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As I write this it is a beautiful Vermont morning with plenty of sunshine, blue sky and white snow – one more reason to be glad to be here. Of course, the students, parents and community provide plenty of reasons. ROARS continues to be a strong component in our school. Respect and responsibility for others are important components of PBS. We had a link to this on Thursday in All School Meeting. Sarah and Kaylah , students from Mrs. Bills’ room, talked with the group about their interest in doing a fundraiser for Haiti earthquake victims. To help everyone learn a little bit more about Haiti, I shared a You Tube clip of a school before the earth quake. In our follow-up discussion, I was impressed with the depth of student comments such as I noticed how beautiful it was before the earthquake, People looked happy even though they didn’t have much, the school was like a tent – no sides. The school then voted on fundraising for Haiti. I am meeting with the student council to explore what we should do. More news to follow on this.

Report cards were sent home today. Hopefully you will find time to discuss these with your child/ren. I always found time to review the report card individually with each of my two children. This helped both of us to understand problems or concerns so positive steps could be taken for continued growth. Please contact your child’s teacher with your concerns. Our after school Connections program is a great resource for families of students who would benefit from additional support and/or homework help. Call school if you are interested in more information.

We continue to have children coming down with a stomach bug so if your child feels sick, please keep them home. As reported previously, we have had several cases of head lice this year. Parents should continue to check frequently for signs of this.

Our newsletter is short due to the shortness of our week. Have a great weekend – take some time to read a good book with your family!

Mid-Year Assessments

In addition to the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) tests that students in grades 1-6 are taking this month, some students in those grades will also have other assessments. One of the other assessments that will be administered to some children is the DIBELS assessment of reading fluency. Another is the reading benchmark assessments that we refer to as the F & Ps, from the authors, Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell.

Daily Connections and Enrichment Program, Session III

The second week of our program has passed, and I am happy to mention that we have been joined by a few new students. The snowshoeing and speedstacking continued on Wednesday, David Broussard's computer class met on Thursday. Vivian Francy's chorus was cancelled due to illness this week. The Homework Club meets on Thursdays from 3-4:15. If your child is in third grade or up and needs some extra help, feel free to send her/him to me at this time.

In Book Club News...

What would you do if you dug up an old brass pot in your garden, and then discovered that whatever goes into it, comes out doubled? Mr. and Mrs. Haktak confront this wonderful problem in the Chinese folktale, Two of Everything. The group read this and another book involving numbers, A Remainder of One. Poor Soldier Bug Joe always ends up at the end of the lines, without a partner - an oddball remainder of one in the 25th Bug Army Corps. The queen is unhappy with her army's uneven lines, and Joe puzzles out a way to divide the 25 bugs into various lines until he gets it right with five rows of five. After our reading, we played with fingerprint drawing. We inked our own fingerprint creatures to make "two of everything:" two butterflies, two cats, two balloons..." Our fingers were multicolored, but we had fun.

Speaking of remainders - there are four more weeks remaining of Session III. If you have any questions regarding it, or would like your child to join, please let me know.

-Kerstin Kjellberg

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