Tia's Blog

Check out the link to Tia's sailing trip blog to the right of posts on our blog!

Nigel's Science Table, Circus Yoga, Jogathon, Farm Celebration and Farewell to Tia!

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Whew!  It has been a very busy week!  Nigel shared his science table about sailing this week and taught us many things about sailing, including how to tie different kinds of knots.  As part of Wellness Week, we participated in Circus Yoga and had a terrific time learning different yoga positions with partners.  The weather cleared up on Thursday for a fun filled Jogathon experience.  We ran at 9 am , cheered on the Kindergartners who ran after us and had a blast eating lunches, dancing to music and playing on the playground.  Today was a terrific "Farm Day" for our class.  We spent the day dressed as farmers and barnyard animals, watched a farm movie that was made right here in Vermont, and enjoyed having families in to share in our Farm Celebration!  Many thanks to everyone for being so supportive of this event!  Finally, we said farewell to our friend Tia, who is off for a trip around the world and won't be returning until January.  We will miss her, but our very excited for her and look forward to checking her blog to see what fun adventures she is having.
A quick reminder to check the upcoming events on the blog as there are so many events scheduled for the last few weeks of school.  We are planning a team picnic for Thursday, June 9th from 5-6:30 PM.  Be sure to mark this on your calendars!

Precious Metals and More Farms!

Lucas did his science table about Precious Metals this week.  He had many examples of gold, silver and platinum jewelry for us to examine, some interesting books and pictures, and lots of information to share with us. 

We are coming in the home stretch with our farms!  This week we added chickens, horses, and gardens and crops.  Friday, May 27th will be "Farm" day.  Students are invited to come to school dressed as a farmer or barnyard animal.  We will be enjoying a farm movie and invite all families to join us at 2:00 pm for the sharing of our farms.  Hope everyone can make it for this fun event!

This week will be Wellness Week.  We will be be having a Circus Yoga session on Monday, a guest speaker who is an athlete on Tuesday, Walking Wednesday, and Jog-a-thon on Thursday.  We look forward to this fun week of wellness.

 We have enough volunteers for the Fairbanks Museum and Field Day, but I am still looking for volunteers for Craft Day on Monday, June 13th..  If you are able to plan a fun ten to fifteen minute craft to do with the kids that day, please send me an email.  In addition to the theme days planned for the last week of school, we will also be having Talent Week.  This can be as simple as reciting a poem, playing an instrument, telling a joke, a magic trick, dance routine or riding a unicycle.  Please help your child select his/her talent activity.

This week is the last week of regular homework!  As we are moving on to learning about the night sky in science, we are asking each child to look for the moon each evening and record their observations on the moon calendars from now until the end of the school year.  They may sketch their observations or cut and paste from the attached sheet that is coming home in the Friday Folders this week. 

A big thank you to Will's family for providing us with a healthy and delicious snack of cake and fruit today!


Olivia's diorama!

The Human Body and Hands On Nature

On Monday Zoe shared her science table about the human body.  She had lots of beautiful books, pictures and information to share with us.  Great job, Zoe!

On Wednesday we had our last Hands On Nature for the school year and learned about the sun.  We traced our shadows with chalk and revisited our shadows later to see how they had changed with the change in the sun.  We watched a great puppet show, made nachos with a pizza box solar oven, talked about the sun's importance to us and learned about the earth's relationship to the sun.  Many thanks to our Hands On Nature parents for this terrific lesson!

We continued with our farm unit this week by adding goats, sheep and cows to our farms.  We also started creating a farm quilt today.  Next week we will finish our quilt and add pigs, chickens and horses to our farms.  We are planning a "Farm Day" toward the end of May.  On that day everyone is invited to come to school dressed as a farmer or their favorite farm animal.  We will be watching a farm movie and plan to invite families in to share our completed farms.

We also have many other fun events planned for the end of the school year.  Friday Folders came home today with information about our K-2 Field Day on Tuesday, June 14th.  I am looking for two volunteers to help with this event.  Walking Wednesdays will be taking place on May 18th and 25th and June 1st and 8th.  We have our Fairbanks Museum field trip planned for Friday, June 10th.  We will be leaving school at 7:30 am and returning at 3:30 pm.  The last week of school will be theme week:
Monday, June 13th- Craft Day
Tuesday, June 14th-Field Day (Raindate-Wed., June 15th)
Wednesday, June 15th-Board Game Day-bring your favorite board game to school to play!
Thursday, June 16th-Movie Day
Friday, June 17th-Milk Shake Day-  We will be celebrating summer birthdays with Milk Shakes.

In addition to this our last week of school will also be "Talent Week".  Everyone is invited to share a special talent with our team.  More information will be coming about this!

A big thank you to Olivia's family for providing our Friday snack of popcorn and apples this week!

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Poison Ivy, Creating Farms and More Book Shares!

This week Tula's science table was about poison ivy.  We learned lots of things about  poison ivy, including what it looks like during different seasons.  Did you know it isn't always shiny?  Tula also taught us about other poisonous plants.  Tula's science table tied in nicely with our learning about trees and plants.  Fantastic job, Tula!

We finished up our book shares this week.  Sam, Tia, Zoe, Jack and Gracie all shared one of their favorite books with the class. It has been lots of fun to hear all the different stories everyone has chosen to read.

We kicked off our farm unit in math this week.  We have been building houses, barns, silos and roads on our farms.  We have had great discussions about farms and everyone has been very thoughtful about the placement of their buildings on their farm land.  Today we made maps of our farms and will continue to add to those maps as we add to our farms.  We also learned about goats today.  Next week we will be learning about other farm animals and will be making decisions about what kinds of animals we want to have on our farms.  Throughout this unit students will be following "Land-Use Planning Codes" which require students to use their farm bucks to purchase land, buildings and animals.  These codes also include rules for laying out their farms with regard to land squares.  Students are required to be thoughtful about their planning, budget their money and develop many other skills through this project.