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.