January 28, 2009
Dear families,
Hello and Happy Snow! The students are really focused this week and have been doing great work! Some things we‘ve been working on:
 Learning about decimals using decimal cards and playing decimal bingo. Ask your child what we need to remember when saying decimal names!

 Revising our reading group book summaries

 Thinking about how we are going to organize our Responses to Literature and how we are going to structure our writing piece.

 Finding rivers, roads, towns, and tourist attractions on our Vermont maps
**IMPORTANT **A Vermont map project assignment will be coming home today
(Wednesday). Students will have an outline of expectations and a rubric. Additionally, they all have VT maps and reading packets with the necessary information. Contact me with any questions or concerns.

 Our last team time of this rotation was Wednesday. The next session will start after February break.

 We are also working with Mrs. Southworth in music on a musical that will go along with our VT history studies. Ask your child about it!

Upcoming Events and Important Dates:
• TFK Friday – we need additional parents to sign up to bring in a snack. Please let myself or Alice Brown know if you can bring in a snack this week or next week. THANKS!
• 1/29/09 Local Foods Winter Art Show 6-7 p.m. - The walls of the art wing, library and lobby will be filled with art work of garden pictures, pumpkins and other produce. Invitations to the show are going home to families. There will be a great selection of local food along with the art show!
• Two of our classmates will be published in local publications! Congratulations to Hadley and Calvin whose great articles about the Shelburne Little League program were chosen to be printed. Hadley’s article can be found in this Thursday’s Shelburne News, and Calvin’s will be in February’s school newsletter. Thank you to Maryann Sheahan for her help with this project.
• Winterfest at Shelburne Farms- Saturday 1/31 12-3
• NAEP testing - for 4th graders, Tuesday, Feb 3rd 8:30-10 a.m.
• Parenting workshop – Thursday Feb 5th – 6:30-8:30 pm. Sponsored by the PTO
• Book Fair – February 9-13.
• American Library Association announces literary award winners
Stay in touch
Cara 

January 22

Dear Families,
Happy Inauguration Week! In addition to watching the historic inauguration this week, the students have been:
 Finishing up their reading group books and working on a summary for them. This will prepare the students for writing a response to literature about their books.
 Completing their VT scavenger hunt so that we can move on to studying VT geography with our own Vermont Maps!! (Students started the map work today!!).
 Starting a new unit in math about decimals and fractions.
 Continuing to focus on editing in our writing. Additionally, many students are finalizing their drafts for the Little League article. Mary Anne has come in again this week to share her professional skills with the students.
 Using a variety of web sites for both math practice, and Vermont studies. Check them out on our school webpage: http://www.scsvt.org/TEAMS/ENDEAVOR/index.html

Other Important News and Dates:
• Friday – 1/23 – Red Barn Fundraiser packets DUE!!
• 1/20-1/23/09 International Cultures Week
• 1/23/09 PTO International Cultures Potluck Dinner 6:00-7:30 p.m. Bring sneakers to this event so you can join the festivities in the gym after dinner.
• 1/29/09 Art Show- I encourage you all to attend! These children are fabulous artists.

 Looks like we will be the only class going to the Historical Society and Statehouse in Montpelier in March. Therefore, I think I’ll take many of you up on your offer to drive. Thank you for the positive response. I’ll send home a form for you to fill out so that we can confirm who is driving and how many students you can take (and get it in writing). More than enough parents responded that they could drive, so it’s fine if you choose to back out or ride along in another car. Look for the form to come home some time in early February. You’ll also want to make sure that the school has your updated insurance information (Before March!).


Hope everyone is staying warm. Keep in touch!

January 14

Dear Families,
Warm greetings to you! I hope you have all had a chance to look at your child’s personal academic goals for 2009. I’ve noticed many of the students working really hard already in this New Year. Please check in with them about their goals each week – how do they think they’re doing? I am really pleased with the thoughtfulness and sincerity that has gone into this work and am delighted with the students for their efforts.
What’s going on this week:
 A special guest from Thailand (Ms. Punapha) has visited our classroom. She is a guest of Mary Beth Harris (Orion teacher) and is going into willing classrooms to teach about her country. We learned about Thai customs, traditions, and some Thai language. The students REALLY enjoyed this experience!

 The students are focusing on editing in writing. We are discussing how to be careful and thorough editors and why it is important. We are lucky enough to have a special guest coming in to help with this as well! Mary Anne Sheahan will come in to talk to the students about how writing, and especially revision and editing, are part of her daily work.
Some children are working on helping Mary Anne with a piece she is writing for the Shelburne News. (This was a voluntary assignment.) This is an article about the Little League program. One lucky and hardworking student will be chosen to have their article published in the Shelburne News!!

 We have FINALLY started our VT studies. We kicked them off with students sharing what they already know about Vermont. Currently, we are working on a “Vermont Scavenger Hunt.” The students are using the web and working together with a partner to find the answers to a variety of questions related to VT history and geography. The students’ VT maps are on their way – we’ll move into VT geography studies after the scavenger hunt.

 Attention!! – Map 4 came home last Friday! All students will be quizzed on Map 4 – Famous Landmarks – this Friday. Many students made passing this map on quiz 1 a goal for themselves. Please make sure your child is practicing at home.

REMINDERS AND IMPORTANT DATES:
 The PTO’s Red Barn fundraiser packet came home last Friday. This supports the PTO and it’s grant program.

Calendar:
1/14/09 CSSU School Board meeting 7:00 p.m. CVU
1/15/09 6:00 p.m. pizza--6:30 p.m. program: Positive Parenting Workshop, “Top Ten Drug and Alcohol Parent Traps” with Margo Austin. Read more
1/19/09 NO SCHOOL--Martin Luther King Day
1/19-1/23/09 International Cultures Week
To celebrate our school's diversity, every day our cafeteria will prepare unique dishes from different cultures. All families are invited to attend their son/daughter's lunch period to enjoy the festive meals. Along with our delectable lunches, part of the morning announcements will be recited in foreign languages to enhance our cultural awareness.
1/23/09 PTO International Cultures Potluck Dinner 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Bring sneakers to this event so you can join the festivities in the gym after dinner.

January News

Dear Families,

Hello and Happy New Year! I hope that everyone enjoyed their time together over the break. We are getting right back into the swing of things this week. Here are some things we’re working on this week:

Reading - all reading groups will continue to meet this week. My goal is that all groups will be finished with their books by the 3rd week of January. All groups will continue to have word work and reading assignments that go with their reading.

Writing - I hope that everyone read and enjoyed their child’s memoir that was brought home before break. They worked very hard on them and were excited to present them to their families. This week, students will be working on an “On Demand” writing prompt. This is an assessment that is used to guide my instruction in teaching writing.

We will also begin a mini-unit on editing before beginning our next formal writing piece: response to literature.

Math - this week will be learning about open sentences (algebra), parentheses in number sentences, and of course, practicing multiplication.

Social Studies - I am happy to say that we will be starting our Vermont Studies next week. We will start with VT Geography and move into VT history. All students will receive a VT attractions map and will study the state’s geography (and practice their mapping skills) by completing a VT Scavenger hunt using the map. It is great fun! There will also be a VT map project coming up. Look for details to come home in two weeks.

This week will be Map 3, quiz 4 of the map quizzes. Next week we will start Map 4 which focuses on famous landmarks around the US.

Other Notes:

Students have been asked to work on their cursive more regularly. Consequently, I have asked students to at least ATTEMPT to do some of their word study HW in cursive. Please encourage your child to try some cursive in their HW. I am asking them to show some effort- they DO NOT have to do all of their word study HW in cursive if it is too time consuming or difficult. I appreciate that they simply are working at it.

Classroom Goals – this week, all students are making goals for themselves for the remainder of the school year. (A copy of these will come home Friday) Additionally, we have made some classroom goals to work on together. They are:

· Come in and unpack quickly and quietly (3 minute goal). This includes coming in in the morning, and coming in from recess.

· Write in cursive more frequently in classroom and HW assignments.

· Stay FOCUSED

· Stay on TIME

· Work to attain smooth, quiet, and quick transitions.

Important upcoming dates:

1/08/09 (Thursday) School Board Budget Forum SCS Library 7:00 p.m. agenda

1/9/09 1/2 Day of School. Dismissals start at 11:35 a.m

1/13/09 PTO meeting 6:00 p.m. Alpha space

1/13/09 Small Ensemble Concert 7:30 p.m. Cafeteria

1/14/09 CSSU School Board meeting 7:00 p.m. CVU

1/15/09 6:00 p.m. pizza--6:30 p.m. program: Positive Parenting Workshop, “Top Ten Drug and Alcohol Parent Traps” with Margo Austin.