ECO HAS BEEN CANCELED FOR TOMORROW.   Our leader is injured and unable to join us.  However, we were lucky to have a good chunk of time outside this morning before the rain came.  Needless to say, the children really enjoyed the snow!  

Each Friday we meet with third grade partners.  We work on a variety of different things together.   It is amazing to see how responsive kindergarteners are to their partners, and in turn how responsible the third graders are in their role.  Today we played a variety of math games together.

We had another great ECO morning. The children are mastering the routine of getting ready for a day in the forest.  While some of us were a little hot on the bus, I think we were all glad to have our warm clothing as  the temperature dropped through the morning.  When we  first arrived at the forest we played a running game and sang a song before splitting into three groups.  Each group followed a different route to our established meeting spot.  Children immediately ran to check on their mouse houses and many began working on repairs while some built new houses.  Soon we constructed a fire circle and gathered around to hear a story about the different kinds of wood needed to build a fire.  Ask your children if they remember the three kinds we gathered today.  Then we set out in groups again to collect the wood. We had snack around our fire, which proved to be too small for making tea!  We will try again next time, Wednesday, December 19th, which will be our last ECO morning until March.  Please let me know if you'd like to join us.

Making mouse house repairs.

Constructing a new mouse village!

Creating a safety circle around our fire.

Listening to a story about different kinds of wood for a fire.

Gathering fire materials.

Enjoying snack outside the safety circle.

Finishing snack by the fire.

ECO tomorrow!  The temperature looks to be quite a bit chillier than today- please send your child with   warm socks, warm winter boots, snow pants, winter jacket, hat and mittens.  Also please send a snack and water bottle.

Below are some pictures of children during math stations.  This week we have been working on creating patterns with number or arrangement instead of color.  We have also continued working on breaking patterns into their units and sequencing numbers.

Making a 1-3 pattern

Breaking a pattern into units

Playing a pattern guessing game

Sequencing numbers

Today Hannah shared her new baby sister with us.  She is almost two weeks old and we were amazed at how tiny and delicate she is!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  I spent time with my family in New Hampshire and had a couple of quiet days at home as well.  My own children were very appreciative of not having to get up quite so early!

Now that we are back in school we have been quite busy.  In math we are well into a unit on patterns and have been spending lots of time identifying, creating, and continuing various patterns.  This week we have worked on breaking patterns into their individual units (red, orange or AB).   We are also continuing our work with numbers, identifying, counting, representing and sequencing numbers greater than 10.  For many children moving from one decade to another is challenging (29 to 30 etc.)  To reinforce this skill we have been playing a game called POP that my son taught me.  We count a given sequence around the circle over and over, for example 18-23.  The last number is the POP number and that person gets to line up, get ready for lunch etc.  We keep playing until one or two students are left.  The children really enjoy this game and are getting good counting practice as well.  We have also been playing Rocket to practice sequencing numbers.  This game was included in the packet I sent home earlier in the year.  We began playing with a 12 sided die and have moved on to a 20 sided die, which is a bit more challenging.

I have started meeting with small groups during reading time.  I generally meet with four students at a time and the groups are flexible and constantly changing.  While I am meeting with groups the other children are quietly reading, either predictable books from their book bags or books from our classroom library.  We are continuing to work on sight words in a variety of ways:  spelling them with our bodies, writing them, finding them in the morning message or in songs or chants, and reading them on sight word rings.  I am amazed by the progress of this group.  They are extremely motivated!

In science we have continued to talk about rocks and so many children have brought in wonderful rocks to share, spurring more conversation.  Yesterday pairs of rocks were passed out to the class.  Each child drew his or her rock with as much detail as possible and chose three words to describe it.   They then took turns sharing their descriptions and trying to find the person who had the same rock.    Today we used clay to explore the ways that rocks are constantly changing.

Winter is here and we still go outside twice a day.  Please make sure your child comes with warm boots, jacket, hat and mittens every day. I also strongly encourage snow pants- the playground is much more fun when children are warm and dry.

Today Michael's mom, Amy Denis, came in to teach the class about gun safety.  We discussed different reasons people may have guns at their houses and the importance of treating guns seriously.  Because guns can be so harmful, she cautioned us about pretending to use guns in a way that is threatening to others.  Most importantly she talked to the children about what to do if they ever come across a gun:  stop, don't touch the gun, walk away, and tell an adult.  Amy shared the addresses of two valuable websites that people may be interested in.  The first, http://kidshealth.org/kid/watch/house/gun_safety.html#  came in gives a little more information about gun safety, and the second,  www.projectchildsafe.org   explains how parents can get free gun locks from local police departments.

Thank you to everyone for attending conferences.  I hope you all have a peaceful and relaxing holiday!

We had another fabulous day in the forest.  Despite the frosty weather everyone stayed warm.  Thank you for sending your children well prepared.  After making frost angels and playing a game, we headed into the forest.  Children were eager to check on their mouse houses, most of which were still intact.  Several children thought they saw evidence of visitors to their houses!  While we ate our snacks we talked about a recipe for a forest.  We then spent a large chunk of time in small groups gathering ingredients for this recipe.  We ended by writing in our ECO journals before our walk back to school.  Thank you to our volunteers, Sheila, Matthew's mom and Marya, Lucy's grandma  We were also joined by Lindsay Vandal, who works for North Branch Nature Center and runs ECO programs for Union Elementary School in Montpelier.  Our next ECO session is Wednesday, December 7th (3 weeks away because of the Thanksgiving break).  Children will have an opportunity to use potato peelers to peel bark from sticks during this session.  Today in your child's folder is a tool permission form that will need to be returned for your child to do this.  Please let me know if you would like to join us!  I will see you all in the next few days for conferences.

We have ECO tomorrow!  We will be retuning to the Wu Forest.  While it looks to be a sunny day it will also be chilly.  Please have your child wear winter boots, snow pants, winter jacket, hat and mittens.  Also please send a water bottle and snack.

Next week will be a busy week for us.  On Tuesday we have been graciously invited to visit TD Bank North.  We will leave school at 9:45 and take the bus to the bank.  We will be at the bank for about 30 minutes, getting a tour and learning about what banks are and how they help people.   We should be back at school by 11:00.  On Wednesday we have ECO and will be traveling to the Wu Forest again- please send your child with warm clothing!  On Thursday we have the school-wide Thanksgiving luncheon.  Parents are invited and everyone has a sign up form in their backpacks today.

For the past month or so we have been trying to earn cubes during specials.  This has been a more challenging time of day for the class.  We have particularly been working on listening and being respectful.  Our goal was to fill a jar to the halfway point and this afternoon we had an extra long choice time and special snack (cider and pretzels) to celebrate meeting this goal.

I have been busily assessing students and am right in the middle of completing report cards, which will go home next week.  Conferences will also be held next week and the Monday and Tuesday of the following week.  In the next 24 hours or so you should receive information about scheduling a conference using our online scheduler.  I will be offering conferences Thursday, November 15th, Monday, November 19th, and Tuesday, November 20th.  If for some reason none of the available slots work for you please let me know and we can make arrangements to meet at a different time.  I'm looking forward to meeting with all of you soon!

Some of the students in our class have been expressing a strong interest in homework- begging for it in fact!  I will never send mandatory homework, but since there is interest I will start sending some of the things we work on in class for extra practice at home if children are interested.  The interest seems to be mostly in worksheet kinds of things, so this is what I will try to send.  If your child does the work and would like to bring it back to me any time, I'd love to see it.  Today I have sent home a couple of math pages.  The only materials needed are dice or a deck of cards.  We have done similar things during math stations so the tasks should be familiar.  While we have done a lot of one more, one less work, the + and - symbols are still relatively new, so children may need reminders about these.  Other great things to work on at home are counting from 0-100, and counting starting from any number, say beginning at 23, or 47.  Practicing naming numbers one more and one less than a given number is also a great activity.  We do this at school by rolling a die, saying the number, and quickly saying what comes just before or just after.  This gets more challenging with many sided die.

We have completed our science unit on living and non-living things and today we began our next unit on rocks.  I have asked everyone to bring in a rock by early next week.  Any rock works!

Today during our reading time everyone was given a book baggie with several books they could read.   For most children these are emergent texts that have just a few words.  They follow a predictable pattern with pictures that provide clues about the text.  For example I can run, I can jump etc.  The books are a mix of homemade books that the children have written some of the words in, and real books, which tend to generate a lot of excitement.   Some children will read these books by focusing on the words, while others may rely solely on the pictures.  At this point either is fine and both provide great practice for future reading.  After several weeks of practice the homemade books will come home to make room for new ones.

Today we also worked on illustrations for our mouse story.  We began by sketching the pictures to make sure they were just right and included lots of detail.  Later we painted them.  Once they are dry we will put the words on and put the pages together to make our book.

As I'm sure your child told you, last week during ECO we spent a significant amount of time building mouse houses.  Since then we have been working on a class story about a little mouse who lives in the Wu Forest.  Writing a story with the input of 16 authors takes some time and discussion.  We have been slowly plugging away at the story, talking about the important elements to include in any story (beginning, middle, end, problem, solution), gathering ideas and voting if necessary.  Today we added some final details and the written version of our story is complete.  Ask your child to share it with you.  Our next step will be to break it into pages so each child can be part of the illustrating process and then we will turn it into a class book, with potential for a sequel!

Today in your child's folder is a list of the first 20 words on the Fry's sight word list.  Recognizing some sight words is an important component in the development of reading and kindergarteners are expected to recognize 15-20 sight words by the end of the year.  We have been focusing on is, at, the, you, on, I, and am.  Many of these appear in our morning message every day or at least several times a week and I and am occur frequently in writing.  I am sending this list primarily for informational purposes, but if your child has an interest in working on them he or she could create flash cards to practice them, or practice them through short notes- either your child could write a note to you or you could write a short note to your child and have him or her try to pick out certain words.

Today the boys in the class met with Katie Babic our guidance counselor.  They worked as a team to create a giant tower!

We had a fantastic ECO morning in the forest.  Thank you for sending your children prepared- it was definitely chilly in the woods.  The highlights of our morning were building mouse houses and choosing nature names.  We also learned a new song, heard a story about a tiger and a mouse, and had tea that was prepared in a kelly kettle.  Ask your child to tell you about all of these things- this afternoon they were eagerly sharing their nature names with anyone who passed us in the hall and there was a general buzz of excitement. When I asked the children to share their favorite part of the morning most couldn't pick just one thing!  Thank you to our adult helpers Lucy's grandma Maria, Jack's mom Erika, Keegan's mom Stephanie, and Matthew's mom Sheila.  Please let me know any time you would like to join us.

Today in your child's orange folder is an informational sheet about number sense and ways to help develop this along with a packet of math games that I have collected from various resources. They vary in level of difficulty and skills, but hopefully there is at least one that will appeal to everyone.  We have played Five Frame Fun and Build a City in class and your child should know each of these.   If your children are like my son, they may enthusiastically play the games at school, but prefer not to play them at home- that's fine!  I'm sending them along as an option, but not something that has to be done.

Katie Babic, our guidance counselor has been meeting with all of the boys and all of the girls on alternate Thursdays to work on friendship skills.  Each group has gone once and both loved it.  While on group is with Katie I have the opportunity to do similar work with the children who remain in the classroom.  Coincidentally both groups worked on friendship skills today by building.  The boys who were with me worked in 3 groups of 3.  Each team had the same 30 blocks to create a structure.   When they were finished we were struck by how different each structure was, even though each group used exactly the same blocks.  The  7 girls worked as a whole group building a tower with Katie.

It is getting chilly and our playground is notoriously windy.  Please make sure your child come with good clothing for recess.  At this point everyone should come with a jacket- we can always remove them if it is too warm.  Thank you for your help with this!

We have a very enthusiastic bunch of writers in our class.  During Writers Workshop the last couple of weeks children have been working on making books with a beginning, middle and end.  We started with planners to help us map out our stories and then we have used these to create the pages of our books.  Many children are starting to write some if not all of their own words as well.  When the books are finished we have been putting laminated covers on them and children have been using permanent markers to write titles. (This step is very motivating as I have almost every color marker!)  We have a basket in our room that holds a growing collection of kid written stories.  After we have had a couple of weeks to enjoy them here they will be sent home to make room for the next batch!

In science we have been documenting the rapid transformation of our corn seeds.  Children have been making scientific drawings in their science notebooks showing the change that has been taking place over time.  We are working hard to show the different colors we see and to label our drawings.  As our discussion of living things has shifted to plants we have also been checking out the different kinds of trees that we have growing around the school and collecting leaves from these to make leaf books.  We were slowed down just a bit by the damp weather this week, but hopefully our books will be completed by the end of next week.

During ECO on Wednesday we did a scavenger hunt looking for colors of the rainbow outside.  We are now representing all of those colors in a class weaving.  We have a stick loom hanging on our wall and are slowly weaving in the different colors.  I have loads of yarn for this, but if anyone has brightly colored ribbon they would like to donate we would love to have it.  In preparation for our walk back from the Wu Forest during our next ECO session today we took advantage of the fantastic weather and walked down the sidewalk about halfway to Bridge Street.  We will try to take at least one more practice walk next week.

Enjoy the three day weekend!

We had a fantastic first day of ECO despite the rain!  It was pouring!  The children didn't seem phased though and they were wonderful participants for the two hours that we were outside.  We engaged in a variety of activities around the playground from playing a tag game to creating our faces with clay to gathering all of the colors of the rainbow- ask your child what was his or her favorite part.  Thank you to everyone for sending your children prepared- being dressed appropriately makes a huge difference in  comfort and happiness!  Also a huge thanks to our two volunteers, Keegan's mom Stephanie and Lucy's grandmother Maria.  For our next five sessions, which will take us through December 12th, we are planning to visit the Wu Forest, accessing it via the cemetery just over the Bridge Street covered bridge.  We will be traveling there by bus each time and walking back to school at the end of the morning.  While we had a fantastic day today, the playground itself can be a bit distracting and our options for exploration are somewhat limited.  We are very excited to get into a forest setting.  Please let me know if you would like to join us for any of the sessions.

OUR FIRST DAY OF ECO IS TOMORROW!  You will notice a little tag attached to your child's backpack reminding you of this.  You can just leave it on the backpack and I will collect them tomorrow!  Please make sure your child comes fully prepared.  We expect to be outside from 8:00-11:00.  While it is forecasted to be fairly warm, it also may be wet (even without rain the ground is pretty damp early in the morning).  Rain pants, rain coat, and mud/puddle boots will be essential.  If you indicated you were missing items from the check list I sent home, I have extras for your child.  Also please make sure your child has  snack and a water bottle.  Something easy to carry and easy to eat outside is ideal.  If your child usually gets hot snack at school he can still plan to do so.  You will also notice a similar note in your child's purple folder.  Sorry to be redundant- I really want everyone to be prepared!  We have a very exciting morning planned.

It was so nice to see most of you at Open House on Tuesday evening.   The children were very excited about sharing the classroom you!

Today we visited the computer lab for the second time.  Last week children were given an introduction and an opportunity to explore the computers.  This week we challenged them to draw a butterfly and two things it would need to survive.  They did a fantastic job with some pretty amazing pictures.  These will go into their science notebooks, but feel free to have your child share his or hers anytime.  As we continue our study of living and non-living things we have begun talking about the difference between plants and animals.  Yesterday we planted corn seeds and we will be carefully observing these during the next few weeks.


Children were introduced to the letter sounds and formations for m and n this week.  We have spent lots of time practicing the formations, writing letters in the air, on paper, and on white boards.  We have also been working really hard on proper pencil/ marker grip, by pinching with our first two fingers and letting the writing tool rest on our third finger.

Our first day of ECO is next Wednesday from 8:00-11:00.  We will stay near the school for the first few sessions.  We have a very exciting day planned!   I will put reminder tags on your child's backpack next Tuesday so everyone can come prepared- we have noticed that it has been a little chilly and wet when we go out for our morning recess.

We have been spending lots and lots of time talking about treating each other respectfully, being good friends, including others, and branching out to classmates we may not know all that well.  In an effort to mix up the group, each day during snack children choose a labeled craft stick and match it to a table to determine their snack seat for the day.  We began the year with dots 1-5 and have just switched to sight words.  This creates a random mix at each table every day and ensures that nobody is left out during snack.  We have also started doing some partner work and games.  Today the class worked in pairs to find groups of objects outside.  Each partnership had a hoola-hoop to place their objects in with number labels.  Everyone seemed to enjoy this and all of the pairs worked really well together.  Some of the things collected were rocks, sticks, leaves, pine needles, burdocks, milkweed pods, ants!, trucks, and pieces of mulch.

In an effort to help kindergarteners get to know other children in the school, each Friday we have been meeting with 3rd grade learning partners from Mrs. Hale's class.  Thus far we have done a scavenger hunt, read together, and worked on a caterpillar/butterfly project.  We will continue meeting every Friday throughout the year,  changing partners periodically.

We survived our first rainy day with no outside time and actually had a very productive work day, with lots of free choice filtered in between.  Today in your child's folder there is a bit of information about the Fundations program, including the letter formations we will use when learning lower case letters.  So far we have worked on the letters t, b, and f, and we will cover approximately two letters each week until we have completed the alphabet.

This week we have also spent a lot of time talking about respect and the importance of making the classroom a place where all classmates feel welcome and comfortable.  I challenged everyone in the class to do something that might make a classmate feel particularly welcome or included and I encouraged them to do this for someone who they don't know very well or  play with typically.  There has been a flurry of interest in board games the last couple of weeks, which is a great avenue for children to get to know different classmates.

Open House is next Tuesday, September 25th from 5:30-6:30 p.m.

We have had a very exciting and productive couple of days.  During stations yesterday and today everyone had the chance to use the Smart Board, our interactive white board. We worked on building combinations of numbers to make 5, and everyone had a chance to use their finger to write some numbers on the board as well.  We also began the Fundations program, which will focus on letter sounds and formation for the next few months.  We worked on lower case t's.  I will send more information about this in your child's folder in the next few days.

Most exciting was our first butterfly, which emerged around 10:00 on Wednesday morning.  We had a great discussion about what that butterfly would need to survive, noting that we would need to let it go so it could have space.We watched it's wings expand and dry for several hours before releasing it in the garden.

Today we worked on illustrating one hope or dream for the school year- something each child would like to learn or work on at school.   Children shared these with the class and I will keep them in mind as I continue planning throughout the year.  They will also serve as a springboard for a class discussion about rules and general ways of being in the classroom.  To accomplish all of our hopes and dreams our classroom will need to be a place where everyone can enjoy doing things that matter to him or her.

We have continued to watch our caterpillars as they grow and change.  We now have 4 chrysalids, 1 caterpillar that will surely be a chrysalis by tomorrow morning, and 3 little caterpillars busily eating and growing.  The caterpillars have helped us begin discussions about living and non-living things.

Thank you to everyone who turned in the checklists for the ECO program.  If you haven't turned one in  for your child it would be great if you could do so by the end of the week so I can gather any extra clothing we might need.

Today in your child's folder I have sent an explanation of the ECO (Educating Children Outdoors) program that we will be participating in this year.  There is also a very detailed explanation of this from the North Branch Nature Center copied as a blog post below.  Let me know if you have any questions!
Thanks to the PTO for funding much of this program.

In addition I have sent a class list so you know who your child's classmates are.  The PTO will send a school directory home in the next couple of months.

ECO – Educating Children Outside

“Children live through their senses.  Sensory experiences link the child’s exterior world with their interior, hidden, affective world.  Since the natural environment is the principal source of sensory stimulation, freedom to explore and play with the outdoor environment through senses in their own space and time is essential for healthy development of an interior life…” explains North Carolina State professor Robin Moore, director of the National Learning Initiative (Louv 2005).

Your child’s class will be using the outdoors as their classroom this year to learn how to care for themselves, others and the environment.  Amy Butler from the North Branch Nature Center, will be spending    3          hours every other week with the class outside.  This time will enrich and support classroom learning as well as:

-        Immerse students in the natural world

-        Allow students to make observations over a sustained period of time

-        Foster stewardship of Vermont's natural communities

-        Develop of community citizenship

-        Provide students with experiential and place-based learning opportunities 

-        Support current curricular themes

-        Meet Vermont’s Framework of Standards

The focus of our work revolves around teaching students to care for themselves, to care for each other and to care for the environment.  When children care for themselves, they participate in the classroom community and care for others.  Practicing empathy for people often leads to the empowerment of caring for the environment and community.  In order for children to care for the environment they need to have direct experiences in nature to connect to. Our program aims to create that balance.

  Activities and Lessons

Students will explore standards-based themes that will include (depending on the grade level): animal adaptations, life cycles, ecosystems, rocks and soil, scientific method, physical geography, mapping, cultural diversity, Vermont history (including native Vermonters), Vermont geography, and citizenship.  This content will be presented through skill-based games, observing, journaling, building, drawing, writing, spending time at a sit-spot, tracking, sharing stories, and singing.

Dealing with various weather conditions

This program is a half-day outdoor experience, as long as the weather permits us to be outside.  If the weather presents uncomfortable or hazardous conditions, such as lightning, heavy and persistent rains, cold and wet weather, wind chill factor at or below zero degrees Fahrenheit or high winds, we will hold the program in the classroom. 

In the instance of very cold winter days or cold wet weather, we may go outside for only short periods of time, making sure to keep the students dry and warm. We will be outside in light rain as well as on a typical cold winter day, so helping your child to be prepared is important!  Please read the “Being Prepared” section for a list of clothing needs.

 Being Prepared / Clothing List

The following list of clothing is necessary for every student to have.  We are requesting that children have rain pants and jacket by September 26th and all the other cold-weather clothing no later than November 1st. If you find it difficult to obtain any of these items, or if you have extra at home to give, please contact your child’s teacher. 

-       Rain pants

-       Rain jacket with a hood

-       Long underwear bottoms (moisture wicking is preferred)

-       Long underwear top (moisture wicking is preferred)

-       Wool sweater or fleece top

-       Snow pants

-       Snow jacket

-       Socks (wool or fleece, no Cotton!!)

-       Boots (insulated and warm!)

-       Hat (wool or fleece)

-       Gloves or mittens (please no cotton) 2 pairs

-       Neck warmer or scarf

LAYERING is the key, as we are sometimes very active outdoors and sometimes sitting. Whatever your child is not wearing, they can carry in a backpack. On wet and cold days, pay close attention to the layers close to their skin. If possible, choose a “wicking’ material (i.e.; poly-propylene or capilene, fleece, or wool), this wicks moisture off of the body, rather than soaking through. Cotton is not the best choice because it will hold moisture close to the body and can make a person chill. Hats and/or hoods are required on wet and cold days.  Again, please contact your teacher if you need assistance acquiring the necessary clothing!

Food

On the day of the program, we require each student has:

-       A hearty snack

-       A full water bottle

Volunteer Opportunities

          We need parent/ caregiver volunteers on any Wednesday that we head outside to learn. Please come and explore with us! This a unique learning experience for your child and we would love to share it with you. Below is a list of possible ways that you can be involved and help us have a great year outside.

-       Volunteer parent for the day (join the class for the morning)

-       Guest speaker (a skill to share, games to teach, a story to tell, or local history to pass on)

-       Financial contributions (for warm and dry clothing)

-       Parent donation group (work with a few other parents to solicit local business donations for clothing purchases)

-       Firewood donations (a few split logs from your home supply would be great!)

 If you have any questions about ECO, please contact your child’s teacher.  We look forward to all the adventures we will have with you and your child this year!

Perhaps your child has mentioned that we have a helper every morning.  Colleen Todd joins us from 8:00- 11:30 and helps us in every way possible!

We have slowly begun sharing our artifact bags.  This is a great opportunity for children to practice really listening to their peers so they can learn something about them.  We have been sharing one at a time throughout the day to optimize good listening.  We will keep sharing several each day until everyone has had a turn.

This week we have been doing stations during what will become our math station time.  We have started with 4 stations:  blocks, sand table, scientific drawings of caterpillars and chrysalises, and cutting (to practice scissor use).  We have been practicing staying in our station for the whole time (10 minutes to start), using an appropriate volume, and working with other children in our station.

Today we officially began Writers Workshop by reading the book Library Mouse.  In this book, a mouse Sam writes books for the children who visit the library and helps them realize that writing is fun and not so hard if you write about what you know.  We brainstormed ideas of what we could write about and then talked about starting with a picture and adding details.  Several children mentioned that they can't yet write words.  No big deal!  We can write pretend words or letters we know (and while this is all going on Colleen and I will help scribe.) We wrote for 15 minutes and many children were not ready to stop!

In an effort to streamline and simplify things the school district is asking that all staff begin using new school email accounts.  I will continue to use the email address I already shared as a personal account, but for work I will begin using abeattie@waitsfieldschool.org.  It would be great if you could use this account to contact me, although I will still get messages at the old account.

What a fantastic first week we have had!  Your children have been amazing as they have adapted to new faces, new routines, and for many a new school.  From learning our circle routine, to navigating the lunch room, and even quiet reading, they have done a wonderful job.  Some of the many things we have done the last few days are:

• practiced walking in a line to get from one part of the building to another
• learned the routine for quietly reading and practiced it for 10 minutes!
• watched our caterpillars voraciously munching through piles of milkweed
• explored different math materials during stations (pattern blocks, geo-blocks, linking cubes)
• practiced writing and drawing on white boards
• listened to many stories and looked at many wordless picture books, creating the story line ourselves
• sang Down by the Bay and created our own rhyming verses
• painted our own giant paper bucket that we will try to fill with our kind thoughts and acts (ask your child to tell you about the book Have You Filled a Bucket)
• participated in music, gym, art, guidance, and a brief French class
• explored the playground and all of the new equipment
• explored many different choices during free time in the classroom

It has been a busy week!  Today in your child's folder I have sent some information to give you a general sense of our schedule.  Minor changes are already occurring as the need arises (gym on Thursday will actually be at 1:00), but this gives you an overall sense of our days.

If you haven't returned the forms that were sent in the red folders, please do so as soon as possible. These can go directly to Kathi, or I can deliver them to her.  Have wonderful weekend!
I will post some pictures soon-I've had some difficulty transferring pictures to my new computer!

We had a great first day! Getting a school year under way takes a lot of patience on the part of students, with a lot of time spent listening and learning routines. Everyone did a wonderful job.   Much of our time in the coming weeks will be spent reviewing expectations and practicing routines. We will also focus much of our attention on getting to know each other and building our classroom community.

In your child’s bag  today you will find a bluish-purple folder with a note of explanation inside, along with a paper bag that will be your child's artifact bag (also explained in the folder note.)  You should also find a red folder from Kathi with general school information and paper work.  These can be returned directly to Kathi at the front desk, or you can send them in your child's backpack and I will get them to her.  I know that your children will sleep well tonight!

During the last several days we have been working on creating short films for next year's kindergarten class, showing appropriate ways of being in specific situations.  Our emphasis has been on playground expectations and expectations when riding the bus.  These clips will be extremely helpful for me to show my class next year- showing tends to be much more powerful than telling.  The process has also served as an excellent reminder for this year's class as they have brainstormed and acted out these expectations!

Today everyone had an opportunity to create something with the paper we recently made.  Some children chose to use their paper as covers for journals, while others chose to use them as backgrounds for paintings.   Several children decided the paper was lovely art on its own and decided to just keep it as it is!

Earlier this week we had a discussion about solids and liquids and how they are different.  We sorted several containers of solids and liquids and made several observations.  We noticed that the solids stayed in separate pieces while the liquids mixed together, the liquids took the shaped of the container they were in and were flat and smooth across the top while the solids kept the shape of their individual pieces and were bumpy across the top, and when we poured them the liquids flowed in a stream, but the solids just fell out in their separate pieces.  We then did several experiments with the flow of different liquids by having liquid races.  Water flowed much faster than honey or soap, and surprisingly, honey flowed faster than soap.  Today we tested whether the size of drops affects the rate of flow.  Ask your child which size water drop flowed the fastest, small, medium or big.

Also today, Emily Church very graciously led all of the children through the process of paper making.  Each child had an opportunity create a beautiful piece of paper.  We noticed that in the pulp stage the paper is liquid, then most of the water gets stomped out.  Over the next few days the rest of the liquid will evaporate and we will be left with a solid!

Just a reminder that the spring concert for the whole school is tomorrow evening at 6:00!   Students should meet the class in the gym around 5:50.  The concert will last approximately one hour.

Today students had an opportunity to engage in water exploration.  Half of the class worked in pairs exploring sink and float while the other half used a variety of materials to experiment with water flow.  Some of the observations children made were the size of the object doesn't determine whether it sinks or floats  and gravity causes water to flow down, but the force of air from a baster can make water shoot up through a tube.  Needless to say the room was a little wet!  We will do this again on Thursday (hopefully outside) so children will have a chance to do both activities.

Yesterday Tyler Buswell of Highfields Composting introduced a new school-wide composting program to our class.  He talked to us about the process of composting, and how through composting we can "close the loop" in a cycle that starts with plants and produces new soil, which can then be used to grow more plants.  He also talked a bit about what happens to food waste when it is not composted and why this is a really important thing for us to do.

Kay Marcelle has finished compiling the students' animal reports.  They are all in an ebook format and next week during drop off times I will have them available for viewing on two ipads.  The children did fantastic work, both in the recording of their facts and in their illustrations.  Kay is also exploring a way to  make them accessible via a link from my blog, or to burn them to a disc for everyone.

In case you hadn't heard, artwork from students at Waitsfield Elementary School is included in the student art show at the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe (upstairs from the Stowe Library).  All Waitsfield kindergarten students have a piece of art on display- some amazing work!  Amanda Kalichstein sent the photo of the kindergarten display which appears on the left and said it is well worth the trip to Stowe!

Tomorrow we will be welcoming a new student, Noella, to our classroom.  She is coming to us from Bethel.  We talked briefly today about how we can make her feel welcome, but any conversations you have at home about this are helpful as well!

Today hopefully everyone received a letter from Sue Dillon about Fifths Disease.  We currently have a child in the room who has Fifths Disease, which is most contagious before symptoms appear.  These may include a rash, low grade fever, and red cheeks that look as if they've been slapped.  Sue's letter is much more specific, but if you have further questions about this please feel free to contact Sue.

Today we began a study of solids and liquids by exploring water drops.  Each child had an opportunity to use a pipet to explore and observe water drops on a plastic plate.  Students made many wonderful observations.  Some of these included "when you blow on drops they connect to each other", "the drops are round", "it's not easy to put two drops really close to each other", and "if you get two drops close without touching they come together like magnet".  Lucky for us, when we went outside there were lots of water drops  and puddles, so we continued our observations.  Students noticed the puddles too were rounded, drops on the green benches were flatter than the drops we made on plates, and drops at the bottom of the slide were bigger than at the top, probably because several smaller drops traveled down the slide and  joined together to make larger drops.  We will continue this exploration in the coming weeks.

As most of you have probably heard or noticed, we are in the midst of a paper mache project. Each child chose an animal to focus on and first completed a written fact sheet for the animal. Students used these in the computer lab to create a "report" about their animals. Many have finished this component and Mrs. Marcelle is working on a way for the final products to be shared. Hopefully we will be able to create a link so they can be accessed from this blog.

In math we have been working on recording data using tallies. Children have been sorting sets of objects and using tallies to record data on a table. We have also been looking at compliments to 5 and 10, as well as counting on from any number, for example starting at 63 and counting on. This can be tricky, particularly changing decades, for example 69 to 70. If you find yourself with a couple of minutes of down time, this is a great skill to practice!

Our next field trip will be to the Flynn Theater on Monday, April 30th (This is the day after our vacation- I will send lots of reminders!) We will see the show Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, an African Cinderella story based on the book by John Steptoe. In preparation for this we will be reading and comparing multiple versions of several stories. We have focused on Little Red Riding Hood stories this week, reading a traditional version, as well as an African, Chinese, and modern day retelling. Ask your child which version he or she liked best.

Despite the cold we had a great field trip today. Children had an opportunity to collect sap, learn about how sap is boiled into syrup, and sample different kinds of syrup. We also learned how Native Americans would have made syrup without the technology that is available today. Thank you to our chaperones Lindsay Jernigan, Amanda Kalichstein, and Erika Graham.

The weather looks promising for our field trip on Friday, although it may be cool. We will be outside the entire time- please make sure your child has appropriate clothing: either winter boots or mud boots, a warm jacket, hats and mittens. We will leave school at 8:10 and have snack on the bus. Please send a simple snack and water bottle. Children who usually get hot snack will be able to take this on the bus. We should be back at school by 11:30 in time for lunch.

Emily Church shared a wonderful book with me, What Does Peace Feel Like? and this week as part of our exploration of the five senses we have been talking about peace in relation to each of these senses. What does peace look like, smell like, taste like, feel like and sound like? Some of the thoughts children have shared include peace smells like warm soil, peace sounds like the ocean, peace tastes like honey, peace looks like a sunset over the flowers, and peace feels like a cool breeze. Yesterday everyone had an opportunity to create a water color painting for one of their peace images. Ask your children what they painted.

This morning Marian Moore, who is our district dental hygienist, met with half of they class to talk about good dental hygiene. I was in the library with the other half of the class, but it looked like the kids working with Marian were having fun. She will be back in two weeks to meet with the second half of the class.

OUR FIELD TRIP IS NEXT FRIDAY, MARCH 30TH. We will leave school at 8:10 and should be back for lunch. Please remember to send in $5 if you haven't already.

Report cards will be coming home tomorrow. I look forward to meeting with all of you on Thursday or Friday. Class pictures have finally arrived and I will send these tomorrow as well.

We have had a great focus on non-fiction writing during Writer's Workshop and read aloud times. Some of this has been tied in to our upcoming maple sugar field trip and our ongoing exploration of the five senses. In addition, everyone has now chosen an animal to write about. The information students record will be used for a project they will work on in the computer lab. Ask your children what animals they chose. Have you ever heard of a moloch?

Spring seems to officially be here, but please still stay mindful of the weather. The playground is apt to be muddy and with our early morning recess, it can still be quite chilly.

Please remember to send in $5 for our Audubon field trip!

I hope everyone had a wonderful vacation. It was nice to finally have some snow, although it feels like spring is really coming now. We have a Maple Sugaring field trip scheduled for Friday, March 30th at the Green Mountain Audubon Center in Huntington. There is a fee of $5 per child, which I will be collecting any time between now and the 30th. It would also be wonderful to have a few chaperones for the trip. We will leave school around 8:00 and should be back by 11:30. Let me know if you are interested in joining us.

If you haven't signed up for a conference already you can do so until Friday using the online scheduler. There is a link to this on the school's web page. Conferences will take place on the afternoon/evening of March 15th and the morning of the 16th.

Report cards will come home shortly after our return from vacation and conferences are scheduled for the afternoon and evening of Thursday, March 15th, and the morning of Friday, March 16th. The online scheduler for conferences opens up tomorrow. PLEASE NOTE the times on my conference schedule that say available but have a big red x are available. Feel free to schedule a conference during those times. If there is a conflict with the given times, please let me know. I happy to arrange a meeting on a different morning or at 12:00 some other day. I hope everyone has a wonderful vacation, whatever you may be doing. It's hard to believe we will be well on our way into spring when we return.

We began our day with a kick off assembly for our Bread and Puppet residency, with a focus on community. Immediately after that we had our first workshop with the artists from Bread and Puppet. Students took part in acting out a story about a haunted house. See if your child remembers who it was haunted by! Children then had a chance to become various animal puppets. We will have two more sessions over the next six days. Because of scheduling, our class will not be part of the final performance, (the benefit of this is that we can be completely immersed in the process without worrying about a final product), but you are welcome to bring your child back for this next Thursday afternoon. The official time has not yet been determined.

After assembly, puppet workshop, and health class everyone was ready for some unstructured time. We spent an hour outside making the most of the springlike temperatures, playing chase (ask your child who the chaser was!), discovering really cool rocks that have been buried in ice, and contemplating what might be living in one of the triangle trees. With so much going on it was hard to come back inside!

We have quite a collection of 100's in our classroom: 100 pasta pieces turned into a butterfly, 100 beads, 100 pieces of rice (which looks like about a tablespoon), 100 words organized in 10 lists, 100 legos built into a car, 100 tiles, 100 paper squares, 100 pistachio shells, 100 mini marshmallows, 50 toothpicks + 50 mini marshmallows built into a sculpture, 100 pieces of colorful yarn, 100 pussy willow buds, and a structure created today with 100 geo-blocks! Thank you for your help compiling these collections.

Today Emily Von Trapp completed her work teaching children in the class to give each other lavender hand massages. Everyone seemed to greatly enjoy this opportunity.

Valentine's Day is in one week! We will be making large personal envelopes to collect valentines next Tuesday. Today I am sending home a class list. If your child brings valentines, please make sure there is one for each child in the class. Also, please refrain from sending in sugary treats/ candy as part of your child's valentines. My experience has been that consuming vast amounts of sugar is disruptive to the rhythm of our day and interferes with lunch!

Thursday is our 100th day. Several children have already brought in creative collections of 100 things. These can come in any time between now and Thursday.

We had a fantastic trip to the fire station today. Firemen Tristan and George showed us what firefighters do when they are called to a fire and how they keep themselves safe while they fight a fire. We were then given a tour of a fire truck and the equipment van. I was extremely impressed with the level of respect the entire class showed during our visit and on our walks to and from the fire station!

Bub Burbank, who is a custodian at our school and also the new fire cheif, has graciously agreed to give us a tour of the fire station tomorrow. We will be walking over around 8:20 and should be back in time for library at 9:00.

We have spent lots of time discussing community the last couple of weeks. When asked what community was, the class decided it was a group of people who help each other. We talked about different kinds of communities that we may belong to and have really focused our attention on the school community and the Waitsfield community. This week children have been creating a block community by painting block buildings and labeling them. We also worked on community books. Next week, we will begin a project in the computer lab focusing on important ways we can help in the different communities we belong to. All of this is in preparation for our Bread and Puppet residency at the end of February, which will have a focus on community.

Today was our 90th day of school. As long as the weather cooperates, this means our 100th day will be in two weeks, on February 8th. I have asked each child to collect 100 somethings at home and choose a way to display these in the class. We brainstormed objects that would work well for this: toothpicks, pasta pieces, mini marshmallows, legos, beads. I have encouraged children to have fun thinking of creative ways to share their objects, for example one child thought of collecting 100 legos and building a structure, while someone else thought of making a design with 100 toothpicks and gluing it in paper. These can come in any time between now and February 8th.

If you haven't sent in Flynn money yet ($3.00 per child), please do. While our show is not until April, we need to pay the bill for the entire school now.

We have finished learning the letter formations and sounds for all of the lower-case letters. Over the next several weeks we will learn upper-case formations as well. Knowing all of the letter sounds, we have moved on to forming simple 3 and 4 letter words with similar endings. We have been practicing tapping the sounds (perhaps your child could demonstrate) and then blending them into words. Children were also very curious about ch, sh, ck, and th, which appear on the bottom of our letter poster, so we have talked about those sounds as well, noting that sometimes the number of letters in a word doesn't match the number of sounds (chat, ship, chin, to name a few).

Please remember to send in $3.00 for the Flynn Performance. Our trip is in the end of April, but money should be in by Friday.

WINTER CONCERT TOMORROW EVENING AT 6:00. Students should come to the gym between 5:50 and 5:55 and join the class on our mat!

Thanks to Emily Church many children have been making accordion books during Writer's Workshop. Children have been working with these in many different ways, but one of the fun things about them is they can hold two different stories.

There has been great interest in the block area recently and the creations seem to be getting bigger and more innovative each day! This week builders have spent a lot of time combining block structures and cars. The block area was also getting a little crowded so I shifted a few things in the room to increase the block space a bit. This also created a separate area for puzzles, another high-interest activity lately.

The winter concert will now be next Thursday, January 19th, at 6:00 p.m. Students should arrive between 5:50 and 5:55 and come straight to the gym.

While we will not be going to the Flynn Theater until April, money for performances is being collected now. The PTA subsidizes the cost of the performances, so we are asking each child to bring in $3.00. Please send this in by next Friday. Have a great long weekend!

For the next several Tuesdays, Lily's mom, Emily vonTrapp, will be coming into the classroom during stations to give small groups of children lavender hand massages. Lavender is an herb that has gained recognition for its calming and soothing effects. Emily will be using lavender oil for these massages and will ultimately teach the children to give hand massages to each other, giving them a perfect opportunity for positive and gentle interaction. So if your children come home smelling of lavender, perhaps you could convince them to give you a hand massage!

Please remember our winter concert is on Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m. in the gym.

We took advantage of the cold on Tuesday and Wednesday and made icy sun catchers with colorful bits of nature in them. These are now hanging all around the playground. Alas, they may not last through the weekend's predicted warmer temperatures, but they are fun to look at for now!

After two days of not going outside because of the cold, today we spent a significant amount of time enjoying the various joys of winter! Everyone had a chance to try either skiing or snowshoeing, and I think everyone took at least one turn down the hill in a sled. Snowshoeing wasn't quite as much fun as skiing as there really isn't much snow on the ground, but I think everyone appreciated the opportunity to try different activities. We came in with just enough time to think about things we noticed with our different senses and record these in our science notebooks. Some of the observations included: I saw sculptures of ice, I tasted snow, I felt the coldness of the air, I saw ice melting, I saw sun catchers on the trees, I felt wobbly on my skis!