Thank you for a wonderful year!  See you all in August!

Important End of the Year Notes from Ms. Millham...

• Step Up (Grade K & 1) day is Monday, June 6th for all students.  Each child will meet his/her new teacher and classmates tomorrow.  Look for a placement letter in your child's home school communication folder tomorrow afternoon. 

• Monday, June 6 is the last day to purchase a yearbook.  We have them in the office for $12.00 each.  Make checks payable to PPS PTO.

• The Burnham Library field trips happen this week.  Our classroom now has all of our permission forms back :) Thank you!  The schedule is as follows:
  • Tuesday, June 7 at 1:00 – Mr. Allbee and Ms. Bourgea’s classes

• Thursday, June 9, 2016 is the last day of school. School ends at 12:45 p.m.  The schedule for the day starts with breakfast and classroom closure for teachers and students at 8:15.

 Parent/guardians are welcome to join us for any and all of the activities listed below:

• • 8:30 to 9:00 - all school meeting - Mrs. Hooper is retiring.  We're recognizing her for all of her good work at PPS during the all-school meeting.
  • 9:00 to 11:00 – 4 activities for students:  Performance – drumming (Stuart Peyton of Burlington Taiko Drummers - he's doing our PTO-sponsored artist residency next year), dance party, Bingo, and a craft (30 minute rotations)
  • 11:00 to 11:30 – Classroom closure activities – in your child’s classroom
  • 11:30 to 12:30 – Barbecue lunch & recess (see instructions in the June newsletter)                                                                   12:45 – Dismissal to go home  You are more than welcome to take your child home at the end of the BBQ, but please make sure to sign them out with me first. I want to make sure that I see each student before they leave for the summer!! 

• Don't forget to look around the house for any library books and turn them in to Mrs. Bochanski. 

• All Food Service bills need to be paid in full - make a check out to the "Colchester School Lunch Program" or drop off cash in the Food Service envelope available on the kitchen door.

Reminder Letter

Dear PPS Famlies –

·       Don’t forget that our Mighty Makers Project-Based Learning Presentation is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at 1:45 p.m.  Weather permitting, we will be outside to start and then grade level teams will take you on a tour of their project activities.

·       Students (and adults) should wear their tie-dye T-shirts to school tomorrow, June 3^rd!

·       We have a change in plans – placement letters will go home with students on Monday afternoon, June 6^th following their Step Up/Fly Up activity in the morning. 

·       Burnham Library applications are going over to the library today.  If you haven’t turned yours in already, please mail it to the Burnham with a note that says your child is a PPS student visiting next week.  The library’s address is:  898 Main Street, Colchester, VT 05446.

·       General end of the year clean-up:  please remember to turn in any library books, settle up food service bills, and notify us of any changes to your address, phone number, custody status, etc. in preparation for next year!

Our last day of school is Thursday, June 9^th.  It is a half-day with school dismissing at 12:45 p.m.  Expect the buses to arrive MUCH earlier than usual because there are few students who ride home on the last day.  Please plan accordingly J

Classroom News

Thank you

Thank you to all of the parents that have donated time and/or materials to our Mighty Makers project!  Students are having a blast finishing up the year by making our playground a better place!

Eric Carle as a Mentor

Eric Carle is a prominent children's book author.  Students in the classroom have become acquainted to his work.  This week we learned how Eric makes his painted papers.  On Tuesday, each child demonstrated their new knowledge by making four different types of painted papers (splatter paint, wet on wet, sponge paint and straw blown paint).  Students are now in the process of making stories, just like Eric Carle's.  We have octopus stories, cat and dog stories, spider stories and so much more!  It is great to see students using their imagination to make up their animal/insect themed stories.  When stories are complete, students will use the painted paper that they made earlier in the week to illustrate their stories through collage.  Everyone is extremely excited to see their stories come together!

Enjoying the Sunshine and Practicing our Skills

Important Dates

Mighty Makers Open House: Friday June 3rd at 1:45 

Step Up Day; a visit to First Grade: Monday, June 6th

Last Day of School: 1/2 day June 9th and BBQ (more information to follow)

Classroom News

May Disclaimer

The month of May is an extremely busy time of year in our school.  I will be out of the classroom a handful of days this month for Kindergarten Screening and for assessment days.  I will be testing students on their literacy and math skills in the next couple of weeks. I have been impressed by the skills that they have already shown me. I have seen a lot of improvements and children making tremendous gains throughout the year. Please continue to practice reading with your child at home. Being read to, and listening to your child read, is a crucial piece of the puzzle! 

Literacy and Math

As the Spring testing time quickly approaches, the class has been working vigorously with their sight words, math equations, Writer's Workshop and Daily 5.  We have been meeting with our "Book Buddies" from the second grade to help prepare us to be better readers.  This allows for a broader range of discussion of books and ultimately leads to students challenging one another. 

Science

During the month of May, we will be completing the our Five Senses unit.  Students have been enjoying learning about the sense of sight.  They LOVE to do "eye tests" on the Smart board! 

Tie Dying

Thank you to all of the parent volunteers that came in on Friday to help students tie dye.  It was a wonderful experience for them all and I know that they enjoyed having you here :) 

Classroom News

Maple Sugaring Field Trip

I thought you'd all love to have a glimpse into our adventure at the Audubon in Huntington on Wednesday.  Thank you to Melissa and Tricia for helping us out on our field trip!  

I spy a sugar house!

Going out into the sugar bush to collect sap from the trees.

Pouring our sap into buckets to bring to the sugar house.

Watching Jamie boil the sap.

Jamie is teaching us what a Hydrometer is.  It helps the sugar maker know when the sap has turned into syrup!

Best part of the day...TASTE TEST TIME! 

Of course our day had to end with a game of Duck, Duck Goose!

Ready, Set, Run 2016

I will be helping as a coach for this years Ready, Set, Run program.  I would love to see students in our class sign up for this great program!  It runs from 3:00-4:00 pm every Thursday (except over April break), starting next Thursday, April 7th.  For more information and to sign your child up, please visit: 

http://www.runvermont.org/youth/ready-set-run/

Classroom News

Interruptions/Behavior Update

We have been noticing a significant increase in interruptions during teacher explanations and read aloud's.  We will be conducting an experiment next week where students will be getting a dojo point taken away for interrupting every time it is observed.  I want it to be clear that it does not mean that your child is having a terrible day if you see a lot of red (negative) dojo points.  After conferencing with children, we are hoping it can provide a visual for those children that are having a particularly difficult time controlling their voices and interrupting throughout the day. 

Daily 3 Literacy “Rounds”

This week, students were introduced to a new literacy structure that will be in addition to what we are currently working with.  This structure teaches independence and gives each child the skills they need to create a love of reading and writing.  It currently consists of three tasks (read to self, read to someone and work on writing).  Children work on one of these tasks each “round.”  I spent time in the beginning of the week observing students and keeping track of when there stamina was waning.  This gave me a good idea of how long each round should be.  We are working in 10 minute rounds and after each round, students come back to the rug for a new mini-lesson.  When all children are fully engaged in their task, I am able to pull small groups and work on differentiated reading groups.  It also gives me time to work with students one-on-one, giving them exactly what they need.  Ask your child about Daily 3 and see what he/she says! 

Field Trip Reminder

We will be going to be Audubon Center in Huntington, VT on Wednesday, March 30^th.  Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately, as I am anticipating that it will be muddy! 

Classroom News

Literacy

This week we our Literacy discussions focused on Circular Stories.  A great example of this is the series “If you give a Pig a Pancake” by Laura Numeroff.  We looked at eight of her books and wrote about them using First, Next, Then, Finally.  These four words give a base for students to start writing at least four sentences in his or her responses.   Students enjoyed writing their own circular stories! I am pushing students to work on the formation of their lowercase letters and proper capitalization while writing during literacy.  It is important that they have substance to their writing, but also that it be legible and begin to look like first grade work!

Recess

Please continue to pack your child with appropriate attire for the day.  The temperature can fluctuate on any given day in our room, so please have them dress in layers! Spring means mud season in Vermont.  Students will continue to go out for recess and will be instructed to stay away from the mud puddles.  I know that wet, muddy clothes are a hassle, so I will work with you to make recess a better experience for us all!

Math

During math we have been continuing to work on addition and subtraction problems.  We learned how to use dominoes to make addition problems and learned a new game called Disappearing and Appearing Train.  This game had students adding and subtracting various numbers from their train.  The object of the game was to be the first one to get to zero! 

Science

As a cumulative project for our Animals in Winter unit, students worked in three rotations to share their knowledge of animals that hibernate, adapt and migrate!  Below are pictures of each station.

Students on BrainPop Jr. learning about how animals migrate, hibernate and camouflage. 

Students making animal tracks.

Students sharing their knowledge of how animals adapt to their environment.

Classroom News

On our very short week back to school we tried to pack in a lot of information and fun activities! 

Hibernation

This week we continued our unit on Animals in Winter by learning about the black bear and other animals that hibernate in the winter time.  A lot of students had great background knowledge of what hibernation means.  Students shared their understanding by making a cave for a hibernating bear!  

Dr. Seuss

We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday in our class by reading many of his books.  We practice the -at word family after reading Cat in the Hat.  On Friday we read Horton Hears a Who, which went along with the school's monthly theme of acts of kindness!  Students finished the prompt "If I were a Who, I would tell Horton..."  Students wrote thank you notes to Horton and some friends even wrote the word "appreciate," to tell him how thankful they were for saving their lives in the story!

Have a wonderful February break!  I will see everyone back at school on Wednesday, March 2nd!  Hope to see you at Parent/Teacher Conferences! 

Classroom News

Squirm!

Thank you to all of the families that attended the PPS Musical Squirm!  Each and every student did a marvelous job singing on stage.  I was truly proud of how hard they worked throughout the entire process.  

Math

Students are working hard on using techniques to accurately measure during math. In these pictures, students used post-it notes to measure one another to see if they were "tall enough to make it on the ride!" 

Classroom News

Check out the latest newsletter for great photos of "Panda Day" on the 100th day of school as well as information about upcoming school events.  You will find the newsletter on the PPS website at: 

School Newsletter

Conference Sign Ups Now Open:

PickATime

We hope to see you tonight at 6:30pm for the PPS Musical at Colchester High School

Classroom News

100th Day of School

 Counting our snacks by categorizing and completing the 10's frames! 

Celebrating the 100th day in style!


Valentine's Day Celebration

We will have a Valentine's celebration on the afternoon of Friday, Feb 12th.  Remember, these can be homemade or store bought cards! Thank you to the families that have already volunteered to bring in a healthy treat!

Assessment Time

The month of February will be super crazy with the celebration of Groundhogs Day, the 100th Day of School and our school presentation of Squirm! To add to all of the fun, this month is open for our assessment window. Students have already been doing a great job showing me how much they have learned in reading, writing, math and science. I am very proud of the progress that each child has made.  

Pick-a-Time Conference Sign Up

Similar to the conference sign up process in November, families will be able to sign up for a Parent/Teacher conference slot for Monday, February 29th or Tuesday, March 1st.  The website will open on February 10th. Look for more information to follow! 

Check out our Magisto 

movie by Ms. Millham

Three Pigs Engineering Project

Classroom News

Science and Engineering: Three Little Pigs Project

Day 1:

Today students were introduced to the concept of "Scientist Meetings."  We came up with a list of rules for sitting at the circle in our chairs.  An introduction of the Three Pigs engineering project was explained. Students made a list of materials that they would be using to construct their house. 

Day 2:

Today we began designing our three pigs house with the materials given. Students had to figure out how to build a house that would withstand the wolf's huffing and puffing (hair dryer).  

Day 3:

Students worked with a partner that had a similar design to discuss how they could make their structure even better.  We looked at pictures of other projects engineered by children. 

Day 4:

Building day!  Students built their structures with a partner using the materials given.  Half way through, we stopped and thought about what was working well and what problems they could be facing.  

Day 5:

Experiment time! Students got to watch their peers structures go up against THE BIG BAD HAIR DRYER. Afterwards, students wrote about what happened to their structure and what they would do differently next time. 

Classroom News

Science

We had a blast practicing inquiry during our ice balloon experiment. Students were broken up into four tables. Each table had to first decide what temperature of water they were going to put in their bucket. This experiment showed students the importance of teamwork and compromise. As students were ask questions, adults at each table wrote down what the children were saying. At the conclusion of the experiment, we worked on the smart board to move these sticky notes into two columns, either a "Research Question" or  an "Experiment Question."  Our next step would be to look at our research questions (ex: Why does the salt melt the ice?) and find answers! 

Math

This week we have been focusing on showing numbers to 20 on our fingers.  This has helped students understand the concept of teen numbers.  We are working on decomposing a number to tens and ones.  Example: 14 is made of 1 group of ten and 4 ones. 

Important Date:

February 3rd will be our 100th day of school unless there is a snow day between now and then!  Be on the look out for information on the blog and in folders next week about our 100th day celebration.