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!