wardsboroschool.com :: Newsletter 12/18/09

What a great winter concert! It takes a lot to put this concert on from the choosing of the songs, to teaching of songs (in music class and in classrooms), bussing to and from the rehearsal, the development of the written program , set up and take down by Jim Hescock and most importantly – student enthusiasm for their learning. It is a great schoolwide event. Thanks to those who were able to attend. The audience means a lot to our students .

A reminder to parents who drop off and pick of your children that you need to park at the bottom of the hill in the mornings and afternoons. I appreciate that so many of you continue to do this. Some parents have forgotten. On Thursday morning this week, the bus driver was not able to back out because of the cars parked in the parking lot. This made the second bus students later than usual. Mrs. Smith has contacted the town and requested they push the snow back more at the bottom so there is additional room for parking. Thank you for following this procedure.

The next three days of school will be busy as we prepare for the vacation. It is hard to believe that we are looking at the new year, 2010. On our first Tuesday back, please be sure you child/ren come to school prepared for the winter sports afternoons. To those parents with children involved in the Stratton Rec program we need your help. Please sign up for one or more days when you can help. We appreciate the ongoing weekly support from Kim Lazelle and Scott Francy, along with other parents who are able to attend on a part time basis. This year school personnel involved include Bill Scarlett, guidance counselor, along with our 4 para professionals. We met this week to discuss strategies for improved safety – too many children on the sledding hill has always been a concern. This year students will be rotating through activities. All children will be sledding and snowshoeing. Those with skates will also be able to skate, depending on the weather.

This week brings an end to the 2^nd Connections session. It is great to see so many students taking advantage of this opportunity. Our next session starts on January 11^th – you should have received the sign- up sheet for this yesterday. For this session there is no Tuesday Connections because of winter sports. There is no bussing available on Mondays so parents will need to make other arrangements. Parents, remember there are scholarships available if there is a need. We don’t want students left out for this reason! We receive 100% grant funding ($22,000) for the first three years of the program. Then 75% grant funding for year four and 65% funding for year five. At the end of five years we can reapply for the grant but would not be eligible for more than 50% funding. To ensure this program continues and ensure we have local money for year four and five, we need to begin to plan now. I am looking for interested parents to become part of a new committee for this reason – The Wardsboro Arts and Enrichment Council. If you have an interest or skills that would help us, please contact me – we need you! We are planning a meeting in January.

This is our last newsletter of 2009. HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF YOU!

Dear Pre K and Kindergarten Families,

Thank you for joining us at our wonderful winter concert on Monday evening. The kids looked great. I was very proud of how well they did up on the “big stage”.

This week the featured character from Letterland was Munching Mike. He was definitely one of our most anticipated characters of the year so far. The kids enjoyed learning about the things that Munching Mike likes to eat and drink. See if your child can tell you what Munching Mike’s favorite food is. During our word work time, students practiced listening for beginning sounds in words. They each chose 4 pictures and had to decide the letter that makes the sound at the beginning of each. At the ABC center this week students played a letter hunt game. Most of them are becoming letter experts.

During the afternoons this week kindergartners took the MAP assessments. MEASURES OF ACADEMIC PROGRESS (MAP) are state-aligned computerized adaptive tests that accurately reflect the instructional level of each student and measure growth over time. I am very proud of how hard the students worked, despite some technical difficulties. I will be sharing the results of these at our next conference.

Next week is a short week. There will be school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday only. Hope you are all able to enjoy the holiday season with your family.

Yours truly,

Mrs. Bates

First and Second Grade

Mrs. Parker-Jennings (PJ)

Our week started off with a great holiday concert. As many of you know I love seeing kids up on the stage! All the first and second graders have been working hard, especially at not being excited about the upcoming holiday.   Since students are now wearing winter boots to school please make sure that SNEAKERS are either left at school or brought in backpacks. They are ALWAYS needed on Tuesdays and Fridays for P.E.

This week we have been making some holiday decorations. Many of which include the student’s personal touch. I hope families are enjoying them as they come home. Please pick up your child’s interview project next week Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.

Students have continued working on their diaries, which include facts that students learned about school long ago.

During word work first graders have continued learning a new activity to work on their high frequency words. Second graders have been making connections between words including their beginning parts (i.e. stop-start, spray-spring, chin-cheese). Also, second graders explored vowel controlled-r words like star, corn, turn, fir, and runner.

During our Math Workshop we began our chapter on subtraction strategies to help subtract numbers quickly. This week we worked on the count back strategy and relating facts (i.e. 4+2=6, 2+4=6, 6-2=4, 6-4=2.) The entire class completed their first addition mad minutes and will be working toward beating their goal each week.

            Thank you for your time and support. I hope everyone enjoys the snow.

Yours Truly,

Cris PJ

Dear Third and Fourth Grade Families,

The holidays are quickly sneaking up on us! I hope that you all have a safe and enjoyable holiday break.

Next week we will be wrapping up many different things we have begun.   As of today we have finished doing the facts for 1 through 9 on our Wrap-Ups. Monday we will complete the 10s.    On Wednesday afternoon we will be having a Wrap-up Party with some friendly competition. Please encourage your students to practice their facts.

On Wednesday the students got a chance to participate in a Japanese Tea Ceremony to wrap up the Vermont Reads Grant and our study of Japanese American History.   It seems that most of them enjoyed themselves. We want to offer a huge thank you to Jill Dean and Amy Dix for their hard work in getting this grant for us and planning the activities.

We have also been working hard practicing our constructed responses or Answer Sandwich responses as the kids know them by reading well known fairy tales and then finding details in them to respond to a prompt. Then they are expected to write a response to the prompt. They are getting quite good at these!

I will not be sending home homework during the Holiday break, unless your child has a lot of unfinished work. Please encourage them to continue to use their time wisely so that this won’t happen.   I do hope that children will do plenty of reading during the break.

Happy Holidays,

Mrs. Bills

5^th and 6^th Grade Newsletter from Mrs. Shakespeare

December 16, 2009

Hope you all got to hear our wonderful singing at the concert on Monday night!

This week we learned about the ancient people of North America. We will soon be learning about other early civilizations such as the: Olmecs, the Mound Builders, the Anasazi, the Mayas, the Aztecs, and the Incas.

Fifth and Sixth graders continue to add information to their Math Language and Concepts notebooks. Fifth graders have begun a short unit on Roman Numerals, and sixth graders are continuing their study of geometry.

On Thursday Jill Dean from the Wardsboro Library presented us with a Japanese Tea Ceremony. The third and fourth graders shared information about the rules of behavior for the ceremony.   Jill Dean made us some interesting treats to go with our tea! We thank her for her efforts and for the information provided by the third and fourth grade students.

Have a happy winter break!

Posted to:
Newsletter

Comment posting not enabled for this article