Cider, Open House, All School Adventure

Hello families!

I hope you have all been able to enjoy these beautiful summer days! I know we have here in our room. We are building our class rules, exploring and cleaning up the outdoor classroom and settling into our routines.

In literacy, we are working on building our work stamina, making sure that it is a silent work time so everyone can do their best learning, and getting to know what "good fit" work looks like. They are working so hard on their reading and writing. Next week, after we have finished all of our assessments, we will begin our reading work in earnest.

We've read a number of books, the two the Read-Aloud books we read were Elmer and Down the Road. 





We've been talking a lot about the author's message in the books I have been reading aloud and these are two of my favorites. The lessons from the books are critical in creating our classroom culture and helps us create expectations for ourselves and our friends in class.

We pressed some cider on Friday across our 1/2 team and the 6th grade got a crack at it, too. It's a good thing we picked so many apples! The kids all got to have a taste of their hard work at the end of the day and it is always a good reminder to celebrate our fall harvest. A special thanks and shout out to the Cotterill/Chabot family for letting us borrow the cider to press that allowed for this all to happen. The generosity of the families in Middlesex always come through!

The All School Adventure is planned for this Friday, the 27th. We will be leaving in the morning to go to Hubbard Park in Montpelier and will have a day of exploring the many sites and trails in the park. Please be sure that if you plan on joining us that you have filled out your Level 1 chaperone paperwork in the front office. Be in touch with Mary or Christa in the front office if you need more information about this. 

Open House is this Wednesday, the 25th from 5:30 to 6:30. I look forward to you all coming in and learning about our class and seeing/meeting you all! The kids will be showing you routines, some of their work, and much more. You should also make sure to check in with their allied arts teachers as well to talk about their amazing work as well.

I think that's it for now. Be in touch with questions, concerns or celebrations any time!

Enjoy the last day of summer!

~B

First Two Weeks

Hello Families!

I hope your children have had a wonderful two first weeks of school! I know it has been wonderful working with them and getting to know them!

The kids designed our room set up, have helped put away materials and have arranged out book shelves. They are doing a wonderful job working together! Over the next few weeks we will be establishing class rules, norms and expectations. This is when we all really get to know the other people in the room and how we start thinking about how we can take care of ourselves, take care of each other and take care of our school. This will be the foundation of our work going forward this year.

Holy dominoes, Batman!

Next week we'll being to dig our teeth into literacy time by practicing reading to self and doing some self-directed writing and handwriting practice. I'll also being doing our annual battery of beginning of the year assessments to help guide our work in word study, phonics, handwriting, reading and writing.

We have also had the pleasure of letting go of some monarch butterflies that we raised and hatched. It is always such a wonderful experience to share with children. We were talking about it today and we think that the children of Vermont are probably responsible for the huge number of butterflies we've seen this year!

To go along with the theme of autumn, I was wondering if any of you know someone with an apple grinder and press that we can use here for our 1/2 team to make some cider. If you know of anyone who'd be willing to let us use one, it would be greatly appreciated.

We were able to get out to the outdoor classroom today (Friday) and the kids did a great job talking about our second week and also about how we are going to use the space and spend as much time outside as we can. We'll be making science journals next week as well.

Information:

• September Dates
• September 9 - Picture Day!  
• September 18 - Instrument Rental Night, 5:00-6:15pm in Rumney Gym (Also Board Meeting at Doty, 6:30pm)
• September 24 - All School Meeting 9:05-9:35
• September 25 - Open House, 5:30-6:30pm
• September 26 - Kindergarten Screening Day
• September 27 - All-School Outing

I think that's about it, please be in touch with any questions, thoughts or concerns any time.

Enjoy the weekend!

~B