Week 6

High School students and Third Graders with the School Mural they designed!

 It's hard to believe I am already writing about our sixth week of school!  We packed in a lot to our four day week, with visitors from Peoples Academy High School on Tuesday, and our first ECO on Thursday followed by our annual landscape painting of Elmore Mountain.  

I am still working through reading assessments.  Ms. Bourne and Mrs. Gresham came on Friday to help me with this process.  We are about 2/3 of the way through the class.  Hopefully I will finish this next week.  I also need to do the Primary Numbers and Operations Assessment with all the first graders.  I am planning to administer this assessment next week as well.  This is an interview style assessment taken 1-1 with me.  During this assessment students will be asked to count (forward and backward) including skip counting and counting on from any number, show place value knowledge with tens and ones to 100,  add to 20, write  and read numbers into the hundreds, estimate,  and show understanding of magnitude and equality.  Each assessment takes about 45 minutes.  

On Tuesday we had seven students from Peoples Academy, most of whom were Elmore Alum, came to the Elmore school during a High School outing to the Elmore State Park. Third graders worked with four of the volunteers to design a mural for our Shed!  We will be painting this in the coming weeks.  The remainder of the students played games with the other highschool students.  

Third Graders work with PA High School Students to design a school mural.

first and second graders played board games with High School Volunteers.

In math we have been working on solving word problems involving addition and subtraction using pictorial models such as number bonds and bar modals to show comparison.  

During Literacy, students continue writing narratives, reading daily, and practicing phonics and reading skills on Lexia Core 5 and with Literacy centers.  This week we had a short week with Yom Kippur on Wednesday, and Thursday we had ECO, so I am giving students another week with the same spelling words.  Beginning next week, we will practice spelling words at school during the week and I will send their word list home on Thursday for students to prepare for their quiz in Friday.  

This week we began a Science unit on Animal Biodiversity. In this unit, students begin to develop an understanding of the world's animal biodiversity. They explore animal classification and the traits that define each group. Students then turn their focus to habitats and how the surrounding environment affects what organisms live in a particular environment.

A note about homework:  Currently the only homework students each day have is reading, and beginning next week, spelling practice on Thursday.  Students should fill our their reading log and return it every day,  In addition to reading, students may bring home spelling or math work that did not get completed during the School day.  Generally this is a result of being unfocused and not attending to their work while at school.  In the event they were on task and haven't finished their school work due to time restraints or understanding, students will be given additional time to finish this work at school.  I am telling you this so you know that when this work is coming home with your child it is because they have not been using their time well while at school.

We have parent teacher conferences on Monday with a few appointments after school during the week.  The purpose of these conferences is check in after our first 6 weeks of school and to talk about hopes and Dreams for the School year ahead.  I am looking forward to meeting with you all!  If you need a reminder about the time of your conference please call the school on Monday morning.  

This Thursday we had our first ECO session of the school year.  We stayed in the schoolyard and enjoyed the beautiful view of Elmore Mountain and the lake.  Students played a fun tag game called the Fox and Raven, we heard a story about how to build a fire, students practiced fire safety and had the chance to strike a match, and we made Tea by heating water in a Kelly Kettle.  During "forest choice", students made name necklaces using tree cookies, painted kindness rocks, and explored insect life around the schoolyard. Thank you to Mike McCarthy and Deidra Keith for volunteering and to Jesse Baker for delivering a large load of firewood!

Next Thursday, during ECO, we will be hiking to the Beaver Pond on the Ridge Line Trail on Elmore Mountain.  Students should plan to wear shoes for hiking (or walking), and they need a water bottle and a packable snack.  Once at the pond we will be making observations about the pond life and area around the pond.  If you would like to join us for this outing, please let me know.

On Thursday we also made our annual voyage across the street, armed with acrylic paints, and paintbrushes to paint Elmore Mountain and the lake during peak fall foliage.  The attention to detail and the focus students demonstrate during this project show the appreciation the students have for the this beautiful place!  We are so lucky to live and work in the "Beauty Place of Vermont".

Please email me your lunch orders for the week.

Thank you to Caitlin Mahoney and Oliver for a delicious hot lunch consisting of Stuffed Shells, roasted carrots and Apple Crisp with vanilla ice cream for dessert. Family Hot Lunch is scheduled for the Van Anda family next Friday.  I will let you know more about this during the week.  

Announcements:

• Parent Teacher Conferences, Monday October 10th (No School) 
• Students need to bring their Library books back on Monday!
• School Banking day is Monday.
• Students need sneakers for PE on Thursday
• ECO is Thursday
• Third graders need recorders and books on Friday.
• Field Trip to The Elmore Fire Station on Friday, October 14th. Please return permission slips on Tuesday.
• School shirt orders are due on Friday, October 14th,