February 15 News

     Many thanks to the Student Leadership for planning such a fun I Love to Read day yesterday.  We had an assembly to start off with. We received origami valentines from our pen pals in Calais. Everyone in the school participated in Stop, Drop and Read for 20 minutes. Patty Connor, our guest reader, read one of her family's favorite books called Eggbert. Then students created their own version of the main character Eggbert. Next, we had our Author's Tea and shared our poetry books with Mrs. Shedd's class and they shared their narrative books with gorgeous watercolor illustrations with us. We ended the day with a party. Thanks for sending in the drinks and snacks It was a great day. Students brought their poetry books home so that they can share them with you.
      Check below for Student Leadership's Spirit week and what is the special theme for each day.
     There will not be a regular spelling test next week. We will be working on dictionary skills and doing text searches for prefixes and suffixes and using the definition of the affix( a prefix or suffix) to determine their meaning. We will also be playing a game where students have to figure the number of syllables in a word.
     In social studies we have been learning about Vermont geography.  Students picked a county and did a project to find information about their county, put it on a quilt type square and then shared it in a small group.  We have also been learning about the regions and why they are divided that way, the lakes and rivers and the mountains. We also used Vermont road maps to look for information and to do a map project. Students will have a test on Thursday on the regions and the mountains.
    In writing we have been working on opinion pieces. This is one of the Common Core pieces that is required. We are doing common pieces throughout the school and then gathering to assess them. Students have written about-Which habitat would you like to live in and why? Their opinion about the Super Bowl, whether kale should be the state vegetable, what is the best thing to do on a snow day and from our Time for Kids-should the US stop using pennies. In each piece students need to make a claim, their opinion, and base it with evidence.  We compared this to a double stuffed Oreo.  First comes the opinion or claim, then their reason, more evidence or an example and their opinion again
    In reading we have been looking at the characters and the point of view of the story and how this effects the story. For instance, in the book that I am reading to them, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, the main character has been in a plane crash and is trying to survive in the Canadian wilderness. The story is told through the main character's eyes but if it was told through his mother's eyes, it would be a totally different story.  We have also added a lot of reading strategies to the CAFE menu.
    In math we have been doing some problem solving.  We will be taking a piece a week to practice and learn steps of how to solve a problem.  We finished the unit on graphing and graphing vocabulary. We have been working on multiplication. How to multiply multiples of ten, 2 digits by 1 digit and multiplication word problems. Next week we will be working on 3 and 4 digits numbers by one number.

Upcoming Important dates
2/20 Personal reading goal due
2/20 Pizza/snack items should be delivered
2/22 Any Read-a-thon money due
2/23 SS-regions and mts test