December 16, 2011
Notes from the Principal Mr. Brown
Issue 1
Dates to Remember
As we approach the winter and holiday break, we are • Dec. 22-Jan. 2: Holiday busily taking care of school business. Break Recently we received a box of brand new books donated • Jan. 3: School Reopens to our school library from the students and families of • Jan. 6: Ski/Skate Runners the Milton Elementary School in Milton, Vt. Their Start school had a special fund-raiser and chose to purchase • Feb. 8: Grades 3-6 to additional books that they wanted to share with a school Pentangle that experienced the stresses of Irene. They hoped we • Feb. 20-24: Winter Break would have a great • Feb. 27-Mar 2: Parent year. We really Teacher Conferences By Riley Earle appreciate their • Mar. 2: End of Marking generosity and look Period forward to having these new books join • Mar 5 & 6: No School the circulation of our current library • Mar. 9 Report Cards books. I called the school to thank them Go Home and assured them that we are, indeed, • Apr. 10: Grades 5-6 to having a great year. Pentangle I have been at school on a couple • Apr. 11: Lifetouch Spring of days when Eric Bird, from Digital Photos Digital Wish Students with their Posters Wish, has been working with the students. • Apr. 12 &13: School Play This is really a fantastic opportunity for • Apr. 16-20: Spring Break our students and staff to learn about some interesting computer skills and programming opportunities. He also met with a small number of parents to talk about the school–to-home computer connection. All students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 are able to take a computer and printer home to use during the school year if they and their parents first come in and meet with Mr. Symanski who can go over the protocol. We ask at that time that you sign a user agreement, and sign out the computer and printer. Other members of the family are also encouraged to use the printers. Please arrange to come in and meet with Mr. Symanski about this great opportunity if you haven’t already. Families have done a fantastic job collecting and sending in the labels from the Box Tops Program. We also continue to receive Check out the first page of generous contributions from the community with our bottle bvsvt.org for upcoming events and can redemption program. We have begun collecting and visit “Our Classroom” to ideas for a spring school trip, and this money will certainly view this newsletter online and be extremely helpful in deferring the cost of this trip. in color!
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Holidays!
The Classes Kindergarten Corner Mrs. Fitzpatrick By Maya Cully
The Kindergarten class has been exploring how it was to live around the late 1800’s. We are reading the book, Little House in the Big Woods, by Lauran Ingalls Wilder. The students are learning that life was different from today. Students have noticed that not everything is different from the past. Many students have gardens at home to grow food, hunt for meat and heat homes with wood. The class wrote a poem to summarize what they learned. Life in the Past Growing, Gathering, Hunting Getting the Wood for the Fire Getting the Water Keeping the Food Cool in the River Keeping the House Warm with the Fire Tending the Fire for Cooking Churning Cream to Make Butter Life in the Past By Mrs. Fitzpatrick’s Kindergarten Class
First and Second Grade Update Ms. McGuire We have been working hard in Grade 1/2! The students are enjoying learning about different types of families, looking into what makes a family and finding out where their families came from. The students are also working hard at making connections between the texts that they are reading and themselves, other texts, and the world. Our class has been given a wonderful opportunity to use iPads as a resource. We have primarily been using the iPads to work on math and literacy but plan to incorporate them into social studies and math soon. As a class we would like to thank all of you for being supportive!
By Anna Walker
The Classes Third and Fourth Grade News Mrs. Grinold Friday is “technology day” with Mr. Bird, and the fourth graders really look forward to learning about the exciting programs on their net books! By Kelly Jackson Recently, Mr. Bird has reviewed the Power point program. The third graders have also participated in lessons with Mrs. Vaughn and Mr. Bird on this engaging way to create slideshows. All students have begun to research a topic based on one of the continents that they researched briefly last week. They will be creating Power point slide shows on their topics. The children have also been introduced to two new awardwinning math and science educational sites. The website is called Explorelearning.com. One of the programs is an interactive site for math and science. Students are able to simulate science experiments (Gizmos) and are assessed on their learning. The other site is for math fact fluency practice and is extremely engaging for the students. I plan on incorporating these interactive technology sites into What BVS is classroom and home instruction.
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• Campbell’s Soup Labels • Box Tops for Education • Silver Tabs from aluminum cans
By Tobin Calder
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Fifth and Sixth Grade Mr. Symanski th
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The 5 and 6 graders kicked off their Social Studies by studying a society they are experts on, Bridgewater. They did this by taking on the role of social scientists who look at how a society works, plays, governs, moves, and communicates. The class was divided into groups based on those topics and made a list of how they are represented throughout their town. After coming up with sub-groups and examples, they displayed their results on a web in our classroom. Now, as we study the first people to come to the North and South American continents thousands of years before Columbus, we refer to the Bridgewater web to make connections. For example, the students noted how the Iroquois Indians governed through a confederacy. Then they connected it with Bridgewater’s own form of governing through Town Hall Meetings.
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