BrainPOP at SCS!

Good news! Our students have BrainPOP!  We’re happy to inform you that BrainPOP & BrainPOP Jr. are now part of our SCS library database collection. The SCS Library was able to purchase a 12 month subscription to this award-winning web-delivered resource with a grant from the SCS PTO. BrainPOP creates animated, curriculum-based content that supports educators and engages students. Hundreds of topics within Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Technology, Arts & Music and Health are all brought to life through short, animated movies and related interactive quizzes and features. All content is aligned to and searchable by state standards. BrainPOP Jr. provides educational movies for K-3 learners and addresses a wide range of grade-appropriate topics.  Each animated topic has a movie, leveled quizzes, games, activities, and lesson ideas that develop critical thinking and inquiry skills. All content is read aloud so young students can browse the site on their own. Because BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. are delivered entirely online, there’s nothing to install or download.  You can use BrainPOP resources with PCs, Macs, projectors, and interactive whiteboards. Getting started is easy by using the step-by-step Getting Started Guide. Our school’s subscription to BrainPOP will remain active for the next 12 months and includes HOME ACCESS to all the movies, quizzes, and interactive resources.  Questions? Check out the Help (www.brainpop.com/help/) section, or contact Kari & Ellen at the library. Happy Learning from the SCS Library! Kari Ahern & Ellen Matthews Access BrainPOP from the SCS Library Homepage

December PTO Notes

PTO NOTES FOR DECEMBER 2012   TWO SPECIAL REQUESTS:   The PTO had over $8000 in grant requests last month but only $5000 to give out.  We've also been asked to help fund a visiting artist program through the Flynn Theatre and to help repair the playgrounds.  All of these requests are in addition to our yearly budgeted spending.  These things are needed and worthwhile but we simply don't have the money to fund all of these requests.   If you normally make end of the year charitable contributions, please consider making a donation to the SCS PTO.  Your donation is fully tax deductible and will go towards making our school an even better place for our children.  Checks can be made out to SCS PTO and sent to the school.   The Angel Fund is also in need of funding.   The population in Shelburne is changing - in 2009 we had approximately 5% of students on free and reduced lunches.  Currently it's closer to 15%.  The Angel Fund helps families in critical financial need with many of their basic needs. Checks for this can be made out to SCS Angel Fund and sent to the school.   SCS BUDGET MEETINGS are continuing through January.  These meetings are attended by our principals, school board members, CSSU administrators, teachers and community members.  Look for articles in the Shelburne News and other communication from the school board on important issues pertaining to this year's vote.  Of specific concern is a requirement by the state for our budget to be voted on in two pieces - more on that in January and February!   Congratulations to 3rd grade teacher EMILY VIGNEAULT on the birth of her son, Aaron Matthew, born on October 26!  Welcome Kimberly Lewis who will be her long-term sub.   In November, all CSSU teachers were involved in PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT which included a presentation by two Vermonters with autism, Larry Bissonnette and Tracy Thresher.  They were included in a film called "Wretches & Jabberers" and their presentation was insightful and inspirational.  This work was part of the ongoing Common Core professional development specifically addressing the belief that all students can be successful.   Pati Beaumont, SCS guidance counselors and special educators attended training on working with students who have experienced COMPLEX TRAUMAS.   We have sold 44 LOCAL COUPON BOOKS!  There are 4 left!  If you're interested, contact Randy Sweeney (sweeneyrs@gmail.com).   The HOLIDAY FAIR was a wonderful, festive day as always!  We had 108 tables (the most ever!)  and teams had a very successful day fundraising - many teams making well over $500!   The RED BARN FUNDRAISER will begin on January 4 with delivery on February 7.  Look for information on that to come home right after the vacation.   The PTO gave out our FALL GRANTS last month.  Some of the things we funded were:  A visit from VT author, Natalie Kinsey-Warnock for the 4th grade, an ipad for the library, more Kindles for the library, Spanish books, and recess equipment.     MARK YOUR CALENDARS: • Wed. December 12 @ 7p - 6-8 Chorus Concert • Thurs. December 13 @7p - 4/5th grade Chorus Concert • Tues. January 15 @ 6p - Parent, Elena Ramirez will talk about anxiety in children and adolescents.  Hosted by the Alpha team - free! • Fri. January 18, @6-7:30p - International Pot-luck Dinner   THANK YOU TO: • Mark Fragola for printing our colorful Holiday Fair flyers! • Sharon Harkness, Leslie Borrok and Courtney Tharpe for putting together another successful  Holiday Fair! • Jessamyn Walker,Valerie Richardson, Katie Kennedy, Deb Buley, Fiona Kovacik, Susan Dunning and everyone who helped setting up and cleaning up the Holiday Fair! • Dave Kelly, Bob Miller , Randy Mushtare, the rest of the custodian staff and Allan Miller for all their help setting up and cleaning up the holiday fair! • Rita Daley and Teresa Shuptrine for the Holiday Fair bulletin board!  

The Next Two Weeks

During the next two weeks while I am absent from the classroom, Heather LaFantano will be my substitute.  Heather is currently working as a paraprofessional on the Endeavor team and has experience in first grade.  Heather and I have had an opportunity to meet and discuss the learning your child will be doing while I am out of the classroom and she spent today in our classroom getting to know your children and learning about our routines.  She is very excited to have this experience and will be sending a letter home in Friday Folders to let you know more about her.
During the time I am gone the class will continue to learn about "Native Americans Long Ago and Today" during Social Studies.  On Wednesday, December 5th they will take a break from this unit and enjoy a visit from a Chinese scholar named "Nina".  She will be sharing about a day in the life of a child in China, and teaching about Chinese food, geography and art.
Our class will continue to focus on characters and learning about strategies good readers use to get to know characters in their books during Readers Workshop.  Some of these strategies are:  thinking about how the character feels and asking questions like "Would I feel the same way?", noticing changes in characters' feelings, imagining what characters are thinking, looking closely at pictures and words in books to think about how a character feels, paying attention to what characters say to learn more about them, sharing what we know about characters with partner,s and re-reading to get to know characters better.  Mrs. Cavanaugh, our literacy coordinator, will be in periodically to provide support during Readers Workshop. 
Our class will finish up our procedure writing unit during this time by choosing a favorite "How To" book we've written to edit and revise and publish.  They will be using their learning from our mini-lessons and a "How To" book template to create a published copy of their favorite book. They willl use a "How To Book Checklist" to help them with this process.  The checklist will include things like:  I have taught my reader everything I need to in each step, each step makes sense, I did my best to spell those hard to spell words, I added end punctuation to my sentences, I checked to make sure my directions work, my words and pictures are clear and precise, and I used specific words.
In Fundations, the class will complete a unit about suffixes.  The focus of this unit will be on the suffix "s" and they will gain practice in separating "base words" from suffixes.
Our math unit about computation and place value will continue during this time and wrap up the first week of January.  The class will spend some time creating and solving lobster picture problems, and be playing games to foster stronger computation skills and a deeper understanding of place value.  Mr. Madden, our math coordinator, will be in two days each week to teach some of these lessons.
Homework will continue to be assigned up until the Holiday Break.  There will be no homework during the holiday break.
A huge thank you to all of you who have signed up to bring my family a meal during the next couple of weeks.  It will be so helpful and is so appreciated by my family;  my husband is hugely relieved he will not have to learn how to cook and my kids are hugely relieved they won't have to eat his cooking!
I hope everyone has a happy, healthy holiday!  I look forward to the new year and getting back to work teaching and learning with all of your amazing children:)

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An Interesting Read!

Here's an interesting read I thought would be nice to share with you:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/12/164793058/struggle-for-smarts-how-eastern-and-western-cultures-tackle-learning?sc=emaf

Science Journals with 5th Graders

This week the Firefly Team visited the Polaris 5th grade team to learn about science journals.  Polaris 5th graders have been keeping science journals and shared their journals and their learning with our team.  It was a great experience for everyone and we have decided that we would like to use science journals for our next science unit in January.

This week was also a Math Studio week.  On Wednesday we had our second studio lesson of the school year.  Your children were rock stars!  They did a terrific job sharing their math thinking and working in partnerships to learn about trading money.  I was so impressed with their confidence and willingness to share with 15 extra adults in the classroom watching them!  It was a terrific learning experience for everyone.

I will be in school through Thursday of this coming week.  My surgery is Friday so I will be gone from Friday until after the holiday break.  If you have any concerns during that time, please feel free to email me as I will be checking my email.  There have been some changes since I last spoke with many of you at conferences. Miss Claire will continue as our team para.  Stephanie will be in the classroom, but she will continue primarily in her present role.  My classroom teacher role will be covered by another substitute.  There will be more information about my substitute coming home in Friday Folders next week.  Our plan is to overlap and have my substitute in the classroom with me toward the end of the week to make it a smooth transition.

Have a nice weekend!

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It was great to have the opportunity to connect with families this week to share the learning your child is doing in first grade.  All your children were very proud of the work they have been doing in school and have been eagerly anticipating sharing it with you.
This week we started writing "How To" books during Writer's Workshop.  We have been reading published books from the library and discussing how they are written to get ideas for creating our own books.  We have been thinking about the things we know how to do well and choosing them for topics to write our "How To" books about.  In Reader's Workshop we have been focusing on characters and comprehension strategies we can use to get to know characters and their stories better.  We finished our Fundations unit about bonus letters and will begin a new unit next week that will focus on "glued" sounds.  We will be learning about words with "am" and "an".
We have been working hard creating Crab and Sea Star problems this week during our Math time.  We will spend the first two days back after the holiday solving each other's problems, then will move on to a new unit focused on computation and place value.  A big thank you to Tim Guiterman for helping us create our Crab and Sea Star problems this week.
We finished our science unit about chemical engineering, and solids and liquids this week.  We spent the week improving a play dough recipe.  We did three trials; the first was too wet and sticky, the second too dry and the third was almost "just right".  We have been using texture and usage to judge our play dough.  I am sending home the basic recipe as an option for this week's homework for those students who would like to continue to work to improve our recipe.
Vicky Wideman joined us for another lesson this week.  She taught us about making an apology of action.  Please check this week's Friday Folder for a pink paper giving more details about this.
I hope everyone has a happy, healthy Thanksgiving break!

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VSO Petting Zoo

Firefly had another fun week of learning.  On Thursday we visited the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Petting Zoo.  We learned about instruments that are played in an orchestra and had an opportunity to try out those instruments.  We played trombones, trumpets, tubas, flutes, drums, harps, violins and xylophones.  It was great fun for everyone.  Many thanks to all the parents who helped out with this event.
Today we had Hands On Nature and learned about predators and prey.  We watched a puppet show and played some games that taught us about predators and prey.  Ask your child how you can tell if an animal is a predator or prey.  A big thank you to our Hands On Nature parents for this lesson!
This week's slide show is a team slideshow.  We hope you enjoy it.

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Seminar for parents on Mindfulness in Schools comes to SCS

Seminar for parents on Mindfulness in Schools comes to SCS

On Tuesday evening, November 13, from 7:00-8:00 PM, Shelburne resident Marilyn Neagley will present a free seminar on mindfulness to all interested adult community members in the SCS Library.  This presentation will be of particular interest to parents and care-givers of children at Shelburne Community School, where mindfulness training has recently been introduced and integrated into parts of the curriculum.

The goal of this forum is to inform parents & care-givers of what's already going on in schools.  Marilyn will introduce mindfulness to parents and show how mindfulness can look when introduced to a classroom.  Then parents & care-givers can help reinforce the mindfulness exercises that the children are learning in the classroom.

Marilyn is the Director of Talk About Wellness (www.talkaboutwellness.org) and co-editor of Educating from the Heart (www.marilynneagley.com).  She has led three in-service trainings for SCS and has most recently presented at the Vermont School Counselors’ Conference and at the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children.

This seminar is presented by the SCS PTO as part of its mission to strengthen the partnership between the home and the school.  Marilyn’s presentations are sponsored by grants from the Ferguson Foundation and from Holly Bartlett Johnson of Wind Ridge Publishing.

Free babysitting will be provided by the PTO.  Please contact Alice Brown, 985-4918, if you have any questions.

Visit From An Engineer!

Customize a slideshow design  A huge thank you to those parents who sent in treats, juice and paper products for the  'Harvest" party this week.  We had a terrific time.  We read a Halloween story, played games and made spider wrist bands.  It was a fun party for everyone. We had a visit from Madeleine's Dad, Dave, during science this week.  Dave is an engineer who shared with us the engineering process of designing and improving bike helmets.  A big thank you to him for taking the time to share this information with the team. This coming week, on Wednesday, November 7th, we will be taking our class picture.  This is also picture retake day so if your child is having their picture retaken please send in the original picture that was sent home and dress them appropriatelyfor this. We will also be visiting the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Petting Zoo on Thursday, from 8:30-9:30 am.  If you are interested in helping with this activity, please send me an email. Finally, a quick reminder to sign up for a parent conference on our web page if you have not already done so. Have a great weekend!

Unified Arts Parent Teacher Conferences

Jude Olson and Mary Nelson (Physical Education teachers) will be available all day on November 12th for conferences.
 Diana Burritt (Music teacher)  will also be available on November 12th all day.

Reminder:  Pleas sign up on the Firefly webpage for a fall conference if you haven't already done so!
Thanks!
:)Deb

Correction For School Directory and Volunteers Needed

Please make the following change for Kirsten Cox (Kod Guiterman's mom) in the school directory:
Kirsten Cox
kirsten.cox@gmail.com

Home phone # is 497-1405.


Her name and email are Kristen in the directory, her name and email is actually Kirsten.


Also...
The VSO (Vermont Symphony Orchestra) Petting Zoo will be here next week.  We will be visiting from 8:30-9:30.  We are looking for volunteers to join us and manage the various instruments while the kids try them out.  It's very easy-you don't need to know how to play them to help out.  Please send me an email if you are interested in doing this.


Thanks!

Chemical Engineers!

This week we acted as Chemical Engineers and conducted a Product Research Survey to choose a best color for a pretend juice company's new strawberry orange juice. We created colors and chose our favorites, then completed a report  and wrote a friendly letter to the company.  Next week we will be comparing play dough recipes followed by an activity that gives kids an opportunity to improve upon a play dough recipe.
We finished our unit about digraphs today and will be learning about bonus letters next week.  We will be starting a unit called "Tackling Trouble" in Reader's Workshop and will begin our "Writing for Readers" unit in Writers Workshop.
We have been practicing counting by 10s and 5s with crabs and sea stars this week.  We have also been exploring addition and subtraction and will continue to do so next week.  We have been practicing quick strategies for our addition facts and have been learning more about the meaning of subtraction for problem solving.
I continue to be amazed by the creativity and work that has gone in to homework every week.  It is giving me a chance to get to know your children better and see how they are applying their learning in new and different ways.  A huge thank you to all of you for supporting them in this process.
We will be having a "Harvest" Party on Wednesday afternoon.  I am looking for a few volunteers to send in treats and juice for our "Harvest" Celebration.  If you can provide a snack, juice or paper products for this party, please send me an email and let me know what you are sending in.  I don't want to have to jump on my witch's broom on Tuesday night and take flight through the Hannaford's isles looking for supplies! LOL!
Please check your child's Friday Folder carefully this week.  There are several important items coming home, including their school photos.  Make up photos and class pictures will be on November 7th.
Have a great weekend!
  

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Working With Partners

Free slideshow generated with Smilebox Firefly First grade spent the week practicing partner reading and partner writing during Readers' and Writers' Workshops.  We also talked about strategies readers use when they get stuck.  We are continuing to learn about digraphs in Fundations.  We explored odd and even numbers in math and made a conjecture.  Our conjecture was "when you add two odd numbers you get an even number".  We also explored repeating and growing patterns.  In science, we continued to learn about technology and chemical engineering and learned  how a "recipe" and a "process" are alike and different.

Shelburne Farms!

The Firefly Team had an amazing field trip to Shelburne Farms this week.  We spent the day learning about solids and liquids through bread making, cheese making and butter making activities.  We ate our bread and butter at the farm and brought our cheese back to school and enjoyed it with crackers and jam on Thursday.  We also spent time exploring the barn yard, milking the cows and eating different kinds of vegetables from the garden.  It was one of the best field trips we've had to Shelburne Farms!  Thanks so much to Deb, Erica and Anne for chaperoning this trip for us.
On Friday, we enjoyed another terrific Hands On Nature lesson.  We learned about beavers and how they have adapted to their environment. We watched a puppet show, looked at slides of beavers and pretended we were beavers gnawing on wood. Ask your child how beavers' eyes, teeth, tails, fur and feet help them survive.  A huge thank you to our Hands On Nature parents for teaching us about beavers!
Just a quick reminder that there is no school on Friday.  Homework will be due on Thursday this coming week instead.
Have a great weekend!

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October PTO Meeting Minutes

PTO NOTES & NEWS FOR OCTOBER 2012

We voted to approve the BUDGET for 2012/2013.  Our goal is to raise app. $30,000 in funds this year.  We also added that we will maintain app. 50% of our total expenses ($12k - $16k) in our money market account at all times.

We also approved the PTO BYLAWS with 2 changes regarding approving our budget and bylaws at the October meeting rather than at the September meeting.

The GENEVIEVE FUNDRAISER brought in over $14,000 which will go directly to teams!

We are still selling the BUY LOCAL coupon books.  They will be for sale at the Newberry Cup, at gift wrap pick-up or you can contact Randy Sweeney (sweeneyrs@gmail.com).

We sold 40 ADS IN THE SCHOOL DIRECTORY which brought in $2045.  This pays for the printing of our school directory and brings in a little profit for the PTO as well!  Please support these businesses who have supported our school.

Valerie Richardson has applied for a GRANT FROM LOWE'S which would pay for playground improvements and new playground equipment. 

The HANNAFORD HELPS SCHOOLS program runs through December 1.  Look for the Hannaford Helps Schools labels on selected foods - you need to buy 4 of any item to get credit.  At check-out you will receive a separate receipt that you can either put in the kiosk at Hannaford or in a box in the school office.

We discussed sponsoring 2 PARENT EDUCATION NIGHTS:  One from Marilyn Neagley on MINDFULNESS and the other from Margo Austin on DRUG AND ALCOHOL TRAPS.  Dates TBD.

The COAT DRIVE will begin in the next week or so - look for a box outside of the office to donate any gently used coats or winter gear.

Diana Burritt will be honored on 10/17 as the UVM OUTSTANING TEACHER OF THE YEAR.  Congrats Diana!

NECAP SCIENCE results recently released initially show that we are continuing to make steady progress in this area.

Curriculum on BULLYING AND HARRASSMENT education has been included as part of the Skills 4 Life class for middle schoolers.  Related lessons are also being taught in the K-5 classes.

FIRE PREVENTION DAY included our first fire drill which went very well.  The fire dept. will also periodically be bringing a fire truck by to remind us to keep the fire lane in the circle clear for emergencies.

Recent TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT has included work in Math Best Practice, Data Teams and Social Studies.

The middle school is undertaking a yearlong collaborate reading of the Harvard Negotiation Project book entitled DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS - HOW TO DISCUSS WHAT MATTERS MOST.  Great reading for parents too!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

• Every Wednesday in October - Walking Wednesdays - Meet at town green at 7:30a
• 10/13 - Newberry Cup Bake Sale
• 10/23 - Genevieve gift wrap distribution, 2p - 8p
• 10/23 - UA Curriculum Night, 6:30p-7:30p

HELP WANTED:

• Table helpers at Newberry Cup (C: Dawn Fragola Dawn.Fragola@vtmednet.org)
• Coordinator for Math Counts Program (C: Allan Miller)

THANK YOUS:

• Ginger Williamson & Zynnia Seidita for coordinating the Genevieve Fundraiser!
• Rita Daley and Teresa Shuptrine for our amazing PTO bulletin board!
• Leslie Borrok, Lisa Merrill, Rebecca Solheim, Corinne Levinthal & Elaine Brand for their tremendous amount of work putting out the school directory!

Imagination Playground

Firefly First Grade had an opportunity to play with the Imagination Playground this week and we had a blast!  The Imagination Playground includes a variety of foam shapes that can be used in any way the kids would like to.  We worked together to create all kinds of interesting structures and used our imaginations to find many different ways to play with them.  We will be doing this once a week for the month of October.  The Imagination Playground provides a wonderful opportunity to work on team building skills.

We also had our first Math Studio of the school year on Tuesday.  Everyone did a fabulous job during Math Studio.  It was fun for all my friends to have their Kindergarten teachers in our classroom watching them do math.  It was a great day of learning for everyone.

Within  the next week we will be finishing up several units.  We will be moving on to learning about digraphs in Fundations, understanding addition and subtraction in Math, and learning about liquids and solids in Science.  We will continue to do activities focused on retellings in Readers' Workshop and will continue to talk about how authors stretch small moments and include details to make their writing interesting in Writers' Workshop.

Next week will be another busy week for the Firefly Team.  Wednesday is our second field trip to Shelburne farms, which will help us kick off our science unit.  We will be learning about liquids and solids through the cheese making process and will get to taste some different cheeses that are made at Shelburne Farms.  Yummy! Please make sure your child brings a lunch from home that day because we will be eating lunch at the farm.  It is also important that they are dressed appropriately for the farm.  The weather is tricky this time of year, please make sure they have warm clothing if it is a cold day. On Friday, we will have our next Hands On Nature Lesson which will focus on leaves.

A big thank you to everyone for your support with the first week of homework.  I was so impressed with all the creativity that went into this week's homework and was amazed by how many students chose to do more than what was required.  We spent some time today sharing some homework pieces with the class.

Please take a moment to go on the Firefly webpage sometime in the next few weeks to sign up for a fall conference in November.  The fall conference sign-up is on the left side of the webpage.  Click on it and it will take you to a wikki where you can sign up.

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Unified Arts Curriculum Night

SCS Unified Arts Curriculum Night

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

6:30-7:30PM

All families are invited to attend and learn more about our Unified Arts Programs!

Come participate in some structured activities in music, art and physical education. Participation by parents is strongly encouraged!

Art:
Experimental stations will be set up for children and families in all of our art rooms. Let your creativity shine!

Music:

K-5: Student demonstrations of classroom curriculum.  Hear student compositions and guided improvisations.
6-8: Come meet Tim Buckingham and Kristin Bamberger, new 6-8 Music faculty members, and get a glimpse of the 6-8 curriculum. We will also have a short student “informance” (informational performance) from 7:00-7:15pm.

PE:

Sharing information on moderate and vigorous physical activities through pedometers and heart rate monitors for kids and their families.

World Language:

Examples of student work and other classroom activities.

Hope to see you Tuesday evening, 10/23!

Annika Has Arrived!

Customize a slideshow This week we were very excited to have our friend Annika join us!  Annika is from Sweden and we feel very lucky to have her as part of our Firefly first grade class.  Annika shared her Me Museum with us on Monday. This week we learned how to tap out three letter words in Fundations.  In Readers' Workshop we talked about how readers are like runners-they warm-up before reading and read long and strong. We warmed-up and  read many books together-both non-fiction and fiction. We practiced warming-up and reading long and strong during quiet reading time.  We also began discussing how authors stretch small moments when they write.  We read a variety of books and noticed how different authors stretch their small moments.  We talked about strategies for using words we do know how to spell to help us learn how to spell new words. In math we continued to focus on sorting, estimating, graphing and counting.  We have been working on our observation skills to help us notice what is alike and what is different about objects before we sort.  We have also been practicing different ways to count and thinking about what strategies we can use to be efficient counters. Kody's Dad, Tim, joined us on Thursday during our math time.  He will be helping out every Thursday during math.  A big thank you to him! Our friend Barbara has also been joining us twice a week to help us with our fluency in reading.  She will continue to work with us throughout the school year.  A big thank you to Barbara for volunteering her time in our classroom.  Tristan's Mom will be in on Monday to help us gather the last of our garden vegetables and clear out the vegetable beds.  Thanks so much, Erica, for doing this. We will be finishing up our Communities unit next week and will move on to our first science unit of the school year.  This unit will focus on solids, liquids and chemical engineering. Beginning next week Vicky Wideman, our school counselor,  will be visiting our classroom once a week for six weeks to teach us social skills.  More information about this will follow next week. A reminder that Wednesday is picture day.  Our class will be having their pictures taken at 8:30 AM, so we should all still be looking our finest for our pictures!  Just a heads up that Tuesday is our first math studio day, so don't be surprised if your child comes home talking about all the teachers who were in our classroom for math that day. This is the first week for homework.  Please check your child's Friday Folder for his/her homework packet. Homework is due back to school every Friday, but can be returned before that if it is done early. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. Have a great weekend!

Fire Prevention Day!

Another slideshow by Smilebox This week we finished up reading Red Clover books and voted on our favorite.  Me...Jane by Patrick McDonnell was the winner for the Firefly team.  This book was about Jane Goodall.  If you are interested in learning more about her please visit the following:  http://www.janegoodall.org/media/news/animal-planet-accompanies-dr-jane-goodall-global-excursion-during-roar-campaign . Wednesday was Fire Prevention Day.  We learned about tools vs. toys, how to stop, drop and roll and how to stay low.  It was a fun morning for everyone! We finished our first Fundations unit today and will begin Unit 2 on Monday.  This unit will focus on blending, reading and spelling three sound short vowel words. We will also learn capitalization, punctuation and word spacing for sentence dictation.   We are continuing our bug unit in math.  This week we solved our bug problems, sorted bugs and practiced counting ten and more.  We also worked in structured math groups.  Please check out the Fastt Math letter that went home in Friday Folders today from the math department.  This will be the first week for reading homework.  Everyone now has a book bag that they will bring back and forth every day between home and school.  They may choose two new books from our library every day to bring home to read.  I'm asking every student to read for 10 minutes each night and complete their reading record.  Reading records can be turned in every Friday with other homework.    Please feel free to have your child read books from home during their reading time too.  I am sending home books daily to supplement what you already have at home for reading. I will be sending additional homework in the Friday Folder beginning September 28th. It has been a terrific week of getting to know each other better and settling in to school routines.  We have had many compliments on our hallway behavior and I have been very impressed with how well everyone is staying focused during quiet reading time and during all the learning we are doing throughout the day.  First grade is a big leap from Kindergarten, all of our Firefly first graders should be very proud of the accomplishments they have made already this year!

PTO Minutes for September

PTO NOTES & NEWS FOR SEPTEMBER 2012

The PTO has received almost $2000 IN DIRECT DONATIONS!  Thank you to those who have donated!  Anyone can donate to the PTO at any time and your donation is 100% tax deductible.

The GENEVIEVE FUNDRAISER kicked off yesterday.  Sales will go until 9/25 and pick-up of gift wrap will be on 10/23.   80% of profits go directly to the teams, 10% goes to UA and the other 10% goes to the PTO.  This is your team's main fundraiser for field trips, special class activities, etc.

The PTO is also selling BUY LOCAL COUPON BOOKS.   These books contain coupons for over 200 local businesses.  The books cost $20 and the coupons are good from now through September 2013.  Interested?  Contact Randy Sweeney (sweeneyrs@gmail.com). 

The HANNAFORD HELPS SCHOOL program has begun and runs through 12/1.  If you shop at Hannaford look for the "Hannaford Helps School" logo on specially marked foods.  You need to buy 4 of each designated food to earn points then you will receive a separate receipt when you check out.  Please put receipts either in the kiosk at the Shelburne Road Hannaford or in the box in the school office.  We make at least $1000 on this every year!

PRICE CHOPPER TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS program - if you shop at Price Chopper you need to enroll your card at www2.pricechopper.com/toolsforschools) school code - 15260.  Our school earns points on what you spend and we are able to buy school supplies at the end of the year.

The SCHOOL DIRECTORY is almost done!  Information is being updated and local businesses are buying ads that fund the printing of the directory.  

We agreed to allocate money for another VISITING ARTIST PROGRAM that would potentially benefit K-5 graders with an integrated arts program through the Flynn Center.  We will vote officially on this in October.  More info. on this program to come!

PRINCIPAL'S REPORT HIGHLIGHTS:

David Kelly, Bob Miller and the SCHOOL MAINTENANCE TEAM did a phenomenal job improving the school this summer - a complete building cleaning, new carpets in the C and administrative wings, new flooring in the kitchen and custodial spaces, asbestos removal and new office spaces were among the many things they worked on.

SUMMER SCHOOL was very successful giving students an opportunity to get a jumpstart on their school year.

TABLE TO FARM:  Beginning the 1st day of school all students have been sorting their waste into composting bins, recycling bins and garbage.  Parent volunteers are there every day to support this effort.  Interested in helping?  Contact Cathy Townsend (cjovt@yahoo.com).

The FEED program was busy over the summer utilizing the garden bounty by making pickles, salsa, pesto and processing and freezing vegetables.  This week all students are making Garden Tomato Sauce and will be taste testing it during lunch on Friday. 

Teachers attended lots of PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT this summer.  Topics included Common Core, bullying/harassment training, technology integration and mindfulness workshops.

SCHOOL ENROLLMENT is at 773.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

• Walking Wednesdays:  Every Wednesday in October (meet at the town green and walk to school!)
• Newberry Cup Bake Sale:  October 13
• UA Curriculum Night:  October 23
• Genevieve Gift Wrap Distribution:  October 23

HELP WANTED:

• Newberry Bake Sale - helpers and bakers C:  Dawn Fragola (Dawn.Fragola@vtmednet.org)

THANK YOUS:

• Rita Daley & Teresa Shuptrine for our beautiful PTO bulletin board!
• Sarah Vincent and the Teacher's Breakfast chefs and helpers
• First Day Greeters
• Leslie Borrok and Lisa Merrill for figuring out the School Directory!
• Everyone who filled out a PTO volunteer form

Next meeting:  Tuesday, October 9, 6:00pm

Pizza & babysitting provided!

Shelburne Farms, Sauce Making and Hands On Nature!

Our first full week of school has been sprinkled with many fun events.  We had a gift wrap presentation on Tuesday and got our gift wrap packets to bring home.  Gift wrap orders are due on September 25th.  We collected garden vegetables on Wednesday for project FEED and visited the cafeteria to clean them, cut them, and add them to the sauce our school has been making to share on Friday. We also learned about bus safety. On Thursday, we visited Shelburne Farms.  We hiked the trails looking for living creatures and plants on our scavenger hunt list, then spent some time at the farmyard enjoying all the animals, including the chicken parade.  Today we had our first Hands On Nature lesson of the school year.  We learned all about spiders.  We enjoyed a puppet show, observed some spiders in jars and then went outside to find more spiders around our school yard.  We were able to identify many different kinds of spiders and learned about their bodies and how they adapt to their environment.  A huge thank you to all the parents who helped with all these wonderful events this week.
We spent our math time this week solving bug problems and sharing different strategies for problem solving.  We talked about the meaning of addition and subtraction  and how we use addition and subtraction to solve problems.  Please let me know if anyone has trouble logging onto Fastt math at home.  If you can get your child onto Fastt math at least three times a week at home it will help to support their learning here in school.
We will continue doing literacy activities focused around Red Clover books again this week.  We have three more books to read and then we will move on to another unit.
If there is anyone else who has a half hour a week you would like to volunteer, please let me know.  I am still looking for fluency volunteers to support student learning in literacy.
Have a great weekend!
 

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