wardsboroschool.com :: Newsletter 10/30/09

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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