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

February 14, 2013

Hello Parents!

Skiing is a go for tomorrow. 

Also, I want to thank everyone who helped to make today's Valentine's celebration a success.  The kids were just lit up all day (and not just because of the sugar.)  You could see as they handed out their valentines to each other that this  really was meaningful for them. Lots of compliments and lots of reflection about how happy they are to have each other as friends. It was great. 

And the 100th-Day-of-School celebration: again, the kids loved bringing in something they had made at home with you. Both of these events this week reignited the spark in these kids at this dreary time of year.  

Third: we are expecting a new student! She is a second-grade girl, and she will be arriving either tomorrow or Monday. It'll be fun for us to invite a new friend into this year's great mix!

Mr. Bolger

ps:  Check out the pictures from the last several weeks on the sidebar. 

February 6, 2013

Hello Parents.

Today, Everyone at Allen Brook participated in "Digital Learning Day."   Here is what we did:

- We posted our recently-completed fiction stories on our Kidblogs.
- We each  paired up -- via computer -- with a 3rd/4th grade student in Ms. Schoolcraft's class.
- Then, we read and commented on our partners' posts and they, in turn, commented on ours.
- Have your child show you his or her story on our Kidblog. Make a comment on your child's post if you'd like. Consider making a comment on a couple of other kids' stories.
- Note: I have added GUEST USERS to our list of users on our Kidblog. The password for guests is Horizon12.
- Ask your child to show you who their partner was today in Ms. Schoolcraft's Class. Have your child show you his or her comment. Maybe together you could leave another comment. (You may have to be logged in to our class Kidblog to be allowed to leave a comment on the Schoolcraft Kidblog.)

- I was proud of your kids today -- their patience and perseverance as we worked through the twists and turns of  logging onto the computer ( including spelling Horizon12) , logging onto Kidblog, and  learning to comment, edit, post, and not lose it if their laptop lost power and shut down. They also were very generous in helping each other. You might ask your child if he or she helped any classmates today. :)

- Next steps: we hope to Skype with Ms. Schoolcraft's class tomorrow or Friday. Also on Friday, students will take more ownership of their blogs by choosing a unique  "theme" to use to dress up their Kidblog page. If you would like to help them get a jump on that, please feel free to get started.

On another note, we were so focused yesterday and today on our Digital Learning Day, we just couldn't squeeze in writing to you in our Home School Journals. Sorry. We will write to you tomorrow, and they can come back on Monday. 

That's it for now.

Thank you. Have a nice rest of the week.

David

January 30, 2013

January 30, 2013

Hello Parents,

A few quick notes:

Home-School Journals went home today. They will be due on Friday.

Mr. Bolger’s Second-Grade Fundations is due tomorrow (Thursday). We will have our Unit-9 test.

First Grade Fundations packets came home on Monday. They are due on February 22nd. Please let us know if your child did not come home with a packet and we will get you one.

I sent home this week’s reading logs today. Sorry for getting them to you late. As always, you can just think back and estimate your child’s reading time over the last several days. Please try to have your child think about the weekly reading log question and attempt to answer it. Thanks.

Dental Cleanings will be available here this Friday. The cost is $18.00. There is also financial aid available to cover the cost. If interested, please contact our Nurse, Sylvia Love at 878-5762 X5857 as soon as possible.

Our Valentine’s Day Party will take place on Thursday, February 14^th, at 1:30 p.m. A letter with classmate names will be coming home in next week’s Friday Folder.

Today’s 3^rd and 4^th Grade Concert was beautiful. It was exciting to see so many of our old Horizon 2^nd-graders. You might want to ask your child which friends they saw and which song they liked the most.

January 14, 2013

January 14, 2013

Hello Parents!

We have had an upbeat start to the week with lots of laughing as we have begun crafting our "fantasy" short stories. I thought you might like to see our  rubric for short stories (attached below). It is a brainstorm of ideas for characters, settings, problems, etc, that the students can launch from when they plan out their own stories. I am especially interested in having them be creative in solving their "problems" with a secret skill or a a clever act or a gesture of kindness. We can certainly go beyond, "I knocked the monster down and ran home. "  :)

Invite your child to share his or her brainstorming on this. What will be the setting? What will be the problem and the solution? 

I have also attached the cover of our Whangdoodles book. We are, at long last, nearing the end of the children's journey. Today, having left the professor behind, they finally met the Whangdoodle, the last mystical beast on earth, and the king of Whangdoodle Land.

Ask your child to describe the Whangdoodle to you.

Here is what we learned today - about what he looked like:

"Two eyes and a very-large pair of antlers emerged from the tapestry. followed by a mooselike head that bore them. Next came four rather short legs attached to a round, barrellike body...his voice was deep...The whangdoodle was truly an extraordinary creature...He was the size of a small pony. His face was big and friendly with large brown eyes and long, fair eyelashes. His eyebrows were arched,giving him a constant look of surprise. His muzzle looked soft as velvet and when he grinned, he displayed strong, horselike teeth which protruded over his lips. His antlers were amazingly large and very handsome. He held his head proudly, in keeping with his generally regal air. His body was a warm, grey-brown color and his small, rather thin tail was fashioned into a love not. On his hind feet he wore a pair of old bedroom slippers with floppy tassels."

And last: we are in our second week of Science Workshops on solids, liquids, and gases. Ask your child about his or her workshop today.

That's all for now.

Have a great rest of the week.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Dear Parents,

We began our first full week back to school yesterday, and the kids have a ton of energy they seem happy to plow into their schoolwork.

In Writing, we began a unit of short stories today. Everyone was mesmerized by the huge snowdrift outside our classroom window and by Mr. Wayne's tractor that scooped it up and hauled it away --- so, we stood by the window and watched for a few minutes. Then, together, we created an oral story about it. "One upon a time," began Ally....and another student added, "there was a huge snowstorm, and it nearly covered our classroom window.... (and another said )... We left the classroom and when we came back in, we saw that it was really a giant snow monster! It was trying to cllimb in our classroom window!...

You'll have to ask your child to tell you how our story turned out; we will be learning, now, how to write our own fictional stories.

In Morning Meeting, Ally Clos surprised us with a song she had written. With some encouragement from her classmates and backup from a couple of them, she sang it to us.  "That was a very nice song, Ally," said Alexander when they had finished.

We met our new student teacher today; her name is Tia Aiello (or "Ms. Tia.") She is a junior at Champlain College; she was born in New Jersey and has spent the last four years living in South Burlington. Ask your child if he or she remembers what else she told us.It looks as though Ms. Tia will be a great fit for us.

We celebrated Ananya's birthday today, and her classmates had many things to say about what she brings to our class.  Thank you, Ananya! Thank you, Class!

2nd grade math students got math homework that is due on Thursday, and I believe that all Fundations classes got a fresh Fundations homework packet today. Also, your child should have brought home a new reading log for this week.

In Science, we have begun a four-week unit on Solids, Liquids, and Gases.  Ask your child what he or she learned today in his or her workshop.

Have a great rest of the week, everyone.

Mr. Bolger