HOW 3-24-17

Hello everyone,

Our week together zoomed by. We've been busily reading about our PLP (personal learning project) topics and writing down new facts about them. We also brainstormed questions to help us think about what kind of information we wanted to learn on our topics. On Thursday we took a closer look at some nonfiction text features in a Scholastic News article. We've been talking a lot about how these special features help us as learners as we read nonfiction texts and organize the information we are reading in our brains.

We are nearly at the end of Charlotte's Web. It will be hard to say goodbye to these friendly, brilliant, sly, courageous characters. Charlotte just had her "hour of triumph" at the fair during our read aloud time on Friday. Ask your child what her triumph was--what had she accomplished?

The weather this week has been nuts. Thanks for continuing to send your kids in with all their winter gear. I had thought mud season was starting and then it turned to winter again! Eventually the mud will return and we will still need to wear our boots and snow pants to keep our clothes and school clean and dry. Please remember to keep sending this important outdoor gear in until the ground is dry!

I look forward to meeting with all of you next week to check in on your child's progress!

Fox Kits Corner News

• We started writing facts on our PLPs (Personal Learning Projects). We learned the facts by reading in nonfiction books.
• Upgraded our GoNoodle champ, Rad Chad, again!
• We are going to learn about light. Next week we’re going to use flashlights to learn about light, energy and shadows.
• We learned new and different things.
• We celebrated one birthday this week!
• We did our new jobs this week. We switch jobs every week in our classroom.
• Our principal, Mr. Schneider, is doing a good job!
• We had the BEST week ever!

Have a great weekend!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Dates to Remember
Wednesday March 29 - Parent/Teacher Conferences after school
Thursday March 30 - 4 Winds 1:35-2:35
Friday March 31 - Parent/Teacher Conferences - No School for Kids
Thursday April 6 - Wizard of Oz dress rehearsal/in-school performance 1:30-3:15 pm
Whole week April 17 - 21 - Spring Break
Monday April 24 - School resumes

Highlights from a Wacky Week

Hello families,

What a wacky week! It's hard to believe that Spring officially starts on Monday when we just got this fresh batch of snow! Luckily the kids are still pretty excited for it and it does make the playground more fun than the sheet of ice it was before!

This week students chose their PLP (personalized learning plan)/report topics for our big informative writing project. We wrote down facts we already know on the topics and brainstormed the questions we want to answer to help us learn about our individual topics.

We are still reading Charlotte's Web by E.B. White but we took a break on Friday to read a funny book to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace.

We wrapped up our social studies unit on feelings. Of course this work will continue in our daily interactions with each other but we will switch to a new science topic at the end of next week--relating what we learned previously about sound waves to light waves and the way that light travels.

Second grade mathematicians continue working with coins and counting money. They sorted coins to find the total in each counting bin (upwards of $5.00 each). They also used two 20-sided dice to play Collect $5.00. This week we also began a transitional addition strategy called partial sum addition. This uses expanded form to break numbers in a vertical equation apart to add by place value. You'll see what this looks like next week in the math homework!

Fox Kits Corner News

• We are doing PLPs (Personal Learning Projects). We are picking out books, picking our final topic, writing what we know and writing what we want to know. We are glad to be done with our planning.
• We upgraded our champ, Rad Chad.
• We got new tables in the lunch room.
• It was St.Patrick's Day today! Lots of people wore green to celebrate. They want to find the leprechaun's gold.
• We learned about doing Jumprope for Heart in P.E.
• We had 2 really awesome snow days!!! We could hardly believe it!
•  Last week we got to meet the prinicipal, Mr. Schneider, who will finish the year with us.
• In P.E. we did Thunder Road! There is a race track outside the basketball court and you run around it 5 times. There are 2 detours, a gas station, and a pitstop. You go through them until time is up. Ms. Caswell plays really good music too, Kids Bop!

Have a great weekend!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Dates to Remember
Monday March 20 - All School Meeting (rescheduled) 9:15-10:00
Wednesday March 29 - Parent/Teacher Conferences after school
Thursday March 30 - 4 Winds 1:35-2:35
Friday March 31 - Parent/Teacher Conferences - No School for Kids

HOW 3-10-17

This week we began to think of research topics for informative writing. We began collecting books on our topics on Friday.

We are still reading Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. We also read Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson. This was another empowering story of leadership and peaceful change.

Today our class came up with a HUGE list of ways we can calm down when we notice clues in our bodies that we are having a big feeling (i.e. mad, worried, scared, sad, jealous). Here are our ideas!

• -         Hold hands with mom.
• -         Talking to someone.
• -         Think about your family.
• -         Think about a happy memory.
• -         Take deep breaths.
• -         Go outside and play.
• -         Think about happy things that could happen.
• -         Tensing and relaxing muscles.
• -         Go to my room to be away from people.
• -         Think of something happy.
• -         Drink some water.
• -         Take some space away from people.
• -         Take a walk inside or outside.
• -         Spend time with a pet.
• -         Snuggle with a stuffie.
• -         Give a hug. Get a hug.
• -         Count down from 10.
• -         Run around outside in the fresh air.
• -         Do some 5 finger breathing.
• -         Squeeze a stuffie very hard to get anger out.
• -         Get fresh air.
• -         Yoga/Brain Gym, like melting.
• -         Listen to calm music.
• -         Coloring to calm down.
• -         Writing in a journal.
• -         Snuggle with mom or dad.
• -         Read a book.
• -         Get your mind off your feelings.
• -         Rest your body, maybe take a nap.
• -         Stand somewhere and do nothing.
• -         Chew gum.
• -         Sit on your bed and take deep breaths.
• -         Go to your quiet space.
• -         Sit in a chair and watch someone cook.

We hope that you have a great weekend!

Our Last Week Before Winter Break!

Hello everyone!

We were busy worker bees this week--it was incredible!

We did one more big opinion piece to show all we have learned about this genre of writing. This week students had a choice of 2 topics: 1) What is your favorite season? or 2) How would you improve the playground at Rumney?  Students chose which topic they had a strong feeling about and did their best work without teacher direction and reminders about adding details or doing the final editing for punctuation and grammar. These are coming home today too so take a look at your child's great work!

We are loving our read aloud book, Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. We've been spending extra time talking about figurative language and the incredible vocabulary used in this book. We've been making lots of connections to the characters and events, too. On Friday we also read a new picture book to our classroom, If Kids Ran the World by Leo & Diane Dillon. This is a wonderful book with a message of love, kindness, caring, and peace.

In social studies we talked about how naming your feeling (when you have a big feeling) can help you know what to do next/how to solve your problem. To help us practice this we thought of times when we had various big feelings (i.e. exhausted, furious, panicked, happy, disgusted, etc.). Then we shared ideas about what to do when these big feelings occur. Here is a link to some techniques that are great for kids of all ages to do to help calm-down after having a big feeling. I've also put together a packet of information about this unit that is going home in folders today (Friday).

On Wednesday I sent home information (by letter in your child's folder or electronically) about signing up for parent/teacher conferences at the end of next month. I wanted to give you plenty of advance notice since I know scheduling can be tight! Here's the sign-up link again in case you need it.

This Friday was our last Winter Wellness. Thanks for supporting this great program at our school. Thanks also to our P.E. teacher, Mrs. Caswell, for organizing it. If you see her please let her know you appreciate it too!

Have a wonderful, long winter break!!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Dates to Remember
Monday Feb. 27 - Tuesday Mar. 7 - Winter Break
Wednesday March 8 - 1st Day Back from Vacation
Wednesday March 29 - Parent/Teacher Conferences after school
Thursday March 30 - 4 Winds 1:35-2:35
Friday March 31 - Parent/Teacher Conferences - No School for Kids

Highlights 2-17-17

Dear Families,

Another week has flown by. The snow we got this week has made the playground much more fun! Thanks for helping your child come prepared each day with all the outerwear they need to have fun in the snow at recess. We try our best to get all the gear home at the end of the day. If it doesn't come home it may end up in the over-flowing lost and found in the lobby. If you are missing anything and are at school please check there! Kids are also free to check lost and found for any missing items--just let us know wha to look for!

This week many students finished writing their opinion pieces about "How to Make the World a Better Place." These are hanging up on the boards outside our room. I also sent home the finished "I Wish I Had 100..." opinion pieces that we wrote to celebrate the 100th day of school earlier this month. With these pieces are: the student "check sheets" to help them edit their work for all the parts of opinion writing that are expected for a first or second grader (it is quite different); the graphic organizer that helped to plan out their ideas; and the teacher rubric we use that has a sliding scale so you can see the writing skills your child demonstrated in this piece and where it falls on the continuum of writing progression (below, at, and above grade level). If you have any questions about these please let me know!

This week we did more work about how to solve small problems by talking about how it makes you feel. Students had written down small problems that they thought could be solved by using an "I-Statement." Using these ideas we practiced a few together. Then pairs acted out the problem and solution for the class. The problems our kids had brainstormed ranged from "someone is talking when it's my turn" to "when someone isn't watching where they are going and bumps into you" to "I just want to play with my friend but he keeps running away from me." Being able to practice solving small problems like this in a safe, controlled classroom setting is a great way for kids to gain the skills and be able to transfer them to more independent use. They are making wonderful progress with this!

We also did some more work talking about feelings (sad, frustrated, energized, excited, etc) and identifying when we have those feelings. This can be a difficult thing to do (for kids and adults) but it is crucial for self-regulation. Knowing yourself and how you are feeling helps you know what you need to feel good and to be more successful.

We continue reading Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. We even had a special guest reader, Mr. Rosen, who read a chapter to us on Thursday and helped us think deeply about some of the interesting words and phrases used in the chapter.

We also read  a new book to our classroom, The Berenstein Bears: Kindness Counts. On Thursday we went to the Flynn Center in Burlington and saw a great play, "A Year with Frog and Toad" based on the books by Arnold Lobel. Everyone in our class has been reading this series independently or listening to one of the books at our Listen to Reading station. This show was a hit!

We have one more week before our winter break. Stay healthy, get some rest, and have fun this weekend!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Dates to Remember
Winter Wellness/Fitness Fridays - 12:30-3:30 on Jan. 13, 20, 27; Feb. 17, 24 (make-up date since we didn't go on 2/10)
Monday Feb. 27 - Tuesday Mar. 7 - Winter Break
Wednesday March 8 - 1st Day Back from Vacation

Valentine's Day Love

Happy Valentine's Day!

The whole day was full of love and kindness. We were excited because a Valentine's Phantom came to Rumney during the night and left us a trail of hearts on the snowbanks!! They were exciting to see as we came into school today. We also had a great celebration and had fun seeing all the mail from our friends. Thanks to all of you for supporting our Valentine's Day celebration!

HOW 2-10-17

Hello families,

We've been working on opinion writing for a few weeks now. Sometimes our opinions are alike but sometimes they are different. We've talked about how it's okay to disagree and have different opinions than our friends. We have to be respectful of other people's opinions and accept that not everyone is the same. To help us think about this we watched this Kid President video on youtube about "How to Disagree" and had a good conversation about it. Watch it again at home if you can! The main points that we learned are:
1) Treat people like people. Treat them with respect.
2) Listen to the other person.
3) Pause, Breathe, Love. - Don't say anything back unless you can say something nice.
4) Accept the other person's opinion. You don't have to agree with their idea, but you do have to accept that it is what they think.

On Thursday we read a really powerful Scholastic News article entitled "How Kids Changed the World." This directly linked to our writing topic this week of "What would you do to make the world a better place?" We had great class conversation about the amazing thing the kids in this article did and how we all truly believe that kids can make a difference. Ask your child what he/she could do? Lots of small things can help with big problems.

In second grade math we've begun to work with money. We studied the different US coins this week and have begun counting money. (This is a great, and easy, thing to practice at home, too!) We are also using number line strategies to add numbers within 100 or within 1,000. In first grade math they've been doing lots of work on the number line. They are using what they know about making numbers to 10 to help add numbers greater than 10 by decomposing numbers, getting to the next 10 (decade) and then adding on what's left.

We continue reading Charlotte's Web by E.B. White during read aloud. In science we compared the daylight data we've collected from Summer, Fall, and Winter. We noticed many patterns about daylight and made predictions about what will happen to the daylight in our next season, Spring. In social studies we've begun learning about "I Statements." This is a system for talking about our feelings when trying to solve small problems. Here's what we know so far.

How To Use I-Statements:

Start by identifying how you feel: mad, sad, frustrated, etc.

I feel __________

State the reason you feel this way or what happened that led you to those feelings.

when __________

Try to identify the reason the person’s actions led to those feelings for you.

because __________

Let the person know what you want instead.

I would like __________ .

Just a reminder that we will be having a Valentine’s Day card exchange on this upcoming Tuesday Feb. 14^th from 2:00-2:45. We will exchange cards and play a game together. Bringing valentines is a choice, not a requirement. If your child would like to bring in valentines please make sure there is a valentine for each child in our class. 

We also have our field trip to the Flynn onThursday! I have all the permission forms so we are all set to go! It's going to be a great week. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

❤ Mrs. Fox

Dates to Remember
Winter Wellness/Fitness Fridays - 12:30-3:30 on Jan. 13, 20, 27; Feb. 17, 24 (make-up date since we didn't go on 2/10)
Tuesday Feb. 14 - Valentine's Day Card Exchange 2:00-2:45
Thursday Feb. 16 - Field Trip to the Flynn Theater to see "A Year with Frog and Toad," departing Rumney at 10:30, back to Rumney around 3:00
Monday Feb. 27 - Tuesday Mar. 7 - Winter Break
Wednesday March 8 - 1st Day Back from Vacation