wardsboroschool.com :: Newsletter 09/25/09

This week in All School Meeting we learned about ROARS on the bus. Several students and parents joined forces to produce a skit for the group. This was a fun way to hear the following messages about ROARS on the bus. To meet student needs, we have made some adjustments to our Bus Code of Conduct. It now reads:

ROARS on the Bus – OWN-IT

Ø Enter and exit calmly.

Ø Wear your backpack in front of you.

Ø Remain calm and seated.

Ø Keep your hands and feet inside the bus and to yourself.

Ø Use appropriate language.

Ø Talk quietly with your seat partner.

Ø Follow the bus driver’s directions.

The bus driver may issue a written warning when inappropriate behavior disrupts the safety of transporting all students. Students may be suspended from the bus for a period of time if misbehavior continues.

Thank you for your continued support at home!

Greeting Pre K and Kindergarten Families,

Happy Fall! We had another terrific week in our classroom. We have such a hard working group of students. I am very proud of them and their efforts. This week during our literacy center time students explored beginning sounds of words at the ABC center, in our journals we drew pictures and wrote about something they might do in space (to go along with our IN the Sky theme) and at the reading center we all enjoyed looking at our theme study books. Our word work time consisted of more work with rhyming words. Students were given pictures and were to match the pictures with another picture that it rhymes with. We are becoming proficient at rhyming. Our trip to Letterland this week included meeting/reviewing Bouncy Ben, his letter and his sound. See if your child can tell you what his favorite color is. Our In The Sky theme is going well. At the Art center this week students built and decorated rocket ships. We also read the story, Papa, please get me the moon by Eric Carle and learned a new song about the sun and the moon.

During math, kindergartners began Chapter 2; Patterns. We discovered that patterns are on our clothing, on animals, on flowers, on flags, on buildings and all around us. I have sent home more details about what we will be learning in your child’s home folder. There are also some recommended activities for you to enjoy as a family.

On next Thursday afternoon we will have our first Four Winds class of the year. This year the theme is life cycles. Our first class will be about the life cycle of insects. We are looking forward to it.

Hope you have a great weekend.

First and Second Grade

Mrs. Parker-Jennings (PJ)

The first and second graders had a good week. The first two days this week I was at Leland and Gray working with other teachers and administrators around the district on some professional development.   I am excited to share what I learned with the Wardsboro Staff.   Even with my absence, the students were engaged and active in learning.

Wednesday through Friday I continued with my reading assessments with individual students. I am working with students one-on-one assessing their reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. While I am with a student the rest of the class continues to learn and practice some of our literacy activities such as Story Starters, Squiggles, alphabetical order, high frequency word activities and many others.

Our Word Work part of our Literacy block involves learning different word study activities. These activities will be used throughout the year to practice the high frequency words, words we read and write a lot.

During Writer’s Workshop we finished our shared writing piece that helped us review and learn narrative story format. We created a beginning, middle, and an end to our story. Narrative stories need to include a problem and a solution to the problem. Next, students began their own narrative stories applying what they know about the format we had practiced.

During our Math Workshop first and second graders began our chapter on number patterns.   Students have been exploring skip counting by 2’s, 4’s, 5’s, and 10’s. Also, first and second graders worked with odd and even numbers.   We worked with number lines, number charts and snapcubes. Students also worked on problem solving strategies to use when finding a pattern in numbers.

Our Earth and Moon theme is going super! This week we finished our exploration of why the Sun and Moon appear to move through the sky.   Students discovered that it is actually the Earth that is moving which causes the rising and setting of the Sun and Moon.   We created stained glass-like moons, which we have hung in our windows. Next, students began an investigation about why the moon changes shapes.

            I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend!

Yours Truly,

Cris PJ

Dear Third and Fourth Grade Families,

            Thank you to all the third and fourth grade students for trying their best on the MAPs tests, which we were able to complete last week. Once we have the official results I will be working with your child to be setting goals for the school year. Last week I also had the opportunity to begin the Fountas and Pinnel Reading Assessments, and I will hopefully wrap them up in the next few weeks so we can make our official guided reading groups.

            Tuesday morning we had our first Four Winds class of the year studying insects. The class seemed to enjoy this a lot! We discussed the life cycle of insects, looked at what the different stages in an insects life might look like and then we got a chance to catch and observe insects in the school yard.

This week we had our VOCABO game and Vocabulary quiz on Friday to allow us time to work with our words, since we had Four Winds on Tuesday morning.

            In math we are continuing to work on improving our understanding of place value, different ways to write numbers, comparing numbers and being able to express what we know and why we know it verbally and in writing.

            Science is also continuing to be an adventure! We are exploring circuits and electricity. This week we focused on insulators and conductors. Students had to create a way to test different classroom items to find which were conductors, then they had an opportunity to test many classroom items.

            I hope spelling homework was less confusing to you all this week. I hope that it will continue to get easier for you!

Enjoy your weekend!

Fifth and Sixth Grade Newsletter

MAPs testing (Measures of Academic Progress) has been going well this week. Students are also being assessed individually for reading with the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System.

This week we completed our maps of the physical geography of Africa, and we have begun our maps of Australia.

The first day of our Four Winds science project was successful! Students found a variety of insects on the school grounds and at the edge of the woods. Thank you to our volunteers: Kim Lazelle, Jen Finaldi, Jeremy Schrauf, and Linda Hescock.

We have also completed our second Homework Heroes contest and the winning team is Team # 2: Shannon, Kelsey, Greer, Askalae, Anthony, and Katie!                                                         New teams have been formed for the next 10 homework days. We are off to a good start with all teams earning a star on the first day of the new contest!

At this time, all students in the fifth and sixth grade have received ROARS tickets. Some have received more than one! We are working hard to demonstrate positive behavior in the fifth and sixth grade!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Shakespeare

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