marlboroschool.net

Primary News – June 2 – 6

Our week…
Our town creations are coming along! The students are really enjoying this project and often choose to keep working on it even during choice time. On Friday, the 3rd and 4th graders shared their island maps that they created. The Primary students had the opportunity to look at exceptional work, ask questions and look at the detail in each map. They were also able to look at their different compass roses, which we had just talked about earlier in the week.
The emergency drill on Wednesday went off without a hitch. The class had already learned a little song that I wrote about it and we calmly got on the bus and off again.
Congratulations to Morgan, Delaney, Liam and Frida for their fitness day success. They had a great time but were very sore the next day!
We also enjoyed the Leyland & Grey performance on Thursday. There was a wide variety of entertainment with dancing and songs. Some Primary students spent that recess time getting autographs from all the performers.
On Friday afternoon we had three kindergarteners, Alice, Eliza and Leander visiting to become more familiar with the classroom. Kindergarteners are also taking turns having lunch with us too!
Ask your child the following questions…
•    How is your town coming along?
•    Tell me about the 3rd/4th grade maps.
•    What did you write about at Anne’s poetry studio?
•    Who was the V.I.P. last week? (Paige)
•    Did you learn anything new about her?
•    Who did you read with when David’s class came down?
•    What did you learn about figuring out north, south, east and west?
•    What story are you reading?
•    Who did you buddy read with?
More stuff…
•    No spelling words this week. We are still focusing on contractions.
•    Don’t forget that we have Field Day on Tuesday afternoon. Please dress appropriately.
•    Student work will begin coming home over these next two weeks.
Have a great week!
Judy and Liz

Primary News – May 27 – 30

Our week…
We have been busy creating towns or special places. What a range of ideas and interests! We brainstormed about different buildings and places in towns. Our town planners made choices about streets, parks, ponds, etc. and are adding buildings and homes. They will then create their town map. They are having a blast!
Ask your child the following questions for more information.
➢    What have you done with your town so far?
➢    What buildings and places are you adding?
➢    Have you named your town yet?
➢    What did you do for the measuring scavenger hunt?
➢    What did you use to measure?
➢    What was your poetry class like? What did you write about?
➢    Who was the V.I.P.? (Haley)
➢    Who did we honor at All School Sing? (Tim Burns)
➢    What did the Primary class do for him?
➢    What are you reading?

Coming up…
Poetry on Friday at Anne’s studio
Tibetan Performance at the Outback at 10:45 on Thursday
Art Night – Wednesday at 6:30

The calendar is filling up! We will have a final Primary field trip. More info on the way!

No spelling words this week. Make sure your child is routinely reading with you.

Have a great week!
Judy and Liz

Primary News – May 19 – 23

Our week…

We are having lots of fun with our mapping theme. Me on the Map is an excellent picture book that looks at maps from different perspectives. Students will begin to create a model of a town that they will then map out. Ask your child the following questions for more information.
o    How do you play “What’s my Rule?”
o    What did you use to play the game?
o    Did you enjoy your poetry reading?
o    Who was the V.I.P. last week? (Paul Skye)
o    What town do we live in?
o    Did you find your street on the map?
o    How did you label the Marlboro map?
o    Does everybody in the class live in Marlboro?
o    Who did you read with when David’s class came down?
o    What was the “shape scavenger hunt” all about?
o    What’s the difference between two-dimensional and three-dimensional?

Next week we, (Francie, Janie and I), will be administering the DRA (Diagnostic Reading Assessment) to all second graders. The DRA is given to all second graders in Vermont. Students read stories and retell the story. It is a very relaxed assessment and done one on one. Joslyn Homburg will be subbing in the classroom on Monday and Tuesday mornings while I meet with each student. I will also be in and out of the classroom throughout the mornings.

Spelling words for olders

back    pick    clock    stuck    speck
six     seven     eight     who     want

Poetry at Anne’s studio takes place this Friday and the following Friday. The class will be divided in half and visit Anne two times.

*Don’t forget that Wednesday is an early release day!

Have a great week!
Judy and Liz

Primary News – May 12 – 16
Our week…
We are beginning our mapping theme! We have spent some time looking at different types of maps and brainstormed different ways that we use them. Students drew a map of the classroom or their bedroom. It was interesting to see their different perspectives. We also discussed a “bird’s eye view” and tried drawing some of our own objects. Each student will be creating a “town model” and make a map of their town. Our math connection will be shapes, both 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional, and measuring.
•    Ask your child the following questions for more details.
•    What map did you draw? Was it hard?
•    What cards did you make showing a side view and a bird’s eye view?
•    What type of clouds did you draw outside last week?
•    Who was the V.I.P.? (Shyanne!) Did you learn anything new about her?
•    What was your favorite Spirit Week day?
•    What did you do at All School Sing? (Dance!)
•    What are some strategies you learned when adding 2 digit numbers? (olders)
•    What is the “Race for the Flat” math game? (youngers)

Reading – Try to spend 5 or 10 minutes a day listening to your child read.

Spelling words for olders…
walk    talk    small   fall    chalk
today   myself   yesterday   morning   because

On Friday, May 16th the Primary students will be sharing their Paper Feelings poem in class at 1:45. Each student will get a Paper Feelings book which has a poem from every student in the school. You are invited!
Have a great week!   Judy and Liz

Primary News – May 5 – May 9

Our week…
Routines went on as usual even though I was out for two days! Many thanks to Sara Rosoe and Joslyn for subbing. And special thanks to Liz for “holding down the fort”. I will also be out on Tuesday for another personal day. Joslyn will be subbing in the morning and Maria, who works in the after school program, will be subbing in the afternoon.
Ask your child the following questions to find out more!

➢    Who was the V.I.P. this week? What did you learn about her?
➢    What Primary students shared at All School Sing?
➢    What new math games did you learn? (“Capture 5” olders)
➢    What did you learn about the 100 chart? (youngers)
➢    How do you play Missing Numbers? (youngers)
➢    What kind of clouds did you sketch in your cloud book?
➢    What kind of maps did you look at with Liz?
➢    What kind of map did you draw?
➢    How has your writing improved?
Math triangle flash cards will be coming home this week.
Spelling words for older students…
car   hard   start   part   sharp
bird   chirp   dirt   third   shirt

We are still looking for small blocks of wood. Irregular shapes are fine.

Don’t forget about Spirit Week!
Monday-Fictional character day
Tuesday-career day
Wednesday-pajama day
Thursday-bad or wacky hair day
Friday-formal day
Have a great week! Judy and Liz

Primary News – April 14 – 18

Our week…
Ask your child the following questions. We’ve been busy!
➢    What new math games have you been playing? (Roll a Square, Fill in the 100’s chart, 100 chart patterns, Math Fact triangles) (Olders)
➢    What are some homonyms that the class listed?
➢    What is a contraction?
➢    What math problems did you solve last week? (Youngers)
➢    Did you have to add or subtract to find the answer?
➢    What things are important to remember when printing?
➢    What’s something new you did at choice time?
➢    What did you learn about clouds at theme time?
➢    What are the three basic clouds? (cirrus, stratus, cumulus)
➢    How would you describe them?
➢    What cloud activity did you do?
➢    What teacher did we do a V.I.P. page for?
➢    What game did Judy play at P.E.? (Jedi)
➢    Did you make a fog picture?

Spelling for Olders
best    left     took    soon    door
fine    fire    white    ride     food

Have a great vacation next week!

Judy and Liz

Primary News – April 7 – 11

Our week…
We had a lot of fun organizing and displaying all of the students’ work for the Learning Fair. Thank you for coming and participating in some of the activities. I was very impressed with your weather knowledge and noticed that some students knew an answer or two that the parents did not! It took a little reorganization on Tuesday to get things back to normal.

Our trip to the Latchis Theater went smoothly. The show was excellent and very “kid friendly”. We will be going to the Green Street School in Brattleboro with Jodi’s class on Tuesday morning for a puppet show. We’ll let you know more details!

Ask your child the following questions to find out more…
•    What math portfolio problem did you solve? How did you solve it? (25 popsicle sticks) (Olders)
•    What are some important things to remember when you are printing carefully?
•    Tell me about the subtraction treasure map sheets. (Olders)
•    What did you do for theme group? (sink and float)
•    What objects floated? What objects sank?
•    Were you surprised by any of the objects?
•    Who was the V.I.P.? (Aleah)
•    Did you learn anything new about her?
•    What is something that you did at choice time?

There will not be a new spelling list since we missed two mornings, one to clean the class and one to go to go to the show. We will continue work with last week’s list.
Have a great week!  Judy and Liz

Primary News – March 31 – April 4

Our week…
Student-led conferences are completed! Our final four students met with their parents on Tuesday afternoon. Conference reports have been sent home. If you have any questions, please let me know. We are sharing some of the comments that you wrote to your child. It is very clear that this experience is very meaningful to the students. Thank you for participating!

We have been very busy planning and preparing for the Learning Fair on Monday night. Hope to see you there!

In math, we have been focusing on subtraction strategies. Please practice subtraction facts at home with either flash cards or one of the games we sent home earlier.

We had a great time visiting Liz’s new baby lambs. They are adorable. We then walked down to the MacArthur’s sugarhouse to learn more about sugaring. Thanks to Gail and Dan!

Ask your child the following questions for more info…
•    What is “dot addition”? (youngers)
•    What are some strategies you use when you subtract?
•    How are adding and subtracting connected? (Family facts)
•    What is a homonym? Give me an example. (to, two, too)
•    How do you put your spelling words in abc order? (olders)
•    What game did you play at Judy’s P.E. class?
•    What is a vowel team? What’s the rule? (First one does the talking, the second one does the walking.)
•    Who was our V.I.P. last week? (Adaylia)
•    What were her estimation objects?

Don’t forget that we will be going to the Latchis Theater on Thursday morning for a special orchestra show!

Have a great week!
Judy and Liz

Student-Led Conferences

Dear Parents,

Parent conference day is coming up on Friday, March 21st. Please call Gail to sign up for a one-hour slot. At the conference, your child will share his/her work, talk about their learning and progress. This week we will spend lots of time gathering work, organizing and deciding what’s important to share. This is a wonderful opportunity for you and your child to reflect on and celebrate the progress they have made.

Each conference will be one hour long. First, I will review the expectations and guidelines for the hour. As you look at their work, ask lots of questions! The hour goes quickly so make sure to pace your time. Five students will be conferencing at the same time. I will circulate throughout the class to give feedback or answer any questions.

This is a very exciting way of doing conferences. You will get the opportunity to see you child’s work through their eyes as well as mine!

I’m looking forward to seeing you on March 21st!

Our week…

Ask your child the following questions to find out more!
o    What are the 3 states of water? (gas, liquid, solid)
o    What experiment did Judy do to demonstrate what makes wind? (Candle and “wind serpent”)
o    Tell me about the pinwheels you made.
o    What is an anemometer? (Measures wind)
o    What is the Beaufort wind scale? (We just touched on it last week.)
o    How do you play the math game “Close to 20”? (Olders)
o    How do you play the nickel/penny exchange game? (Youngers)
o    What are you doing to get ready for Student-Led conferences?

No spelling this week, as we will be preparing for conferences.
Don’t forget that Thursday is an early release day.

Have a great week!
Judy and Liz
P.S. Progress reports will be coming home at the end of the

Primary News – March 10 – 14

Our week…
It’s been only two days back in the classroom, but it feels like we’re back into the class routines! I hope you had a relaxing vacation. There are lots of things coming up and we will be busy planning and preparing for Student-Led Conferences on Friday, March 21st. Please call to sign up for an hour slot to sit with your child. There will be five students sharing at the same time. Your child will be prepared to share his/her work with you and talk about their learning. Another exciting evening coming up is on Monday, March 31st, our Learning Fair. This is an evening open to the community for all to see the work going on at the school.

Ask your child the following questions to find out more.

•    Explain the water cycle.
•    What experiments did you do to demonstrate the water cycle? (baggie experiments)
•    What happened to the amount of water or snow in each baggie?
•    When we melted ¼ cup of snow what happened?
•    Was there more water, less water or the same amount?
•    Can you explain evaporation, condensation and precipitation?
•    What are some different forms of precipitation?
•    Who was our last V.I.P.? (Izzy!) Did you learn anything new about her?
•    Who is our V.I.P. this week? (Frida!)
•    Explain these symbols in math: < or > (Greater than, Less than)
•    What dance did you do in All School Sing?

Read, read and read! The March Reading Challenge is underway. Please continue to fill out our weekly reading form and the reading challenge form. When you read to your child, this counts too!
Spelling words for older students:

ate    gave    made

could    would    should

what    when    where    why

Have a great week!    Judy and Liz

Primary News – February 18 – 22

Our week…
Winter Workshops, skating, sledding, and snow day on Wednesday took a big chunk out of our week! But we certainly were busy and productive! Valentine’s Day and the 100th day of school filled our days!
Ask your child the following questions to find out more…

•    What water cycle experiments did you set up?
•    Have you notice any changes in the baggies yet?
•    What did you do for Valentine’s Day?
•    Who was our surprise guest?
•    Who was the V.I.P. last week?
•    Did you learn anything more about her?
•    What new math game did you learn? (Get to 100)
•    What activities did you do for the 100th day of school?

Check out the Marlboro website Primary page! Our students drew pictures of groundhogs for Project Groundhog and they are now on display!

Spelling – There are no new spelling words this week. We will continue with last weeks’ spelling words due to the short week.

Reading – Please make sure to read with your child on a regular basis.

Have a wonderful week!
Judy and Liz

Primary News – February 11 – 15

Our week…
Math doubles they rule! The Primary class shared our math fact “rap” at All School Sing on Friday. We are continuing to focus on number sense during math time. The water cycle has been our main focus during theme time. The students acted out the water cycle evaporating up to the sky as water vapor, condensing into a cloud and returning to Earth as precipitation. That was fun!
Ask your child the following questions.
•    Explain evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection (or accumulation) in the water cycle. (Keep in mind this has just been introduced.)
•    How do you play “Race to the Flat”? (olders)
•    How do you play “Towers of Ten”? (youngers)
•    How do you use a t-chart when you solve math problems?
•    What has the temperature trend been this week?
•    Who was our V.I.P.? (Cooper)
•    What did you do for his V.I.P. page?
•    What are you reading in reading groups?
•    Have you learned any new math strategies when you add or subtract? Explain what you do.
•    What is the “mystery number” at morning meeting?

Reading forms continue to go home on Tuesday. Please set aside time everyday (10-15 minutes) to listen to your child read.

Spelling words for older students…

any     many     give     new     home

house   men      more    school   year

Have a great week and enjoy the snow!
Judy and Liz

Primary News – February 4 – 8

Our week…

Our weather theme is becoming a part of our daily morning meetings with an estimation of the temperature, an actual temperature check and a recording on our temperature graph. We are getting very good at describing the weather! This week we will begin to learn about the water cycle.
There has been another bout of illness in the school. We appreciate it when children stay home to recuperate and rest up if they are coughing a lot and feeling a little “under the weather”.
Ask the following questions for more news!
What did you learn at skating or skiing classes?
What was the math portfolio problem you had to solve? (Inches of snow)
Tell me about “If I Can Spell” (“at”) for younger students
What is our new month? What are some important dates?
How did you sort the weather words?
What did you watch with Mr. H? How was the character being a bully? (Casandra)
What are you learning in your new printing book?
Who was our V.I.P.? (Aidan)
What did he bring in to share?
What are you doing at choice time?

F.Y.I.
I will not be in school on Thursday afternoon due to a district meeting.

Spelling for olders

way     away     book     five     four

name    must     too     last     read

Have a great week!

Judy and Liz

Primary News – January 28 -  February 1

Our week…
The cold winter is here giving us lots to share about the weather. We tried to come up with as many weather words as we could and will sort them this week. We have also begun to keep track of the temperature on a line graph. We are getting pretty good at estimating the temperature before we check it. If you have a thermometer at home, check the temperature for practice.
We are continuing our math fact work with games and strategies. Please keep playing games or use your own games if you have any at home.
The following questions will give you more information!
What is the “Math Doubles” rap?
What are math doubles?
What has the temperature been this week? (approximately)
Who was the V.I.P. this week? What did you learn about him?
What estimation objects did he use?
What math portfolio problem did you solve this week? (insects)

Reading – Please make sure to return the home-school book bag and book so we can send home another book!

Spelling Words for Olders
boy      by     black     came     saw
far     girl     may     dear     say

This week we are beginning a Project Groundhog online challenge. We will be keeping track of our temperature and sharing our weather with five other schools in the U.S. We will have challenges to complete each week, communicate with the other schools and post some of our work on the website, Project Groundhog. Pam will be helping us with this “tech” project!
More information will be coming!
Have a great week!  Judy and Liz

Primary News – January 14 – 18
Our week…
Thank you for coming to our author celebration considering the short notice! The students did a terrific job sharing their work. This is a perfect example of students presenting work to a larger audience. Next celebration is Wednesday, January 16th for students who haven’t shared yet.
Winter Workshops and Sports began on Monday without a hitch. I helped out in the bookmaking workshop with Lauren and am excited to use some of the books we made in the class.
The kindergarten post office is open! We are in a frenzy of letter writing. Our morning message is even written in letter form.
Spelling for older students continues as usual minus one day. Students are focusing on practicing their words and writing spelling sentences.
Spelling words for the week
as    eat    down    make    take    our
three      up    were     ball

Math facts, math facts and more math facts! We are working hard at learning addition and subtraction math facts. Here are some strategies and games you can do at home.
•    Beat the Calculator – A “calculator” (player who uses a calculator to solve the problem) and a “Brain” (player who solves the problem without a calculator) race to see who will be first to solve addition problems. “Calculator” can’t say answer until it is on the screen.
•    Addition Top-It – Deck of cards (face cards = 10) Each player turns over two cards and calls out their sum. Player with higher sum takes all the cards from that round.
•    Domino Family Facts – Pick a domino. Write two addition facts and two subtraction facts that are related to that domino.
•    Example: Domino with a 2, 3, 5 (total). 2+3=5, 3+2=5, 5-2=3. 5-3=2
•    Math Flash Cards – Totals up to 12 for Youngers, Totals up to 20 for Olders
•    Addition Game Sheet (attached) – Move a marker following the arrow. When you land on a problem say the answer. First person to answer writes their initials. Count how many you get correct.
•    On/Off and Counters in a Cup (attached)
I will continue to send home more ideas as they are introduced.
•    Reading – (Olders) – Please continue to read at home and fill in the sheet.
•    Younger students will also bring books home to practice with you. Read with them and return the book in their home-school book bag. Fill in the comment sheet to let us know how they do!
Theme Groups – We will begin our Weather and Water theme this week!
Have a great week!    Judy and Liz

Happy New Year! It’s great to be back in the classroom. We spent a lot of time talking about their vacation and writing about it in their journals. It is very exciting to see how their writing changes and improves over time. Many of the younger students are now writing inventively on their own. The older students are writing a lot more and finding their “voice” when writing.

As you know, winter workshops and winter sports are beginning. This gives us one less day in the class for six weeks. Older students will still have spelling but their activities will be slightly abbreviated. Younger students will begin to focus on short vowel sounds and finding patterns in words.

Spelling Words for the week…

all come here just them
very will call with then

In math, we will all be working hard on memorizing math facts. Younger students need to learn facts up to 10. Older students need to learn math facts up to twenty. This includes both addition and subtraction. We have been learning a variety of games to help us in this process. We also share many strategies and learn from each other. I will be sending home some games and suggestions of things that you can do at home to help your child.

Coming up…
Young Author’s Celebration!!
The Primary students will be sharing their insect research on the next two Wednesday afternoons at 1:45. The following students will share this Wednesday, January 9th.

Wes Leif Paige Aidan Delaney Shyanne Walker Mason Adaylia Max Morgan
Please come and celebrate their work!
Have a great week!

Our week…
The holiday play was our big focus last week. Practice will continue this week. On Monday and Wednesday mornings, we will be at the college for more rehearsals. Please make sure your child’s violin is in school! They will be left at the college on Wednesday. Don’t forget to take it home on Wednesday evening after the show.

Read more »

Our week…
The holiday play, finishing up research and fitting in reading and math kept us busy last week! We have been fine-tuning the play, practicing with the orchestra and working on props. The attached sheet explains what your child needs to wear for the play (it is flexible). S/he should wear their basic costume to the holiday concert. We will have the additional costume details at the college. Students must have their violins at school on Wednesday and Friday for practice. Next week we will have an all school practice on Wednesday morning. The violins will stay at the college for the evening show. Please make sure to take them home after the show.

Read more »