December PTO Notes

PTO NOTES & NEWS FOR DECEMBER 2011
The PTO gave out $3618.78 for our FALL GRANTS. Grants included: Flat screen TV's for the office to better monitor the doors, new e-readers and e-books for the library, new books for the library, recess equipment, sheet music for the chorus programs, and a portable induction cooktop for FEED in-class cooking activities.
We voted to spend $500 to help fund a speaker in March who will work with students, teachers and parents doing a BULLYING WORKSHOP.
WANTED: There is a 2 YEAR SCHOOL BOARD OPENING. This will replace Mary Catherine Jones who is not running for re-election. If interested you would need to file and have 30 signatures by January 30. You can get forms from the town clerk and can call Mary Catherine Jones (985-9882) if you have any questions.
Winton teacher, Lisa Phelps and middle school counselor, Rachel Petraska, organized a FACULTY FOOD DRIVE that provided Thanksgiving meals to over 20 Shelburne families.
HOLIDAY COAT DRIVE is still going. They are still in need of coats and any winter gear - boots, hats, gloves, etc.
The PTO HOLIDAY FAIR was a great success as always! There was some talk of making it shorter next year (currently it goes from 9:30-1:30). Let us know if you have any thoughts on that.
At the Holiday Fair the PTO did silent Auctions of a family membership to The Edge and a donated book which brought in $785 that will go to the Angel Fund.
The SKAT LEGO ROBOTICS class traveled to Dartmouth College in November to participate in a LEGO Robotics tournament.
VISITING TEACHER FROM CHINA, Tao ye has been working with K-8 classes sharing lessons on Chinese culture, language, calligraphy, art and even eye massage.
Thanks to the Teaching from Space Office at Johnson Space Center, Allan Miller has real ANTARCTIC METEORITES & MOON ROCKS that he has been sharing with students in all K-8 classes.
On November 28 when we all had off, SCS faculty participated in a PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Day which included work on: curriculum mapping, defining goals for the School Action Plan, sharing curriculum work done over the summer and a meeting of the configuration committee.
On December 9 a team of 6 middle school teachers and our math and literacy coordinators attended a ONE DAY WORKSHOP ON BRAIN RESEARCH at Dartmouth College. They explored what recent neurophysiology discoveries mean in terms of designing our best classroom instruction.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS:
Friday, 12/16 - Middle school dance
Thursday, 1/5 @7:30p - Jazz/Pop and Show Choir Concert
Friday, 1/6 - Red Barn fundraiser begins
Thursday, 1/12 @ 7p - School budget forum
Thursday, 1/19 @ 7p - 4/5 Chorus concert
Friday, 1/20 @6p - PTO International Potluck Dinner
Monday, 1/30 @ 6:30p - Youth Risk Behavior Survey dialogue with Margo Austin

THANK YOUS TO:
Sharon Harkness, Wendy Hallock, Leslie Borrok and Courtney Tharpe for coordinating the wonderful Holiday Fair!
Kate Danforth for running the coat drive
Jan Thabault for organizing the holiday baskets
Everyone who helped on the grants committee
Everyone who helped and shopped at the Holiday Fair.

NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, January 12, 2012, 6:00pm
As always babysitting and pizza provided!

Story Bit: The Little Engine that Could

This week we read the story of The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper. The children were introduced to the words dingy, bellowed, and persevere. A large part of our discussions about the book were around the topic of perseverance.

Chinese Numbers

Today we had the privilege of having a visiting teacher from China come to our classroom to teach us Chinese characters and pronunciations for numbers 1-10. She showed a slideshow of her home town. Thank you Tao!

Moon Rocks

This morning the kids had a special surprise presentation from Mr. Allan Miller, our SCS 6-8 Principal. He brought in some rocks that came from the Moon to show our inspiring scientists. He has connections to NASA and the rocks are on loan to SCS for a little while. How cool! The discussion that followed in the classroom raised some very important questions that our class jotted down. We will invite Mr. Miller back in to answer some more of their questions. I am very proud of their observations and wonders! Great scientific minds already!

Charles' News: Welcome Baby Elias

The Journey team would like to announce that Charles has became a proud Daddy once again late last night. Little Elias is happy and healthy. How exciting!

Last Week's Out of This World Words

I forgot to post these for last week's story bit retellings. The vocabulary words for Stelluluna were: empathy, gasped, sultry.

Next week there will be three more that I will not forget to post;)

Classroom Update

Here is the breakdown of what we are doing right now in all academic areas:

Reading Workshop: Partner Reading, Building stamina for independent reading, Learning How to Choose Just Right Books, Assessments to prepare for upcoming Guided Reading Groups

Writing Workshop: Personal Narratives, sentence structure

Phonics: These are the last few weeks of lowercase letter review: v,w this week. The kids are also learning how to write more letters that they hear in larger words.

Math: Growing patterns, counting and comparing sets, adding and subtracting, money (the penny)

Theme: Family Traditions and Other Cultures (Next week we will have a visiting teacher from China come to our team on Thursday and Friday:))

Craft Fair Thank You

Thank you so much for the many people who helped make our table at the craft fair a huge success. By purchasing items and volunteering, it showed the kids what a caring community is about. We are trying to decide the best way to use this money for the kids. Thank you so much again!

A Little Culture

Here is a copy of an email that we received at school today about an upcoming event at the Champlain Valley Exposition this weekend! Wish I could take the kids on a field trip as it would be fun to do with our December theme work!

The Vermont International Festival will be held at the Champlain Valley Exposition, Route 15/Pearl Street, Essex Junction, Vermont. The Champlain Valley Expo has unlimited free parking, is on the CCTA bus line and is handicapped-accessible.

Friday to Sunday, December 2-4, 2011

Festival Hours
Friday, December 2 5 pm to 8 pm
Saturday, December 3 10 am to 6 pm
Sunday, December 4 10 am to 5 pm


Meet over 40 vendors offering reasonably-priced and unique handcrafts from around the world

Sample delicious and affordable ethnic cuisine
Enjoy multi-cultural music and dance
Discover the world at exhibits by the Japan-America Society of Vermont, UVM Asian Studies Outreach Program and many others
Meet new neighbors who have joined our community at the "New Americans, New Neighbors" Pavilion, a special feature presented by the Vermont Performing Arts League.

Family Traditions and Celebrations

The children took home a very important green sheet of paper explaining our December theme work. Please be sure to keep this paper as it gives your child's special share date. Thanks and I look forward to hearing about all of the different family traditions within our classroom community.

Flynn Center Field Trip

On Thursday, December 1st, our team will be going to the Flynn Center to see Carnival of Animals. We will leave on the bus at 9:15 and return for our normal lunch time at 11:30.

Healthy Snack Vehicles

Thank you so much to the volunteers and parents who donated to this very fun healthy snack today.

Craft Fair Volunteers Needed

Please consider helping our classroom and working at our team table for the SCS Craft fair on Saturday, December 3. The commitment is not a lot and you could have your child work with you at the table. It's a lot of fun.

Out of this World Words

Today the Corduroy story bit retelling sheets will go home with the kids. I also introduced some big vocabulary words to them that go along with the book. We are calling them "Out Of This World Words". They are posted in our room. My hope is that they will begin to use these words to expand their vocabulary. I told them that if they use these words in their Corduroy retellings, then I will give them one marble in our reward jar for each word used.

The "Out of this World Words" this week are:

admiring
enormous
peered

A "Bit" of Confusion

I wanted to take a moment to clarify some confusion around our Story Bit activity. A few weeks back, the kids came home with a clear envelope that contained a retelling sheet and red pebble to go along with the story Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. The kids were supposed to keep those story bit envelopes somewhere safe at home with their red pebble inside. The idea is for them to collect several story bits throughout the school year and keep them as treasures in these envelopes. Hopefully, they will serve as memory pieces for the stories and they will be able to recall events of the stories by simply looking at the bit.

On Friday, their second story bit will be coming home. It will be a button for the story Corduroy. Please help your child to understand the importance of keeping these treasures for retelling purposes. With this week's story bit will be a retelling sheet that you should work with your child on and write down what your child remembers from the story. Send them back to school inside of the provided plastic bag by Tuesday.

Sorry for any confusion. I made a mistake and also bought clear folders for the Emergent Reader program! I already made a note not to do that again:)

Hand Washing Experts

Today Nurse Jocelyn came to talk with our team about how to keep themselves healthy. She read a funny book and they had a great discussion about hand washing, coughing into their "chicken wings", getting lots of sleep, eating the rainbow, and drinking lots of water. Tomorrow, if the weather cooperates, I plan to take the kids to the SCS track to walk together. I can't wait to do this with them.

Volunteers Needed

Journey Volunteers Needed
The SCS Holiday Craft Fair is on Saturday, December 3rd. If you are able to help sell items that the children have made at our team table, please consider signing up for a time to volunteer on our team Wiki. Sign up the same way you did for conferences. We need two parents in each time slot. To find the Wiki go to scsvt.org, then teams, then Journey Kindergarten, then Journey Team Craft Fair Volunteers. The following times are available. We look forward to seeing you there! Set Up: 8:45-9:30
9:30-10:30
10:30-11:30
11:30-12:30
12:30-1:45 (Includes very little Clean Up)

Classroom Fitness

I am looking for a couple of parents who would be interested in coming in during this month's "Happy Healthy You" unit to teach the kids fitness activities. This could include yoga, stretching, running, walking. The opportunities are endless. I would also like to get the class outside in this nice weather. Anyone interested in coming along on a hike? Email me at ahazen@cssu.org and we can arrange something special for the class.

Learning About Nutrition

This week the kids participated in several activities to discuss the importance of eating a well balanced diet. They learned about eating a variety of foods in moderation. They also learned about how the more colorful foods have more nutrients and vitamins to make them grow big and strong. Today I sent home a little guide for you to discuss with your child that has a wide variety of foods that fit into the "colors of the rainbow".

3-D Shape Museum

Our UVM student teacher did a very fun lesson today with the kids where they created 3-D shapes using marshmellows and toothpicks. It is displayed in the classroom in a "Shape Museum". What a blast!