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