WEEKS OF MARCH 8TH and MARCH 15TH
By now everyone has had a chance to check in with our class via the Baker page on the WES website. Before vacation we enjoyed hearing the state presentations made by each group representing the northeastern states of the United States. There were nerves all around, but everyone was successful. We discussed proper audience skills (sitting still, facing the speaker, showing interest with the use of body language) and presenter skills (speaking slowly, clearly, and facing the audience). The greatest learning we hope will come from this experience is that as a presenter you do not have to read every work written and attached to the poster, but rather give the audience a flavor for the interesting or surprising facts discovered.
FOCUS ARTICLE: HOMEWORK
Homework is an expectation for all students. The expectation comes from a variety of groups, parents, students, teachers, and the broader community. It presents challenges for parents as they are the people who are trying to support students at home in effort that they will find success at school. Finding time, having full cooperation from the child, knowing how to help, and balancing schoolwork with family life are all real problems that are present for everyone. There is no one formula that works for everyone. If your current practices are not working well, the following schedule is a suggestion for folks to try.
- Have a snack when you arrive home or at an afterschool program.
- Talk to people about your day…relax for 15 to 30 minutes.
- Then, look at what is needed to be done. Make some choices about order and get started before dinner or bedtime.
- Keep going if it feels right and if you have time. If not, make time after eating or plan ahead for the next day.
- Pack it up to take to school on Wednesday and Monday.
- Parents, if your child is confused and or refusing to do his/her homework, please leave a message via email or on my phone at school and I will address the problem with him/her the next day and get back to you.
- Please remember, homework is provided on Tuesday and returned on Thursday. Then again on Thursday and returned on Monday.
FOCUS ARTICLE: HOW TO RESPOND TO A CRITIQUE/COMMENT ABOUT WORK:
When discussing one’s work, it is important to be open to critique/comment offered in a supportive way to provide a different perspective than what the creator holds. The class spoke about how many people can sound defensive and consider any comment negative, which is not why it should ever be given. The following statements were suggested and practiced by the students:
“No thanks, I already have something planned for…”
“Thanks for bringing that up.”
“I’ll think about trying that.”
“I will do that.”
“No thanks, I like it the way it is.”
“That’s the same idea I had.”
FOCUS ARTICLE: ST. PATRICK’S DAY LANGUAGE ARTS
Morning Message was as follows:
Top O’ the Morn’ to Ye,
Today is a day for sunshine and shenanigans.
A day full of frolic and fun. A morn’ of celebration and smiles.
Yes, you guessed it, it is Flag Day. Hehehehehe…
What other words can make with the letters in St. Patrick’s Day? Love, Mrs. B
Although the children loved the message today, they really did not understand it thoroughly until we pieced it apart and discussed the meaning of the individual parts. For example, the use of apostrophes in this message shows the children that this particular punctuation can be used to hold a place for missing letters and showing ownership. Secondly, we looked specifically at definitions of words. For example, (O’) of, (ye) you, (shenanigans) trouble, or tomfoolery, (frolic) dancing or moving about happily, etc. Thirdly, using the synonyms for shenanigan, there was a lesson on syllable types (c-le, closed, open) in an effort to learn and practice separating words into syllables. Lastly, word development, spelling, and dialect were all taught today through the morning message.
CELEBRATIONS
JAKOB competed in Woodstock, at Suicide 6, in the local Paralympics and won 2 silver medals and 1 gold. You can go to WPTZ on line to see him on the slopes. Magnificent Jakob!
ANNA, OLIVIA, and ABBY all celebrated birthdays this month. Happy Birthday to all of you!
ANNA and her family just adopted a new puppy. His name is Romeo.
OLLIE and his family are hosting their annual Sugaring Party on March 27th.
OLLIE received the Larry Myers’ Hockey Award for being a great teammate, helpful to all, and persevering through a broken hand to play a great season. (Larry Myers was a longtime resident of Waitsfield, educator, and supporter of youth programs in particular, the youth ice hockey.) Congratulations Ollie!
ABBY reached the milestone of reading her first 1,000 sight words this week. Without needing to study one word at home. The bell rang with honor. We are very proud of you Abby!
CHIP (Abby’s brother) is saying a lot of BIG words for a child his age. Ask Abby for some examples when you see her.
THIS WEEK’S BLOGGER – OLLIE HAMMOND
Today our class wrote about the peddler in Caps for Sale. The part that the peddler got angry was the part we wrote about. Our class also did a word scramble game. This is how we did it: toga – goat. We had two birthdays in our class today. Abby turned 8 and Olivia turned 9. It was a terrific day.