marlboroschool.net

June 8, 2010

Dear Parents,

We had a fun visit to Zinabu’s farm this morning.  Thanks, Brian and Zinabu, for showing us the cows (we didn’t scare them!), the 200 baby chicks and the horses.  Ask your child about the visit.  See if they can tell you about how the chicks get water.

Did you hear about Hogback Day?  Ask your child about their workshop(s) in the morning and what they did on the hike.

We still have some missing books from Hunter, Merou, Madison and Jade.  Please get these back to us if at all possible.

Tomorrow we will head down to the Retreat Farm after snack.  We will be back for the usual 1 p.m. pickup.  We have Morgan with us today and tomorrow for her junior high internship.  It’s great to have her with us on these trips.

Before our 8^th graders can graduate, they have to do a presentation of their portfolio of accumulated work that demonstrates their competency in several areas.  As the audience, there are Francie, Tim and Rachel, as well as at least one seventh grader, a faculty member and the parents.  Today I’ll be part of Ethan’s presentation at 12:45.  Someone else will dismiss your child but at this point, with so many classes traveling today, I don’t know who it will be!

Friday is Preview Day and next year’s primarians will go with Judy to Memorial Park after Sing to be with their next year’s group.  I’ll go along as the bus driver but the intention is that Judy will get a chance to bond with her new class.

I will be sending home final reports on Friday. More things from the classroom will be going home this week as we are ready.

Having the last day of school on a Saturday doesn’t work for every family, I know.  If you know you won’t be here that day, please let me know so that I can make sure that your child gets their clothespin as they leave and that we have a chance to say goodbye.  Please let me know if you are picking up your child.  Otherwise, they can ride the bus home at 11:45.

As I reflect back on this year, I want to make sure to thank you all for your support and caring of both your children and me.  With my mother dying, it was a stressful beginning but having such wonderful children and understanding parents, really made it easier.   Thanks for sharing your children with me this year.  It has been a real pleasure to be their teacher and to see how much they’ve grown in so many ways.  When I look back at those early photos, I can’t believe how young they were when they started!

Have a great, fun and safe summer and I look forward to seeing you all in the fall.

Thanks,

Ellen

June 1, 2010

Dear Parents,

With the weather and the power outages, the schedule of special events seems to be a moving target these days.  Thanks for your flexibility as we try to squeeze everything in.  It’s possible that Hogback Day may be rescheduled at a time that we are supposed to be doing something else.  If that’s the case, I’ll try to move things around and will send you home a notice when I know.

I’m really glad that we got our Montshire trip in when we did and that we got such a beautiful day (albeit really hot) to go.  We cut our time in the water park down a bit and added a woodland garden hike to get out of the sun.  Many thanks to Jenny, Jess and Carrie for giving up their day to chaperone. They all did a great job, as did the children.  I hope you heard about all the things we saw and did that day.  If not, ask your child!  I hope you can also take advantage of the free admission ticket to go back and visit.  The Montshire makes for a great day trip on a summer day.  Bring your bathing suit and a towel for the children and watch them play! (They also have a wonderful gift shop.)

Thanks also to Saint and Sparrow for helping out with the poetry studio visits with Ann.  Ann has kept the poems for now but when she returns them to me, I’ll send them home.  Ask your child what they wrote their poem about.

This is the time of year that we try to get everything back to school.  Pam has put out her plea for library books and I’ll do the same here for the read at home books and math bags.  These people need to look for and return books:

Hunter

Zinabu

Merou

Madison

Jade

Camilla – math bag

Thanks.  When these are returned Judy and I can use them again with future classes.

Tomorrow we will have a visit from next year’s kindergartners.  I will pick them up on the bus at 10 and bring them back here for a story, snack and some choice time.  They will have plenty of willing guides to show them around the kindergarten!  This weekend I put out a lot of new things to keep children interested through this last month.  Your child might tell you about something new (or returning) that they did today.

As I’m gathering things from home, I am also sending things there to you as well.  Over the next two weeks, I’ll be sending things home like paintings from the beginning and end of the year, self-portraits, journals, portfolios, photographs and the like.  I hope that by staggering them over several days, you will be able to take some time and appreciate and celebrate your child’s work and growth. I’ll send final reports home on Friday next week with your child.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about them (but bear in mind, I’ll be leaving for my bike trip right after school finishes for teachers on the 15^th).

It’s hard to believe we are almost finished!

Thanks,

Ellen

May 20, 2010

Dear Parents,

20 is the magic number.  20 chicks on May 20!  I will need to start sending at least some chicks home on Tuesday as there are so many they will quickly outgrow the brooder.  If I haven’t spoken with you yet, please give me a call or send me an e mail at efmartyn@wcsu46.org to let me know how many you hope to get.  Stephanie is going to take 3 to continue the kindergarten line of chickens!

I still need a parent on Tuesday to help with poetry!

We will do a short presentation of our farm research books on Tuesday, May 25 at 12:45 with our reading partners and anyone else who can join us.

Thanks,

Ellen

May 18, 2010

Dear Parents,

When I came into school this morning, I heard the sound of peeping.  The “baby egg”, the bantam egg, which is a small variety of chicken, had hatched.  The chick was still sticky and wet.  There are several cracks in eggs this morning (the day before the hatch is expected) and we are watching eagerly to see what happens next.  When we candled the eggs on Friday last week, we saw motion and growth in most of them.  Hatching is the next challenge and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that many of the chicks make it out in the world.

This past week has been a busy one.  On Friday, we had a great visit to Merou’s farm.  We saw a llama, sheep, horses, a pony, a dog, a cat and chickens.  Ask your child about their favorites.  Thanks to Saint, Merou and Yarrow for showing us around!

Thanks also to all of you for your contributions to Teacher Appreciation week.  The flowers in the hall full of compliments are great and we’re all enjoying the food.  Thanks also to Saint for covering the classroom during our teacher lunch.  It’s a great week.

Yesterday we enjoyed the beautiful weather at Twinkletown with our golf/reading partners.  Each kindergartner had a team of two older students.  You can ask your child about who they sat with on the bus and played golf.  You can also ask about their favorite holes.  They were each unique.  We also enjoyed ice cream after lunch.  The whole group seemed to have a fun day.

Please add one more special date to your calendars.  On Monday, June 7 (Tuesday if it rains on Monday) we will go to Zinabu’s house to see his cows and 200 chicks!

I still need a parent to accompany the group to poetry on Tuesday next week and Friday, the 28^th.  Can you help?

One more chick hatched during snack today while the children watched!  We set up the brooder this morning.  All of the groceries were sorted and recycled and now the fantasy area has become a chicken farm!  Children drew welcome pictures for the chicks.

Our farm research books are almost finished.  I’ll try to find a time to share them with you and our reading partners.

Have your child sing the chicken song to you.  “C” – that’s the way it begins…

Thanks,

Ellen

May 11, 2010

Dear Parents,

As promised, here is the calendar of special days coming up from now until the end of the school year:

Thursday 5/13 – I’ll be out for a professional development day

Friday 5/14 – Visit to Merou’s farm 10:15

Monday 5/17 – Mini-golf at Twinkletown, near Keene, NH.  This is a celebration day with our reading partners.  We will have lunch and snack (and ice cream!) and play a round of mini-golf.  We will be back by 1 p.m.

Wednesday 5/18 – Hatch day we hope!

Friday 5/21 – I’ll be out for a professional development day

Monday 5/24 – Kindergarten registration – NO SCHOOL FOR K!

Tuesday 5/25 – Half the group will go to Ann Gengarelly’s poetry studio from 10:15 – 11:45  We will need a parent to accompany the group.

Wednesday 5/26 – Montshire Museum  This is an all day 8:30-3 trip.  So far, I have Carrie, Jess and Raf as parent chaperones (Hailey is a maybe).

Thursday 5/27 – Hannah’s farm at 10.  We will help break up sod in a newly plowed field as well as see the seedlings in the greenhouse and the chickens.  Dress in old clothes and field appropriate shoes.

Friday 5/28 – The other half of the group will go to Ann’s poetry studio at 10:15.  We will need a parent for this day also.  This is also an EARLY RELEASE DAY at 11:45.  Children can ride the bus.

Monday 5/31 – Memorial Day – no school

Tuesday 6/1 – Hogback Day with the whole school.  Details to follow in Friday notes.

Wednesday 6/2 – Kindergarten Visitation Day.  Next year’s class will join us at 10 a.m. until recess.

Friday 6/4 – Rain Date for Hogback Day

Wednesday 6/9 – Retreat Farm  10-1.  I will need at least one chaperone to go with us.

Thursday – 6/10 – Preview Day  – All students go to next year’s classroom.  We will go to Memorial Park with next year’s primary students.  I’ll be the bus driver.

Friday 6/11 – Last Day of School  Finish at 11:45.

You might want to post this on your refrigerator.  So much to keep track of!

I will be out tomorrow for a personal day.  Kelly will sub for me both Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Many thanks to Jess and Althea for showing us around their farm yesterday. We made a graph of our favorite animal that we saw there.  Cats (actually the kittens) were the number one winner but there were votes for all the other animals.  Check in with your child to see how they voted (and what other animals we saw).

We made a beautiful garden mural that is hanging over my desk.  Check it out when you are in the building.  We started by doing scientific drawings and observations of the plants in our bulb garden out front.  Then we made permanent marker and watercolor flowers.  Spring is here (even if there are frost warnings!).

We keep turning the eggs.  When we candled the eggs last week there were eyes in all of them.  We’ll check again today…

Thanks,

Ellen

May 4, 2010

Dear Parents,

On Friday, instead of reading with our reading partners, they came to help us to do some research.  Each child chose a farm animal.  With the help of a tree map, they found out three different kind of things about their animal using classroom and library books as sources.  Yesterday we illustrated the first page of the books.  When these are complete, we’ll share them with our reading partners and with you.  Ask your child what animal they are studying and what they have learned so far.

We have more road trips on our schedule.  On Monday, at 9 a.m. we will head across the street to Althea’s house to meet her animals.  I bet your child can tell you at least some of what we expect to see there.  (Hint:  we had guest kittens here yesterday and I hear some still need homes.)  On Friday, after snack, we will head down Ames Hill to visit Merou’s house.  Can your child tell you what they will see there?  Thanks to Althea and Merou’s families for letting us to come and visit.

On our new May calendar, we have also scheduled our annual mini-golf trip with our reading partners to Twinkletown near Keene, New Hampshire.  This will be on Monday, May 17 and we will be back in time for our usual 1 p.m. pickup.

I still need more parents to join us on May 26 for the Montshire trip.  Unfortunately, this trip is not suitable for younger siblings.

Book orders are due tomorrow.

If you have math bags or read at home books, please return them as soon as you are able.  It would be nice to get all the bags to all the families before they end of the year.  Some of the students are especially excited about reading to their families.  When these books come back, I give the children the option of bringing home another one within a day or two.  I like to support children in their early reading skills but never want to force what they aren’t ready for.

Remember to mark your calendars for Monday, May 24 as that day is for next year’s class registration. Next week I’ll send home the list with all the special days coming up between now and the end of the year.

Our mother hen kindergartners are doing a great job taking care of the eggs.  We will candle them on Wednesday to see if we can detect any growth.  We did have one that cracked on the first day.  We took it apart to see if there were any differences from the unfertilized eggs we detected earlier.  Can your child tell you if there were any differences?

Thanks for your help with the letters in our names homework.  On Thursday we did yes/no surveys in our class and in other classrooms in the school.  Does your child remember their question?  Their results?

Enjoy the spring/summer weather and Happy Mother’s Day this weekend!

Thanks,

Ellen

April 27, 2010

Dear Parents,

On this rainy morning, children came in before 8:30 which was a fortunate thing as Stephanie Shiman brought us two dozen eggs in a variety of sizes and colors.  For me, it’s also exciting because many of the eggs came from more than a generation (I think it might be 4) of eggs laid by chickens that were hatched here in kindergarten.  Later today, we will candle the eggs.  We’ll take them into a dark room and shine a bright light on them.  If there are any cracks, we won’t put these eggs into the incubator as they won’t hatch.  As we watch the development over the next 21 days, we’ll candle the eggs to see how they are growing (or not).

There is a reason for the saying, “Don’t count your chickens until they hatch.”  After doing this for several years, I always warn the children that things can go wrong.  A successful hatch is usually defined by a 50% hatch rate.  One year, it got so cold on a weekend that all the eggs stopped developing at the same stage (I dissected them privately).  If you are interested in taking chicks home, let me know and we’ll see how many we have in 3 weeks!

Tomorrow we will dissect unfertilized eggs to learn more about the various parts of the egg.  We’ll use toothpicks so that I can dump all the eggs into a frying pan and have a little scrambled egg for some extra snack.

The children will take on the role of mother hen, turning the eggs twice a day. Usually the afterschool program turns them in the later afternoon as well.  We’ll have a schedule, just like in the post office.

Thanks to all of you for all of the groceries and the cash register that we have now in the fantasy area.  We have been learning about the different sections of a grocery store and making  signs and doing lots of sorting to figure out where everything needs to go.  There is lots of buying going on as well.  If we get too many groceries, I’ll let you know but if there are things you’d like to send in, that’s still an option.

We will be learning about food and farms and talking about where our food comes from during these last weeks of school. As part of that, I’d like to take us out on the road to visit family farms around Marlboro.   If you’d like us to come see your animals, please let me know which of the following days would work best for you. I’ll come up with a schedule and let you all know where we will be when.

Monday, May 3   9-10  or 10:45 – 11:45

Wednesday, May 5   Any time between 9 and 11:45

Friday, May 7    Any time between 10:15 and 11:45

Monday, May 10   9-10 or 10:45 – 11:45

Friday, May 14   Any time between 10:15 and 11:45

Friday, May 28   10:15 – 11:15

We’ll see how that goes.  There might be other times later.

I’m sending home book orders, the last of this year.  Order now for summer reading, surprise books for road trips, just for fun…  Orders should be in by next Wednesday, May 5.  Please make checks payable to Scholastic.

Our Montshire trip is Wednesday, May 26 (until 3 p.m.).  I need lots of adults to come with us.  Would you like to be one of them?

Thanks,

Ellen

April 13, 2010

Dear Parents,

There is definitely some excitement in the air today (not for the first time – I realize I start a lot of newletters that way!).  Today it’s about the Learning Fair that starts at 6:30. I hope many of you can come to see our classroom and also visit around the school.  While here, you can write a letter, check out the trains in the block area, have your child read their dot book to you and make a comment, look through their journals, see our growing plants, maybe stay to play a game or use some of our math materials.  There will be activities in other parts of the building too from the outback to the library.  Enjoy!

Outside of our classroom I have hung up our stories inspired by Ezra Jack Keats books that we have been reading.  We started with a watercolor background, as he does in many of his books, and then added collage and cray pas and chalk. Each child dictated the story that goes with their picture.

We have also been busy updating the staff board in the front hall.  Your child has either been an artist, drawing a staff member, or an interviewer, asking the three questions we ask each person.  With clipboards, a basket of drawing materials and the tape recorder, they look very official as they move about the building.  Like the post office, this is real work and they take it very seriously.

The post office work has dropped off this week as the novelty wears off around the school.  We will finish on Friday and will probably celebrate with some ice cream bought with our hard-earned money.  We will also decide which organization we wish to support, albeit modestly, with our profits.  We will do lots of counting of pennies and come up with a total number of stamps sold.

Tomorrow we will be at the Marlboro post office.  This morning we wrote letters to someone in our family that we will mail from there.  The children were surprised that it takes 44 pennies to buy one stamp at the real post office!  Watch your mailbox for a letter to arrive.

We will be setting up a grocery store in the fantasy area after the break.  Please send in your used, clean containers. We will recycle everything at the end of our study.

Have a great vacation week and I hope to see you tonight!

Thanks,

Ellen

April 6, 2010

Dear Parents,

I wish you could have all seen morning meeting today.  Everyone had on their PJ’s for Pajama Day.  I sang Momma Don’t Allow no sleeping ‘round here and they all curled up on their floor pretending to be asleep.  Then, I quietly sang the lullaby, Tender Shepherd, and they all stayed still on the floor listening.  What a cute sight!

It didn’t last long once we got to choice time though.  Everyone was busy either working in the post office, painting a picture, designing stamps, building in the block area or playing in the doll house and we are off to another busy day in kindergarten.

Busy is has been, especially in the post office.  Last week we received 14 dollar bills to buy stamps!  Good thing Pam has been helping us make stamps on the computer, as well as our hand-made ones, or we would never be able to keep up.   We had a discussion about what to do with the money.  I was amazed hear all the generous ideas from giving money to people who can’t afford food, to cancer victims, people in nursing homes to splitting it evenly among the class.  We’ll talk more this week to decide.

Not only did we sell a lot of stamps, we also had very busy days cancelling stamps, sorting and delivering mail to the school each day.  The schedule is posted in the post office and teams of two do their work popping up when customers come to the window to buy stamps.  It has settled down a bit this week but the letters are still coming.  If you haven’t sent one to your child yet, it’s not too late.  I think we will keep the post office open until vacation.  After that, we’ll be learning about where our food comes from.  We will turn the fantasy area into a grocery store.  You can start saving your empty food containers.  We’ll be doing a farm/chicken study later in the year and will hatch some chickens.

Next week, we will head over to the Marlboro post office on Wednesday morning at 10:30 to see how Marshall delivers the mail and does his job.   I suspect the children will be shocked by how much mail he has to sort!

Thanks for your support of Spirit Week.  Sorry I didn’t tell you about it in last week’s newsletter but the days were just announced at Sing on Friday.  I will be out on Hippie Day to attend the next day of the class I’m taking.  Kelly will be here and I’ll have to skip my chance to be a hippie this year (too bad – I still have a skirt I wore in high school!).  Thanks also to all of you who were able to do the Reading Challenge and Screen Turnoff week.  We’ll celebrate everyone at Sing on Friday.

Next Tuesday is the Learning Fair.  Please join us in kindergarten to see our work and maybe to write a letter.  You are also welcome to visit the other classes – previews of coming attractions – but please keep track of your children.

We are updating some of the staff portraits and interviews in the front hall.  Look for them at the Learning Fair.

Did you hear about William, our visitor from Kenya!  Ask your child about the animals where he lives and how they carry their milk.  Today’s message had a missing word about the kind of fur he wears on his leg.  Can your child tell you what kind it is?  How about what letters are in the word?

Thanks,

Ellen

March 30, 2010

Dear Parents,

The full moon yesterday brought with it more than the usual share of excitement in kindergarten – actually in the whole school! Yesterday was the opening of the post office, an annual event eagerly anticipated by people around the school.  The lines for stamps were long, especially during the indoor recess time.  We have sold over 800 stamps in 2 days.  When someone brings in a dollar, the excitement levels go over the top!

With the excitement, in walked Madison who surprised us by returning to our class.  We welcome her back and she has settled in like she never left.  Zinabu is doing his Wanachi week this week so next week we will catch up with Hunter (who was sick during his week)  and then Madison.

The post office study includes lots of literacy and numeracy skills.  You can see them in action as children use money to buy stamps and write letters.  We have been playing a math game where children roll dice and get that many pennies.  As they reach 5 or 10 they trade the pennies for nickels and dimes.  You can help your children learn the names of the coins.  Actually, with so many debit and credit cards, these opportunities probably don’t come up as often as they used to.

I encourage you to write letters at home as well, especially during this screen time break.   Children eagerly seek out ways to spell names and words – literacy in action!  You can also send letters to your child.  Just be sure there is a K on the envelope with their name on it and a stamp (you can buy them at pickup time) and put it in the mailbox by the office.  I’d be happy to be a secret agent if you want to keep the surprise.

We had a very successful trip to the Latchis theatre to see the Windham Orchestra last week.  Did your child tell you about it?  There was a young violin solist, some singers including a group of children from Oak Grove School and the whole orchestra playing the New World Symphony, the dramatic first movement.  I have been playing classical music during lunch and am always surprised when they recognize “famous” pieces from movies or videos.

I’ll be planning a trip to the post office.  Brattleboro said last year we couldn’t come as they had reduced staff.  I’ll try there first, just in case.

Remember that Friday is an Early Release Day.  Children can take the bus home at 11:45.  Please let me know if you don’t want them to ride the bus.

Thanks,

Ellen

March 23, 2010

Dear Parents,

The bodies have gone home, the hospital is packed away (Camilla and Sarah did a great job sorting and helping me clean it up) and the excitement is building around the opening of our school-wide post office next week.  Several students painted a large box this morning which will become a mailbox that will be up by the office.  Tomorrow we will start making stamps by hand after looking at many real ones.  On Friday we will make stamps on the computer with Pam.  Monday morning, our post office will open for business. Anyone in the school (or coming into the building) can come to our room and buy a stamp for 1 penny.  We will also be learning about money this week.  Every letter will have a code letter which will allow us to cancel the stamps and sort the mail by classrooms.  Each day there will be two students whose job it is to sort, cancel and deliver the mail around the school.  As Erica’s class went by this morning and saw us painting a large box there were shouts.  “It’s the mailbox!!  The post office must be opening soon!”  Kindergarteners started writing letters to each other.  It’s going to be a busy time.

Thanks to Carrie for making the little body books that have gone home recently.  This was a great way to summarize many of the things we have learned over the last several weeks.

My apologies for not getting a newsletter out last week.  On Monday my laptop died (and I don’t have another computer).  On Tuesday and Wednesday I was away for some professional development while Kelly took over here.  Yesterday, Susan was here while I visited Wardsboro school with Francie.  We are investigating adding a pre-K program for 4 year olds here and are in the gathering information stage.  If you have thoughts about that, please feel free to share them.

Having substitutes reminds me to ask again that you pick up your child at 1 pm. It is hard for them and the adults to have to wait as we all have busy lives and other meetings and obligations.  Thanks.

If you haven’t returned your conference feedback form, I’d still like to see these. If you have a math bag at home, please return these as well.  It would be great to have everyone get a chance to take all of them home before the end of the year.

It’s hard to imagine, but we are now in the last trimester of the year!  Time does fly when you’re having fun and this year has both flown by and has been a lot of fun!  I’m enclosing reports for the trimester from the specials teachers and an attendance form.  It’s also the time of year when I start to put special things on the calendar.  To give you time to plan, here a few of the special events already planned:

Thursday, March 25 – Meet the Orchestra.  We will meet and leave at 8:30 to attend a concert at the Latchis.  Be sure to be on time!

Friday, April 2 – Early Release Day for professional development.  Dismissal at 11:45.

Monday, May 24 – Kindergarten registration for next year’s class.  There will be no school for kindergarten that day.

Wednesday, May 26 – Trip to the Montshire museum.  This will be a whole day trip (until 3 p.m.) and I will need a few parents to come with us.

Friday, May 28 – Early release day for professional development.  Dismissal at 11:45.

This is Sarah’s Wanachi week.  Next week will be Zinabu and the following week (April 5) will be Hunter since he was sick during his week.

As the weather gets soggy and the mud and wet snow make recess a challenge for keeping dry clothes, please be sure your child’s extra clothes box is full of options.  Many are almost empty right now.  Next week I’ll try to let you know who needs what.

Thanks,

Ellen

The kindergarten enjoyed a trip to the Eric Carle Museum on Wednesday.

Thanks to Linda Whelihan, our wonderful art teacher, and Katie, our junior high intern, for being our chaperones. After a tour through the gallery seeing Eric Carle’s original Very Hunger Caterpillar illustrations, and practicing our VTS skills, we had a wonderful time in their state of the art studio space. Each person made some textural rubbings on different kinds of papers, cut them into shapes and made our own books. If you are looking for something fun to do with your family, the kindergarten recommends a trip to Amherst to the museum!
Thanks, Ellen

March 4, 2010

Dear Parents,

I am enclosing a report for your child for the 2^nd semester with this newsletter.  I’m sending these home before conferences for you to get my information about your child.  If there is anything you would like to discuss, please let me know and we can either talk on Tuesday (I call these kitchen conferences) or we can choose another time to discuss any concerns.  The “specials” teachers will be writing their own reports and I’ll get these to you as they come in.  IF YOU HAVEN’T SIGNED UP FOR A CONFERENCE, PLEASE CALL GAIL TODAY! Each conference will last about an hour.

At the conference, your child will lead you through their work. There will be a game to play, a book or two to read, the bodies to see (these may not be all completely done but you can see what your child has finished), photographs to see and journals to share.  You will have a chance to give your child feedback about all of their work.  I find it’s a special time for parents and children to be together and share and celebrate all of their accomplishments.  Childcare is available for siblings and I highly recommend that you come and give your full attention to your kindergartner if at all possible.

On Friday, Pam will be sending home information about the March Reading Challenge.  This is a great opportunity to spend some time with your child each day either reading to them or having them read to you!  I encourage you all to do it and it’s great if the adults in the family commit to reading as well.  Children do follow their parents’ examples and by your reading, you are helping your child to succeed in reading as well.

Next Wednesday, March 10 (the day after conferences) we will be heading out right at 8:30 to go to the Eric Carle museum in Amherst, Massachusetts.  Linda, our art teacher, and probably a junior high intern will join us.  If you’d like to come, please let me know.  This is not a trip that we can accommodate younger siblings (per the museum’s instructions).  It’s possible that we may be a little late returning that day but I will try to get us here as close to 1 p.m. as I can.  Each child will need to bring a portable lunch and a drink. I will bring healthy snack with us.  I’ll be reading Eric Carle books here, but if you have some at home as well, this is a good time to pull them out!

Another special day is coming up on Monday, March 15.  We will have our joint junior high/kindergarten poetry reading at 11. Please join us, if you can, to hear the kindergarten poems, the junior high poems and the first poems the 8^th graders wrote at this school.

Next week, Jade will be our Wanachi.  Hunter will be the following week (we made a trade earlier).

Ask your child to tell you about the 3 parts of our blood – red blood cells that carry oxygen, white blood cells that fight germs and the platelets that stop the bleeding.  We did a very dramatic portrayal of the platelets at morning meeting.  Ask your child about it!

Looking forward to seeing you all (and your children) at conferences next week.

Thanks,

Ellen

February 15, 2010

Dear Parents,

Just a quick newsletter to let you know about a few upcoming things:

1^st – Tonight is the Winter Workshop showcase at 6:30.  Please come see your child’s artwork, pottery, and Capoeria as well as the older children’s puppet shows, sculptures and drumming.  We will be in the Outback and all artwork can go home with you at the end of the evening.

2^nd – Tomorrow, Francie and I are planning to go to Wardsboro school to check out their pre-K program which we are discussing doing here at some later time.  If there is a snow day here or there, we obviously won’t go, but if there isn’t, Kelly will be here to sub.

3^rd – On Wednesday, at 9 am we will head down to Rescue (finally!) to visit the ambulance and learn about car seat safety.  Saint is planning on joining us.  I’ll drive the little bus and you are welcome to come also.

4^th – On Tuesday, March 9 we will have student-led conference day.  You should sign up with Gail in the office for one of the 3 conference times (8:30 a.m., 10 a.m. or 11:30).  You and your child both come to this conference and your child will lead you through their work.

Next week is school vacation.  Have a great week with your child.  School will resume for students on Wednesday, March 3.

Thanks,

Ellen

February 9, 2010

Dear Parents,

The love is flowing around the room this week with Valentine’s Day coming up at the end of the week. There are lots of construction paper hearts being made and decorated, practicing putting the “fold on the fold” as children use a heart stencil to make their own. Pink, purple, red – all those favorite colors are filling up the room. Assuming no snow days, our 100th day of school will also be celebrated on Friday! I’m enclosing some Day 100 homework. I hope you’ll have time between now and Friday to assemble a collection of 100 things. We’ll share these on Friday. Jess is also planning to make a special Valentine’s treat.

These are not the only holidays this week. Hunter turns 6 tomorrow! As you can imagine, there is a lot of excitement in the air. Unfortunately, we are down 3 children as another wave of illness sweeps the room. We keep practicing the Rub, rub, rub song we made up – “wash those germs away!”. Hunter is supposed to be our Wanachi next week but will be missing some days before the break. Could he switch weeks with Merou? (Jade is out this week so I don’t want to plan on her.) This is Hannah’s week. What have we learned so far?

I haven’t heard from Rescue yet to reschedule our trip there but with snow in the forecast for Wednesday, I’ll try to get it in the following week.

This week, most of the children have made their lungs and their rib cage. Ask your child to tell you how they did it. This morning we talked about our bladders (and gall bladders as my friend Janie is having trouble with hers and may need an operation which is why I was out on Monday). I have a new IV bag for our fantasy hospital. We also talked about our private parts, and that they are private. We sang the “fancy” song from Mr. Rogers about how boys are fancy on the outside, girls on the inside. Each child will add either a uterus – “the stretchy place inside a girl where babies can grow when you are grown up”, or a penis.

We have a field trip scheduled to the Eric Carle museum in Amherst, Massachusetts on Wednesday, March 10. Linda, our art teacher, will go with us. We will tour the museum and then have a chance to create our own art in their wonderful studio. Details to follow. Children are bringing home their Very Hungry Caterpillar books today.

Luci was our junior high intern last week. Ask your child about her project (which has continued into this week). We don’t have an intern this week.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all.

Thanks, Ellen

February 2, 2010

Dear Parents,

This year is flying by.  Already we are into February which brings up thoughts of hearts (and lungs and body parts!).  We will have a little Valentine celebration later this month so in order to give you plenty of time to prepare, I am enclosing a list of names of people in our class.  We will share valentines on the Friday before (2/12).  If anyone would like to send in a special treat or paper goods, please let me know.

We are also counting down to Day 100. It looks like that may also be on that Friday!  I will ask each child to bring in 100 of something that day.  More on that next week.

This week we are adding the lungs to our bodies.  These are little plastic bags with a straw trachea and some pink netting avioli to catch the oxygen.  Since they really inflate they are a fun part to make!  We talked about how the trees are our breathing partners sharing our carbon dioxide with their oxygen.  We also tasted the fruit of the orange tree in the sunroom.  The smell is sweet but the taste is sour.  We explored the taste buds on our tongues and talked about how each part can taste a certain kind of thing like sweet or sour.

When the lungs are complete, we will be adding our bladders and then either a uterus (the stretchy place where a baby can grow when a girl grows up) or a penis. I will refer any questions to you if they come up but will explain matter-of-factly that we all have the same body parts except these.

Thanks to Saint, Carrie and Sparrow for their help preparing body parts.

We will leave to visit Rescue tomorrow morning about 9 a.m.  Luci, our junior high intern, and Saint will come with us.  Be sure to ask your child about what we see there.

This week Camilla is our Wanachi and Hannah is up next. We have been exploring different kinds of questions to ask.  Can your child tell you what we have learned about Camilla so far?

I appreciate your input on social issues that come up for your child.  Recently, I have been hearing about some children feeling left out and others feeling overwhelmed with offers to play.  This is the time of year when social issues seem to get more challenging.  We read a story yesterday and will continue to talk about how to be a friend.  We continue to talk about recess before and after as this open ended time can be challenging for children.  Please let me know of anything that you are hearing or is going on at home that may affect your child at school.

Thanks to all of you who pick up your children on time at 1 p.m.  I know things can happen to delay you occasionally but I have several meetings scheduled after children leave in the next few weeks so appreciate being able to get to them on time.

Thanks,

Ellen

January 26, 2010

Dear Parents,

Thanks for your help with homework last night (if you didn’t do it yet, please try to get it in for tomorrow).  We will be making our stomachs by cutting up little pieces of construction paper to match the color of the food that was eaten.  Now that everyone has completed their nervous system (ask your child to tell you what parts they made – brain, spinal cord, vertebrae, nerves and the ever-exciting – tail bone!). As children get bumped, now I can remind them that their nerves are sending “ouch” messages to the brain.  Sometimes we use ice to keep the messages from getting sent.  Knowing what the nerves are doing can often form the distraction children need to feel better fast (as do those little ice sponges).

This morning we worked together to measure out the length of our intestines – 26 feet!  The excitement built as we measured a piece of yarn foot by foot and we all helped hold the yarn.  We stretched it out and squished it together.  This week we will add our food tube to our body models.  We also discussed how the waste comes out of the end of the tube when we use the bathroom.  The children took this discussion very seriously.   The word robber took “esophagus” from our morning message today.  What a great job the class did figuring out the missing letters to such a big word.

At morning meeting, our greeting list is now up to 6.  See if your child can tell you all the ways we know to say Good Morning in different languages.

At the other end of the day, at the goodbye circle, we have been counting by 10’s as a way of speeding up our daily count.  Last week, we all traced our hands.  These are hanging in the meeting area with the corresponding numbers to count by 5’s and 10’s.  We have 100 fingers all together!

In the last couple of weeks, I have been noticing lots of children helping each other – tying shoes, opening a stubborn milk carton, offering someone to play together.  They are noticing “warm fuzzies” and complementing each other when they see them.  They have also been very aware of “cold pricklies” in books, times where characters don’t treat each other well.  Ask your child about Ezra, the older man in the book, Five Dog Night and how he had to learn not to use “cold pricklies” with his neighbor.

We’ve been having lots of fun using a warming tray for drawing with melted crayons this week.  The pictures look great hanging in a sunny window like stained glass.

I will be out at a conference tomorrow.  Kelly will be here as my sub.

Belle is our Wanachi this week.  Next week is Camilla.  See if your child can remember what we learned about Althea last week.

I have added one more math bag to rotate home to families.  Please send these back to school within a week with all the pieces!

Thanks to Carrie for offering to help with body parts. Anyone else interested?

Thanks,

Ellen

January 12, 2010

Dear Parents,

“My brain is working hard today!”.  This morning we started the long process of talking about the parts of our bodies that we will adding to the insides of our bodies.  We acted out the brain connected to some nerves.  As I (the brain) squeezed the line of nerves the body part at the end of the line, clapped or stamped or whatever the message was that they received.  When we brainstormed what the brain does, I realized again why I teach about the body.  There are lots of misconceptions and misunderstandings about those mysterious parts inside of us.  By creating them with models, I hope for these concrete learners to understand a little better how marvelous these parts are and what they do.  We will all make our nervous systems and spinal cords with twine and ziti noodles.  When those are complete, we’ll go on to the next system.

We have started with the outsides.  I trace their body onto lifesize paper and then we carefully look at the colors and shapes and clothing that we can see from the outside.  This is a multi-day process starting with skin color and finishing with the little details of clothing and facial features.  After the outside is dry, children cut out their bodies and then they “rest” on top of the grow lab until the insides are done.

With the new year, I have added some new jobs.  Each day we now have a bell ringer who gets to ring the bell at the end of choice.  I wish you could all see their faces as they ring the bell for the first time and everyone else freezes.  We also have 2 people who go to the primary room for lunch.  Judy and I swap two children each day.  This gives the children a chance to make some new connections with other children and let them become a little more familiar with the primary room.

Rose is our junior high intern this week.  Erik taught juggling with scarves last week for his project.

The “word robber” has been stealing words from our morning message.  We have to figure out which letters have been taken by playing a game like hangman.  This is one of those sneaky ways I have of introducing and using letter sounds.

We will be starting a new way of signing in tomorrow.  Each day there will be a yes or no question.  The children have to work together to read the question and figure out which side to sign their name.  Here’s another chance to use that phonetic understanding to decode unfamiliar words and to learn to read the sight words “yes” and “no”.

In math, we are continuing to work on our sense of number.  Coincidentally, the junior high is doing a study of probability and used our data of rolling a die and recording the result for their work!  The children felt pretty special doing the same thing as the junior high and their eyes were wide open when they saw a JH math class in the library rolling dice too!

We’re off to a good start with our Wanachi sharing with Althea.  We have been learning about asking questions like “What do you like to do in winter?” and “What is your favorite choice?”.  With the short week next week, (remember there is no school on Monday or Tuesday for students) we will skip Wanachi sharing until the following week when it is Belle’s turn.

Carrie has offered to help cut up body parts (that sounds strange, doesn’t it?).  Anyone else want to help as well?  We can still use some helpers during choice time making bodies too.  Just let me know which day you’d like to come in.

Thanks to Saint and Emma from the 3-4 class for helping out with snowshoeing yesterday.  We saw a lot more tracks than the week before.  We also noticed that animals or birds had eaten the big seeds out of the bird seed and left a lot of the millet.  We’ll keep watch to see what happens next.

Thanks,

Ellen

P.S.  Check out the ABC slideshow the kindergarten made on the school website.