Oobleck

We concluded our study of the states of matter by creating Oobleck from corn starch and water. Oobleck has unusual physical characteristics, that of a non-Newtonian fluid. The children were investigating to find out when did the oobleck act like a liquid and when did it act like a solid? As well as why they thought it acted that way. Several very perceptive young scientists connected the properties of Oobleck to those of quicksand. Where are you people vacationing?!

Gingerbread People

As soon as everyone had arrived at school we began measuring and mixing all the ingredients for old fashion gingerbread people. The various spices (cloves, ginger, cinnamon, and all spice) curled many noses initially, though they all found it quite intriguing that when all mixed together they smelled rather nice. As it turns out Jessie is a baker extraordinaire! She was a pro at measuring 1/2 teaspoons of whatever and mixing the very difficult to mix dough until it was the correct consistency. Many tried their hand at rolling out the dough and everyone cut out either a girl or boy cookie. Later in the day after reading The Gingerbread Girl we had great fun frosting and decorating our gingerbread people.

Character Quilt

After reading The Josephina Quilt Story the children created character quilt blocks using 1 inch pieces of construction paper. The small squares had to be cut in halves and quarters and then either flipped or rotated to complete each quilt block. Not an easy task as we soon found out! After that they had to figure out which array best suited the number of completed quilt blocks. Finally, following the tradition of each corner using the same quilt block they had to find a way to put all the blocks together in a pattern that was pleasing to the eye. Every completed quilt was different which then necessitated a democratic vote, with eyes closed of course. Here are the final 5 with demo quilts. Can you pick the winner?

What are we thankful for?

The children created lists of things that they were thankful for in Wordle and made colorful word clouds. These word clouds were then placed on mats that were woven out of construction paper. The technology involved in the project was a snap. The most difficult task was cutting the strips of paper to weave! The children read lots of Thanksgiving poems together, some with real voice and tone . . . an impromptu poetry jam. Everyone pitched in to rearrange the tables so that we could all sit together at one giant table for our Thanksgiving Feast. After every ingredient was mixed in the largest pot we could find Mrs. Barfield carved our pineapple turkey. We all enjoyed a bountiful bowl of gorp snack mix and fresh pineapple. We certainly do have a lot to be thankful for!

Fall Images

We all had a wonderful time at the Harvest Party, both school wide and in the classroom. I've never seen children gobble up bowls full of vegetables like they did the day we dined on Stone Soup. Many of them went back for seconds and savored every drop! Many thanks to our gardener, Andrew, for coordinating that effort.
Our most recent 4 Winds workshop was all about beavers. The children loved pretending to be beavers eating their way around a tree (carrot in our case) to see which direction it would fall. This task was much tougher than one would think given that most of the children are sporting a toothless grin these days. They all have a new appreciation for how much work goes into creating beaver dams and lodges.

Author's Celebration

We had a wonderful celebration this morning with Mrs. Eaton's 1st graders that included special cookies and amazing stories written and illustrated by the 2nd graders! Colby, Jessie, and Hailey did a great job welcoming our guests and filling them in on the importance of a strong beginning, middle, and end within a story. They also informed them that a good author will include a setting and characters in the beginning and the most important part of a story can usually be heard in the middle and that is also where you can link the title of the story. Everyone broke up into small mixed groups to listen to and comment on the stories as each author read his/hers aloud. They were all so proud of their work. I'm quite sure the 1st graders will be pumping up their stories now! October will bring about "small moments" stories so start celebrating the little things that happen in our day . . . the way a dogs tail wags when it's happy and then knocks over the vase of flowers sending it across the room in a shower of green speckled water!

Readers & Writers Workshops

Routines are quickly becoming established for both Readers and Writers Workshops. Each class begins with a mini lesson providing the children with a springboard upon which they are able to launch new skills and strategies. Each mini lesson builds upon the previous mini lesson allowing the children enough time to experiment and fully understand big ideas that we take for granted. For example; ways to choose a just right book, where is a good place to read, how to keep track of ones reading, rereading for importance, beginning / middle / end of a story, what content should go within each section, how to choose a title for a story, how do you listen to yourself read for revisions, and so many more.
We also spend time discussing what it looks and sounds like in the classroom during these classes. The children like to pretend that visitors from Planet Xargle are going to stop by any minute and they don't want them to get the wrong idea. Read Earthlets: As Explained by Professor Xargle by Jeanne Willis to find out the whole story!

Off and Running

The first 6 weeks of school are always devoted to setting up routines that will carry us through the year. The 2nd year of looping is a breath of fresh air as everyone knows the routines and only need a bit of regrouping to be back in the saddle again. We've been hard at work learning school rules (be safe, be kind, and be responsible) as well as working on ways to incorporate CARES into our everyday lives. CARES is an acronym for cooperate, assert, responsible, empathy, and self-control. Along with all of this we have learned the 5 words that make up the mandarin character for the verb "to listen". Check your child's blue home folder tomorrow (and every Friday throughout the school year) for a copy of this character and ask your child which part they find the most difficult and which parts they do automatically.
Everyone is enjoying sorting, classifying, and creating patterns in math. Our number corner routine is well underway and encourages the children to think in different ways. The monthly patterns represent growing patterns this year as opposed to repeating patterns. A new challenge for everyone!

Where did August go?

I can hardly believe that school will begin next week! All the Synergy teachers have been in school the entire month of August unpacking boxes and finding places for everything. We have been having so much fun that the month has just flown by. I'm so excited to see everyone again and get back together. Here's another clue to some of the technology we'll be working on this year. Do you remember the name of this program?

Click on the image to make it bigger.

Camels Hump

Alita and I finally found a day to climb Camels Hump! We made pretty good time going up the mountain, 1 hour and 17 minutes. Not our best time but not too bad! Once we were on top of the Hump loads of huge thunderhead clouds started moving in. It was soooo cool to be at the same level as these huge clouds. Three pairs of people joined us who were hiking the Long Trail across the entire state of Vermont. They were all carrying big packs and had wonderful stories to tell about life on the trail.

Family Camp

One of my favorite summer getaways is our family camp on Woodbury Lake. I get to spend time with my mom & dad, brothers, sister-in-laws, and nieces and nephews. We've had loons on the lake for several years though never nesting loons. This summer one of the pairs of loons hatched an egg and now we get to watch the chick as it grows and learns how to be a loon. Just this past weekend it learned how to dive under water! Now it can begin fishing and feeding itself. The parents don't seem to mind us kayaking close by. Of course we are quiet and very respectful of their privacy. They actually don't even seem to mind when we go flying by in the motorboat with skiers and tubers trailing behind!!

Bookmobile

Have you seen the Bookmobile cruising through your neighborhood? Mrs. Tursi and I caught up with a group of children checking out books and playing games that the bookmobile driver passed out. We had a great time reading, drawing, and playing with Mrs. Tursi's stuffed animals. We even got to see a rainbow! If the bookmobile doesn't visit your area make sure to take a trip to the town library. There are loads of great events listed on the kids page.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Graduation Day

Sam graduated from Mount Mansfield Union High School on Saturday, June 19th. Given that his passion in life is digital filmmaking he decided to mount a small video camera on his hat and film the graduation ceremony. After he had received his diploma he turned and faced all the other graduates, many of whom proceeded to do the wave! I am so proud of the fine young man he has turned out to be! Sam is a joy to live with and fills our house with laughter. He will be going on to Champlain College to study digital filmmaking later this summer.

Final Spelling Test

June 16, 2010

Hi Friends,

You've only been gone for 3 hours and I already miss you! Here are the pictures from our final "spelling test" that we had today. I just loved the looks on your faces when you smelled and felt the shaving cream on your hands. It didn't take you long to dive in and have fun!

Remember to use your summer reading calendar every day, create stories from the the small moments in your life, and check the blog every week to see what's new and what I've been up to this summer. The 3 best things you can do this summer in your free time are read, read, and read!

Fondly,

Ms. Rogers

Scientists Solving Environmental Polution

We have been experimenting with various environmental toxins or simulated toxins as it were. It's quite refreshing how many children already knew about organic gardening and foods. Good work parents! Our latest experiment was on how best to clean up an oil spill. The children devised a fair test for 6 different materials (newspaper, cotton balls, paper napkin, nylon stocking, copy paper, and coffee filters) and cleaned up a simulated oil spill using motor oil. It was amazing how quickly some test materials absorbed the oil and how others had to be saturated with water prior to absorbing the oil. The children had a great time and learned a lot about absorption and the current PB oil spill.

Happy Farmers

We have completed our farm unit in math! Every group worked diligently, right up to the purchase and planting of the very last crop and scarecrow. They are all very proud of their farms and want to keep them as their own. We will be having a random drawing for each farm group and 4 lucky winners will be bringing home a gentleman's farm. Might I suggest the entire front of your fridge as a way to display their hard work?! If not you can always copy one of the pictures below and make it your new desktop picture.

Wordle

The class created a "wordle" this morning describing what they like best about Allen Brook School. It will be displayed on a tree with all of their names festively written in glitter! The tree symbolizes our roots here at ABS while all our other teammates will be flying around our tree as a flock of doves, symbolizing the wings they will need as they move over to WCS.

The bigger the word, the more times that word was entered into the wordle. No surprise to me that the biggest word is activities! They are an active bunch.

Update: Earth

Our last Vista musical was a great success! The children were quite enthusiastic about the content of the show (reduce, reuse, and recycle) and have become vigilant with their materials consumption in the classroom. Thanks to all the families for coming out and supporting the children in their efforts as budding thespians!

Rock the World


Reduce-Reuse-Recycle



Hot Down Here - Nice job Charlotte! Only 1st grader to have a solo in the entire musical.

Bridges

Our school district has adopted the math program, Bridges, that Vista 1st and 2nd graders have been piloting this year! We couldn't be happier as Bridges is the most comprehensive program I have used in 20 years of teaching. Our classroom features a combination of whole-group, small-group, and independent activities. Lessons incorporate increasingly complex visual models - seeing, touching, working with manipulatives, and sketching ideas - to create pictures in the mind's eye that helps the children invent, understand, and remember mathematical ideas. By encouraging students to explore, test, and justify their reasoning, the curriculum facilitates the development of mathematical thinking.
Bridges grew out of a project funded by the National Science Foundation to improve the teaching of mathematics. No wonder there is so much science content within each unit (insects, sea creatures, penguins, farm animals)! Students are being exposed to mathematical concepts in a consistent and developmentally appropriate manner. They know concepts about money, time, place value, and computation that wouldn’t have been introduced yet in our past program thanks to the daily calendar routine called Number Corner.
Grade 1 Scope and Sequence
Grade 2 Scope and Sequence
Stay tuned for an update on our current math unit: My Little Farm - focusing on money, place value, and mapping skills.

We LOVE math!!!

Rotational Symmetry

The children came back from vacation and jumped right back into the school routine, picking up right where we left off . . . rotational symmetry! Using 9 x 9 square patterns and 90 degree mirrors they discovered the properties of rotational symmetry by turning each grid to check for new patterns. Once this was done they chose the pattern they liked best, made four copies, and worked to find out how many possible arrangements could be made. This process gave each child an opportunity to see the effects of turning and combining shapes that have varying degrees of rotational symmetry. The end results combined 3 different lessons, addition equations equaling 9, a group chart showing everyone's initial work with 9 block patterns, and their final designs. We LOVE math!!!

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Goodbye Mrs. Jackson

We had a going away party for our beloved Mrs. Jackson, 17 year veteran of the Williston School District, this morning. Mrs. Jackson is moving to North Carolina with her husband and will be missed by everyone at ABS and especially here in Vista House. It is hard to imagine a time when Mrs. Jackson wasn't here helping children become better readers, writers, and mathematicians.
We all wish her well and will keep in touch.

Sky Watchers

Our study of the solar system will center around the objects in the sky that we can actually see; sun, moon, and stars. We began by learning about the largest star . . . the sun! After reading a great book by Frank Asch called Bear Shadow we decided to experiment with our own shadows. First thing in the morning when the sun was low in the sky we traced around our shadows with chalk and then measured them. After recess we went back to our shadows when the sun was high in the sky and retraced our shadows and measured them. To everyone's amazement we had all shrunk considerably!
Stay tuned for more Sky Watching as we chart the phases of the moon and create our own pieces of the surface of the moon.

How cold is the water around Antarctica?

The children had fun learning how to read a thermometer beginning with warm water simulating that found around the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida Gulf coast at a balmy 65 degrees. They slowly added cooler water as we moved to the Atlantic Ocean off the eastern Florida coast and the Pacific Ocean off the northern California coast. We continued to cool our water as we went to the Pacific Ocean off the Oregon and Washington coast and then a little closer to home in the Atlantic Ocean off the New England coast. Then we plunged into the ice cold water and brought our temperature down to 30 degrees in the Antarctic Ocean. It was amazing to watch and listen to them grasp the understanding of counting by 2's on the thermometer - counting backwards by 2's at that. One would have thought we actually took a field trip to Antarctica!

Andrew's Teepee

While tracking animal prints during 4 Winds we came upon Andrew the Gardener's teepee just over the hillside outside our backdoor. We were all quite intrigued and really, really wanted to explore it more inside and out, but . . . we would have destroyed all the fresh animal tracks. A snow shower that night covered all the animal tracks so we decided to make tracks of our own straight to the teepee for Aidan's birthday celebration! We read 2 great books that both ended as "cliff hangers". Thanks Andrew for constructing such an awesome teepee!

February 7, 2010 - 100th Day of School

The 100th day of school was a day of celebration. All throughout the day we found ways to honor Zero the Hero! Poetry, stories, Fruit Loop necklaces, dividing 100 gummy penguins and Goldfish crackers evenly between everyone in the class and in small groups, hats with 100 stars, cootie catchers, collectively reading 100 books, and counting to 100 by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 100's on the interactive 100's grid on the Smart Board. It certainly was a day to remember!

More Problems & Solutions

Problem & Solution

Writers' Workshop

We are currently creating stories that have a problem and a solution. Before we write our stories we confer with an adult then we practice our storytelling skills in front of the whole class. Everyone else listens carefully to see if they hear a problem and solution in our story. Listen to our stories and see if you hear a problem and solution!

The BLOBS that took over our classroom!

Every Wednesday afternoon we do a different science experiment that helps us better understand the scientific process and inquiry. The children always look forward to whatever we do whether it be experimenting with sink or float, examining the various properties of water, or as in today mix different solutions and see what new substance we get. The children begin each session by predicting what they think will happen and why. Their reasoning skills are getting better and better each week. This week however, the experiment really stretched our imaginations and took us to an entirely new science place. I'm not sure we will be able to recreate today's enthusiasm ever again!
Here are some of their exiting thoughts:
Charlotte - The 2 mixtures went together and made a whole other thing.
Matthew - When it happened it got very drippy and then it went to a blob.
Cyrus - When you take two cups and you dump one cup into another cup and you keep mixing it then it gets smooshed up and became a soap blob, it cleaned my hands like soap. When you smoosh it together it looks like a pancake.
Jessie - I thought that it would mix around in the cup.
Aidan - It's really slimy!
Michael - It's really slimy and goopy like a blob should be.
Alex - It's like a mushy marshmellow.
Sunthoshini - I was so surprised.
If you would like to recreate a blob at home all you need is water, white glue (Elmers), and Borax. In one cup combine 1 1/2 tablespoons of water and 1 1/2 tablespoons of white glue, stir. In another cup combine 1/2 tablespoon of Borax and 1 tablespoon of water, stir. Pour the Borax mixture into the glue mixture, stir like crazy, and voila!

Sophie the Therapy Dog

A former Vista student who is working on her 8th grade challenge at WCS will be visiting us every Tuesday morning throughout the winter with her amazing therapy dog, Sophie. This past Tuesday we met Sophie, watched her perform a few tricks, patted her super soft ears, and even received a few Sophie kisses. Maggie and Cyrus were the lucky kiddos who got to read a book to Sophie this week. Sophie is a wonderful listener and loves people. She sat with each child and looked up at them with her loving eyes as they read aloud to her. After each child read they gave her a "Sophie treat". We are all looking forward to the weeks to come and our Tuesday's with Sophie.