Highlights 4-28-17

Hello families!

We've had a wonderful week together. The warm weather, new projects and work at school, and various special events this week have been invigorating!

On Monday we learned about the 4 families of instruments (percussion, string, woodwind, brass) and got to try out a bunch of them at the Vermont Symphony Orchestra musical petting zoo. It was an incredible experience! On Tuesday we did a surprise project with Hannah from the PTO. On Friday Barb and Dan from No Stings Marionettes came back to put on a puppet show for us--"Wasabi, a Dragon's Tale."

This week our writers color coded their notefacts into topic groups then cut them out to begin organizing what they learned (and what they want to teach others) about their topics into topic paragraphs.

During Literacy blocks play groups began to practice reading fluently, leaving pauses for actions in our acting, and noticing what the group is doing well individually and together. Each group is working on collaborating and making artisitc decisions together to create a play that you will enjoy!

To coincide with our plays we read different versions of the 3 folk tales that we'll be performing. This week we read The Bourbon Street Musicians by Kathy Price, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka, and Burro's Tortillas by Terri Fields.

In second grade math we began a new unit on story problems (word problems) using all they've learned about place value, adding and subtracting strategies, and deciphering math language. This week we were detectives looking for the clues in the stories to help us know when to add or subtract to find the answer to the story. We also thought carefully about what was the missing information--a part or the whole? In first grade math they are continuing their work with measuring and fractions. On Wednesday first graders were very brave as many visiting teachers (myself included) observed the lesson that day during a "Lesson Study." Kindergarten, first and second grade teachers from Doty, Berlin and Rumney worked with the WCSU Math Coach to design a lesson together and observe many aspects of the learning. It was an amazing experience.

With the warmer weather we're finally having it's time to talk about spring footwear. It is Rumney policy that students have sneakers or sandals that stay on their feet for P.E. and recess (i.e. not flip flops). Flip flops are okay for indoor shoes as long as they have secure footwear for recess and P.E. Thanks for your help in making sure your child is ready for each day's activities!

Earlier this week I sent home permission slips for upcoming field trips. All the 1/2 classes will be going to the Montshire Museum of Science on Tuesday May 30th. Thanks to many of you who already returned those slips. There's still plenty of time to get them in but we do have 3 chaperones who have already volunteered to go with our class--Carrie Tatro, Ray Mikus, and Shelley Pembroke. First grade families also got another field trip slip for the U-32 Book Buddies event. Each year the 7th graders have a writing project where they create a children's book to give to children at the elementary school. This year since the 7th grade class is so small only our 1st graders will go to this event (the second graders went last year when they were 1st graders). While the 1st graders are away the 2nd graders will stay at Rumney to do a fun activity together.

Finally I've updated the "Dates to Remember" list below to reflect all the dates that I know of for things to come for the remainder of our year. I know the end of the year gets busy so I wanted to give you as much warning as possible! As always let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Have a wonderful, warm weekend!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Dates to Remember
Thursday May 11 - 4 Winds/Special Science with Karen 1:30-2:30
Friday May 19 - Our Class Plays, 2:00 seating, 2:15 showtime!! 
Wednesday May 24 - Spring Concert 6:30 pm
Friday May 26 - 1st Grade only - Book Buddies @ U-32 9:15-11:15
Monday May 29 - Memorial Day - NO SCHOOL
Tuesday May 30 - All First/Second Graders Field Trip to the Montshire Museum of Science 9 am-3:30 pm
Thursday June 1 - Fine Arts Night 6:00 pm
Friday June 16 - Field Day @ Wrightsville Reservoir (rain date Mon.6/19) - Save the date! (More details to come.)
Tuesday June 20 - Step Up Day (moving up to meet their new teacher and gather with the new class for next year!)
Tuesday June 20 -- Final All School Meeting, 6th grade slideshow & t-shirt presentation
Tuesday June 20 - Last Day 1/2 day, 12:30 dismissal

Highlights before Spring Break

Hello families,

The warmth and sun this week was literally a breath of fresh air! 

This week we read 3 play scripts, and coordinating picture books of these fairy or folk tales, so children could choose which play or which character they'd most like to be this year. We also got to compare and contrast the picture books and scripts to notice what is the same and what is different. Our three plays will be: The Bremen Town Musicians, The Three Little Pigs, and The Little Red Hen. Ask your child which play he/she will be in! After vacation scripts will be sent home for reading fluency practice to do as homework within the 20 minutes of daily reading at home.  We'll also be practicing in our play casts here at school for the month leading up to our plays on May 19th.

Students finished reading non-fiction books on their PLP topics, writing notefacts, and editing their work (checking for punctuation, capital letters where they belong, correctly spelled word wall words, and rereading to check syntax). There were some intricate questions students had about their topics that we could not find in our books. We used kiddle to help us answer the remaining queries. After vacation we'll begin to organize all we've learned into topic groups!

On Friday we had an All School Meeting where the Primary Singers performed "The Maple Tree Round" for the school. We also made fun pattern block designs and towers with our 3/4 buddies!

Fox Kits Corner News

• We're done with our PLP research!
• Willoughby, Chloe and Lilly shared their story, Koala Times, with us. We all got a copy to take home if we wanted one.
• We had an All School Meeting today (Friday). We sang "The Maple Tree Round" because it's the end of sugaring season.
• We saw who won the Red Clover picture book contest at our school. The top winner was Glamourpuss!
• In GoNoodle we have done over 1,000 minutes!
• We started our spring daylight journal in science.
• We changed jobs in our room--we do this every week.
• We had an awesome week!!

Today kids are bringing home all shoes/boots/outdoor gear that are in our classroom. Hopefully we'll have a warm week ahead that will melt the remaining snow and dry the ground a bit! It'll be nice to not have to wear boots and lug all of our wet weather gear back and forth for a while!  Enjoy your time together, rest, relax, be healthy and have fun! I hope you all have a fantastic spring break!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Dates to Remember
Whole week April 17 - 21 - Spring Break
Monday April 24 - School resumes
Monday April 24 - VSO Musical Petting Zoo (for K-4 classes) 12:40-1:30
Friday April 28 - No Strings Marionette Puppet Show
Thursday May 11 - 4 Winds/Special Science with Karen 1:30-2:30
Friday May 19 - Our Class Plays, 2:00 seating, 2:15 showtime!! 
Monday May 29 - Memorial Day - NO SCHOOL

HOW 4-7-17

Hello families,

This week we revisited some past, and important, themes in our read aloud books. On Monday we read The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes and talked about how mistakes help us grow and learn. We began to hang up new posters around our room to help remind us that we are learners. Part of learning is not knowing everything. Another part of learning is making mistakes and using those mistakes to help us learn and grow (academically, socially, and personally). On Tuesday we read The Skin You Live In and discussed all the differences that we can see about people on the outside. We asked ourselves do these outward differences mean that we're different on the inside? Why are people different? We had a great discussion about the importance of diversity and acceptance. On Wednesday we read another book with an empathetic message, Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts. We saw how thinking of others and how they are feeling can make everyone feel good. We also talked about the difference between wants and needs. On Thursday we read a new twist on the Cinderella story, Interstellar Cinderella, about a girl who dreams of fixing fancy rockets and decides to become the chief rocket mechanic for the prince instead of marrying him! On Friday we read Little Red Writing another fun version of a fairy tale. This time our hero was a littel red writing pencil who learned all about telling a story, editing and revising her work.

During writer's workshop we looked at the many notefacts we have collected so far. We reread them to check for punctuation. We also tried to add juicy or interesting words or phrases to make them more exciting to read or more descriptive to teach the reader more about that idea or fact. Next week will be our last week researching the final guiding questions we have but haven't answered yet. It's pretty exciting!

Second grade mathematicians have been becoming more fluent with their number line subtraction strategies. They are working on telling time to 5 minute increments and beginning to learn the diverse language that we use to talk about what time it is. We also played a few more money games this week. First grade mathematicians continued their work on various adding strategies and using the number line. They are also learning about fractions.

On Thursday we got to see the dress rehearsal of the school play, The Wizard of Oz! It was amazing. It got us ready to start thinking about our own plays. Next week our class will check out the scripts and choose which play they most want to be in.


**Next week we are forecasted to have a few amazingly warm days! However we still have snow, ice and LOTS of puddles on the playground. Students will still need to wear boots and snow or rain pants until the ground is dry. Please send your child in with appropriate outdoor gear!
Fox Kits Corner News

• We got a new champ for indoor recess, Blob Ross. We finished Just Gary.
• Some of us started to edit. We checked our words, looked for word wall words, and checked for punctuation in our PLPs.
• We did some fun stuff at indoor recess like block creations, gonoodle, played with the stretchy ball, and the fun game mancala.
• On Thursday we saw the practice play of the Wizard of Oz.
• We are making placemats in Spanish and next week Sra. Donovan is going to laminate them and we'll have a snack next week using them!!
• We celebrated a birthday this week! (It was Chase's but it was actually on the weekend.)
• This was a really fun week!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Dates to Remember
Wednesday April 12 - All School Meeting 9:45-10:30
Friday April 14 - Scholastic Book Orders due
Friday April 14 - Parent Input forms for Class Placement due
Whole week April 17 - 21 - Spring Break
Monday April 24 - School resumes
Monday April 24 - VSO Musical Petting Zoo (for K-4 classes)
Friday May 19 - Our Class Plays, 2:00 seating, 2:15 showtime!! (I know this is a ways out but mark your calendars to attend our shows that afternoon!)
Monday May 29 - Memorial Day - NO SCHOOL