally as well as on paper. They continue to work on place value, writing numbers in expanded form, and writing numbers in words. First grade mathematicians continued their work with the number line and worked in stations to practice addition facts, number writing, and combinations of 10.

There is one more week to submit a Scholastic book order. There is a link to our ordering webpage on the right-hand sidebar of this blog! If you want any books as gifts for the holiday please be sure to make an order online or send in a check with your order form by this upcoming Thursday! One last highlight is how much fun Sra. Donovan has made learning body parts in Spanish. On Friday they even made this amazing live diagram!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Dates to Remember
Thursday Nov. 19 -- Scholastic Book Orders Due!
Thursday Nov. 19 -- All School Meeting 2:30-3:15
Wed-Fri Nov. 25 - 27 -- Thanksgiving Break (no school)

Highlights of Our Week 11-5-15

Dear Families,

This week we became chemists! We've been doing experiments to see how and why matter changes. This week we continued to watch our cup of water evaporate. We also added heat to some types of matter (ice cubes, water, a rock) to see what changed or what stayed the same. We also decreased the temperature of some matter (water, orange juice, a pencil, a shoe) by putting them in the freezer to see what changes would happen.

We read many science related read alouds this week:Clouds by Anne Rockwell, Cloud Dance by Thomas Locker, What is a Solid? by Jennifer Boothroyd, and The Falling Raindrop by Neil Johnson and Joel Chin.

In literacy we discussed how we can use strategies both to help our comprehension or understanding of the books while also using the same strategy to work on our accuracy or reading the words correctly. We began our CAFE strategy wall together; CAFE stands for: Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Expand Vocabulary. We discussed how readers of all ages and abilities use strategies to work on these 4 parts of reading for their whole lives!

Writers added many details to their small moment stories this week. They conferenced with peers to ask questions and add even more details. By the end of the week most students were editing their stories to get ready to publish!

Wednesday I was able to meet with some families for conferences. Most other families I will meet with tomorrow, Friday. Remember there is no school for students on Friday!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Highlights of the Week 10-30-15

Greetings families!

We've had a wonderful week together. On Monday I read the class 3 versions of my small moment story, "Logan's Loose Tooth." We discussed how the same story can be written differently by adding more details, transitional words, and juicy or strong words. By editing and adding these story elements our stories get more interesting and create a better picture/movie in our head as we read. This week everyone began writing another small moment story trying to add more detail to this story than their first stories. They read their stories (so far) to a partner and helped brainstorm details to add by asking questions to one another. They also helped Sarah elaborate her small moment birthday story by asking clarifying questions. Our writers are on a roll!

We've continued reading aloud books about matter and the water cycle. We've discussed and experimented a lot with water this week because it's so easy to see how matter changes states by observing water. We read Water Dance by Thomas Locker, The Falling Raindrop by Neil Johnson and Joel Chin, and excerpts from I Wonder Why: Soap Makes Bubbles and Other Questions About Science by Barbara Taylor.

Throughout the week we did experiments with water: creating a cold cup surface with solid water (ice) to see condensation form (attracting water vapor from the air to the cold surface and change into water droplets); we watched solid water (ice) melt and turn back into a liquid; we made a "mini water cycle" in a cup by the window to see if we had enough sunlight to recreate the cycle; we left a cup of water out uncovered to see how much would evaporate; and we combined a solid (baking powder) with liquid water to see if we could create a gas (fizzy air bubbles). We also continued brainstorming examples of the 3 states of matter that we can find here at Rumney. We were also overjoyed to have a double rainbow over Hunger Mountain right outside our window on Thursday!

During literacy time many of our students continue to favor free writing. I love to hear the imaginative stories they are coming up with! We still can't use our Listen to Read station since we'd have to share headphones. Until we get the "all clear" message about lice from Ms. Israel we will unfortunately not have access to our audiobooks. Instead students continue practicing reading to themselves and reading fluently and expressively aloud to a partner. In teacher led book buddy groups we continue to practice word decoding strategies, word and vowel patterns, fluent re-reading, and comprehension strategies to monitor our understanding.

Second grade mathematicians continue to practice subtraction fact fluency using the fact families from our N+1, Make 10, N+10 and N+9 addition families. We are also composing and decomposing 3 digit numbers by place value, and practicing reading and writing numbers to 1,000.

On Friday we made some Halloween decorations for our room (and to take home), read a funny Halloween book, T-Rex Trick-or-Treats by Lois G. Grambling, and did Halloween word searches and drawings with our buddies.

We wish you all a wonderful holiday weekend!
-Theresa & Sarah

Dates to Remember:
Wednesday November 4 -- Parent/Teacher Conferences after school
Friday November 6 -- NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS; Parent/Teacher Conferences all day
Tuesday November 10 -- 4 Winds 2:30-3:20 p.m.
Wed-Fri Nov. 25 - 27 -- Thanksgiving Break

HOW 10-22-15

Hello families,

This week we discovered how shape has a lot to do with the properties of the three states of matter. Students remembered that solids keep their shape, liquids move and change shape, and gases flow and have no shape. I'm hoping to do some experiments about how matter interacts and changes in the next 3 weeks. Can anyone send in: 1 box of stove-top jello, or 5 antacid tablets?  We also began reading books about matter and examples of solids, liquids, and gases. This week we read: Matter is Everything by Becky Gold, Wind by Honor Head, and A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder by Walter Wick.

During literacy block many students are finding the joy of partner writing. They are planning stories together, writing, and monitoring each other to make sure what they wrote makes sense. Another favorite literacy time activity is playing Oh no! or Yikes! -- these are games that practice sight word reading and spelling. Our literacy block groups are running smoothly too. Everyone in the class reads in a group with me. Some groups meet more frequently than others depending on the skills each child is developing. Some groups also began meeting with Sarah (our student teacher).

In writing students assessed their own writing using the Calkins guidelines for narrative writing. Then they took their typed stories and began to put them into their published books. Children were responsible for cutting and gluing their page chunks in the correct order to build their book. Then the job of illustrating began! Many careful illustrations were made this week to match the words they had already written.

Second grade mathematicians worked more with fractions this week as well as with fact families. We are still looking at the connection of fact families in addition and subtraction. First grade mathematicians are making 5 and making 10 as well as looking at how numbers are put composed (tens and ones).

We had 2 birthdays, our first popcorn day, and an All School Meeting this week--it was quite exciting! Next week I'm sure we'll have lots of excitement about Halloween which is rapidly approaching. We will not be having a Halloween activity at school though, so please have your children save their costumes for home and trick or treating next weekend.

Don't forget to sign up for a parent/teacher conference at this link if you haven't done so yet. Or, if you don't have internet at home send me a note giving a time range when you'd like to come in Friday November 6th. As of this morning there are conferences still available between 9:20 and 2:40.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Highlights of the Week 10-16-15

Hello families,

We had a wonderfully productive short week together. I am so happy to be healthy and back again. With the seasonal weather changing many people are getting colds or flu-like viruses. Make sure to keep sending a water bottle in with your child so we can all stay hydrated and healthy! Please also make sure to send your child with appropriate outerwear and footwear each day. We go outside for recess unless it's pouring rain or below 0 degrees.

This week we looked at our finished drafts of our small. We edited them to make sure our sentences made sense, to have capitals at the beginnings of all sentences and punctuation at the ends. We also did a little bit of work fixing spelling of commonly used words (from our word wall) and also tried out a few puzzling words. When we write spelling is not our main focus--the point of writing is to communicate our thoughts, ideas, and stories. If we don't spell everything right, that's okay! First and second graders are not expected to use "dictionary spelling" for all of their words; rather they write the sounds they hear and the word chunks they know. On Friday our buddies helped to type our stories so we can begin the publication process next week!

Second grade mathematicians have been working on fractions of a whole (halves, thirds, fourths/quarters). They are also practicing addition strategies and using those fact families to gain fluency in addition and subtraction facts to 20. Currently we're reviewing and practicing Number+1, Make 10, Number+10, and Number+9 fact families. First grade mathematicians are also working on addition strategies to gain fluency for addition facts. They are learning about place value in numbers to 100.

On Thursday we got to help our school again by scrubbing and chopping the potatoes we harvested from the garden. Our class did all this work with guidance from staff and garden parent, Talitha. The kids were so excited to use special crinkle cut knives that are designed to help children (ages 2+) practice knife skills (they are from Montessori School Tools). These crinkle cutters can't cut skin but were perfect for potatoes. Our class loved using them and they were so proud of how much they were able to do. On Friday Deb cooked them up in the kitchen for a school-wide garden snack!

 

 


On Friday we welcomed another new family to Rumney and gained another first grader in our wonderful classroom community. This week we also welcomed a new student teacher from UVM to our class. Her name is Sarah MacDonald. See the following blog post for a brief message from Sarah.

Reading Scholastic News articles with Sarah.

Parent/Teacher conferences are coming up, Wednesday afternoon Nov.4 and school hours Friday Nov. 6. Remember, there is no school for students on Friday Nov. 6! Please follow this link to sign up for your 20 minute conference slot. Please record when your conference is. Conferences are back to back so prompt beginning and ending times are crucial!

Enjoy this autumn weekend!


Dates to Remember
Thursday October 22: All School Meeting 2:00-2:45
Wednesday November 4: Parent/Teacher Conferences scheduled 3:15-5:00
Friday November 6: Parent/Teacher Conferences scheduled 8:15-3:20

A Message from Sarah, our Student Teacher

Hello!


My name is Sarah and I am a so excited to be joining Mrs. Fox’s classroom and working with all of your wonderful children. They have been so welcoming and had so many great questions already! I’m sure they will be able to tell you all of the most important things about me, like how old I am and whether or not I am a kid, so I’ll just give a brief introduction of myself. I am senior at the University of Vermont and will be graduating in the spring with a degree in Early Childhood Education and Psychology. I am also minoring in dance at UVM. I have been dancing since I was 7 years old and hope to continue dancing for as long as I can. I am a teacher of many things, including dance, yoga, and young children. I am from Maine, a state that I am absurdly fond of and will talk about often and always.


I look forward to meeting all of you!


Sarah

Highlights of the Week 10-2-15

Dear families,

It was so wonderful seeing so many of you at Open House last night. Thanks for joining us to see what your child has been up to so far. I hope that you learned a lot about your child's school routines and projects they have been doing. If you were not able to attend the school directory, Hopes and Dreams, our First Week Flip Book, and a "Just Right" Book bookmark will be coming home in today's mail.

This week some Literacy groups began. I meet with small groups of children during our Literacy Block. In these groups we work on reading strategies about decoding words, comprehending our reading, and responding to reading orally and in writing. Groups of children working together sometimes read the same books but not always. However each group is working on similar goals.

We continued stretching out our small moment stories this week, retelling the 5 parts using pictures and the 5 digits of one hand. Then we added some keywords to help us retell the important parts and finally we began writing and illustrating each part on a page in our writing packet. We always write rough drafts first. Next week we'll begin to look at how to improve our writing by editing.

We were excited to begin our first science unit this week: Matter and its Interactions. We talked about what we already knew about matter and questions we had. We learned that matter is everywhere! Matter is anything that takes up space. Groups began to brainstorm examples of the 3 states of matter: solid, liquid, gas. In the coming weeks I'd like to do some experiments with the class to show how matter interacts and changes. Do you have any of these supplies at home you could send in for experiments: 1 box of stove-top jello, or 5 antacid tablets?

I continue to be impressed by this community of learners. On Monday we welcomed a new first grader to our class and a new second grader to Ben's class (and the 2nd grade math class). Our Rumney kids are so friendly and kind in helping our new students feel welcome and comfortable while they learn so many new names and routines.

I am still looking for parent volunteers to help Honi with our 4 Winds program one Tuesday afternoon a month (2:00-3:15). Honi Bean Barrett has volunteered to coordinate for us so please send me a note/email or email her if you are interested in helping or need more information before making this commitement! ( honibean@hotmail.com )


Dates to Remember:
Thursday October 8: Picture Re-Takes
Monday October 12: Columbus Day --  NO SCHOOL
Tuesday October 13: Teacher Inservice -- NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS


In other news...
Harvest Dinner

Please help us FILL the donation boxes in the lobby for the Middlesex Food Shelf! Our goal is to bring in 600 items. That’s only 3items per student/staff member.

We have a list of most helpful items from Dave Carkeet, the director of the food shelf. We’ve broken down the wish list by classroom to keep from getting 600 cans of tuna. This is just a general guideline. Please note that every and all donations are appreciated! 

PreK/K – Breakfast cereal, both hot and cold. Nut butters, jams, jellies. 

1^st/2^nd grades – Pasta, beans, canned soups.

3^rd/4th grades – Tuna, canned meats (such as beef stew, sausage, ravioli), canned veggies.

5^th/6^th grades – Convenience food (mac and cheese, other boxed foods), condiments (mayo, spices, salad dressings).

Rumney staff – Toiletries, soaps, paper products such as toilet paper.

Highlights of the Week 9-25-15

Hello families,

This week I continued doing reading check-ins with students--assessing how they decode words, how well they comprehend what they read, and how many common sight words they can read as quickly as they can read their own names. We also did some word work check-ins to see what spelling and word patterns students already know and what they need to work on this year. The purpose of these check-ins is to get a sense of what each child really needs so I can provide "good fit" instruction for all!

We finished binding our Hopes and Dreams books, got our independent writing journals (a moment of highly anticipated joy by many in the class), and wrote about the All School Hike. We also began to learn about writing Small Moment stories. This will be our first focus in Writer's Workshop. This week we brainstormed moments in our lives where we felt a strong emotion (happiness, shock, sadness, excitement, etc). We will use these small moments to write and illustrate our first books of the year. So far we've zoomed in on the emotion in our moments and began to do quick sketches for the 5 parts of the story. Some of us also practiced retelling our stories using the digits on one hand to count out the story events in order (first, next, later then, finally). 

Second grade mathematicians continue working with 2-D and 3-D geometry as well as counting money and number patterns. First grade mathematicians continue to work on the number line, using cuisenaire rods to help with addition fact strategies, and use cluster cards to practice subitizing. 

On Friday in Buddies first and second graders were paired up with a 6th grader who will be their buddy for the first semester this year. Today they took a survey to find common interests and learn a bit about one another.

Four Winds
Have you heard of our awesome parent-volunteer led science program, Four Winds? The students always love our extra science lessons from 4 Winds. This is a monthly commitment (one Tuesday a month from 2:00-3:15 in the classroom). Honi Bean Barrett has volunteered to coordinate for us so please email her if you are interested in helping or need more information before making this commitement! ( honibean@hotmail.com )


Dates to Remember:
Thursday October 1: Open House K-2nd 6:00-7:00, Open House 3rd-6th 6:30-7:30
Thursday October 8: Picture Re-Takes
Monday October 12: Columbus Day --  NO SCHOOL
Tuesday October 13: Teacher Inservice -- NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

Highlights of the Week 9-18-15

Hello families,

What a wonderful week we've had! We excitedly began our Literacy Block in the mornings, allowing children to choose how they practice reading and working with words. So far we've learned what it looks, sounds, and feels like to: Read to Self, Partner Read, Listen to Read (audiobooks), and do Word Work (practice reading and spelling commonly used words). On Tuesday I introduced our Literacy sign-up chart and we are learning how to use this.

We finished writing our Hopes and Dreams books and designed our covers, too. Next week we'll put them all together. We can't wait to share them with you at our Open House on October 1st!

We began sharing this week and it has been great. We're working on being an active listening audience during sharing time and asking questions for more information. We are learning the difference between questions (asking) and comments (telling).

This week I've begun to do some reading check-ins with students in this class. This will continue next week.

Today is our hike. Gorgeous weather so I can't wait to get outside with everyone! Thanks to our plentiful parent volunteers who make this day so special for our small groups of hikers!

Important Dates:

Thursday October 1: K-2 Open House 6-7pm, 3-6 Open House 6:30-7:30pm

Talking About Our School Days

Hi parents,

If your child is anything like mine it may be hard to get details about our days together at school. Here is an abbreviated list of interesting questions you can ask to get the conversation started (I got this list from an article I read of the weekend--you can read it, too at this link if you'd like:  http://parent.co/30-questions-to-ask-your-kid-instead-of-how-was-your-day/).


Questions a kid will answer at the end of a long school day:

1. What did you eat for lunch?
2. Did you catch anyone picking their nose?
3. What games did you play at recess?
4. What was the funniest thing that happened today?
5. Did anyone do anything super nice for you?
6. What was the nicest thing you did for someone else?
7. Who made you smile today?
8. What new fact did you learn today?
9. What challenged you today?
10. If school were a ride at the fair, which ride would it be? Why?
11. What would you rate your day on a scale of 1 to 10? Why?
12. If one of your classmates could be the teacher for the day who would you want it to be? Why?
13. If you had the chance to be the teacher tomorrow, what would you teach the class?
14. Did anyone push your buttons today?
15. Who do you want to make friends with but haven’t yet? Why not?
16. What is your teacher’s most important rule?
17. What is the most popular thing to do at recess?
18. Does your teacher remind you of anyone else you know? How?
19. Tell me something you learned about a friend today.
20. What is one thing you did today that was helpful?
21. When did you feel most proud of yourself today?
22. What rule was the hardest to follow today?
23. What is one thing you hope to learn before the school year is over?
24. Which person in your class is your exact opposite?
25. Which area of your school is the most fun?
26. Which playground skill do you plan to master this year?

HOW September 11, 2015

Dear Families,

What a whirlwind week! We have been busy learners in our 4 days together. We wrote and illustrated academic and social goals for ourselves. Next week we’ll write personal goals, too!

On Tuesday we made Listening Tools and had to use a lot of Cooperation to get the job done. Everyone is doing a great job practicing how to use these tools appropriately (keep in hands only, cannot be distracting to themselves or others—the goal is to use them to help them listen more attentively).

Many students have also begun to use gum to help them focus and that has been going really well too! We can’t have gum outside our classroom (lunch/recess) or during P.E. and Music but many of our Allied Arts teachers are testing it out to see if it works in their classes too. Typically they get a piece of gum after snack so it’s not wasted when they have to throw it away to eat. They get another piece after lunch for the afternoon. So far, so good! It’s up to each student to monitor their gum consumption and we did have to talk a few times about having only one piece of gum at a time. If you gave your child permission to chew gum, check in with your child to ask if it’s working well for him/her!


We began to learn important Literacy Block routines this week. We talked about “Good Fit” books and how to use the 5 finger rule to check if a book is too easy, too hard, or just right. We know our brains are like rubber bands and we want to stretch them to grow stronger (not too much so that they break or too little so they don’t grow). We did lots of book shopping in our classroom library to fill our book boxes with Good Fit books.

We learned what it looks, sounds, and feels like to Read to Self and made some impressive growth this week—increasing our stamina from 2 minutes to 15 minutes of reading quietly to ourselves!

We also learned what it looks, sounds, and feels like to Partner Read. We are working on how to invite others to read with us, how to share the reading, and what the right volume is for reading to someone. Partner reading is a fun way to practice reading fluency! We increased our stamina from 5 minutes to 10 minutes of quiet, focused partner reading!


2nd grade mathematicians have been using their knowledge of geometric shapes (triangles, rhombuses, hexagons, trapezoids, squares, circles) to fill in a large shape outline with many combinations of pattern blocks. They are noticing patterns of how to combine smaller shapes to fill the same space as a larger shape (i.e. 3 triangles make a trapezoid, 3 rhombuses make a hexagon). They are also learning how to identify coins and tell them apart (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters). We are counting money too—try it together at home!


We read a few picture books, Boundless Grace and The Reading Race, but we also began our first chapter book—Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.

We had our first Primary Sing, when we get together with Ben’s class and Mrs. Beidenstein and I lead the classes in song (new and familiar). Mrs. B even accompanies us on her ukulele! We had a fantastic week indeed.



Important Dates:

Monday September 14: Sharing will begin this week

Monday September 14: Hike Permission Slips are due!

Thursday September 17: All School Meeting 10:30 a.m.

Friday September 18: All School Hike

Thursday October 1: K-2 Open House 6-7pm, 3-6 Open House 6:30-7:30pm

Highlights of the Week 9-4-15

Happy Friday!

We've had another wonderful week together. We have been enjoying many books from our classroom library together. We finished reading Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia and spoke about how it's always okay to make mistakes. In our class we learn a lot from making mistakes and accept that everyone makes mistakes and that is okay! We read Big Al  to talk about making friends and Officer Buckle and Gloria helped us get our ideas ready when brainstorming class rules. We read Pebble, a story about a sense of belonging--an important concept as we are building our classroom learning community.

We talked about what Rumney CARES means for us and looked at our class poster. 

We also came up with rules we want to have for our class this year.

1. Try your best!
2. It's okay to make mistakes.
3. Nice words and friendly play.
4. Have your own personal space.
5. Include all people and ideas.
6. Try to make good choices.
7. Do Rumney CARES.

Finally we read Amazing Grace about a girl who has big dreams for herself and proves that if she works hard that she can make her dreams come true. We began talking about what our Hopes and Dreams are for ourselves during this school year. We know that if we persevere we too can make our Hopes and Dreams come true.  Next week we'll begin writing our individual goals--academic, personal, and social. Over the weekend, please ask your child what he or she hopes to learn or accomplish this year.

Today I sent home a permission slip about gum chewing in class. Research has shown that chewing gum increases oxygen flow to parts of the brain and can help focus and memory also. If you allow your child to chew gum in my classroom please sign and return the bottom portion of the permission slip. Please note that you must provide sugar-free and low odor gum for your child. Children are not allowed to share gum! Below is a link to a short article or listen to Scientific American's 60 Seconds Science podcast about gum chewing.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/gum-chewing-may-improve-concentrati-13-03-26/

We also talked about how some people can focus better when their bodies are active and engaged also. Next Tuesday we will all make rice, lentil, or bean filled listening tools that children may use to help them focus during group times in the classroom. If you are free on Tuesday between 10-10:30 and want to help make them please join us!

On Thursday I modeled what sharing looks and sounds like by sharing with the class some photos from my wedding. Students were able to practice asking questions for more information. Next week I'll model sharing a special thing to me, too. The week after Labor Day students will begin sharing--there is a bi-weekly sharing rotation on the letter I sent or emailed home to you on Thursday! I want to reiterate a few guidelines we have for things we share during this time: stories about things we do with our families (i.e. went to the fair, visiting grandparents, trip to Boston), special items (i.e. treasure box, musical instrument), photographs (current or family favorites), things we made (i.e. a drawing, a game, jewelry), or cool things from nature (i.e. a found snake skin, fossils, shells from the beach). We do not share about toys, electronics, or play dates/birthday parties.

After our closing circle on Friday we met for the first time with our 6th Grade Buddies. We did some activities all together to get to know each other a little bit.

Mr. Rosen also told us about a fun event next Friday, Dress Like a Construction Worker Day! Wear your best construction worker attire, helmets, tool belts, but please keep your edged tools at home. At 3:00 PM that day we will assemble outside for an ALL SCHOOL PHOTO to help us remember the day. Rumney Parents will be invited to join us in costume and pick up their children. Photographer Jeb Wallace Brodeur will be invited to take a picture and maybe we will make the paper!

It was a hot week but we stuck it out and did some fantastic learning and team work! Enjoy your long weekend!

Important Dates:
Monday September 7: Labor Day -- NO SCHOOL
Tuesday September 8: 1-2 Fox Makes listening tools! 10-10:30 a.m.
Friday September 11: Scholastic Book Orders are Due
Friday September 11: Dress Like a Construction Worker Day! 
Monday September 14: Sharing will begin this week
Thursday September 17: All School Meeting 10:30 a.m.
Friday September 18: All School Hike (more info and permission slips coming home later)

Potato Harvesting!

Hello families,

Last spring my class of 1st and 2nd graders planted potatoes for our school community garden. Today our class harvested about 300 potatoes from this raised garden bed! Thanks to Talitha and Honi for joining us on this adventure. Everyone was excited to get elbows deep in the soil on this "treasure hunt!"

  

Highlights of Our 1st Week!

August 28, 2015

Dear Families,

Welcome to our first post of the year. I am Mrs. Fox or Ms. Theresa/Ms. T. This past summer I got married so students are helping me get used to my new name!

This week has been all about flexibility. We appreciate your understanding as we begin our year in construction. We have been learning about the many new changes to the building and the new routines. While rooms are being renovated and constructed all of our Allied Arts classes (except for P.E.) will be in our classroom. Until the gym is emptied lunch is also in classrooms. Part of our playground is unavailable during construction also so we've walked the boundaries together and talked about safety on the playground. We also had a fire drill on the first day of school so everyone knows what to do and where to go in case of an emergency.

Together we've begun to explore books in our classroom library. We also had guided discovery to learn about how to use many of our classroom materials while making a book all about our first impressions about first and second grades.

I read aloud books this week about some of our favorite characters--Skippy Jon Jones, Rainbow Fish, and Amelia Bedelia.

Please note that our class has P.E. on Thursdays and Fridays. Students must have sneakers for all P.E. classes! Please either send sneakers in on these days or leave a pair of sneakers in your child's cubby.

Lots of mail went home this week. Thanks so much for your quick turn around on all the paperwork for the office! Yesterday I sent home our classroom informational letter. Please send me an email ASAP so I have your preferred contact information. I will send you a link to our class blog each Friday so you can read all about our week and classroom news.
My email is tfox@u32.org

We've played many games and explored fun materials in our classroom: connecting cubes, unifix cubes, blocks, checkers, legos, markers, free draw paper, and more!

This first week together has been amazing. I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful group of first and second grade friends!!!

Dates to Remember:
Next Thursday, September 3rd, is Picture Day.

The Final Highlights of This Year

June 12, 2015

Dear Families,

This has been a busy, busy week! On Monday full play practices began on the stage. We loved watching each other practice. We made props and headpieces on Tuesday. Wednesday we practiced staging the whole thing so we'd be ready. Thursday we had our dress rehearsal in the morning with Ben's class, Kindergarten, and Mrs. Costello's class in our audience. We also performed in the afternoon for our 6th grade buddies and families. Thanks to everyone who pitched in and helped practice lines, find or make costumes, helped with props, or helped with clean-up before the All School Meeting! Next week we'll watch the videos of our plays together on the SMARTBoard....but unfortunately the files are too large to post on the blog. Sorry!

We had our final days of math class, science, and handwriting this week also. We also had our final 6th grade buddy time and made posters to commemorate our time spent together all year. Students have begun to bring home some school materials and more of their work.

Friday was our field day down at Wrightsville Reservoir. Thanks to all who contributed to our picnic--we couldn't have done it without you!

This week our room has gotten a little crowded as I've begun the many stages of packing. The room also looks sparse with so much taken down from the walls. As I am packing up the classroom the hardest things to take down are the pieces of art we've accumulated.

Here's a portrait of our class that a few class members made at the beginning of the school year:

This Saturday I'm having a packing party in the classroom--adults only. I hope to get as many of the books and materials packed as possible. I plan to be at school around 9:00 a.m. and will be here til dinner, so 6:00 or 7:00 p.m.. If any of you parents have an hour or two to spare and want to help me pack or just assemble and close boxes, please come! To keep this busy process manageable please do leave your kids at home (they'll get a chance to help next week).

On Monday and Tuesday all the students will be helping to clean the furniture and bins--hope for sun so we can scrub outside and let things dry! We'll also do some final organizing and take home the remainder of our work and materials. On these days we'll also finish reading My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett, do some writing, and have time together as a class to commemorate our wonderful year together.

Wednesday will be the last day of school. We'll have Step-Up Day in the morning (the first time gathered with new classes in next year's classroom) and also the final All School Meeting to watch the 6th grade slideshow. After lunch we're off to the gauntlet before dismissal to send our 6th graders off the U-32.

This will be my final highlights of this school year since we have to be out of the building right after the kids on Wednesday! I want to thank you so much for a wonderful year. I've loved getting to know your children and seeing them grow all year.


Have a wonderful summer and see you in August! 

A Few Photos From Our Dress Rehearsal!!!

Here are a few pictures taken during our morning dress rehearsal.

"Grouchy Groundhog"

"The Magic Closet"

"Late for Soccer"

"Hush, Puppy!"

"In the Flower Garden"

1/2 T Actors and Actresses!