A Visit From Evan's Grandfather!

 Today Evan's grandfather visited our classroom to share his experiences as a Damage Control Assistant on the USS Newman K. Perry destroyer ship in the Navy.  He told us about the many purposes his ship and crew had.  This included plane guarding and protection from air craft attack for the air craft carrier his boat shadowed and short bombardment. He also told us about an experience he had when his ship turned the wrong way and ran into an air craft carrier. He shared about how the crew on his ship handled this situation, what his role was in this event and how they were able to get the ship back to dock.  We learned about different drills and practice routines the crew of his ship would have to do on a regular basis so they would be prepared if there ever was an emergency while at sea.  We also learned about the difference between a "polliwog" and a "shell back" Ask your child what these words referred to in the Navy?  It has something to do with the equator!
Many thanks to Mr. McMahan, his visit made a nice connection to Evan's science table about the Titanic.

Will, from Pam's class, presented his science table about "Neon".  He talked about what neon is and where we would most likely find it in the world.  He explained that neon is a gas and is often found in signs because it makes them glow.  Great job, Will!

The homework home connection #13 did not come home with the homework packet on Friday.  I passed it out to everyone today so please check your child's backpack for this.  April/May shares also went home on Friday when I wasn't here.  I still seem to have quite a few left so I'm wondering if all students received one.  Please check your child's Friday Folder for the April/May share list.  If it is not there, send me an email and I will send one home in this week's Friday Folder.

It was great to be back in the classroom today!

Contra Dance and Support for Japan

SCS Children to Children
             Family Contra dance
           to benefit tsunami victims
    Music by "The Irregulars"  (CVU/Waldorf students)
       Saturday, March 26
Shelburne Town Hall 
         5:30-7:30


In response to the March 11 earthquake that struck Sendai, Japan, Students Rebuild partnered with DoSomething.org, to ensure students worldwide have a way to support their Japanese peers.

Help Japan by making paper cranes. These simple yet powerful gestures will trigger a $200,000 donation from the Bezos Family Foundation - $2 for each crane received - to Architecture for Humanity's reconstruction efforts in Japan. Once we reach our goal of 100,000 submissions, the cranes will be woven into an art installation - a symbolic gift from students around the globe to Japanese youth.

Link -->  Cranes for Japan


Bring cranes to the ContraDance for Japan on Saturday at the Shelburne Town Hall or drop them off at the TreeHouse K.

The Titanic and Dr. Seuss Day!

Evan's science table this week is about the Titanic.  He shared with us the history of the titanic, gave a hands on demonstration of what went wrong with the compartments for the water overflow in the boat the night it sank.  He also shared about the many years people have spent searching for the wreckage and what they found when they finally discovered it.  Great job, Evan!

Thursday will be Dr. Seuss Day at Shelburne Community School.  There will be an all school assembly, "Stop, drop and read", guest readers and many different activities connected to Dr. Seuss. These activities are meant to support the "Read Across America" initiative.

We also said good-bye to Grace in Pam's classroom this week.  Her family is going on a long vacation and will be moving to another town when they return.  He celebrated Grace with a team cake on Monday.  We will miss her, but wish her well on her new adventures!

 I will be in the building, but out of the classroom for the remainder of the week taking a math course.  I will be checking email daily, so if there is something important email is probably the best way to contact me.

"Robots"

This week John shared his science table about "robots".  He talked about the history of robots and the many different uses of robots.  Our team really enjoyed his power point presentation and examples of robots.  Great job, John! We have been learning more about 3-D shapes in math this week.  We have been exploring different ways to make cubes and pyramids and learning about other polyhedra.  During the half days, we have focused mostly on Readers Workshop in literacy.  This week's desserts on the homework menu have some very advanced math activities.  Please don't feel pressured to have your child complete these unless they are very excited and enthusiastic about doing them.  They are not appropriate for all students to be completing. We look forward to getting back to our regular schedule next week!

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News from Diana Burritt-1/2 Concert

Please save the date: Tuesday, April 12, 2011, 7 PM for the 1st/2nd grade concert. Detailed information will be sent home shortly. Thank you.
-Diana Burritt

Hands On Nature and Electricity with Benjamin!

Hands On Nature today was about water and the water cycle.  Our parent volunteers taught us about the water cycle, properties of water, surface tension,  how water travels through plants and water's cohesiveness.  We watched a puppet show, did some experiments with water- some of which showed capillary action in plants, and then rotated through a variety of stations that reinforced our learning about water.  A big thank you to all our parent volunteers for this fantastic morning learning about water.

Benjamin shared his science table about electricity today.  He taught us more about protons and electrons and also taught us about electrical circuits.  We also learned about insulators and conductors and we tested some different objects to see if they were insulators or conductors.  Benjamin's science table made a nice connection to Sam's science table last week.  Way to go Benjamin!

I will be sending home a conference reminder with your scheduled time in the Friday Folders this week.  Please let me know as soon as possible if this time will not work for you so we can reschedule.  I'm very excited to share your child's progress with you at next week's conferences.  Everyone is working very hard in school!

 

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Knuffle Bunny, Magnets and Geometry

The Adventurers team had a terrific time at "Knuffle Bunny" at the Flynn Theater.  It was a funny performance that did a nice job of developing the book into a live show.

We have spent the week doing experiments with magnets during our science time.  Students created their own magnets, learned about different things we can do with magnets, talked about magnets in our every day lives, and experimented with different sized magnets to see if size indicates how strong a magnet is.  We will continue to learn about why magnets attract and repel and will also experiment with magnetic fields.

We have continued to sort shapes and play games with shapes during math this week.  We have also been talking about parallel lines and intersecting lines.  Today we used a variety of geometric shapes to find different ways to cover shapes.  This week's homework packet includes a similar activity as an optional dessert activity.

Ms. Wideman was in this week to teach us about friendship and problem solving.  She will be joining our class every Thursday for the next 8 weeks to continue this unit about friendship.  We talked about what a good friend looks like and sounds like and we are practicing these skills throughout our school day.

Tia's mom joined us today to share about Tia for her birthday.  We saw pictures of Tia as a baby and talked about her family heritage.  We learned that Tia's dad is from Greece and Tia will be taking a trip to Greece in second grade.  She also shared cupcakes and some special Greek food, grape leaves.  A big thank you to Tia and her mom for sharing with us today.

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A big thank you to Claudia for bringing us back a treat from her vacation too!

Penguin Event and Static Electricity

We began our geometry unit today by sorting different shapes.  Today we focused on trapezoids, triangles, rectangles and hexagons. We sorted them by color, size, shape and then created a matrix that sorted them in multiple ways.  We are also continuing to practice telling time to 5 minutes during number corner.

Sam shared his science table about Static Electricity today.  He taught us about protons, neutrons and electrons.  He also explained to us how likes repel and opposites attract.  This was a nice connection to our magnets unit.  He demonstrated several different examples of static electricity and how it works.  Great job, Sam!

The following information was forwarded to me from Cathy Townsend.  It looks like it could be a great event for a follow up of our penguin unit:

Just wanted to let you know about a wonderful penguin event we have coming up at
the Pierson Library in Shelburne on Tuesday, March 8 at 630pm.


Green Mountain Audubon presents...
Penguins by the Thousands:an expedition to the Falklands, South Georgia, and the
Antarctic Peninsula
This  slide show will follow Debby Bergh's trip on a former Russian research
vessel during which the group had the chance to go ashore on beaches with
thousands of penguins!!