12/9/11

December 9, 2011

“Hey, Mr. Bolger, I already picked up 49 pieces of paper from the floor.”

“Alright. See if you can pick up 100. How many more would that be?”

“Let’s see… 1…and then 50 more --that’s 51 -- ‘cause once you get to fifty, you just need 50 more ‘cause 5 + 5 = 10.”

Dear Parents,

We have been firing on all cylinders this week…

Reading: Ms. Ward and Ms. Bakshi have joined us starting this week to help with reading groups. For at-home reading, especially with the younger students and the older, struggling readers, it’s so important to have them read out loud to you for 10 minutes or so every day. I know that can be hard to fit into our busy evenings, but reading experts tell us that having your child read to you out loud (a book they have already read and can move through pretty easily) is the single best thing you can do to ensure future reading success. It builds confidence, it builds their ability to get beyond reading word-by-word, and if you are hearing them read, you can correct them. It takes four or five times of seeing a new word and saying it correctly for our brains to create the neural model of that word in our brains.. If you can help your child get solid with knowing that when means when and not one or won or win, they will be able to store the correct neural representation of that word, and from then on, they will recognize it automatically.

So, whether your child is bringing home a book each night from his or her guided reading group, or whether your child is reading, quite independently, a book from the school library, please think about getting into the habit of having your child read out loud to you for ten minutes or so each day. Thanks!

Writing : in writing, we are working on our handwriting (!) and our grammar at the same time as we are finalizing our “special moments” stories. Students have also chosen topics for their ILPs (Independent learning Projects). I will have more info for you in the coming week about the ILPs, but, in short, they are mini-research projects your child will be completing (about one every two weeks) on a topic of his or her choice. Ask your child what his or her ILP topic is!

Read-Aloud: ask your child which character he or she is most like (Lumphy the buffalo is nice, but kind-of grumpy, the Shark is the new kid on the block and was misunderstood by the others. The Stingray is bossy. Plastic the ball is friendly. The Washing Machine likes everyone to join him in the basement for rock-n-roll dances!)

Ask Your Child About The Sneetches: We read The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss today, as part of our World of Difference Unit. Dr. Seuss is brilliant in the way he writes about important social issues in a way that kids can understand. You’ll remember that The Sneetches is a story about Star-Bellied Sneetches who have stars on them being snobby towards the non-Star-Bellied Sneetches. A shrewd salesman comes along and sells stars to the non-Star-Bellied Sneetches. Then, to help the Star-Bellied Sneetches be different again, he removes their stars – for a price.

It goes back and forth like that in frantic see-saw until in the end, all the Sneetches are broke, the salesman leaves town a rich man, and the Sneetches realize that stars are irrelevant; it’s being accepting and kind to each other that counts.

Upcoming Polar Express Day: On December 22^nd, (we have December 23rd off) remember that students should come to school dressed in their pajamas. We will be watching The Polar Express, we’ll drinking hot chocolate, and we’ll be doing a series of holiday crafts.

A Word About Gifts: Dear Parents, I have spent this entire fall being the lucky recipient of countless, overwhelming gifts -- both material and emotional – in the wake of the flood my family and I experienced in Moretown. I have always loved my job, but this year, I have felt, with a sharper perspective, a gratitude at being part of this wonderful community. It’s fun to give and receive gifts at this time of year, but know that I hope you will take a break and a breather and take a pass on giving me yet something else. If your child would feel better giving me something, I will certainly oblige, but know that I have a special fondness for toilet-paper-roll napkin holders and anything made out of coat hangers. I love paper snowflakes. I love log cabins make out of pretzels. I would love for your child to look in your recycling bin and think of something cool and weird and funny and thoughtful (and quick!) to make me for a holiday gift. Something that’s long on inspiration and short on details is just fine.

Have a great weekend, Everyone. Easy on the eggnog.

Mr. Bolger

Nov. 11, 2011

11:11 a.m. on 11/11/11

Dear Parents,

I am holding on to your child’s work from this week (not putting it in the Friday Folder) because I want to be able to show it to you all during conferences. I will have it back in the Friday Folders next week.

We had a great day. We counted down in the cafeteria to 11:10, and we celebrated that it was 11:11 a.m. on 11/11/11.

We also worked more this week on our short stories, and we did a fun lesson on alphabetizing (to the second, third, and fourth letters.) Students also extended their understanding of similes and metaphors when Ms. Cobb asked them to describe Mr. Bolger:

“Mr. Bolger’s voice is scratchy as pavement.” / “His watch is round as a rug,”/ Mr. Bolger is short as a weiner dog.”/ His ears are as big as an elephant’s”/ “His shoes are as green as frogs.” Thanks, kids.

Douglas Schmidt, a former student, came back from WCS as a WISH student this week. he will be coming each week to work with students in the classroom. Douglas described doing the Penguin Plunge last winter (to raise money for the Special Olympics.) Great to have you back, Doug!

Kid-Report-Cards: students filled out report cards on themselves this week. They thought about whether they were RG (real good at …),OK (OK at…), or GB (needing to get better at…) twenty-one things from reading and writing to letting others go first to listening carefully or “using my strong words when I have to…) It is surprising how self-aware many kids are at this age. Ask your child about what it means to “take initiative” or show “stamina and perseverance.” We talked a lot about these things this week.

Three posters students made for the classroom today are: “Listening carefully is kind,” “Try even when it’s hard; you will grow,” and “Ignore people who are distracting you.”

Ask your child what is going on right now in our read-aloud, Top Secret.

It has been a pleasure to conference with you, Parents, and to share our thoughts about your children. If you have any follow-up comments or thoughts, please email me.

Mr. B.

Oct. 27, 2011

Hello Parents!

What a great time we had a Shelburne Farms. So good to get outside, and walk in the woods. The kids were mesmerized by the worms and snakes and salamanders. ("I saw a monkee!" "No you didn't" "Yup I did.") Thank you to Matt Wood, Jessica LaMorey, Wendy Ward, Shelley Forrest, Kim Van Buren, and Jodi Bakshi for coming along as chaperones.

Conferences are coming up, and I will send you the link to the conference sign-up sheet tomorrow.

Take care, everyone.

David

October 17, 2011

Hello Parents.

1) Today during Tech Lab, the kids typed this week's journal entry. This is instead of writing, tomorrow, in their Home-School Journals. Please respond by email, and we will print out your child's email as well as your response, on Thursday; then, we'll glue them both into the HSJ.

2) Tomorrow, as you know, we are having "Stone Soup" for lunch. There is always plenty for everyone. There will not be any "hot" lunch available tomorrow besides what the school creates for this Harvest Festival Stone Soup. If your child is sure he or she does not want to eat the soup, etc, your should be sure to pack an alternative lunch.

3) Remember: our class will be attending the Scholastic Book Fair this Wednesday. Most students come with something like $3.00 or $4.00 or $5.00 to buy a book. Please let me know if buying a book this year is a hardship. There are some funds available to help out. Also, I love it when I can tell students, "Your mom emailed me, and she wants you to spend the $5.00 only on a good book -- not on that slinky pen." Just let me know. Glad to be the enforcer :)

4) Remember: no school this Friday.

5) Your child brought home a couple of books today in his/her blue reading folder. Please take a look, and enjoy! Also, please help to find and return any books from last week or before that your child has not yet turned back in.

Thanks.

Take care,

David

October 14, 2011

Congratulations, Ananya, Anna VB, Diego, James, Julia, Leo, Luna, Mitchell, Olivia R., Sean, and Tyler for reaching your 200-minute or 300-minute goals . I loved looking at everyone's reading log to share what your are all reading :) The rest of you are close!

Hello Parents.

I am attaching here a copy of the Reading Log so you will be able to print it up on your own. Feel free to change the bottom-line-question to something engaging for your child to answer. It currently asks, "Where do you like to read?" Other questions you could cut and paste there might be:

Which character from this week is most like you and why?

Does one of your characters remind you of someone you know? Tell why.

What do you like about the way your mom or dad reads to you?

What is hard about reading?

What is fun about reading?

Does one of this week's books remind you of another book you have read? Explain.

Did you read a book this week that one of your school friends would like? What is it called? Who do you think would like it?

If you could magically enter into one of your books from this week, who would you like to spend time with and why?

Think of the characters you have come across this week in your reading. Which one is most like your Dad or your Mom? Why? ...etc.

Notes from this week:

Just an hour ago, we Skyped with Mrs. Hartshorn's First and Second Grade class from Moretown Elementary School. We watched as they opened their Care Package we had sent. It included a picture of all the Horizon kids. They enthusiastically thanked us, and we gave them a hearty Moretown Cheer. One of the second-grade girls named Anlou told us how the river had risen up (her house sits next to the Mad River) so high that debris had smashed her roof. She still is not yet back in the house. Students in my class also wrote "Good luck!" letters to our Moretown friends. I copied them and they are in your child's Friday Folder today.

Please post the What is Due -- When? schedule I emailed a couple of days ago. Some parents and kids put it on the fridge or right next to where the child hangs his backpack. That way, the kids can have a visual reminder and learn to be responsible for getting the folders and notebooks and reading logs handed in. Generally, if students occasionally don't hand in their things that are due on time, I give them a pass. If it happens frequently, I have the student stay in for recess to complete the work -- not as a punishment, but simply as a way to get the work completed and as a way to begin to teach these youngsters that it matters if they are asked to complete a task and they don't complete it. It matters if they do!

In second grade math, we sorted ourselves in a big class-wide Venn Diagram: ex: "stand in this circle, everyone who has played frisbee. Now stand in this circle, everyone who has a dog -- Now, where should you stand if you don't have a dog and you've never played frisbee? Where should you stand if you have a dog and you also have played frisbee?"

We have a no-school day coming up. Look on the WSD website for this and other calendar questions you might have.

Have a nice weekend, everyone.

David

June 7, 2011

Dear Parents and Families,

End-of-Year Events:
Tuesday, 6/7: Step-up Day: 2nd-graders visit WCS (during school day)
Weds. 6/8: WCS Band Performance: 2nd graders only – to WCS (during school day).
Thursday, 6/9: Fun Day @ WCS (during school day).
Friday, 6/10: Fun Day Rain Date
Weds., 6/15: Horizon’s End-of-Year Picnic at Maple Street Park.
Friday, 6/17: Last Day/half day. Report cards go out.

In Second-Grade Math, students are continuing their work with place value – working on really understanding how you regroup and why you regroup when you are dealing with problems like 183-48.
In Writing, students finished up their I Am… poems. Most kid shave brought them home to you already. Just a couple still need to do a final edit. If you haven’t seen your child’s yet, please let me know. I thought they were quite poignant and perceptive for 7 and 8-year-olds.

Read-Aloud: Mrs. Frisby is finding out how the Rats of NIMH became so smart. Nicodemus, the leader, we find, had once lived in the city. He and his friends were captured one night in the marketplace and brought to a laboratory. They got injections that doubled their life span and made them so smart they learned to read and problem-solve. When we left them today, they had just sneaked out of their cages for the first time, and they were preparing to head down the air ducts to escape!

Bolger Summer Book Club Reading Blog: I will be hosting a Summer Book Club again this summer. Last year a half-dozen students participated. We met once every two weeks at the Dorothy Alling Library, to eat potato chips and talk about our books. I ran a Summer Book Club reading blog, and posted questions for students to answer. They wrote to me and responded to each other’s comments. It was a lot of fun, and kept kids linked in to each other and to a common reading experience in the midst of their many differing summer activities. I have to charge a fee to pay for gas and for the work involved in working with the kids via email, phone, and the blog, but I think parents found it reasonable. I will be sending out a flyer giving more details early next week. Visit the blog using the following link:
http://bolgerbookclub.blogspot.com/2010/07/july-2-2010.html

Former Students: We were paid a visit by former students, Mark Lang, Doug Schmidt, and Emma Lieberman. They read memoirs they’d written – memoirs about facing difficult situations and gaining strength from them: the Penguin Plunge, an audition with a national theater company, or a run down a very difficult ski trail.
Harmony House’s Reading Restaurant: We all walked over to Harmony House at the end of the week and were treated to their Reading Restaurant dress rehearsal. Our kids were excited to read other kids’ writing; they were happy to be “old hands”, and gladly offered suggestions to their Harmony friends as they prepared for their Reading Restaurant that night.

The Sylvia Love Benefit: Last week, students made posters and did problem-solving problems related to Sylvia Love’s upcoming benefit. On Saturday Night, as you know, friends and family held the spaghetti dinner at the Federated Church to benefit Sylvia. Many parents, kids, teachers, and community members were able to contribute by attending, getting take-out, or simply donating. Sylvia was there with family; she spoke about having received a cut-off notice from the electric company and the cable company just that day, so the proceeds from the dinner (more than $3000.00) could not have come at a better time. Sylvia especially thanked the kids of Allen Brook who have been so loving and solicitous towards her over the recent weeks.

Report Cards will be going home on the last day of school. I will be in school through Wednesday, June 7th if you have any questions.

Thank you again to the parents and kids for the wonderful cards and goodies and the Kindle you gave me for Teacher Appreciation Day. I look forward to being able to try out the Kindle with our next Read-Aloud book.

Take care, everyone
(And, um, where has the time gone?)
David

May 20, 2011

Dear Parents,

Here are some highlights from this week:


Our Horizon Banner

With Ms. Beeken, Horizon students finished creating the HORIZON banner that will be hung above the lockers on the wall as you enter Horizon House. It started with a Kiva meeting where we showed many slides of different horizons, and we asked the kids to tell us how they felt looking at those slides. We got words from “Scared” to “fantabulous” to “hungry”. We got something like 180 different words. Then, we created a landscape using those very words, and painted around them. Many of the kids hadn’t seen the final banner until today. We showed it to everyone in our Kiva meeting, we sang The Horizon Cookie Baking Company song, and then we talked about how every time we see that banner, we should look at the words and let them remind us that we can be anywhere and still feel “awesome” and “proud” and “fantabulous” about who we are and what we have accomplished that day.

We will have every student sign their name to the back of the banner to celebrate that these kids are the Horizon founders.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (our read-aloud)

Mrs. Frisby, the field mouse has courageously faced threats like the Owl from the woods and the cat named Dragon to save her son, Timothy. Right now, she has ventured into the rosebush and three feet underground, she has met the leader of the Rats, Nicodemus. She has also met Arthur the engineer and she has met Justin, the leader of the guards. The owl , out of respect for her deceased husband, Jonathan Frisby, did not eat her, but instead, sent her to see if these mysteriously-intelligent rats could help her figure out how to save her buried-in-the-garden cinder-block home from Mr. Fitzgibbon’s plow. If she stays where she is, Timothy will die. If she takes her family and leaves, he will also die (from the chill of the spring air.) What will she do? The chapter we are on is called, “Powder for Dragon.” Hmmm. What could that mean? And how might it help her to save Timothy? Ask your child for his or her ideas.

In Math,

Second grade had math studio this week. The kids worked like dogs. They were figuring how to add numbers like

24
36
+28.


Some kids found 24 on the number line, then counted 36 more by ones, then counted 28 more by ones.

Other students counted up the “ones” first, and got 18. Then they counted up the tens and got 70. 70 + 18 = 88.

Other kids added the tens first: 20 + 30 + 20 = 70, then they noticed that 6 +4 = 10, so they changed the 70 to 80. What’s left? Just the 8. So, 80 + 8 = 88.

Finally, one student said, “I can do 28 + 30 + 20 = 78. Then I can just add the 6 and the 4. 78 + 6 + 4 = 88? A lot of students decided this was the most efficient way to solve these problems.

Amanda showed the class how she does it the “traditional” way … adding up the ones, and carrying the “1” to the tens column. The kids tried to think about why it is that that method works, and then, they figured that when you “carry” the 1, it’s the same as taking 18 and “trading” ten of those 18 “ones” for 1 ten and putting that ten (from 18) into the tens column to join the other “tens”.

Today, Evan challenged the class: “Hey guys, if you have 150 presents to divide up among 30 kids, how many presents does each kid get?”

First, they all drew a picture/diagram of the presents and the kids. They tried to give each kid ten presents, but that left half of the thirty kids without any presents. Harley said, “Wait! Let’s just give those fifteen kids half of 10, or five each. That way fifteen of them will get one half of ten, and fifteen will get the other half of ten…so, I guess that means they all get half of ten presents, or they all get 5 presents.” Andrew added, “Yah. That means that 150 divided into 30 = 5.”

In Mrs. Powers’ 1st grade Math, students are using paper and tape and markers and “money” to create their own farms with pens and animals. They are figuring area and perimeter and lots more!

In Writing, we wrote short pieces on “What would it be like if my backyard got completely flooded?” We also wrote letters to our buddy, Nico.

Our New Word Wall: thank you, Sally Polley, for redoing/moving our Word Wall! It’s beautiful. We moved it closer to the door so that kids would look more frequently at those words-to-know-in-first-and-second-grade.

In Science, second graders did an experiment on magnets, and first graders did an experiment sorting rocks.

A word about Friday Folders: due to assessments last week and Studio Math this week, (and there will be a couple more next week) I have, unfortunately, been out of the class for a total of four days in the last ten. Consequently, We did not do a Fundations test this week (or last week). The math and writing the kids have done, I have had time only to take notes on as I prepare for report cards.

And beyond that, there are times when I have to make a choice: either spend an hour preparing an engaging, effective lesson on the front end, or give that time to writing notes on a second-grader’s math work so they can take it home and maybe or maybe not look at it over the weekend. Most of the follow-up I do with these kids at this age happens right in the classroom -- usually verbally, (“Come here, Sean. Tell me what you were thinking here…” or “Jagger, what do you need after a period…?) or in writing I talk with them about notes I have put on their classwork as they they move, for example, through revisions towards a final draft. If you feel that you are not sure how your child is doing or if you have specific questions about a Fundations test or an end-of-unit math test, please don't hesitate to email me or call me so we can have a chat.

That’s it for now. Thank you everyone, for the goodies and the cards. We teachers feel very appreciated. Always. Today we were talking about how we are getting sentimental as we look out into Morning Meeting and see the faces of these second graders who will shortly be moving on. On to new Horizons.

Have a great weekend.

David

May 15, 2011

May 15, 2011

Dear Parents,

"Oh, look, children. Vermont is a good example of a rainforest..."


Writing: now that we have become better writers, we went back the stuffed animal stories we had written earlier in the year, and we are adding detail and voice to make them even better. Most of the kids are ready for their final drafts, and you will be seeing them soon.

Reading: we are doing the final round of reading assessments this week. For first graders, reading a level H passage independently (with high accuracy and comprehension) is reading “on-grade-level”. For second graders, a level H means they are on-grade-level.

Science Workshops: we just completed our second week of studying animal habitats – from deserts to rainforest to the ocean to our own backyards.

Half-day coming up: Tuesday, May 17th, will be a half day.

End-of-year picnic: On Wednesday, June 15th, Horizon House will be going on an end-of-year picnic (parents and families invited) to Maple Street Park in Essex Junction. We are looking for a couple of grilles. Please let me know if you have one and can transport it for us.

Compost: We had a great compost day on Saturday. Lots of smiles. The kids shoveled their brains out. And many thanks to the parents who came to be part of the day. Thanks, also, to Ian Batson, Janelle Poulos, and Timmy Carpenter, former students of mine who were indefatigable. The proceeds will go to buying compost and tools for our school garden.

Have a nice beginning of the week!

David

April 8, 2011

Dear Parents,

The Reading Restaurant will take place this coming Wednesday, April 13th. Here is a reminder of the shift your child is in and how many people we have down for your party. Please let me know ASAP if your number has changed.

The first shift should arrive at 6:00 p.m. as the first restaurant begins promptly at 6:15 p.m. (6:15-7:00). The second-shift students should arrive at 7:00 p.m. for their 7:15-8:00 shift. Students should come dressed in their chiton (toga). We have Greek head-wreaths here for the children to put on when they arrive.

Thank you.

David

First Shift:
Amanda Li: Maitre D’ (3 guests)
Evan (3), Sean, (3) and Jagger (3): chefs
Diego (2) : busperson and food server
Olivia (3), Harley (3), Luna (3), and Kayla (5): waitresses

Second Shift
Kyle (4): Maitre D’
Grant (3) and Ruben (4): chefs
Carlie (3), Alyssa (3), Samantha (3), and Adia (3): Waitresses
Anna (3) and Amanda G (3): buspeople and food servers


Can’t wait to see you all and share the great writing these kids have done.

March 18, 2011

March 18, 2011

Dear Parents,

Report Cards: look for them in your child’s Friday Folder today. If your child skied, then you can come by and pick it up off your child’s desk in the classroom.

Reading Restaurant -- Weds. April 13: Your Reading Restaurant invitation is on a bright sheet of paper in today’s Friday Folder too. Please pull it out, sign it, and return it on Monday.

Our Theme in this Classroom: Greek Inventions.
Attire: Togas – er—um, “Chitons”. See the instructions in the Friday Folder for helping your child make his or her own for the R.R.

Can You Help? I would love to have help next week tracing a dozen or so overhead-projector images of Greek inventions onto butcher paper for the kids to then color in. We also need to make a door to our restaurant –made out of either a slit butcher paper image of Greece or a door made from a fridge box with an image painted on that.

Bridges Math Night: March 29th, 6:30-8:30 in the WCS dining hall. You’ll have a chance to do some math the Bridges way-- some math activities – to get a feel for how it’s done. It should be interesting. Childcare, refreshments, and door prizes.

Conferences: If you haven’t signed up yet and don’t know how, contact me and I can resend the link. Conferences are this coming Friday and the following Friday. Feel free to bring the report card with you. I look forward to seeing you. Email if you have any questions.

That’s it for now. Oh, yah. That and the fact that it's almost sunbathing weather out there.

Talk to you soon.

David

March 9, 2011

March 9, 2011

Dear Parents,

Well. That was a thumping. Raise your hand if you’re sore from shoveling.

It was good to finally start the school week today! We spent writing time today using good details, how our families fared in the blizzard. We are excited that Reading Restaurant will take place on the 13th of April, and we’ll have a chance to share all our writing with you.

Because we’re getting a late start to the week, there will be no Letters-to-Home journal coming home tonight. We will pick that up next week.

Parent-Teacher Conferences: Please sign up for conferences on March 25th and April 1st. (12:00-4:30). I sent you a link today in an email.

Buy your Variety-Show tickets tomorrow!: The Williston FAP Annual Variety Show sells out fast. It is this Friday (7:00-9:30 p.m.) It’s always a blast – with students, teachers, parents, and other community members performing. Horizon Teachers and Parents will be singing two songs – Good Lovin’ by the Rascals, and I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash. Tickets are $5.00 apiece. They are on sale only at WCS ( in the front hall) from 7:30 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. and in the afternoon from 2:30-3:45.

Reading Logs: Please keep up with the reading logs this week. We will be tallying them and picking from the treasure chest on Friday. By the way, thank you to those of you who have generously contributed to our Reading Treasure Chest. The kids are blazing through my kids’ forgotten Hot Wheels cars, so we welcome any little old toys you would like to pass on in the name of reading!

Greece: We are beginning our workshops on Greece tomorrow. They will go for five weeks. Students will learn about Greek inventions, Greek pottery, Greek Drama, the Greek Olympics, and the overall connection between Greek culture and our own.

Have a great rest of the week, everyone. See you at conferences.

David

January 28, 2011

Dear Parents,

Report cards will be coming out in the middle of March, and we’ll be emailing you in February about signing up for the report-card-conferences.

In Second Grade Math, students are learning that you subtract when you are “taking away” something. You also subtract when you are finding the difference between two quantities. So, if I have six jelly beans and I give you 2 of them, I would say, “6 take away 2 = 4 left.” If, on the other hand, I have six jelly beans and you have 2 jelly beans, and the question is, “What is the difference between us? It’s not correct to say, “6 take away 2 =4” because there is no “taking away” happening. It’s important to say “6 subtract 2= 4. Five is the difference.” This become important in 3rd and 4th grade when kids have to find the difference between two quantities and really struggle to picture the operation to use because they have always associated subtraction with take-away.


Take away:

six take away two = four left over.
x x x x x x
6-2=4

Difference:

I have six and you have two. What is the difference (between your # and my #)?

Me: x x x x x x
You: x x

I can read this as 6-2=4 because I can take my six. And compare them to your two.

I subtract the number of mine that are the same as yours (we both have two). That leaves me with the difference between us:

(my) 6 minus the 2 (of yours that are the same as the two of mine) = the 4 (that are the difference between us because only I have them.)

An easier way to solve difference problems is to count up from your 2 to my 6:

Me: x x x x x x
You: x x

Your two plus _____ reaches my 6.

Hmmm. The difference must be 4.
4 is the answer.

"Busted!": ask your second grader why we said "Busted!" to each other today. (The answer is that while we were practicing "difference" problems, if one partner mistakenly said "take away" instead of "subtraction" and "difference", the other partner could say, "Busted!"


First Grade Math-This week students learned about the Little Blue Penguins. They learned that they are 16 inches tall and can weigh 2-3 pounds. Students are comparing them to two penguins (The King Penguin and The Rockhopper Penguin) that they learned about last week. What can your child tell you about any of these penguins. Can they compare them? For example, how much taller is the King Penguin compared to the Little Blue Penguin. Here is the info so you will know:

Rockhopper Penguin- 18 inches tall and 5-6 pounds

King Penguin- 36 inches tall and 30 pounds.

They also learned some new games. One game is called Help A Skuwa.
Can they tell you what a Skuwa is? (It is a bird that is a predator of the penguin. ) This game reminds you of Old Maid. The students are practicing two digit numbers and matching them to a picture. More next week about some other games they are learning.

First Grade Fundations: Students are beginning a new unit on “glued sounds” such as –ang, -ing, -ink, -and unk.

Second Grade Fundations- We finished up our unit on suffixes. More on what's coming up soon.d We are in our third round of our Science workshops. Ask you children how the workshop went this week and how it blends with what they learned in prior weeks about Solids, Liquids and Gases.

We talked about wearing glasses. Both Mr. B. and Ruben both got glasses this week, and we all talked about how it feels awkward to wear them at first, but you sure can see better and do more if you put them on. You can notice more when you are doing science experiments, you can see the board more easily in math, you can read the handwriting letters on the wall, so your handwriting will be neater, You can see from far away if your friend is up on the hill or not! And then there’s the fact that everyone tells you that you look smarter if you wear glasses. So, if you have a friend who is embarrassed to wear their glasses, tell them to go ahead and put them on so they can look smart and be smart!

Looking for a few good singers. The Horizon House Band is still looking for a few parents who would like to join us in the WSD Variety Show on March 11th. A few songs we are considering singing right now are Peace Train, Good Lovin’, and Return to Sender. We’d love you to join us. l

Half-day coming up: Next Tuesday, February 1st is a ½ day for a teacher inservice.

Have a great weekend!

David

Jan. 23, 2011

Dear Parents and Families,

First of all, I’d like to officially welcome Diego Ortiz (and his mom, Karleigh,) to our class. Diego started two weeks ago, and he’s a great kid.
Science: we’re in our second week of our Solids, Liquids, and Gases workshops. We’re studying the states of matter. Talk to your child about what he or she learned this week.

Reading: we administered half of the mid-year reading assessments this week.

At-home reading – Please email me:
By now, at the half-point in the year, our 20 first and second graders are all making good strides as evidenced by this week’s assessments. Students at this age are all in different places though, in terms of their interest in reading and in terms of their organizational abilities (getting books home and back again). Some students have latched on to books avidly, and they need no prodding to choose topics they like and books that are just the right difficulty for them (getting no more than five words wrong on a page). Others are reading mostly because we make them. They less enthusiastically, and they are bringing home books that are too hard or too easy. Their heads really aren’t in it. If you’re finding your child is more in this latter category, please shoot me a quick email:

- How is at-home reading going for you? Thumbs up or thumbs down?
- Does your child need more help from me to find “just-right” books to bring home each week?
- Does your child need more help in finding books that will interest him/her?
- From what you are seeing at home, what kinds of books is your child getting excited about?
- Would you like to have phone conversation with me to brainstorm ideas for getting your child more into reading?
- Anything else?

Our Weekly Book Bags – changing things up:
As you recall, I began the year with having all students choose five books from our class library each Monday to read in class. I also had them choosing two books at a time to bring back and forth to home in a plastic Book Bag. The change: no more plastic bag. It gets crunched up and lost in book bags and cubbies, so now we’ll be using a laminated Reading Folder that will go back and forth in your child’s back pack. The more-beginning readers, several times per week, will bring home their shorter books to read to you -- the books they have just read in their book group. Reading to you is a way to get more fluent now with the new words and grammar they have just learned. The farther-along readers, the readers who are into short chapter books and beyond, will come home more like one time per week with a couple of books from the class library or the school library.

A check-out sheet: to help the kids (and us adults) keep track of books going back and forth, I have taped a “check-out” sheet to the Reading Folder, so your child can more easily keep track of books they have taken out, and there will be a space for you and for me to make comments about the reading.

Our Reading Treasure Chest – looking for donations! Do you have any little toys or trinkets or stuffed-animals under foot that your child has outgrown? Would you consider donating them to our Reading Treasure Chest? My own kids are now in fifth and seventh grade, and I am down to their last matchbox cars and silly putties. If you’d like to donate, please seal them up in a plastic or paper bag and send them in. Thanks.

A thought about the difficult events in Tucson and Mount Mansfield Union High School: students have not brought up, nor have we discussed in class here any of these sad events. We teachers received a very-smart set of talking points we could use with a child if we are asked. If your child has asked you about any of these events and you’d like me to send along this advice sheet, just contact me.
I feel over and over again how lucky we are that our six and seven and eight-year-olds here in Williston, day after day, have, compared with their counterparts in other places all over the world, remarkably-safe lives – physically, emotionally, and psychologically. We are so lucky, because even in Norman-Rockwellesque Williston, our kids’ brains are filled up each day with the very-real-to-them struggles of handing in reading log in, telling the truth, being on time, getting noticed, belonging, being liked, trying to like someone they don’t like, trying to do things they think they’re not good at, and trying to find a way to do those things they love to do in the blur of get-on-the-bus-get-off-the-bus-get-ready-for-practice-get-in-the-car-we’re-going-shopping -- So even here, our kids have a full plate. We have a full plate.

But we have, in the ten years or so left of these kids’ childhoods, the opportunity every week and every day to just spend time with them, listen to them, think with them, look at them when they’re talking to us, struggle with them. Either we will do it or we won’t. But, we’ve got just a few hundred weeks’ worth, of little opportunities, to help our children find their own gift and really flourish as confident purposeful, strong, kind, self-reliant, imaginative, contributing, and content human beings – or not. The lesson I keep getting as I think of Tucson and Mount Mansfield, is that it’s so much in our hands, that it’s the little things, and that it is now.

Have a warm end of the weekend! - David

January 14, 2011

Jan. 14 2011

Dear Parents and Friends,

There has been a lot of energy this week with the excitement over the snowfall! Hmmm. Today we’ll channel that by….

In Writing this week, we have finished up our first drafts of our Stuffed-animal short stories, and we have been conferencing with each other. We’ve been giving each other feeback, asking each other questions and responding to each other’s questions to clarify our stories. In the coming days we will be revising them, focusing on strong beginnings, potent words, and dialogue.
For Read-aloud, we are reading Winnie-the-Pooh. We’ve been using each little story (like Pooh’s run-in with bees and ballons to his run-in with Rabbit’s entrance) to look at how good authors introduce settings and characters, present a problem, then let their characters loose to work their way through the problem and usually learn a lesson.

In 2nd grade math, students worked this week on problems like this:
"Pretend that you need to build some new tables for us all to use in our classroom. Your are given five table tops. You are also given 17 table legs. You can make tables with four legs. You can also make tables with just three legs. Make all the tables you can using all the table tops and all the table legs you are given.
Question: How many three-legged tables will you end up with and how many four-legged tables will you end up with for your classroom? Answer with pictures, numbers, and words."

Students are also working hard to learn strategies for getting quicker with their addition and subtraction facts.

In Fundations, 2nd graders are learning to break big words down into their smaller syllables so they can more easily spell those words. They are learning, for example, that the word muffin gets split into two "closed" syllabes: muf/fin. Students now know that when two vowels are split by two consonants (as in this example), you split the word right down the middle between those two consonants. But, if the word is packing or fishing, you can't split up a ck or an sh so, instead, you split them like this: pack/ing and fish/ing.

First Grade Math: “We wanted to give you an update on what we have been working on in math. We are all going on a journey to Antarctica. Below you will find a link to my blog where you can see some cool Antarctica Passports. As part of this unit the students are learning about Antarctica and penguins. So far the students have decorated their folders and we have recorded their height and weight on their passports. They have cut out measurement strips that show their actual height. We have played a game called Journey to Antarctica where the students spend money for various necessities along their journey. Today we talked about the temperatures of the Atlantic, Pacific and Antarctic Oceans. The Atlantic and Pacific winter temperatures are 60 degrees and the Antarctic Winter temperatures are 30 degrees. In small groups the students were given a small glass of water and a thermometer. Their task was to get their water sample temperature and change it to be 60 degrees and then 30 degrees. They had hot water, cold water and ice to help them. They were all able to do it and loved it. Check in with your child about this experiment. What can they tell you?
More next week..... Donna”

Have a nice weekend, everyone!
David

January 7, 2011

Jan. 6, 2011

Dear Parents and Families,

We have had a busy first week back at school in everything from writing short stories to launching our Solids, Liquids and Gases unit to even dealing with sneaky stuffed animals. It’s great to be back in the classroom as we begin this stretch of what is usually the most productive time of the school year.

In reading, as we approach the 80th day of school, we are beginning our winter assessments of students’ reading levels. We’ve also revamped the At-Home Reading Log, and congratulations to Grant Mitchell for being the first to read 300 minutes and get a chance to reach into our classroom treasure chest!

We finished up our read-aloud book, Toys Go Out. We have been talking about a couple of interesting themes. First, Stingray, the grumpy know-it-all had been jealous about not having been picked by the little girl to go to the seaside. Still, her friends, the other animals, treat her with kindness and understanding, and they even save her life, and on the last page of the book, we see Stingray dancing joyfully on the Little Girl’s bed, fully-happy and joyful at last, transformed by the love of her friends. Another theme we looked at was, “Does it count as lying if you make something up to make a sad friend happier?” When Lumphy the Buffalo loses his tail jumping off the bed, and Plastic the ball tries to comfort him, we read…

“Oh, I need it very badly!”
“’What for?” Plastic wants to know.
Lumphy sniffs back his tears. He tries to think of an answer.
“You look tough without it,” says Plastic kindly, rolling around to examine Lumphy’s bottom.
“Really?”
“None of the tough buffaloes have tails,” lies Plastic. I read it in an animal book.”
“They don’t?”
“It’s the tough-buffalo fashion.”
Lumphy thinks for a minute. “Who needs a tail anyway?” he sniffs.
“I don’t.” says Plastic.
“I don’t either then,” Lumphy says bravely.

The culmination of this book led nicely into our Short-Story unit. As you know, we all brought stuffed animals into the classroom and began writing stories about them as we studied story structure including setting , characters, problem, and solution.

We found that just like Lumphy, Plastic, and Stingray, our stuffed animals are a clever and sneaky crew. They did things like hide in the plants and the bookcases every time we left the classroom. So, it hasn’t been hard to think up stories for them.

We studied another important writing organizer -- the topic sentence. We all took a look at the big plant in our classroom and we made a list of words to describe it. We suddenly realized that if Mr. Terko came into the classroom and saw “pointy, tall, fat, huge, green and thirsty” written on the board, he might think we had seen a monster! So, we started our piece off with, “In our classroom, we have a huge plant.” We figured that would keep Mr. Terko from being scared.

In Second Grade Math, we are continuing our study of math facts, learning four important strategies for tackling them – including learning the doubles (8+8 and
4 + 4)), the neighbors (8+7 and 4 +5), the tens facts (10 +8= 18 and 10 + 9 = 19), and learning the halves (if 9+9=18 is easy for you, then keep that in mind when you see 18-9=?)

In 2nd Grade Fundations , we just finished our unit on the suffixes –s, -es, -d, -ed, and –ing.

We began our unit on Solids, Liquids and Gases (“Excuse me, Mr. Bolger, is a
burp made of gas? What about when you – you know -- fart?” ) We’ll be doing multi-age workshops between now and the next seven weeks with students rotating among the classrooms Thursdays and Fridays to do experiments and learn the terminology like matter, properties, and state, atoms and molecules.

Calling all Singers: The Horizon Teachers along with para educators, Mr. Terko, Ms. Trasdiatti-Holmberg, and a couple of musician-parents, will be performing two songs in the upcoming Williston Variety Show (WCS auditorium on March 11??). We would love to have two or three more parents to join with us. We haven’t picked the song yet, but over the past several years, we’ve sung “Jumbalaya”, Sunshine (Jonathan Edwards), Aimie (Pure Praire League), It Don’t Come Easy, and Running Down a Dream (Tom Petty) We generally just have two or three rehearsals on Friday mornings before school, and then we do it. ). If you like to sing and these songs appeal to you, please email us.

Please help our classroom plants! We bought some nice hanging plants at the beginning of the year, and they are beginning to suffer now that they have outgrown their pots and dry-aired winter is fully upon us. I would love it if someone could drop by, check in on them, and give us some advice on how to help them stay alive and flourish in here.

And finally, thank you all, parents and kids, for the holiday gifts you gave me –The handwritten cards, baked goodies, the several gift cards, the cool gifts and the smiles and hugs at the door were all equally appreciated. I feel very luck to be working with you and your children. I learn from you, and from them each day, and I can’t wait to get to work in the morning. What a job.

Have a great weekend. See you on Monday.

David