Updated Conference Schedule

Mr. Bolger’s Tentative Schedule for

Parent-Teacher Conferences 

Updated Sunday, 11/4/12 

Your time is confirmed if your name appears below.

Tip:  if you haven't signed up yet,  choose your first second, and third choices, and email them to me. Then, bookmark this page to easily check back for your confirmed slot. 

Note: conferences are for 20 minutes each.

Weds, Oct. 23, 2012

2:50 Cotter

Thursday, October 25, 2012

3:00 Clos

Friday, Oct. 26, 2012

3:00 Allen

Monday, Oct. 29, 2012

4:00 Pudvar

4:30 Fellows

Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012

4:00 Rohatgi

4:30 Zimakas

Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012

3:00 Jennings

Monday, Nov. 5, 2012

4:00 Giroux

4:30 Forrest

Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012

4:00 Tharp

4:30  Steinman

Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012

3:00 Beaudry

3:30 Willey

Monday, November 12, 2012

8:00 Lamorey

8:30 ___________________

9:00 ___________________

9:30  Olszewski

10:00 __________________

10:30 __________________

11:00 __________________

11:30 __________________

12:00 __________________

12:30 __________________

1:00 __________________

1:30 __________________

Tuesday, November 13, 2012
12:25 Fisher/St.Cyr

Note: If you can’t make any of these times, let me know, and we’ll figure something out. I’m looking forward to getting together with you!

David

Oct. 21, 2012

Dear Parents,

Important upcoming events:

Can you donate a cup of cut-up veggies to our Stone Soup by Tues or Weds? Also, please send in a mug and a spoon for your child - See below for Andrew Wolfe's letter.

Sign up for Parent-Teacher Conferences. Check your email. I am scheduling conferences across the next three weeks. Email me with your choices. We'll make it work. Note: students may come and play in the Kiva while we talk. Then, they may join us for the last 5 minutes or so. 

Taylor Swift talks about reading: Horizon students will tune in on Wednesday to a presentation by Taylor Swift on why reading  is important to her. 

Our Nutrition Field Trip Shaw's has been posponed to October 31st. The original field-trip permission slip you signed will suffice. Opt out by emailing  me if you do NOT want your child to go to Shaw's on the 31st.
  
Halloween Celebration: 1:45-2:30 October 31st. Jessica Lamorey will be contacting the parents who signed up to donate goodies  or a craft.  :)

Some highlights from the week:

In Science:
We continued our workshops on The Senses. What did your child learn this week about seeing, hearing, smelling or tasting?

In Writing:
We worked on our "An Important Event" stories. Ms. Le Clair, our student teacher, taught a lesson on similes, and students are learning use them to give more "punch" to their writing. We also did a quick-write on what we like to do with our Moms.  That was also our sharing theme  for the week.

In Technology -- See COMMENTS below...
We learned (and Second Graders reviewed) how to post comments on a blog. Students "commented"  on the question, "How do you know that someone loves you?" The class will take the many comments and use them to fashion a Whole-Class Poem.

In Math:
First and Second-Graders are doing projects. In Second Grade Math, we are starting a unit on ants that builds number sense.  Kids practice thinking about -- "If I have 25 ants in all, with 14 of them underground, how many ants are above ground?"  Also, first graders are learning different combinations to 10 while second graders are learning combinations to 20.

At-Home Reading: 
Students who are building independence (i.e., building their word-attack skills/building their fluency and  expression/building their ability to use phonics, pictures, and grammar knowledge at the same time -- to figure out what words mean) will take home the book they have just read in reading group, and they should read that at least once to you. Encourage them to first practice it silently and then read it to you with great expression and enthusiasm -- as though they were reading it as a read-aloud book. 

 If your child is reading more-independently (having bridged into chapter books), you will see books from reading group only occasionally. But you can really help your child by having them silently practice a page of their choice and then read it with expression to you. This is so important for building fluency and also for your checking in to see if that book is a good level for your child.

Skimming your child's book and asking them questions/ helping them make connections to their life/talking about why the author chose to do this or that  --  is another thing that'll give you lots of bang for your buck.

That's all for now. Looking  forward to seeing you at Parent-Teacher Conferences!

David

________________________________________________________________________________________

Andrew's Letter to Parents:

Tuesday October 16^th 2012

Dear ABS Parents,

It is time again to celebrate the harvest by sharing another batch of stone soup in the garden at our fine school. Please bring a bit of goodness from our generous land to put into the pot.

The meal will be served at your regular lunch time with milk, apples and bread provided by the cafeteria. Kids need to bring their own eating utensils and a mug or bowl for soup. The meal will be made up of pre-chopped veggies and rice brought from everyone's home*. Please bring these items to the office in the morning on Tuesday October 23^rd or Wednesday October 24^th so we can begin to make the broth. Any tupperware will not be returned. The celebration will take place on the 25th of October during each classes lunch time.

Also, please contact your FAP rep for parent volunteers to help serve the soup and direct the flow of the event. It is especially great if some parents can help for the whole time, from 10:30 until 1:30.

*Here are some great ideas for items to bring.

Try to use fresh whole foods and leave meat, nuts, dairy and gluten out for sensitive kids. Rice, Quinoa and lentils make a great substitute. Bring enough to fill a mug or bowl.

Brown Rice	Onions	Garlic
Lentils	Radishes	Kale
Beans	Corn	Peas
Celery	Carrots	Sweet Potato
Potato	Tomato	Squash
Peppers	Brussels Sprouts	Fresh Herbs
Fruit for clay oven baked pies!	Peaches	Apples
Berries	Plums	Quinoa
Leeks	Taro root	Burdock
Ginger	Dandelion Greens	Jerusalem Artichokes

I'll be happy to answer any questions by phone or E-mail. Autumnally yours, Andrew 222-7976 guerillagardens@gmail.com

A question for My Students

October 12, 2012

 "I know my mom loves me because..."

"I know my cat loves me when..."

Dear Class Poets,

Welcome to our class blog. There is something I am trying to figure out: 

Every day, we hear people say, "I love you,"  to each other.

And lots of times you can tell someone loves you by what they do.

 Do people at your house say something to let you know they love you?

Does someone at your house do something that shows they love you?

Where do you see love? How do you know someone loves you?

Please write your answer so we can make a list of the ways. Then together, with all your comments,
I will help you join your ideas to make a gigantic, class Love Poem.

Thank you for your quiet, loving thoughts this morning.

Mr. Bolger

October 5, 2012

Looking for Insects in our Four-Winds Lesson (Thanks, Parent Volunteers!)

October 5, 2012

Dear Parents,

We have been scientists this week! We began our study of the Human Body. We learned a lot about bones, we learned about germs, and today, we had 4-Winds where we caught and observed insects. We remembered that a bug is an insect if it has 6 legs. It’s a spider if it has eight legs, and a slug isn’t any bug at all. Ask your child what insect he or she caught.  Try at home: lay a sheet under a bush and shake the bush. It’s fun to see what interesting creatures fall into your sheet!

In Mrs. Powers’ 1^st grade math class, students are using buttons to learn all the combinations you can use to make 6 buttons. In Mr. Bolger’s 2^nd-grade math class, students are doing the same thing, except they are reviewing combinations that equal ten. Next week, they’ll be moving on to combinations (to learn automatically) to 20. Another thing second grade math students  learned was: does an odd plus an odd equal  an even?  (We found that when we put an odd number of little squares together, it’s impossible to make a rectangle.  There is always one extra square.   But if we make two  odd-number arrangements, like 3 square plus 3 square, the extra little square in each of those “arrangements” can find each other so that everyone has a partner.

And when everyone has a partner, you know the sum of those two arrangements will be even. Ask your child about Clock Partners (Bolger’s Math) .

A note about homeowork for  both classes: Mrs. Powers and I will be sending home weekly math games for you to play with your child. Please feel free to adjust the directions so they work for you. For example, you don’t need to laminate game boards and you can use dice instead of making a spinner. And if your family is wiped out on Wednesday and just can’t do the homework,  send in a note, and we’ll gladly work it out.

Sharing: our sharing next week is Who do I admire? Please help your child think about someone they admire – preferably a family member or a friend – someone they really know.

I have introduced the idea of “admiring” someone. You might have a chat with your child about it too. Children may bring in a picture if they wish or some other item to represent the person they admire. Suggestion: explain who YOU admire, but then ask your child who they admire without giving them a suggestion. It’ll be very interesting and empowering for you to let them decide. Ask them to come up with three reasons for admiring (wanting to be like) that person.

Some other things we learned this week:

Clockwise vs. Counter-clockwise and how long it’d take to get to the moon if there were a long bridge that could reach it, and if you didn’t stop to eat or sleep. (A: about 9 months –the kids had guessed about 18 year.) One student offered this: “well, I know that it takes 9 years for a rocket to get there, so I figured I’d double that, and that’s how I got 18 years.”

Volunteers: Now that October is underway, we are ready for classroom volunteers! If you have expressed an interest in coming in, I’ll contact you in the next few days to set up a time. If you haven’t spoken with me yet, please email me, and we’ll get you in here.

Final Request on Friendship List: Jessica Lamorey, our Room Mom, is putting together our 2012-2013 Classroom Friendship List. Please tell us ASAP if you do not want your email or phone number on our friendship list.

Have a great weekend, everyone. The air smells so good, the leaves are gorgeous, and don’t you just feel like you want to roll around in the wet grass? 

Mr. Bolger

Sept. 30, 2012

September 30, 2012

Dear Parents,

First, thank you all for making the effort to come out to our Horizon Curriculum Night.  We are proud of all the learning that takes place here every day, and the Curriculum Night is something we look forward to every year– a rare time when we get to have you, the children’s parents,   in our classrooms  --  to talk about our shared product: your children.  Once again, we very-much enjoyed the night. Please don’t hesitate to email me if any of your questions did not get answered.  

Reading: in this, our third full week of school, we are nearly done with the reading assessments.  Students know what their “Just Right” reading level is, and they know how to use the “five finger” rule to test out if a new book is, indeed, “just right” for them.  Remember, when your child is doing “at-home” reading, it is a perfect time for practicing what they have learned rather than trying to break new ground.  Ask them to read to you out loud (especially if they are “beginning” readers – usually Level A-J).  If they are laboring through a story, it’s usually an indication that it’s too hard. Have them pick something easier so they can read it quickly enough to be able to use expression.  Developing an ear and a voice for smooth, expressive reading is just as important as developing an eye for accurate reading.  An accurate-but-painfully-slow reader won’t learn any more quickly, and they’re less likely to fall in love with reading.  I will be contacting you shortly to let you know your child’s instructional level and independent level. (A child’s instructional level is usually one letter beyond their independent level.

In Writing, students are writing the second drafts of their first short stories. They are learning (or for second graders – remembering)  how we run Writer’s Workshop, when it is ok to talk, and when it’s necessary to be quiet so everyone can pay attention to their memories and their imaginations. In the writing pieces themselves, students are learning to write with strong voice, i.e., writing it the way they would say it.

In Math, students in First and Second are equally excited to begin the October Calendar and see what pattern it reveals!  We are now extending our study of patterns (repeating patterns and growing patterns) to study sorting. Sorting is everywhere from our grocery store to our sock drawer.  Students are getting lots of practice with increasingly-difficult sorting challenges.

In Tech Lab this week, First and Second Graders logged onto their email accounts, and they exchanged emails with me. Parents, if you haven’t already done so, please email your child at firstnamelastname@cssu.us  that way, he or she can reply to you and you will be off and running.  In addition to our weekly project in the Tech Lab, I will have students working on ongoing, laptop-based projects in the classroom, so they will have ample opportunity to check their emails and respond to you.

Sharing:  Students did a wonderful job sharing their ME bags. They shared enthusiastically, and they asked sincere and interesting questions of each other. It was a great way for us to get to know each other.

 The Sharing theme for this week is “Something I collect” or “Something someone I know collects.”

Four Winds: we are excited for this year’s first Four Winds lesson (this week on Friday morning). Can’t wait!

That’s it for now, Everyone. Have great week.

Mr. Bolger