Friday, April 13, 2018

Break and Next Year

Hello Friends,

We have had a great week filled with lots of fun and work. The most important part is that everyone makes it through this heavily charged day feeling happy.

It has been such a wonderful experience, as always, talking to you all about your children at conferences. They are all so special to us here at school and we deeply appreciate the trust you put in us as their daily care-givers.

Below, please read the letter Christine and I have written regarding the grade configurations in the first and second grade for the 2018-2019 school year. If you have further questions, please be in touch.

Have a wonderful, recharging break!

Ben and Tammy



Dear Families.

Over the past couple years, our ½ team has been doing a lot of thinking about what is best for young children at the primary level.  This conversation parallels the ongoing changes in our SU on a curricular level in regards to new academic and social standards and proficiency based learning.

In order to give kids the learning that best fits them, we have decided together to group the kids by grade level, meaning we’ll have a first grade classroom and a second grade classroom. The primary way that we will address their needs is that we will loop our classes so kids will have the same teacher for two years. This allows for consistency for kids and teachers alike. We have been talking about their span of development academically, socially and emotionally over these two years. The difference in needs from a beginning-of-the-year first grader and a beginning-of-the-year second grader are vastly different. It’s our belief that the main goal of first graders is to learn how to learn whereas the goal of a second grader is to start applying that learning throughout their day.

Tentative Map

2018- 2019: Christine - Grade 1 Ben - Grade 2
2019- 2020: Ben - Grade 1 Christine - Grade 2
2020- 2021: Christine - Grade 1 Ben - Grade 2
2021- 2022: Ben - Grade 1 Christine - Grade 2

We acknowledge that there are benefits to having these age groups together, however, we feel that by focusing on one age group at a time we will better meet students’ developmental needs and abilities. In this model there will still be plenty of opportunities to work together as a primary team: (Recess, Lunch, Primary Sing, Word Study, possibly for Reading Groups) so that kids still get to see their first and second grade friends.

The social and academic needs of your children are always the focus of our decision making process.  We believe that this change will help your children learn and grow to their fullest. Thank you for your continued support in our ½ program.  

Sincerely,

Ben Weiss
Christine Babcock

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Parent Conferences, Pie Breakfast, Stilts and More!

Hello Everyone!

We hope you had a great weekend. We heard stories of family, food and fun, which is always so great to hear about. We have been very busy in our room.

 
A friend sanding away
Last week we got to make our first trip to the sugarbush and do some sap collecting. The group rescued the buckets, which were almost filled to the brim. Brian was also boiling and drawing off so the kids got to do a little tasting as well!

A shout out to the PTO for doing the pie breakfast over the past weekend. The pies were delicious and I know the proceeds go towards a very worthwhile cause. I know the PTO is looking for some help with the Spring Fair as well. Please consider getting in touch with April Davis or Jill Drury if you are interested in helping out.


The miter saw is a great tool. Thanks to Chip Hedler for lending it to us.
The kids all got a chance to do some work with the tools in class to help build some stilts for our PE program. Thanks to Talitha Klassen-Landis for spearheading this great project! We practiced using a couple of miter saws, some drills, screwing screws, and sanding. They could always take a break and do some practice stilt walking when they finished their job or just got tired and needed a break. I was so pleased with how responsibly and efficiently they used the tools. I know the other students in the school are going to appreciate their hard work.

Mrs. Joslyn was psyched for one of our friends while they learned to use the stilts!
Thanks to those of you who have signed up for conferences. This is one of my favorite times, and one that I wish I had more of during the year. If you need the link to the conference sign up, find it here:

http://grades.wcsuonline.org/rumney/conference/

I look forward to seeing you all!



We needed treads for the bottoms of the stilts.
We also have been working on our literacy choices. We continue to meet regularly and talk about the books that they are reading in their book groups. Some kids have begun to work on some projects that they are interested in. Some topics include: the US Army, bow weapons, Norwich University, and castle defenses and siege engines.

We watched a great video the other morning about inclusion and what that means. Despite it being a commercial by Canadian Tire, the point it makes was not lost on the kids in class. They really had a great discussion about it. Here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFuwUiHo-WI

Safely learning to use tools. 
 I think that's about it, folks. Please be in touch if we need to know anything at school. We are always open for comments, questions or concerns.

Best,

Ben and Tammy