Nov. 6, 2014

Hello Parents!

Send extra clothes, please: the nurse wanted me to remind you that she doesn't have back up winter clothes for kids if they get wet outside at recess. So please make sure your child has an extra set of clothes and socks in their backpacks.

A visit from CVU senior scholar-athletes: today for reader's workshop we were paid a visit by a group of CVU senior scholar-athletes. See the attached image below. I had three of them as 3rd and fourth-grade students: Matt Goldsborough (on left), Carly Neeld (3rd from the right), and Lily Schmoker (on the right). It was a thrill to have them back in my classroom reading to your children. Look closely, parents! This is what your children will look like in 9 years.   Ask your child to tell you about one or two of the books these students read to them.

Racso and the Rats of NIMH: Christopher is deathly sick out in Thorn Valley, The humans are getting closer and closer to finishing the dam that will flood the entire valley, and Timothy has a dream that tells him what the Rats need to do to help Christopher live. Ask your child what Timothy's idea is (A: to travel back through the snow and ice to the Fitzgibbons' farm to get a healing potion from Mr. Ages.)  Nicodemus says it's too dangerous and he can't go, but then he thinks of a creative solution. What is it?  

We're going to the Scholastic Book Fair: we are going over to WCS next Wednesday, November 12th to go to the Scholastic book fair. We will be going in the morning.

- I tell the students I'm not allowing them to buy trinkets. Just books.

- I encourage parents to send in no more than $5.00 or $10.00 at the most.

- If your family is experiencing financial hardship and needs help on this, please let me know. We have a fund to help buy your child a book. I just quietly let the cashier know that that particular book will be coming out of the Principal's Fund.  Please don't be shy.  We all need help at one time or another.

- If you would like your child to just browse during our class visit to the book fair and wait to purchase until  you can accompany him or her after school, just let me know that too.

That's it for now.  Happy Friday Eve!

Mr. Bolger

BTW: our sharing for this week is, "If you could  choose to have the power to read people's minds, would you do it? Why or why not? "

October 31, 2014

Dear Parents,

We did a ton of fun learning today!  In the morning, we read a book called "Night in the Country" by Cynthia Rylant. Pick it up at the library if you have a chance. We noticed that Rylant uses a lot of descriptive words,  but more important, she pays attention to the cadence of her prose. She says things in a way that feels and sounds nice to read. She repeats phrases a lot, too,  and that makes us feel comfortable and happy.  In 2nde-grade Fundations, we took it out again after talking about this week's assessment. We thought of all the words we could think of that use "-igh-" to make the long I sound: right, might, fight, and sight, but not bite.

In the afternoon, we got a great surprise with the arrival of 10 huge pumpkins donated by Gardener's Supply (Thank you, Gardener's Supply!). Allison Curtis, Jessica and Mark Lamorey, Kelly Bowen, Heather Burnett, Deborah Miuccio, and Denise Johnson came in and helped with the slimy pumpkins, the scary spiders, and the tasty treats. Thank you, everyone, for your delicious donations! When we finished, we sewed a few bowls full of pumpkin seeds in the brush up on the hill behind the classroom.  Maybe we'll be lucky and find next fall that we have grown our OWN pumpkins.

Happy Hallowe'en , Everyone!

Oct. 17, 2014

Dear Parents,
 
Thank you again for coming in to parent-teacher conferences over these last couple of weeks.  You know your kids better than anyone, and I learn so much from your insights. Please email me if you think of something you forgot to bring up or if you have any questions that come up as a result of our getting together.

Check out the new photos of our race-car designers. A big thing we learned in building these cars was that you have to make your axles parellel or the car will veer off the ramp. We are not sure yet whether lighter cars or heavier cars go farther. We still have to test that. We decided that if we can find a way to make our Wintergreen-Mint wheels less wobbly, we can then focus on heavier vs. lighter designs. Again, congratulations to all the kids for patience, creativity, cooperation, and good sportsmanship. Congratulations, again, to Phin and Nate for their winning design.


One last thing: please leave us a comment if you see something that interests you on our blog!

Thanks. Have a great weekend!

Mr. Bolger

October 17, 2014

Dear Parents,


Take a look at these iPad apps, math games, and links to reading, geography, and science that you can access at home!

1) Here is a list of the iPad apps we have loaded onto our iPads here at school for our teaching. I will be using a number of them this year. We thought you would like the list in case you want to load them onto your iPads at home to supplement, for example, your child's phonics work, math facts practice, or storytelling.

App	Content/Curric
30Hands	presentation
A Life Cycle App	science
Adobe Voice	presentation
Advanced Puzzle Map of the USA HD Lite	geography
AudioMemos	tool
Bob Books #1	literacy
Book Creator	digital storytelling
Build A Word Express- Phonics	phonics, sounds
Daisy the Dinosaur	coding
Doodle Buddy	art
DoodlecastPro	virtual whiteboard
Dragon Dictation	Assistive Tech
DropBox	(for teachers)
Educreations	virtual whiteboard
Everyday Math	content specific
Explain Everything	virtual whiteboard
Finger Count	math- numbers
Follett Enlight	library- eBooks
Geoboard	math
Google Docs	Google docs standalone app
Google Drive	productivity
Google Earth	geography
Google Sheets	Google spreadsheets standalone app
Go Sky Watch	content specific
Haiku Deck	presentation
iBooks	library
iMotionHD	animation/photo
iMovie	movie making
iWrite Words	literacy
Kaleido Paint	art
Kidblog	blogging
Lexia Core 5 app	need to explore the exact name to get the right one
Little Story Maker	digital storytelling
MultiTouch Math	math
Notability	note taking, recording
Number Pieces Basic	math
Number Rack	math
Percussive	music
Percussive Free	music
PhotoSync	transfer images
Planets by Q Continuum	science
Pocket Zoo	science
Popplet Lite	mindmapping
Puppet Pals- directors pack	digital storytelling
Puzzle Map	geography
QRafter	QR readers
Read on Site free	litteracy
Scribble Press	literacy - digital storytelling
ShadowPuppetEDU	digitalstoryelling
Singing Fingers	music
Skitch	mark up photos
Skype	communication
Sonic Pics	digital storytelling
Spelling City	spelling/phonics
StoryPatch	literacy
Subitize Tree	math
Tangram	math
Tangrams - by Tangible Play	math
Tell Time	math
Tellagami	digital storytelling
The Weather Channel Max+	science
Toontastic	digital storytelling
Voicethread	productivity
Word Wall	literacy
YouTube	for viewing only

2) Math Facts Games From Ms. Schwartz's  Home Page: 

http://www.wsdvt.org//site/Default.aspx?PageID=3971

3) Math, Reading, Geography, Science, etc. from the Harmony Team's Great Home Page: 

http://inspirefirstgrade.pbworks.com/w/page/19992533/FrontPage

October 8, 2014

Hello Parents! 

Just a quick note to say that we will be eating lunch in the classroom or out in the garden tomorrow. it's Elsie's last day, and we want to have a nice lunch together before she gets in her car and heads for North Carolina! 

By the way, we began designing and building race cars today. We want them to be sturdy yet quick on the ramp. Ask your child about his or her design so far. 

If you are interested in having your second grader take part in Continental Math, please let me know. It involves getting together for about 40 minutes per week in a small group of budding mathematicians with a parent leader -- having fun with facing intriguing math problems and learning strategies to solve them.

Interning at the Library --
Tae, Neveah, and Blake practiced being librarians with Ms. Blaine.

Calling all Musicians and/or Singers: we are looking forward to our Stone Soup Harvest celebration in the ABS garden on October 23rd. I have lined up a couple fiddle players and I'll be on guitar. There will be some square dancing and lots of "This Land is Your Land."  If you would like to join us to eat hearty soup or even to sing a few songs with us (or play a guitar or violin or gut bucket or knock a couple of rocks together to keep the beat) we would so-love to have you join us. After all, Stone Soup is all about sharing what you have with the community. So come on down! 

Democracy in action: we  have a nice bench along the side of the Morning Meeting rug. We are trying to figure out what is the best way to let everyone have a turn on the bench but not have it be too long between times on the bench. First and second graders alike chimed in with some wise suggestions and strategies. We voted and we learned what a "majority" is. Ask your child what we decided to do!

That's about it for now. I'm really enjoying getting together with you all for conferences. 

David

Name this barnyard animal

October 1, 2014: Sign-Up for Parent-Teacher Conferences

Sign-Up for Parent-Teacher Conferences

(Updated Tuesday, Oct. 7th.)

Hello Parents. Please look at the following slots that are available for our fall Parent-Teacher conferences. Email me your first, second, and third choices. I will try to give you your first choice, and I'll schedule on a first-come-first-served basis. Email or call with questions.

Monday, Oct. 6, 2014

3:00 ____________________

3:30 ____________________

4:00 Kate Moreau

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014

3:00 Tammy Sevene and Jeff Wheelock

Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014

3:00 ____________________

3:30 ____________________

4:00 Kelly Bowen

Friday, Oct. 10, 2014

2:45  Allison Curtis

Monday, Oct. 13, 2014
2:40 Zuzana Brochu

3:00 Nikia Drown

3:30 Denise Johnson

4:00 Kristi and Travis Mathis

Tues. Oct. 14, 2014
12:00: Stephanie Martin

Weds, Oct. 15, 2014

3:00 Deborah Miuccio

3:30 _______________

4:00 Jackie and Erik Urch

4:30 Brennan and Jen Brown

5:00 Jamie Wilson

5:30 Amy and Max Skapof

6:00 ____________________

6:30 Eileen and Matt DeLuca

7:00 Shelly and Joe Stewart

Weds. Oct. 22, 2014
4:00 Kristi and Travis Mathis 

Friday, Oct. 24, 2014
2:45 Tim and Amy Shea 

Note: If you can’t make any of these times, email me and we’ll arrange an alternate time (in the morning before school or during one of my planning periods.)

Thank you. I’m looking forward to getting together with you.

David

Sept. 26, 2014

Dear Parents,

What a magnificent day at Shelburne Museum!  The sun, the air, the leaves turning,  the spread-out exhibits (so we got to do a lot of walking), and the  feel you get in being there that you are in a real village from the olden days. 

Thank you, Nikia, Allison, Shelly, Kelly, Jamie, and Sam for chaperoning. 

Ask your child to tell you what he/she liked the best. Or, better yet, make a return visit this weekend! There was so much to see, and as interesting as it was for the 6 and 7-year-olds, it was just as interesting for the adults. There was a good mix of historic buildings, carriages, a real jail, a real 1850 railroad car, a ship, and even big hills to roll down.  Here are some photos. If you have any you'd like to send along, we can put them on the blog too! 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Mr. B.

 Learning about the origin of the "Teddy Bear"

Phin, Boden, Blake, Jasper, Taeshaan, and Mr. B.  in  Time-Out.

Waiting for the train to come.

Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014

Hello Parents!

First, a few reminders:

Monday (tomorrow): send  in your School Picture packets:  School Photos will be taken on Tuesday. Please send in the order form even if you aren't ordering the photos and that way you will still get a class photo.

Thursday, Sept. 25: our first Four Winds lesson:  All sorts of Insects. We love our Four Winds lessons, and we love our Four Winds parent volunteers! Thank you, Allison, Brennan, and Kate, for your enthusiasm, your smarts, and your hard work.

Friday, September 26th, 9:00 a.m: we take a field trip to The Shelburne Museum. The title of the trip: Passport to Learning. We' d love to have parents or grandparents join us as chaperones. If you haven't already contacted me, please let me know if you are interested.

Thursday, October 2nd:  Come to our Horizon Team Breakfast (7:30 am in Horizon.)

Wednesday, October 8th: Student-Picture retake day.

Now, some class news:

Tech lab: please email your child. That way he or she can easily email back to you.  your child's address would go like this:

davidbolger@cssu.org (if I were a student). Students can also access their email from home (from the WSD home page). Password:bolger12 

My Communication to You: I will continue to send quick notes via email, but I will also be sending you links via email  to our Bolgerclassblog  approximately once per week. The blog is nice because I can upload pictures to it more easily, and you can scroll down through prior blog posts in case you have missed any info from previous weeks. You can access the Bolgerclassblog by Googling that name, or you can click on that first link at the bottom of any of my emails. 

Does rotting fruit get lighter or heavier? (Shhhhh. Don't spill the beans!) After a week of close observation and data collection (see the pictures in the sidebar) the students have concluded that fruit gets lighter after a week of being left out.

 But why?  About half of the students  hypothesize that the fruit has gotten lighter because the "heavy" water in the fruit evaporated. The other half hypothesized that the fruit got lighter because the fruit flies that came must have eaten the fruit.  Stay tuned as your children now design an experiment to answer that question.

That's all for now. have a great beginning of the week. Hope to see you at the Breakfast! 

Mr. Bolger

....

Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2014

Hi Parents! 

I really enjoyed having a chance to chat with those of you who were able to make it last night. 
No problem if you couldn't make it. We have the breakfast social coming up on October 2nd. Come in if you can for a cup of coffee and a bagel; we will have your child's work (so far) out on the desk, and then you can head out for work. 

Today, we had our school-wide "buzzy" celebration because we filled the schoolwide "honey pot" with "Safe, Kind, and Responsible" buzzies. Everyone came together in the gym, and we played and sang (with Mr. Terko on drums) a bunch of our favorite songs -- from This Land Is Your Land to Here Comes the Sun and Wagon Wheel. 

Remember that math is due tomorrow and the reading log too. 

Have a nice night everyone.  

Mr. B.

Sept. 12, 2014

Dear Parents, 

In the Friday Folder today, we sent home information about next week's curriculum night (6:30-7:30 pm, Wednesday, in Horizon House). We understand that weeknights are hard for folks to go out if you have young children.  We will provide childcare here at ABS for the event for those whose children are old enough to be out 'til 7:30 pm.  

We started our science study this week. We posed the question: "What will happen to a raisin if you drop it in a glass of Sprite? Will it float, will it sink, or will it do something else?" Students got into pairs, and they worked through the scientific method from "question" to "hypothesis" to "experiment design" to "data collection" to "conclusion." We also did three trials. Ask your child what he or she found out about raisins and Sprite.  You may even want to have them redo the experiment at home. All you need is a clear glass, raisins and a clear soda like 7 up or ginger ale.  As you could imagine, it's the carbon dioxide bubbles that make the raisin "dance". On Monday, we are going to take it one step further by trying it in water and then trying it with Sprite and a marble, a bean, a piece or wooden macaroni, and a wooden bead. 

Next week's science challenge: "Who can build the strongest house for  three little pigs?"  Each group of students will get a miniature pig. Their task will be to create a house for their pig to live in. Once all the structures are done, the big bad wolf (a fan) will blow on each house one by one to see if it can blow the house down.  This weekend, I'll send out a list of the kinds of materials (ex: toilet-paper rolls, etc.) that we will need (maybe you have some in your recycling bin?) 

Writing: We finished our first writing pieces: "What I Did Over the Summer." I'll be hanging them in the classroom over the next couple of days. 

Reading: We are getting our routine down for our reading logs. Thank you, everyone, for supporting your child in reading at home and in completing the reading logs. The kids get excited every Friday to see if they "have enough minutes." We focused this week on reading genres. There is a question at the bottom of the reading log this week asking your child to  tell what are his/her favorite reading genres. This info is actually quite helpful to me in my getting to know your child. Thank you in advance for helping him or her to fill it out. 

2nd-Grade Math: We have been working  on AM and PM this  week. If you have a clock in your child's bedroom, please double check to make sure that it works correctly. We had one child say, "I have breakfast at 2:00 am every day."  "You do?! How is that possible?"  "Well, actually, it always says, '2:00 am,' Maybe it's broken."  

We have also figured out that the colors on the  days on our class calendar make a pattern that is a growing pattern (red-green-red-green-green-red-green-green-green, etc.) Today, we played "Race to 200" as a way of practicing our addition facts. 

Potatoes and Mangoes: as you know, we made the most delicious French Fries on the planet on Monday out in the garden (and we cut up and passed out pieces from a couple of mangoes. Next spring, our exiting 2nd-graders will plant a new batch of potatoes for next year's class. 

We'll be taking a Field Trip to the Shelburne Museum on September 26th. Unfortunately, we cannot cover the cost of chaperones ($5.00), but we would love to have you join us if you can. Let me know if you are interested!

Calling all classroom volunteers! I am almost ready to schedule-1n my classroom volunteers. I have been communicating with several parents about this. if you would like to volunteer, but you haven't yet contacted me, I'd love to hear from you. It's  always a lot of fun, and classroom volunteers are an essential and valuable part of the learning equation here! 

That's it for now. Hope you are staying warm. Have a great Saturday and Sunday.  Seven weeks 'til Halloween!

Mr. Bolger

September 5, 2014

Hello Parents!

- Today, we had a good reading lesson as we reviewed what is a "just-right" book. The kids also did a  great job of filling out their reading logs and bringing them in.

- We had Morning Meeting in the garden (picnic table) , and I read hints from each child's reading log until the kids knew whose reading log it was (ex: this person is a girl in the first grade. Her name starts with a consonant. She loves "Biscuit" books. her favorite place to read is on her mom's bed. Who is she?)

- Each student carefully transplanted a spinach, brussel sprout, or  broccoli plant where our potatoes had been, and we, like the Rats of NIMH, have hope that with hard work and care, we will have yummy vegetables to eat by Halloween week.

- In 2nd grade Math, we took turns -- just 7 days into second grade --sharing something we are not yet that good at.  We listened kindly, we shared bravely, and everyone felt good to see that we all have something we have to work harder than others at. Everyone.  Each person told about something he or she good at and could help others with. We realized that this year, we will either be good at something or we'll get help from our friends to work hard and get good at something.

You can't lose! 

- Then, we ended math class with each student writing me a letter to let me know what they like and don't like about math,  what they are kind-of worried about and what they are proud of, how they feel about persisting and having to work hard to figure something out, and what they wish for this year in math. I do get so much information from each child (about learning styles, etc.) when we do this kind of inquiry at the very outset.  

- Thanks to Kylee Sevene and  Tammy Sevene (her grandma) who are helping to cut up our potatoes for Monday, we are all going to eat French fries on Monday, and we are, instead, going to call it "Fryday".  

- And the last thing to report is that after seven days of lots of review and practice of all our classroom routines and school rules, our class filled up our Buzzy Jar today with, I would say, about 200 "buzzies" -- all representing an act of kindness, safety, or responsibility by a member of our class. We celebrated by learning (or for half of our kids -- reviewing)  "Quiet Ball", our famous, kid-created, classroom-celebration game with about 110 rules. Ask your child about it

(if you've got  some time on your hands).

Have a great weekend, everyone.


Mr. B.

September 4, 2014

Hello, Parents!

A couple of highlights from today:

Ask your child about what we did after Read-Aloud  to simulate Timothy Frisby's walk to Thorn Valley. (A: we walked through the thick grass instead of taking the bike path -- about 200 yards  -- to understand how difficult it must have been for a teenage field mouse to set off on his own and walk 30 miles to get to Thorn Valley to attend the rats' school -- all the while needing to keep an eye out for hawks and weasels and foxes.   I then had the kids turn around and run back to the playground while I ran after them flapping and crying out like a hawk.

We also had Morning Meeting in our classroom garden to take full advantage of the autumn sun. We will be planting spinach and brussel sprouts with the help of our school gardener, Andrew. We'll be doing all the math involved with counting out the days we have left to grow something (about 55)  -- talking about tens and ones and days elapsed and days still to go.

Have a good night.

Mr. B.

September 3, 2014

Hello Parents!

Just a short note to let you know what we did today.

This afternoon, we began our read-aloud book, "Racso and the Rats of NIMH." We had read "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" at the end of last year, and the kids loved it. If your child is a 1st grader, you might consider taking Mrs. Frisby out of the library and reading it to your child to gain some more context for "Racso..."

In Racso and the Rats of NIMH,  A colony of super-intelligent rats have used their ingenuity to become very comfortable living with electricity, an elevator, air conditioning, and all the stolen grain they want under a rose bush in Farmer Fitzgibbon's back yard.  They decide, though, that they want to live with more integrity, so they abandon their comfortable life and travel to Thorn Valley where they will grow their own grain and they will do without electricity.

We talked about the hard work involved in farming and the fact that you need to have hope. You plant in the spring and you have to hope that you'll get a harvest.

Following read-aloud, we headed out to our classroom garden. I had planted potatoes (and a lot of hope!) in the spring when school was getting out. I put names of all my students on the potatoes. Today, we hit the garden, we found our name tags, and we dug up our potatoes! It was hard work, but it was fun.  Your child brought home a potato this afternoon that you are welcome to boil or bake or fry.  In class, here, we plan to wash our spuds and cut them up and make french fries for snack!  Yummmmm. If you have a great idea for seasoning french fries, send it in!
We'd love to use it.

Other things we did today: we went to Art, and we finished up our drawings/paintings about what we did over the summer. This picture will be the springboard for our writing our first writing piece of the year.

Note: 1) no home-school journals this week.

         2) Please remember to fill out your reading logs and send them in on Friday.

Thanks!

Mr. B.

September 3, 2014

Hi Parents,

Here are some upcoming dates you could put on your calendar. More information will follow.

- On September 17th we are having a Parent Information night. It will take place in Horizon from 6:30-7:30. From 7:30 to 8:30 pm there will also be a Learning Expo  taking place.There will be an article in this week's school bell explaining what this is all about.

- On  September 26th our team will be going to Shelburne Farm. A permission slip for this will come home shortly.

- On October 2nd we will be having a Horizon Breakfast. It will be from 7:30-8:30 a.m. We will send you a link on Sign-up Genius . You can sign up if you are able to donate a breakfast item.

Our current Science unit: "Doing Weird Experiments" to get smarter about how to test things.

Thanks. See you all soon!

Mr. Bolger

August 27, 2014

Hello Parents!


It was a very busy day, as you can imagine, but many, many good, first-day things happened like kids spontaneously helping each other tie their shoes, and  kids getting silverware for each other in the lunch room. One boy saw his friend come into the classroom feeling sad this morning, so he helped write his name tag for him. Second graders helped first graders figure out how to find their lockers, and first graders were saying things like, "Can I use that marker when you're done?" to a table mate.  We all ate lunch together (see the picture), and had recess together. We also had Art. During Morning Meeting, we sang about our class to the tune of "This Old Man". We managed to come up with a verse for everyone.  That was fun.

Please don't forget that tomorrow is PE, so  please send in those sneakers.

Your Homework for tonight, Mom or Dad:
Look at, and respond to, your child's Home-School Journal. Just a couple of lines would be just fine -- or a question or a picture or a riddle.  Then, throw a rubber band around it, and send it back in tomorrow.
Thanks!

Mr. Bolger

May 21, 2014

May 21, 2014

 

Hi Parents,

Today was our last Four-Winds program. Thank you so much to Brennan Brown, Becky Tharp, and Kim Jennings. You guys were terrific this year. You brought lots of energy, a love for the science, and a special patience and enthusiasm for each kid. They ALL benefited from your being here.

Parents, if you want to follow up on what we learned today, it was about how people and animals find our way. How do we remember where to go to get home? How do birds know how to go south and then come back to the same tree in the spring time?  Ask your child some of these questions.

Also, you could ask about some of the stations (5) that we did today.

We learned to use compasses; we played "Directions Simon-Says," (ex: Simon says, "take two steps to the north..."); we used a treasure map to find hidden treasure; we sat quietly and realized how well we can picture the layout of our home from our memory. We pictured ourselves entering our house after school (mud room? kitchen? living room?), and then we drew a bird's eye view of our bedrooms.   Thanks to Kim, we ended the class with popsicles (our hidden treasure). 

Ask your child about the bird's nest we've found in the tree up on the hill behind our classroom.  What did we see in the nest?)

Reading Log: I am attaching one here in case you don't have one and would like to fill one out for this week -- for the treasure chest pick on Friday.

May 12, 2014

May 12, 2014

Hi Parents,

Thank you so much for the beautiful flowers. I hadn't been thinking about Teacher Appreciation Week, so I was totally taken by surprise when the kids walked in first thing and gave me their flowers.  I was honestly touched. Thank you for taking the time to find a flower and do the impossible --- getting it here in one piece. We put them in a vase, and they brightened up the room. 

Then, all across the day, the kids kept asking, "Can I take a flower home?" So, I decided,
"Sure. Of course I should share these with you guys."    Thank you, again.

Another wonderful thing that happened was that Karen Allen and your kids created a book about our class! It features every one of our students (and we're going to photoshop in Hanna!) Karen got it published, and she came in and read it to us today. It tells about how, when you are having a blue day,  remember that you always have friends by your side. Thank you, Karen!

         
​

Field Trip to the Montshire Museum:

Don't forget that our field trip to the Montshire is on Friday.We leave right at 8:15....it would be helpful if your child could be sure to have breakfast at home due to the tight schedule.

We plan to arrive there at about 9:45 am.

I have heard from three parents/grandparents who wish to be chaperones. We may not have any more room on the bus, but if you would like to chaperone and you are able to drive to the Montshire (and are able to pay for your day pass) we'd love to have you.

Remember we have a late pick up that day. We plan to arrive home at ABS at 3:30 pm. Please plan to pick up your child then.

There is no cafeteria, at the Montshire, so if you are chaperoning, remember to take your own cold lunch.

There is a gift shop.  I will be downplaying it, and I'll tell the kids that I won't be buying anything myself.  The kids who wish to buy something usually  bring something between $2.00 and $5.00.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH: Today, Mrs. Frisby learned that the Rats have a plan to move away from the farm. We wondered why they would want to move away -- especially since they would lose their comforts like electricity and electric lights which they somehow have been smart enough to figure out how to use!

The next chapter is called, "A Sleeping Powder For Dragon." 

I hope your week is off to a good start.

Mr. B.

May 3, 2014

Dear Parents and Students,

The year is nearly through. And it feels too soon.

I remember a December Morning Meeting when students were  predicting when the first real snow would come. It came, and the skiing season -- with Friday skiing -- came. There were Halloween entries and Thanksgiving entries in our Home-School Journals. We had our Polar Express Day and The Hundredth Day of School, and Halle moved away. Now,  February and March vacations, and even the Reading Restaurant are behind us.  Baseball has started, and we're scheduling our dentist appointments into August.

Looking ahead, I feel proud and also sentimental knowing that we will be saying, "So long!" to you 2nd graders. Xander, Wylie, Scarlet, Nina, Kali, Derek, Delia, DJ, Chloe, Charlie, and Brendan, You have been the backbone of this class; you have all grown so much,  and we will miss you so much. Soon-to-be Second Graders,  Zoey, Taeshaan, Phin, Megan, Jasper,  Boden, and Audrey, come August, you will be the old kids, and I will look to you to lead with all your curiosity and passion --  to welcome and guide your new, younger classmates.

 Reading Restaurant -- a last word:  I want to compliment you, students, for your great writing and for your great performance as waiters, busspeople, chefs, and maitre-d's in our Reading Restaurant. I just put together the compilation of all that Reading Restaurant 2014 writing, and it really is impressive. Congratulations. Ms. Poirot has been very interested in your pieces as she chooses writing from across our school and WCS to feature in the Spring edition of The Scribe.

Upcoming Events: 

Monday, May 5: our new classmate, Hanna, arrives!
Monday, May 5:  I will be doing end-of-year assessments in Reading.
Monday, May 19: "          "                   "                               "
Friday,  May 9: Beauty and the Beast at WCS.  (also 2 shows on May 10th)
Friday, May 16: Field Trip to the Montshire Museum (we have three spots available on the bus for chaperones. First come, first served. Email me if you're interested!)
*note: we will be arriving back here at ABS that day at 3:45.  You will need to arrange to pick up your child.
Friday, May 16: Williston School Satisfaction Survey is due. Here is the link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W7X7WBS . It's very helpful to us teachers. Thank you for your honest thoughts!

Details on Beauty and the Beast, May 9th (from Cindy Pavlik): 

"There will be no hot lunch options that day, but cold sandwich order forms were forwarded by John to all classroom teachers.  If you have any students needing a cold lunch prepared by the cafeteria, please be sure to submit a completed form to Helen by Tuesday, May 6.  If you do not have a form, and you want to order from the cafeteria,  email Mr. Bolger  with your choice of turkey sandwich or ham sandwich. 

Everyone should eat at 11 in their houses, except Kindergarten, which can use the cafeteria.

Expect to board the buses at 11:30.

Parents who pick their children up need to be reminded to pick up at WCS.

All Part 2 kids needing to return to ABS after the play will take Bus I."

That's it for now.  Please email me if you have any questions. I hope you're enjoying the bits of sun and warm air. 

Mr. Bolger 

April 1, 2014

Reading Restaurant is Coming Up!  Can you help us get ready?

Greetings, Parents!

We have been hard at work on our Space Research projects. We are also painting phases of the moon, making Elmer's Glue moon craters, and  twisting apart Oreos to create a Waxing Gibbous Moon!

The Horizon Reading Restaurant will take place here in Horizon on Thursday, April 17th. I will be sending out to you an invitation tomorrow. Please sign it and send it back as soon as you can to let us know how many seats we should reserve for you!

Here is what we need help with:

1. Make  (milk-jug) Space Helmets  for the kids: Take home our 20 milk jugs, cut them into the shape of a helmet with scissors, spray painting them (paint provided). estimated time: 1.5 hours.  You can do this at home. Deadline:  Friday, 4/11

 2. Make (soda-bottle) astronaut jet packs for the kids: take home 20 pairs of soda bottles, spray-paint, glue, and tape them onto cardboard. Estimated time: 3 hours  Materials are provided. You can do this at home. Deadline: Friday, 4/11

3. Put up Bulletin-Board Displays in the Classroom: come in any day this week or next. give me an hour of your time. We have five or six "moon", and "space" displays that we need to complete with a little cutting, pasting, and labeling, and then put up on our walls.

You would let me know what day or days you have free, and we'll get you in here for an hour or so. Deadline: Friday, 4/11

4. Volunteer to come in (and bring your kid!) on Saturday, April 12th or Sunday, April 13th any time between about 8:00 am and 1:00 pm. We'll be in here doing final painting of scenery and hanging of (electric) stars. Doughnuts, juice, and coffee provided! We had a great time together last year.

5. Type up our students' rough drafts of their research projects into final-draft form for our Reading Restaurant. Estimated time: your call. One to two hours. Can be done at home. Deadline: Friday, 4/11

6. For the most courageous of all: come in to the classroom, sit down with a student, help her to read her book about Saturn and talk to her about how to pull out the information and answer the questions she has for her report. Estimated time: 40 minutes. Value: priceless.

6a: Ask your own child what he or she is doing for the space report. It'd be great if you could spend some time over the next couple of days helping your boy or girl look up their topic on Youtube. You may find an interesting Discovery-Channel program on your child's topic. Also, just talk about what you know about his or her topic. It'll give them a foundation and a lot of confidence for when they dig into their books and websites in here.

That's it for now.  Have a great week. And thank you, in advance, for whatever you can do.

Mr. Bolger

March 19, 2014

March 19, 2014

Hello Parents! 

A few dates and details: 

1) Reminder: can you donate $1.00 with your child to  the Heifer Project 

 (look it up on YouTube) -- the $ is used to buy and donate a farm animal to families in developing countries.   I have asked your children to do a chore to defray the cost :)

2)  Williston Variety Show- this Friday evening (Call WCS front office for tickets. Hurry! They sell out!) -Mrs. Powers, Mr. Terko, Ms. T-H, and I, will be in it. I think tix are $5.00. 

3)  Jump Rope for Heart:; Friday, March 28th.

4)  Field Trip to the Flynn Theater on Weds. April 16th.

5)  Reading Restaurant: Thurs. April 17th (Theme: Space)

   - note: please send in gallon milk jugs (for making  18 space helmets) .  

             Also, please send in two-liter soda bottles. We need enough to have two

             per student (jet packs!) 

6) Field Trip to  The Montshire Museum: Friday, May 16th.

7) We are studying the moon and the constellations as we launch our Space Studies unit. In Writing, we are finishing up our fictional short stories and we will begin research projects next week. 

8) FYI: we've had another sighting of Strep in Horizon.

That's it for now. Hope to see you at the Variety Show!

Mr. Bolger

February 6, 2014

Feb 6, 2014

Dear Parents,

We celebrated the 100th day of school today. It was a ton of fun; about half the students created 100th-Day projects and they shared them: "100 places I've been," "100 books I've read," "Here's a bridge I made out of 100 marshmallows," etc.  I really noticed how when you invite/allow a child  to show artistically something they know about, each kid's display is entirely different from the next kid's, and each kid is often into something enirely different from his or her classmates.

Yesterday, we went to see the 3rd-4th-grade chorus perform at WCS.  It was exciting to see so many former Horizon students; they were singing their hearts out.  Our kids were thrilled when one of the songs the 3rd and 4th graders did was Amani Utupe  which we sing in the kiva all the time. Ask your child to sing a couple of bars for you.

Dental Cleaning: There will be a dental cleaning clinic at ABS in the coming days. Please check the School Bell for info, or call the main office to schedule a cleaning for your child.

Feb. 5, 2014

Feb. 5, 2014

Dear Parents, 

Wow! What a busy couple of weeks.  Here's a quick overview of what we've been doing:

In Reading and Writing, 

- we have been finishing our Opinion pieces. I asked students to think of the best place in Vermont and then to try to convince others to go there.  Our list of "best places in Vermont" include Cochran's Ski Area,  Derby Line, and Olive Garden.  We've focused on organization and voice in these pieces.  Look for them soon on our KidBlog. 

- Elsewhere in Literacy, it's I Love to Read and Write Month, so every classroom at ABS is doing 10-minute "Stop, Drop, and Read" periods throughout the day tomorrow.  Another interesting project is that a rolling writing easel is making its way from room to room. Every classroom adds two lines to an ongoing  story. Ask you child to tell you what this exciting fiction story has, thus far, been about! 

- For Read-Aloud, we are reading Matilda. We just can't get enough of Roald Dahl. 

- Please keep those reading logs coming in. We've got a lot of good loot from the holidays hidden in our treasure chest!  Let me know if your child is having trouble finding good books to read. I went to the bookstore recently, and I have lots of suggestions. 

Comings and goings:

- We were sad to say, "Good-bye" to our classmate, Halle Christian. She and her mom, Jessica,  moved to Colchester, but she will continue to have a spot on our Kidblog. It will be fun to see her comments pop up on our blog posts! You can still reach Halle by the telephone number written on the Bolger-class Friendship List we sent home (or see it below.)

-Danielle Hertz, a Junior from Champlain College, is our new Tuesday/Thursday teaching intern. She's from Los Angeles, and she brings us lots of energy.  Welcome also to Alyssa Jeffer from UVM. She will be with us every Thursday. 

Science Experiments:

- As you know,  we have been growing lettuce and carrots in our indoor, classroom garden, and we harvested and ate a huge salad of it yesterday. Yum! We also got the idea to do an experiment to figure out if saying nice things to a plant will make it grow taller that a plant to which we say lots of mean things. We designed an experiment on Monday after lots of discussion as to what would prove it one way or the other.  Now,  we will be saying lots of sweet and sour things this week  as we measure and record our data. Stay tuned! Meanwhile, our sharing theme for this week is "Do  you think your feelings (and expressing those feelings) can affect how tall a plant grows?" 

Upcoming Events:

- Weds: The 3rd-4th-grade music concert:  we will bus over at about 1:15 pm. tomorrow.  We will be back at ABS in time to take board buses from ABS to go home. 

- Thursday: We celebrate the 100th Day of School! Our optional assignments: make something that has 100 in it. Also, we are inviting students to look in their cupboard and see if they can WASH THEIR HANDS, and then count out 100 of something that we can add to our class's 100th-Day Gorp. We will have 100th-day  activities throughout the day.

Thank you, kids, and Karen Allen, for my magnificent 100th-day t-shirt complete with 100 buttons! I opened it up today, but I promise I won't wear it until Thursday. 

- Next 2 Weeks: Parent-Teacher Conference/or ands: don't forget to sign up! There are slots still available between next Monday and the Friday the 21st. 

- Next Friday: Valentine's Day Celebration: will take place, of course, on Friday, February 14th. Because many students leave to ski on Friday afternoons, we have decided that we'll exchange valentines and have a little celebration in the morning. Then, we'll  have Valentines cupcakes in the afternoon, and  for the skiers, we'll wrap the cupcakes up in little bags for them to take home with them.

- Thursday, April 17th: keep the date for our Horizon Reading Restaurant.

A couple of last things:

- Thank you, Karen Allen, for bringing  in your harp last Wednesday and playing for us. It was  just beautiful. We sang This Land is  Your Land, Loch Lomond, and You are My Sunshine with new  words. 

- Looking for 1-pint or 1/2-pint mason jars. We would like to grow sprouts in our indoor garden to eat during snack time. 

Well, that's all, Folks!   Have a wonderfully-snowy-but-safe end to your week. 

Mr. Bolger

Sign Up for Parent-Teacher Conferences (Monday, 2/10- Friday, 2/21)

Jan. 30, 2014

Dear Parents,

Please cut and paste the link below into your browser to sign up for Upcoming Parent-Teacher Conferences. Slots are available between Monday, February 10th and Friday, February 21st.  On most days, I have openings from 7:00-7:30 a.m. and then from 4:00-4:30 p.m. On several days, there are also openings from 3:00-4:00.  If none of these times work for you, please don't hesitate to email me.

Thanks. See you soon!

Mr. Bolger

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F084FA4AF2EA02-bolger

Happy New Year!

January 2, 2014

 

Hello Parents!

Welcome back! It was great to see all the kids today. We came up with our New Year's resolutions. Each child will be posting his or hers on our Horizon display in the hall. Ask your child what his or her resolution is.  We also visited the library -- they had an extra slot and we took advantage of it since we missed Library on Tuesday. If your child still has a library book at home from before the vacation, please help him or her remember to bring it in tomorrow.

Next week we will be launching a writing unit on Persuasive Writing. We will also begin our second six-week "WIN" unit of the school year ("What I Need") For the 2:00-2:30 block Monday through Thursday, we organize all of our (Horizon) students into a half-dozen study groups. Each group "attends" a particular mini-course with a Horizon teacher.  We pair students with an academic focus because of an expressed interest or a talent or a need for strengthening in that area. We do these intensive studies in a variety of subjects from reading fluency or reading comprehension or handwriting to math-facts fluency or  math problem-solving to research or science. The first round was a big success, and the kids were enthusiastic.

That's all for now. Happy (almost) Friday (already).

Mr. Bolger