Week 6

Morning Fog lifting over Lake Elmore

We have completed our first 6 weeks of school! After the first week, this is the first major milestone of the school year for any teacher. Routines and expectations have been established and our newly formed community of learners has come together. Week six did not disappoint!

It's a Girl!

On Monday we arrived to find the Monarch Butterfly had just emerged from its chrysalis on our ceiling. I was able to climb up and put it back in the butterfly habitat (net), until we were ready to release it. While we missed the magical transformations of caterpillar to chrysalis and chrysalis to butterfly, we were happy to celebrate the release of the butterfly back into nature! Prior to it's release we determined the Butterfly was indeed a female as it lacked two additional dots which mark the wings of a male Monarch.

We Also had a visit from Principal Heraty on Monday morning who surprised the children with a brand new Croquet Set, Bocce Ball set, and a large Connect 4 game we can play at recess! We had some beautiful weather this week to enjoy our new games! Thank you Mr. Heraty!

Our week was filled with the joy of music. Throughout the week students worked in small groups to compose and sing original songs with Jon Gailmor. We had four groups so we decided to write four songs about the seasons. Each group spent their first Day with Jon writing the lyrics to their song. In the next session they put their words to a melody which was then recorded. The whole class also wrote 3 additional verses to our school song, "Jewel of a School" which was originally written back in 2003 by the Elmore Students with Jon's tutelage. Additionally, the students wrote a new school song titled "The Wings of Elmore" inspired by our new School mascot, The Owl! Students brought home the lyrics to the songs they worked on. Jon is putting together a CD, for each student, with all the songs, and we will soon have a video to share with you of their "performance".

One of the groups working on recording their original song with Jon Gailmor

Putting "The Wings of Elmore" to music.

Students collectively read over 1200 this week! This gets us within 40 min. of our next mountain summit (Hunger Mountain = 3540'). Each minute read equals one foot elevation. Way to go Elmore Owls!

Next week I will be administering the Primary Numbers and Operations Assessment (PNOA) with all the first graders. All first graders and the District take this assessment 3 times per year. It is an interview style assessment giving us information about students' number sense, looking at: counting and sequencing, numbers and operations, magnitude, and estimation.

Monday, October 11th is Indigenous People's Day. there is no school, but we do have Parent Teacher Conferences. Students are welcome to attend the conference with you.

We will have Library on Tuesday Next week! Remember to Bring your books!

Our first family Hot Lunch will be next Friday October 15th, provided by Izzy's family! I will let you know early next week what the menu is. No "School Lunch" Friday.

We also have our Field trip to the Fire Station next Friday, October 15th. There is a permission slip in your Friday folder which needs to be signed and returned on Tuesday. If you wish to chaperone, please indicate this on the permission slip and I will confirm with you by Thursday.

ECO is Wednesday, October 20th from 9-12. I believe I have one parent volunteer. If you wish to join us, we could use one more volunteer.