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

....