Thanks, and see you all soon!

Hello fantastic families,

It with with big mixed feelings that I write you a fond see you soon letter. I am both excited for my time with my new daughter and sad and worried. I know the kids are in good hands with Scottie Brower for the month of December, and I'll be seeing them soon enough. I will be visiting on Thursdays for lunch with the kids to check in and keep things rolling smoothly. Scottie will either send home her own newsletter or send it to me to post. I again want to thank you all for your support

In literacy, the kids have been plugging along working on their individual work and skills while I have been working with small reading groups and other literacy based skills like reading strategies and handwriting. I have been really pleased with their hard work and progress thus far.

I hope you all got the letter home about family traditions, which will be the basis for our information writing this month in Writer's Workshop. We look forward to celebrating all of your amazing family traditions as a class. Please work with your child to fill them out and bring them back to school.

The kids did a great presentation for our last all-school meeting, which I have posted here. Please take a look at it. The video shows them practicing at Primary Sing. I encourage you to have your child lead a song during your Thanksgiving celebration. Enjoy it!

In science we are wrapping up our unit on matter and water. The kids have done a great job with learning all about the scientific process. If Scottie chooses to, she may have the kids make their own experiments about water as well.

Again, you all have my thanks for your continued support. Please be in touch with anything, anytime.

Warmly,

~B

Science, Leave Update, and Conferences, oh my!

Hey everyone,

I hope this letter finds you enjoying some amazing late fall weather! Things are really clicking along in our room and I hope your children are telling you all about the goings-on. I have really enjoyed getting to talk to all of you during conference times. If you haven't signed up yet and still want to, please sign up BUT PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU LET ME KNOW. I have not made a habit of continuing to check my times, so if you sign up, let me know so I can be sure to be here at the time you choose.

In science, we have continued our work on states of matter, which has gone from looking at evaporation (the gas state of water) to the water cycle, a natural progression. We set up an experiment about evaporation, which you can see below. The kids made hypotheses on which vessel (an interesting word, they thought!) they thought would evaporate the most water and then we made measurements to see which vessel did what. We also talked about the idea of variables and what they are. What a great juicy science word! The next question to ask after you get results is to ask "why?" and to think about how to test that next question. Was it the size of the opening? Was it the material of the vessel the difference maker? The kids are going to set up their own investigation next.

In literacy, the kids have continued their great work in class and working on making their schedules for their work times. I encourage you to have rich conversations about the work they are doing and how they are feeling about it. The kids will be getting work sent home next Monday, since I kept the work at their chairs for the purpose of conferences.

We are going to be doing lots of reading about grit, determination, and never giving up. These learning dispositions are ones that are some of the biggest indicators of academic success and happiness. Ask your child about the work we are doing around these words. We recently read "The Little Engine That Could" and discussed how the internal thought of "I think I can" is a powerful one. When you start out with the thought I can't (like the rusty old train), it's hard to do anything!

I will either be starting my leave next Friday or after the following Tuesday until the end of the holiday break. The kids will be in the more than capable hands of Scottie Brower again, a Rumney teaching icon. As you may remember, Scottie handled the first part of my leave in the fall. Please be sure to have conversations with your child about this in preparation for the upcoming transition.

Thanks a lot for your support and your caring so much about your children's learning.

Be in touch,

~B