April 13, 2012
Dear Parents,
Reading Restaurant: thank you again everyone, for making our Reading Restaurant a success. The kids are still exchanging their writing pieces, and they are avidly reading, and discussing them.
Literacy:
we have finished our read-aloud book, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet.
We have followed that up by writing reflections
on what we liked most about the book and what we thought the author, Eleanor
Cameron, wanted us to learn.
-
Sharing:
our theme for the coming week is “When I am 25 years old…”
This week’s theme was “Something I notice about
adults…” and it yielded such provocative
responses as, “I noticed that when I ask my mom questions, she says, ‘Ask me
tomorrow,’” or “I noticed that grownups are always on the computer,” or “I notice that grownups talk to their sisters
on the phone a lot.” Today, one student
said, “Um, you’re not going to like this…sometimes grownups are grumpy.” J
Four Winds: last
week, we had a great 4-winds lesson on Deer.
We learned that they eat about two pounds of branches and leaves each day.
That’s a lot of sticks!
Ms. Jacy is
Leaving! Thursday of next week
is our student teacher, Jacy Hagy’s last day with us :( Jacy has done it all -- from teaching Fundations by playing charades -- to teaching Space by having us research
big questions and paint them onto big, hanging stars -- to teaching us how to write good poetry by closing our eyes and
really noticing what we think about when we think about spring. She even joined the Horizon House Band on
Stage at the Variety Show and Hula Hooped while everyone sang. She’s awesome! We will be compiling letters to her, but
your child may feel motivated to write a nicer letter at home or make her a
little craft as a thank-you. Purely optional!
Some Upcoming Dates:
·
Conferences
continue today and next week. Please contact me if you haven't yet signed up
for a conference.
·
2nd-Grade
Parent Input Sheets for transition to 3rd grade are due: Monday April 16th
·
Letters out to parents with placement decision:
early June
·
Step Up for incoming 3rd
graders: June 5th
·
Parent Orientation for
3rd grade: June 5th
·
Tentative Kindergarten (new First Graders) Step Up Day: June 8th
·
\Our
Horizon end of the year picnic: Maple St., Park, June 6 from 9 AM to 2 PM. Parents, of course,
are welcome!
Sleep!
With the arrival of spring sports and our spending more time outside after
dinner, a lot of kids (including my own) just can’t resist staying up late and going to school tired. Let’s all work
to help our children keep that regular routine and get to bed early for a full nights sleep!
Compost Day is
Coming! Don’t forget that we
will have our tenth annual ABS compost
day coming up –either the second or the third Saturday of May. Students
have been composting their food scraps in the cafeteria all winter long, and
they have been made into compost at an off-site compost center. Now it’s time
to bring back the compost. Families pre-order
(at about $8.00 per 33-gallon barrel of compost.) Then you come on that Saturday, you bring your
own barrel, and our first and second graders (volunteering for the morning)
shovel your compost into your vehicle for you. It’s a glorious event! So, try
to hold off on buying compost ‘til after vacation. Thanks!
Have a Springy weekend, everyone. Do we dare leave our cell phones at home and
go have a picnic in the woods somewhere?
I will if you do. I almost can’t
imagine…
Mr. Bolger
Ps: Some Quotes from
our Sharing Last Week:
“Someone Who I Admire…”
“I admire Tyler and Mitchell
because they play with me at recess and they’re nice.” - Leo
“And I admire my dad
because he likes to play with me.” - Leo
“I admire Luna, Anna,
Adia, and Anna Sophia because they are really kind. They play with me at
recess.” -- Kayla
“I admire Neil for helping
me build the stuff of the spaceship.” -
James
“I admire my dad because
he is really strong and he can build a lot of things and he helps me build
stuff at home and other stuff. And we take apart stuff, like I took apart my
toy car. I feel good when my dad does that with me.” - Sean
“I admire my mommy, and
I’m going to tell you three reasons. First, she is really nice. She doesn’t
yell at me. 2nd, she’s really helpful and she lets me help her
sometimes. The 3rd reason is that when it comes to having tough
times, she tries to cheer me up, and it makes me happy.”
– Ananya.
‘I admire my dad because I
really want to build houses like him. And he’s really good at making robots and rocket ships and forts out of
cardboard.” -- Brodi
“ I admire my dad because
he’s really nice to me. The second reason is he plays with me when he has time
since he works a lot and I barely get to see him. The third reason is he does
reports with me when I come home with nonfiction books on Wednesdays.” - Anna Sophia
“I would want to admire
myself! That’s because I like myself very much because I’m awesome at video
games because each level I do it only takes one or two shots to beat it! And,
I’m also good at making good aliens, and I’m an awesome reader too; at least I
try to be awesome!”
– Diego
“I admire Kayla because
she is creative and a nice friend. And I admire Julia because she lends me her
markers when she is doing free-draw.”
<What adult would you like to be like when you grow up?> “I would
like to be like my mom because she’s kind and she’s smart, and she can draw
good pictures.” - Luna
“I admire two people: one
is Luna and one is Kayla. Why I admire Luna is because she gets a zip line in
her back yard and I get to play on it; and why I admire Kayla is because she is
very creative and nice. “ - Julia
“ I admire my dad because
this morning he gave me mints and he gave me a pencil with all the presidents.
And I admire my mom because she reads me books at bedtime and she gives me
snuggles.” - Tyler
Quotes still to come:
Cutter, Adia, Mitchell, Olivia Roberts, Olivia Beaudry, and Anna Van Buren.
Stay Tuned!
