News from 1/2 Fox!

Hello all,

Tomorrow is our first Fitness Friday so I thought I'd send along our news today in case you had any questions. Here is the plan: on Fitness Fridays we will not have recess. Instead we will eat lunch in our classroom at 11:30, then do community cleaning and sharing before packing up. Buses for swimming (at First in Fitness), skating (K-4 skates at the Waterbury rink), and cross-country skiing/snowshoeing (at Morse Farm) will be loaded at 12:30 and leaving Rumney by 12:45. Students will bring just the equipment they need and leave backpacks at school. Buses will leave at 2:45 to return to Rumney for  dismissal. Since our lunch time is 30 minutes earlier than usual you may want to pack an extra snack for your child to eat upon returning to Rumney (before dismissal).
*If you plan on picking your child up from the Fitness Friday venue you need to email the office to let them know by Friday at 10:00 a.m. You will need to be at the venue by 2:40 for pick-up. Buses will leave the Fitness Friday location at 2:45. If you plan on picking your child up and are not there by 2:45 the bus will leave with your child on it and you will need to pick up at Rumney instead. Please plan accordingly!


Winter is here in full swing! Please make sure your child comes to school each day with winter boots, coat, snowpants, hat, and gloves/mittens. Please also send in indoor shoes each day--this is important for comfort and school cleanliness! These can either stay in our classroom or go back-and-forth between school and home.


In other news, our first week back has been amazing! Everyone seems well rested, happy, and ready for action. This week we reviewed our classroom rules and talked a lot about growth mindset. We talked about how it's important to challenge ourselves, accept feedback, try our best, and believe in ourselves. Learning doesn't just happen--you have to care about it and make it happen! I shared an experience I had in my life when I had a fixed mindset and shared how I changed my actions and ideas to have a growth mindset and improved! We also read a few books that demonstrated the concept and examples of growth mindset. We read: The Little Engine that Could and Ordinary People Change the World: I am Amelia Earhart by Brad Meltzer.

It's the time of year when we reorganize our literacy time and many new literacy groups began this week. Some groups are building up their sight word banks and learning word chunks or varied vowel sounds to help them be more accurate readers. Other groups are diving deeper into comprehension in their Book Buddy groups and doing more discussion and writing about what they are reading. This is so exciting!

We also began a new writing genre, opinion writing. The purpose of opinion writing is to learn about one another and share our ideas. We know that people often have different opinions and this is good! This week each of us wrote about our favorite season and gave reasons why it is the best season for each of us.

So far 2016 has been amazing. I can't wait to see what the rest of this year will bring for this group of incredible community members and learners!


Dates to Remember
Monday January 18 -- No School for Students -- Teacher Inservice Day
Thursday January 21 -- All School Meeting 2:30pm
Thursday January 28 -- New Construction Open House 6pm & Winter Choral Concert 6:30pm