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Also... If there are any parents or community members interested in coaching the 3/4 grade basketball team please contact Sue Douglas @ 896-9706 or email vtdevilsfan@myfairpoint.net. Unfortunately, if there is not anyone that wants to coach there may not be a 3/4 basketball team.

From the Principal’s Desk

Rosemary FitzSimons

This last week in October was another busy one. On Thursday students were treated to a great cultural experience. They attended the Mongolian Music and Dance Performance at L&G. I am always amazed at the quality of the performance. All classes participated in developing and sharing activities for the Penny Carnival held on Friday. We had a variety of games, activities, craft projects and plays. They also had a chance to make jack-o-apples. Each family was also given a UNICEF container so pennies could be collected while trick or treating. All money raised will be donated to UNICEF. Thank you to the School Club for, once again, donating money to purchase the needed materials.

ROARS is continuing to help us all to grow and learn as positive school community members. The Student Council developed a survey that was given to all students. Our school’s PBS team analyzed the data and observed that the bus was one of the ROARS weak areas. Mr. Italia, one of our guidance counselors and team member, met with each class to get more feedback from students. The results of the survey are included in this newsletter.

Additionally, parent conferences are being held the week of November 9^th. Wednesday, 11/11 is a half day for students. Teachers will be contacting parents soon, if they haven’t already. For families trick or treating on Saturday, have a safe and happy Halloween. The School Club is preparing to oversee the basket raffle again this year. If anyone has a basket of items/products that they would like to donate please notify the school. Classes will be contributing to baskets this coming month, followed by a raffle with winners announced at the Holiday Concert. Money raised by the School Club will support their school initiatives.

Update - Flu Immunization Information

H1N1 Vaccinations in School The immunization clinic for the H1N1 flu is set for Monday, November 16^th. These vaccinations will be provided free of charge and will be given by Ruth Davies, our school nurse.

Seasonal Flu Vaccinations The Deerfield Valley Health center still plans to offer a seasonal flu immunization clinic at school. At this time they do not have a supply of vaccine so they have not set a date for the clinic .

Community Food Pantry

For 15 years the Jamaica/Wardsboro Community Food Pantry has provided food

assistance to residents of our communities. Our service is available to

anyone who asks - no requirements, no questions asked. We work hard to

provide for the special needs of our clients: families with young children,

the elderly and those who by illness or circumstance find themselves in

crisis. Our service is confidential, supportive and non-judgmental.

We depend on your generosity to do our work. With the added costs for fuel,

heating and groceries, we find ourselves in special need as we head toward

the winter season. Hunger has no place in our community. Please help.

Donations can be left in the box in the foyer at the school. Of particular need: Canned soups, fruits and vegetables, tuna fish, peanut butter, jelly, oatmeal, cereal, applesauce, baked beans and canned whole or chopped tomatoes.

Pre K and Kindergarten News

Greetings! It’s hard to believe that another month of school has passed. Today marked our 45^th day of school. We had another busy week. We celebrated three birthdays, Halloween, enjoyed attending The Mongolian Dance performance at Leland and Gray and of course the Penny Carnival. During our morning literacy time students practiced early literacy skills. We sorted pictures by beginning sounds, practiced our handwriting skills and looked for certain letters throughout the room. Our new poem this week involved Five Pumpkins. Your child should be able to recite and act it out for you. From Letterland this week we met Golden Garden Girl. Students enjoyed hearing her story. Next week we will meet Harry Hatman.

Kindergartners have been practicing their counting skills. We have been comparing number groups and using some newly learned vocabulary such as greater than and less than. Another skill that we have been working hard on is writing our numbers correctly. I am pleased to say that most of us have mastered this skill.

Next Thursday afternoon we will participate in our second Four Winds theme on the year. This year’s theme is Life Cycles and the focus this month is on the Life Cycle of a Tree. We are looking forward to this.

I look forward to meeting with you all during Parent Conferences on Wednesday November 11^th. I have included a sign up in your child’s home folder. Please indicate your choices and send the form back to school. I will do my best to accommodate everyone’s schedule.

Have a happy and safe Halloween.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Bates

First and Second Grade

Mrs. Parker-Jennings (PJ)

The first and second graders had a super week, which ended with a great Mongolian performance on Thursday and the Penny Carnival on Friday!   Thank you to all the families who helped with costumes and the Carnival.

WE WANT OUR CHILDREN AND STUDENTS TO ACHIEVE!!! Sometimes homework will be returned in the home/school folder that has the word “CHECK” at the top. This is not meant to drive families nuts.   I am continuing to encourage all first and second graders to achieve by checking for and finding their own mistakes. Please encourage this at home after your child has finished their homework. If you find an error simply say “I see an error or mistake.” Give your child a chance to find it. If they cannot, narrow it down, but still don’t give the specific mistake. Every student in this class has been asked to do this, and has done so successfully. So, your child CAN ACHIEVE when given time and encouragement!

Guided reading groups are going well. Instructional time has included word work activities, guided/active reading, and responding to the text through discussion and writing. Students are reading books that are on an instructional level with me. They are bringing these books home in their new book bags to be reread as much as possible. Please, be on the look out for these book bags.   PLEASE SEND THEM BACK THE NEXT DAY! Some students are not bringing the books or book bags back to school.   I use these books again during guided reading instruction and therefore need them every day.   PLEASE make sure this is happening.

During our word work part of our Literacy block second graders have begun exploring synonyms (words that mean about the same thing.) They also work on making sentences by forming possessives. The first graders focused on learning about beginning sounds in words and making sentences using words with the same beginning sound. They also did some new activities using their high frequency words (words we read and write a lot.) During Writer’s Workshop students continued working on publishing their narrative stories.   Also, the second graders began exploring how to restate a question when answering it. For example, if the question is “What is your favorite book to read?” I would restate it by saying “My favorite book to read is…” During our Math Workshop first and second graders began our chapter on collecting and interpreting data and graphs.   We will be exploring how to collect data, use it in a chart, table, or graph, and applying an understanding of what the data means in a chart, table, or graph.

Our Earth and Moon theme has been lots of fun! Many of the first and second graders are using their Moon Journals to discover how the Moon seems to change over time. Still there have been several students NOT drawing and writing in their Moon Journals.   This was a long-term homework assignment that I mentioned at our Open House in September. This activity takes only a few minutes, and much of our discussion and follow up activities are based on these journals. PLEASE MAKE SURE THESE JOURNALS ARE DONE EVERY NIGHT, AND KEPT IN THE HOME/SCHOOL FOLDER.

            Thank you for your time and support. I hope everyone has a fun and safe weekend!

Yours Truly,

Cris PJ

Dear Third and Fourth Grade Families,

            Happy Halloween to everyone! Please be safe this weekend! Also don’t forget to set back your clocks on Sunday.

            We have just about wrapped up our study of electricity.   We did our post assessment, and based on the results of that we may review a few concepts if needed.   We will be taking a break from science for a couple of weeks to really focus on social studies. We will be working on reading maps and creating maps as well as studying the different features and types of maps.

            We will begin multiplication next week. Third graders will be introduced to the concept of multiplication and fourth graders will get a chance to review their facts and better understand how multiplication and division are related.   This unit will be relatively short, but we will then continue to practice our multiplication facts on a regular basis. It would also be very helpful if you could practice the addition, subtraction and multiplication facts at home with your child. Flashcards are a great way to take advantage of the extended length of time many of us spend in the car to study these facts.

            We have also begun our guided reading groups. I am excited to get to read with everyone!

            Enjoy your weekend!

                        Mrs. Bills

5-6 Newsletter Oct 30

This week the fifth and sixth graders worked on their projects for the Penny Carnival. This Friday, October 30^th, there will be two magic shows, one at 1:50 and one at 2:20. Mrs. Brown has been the organizer for this talented group: Madison Bills –Stage Manager, Ashley Bates – Tinker the Great, Chaston Finaldi – Mr. Plaid, and Emma Densmore – Master of Ceremonies: Jitterbug!    Also: Christopher Perkins- The Great Waldo, Willie Bush- The Great Mario, and Greer Gauthier- Master of Ceremonies.

At 1:35 and 2:05 there will be two different showings of Hansel and Gretel at the Puppet Theater. This entertaining production has been coordinated by Mrs. Sebastian and includes the following talents: Tyler Melis as Narrator and Stepmother, Kyle Holliday as Backstage Assistant, Caitlyn Lackey as Gretel and the Witch, and Anthony Carona as the Woodcutter and Hansel. Also: Kelsey Hescock as the Narrator and Stepmother, Elizabeth Lazelle as Gretel and the Witch, and Bryce Karg as the Woodcutter and Hansel.

The Fractured Fairy Tale Theater presents Little Red Riding Hood and the Vampire, directed by Mrs. Shakespeare. This talented crew is made up of: Morgan Pease as the Grandmother, Shannon Mylott and Luke Cionci as the Wolf, Susie Francy and Katie Lazelle as the Mother, Kristen Perkins and Triton Cesan as the Vampire, and Danielle Senn and Ashley Hescock as Little Red Riding Hood. There will be two showings at 1:35 and 2:05.

Students spent an enjoyable time learning about trees during our Four winds project on Tuesday. This was informative and engaged every student’s curiosity! Thank you again, parents and volunteers.

This week’s math involved the students getting a brief introduction to some geometric formulas. They also had to create map scales for their World Atlases.

Connections News

The first six weeks of our Connections program has ended! We had a small first group, and everyone seems to have enjoyed themselves. The scrapbooking group created beautiful mementos of their “youth,” and the digital photography class was active indoors and out capturing their ideal pictures. In Chinese class, the children learned about the Chinese New Year and all of the customs that accompany that holiday. I would like to thank all of the generous teachers and assistants who contributed their time to this fledgling program: Mrs. Perkins, Mrs. Bush, and Mrs. Jacobs for a great Scrapbooking class; Mr. Broussard for lending his talents to Digital Photography; Ms. Virginia for her work in the Chinese class; and Mrs. Shakespeare, who helmed the successful Spelling Bee group. Thank you, too, to Mr. Hescock and his assistant, Jon Wissman, for getting all of our classes set up each day. We can’t mention our Connections program without extending a sincere thank you to Mrs. Bette Parsons, who faithfully arrived to pick up our students in the trusty Bette Boop bus, and endured the growing pains that come along with a new program and strange scheduling.

We did not have as many students in our Homework Club as I would have liked to see, but soccer kept many children busy in the early fall. Our next six weeks is already filling up, and promises lots of fun and creative learning. Please keep us in mind as the days continue; I am available to help with all subjects, whether your child needs one day of help or prefers an entire six weeks (12 days total) of guidance. In addition to homework help, children in Grades K-2 will play some math and language arts games; the Homework Club for Grades 3-6 will be more traditional.

In case you still aren’t sure about what the Connections program offers, on Monday “Mad Science” begins for the 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th grade students; Wednesdays will be devoted to the K-2^nd grade children, and the exploration of all sorts of materials to create seasonal crafts and recipes. Stories to accompany each craft will be told or read, too. “The Art of Writing” meets on Wednesdays for the older students.

Please keep the Connections program in mind as the days go on; we will be here, four days a week, after school. It’s your program, it’s here for you, and we look forward to seeing you!

Sincerely,

Kerstin Kjellberg

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Friday, October 9

Newsletter 10/09/09

by Laura Smith on Fri 09 Oct 2009 09:01 AM PDT

Flu Immunization Information

H1N1 Vaccinations in School

Information for parents and permission forms have been sent home with all children. Please return the permission form to school whether or not you want your child to be vaccinated so that we know you have received the information. We will notify parents when a date has been set for the clinic. These vaccinations will be provided free of charge and will be given by Ruth Davies, our school nurse.

Seasonal Flu Vaccinations

The Deerfield Valley Health center plans to offer a seasonal flu immunization clinic this year at school as they have in the past. They have not set a date for the clinic at this time. We just received information which we have also sent home to parents. Deerfield Valley Health Center accepts most insurance to cover the cost of the seasonal flu vaccinations.

The Principal’s Desk

Rosemary FitzSimons

This was another great week in WES. The students in grades 3-6 completed their NECAP assessments in reading and then completed part one of their math assessments. Next week we’ll finish up math. 5^th graders will also take a writing portion which will be given to them again in 8^th grade. We also had 8 students from Mrs. Shakespeare’s class attend the district spelling bee. These were all students who participated in the Connections afterschool program to prepare. Six of the students will participate in the actual spelling bee and 2 have served as coaches. We are proud of their initiative. We celebrated with a pizza lunch on our way home from the Newfane Elementary School, site of the spelling bee.

                Fall is a good time to “fall into the family reading habit”. Below are suggestions taken from www.readastory.org. If you are a parent of a preschooler, there are also great suggestions for you. Do take the time in your busy lives to spend a few minutes reading with your children. They are some of my favorite memories! I remember one time when my son was gravely ill at about 13 months. We knew he was doing better when he lifted his head and injected words from a favorite book I was reading to him, The Pokey Little Puppy. At age 29, I am sure this is no longer his favorite book but it is mine!

Many of us have a chance to read to young children. It can be our child, grandchild, a relative or a friend's child. Reading to a child is something special that we can all do!! Here are a few reading tips:

It's never too early (or too late) to read to children.

Set aside a special time to read, such as before going to bed .

Find a cozy place to read, away from distractions. Make reading a book comfortable for you and the child/ren.

Read with enthusiasm and with expression.

Read the book slowly and pause once in a while. Don't rush when you are reading a book. Make it a pleasant experience!!

Choose books that are interesting to children or relate to something going on in their lives. For example, if you are going to the fire station, it might be fun to find a book that has a fire station in the book.

For young children, read the same book many times. If a child has a favorite book, it's good to read it as much as he/she wants. Children like repetition in their lives.

For young children, sometimes after a while, the child might pitch in and "read" a part of the book, especially after hearing the book many times. It's fun for the child to know what's coming up next in the book.

For the young, let the child point to pictures in the book and turn the page of the book. Let the child look at the words and the pictures in the book and be familiar with the book itself.

Have a shelf or even a box available for your child to store their books.  With rising prices, look for special deals or places that give away books. Books can be purchased at low prices at garage sales and thrift stores, too.

Get a library card for your child. It's good to use the library to borrow books for a child. The public library is an interesting place to visit with fun events for children.

Be a good example for a child by letting him/her see you read the newspaper, a book or instructions to put something together. Let them know that reading has a reason such as finding out information, learning or just having fun.

Hello Pre K and Kindergarten Parents,

It’s really beginning to start to feel like fall. I would like to remind parents at this time that we try to go outside everyday, as long as the weather permits. Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately. Also, if your child keeps an extra change of clothes at school, it should also be appropriate for the season.

In the classroom this week, we continued our theme study of In The Sky. This week, we took a closer look at The Earth. We learned that the Earth is the only planet on our Solar System that has living things. We then brainstormed a list of living things and non-living things. Also, at the art center students made their own representation of The Earth with paper plates, tissue paper and glue. I think they came out great.

Our Letterland trip this week introduced us to Dippy Duck. We discovered that her letter can sometimes get confused with Bouncy Ben’s, but learned the story of how Dippy Duck does not like to swim backwards. Students loved learning the song and finger play Five Little Ducks. See if your child is able to sing it to you. We continued to learn about parts of words, or syllables this week during our word work time. We learned a new poem, and students enjoyed clapping out how many parts are in their favorite food. We also made books about our favorite foods this week.

This week in math the kindergarten students began our number sense unit. We started off focusing on number 0 – 5. This week we learned about equal groups, more, fewer and concentrated on one to one correspondence when counting. That means counting one number for each object that you see. This week we practiced only with the numbers 1 – 4. I realize this may be a review for some, but an important skill to have mastered to help us once we start working with bigger numbers.

Enjoy the fall colors.

Mrs. Bates

First and Second Grade

Mrs. Parker-Jennings (PJ)

The first and second graders had a great week!

Guided reading groups are up and running. Students are reading books that are on an instructional level with me. They are bringing these books home in their Home/School folders. However, new book bags are being ordered, so be on the look out for these in the next few weeks.

During our word work part of our Literacy block second graders have been working on reading and writing words with the long vowel sounds.   Also, they worked with consonant cluster words that have an s like star, skip, scale, and small, snow, and swim. The first graders focused on hearing and applying beginning and ending sounds in words. Also, they focused on onsets and rimes in words, like ch-eese or c-at.

During Writer’s Workshop students continued working on their narrative stories.   We looked at some examples of student work. The first and second graders were able to see what a story should include. Then, we choose one of our stories that we drafted to revise and add the elements like a title, exciting words, transition phrases, and dialogue.

During our Math Workshop first and second graders began the chapter on comparing numbers. We explored ordinal numbers which we use every day when we line up, playing games or using the calendar. Also, we compared numbers that are greater, less than, and equal to.

Our Earth and Moon theme is a lot of fun! This week we explored moon dust and rocks. The students were able to feel moon dust and discovered that even though there is supposedly no water on the moon it felt like it does. We also explored moon rocks and made diagrams of them.

            I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend!

Yours Truly,

Cris PJ

5-6 Newsletter 10-7-09

This week’s NECAP testing is underway! We will complete the Reading Sessions on Wednesday, and the first part of the Math on Thursday.

Our 5-6 spelling team will be competing in the WCSU District Spelling Bee this Friday! Wish us luck!

We are continuing our study of the physical geography of our world. Students learned more about using latitude and longitude coordinates to locate points on a grid. Ask your child about the major line of latitude that divides the earth into the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. In addition your child should be able to tell you what major line of longitude divides the earth into the Eastern Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere.

Students wrote summaries of a current event this week and also learned about the Hubble Telescope in our current events magazine, Time For Kids.

We continue NECAP testing next week, so remember to get enough sleep!

Have a great weekend!

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Friday, October 2

Newsletter 10/02/09

by Laura Smith on Fri 02 Oct 2009 06:27 AM PDT

From the Principal’s Desk

Rosemary FitzSimons

Autumn is a beautiful time of year in the northeast, although the fantastic colors come and go too quickly. We hope that you are able to take some time with your family to enjoy this season. At school, we are back into the rhythm of learning. Most of our students have completed their fall MAP (Measures of Academic Achievement) testing. Assessments are given in math, reading and language usage. Kindergarten students will take these in December. Because these are taken on laptops, students usually enjoy these assessments that are given a minimum of two times per year. This year we will receive training in how to better use the data to drive instruction.

Fall is also NECAP (New England Comprehensive Assessment Program) time. We recently received the results of the Science NECAP assessments given in May to fourth graders. 9% lacked proficiency, 64% of the students were partially proficient, and 27% were proficient. These results and those of 8^th graders in L&G indicate that we need to continue to improve our science instruction. The teachers and myself have developed a plan to align science instruction over the PreK-6^th grades to ensure students receive needed instruction in physical science, earth/space science and life science, areas assessed on the Science NECAP.   An important piece of this includes developing inquiry skills. Collaboratively we will review our learning units, make adjustments as needed to instruction, vocabulary and plan strategies for increasing levels of inquiry.   Parent letters were mailed yesterday to parents of 5^th grade students who took this assessment last spring.

Beginning Monday students in grades 3-6 will be taking NECAPS using the following schedule. Please plan appointments and early release time around this schedule, if possible. Also, ensure students are well rested and have a healthy breakfast. Thank you for your support. Remember these assessments provide a snapshot of student learning. We want students to do their best but not be stressed by the process.

NECAP Schedule

Reading (3^rd-6^th)                    Mon/10/5        Tues/10/6        Wed/10/7

Math                           Thurs/10/8 (5/6 – part 1)       Fri/10/9 (3/4 – part 1)

Math (Part2 & 3)       Mon/10/12      Tues/10/13

5^th Gr Writing                        Thurs/10/14    Fri/10/15

Makeup dates                        10/6-10/19

INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING YOUR TIME BUT NOT SURE HOW YOU COULD HELP? If so, give a call, there are a variety of tasks we could use help with.

PreK & Kindergarten News

It’s hard to believe that a whole month of school has gone by. Happy October to all of you. We had another productive week in our classroom. During our literacy center time students worked to sort letters that are in their name and not in their name at the ABC center. At the writing center and in their journals students wrote about their favorite fall activity. This week we met Clever Cat from Letterland. We learned about her shape, sound and how she got her name. See if your child is able to share this with you.    During our word work time students learned that words have parts, or syllables. They applied their learning by sorting pictures together that have the same number of parts. This proved to be a bit challenging but rewarding at the same time. We continue learning about things that are in the sky. We learned that the moon has no air, weather or noise.

During the afternoon, kindergartners wrapped up our chapter on Patterns. This week we built our own patterns, learned about what a pattern unit is, as well as figuring out which part of a pattern is missing. Next week we will begin our number sense unit, starting with a brief review of numbers 0 – 5.

On Thursday we had our first Four Winds class of the year. Students learned about the life cycle of an insect. I learned that some insects go through three different stages and other insects go through four different stages before they reach their adult stage. See what your child can share with you about our class. Thank you to Jill Dean and June Dibble for volunteering their time and making the class fun, enjoyable as well as informational.

Have a terrific weekend.

Mrs. Bates

First and Second Grade

Mrs. Parker-Jennings (PJ)

What a super week we had! The first and second graders began their MAPS testing. This is an assessment taken on the computer, which assesses students’ reading, writing, and math skills.   Hopefully, I will be able to share these results at parent conferences.

Next week I will begin our guided reading groups.   Small groups of children, who are working on similar reading skills, read books that are on an instructional level. Typically, these are books that are one level higher than their independent level. We will be working on skills such as building reading strategies, responding to text both orally and in writing, and fluency.

During our word work part of our Literacy block second graders continued to learn different word study activities.   This week second graders began making connections between words. Students noticed that many words begin the same and end the same. The second graders ended the week identifying words with long vowel sounds. First grade word work focused on saying words slowly so they can hear the beginning, middle and ending sounds. This will help them with their spelling of words. However, there is no push to be spelling words with unusual spelling patterns. Just a focus on writing a symbol for every sound they hear. Therefore, if a first grader wants to write the word catch he might write it like cach.   This is a good thing.

During Writer’s Workshop students began their own narrative stories applying what they know about the format we had practiced.   We are working through the writing process beginning with prewriting where they brainstorm ideas for their stories. Students used a picture flow map to help guide their thinking of story structures. Then, the first and second graders began drafting their stories.   Drafting is when we quickly get on story onto paper. There are some wonderful authors in our classroom!

During our Math Workshop first and second graders continued through the chapter on number patterns. Students explored a variety on ways to show their math thinking when solving problems that include a pattern. For example, if students were trying to find out how many wheels were on 5 tricycles there are different ways to figure it out. Some students used snap cubes, and made 5 groups of 3 snapped together. Other students made a diagram of 5 tricycles showing 3 wheels on each. While other students use a T-Chart or T-Table to show the pattern. In the end all students must explain their math thinking in writing.

Our Earth and Moon theme is going great! This week we explored the surface of the Moon more closely. I shared some pictures that were taken by astronauts that went to the Moon. These gave us a better understanding of what the Moon looks like up close. We noticed that the surface is not smooth, and not made of cheese.   Next, we explored how craters came to be on the moon.   We used pie pans, flour, and cocoa to represent the surface on the Moon. Next students dropped a marble from about 1ft. above the pan, and then carefully removed it as to not disturb the powder in the pan. Finally we discussed what we saw in the photo of the moon that was similar to what we saw in our pans. Students learned that there are rocks flying around in space. Every once in a while, one of these rocks will hit the Moon, just as the marble hit the powder. When this happens, the rock leaves a large pit, or crater, on the surface of the Moon. Thank goodness Earth has an atmosphere that keeps most space rocks from crashing into it.

            I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend!

Yours Truly,

Cris PJ

Dear third and fourth grade families,

            Thank you to everyone last week that made sure that their children were able to complete their spelling homework on time.   It was a more successful week for kids on their homework and their spelling quizzes. We will be having two bonus words per week on top of their regular spelling words. These words are words that they will encounter often and need to be able to spell, but they may not fit the pattern on the weeks spelling list. On their final spelling test they will be able to gain five bonus points for each bonus word, but they will not lose points if they get them wrong.

            We are wrapping up our unit on place value this week, with work on comparing numbers. This has been leading us into addition and subtraction with regrouping, which we will be continuing to practice.

            We have studied the first four presidents of the United States, and we are going to be working on reading and creating maps of the local area and the state.

            Tuesday morning Mrs. Allbee was here filling in for me while I was doing some reading assessments. We have finished the individual assessments, and we will begin our guided reading groups very soon.

            Next week we will be beginning the NECAP testing for 3^rd through 6^th graders. In my class while we have testing, we will not have homework, except 15 minutes of reading nightly.

            Electricity continues to be our topic of study in science. The class has designed a way to test items to see if they are conductors or nonconductors, they have ran many trials and have come up with a statement about what types of materials are conductors and which are not. Ask your child to share what they have learned.

            Enjoy your weekend! Make sure to get plenty of rest and eat healthy breakfasts before school to prepare for learning and testing.

            Sincerely,

            Mrs. Bills

5-6 Newsletter 9-29-09

This week we are finishing up MAPs testing for students who were absent the week before. We also had Ann Allbee as a guest teacher on Wednesday, so that individual Fountas and Pinnell reading assessments could be continued.

We are continuing the work on our World Atlas project. This week we completed Antarctica and hope to complete Australia as well!

Students worked on inquiry math projects on Thursday to test their ability to use the strategy of benchmark estimation. We learned about this strategy earlier in the week.

The Vermont Reads Project book, When the Emperor Was Divine, has provided our literature this week. We will continue to read and discuss the book during class, next week as well.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Shakespeare

PS   The talented players at the soccer games are awesome to watch!

CONNECTIONS NEWS

Charlie Cummings, Grant Director

Happy Autumn from the Connections after-school program! We are off and running with programs running and projects starting up! If you'd like to sign your child up, and he or she isn't already enrolled, contact Charlie Cummings at cummingsc@bvsu.org, or at 802.375.6409 ext 217. The Daily Connections program runs Monday and Wednesday for grades K - 2, and Tuesday and Thursday for grades 3 - 6. Program cost is $5 per day, and it runs from 3 - 5:30. During this time, students get snack, homework help, enrichment fun, and physical exercise. Also, keep in mind that we'll be sending out sign-ups for new Connections enrichment activities around the middle of October, so stay tuned!!

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