Macaela's Last Day

Our Hands On Nature lesson this week was about the importance of dead wood in a forest and how its importance is often overlooked. We focused our learning on decomposition and its importance to the many functions of the forest ecosystem. We watched a puppet show where we met some inhabitants of standing snags and rotting logs and learned how they contribute to the process of change and decay.  We had a visit from Dr. VanRottinglog and her time machine and witnessed what happens to a snag and log over a period of time.  We then got to go outside to investigate rotting logs and look for evidence of living things - plants, animals and fungi - that live on or in it.  We then recorded our observations in drawings and words in our Hands on Nature Science Journals.  A huge thank you to our Hands On Nature parents for this incredible learning opportunity.
Today was another Mix-It Up Day.  We joined our Middle School friends in their classroom at the end of the day to participate in some fun Red Ribbon Week activities.  It's such a beautiful thing to see first graders and eighth graders building friendships and having fun together!
The homework coming home today is for the next two weeks.  With the Thanksgiving Holiday coming up, I decided to assign some things activities that move beyond academics and might be helpful to parents during the week off.
Today was Macaela's last day at SCS.  She and her family are moving out west over the Thanksgiving Break.  We had a great celebration to wish her well and send her on her way.  Macaela was such a positive force in our classroom, she will be greatly missed by all of us!
I hope everyone has a terrific Holiday Break!
:)Deb

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November PTO News!

November PTO News and Notes

(you may read the unabridged minutes on the PTO page of the SCS website)

Fundraising Update

•  Hannafords Helps Schools ends 12/6

•  We have a limited number of extra Boston Coffee Cakes available for purchase!  These will be sold on a first come, first served basis.  Please email Jen Cairns jencairns0408@gmail.com to reserve yours for pick-up on Wednesday, November 19 (and confirm availability).   Flavors available:  $11:  Marble Madness, Lemon Burst.  $13:  Pumpkin Gingerbread, Raspberry Cinnamon.  $14:  Pecan, Caramel Apple, Chocolate Caramel.  $15:  Whoopi Pies (6).  $18: Cinnamon Walnut Loaf Cake (duo).

•  Planning on ordering photo greeting cards for holidays, birthdays, and other occasions?  genevievesgreetings.com  offers hundreds of designs with 40% of the cost going back to your child's team!  Be sure to enter our school code/account #5919 when prompted!  Cards ship to your home within 3-5 days.

•  Keep cutting out and sending in your 'Box Tops for Education'

Treasurer's report

•  Fall fundraiser raised $8,692.64 so far (cards and extra cakes could bring in more $)

•  Direct donations--over $2,500

•  School directory brought in over $2,000!

Mark your calendars

11/15:  Shelburne Community Days at Open Arms Cafe from 10-3pm (10% donated to PTO)

11/19:  Fall Fundraiser product pick up

11/19:  3:15pm PTO Fall Grants meeting in c-wing/computer lab

12/6:  Holiday Fair

12/6:  Shelburne Community Days:  Cucina Antica Half Baked Pizza sale

12/7:  Holiday Basket Assembly/Distribution

Help Wanted

•  Fall Fundraiser product distribution--Wednesday, November 19--2:30-6:30 (and/or earlier to unload & organize product)  email jencairns0408@gmail.com to help.

•  Holiday baskets assembly--email Cathy Townshend cjovt@yahoo.com to help. 

•  Holiday basket coordinator--Cathy has coordinated this effort for 8 years and is ready to train the next coordinator!  Total commitment is about 3 hours.  Contact Cathy for more information.

•  Be a CVU budget buddy!  Mtgs 12/1, 12/15, and 1/20.  Contact Kim Schmidt kschmittpa@gmail.com

•  Holiday Fair poster distribution; 12/5 set up, 12/6 clean up.  Contact Dawn dawn.fragola@vtmednet.org

•  Donate your used books to the PTO Holiday Fair Used Book Sale!  Please, no reference books, VHS tapes or magazines.  Donations may be dropped off in the labeled box outside the front office.

Other business

•  Holiday Fair Discussion--As the Holiday Fair continues to grow and change, we would like to clarify our rules about WHO may have a table, and how much each crafter should DONATE TO CHARITY, if any.  Everyone seemed to be in agreement that tables should be given to students and teams first, then to teachers and parents as we are able.  Currently, student crafters pay $10 for a table.  This money goes directly to their team.  Any teacher/parent crafters are required to donate 10% of their profits to a charity--SCS Angel Fund or another of their choice.  In the future, we would like to follow up with crafters to find out which charities they support and how much they end up donating.  There were many ideas about student tables and donations--keep $10 fee (given to teams), require donation of 10% in lieu of $10 table fee, donate $10 table fee to charity of choice instead of team...no decisions were made on this.  Rules will be more clearly stated in next year's flyer, and crafters will indicate their charity on registration form.

•  Used Book Sale on the stage at holiday fair--Dawn Fragola and her team will pilot the sale this year.  BOOKS MAY BE DROPPED OFF ASAP in the box outside the front office.  Prices will be simple--ie 50 cent paperbacks, $1 hardcover.  Will hold a preview for teachers on Friday.  May distribute coupons to students.

•  Lottery results:  Team WONDER will run the holiday fair concessions this year.

•  In addition to holiday food baskets, Cathy Townsend works with the Shelburne Food Shelf to give presents and books too!  For the 3rd year, The Flying Pig will hang 'wish list' stockings at the store.  You may buy these wish list books at a 20% discount, and they will wrap and give to our school for distribution.

•  $11.2 million bond vote will be on the ballot in March.  A group (friends of SCS) is forming to garner support for this important project!  This group will give presentations to community groups, print and scatter lawn signs, write letters to the editor etc.  (School and Facilities Committee can put out information, but can not be the advocates/proponents).  PTO voted to support this group by donating funds (up to $500) for signage, printing, advertising etc.  Contact Matt Wormser if you are interested in joining this group!  matt.wormser@ge.com

Principal's Report

•  Mix it up day--October 31 was the first of 3 cross-grade collaborations of the year.  Older and younger students buddied up to share books, songs, games and laughter!  Great community building!  All are looking forward to the next mix it up day on January 30.

•  Playground update--bids will soon come in for playground equipment and installation to replace the structures on the Snelling Community Playground (the large playground by the baseball and soccer fields).  The concept plan is located on the bulletin board in the main lobby.

•  Congrats to 5-6 grade spelling team for placing 2nd in the CSSU district competition

•  Grand Rounds for Parents--Events (Parenting, Cyber Safety, & Early Education Evening) have been very successful!  Next session will be a November 19 viewing of 'Hungry Heart' about opiate addiction.  Middle and high school students may attend with their parents.

Thanks to:

-Sherry Senior for another great bulletin board!

-everyone who shopped at The Flying Pig and supported our 1st Shelburne Community Day!

-Lori Roberts for producing the beautiful Shelburne Community Day Flyers and newspaper ads!

Next meeting:  Tuesday, December 9 @ 6pm.  COOKIE SWAP!  Bring 3 dozen cookies, take away 3...  (please come to the meeting regardless of cookie swap participation)

Holiday Craft Fair

This week we spent a lot of time partner reading during our Writer's Workshop time.  We have also been reading Jan Brett books for our author study.  We have discovered some great videos and activities on the website Janbrett.com.  We are learning more about how she creates her illustrations through some of these videos and have been practicing drawing many of Jan Brett's characters. 
On Thursday, December 12th, our team will be going on a field trip to Shelburne Farms.  We will be leaving in the morning, having lunch at the farm and returning in the afternoon.  If you would like to join us to chaperone this field trip, please let me know.
Our team will be participating in this year's Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday, December 6th.  Please check this week's Friday Folder for information.  We are hoping to get as many donations as possible toward crafts and the photo booth.  We are also looking for families to help work at our tables that day.  If you are able to work a shift, please go to the Firefly website wikki and sign up.
Have a great weekend and stay warm!
:)Deb

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Learning About the Election

This week Henry's Dad came in to teach us about elections in the United States.  We learned a little bit about the history of our country, Congress and our recent election.  We talked about what a "majority" is for voting.  Then we voted on several different things for our classroom.  A big thank you to Dan for teaching us about elections!
We are beginning an author study about Jan Brett during our Literacy time.  We will continue this study throughout November and into December.  We will be learning more about Jan Brett's writing and illustrations.  In Art, we will be creating artwork inspired by Jan Brett.
In Fundations, we will begin a new unit about the glued sounds "an" and "am".  We are finishing up our Small Moments unit in writing and are busy publishing our small moments on Book Creator using Ipads.  This is our first time using Book Creator and we are learning more about it (myself included) all the time.  We hope to get these up on our website in the next couple weeks.  In Reader's Workshop we have moved into new reading groups and are busy making connections in our reading journals.
We continue to work on strategies for adding math facts.  We have spent this week learning about the doubles plus and minus one strategies.  We have also been making many conjectures about odd and even numbers.  We are becoming more efficient with our math facts every day!
Have a great weekend,
:)Deb

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