November 26, 2012: Some things that are coming up...

Hello Parents.

It was great to see your kids this morning. And the snow was a beautiful welcome-back as we began  our four-week-passage into December and the holidays.

We talked about Chanukah and Christmas, and we read a book called "Christmas Day in the Morning." Ask your child to tell you about it.

For sharing this week, we are telling about something we will be getting as a gift (or doing as a gift) for someone we love. That fits into our new Social Studies unit: Economics (with a focus on wants and needs.)

Upcoming Bake Sale to raise money for COTS: On the week of December 10th, we'll be asking kids to help you, their parents, bake something at home (like a batch of brownies or cookies)  that your child will then donate to our Horizon Cookie Baking Company  bake sale that will be taking place on Friday, December 14th (at lunch time and after school). Horizon kids will be making posters and banners and  whipping up business by giving presentations and singing our song to the other teams during that week. They will also be selling the "goods" and counting the profit. More details to come.

Polar Express/Holiday Celebration coming up on Friday, December 21st: we will be showing the Polar Express. The kids will be invited to come  to school in PJs  and drinking hot chocolate in the morning. In the afternoon, at the end of the day, we'll have our classroom-level  Holiday Celebrations.

Jessica Lamorey, our room mom, will be in touch with folks about donating hot chocolate and coming in to help (those who are available).
Again, more to come.

Here's to a great holiday season!

Mr. B

Nov. 25, 2012

Dear Parents,

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are some pictures we took on our Shelburne Farms Field Trip, "Long Ago and Today."  Our focus was on candle making,  wool-carding and wool spinning, and farm animals.

Here are some questions you can ask your child about the trip:

• Why are bee keeper clothes white? (bees associate dark colors with predators like bears)
• Why do bees need honey ?  (They eat it.)
• How much does a hive of bees need ?  (100 pound per winter.) 
• How many different kids of honey bees are in a hive? (There are three different kinds of honeybees in a hive:  female, drone, queen.) 
• How do they know if the queen isn't there?  (They can tell... kind-of like how your mom or dad has a special smell -- maybe a cologne -- that lets you know they are in the room even if you're not looking.)  In bees we call that scent pheremones.
• Why don't beekeepers put their beehives close together? (If hives are too close together, the bees could fight and stung each other! 
• How many bees are usually in one hive? (There are 100,000 in a hive.) 

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow! Get to bed early :)

Mr. Bolger

This Week in Mr. Bolger's Class

Hello, Parents!

This is an odd week because we will have a field trip tomorrow and Ms. Schwartz and Mrs. Rodliff will be field-tripping on Thursday. Also,  I will be out of the classroom on Friday (we'll have sub). So, I thought I'd send home a quick note each day rather than wait 'til Friday to report on the week:

Field Trip tomorrow to Shelburne Farms: check the weather and dress appropriately. We leave at 8:50 a.m. and we return at 2:00 p.m. Chaperones, you  may join us on the bus if you'd like.

Home-School Journals went home today. Due back on Thursday. We read a picture book about Plymouth Plantation, and they wrote to you in their journals about something that stood out for them. For your response, it might be nice if you thought about the pilgrims and wrote down something you, yourself, really wonder --- like, "I wonder how long it took them to come across the ocean?" or, "I wonder what they did if they got a bad cut and needed stitches?" or "Since there weren't any telephones or international mail, I wonder if they ever saw their friends (back in England) again?" or "I wonder, if they knew there would be people there already (Native Americans)? and were they afraid the Native Americans might be mean to them?"

No homework this week for Bolger Second-Grade Math (we are covering the material in class).

First graders do have math homework this week. It's due on Thursday.

Bolger Fundations: we just finished a unit last week, so we won't start a new one until after Thanksgiving. We will, instead, focus -- this week and next -- on handwriting.

Math today in 2nd grade: we are practicing counting easily by tens -- starting with something like 33 and going all the way up to 133.  Kids put up three fingers, then they "flashed" ten fingers and said, "thirteen". Then flashed ten more and said "twenty-three," ... all the way up to 133. Try it with your child. Today, lots of kids jumped from 73 to 93. Kids often have trouble going back and forth across 100. Practice at home!

We also read a great picture book called, "Edward and the Pirates" The kids loved it. Ask your child.
Ask your child, too, about the Splinter Cat in the Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.  He is a cat-in-the-hat kind of figure. A little fun and a little not-trustworthy. He has tricked Lindy into going to his place, and he has lulled her to  sleep.  What we don't know yet is that because she is so smart, he is trying to trick her to keep her and her brothers from reaching the Whangdoodle -- the mystical king of Whangdoodle Land. It's a little-bit Wizard-of -Ozish.

If your child read in a reading group today, he or she may have a book to read in his/her backpack. Please send it back tomorrow.

Look at the cool designs on Ananya's hands.

It's called "henna."

Have a nice night, Everyone.

Mr. Bolger and Class

Nov. 11, 20012

Nov. 11, 2012

Dear Parents,  

The Election
It was an exciting week as we watched and the presidential election. Students voted on Monday, and they had many questions and earnest thoughts about it. We posted all of this on our Kidblog which can be accessed from our class webpage. Thank you, parents, for commenting on our posts!

Upcoming Field Trip:
Our field trip to Shelburne Farms is on Wednesday, November 14^th. Please sign and hand in your permission slip (if you haven't already) by Tuesday. We will be leaving at about 8:45 a.m. and returning to school at 2:15 p.m. If you offered to chaperone, I will be in touch with you in the next couple of days. 

Children should be dressed for the weather. Every child will also need a lunch from home and a drink to take with them. The trip is about farm life long ago and today. Shelburne Farms does a fantastic job with their field trips. We’re looking forward to it!

Our First Snow: we went for a walk outside Monday morning to marvel in the snow squall. PJ Zimakas (Nina's dad) happened to be in the classroom, so he joined us. And students decided that the sharing for the week should be "What we like to do in the snow."

Sharing for This Week and Next Week (combined): "What I am thankful for."

Snack: I think these kids are growing! Many kids, recently, have come to me at snack time to say that they finished their snack and they are still hungry. Please chat with your child to see if  he or she needs a little extra as the cold days arrive.

Fundations and Math Homework:
A few students got out the door on Friday without having handed in their Math or Fundations work (due Thursday). Please take a quick look in your child's backpack to see if their homework is still there. Also, check in the Friday Folder to see if there is any make-up work or Monday.

Thanks Everyone.

Mr. Bolger

November 4, 2012

Nov. 4, 2012

Nina's Dad, PJ, talked to us
about the human body.

            

Dear Parents,

Julia's mom, Jessica, talks seeds
in our  4 Winds lesson

Thanksgiving came early this past week. We are so fortunate to have dodged that storm. The day we returned to school from Hurricane Sandy, we looked at Weather Channel videos to see the damage in New York and New Jersey. I also showed the kids my slide show from my experience in Moretown with Irene last year. We talked about how people get through all sorts of calamities when we help each other out.

Science: we finished up our science unit on The Body's Senses this last week. You can carry the, learning forward by talking to your child about seeing, hearing, smelling, and tasting, when the opportunity arises. Now we are moving on to a study of economics – “Wants and Needs” – a good topic for the holiday season, don't you think? We have contacted COTS, and we'll be collaborating with them over the coming eight weeks (see their letter below).

Four Winds: we had a GREAT Four-Winds class on Friday as the kids learned about the different ways that seeds get carried (wind, animals, water, etc.) so they can land in new soil and grow. We realized that even a pencil comes from a seed – mostly. Thank you to all the Four-Winds volunteers!

The Election this Week: student will be voting for president on Monday. I've encouraged them to ask you to help t hem understand the difference between the two candidates.

Reading: we have changed our book-exchange day in the library to Thursday. Please make a note of that. We won't be exchanging books on Mondays, now.

Conferences: I have had a chance to meet with about half of you so far. Thank you for taking the time to come in. I have very-much enjoyed sitting down with you.. Please sign up on the schedule on our class blog if you haven't already done so.

Food Drive: can you donate a food item this week?

We are doing a one-week food drive beginning tomorrow (Monday) to collect food items for the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf and the Winooski Teen Center. All the houses at ABS are doing it, and we're holding a fun competition to see which house can come up with the highest total number of food items. This competition is meant to be all-in-fun and not to stress out our families. If you could donate one item this week, that would be great. Here is the letter from the folks at UVM who are sponsoring the food drive:

We are University of Vermont students involved in the Campus Kitchen Project here in Burlington. The CKP is a non-profit organization, which aims to bring the greater Burlington and UVM communities together for one common cause: ending hunger! Ending hunger is a pretty daunting goal, so Campus Kitchens works in the area to turn donated food items from organizations all over Vermont into delicious meals to serve at the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf and the Winooski Teen Center.

You may be wondering, what we want from your classrooms? Well we want to help teach your students about hunger. And not just hunger in general, hunger here! In Vermont! In fact, we are one of the hungriest states in the US! And that includes kids, just like the students in your classrooms, living right next door! So we want to help your kids understand how close to home the issue of hunger is. We are also asking them to make difference in our fight against local hunger! How do you ask? With friendly competition!

We want to have a food drive for the Campus Kitchens Project in your classrooms, your houses specifically. We are in dire need of food here at UVM to help make meals to feed the 12,000 kids that rely on Vermont food shelves every month! We are hoping to have the food drive during the week of November 5^th-9th. Ideally on the Friday before the food drive begins, we would like to meet with each House to explain the issue of hunger briefly (10 minutes) and inform the students about the food drive. If there is a date or time that would work best, we hope we can work with the Houses schedules to figure out an agreeable time! We will be picking up the food at the end of each day, and keeping a running count on which house in the lead. At the end of the week, we hope to announce the winning house and award a small prize to the students! We really believe your students are the future of humanity, and with their help, we can reduce hunger in Vermont. Thanks so much for your time, and for your willingness to help!

Shelburne Farms Field Trip on November 14th – Please send in your permission slip if you haven't already done so.

Have a great week, everyone!

Mr. Bolger

...oh, and Brendan lost his tooth.