Goodbye!

June 21, 2011

My Dear Children,

I'm sure you are all reading up a storm and have found a way to keep track of all your summer adventures in writing! If you have the chance to get on your school email please drop me a line and fill me in on what's new in your life. I'll make sure to respond!!

You are all remarkable individuals and together we were the best class I have ever had in 21 years of teaching. I can hardly wait to hear about all the fabulous things you will be doing as 3rd graders.

In everything you do remember to put your best foot forward and take it to . . .
INFINITY AND BEYOND!!

With Love,
Ms. Rogers

Synergy Poetry Jam

After weeks of preparation; devouring words, making lists, creating poetry, reading and rereading poems and songs . . . the children performed beautifully. I couldn't have been more proud were they my own munchkins! They all enjoyed themselves and loved being in the "spotlight". Thank you to everyone for coming out and supporting our children and sharing delicious desserts and conversation. We all had a wonderful evening.

Cinquain

Yellow mane like lions,
Bees like to drink the nectar,
Turns white, blows away.

We have been having loads of fun creating cinquain poetry. The children are quite clever and have a deeper appreciation for all the work we have done in Fundations with the 6 different syllable types. Yeah!!

Poetry

We are all enjoying our study of poetry in both readers and writers workshops. Our new "Word Collection" books have lists of words in a variety of categories; onomatopoeias, feelings & emotions,
alliteration, color, spicy words, sensory, similes, and rhymes. These lists come in handy when we need to revise our work and can't think of a new word. It has also taught us how to be purposeful in our writing of poetry as well as recognize when other poets have used different features so that we can gain a better meaning for what the poem is all about.
Everyone is hard at work reciting their poems, using eye contact to connect with their audience, using their voices to emphasize different parts of a poem, and try to turn a simple reading into a grand performance. Each day we set aside time to practice our performances and receive constructive criticism from our very tough audience.
Check out this color poem written by the entire class . . .

Green
Green is grass growing
in the summer.
Green is the whoosh of
the wind in the forest.
Green is the spinach that
gives us muscles.
Green is the feel of a
leaf in spring.
Green is the color that
protects nature.

To read more color poems by individual students you'll have to come into the classroom and check out our "poetree".

Pajama Day

We were all quite comfy cozy in our pajamas. Everyone agreed that our morning routines at home would be much simpler if we didn't have to plan what we wear. Can you say uniforms?!

Math Thinking & Questioning

Whether you are helping your child with math homework, playing a board game, or driving down the highway on your next vacation destination questioning your child about their thinking will help them arrive at a solution and advance their problem solving skills. Here are some tried and true questioning techniques that will allow your child to do the thinking.

What do you understand in this problem? (What do you know?)
What are you trying to find out?
Have him tell what he did and why he did it. Did that help you find the solution?
What else could you try?
How can you prove that you are correct?
Can you create a new problem that is like this one?"

You needn't limit yourself to math when using these techniques. Ask your child to justify their thinking in any situation. For example; after having put jello up their nose don't ask why rather ask him/her to justify their thinking. You will be surprised by the responses you hear!

World Wide Research

Many thanks to all the fabulous parents who helped create such delicious and interesting foods from around the world. Each and every child delighted in telling the class all about their dish. I have never seen such brave taste testers.
The children worked very diligently on their individual books, gathering information about their chosen country, and writing the facts without simply copying from the website. Map making quickly became their favorite activity. We learned how to use an overhead projector as well as a bright sunny window to help trace the boundaries of a continent or country.
As the project drew to a close and we began organizing the pages it became apparent to them that a table of contents was in order. Quickly followed by the need for an "about the author" page, which was written in 3rd person because several children noticed that published books sounded as if someone else wrote about the author! Very perceptive, don't you agree!!

Reading Buddies

For the past 2 weeks the 1st and 2nd graders have paired up and shared their just right books together. The second graders were given the task of showing the younger students just what really great independent reading looks like and sounds like. Tomorrow we end with a celebration of sharing and growth as readers. Hopefully the younger children will have felt what it's like to sustain themselves over a period of time while engaged in reading.

The second graders have also been reading the text from our Culture Grams software to a first grader in order to find out new information on the world we live in. Each pair traveled the cyber world and then chose a continent to focus on and eventually narrowed that down to a country. Everyone is hard at work gathering information to present at our World Wide Breakfast!

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.