March 26, 2013

Dear Parents,

This week we have started working on research. Each child has an animal that they will be researching and writing. Ask your child to share with you one fact they know about their animal. Tomorrow, we will select jobs for our reading restaurant, and we'll  start making decorations at the end of this week.  The kids are really excited for this event.

Just a reminder about the basket raffle our class has "Party Palooza" as our theme. We still need some donations to complete our basket. Thank you to those who have already brought in donations.  A couple of items we could still use include rolls of crepe paper streamers that you hang from the ceiling, party hats, and maybe a couple of smallish party games for kids to play. We have candles, cupcakes and frosting, as well as noise makers so far.  Thanks again.

And thank you all for your generosity in sending in pencils. Much appreciated. 

We have started a new read-aloud book called The Doll People by Ann Martin, an award-winning author. One of the dolls has an aunt who has been missing for 45 years. Her search for her long-lost aunt is one of the big adventures in the book. 

Home School Journals will go home tomorrow and be due back on Friday.

Tomorrow, we will be administering  the CSSU First and Second Grade Science Tests.

We did a practice for it last week.

Remember: Jump Rope for Heart takes place on Thursday, and Students will have the day off on Friday for Parent-Teacher Conferences.

Have a great rest of the week, Everyone. See you for conferences.

Mr. Bolger

March 21, 2013

Notes from the Classroom

Hello Parents.

Time-Sensitive: Remember to to check out our class blog to sign up for Parent-Teacher Conferences.

Time-Sensitive: call the WCS office today to get tickets to Friday's Variety Show. Mrs. Powers, Mr. Terko, Ms. Irish, Ms. Trasciatti-Holmberg and I will be performing in our 12th year as the  Horizon House Band. Tickets are $6.00 and they will probably sell out by tomorrow afternoon.   I'm proud to say, too, that my daughter, Sadie, will be performing in it for the first time! 

Just a quick note to say that we are nearly done with our  "How-to" writing pieces.  Look for them at the beginning of the week on our Kidblogs. 

Students in first and second grade also took  our annual spring writing assessment called The On-Demand Task where they must  respond to a question and write for twenty minutes. We look for good organization of their thinking, a clear introduction/topic sentence, and a clear and compelling conclusion. 

Tomorrow (Thursday), students will take a practice NECAP Science test. Next Wednesday, we will administer the Real NECAP Science Test.

In Art/Science work, students from my class have chosen either the Tundra or the Desert, and they  are creating Tunnel Books.  They're beautiful. 

There was no 2nd Grade Math homework this  week due to the snow day. 

There was no Home School Journal writing this week either -- due to the  snow day. 

2nd-grade Fundations will have the usual Thursday bi-weekly test tomorrow. 

Reading Logs: today, Students began  filling out their reading logs from this week, and they took them home to have you help finish filling them out. 

Time-Sensitive: Report Cards will be coming home Friday. 

Time-Sensitive:  between now and April 1st: $7.00 Spring Haircuts for any student attending WSD (boy or girl). The Hairdresser is a long-time supporter of the Williston Schools. Call The Mane House: 3097 Williston Road

(across from Pete's RV). Telephone: 860-1099. Mention "Mr. Bolger."  to get the discount.

That's it for now. Have a nice end to your week. 

--

David Bolger

1st and 2nd Grade Teacher

Allen Brook School

http://bolgerclass.blogspot.com/

http://kidblog.org/MrBolgersClass2012-2013/

March 20, 2012

Hello Parents. These are the updated  times for conferences as of 3/26/13.  

Please look over this schedule, and  then email me with your first, second and third choices. I’ll then contact you within 24 hours to confirm.  As you sign up, I  will post updates (three or four times per week)  until everyone is scheduled. Please don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions.  Note: normally I don't have children present at the conferences, though it works to have them wait in the Kiva  and then come in for the last five minutes for a wrap-up.  I'm looking forward to  seeing you all. 

                                                               

Mr. Bolger’s Conference Schedule

Tuesday March 26

2:40 p.m Danielle and  Randy Clos  

Wednesday, March 27

3:00 p.m. Karen And Bruce Allen

3:30 p.m. Kathy and Daniel Cotter

Thursday, March 28

3:00 p.m. The Jennings

3:30 p.m. Kyle Forrest

4:00 p.m. Shelley and Corey Forrest

4:30 p.m.  Fran and Glenn Steinman

Friday, March 29

8:00 a.m.  PJ and Nilgun Zimakas

8:30 a.m.   Rebecca and  Gabe Tharp

9:00 a.m.  Janine Beaudry

9:30 a.m. ____________________

10:00 a.m. __________________

10:30 a.m. __________________

11:00 a.m. __________________

11:30 a.m. __________________

12:00 p.m. Jessica Lamorey

12:30 p.m. __________________

1:00 p.m. __________________

Friday, March 29 (continued)

1:30 p.m. Susie Grenier

2:00 p.m. Corey Nulty and Denise Giroux

2:30 p.m.   Yash and Lavi Rohatgi

3:00 p.m.  Whit and Jenn  Fellows

Tues. April 2

2:40 p.m. Adam Beaudry

Weds. April 3

3:00 p.m. Miki and Ed Olszewski

3:30 p.m. Amy Pudvar and Jason Pecor

Fri. April 5

3:00 Betsy Fisher  and Eric St. Cyr

3:30   Kathy Willey

March 14, 2013

Hello Parents!

Here are some housekeeping items:

- There is skiing at Cochran's tomorrow.

- Thank you to those of  you who have had a chance to donate to our Big Basket Raffle (the theme for our classroom is Party Palooza) Any donation big or small is welcome. See attached for more info.

- Fun Night is tomorrow (Friday)

- Jump Rope for Heart is on Friday, March 28th. Even with the smallest of donations, your child can qualify to jump. Email if you have any questions.

- The WSD Variety Show will take place next Friday night (3/21). Daylight Savings. I highly recommend it. It is a wonderful expression of  community and a strong gesture of support for our kids who are daring to perform! Tickets go on sale at WCS next Monday. They sell out quickly. Call WCS for details.

On the academic front:

- Students are hard at work on their "All About" books. Some are writing "How to..." manuals while others  are writing "All about Dogs" or "All about Burping a Baby, etc. I expect we will finish them mid-week next week. 

- In Science, students  are beginning their "Tunnel Books" in art on either the Desert or the Tundra. Tunnel Books don't have words, but instead have layers of visuals. They telescope out so  there are three scenes that overlay each other with successively-wider paper frames. They're really something. 

 

At technology students are working this week with a program called Kidspiration: it puts  your ideas into  a web form -- great for brainstorming. Our central idea is  Regions/Biomes . This is then connected out to the four biomes we are studying (Ocean, Rainforest, Desert, and Tundra.)  Students then link to animals and plants that live in each region. We will continue to work on this next week.

Tomorrow, as part of the  upcoming Kids' Issue of the Williston Observer,  your children will be writing to the  following prompts:

       - My favorite thing about Spring is...
       - A friend in need is...............
       - If there's a will there's..............
       - You can lead a horse to water but....

Unfortunately, not all will get published, but they will be fun to do, and you will certainly see them at Reading Restaurant. 

- We also finished reading all the Red Clover Books and we voted for our favorite one. Ask your child to tell you which book he or she voted for.

- Sharing for this week has been on "An Injury I Have Had."  I've heard lots of squeals of horror... and squeals of delight. 

- Editing:  I have been challenging  students to edit my Morning Letter to them. They have done a great job fixing spelling, adding missing  letters, periods, and  capitals.  When you next write a note to your child, try deliberately making some mistakes and see if he or she can edit it. I was saying the other day, "Never, Never, NEVER randomly throw an apostrophe on to words that end in S... like Hand me those pencil's." I told them, "You'll send me to an early grave." So, be sure to put lot's of apostrophe's in all the  note's you write to your kid's and see if they can recognize and discover your mistake's.

- Four Winds last Friday was a ball. We learned all about how trees' buds contain all the leaves for the  following spring. We learned about how trees have alternating  or opposing branches, and we learned how to make a model of tree branches and buds out of pretzels, raisins, and cream cheese (more squeals of delight/horror).

- Self-Portraits: have  you noticed  your child's  self-portrait hanging in the  halls of ABS? 

- Daylight Savings: isn't it nice having more sun in the afternoon? And won't it be  nice when  our  kids start getting enough sleep  again? Like maybe midweek next week? 

Have a nice weekend, everyone. 

Mr. Bolger