Word Work

Kindergartners work with words every day- noticing, reading and writing interesting words; building and reading CVC words; practicing heart words over and over until they can read them in a SNAP; writing words into strings of sentences to convey messages to readers through storytelling and story writing; reading familiar and new words in books to understand meaning, and so much more!  Word work during Daily 5 is just one component and offers students just right words for themselves to build and work at becoming literate individuals. This time lets children explore how words are made and allows children to work at their own independent level.  Students choose words that are challenging for them and practice recording them in many different ways.  In addition, students get daily practice with correct letter formation.

ECO Fundraiser

It is with great excitement that we will start this upcoming school year by adding all 3rd graders to our existing Educating Children Outdoor (ECO) program, which is currently enjoyed by students in Kindergarten through second grade here at Union Elementary. Below is more information about this unique program.

This also means that we need to raise additional funding to cover the expense of having a naturalist from North Branch Nature Center to participate with each class.

Our first fundraiser will be a Community Garage Sale to be held in our Big Gym on May 18th from 8:30-2:00 pm. Parent volunteers are needed in a variety of ways:

1. Drop off Items on Friday, May 17th between 3:00-6:00pm.  

2. Set-up help is needed on Friday from 3:00-7:00

3. Volunteering a couple of hours on Saturday to oversee the sale

4. Clean-up at 2:00.

5. Trucking items on Friday to the  sale and removing  leftover items on Sat. 

6. Publicizing the event on the radio, tv, web, flyers etc.

Volunteers may contact Theresa Giffin at theresa@mpsvt.org. 

Teacher Appreciation Week

Thank you to everybody who helped their child show appreciation for me this week.  The flowers, plants, cards, poems, baked goods, gifts, etc were amazing and I can't thank you enough for your kind efforts to show your appreciation.  You and your children are amazing and I look forward to another year building our relationship, extending your child's learning and working together to make this happen!

VT Animal Projects

After completing our nonfiction animal reports, children explored their animal and showed their understanding in two other ways.  Students wrote poems and created masks depicting their VT animal. Students have been having so much fun learning about each other's animals and extending their own knowledge on different animals that live in Vermont. Stop by the hall outside our classroom to read your child's animal reports.  INQUIRE with them three things they know about their animal.

Math Games

Children have been continuing to solve word problems this past week and engage in number sense math games.  New math games on addition facts to 10 have been the new focus, sequencing numbers and exploring more and less, writing numerals, and adding on when counting by 5's has been the current focus for math. INQUIRE with your child how to play, Up and Down the River, Drop it, 5's addition, Dice Role, or Which Number Sentence Will Win.   

Plant Experiments

Students have been engrossed in the scientific method while monitoring the growth of the bulbs we put in water a few weeks back.  The children decided to test to see if the bulbs would grow under different conditions.  This week, students observed that the bulbs that were sitting immersed in the water were getting moldy, while the bulbs perched on top so just the roots were in the water were thriving and growing.  Over the course of this experiment, students have been making observations, hypothesizing, and recording the results in their science journals.

Life Cycle of a Chicken

Every few days students are journaling their observations of what is happening inside the eggs and also about the incubation process.  Through daily calendar markers, students are learning about the process the embryo is going through in becoming a chick and its growth.  We are reading a range of nonfiction text about chickens and incorporating our background knowledge into new learning.



As we read more nonfiction books about chickens, we are also learning about other oviporous animals. Students are learning the difference between oviporous and viviporous animals and reading and writing their own nonfiction books about these animals.  INQUIRE with your child what the difference is.

We added the -en word family this week in honor of the words, "hen" and "chicken."  Students are exploring and finding new words to add to this word family.  Many were excited to figure out another student fit into this category of words. INQUIRE with your child if they can spell these -en family words.

Guest Reader

We had two guest readers this week.  Both Diane and Kim joined us to share some of their favorite books!  Last week, Cindy joined our class (while I was out - sorry no picture!) to read stories and share photos about the Everglades National Park in Florida.  Thank you to all those who continue to share their love of learning and reading with our class.  

Birds

Suzanne and Melanie joined us on Wednesday to teach us about birds and their adaptations that help them survive.  We learned how birds come in many different sizes, shapes, and colors and each is adapted to survive in its own particular environment.  We learned about birds have specially designed beaks, wings, eyes, and feet and about how some are adapted to fly great distances, dive, hunt, or stay warm in cold weather. Students enjoyed a puppet show, slideshow, and a fun bird feeding game outside. We hope to go on a bird walk next week as a follow up to this lesson.  INQUIRE with your child what role a birds beak, feet, and wings play in its survival.

Lettuce Planting

On Tuesday, after reading some nonfiction text on the lettuce plant, we met our buddies and traveled to the high school in extremely hot temperatures!  We joined Gwen from the Vermont Compost Company to plant lettuce.  While at the high school greenhouse, we toured and learned about how students in high school grow and take care of their lettuce as part of their biology class.  Students also learned about how the compost we collect at our school gets turned into compost, which turns into soil, which then helps the lettuce grow.  The lettuce grown at the high school  gets brought to UES to be eaten at lunch!  We were so lucky to try many different kids of lettuce and also to plan our own! INQUIRE with your child which type of lettuce was their favorite!

Poetry

Last week, students were immersed with poetry.  Students used their ears to listen, their minds to visualize, and their heart to feel.  We heard poems from famous children's poets - Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutzky and many more.  We learned about how poets sometimes tell stories in a shorter way and like to use rhyme and rhythym in their writing.  We spent a lot of time working on the reading strategy of 'checking for understanding,' visualizing,' and 'retelling' as we heard a variety of poems.  As we made movies inside our heads as we listened to poetry, students made illustrations to show the important idea of the poem.  Some students took a stab at reading poetry - individually and in partners.  Some were surprised to learn that familiar nursery rhymes are considered poetry. This week we will begin writing poetry about animals and next week about caring for the earth.

Number Stories

Last week, kindergartners solved and then created their own frog number stories.  Students have been working on understanding number stories and thinking about the most important information.  They have been focusing on the information given and also the question asked. Once they have pinpointed this information, students set out to solve the problem - through pictures and words.  Students write and draw their thinking and try to put as much information to 'prove' their answer. Students have been learning how important it is for mathematicians to do this - and how just knowing the answer is not enough.  These frog number stories engage children in solving addition and subtraction problems in a sophisticated manner.  After working on six different frog number stories and solving each one, each child made their own number story about frogs.  INQUIRE with your child what their number story was?  Tell your child a story from your own life and have them solve it.  Ex. If each member of our family needs a fork, spoon, and knife at dinner, how many utensils will be on the table all together?

Peace Tiles

Over vacation, Mrs. Kane put together the peace tiles in a few large murals. Students from grade K-5 participated in this project. Tiles are arranged by color - not class, so it's been quite fun trying to pick out our own tile. If you're around school, make sure you stop by the cafeteria - and look up.  The murals are BEAUTIFUL and bring such peace to our school.  INQUIRE with your child whether they have noticed theirs.  What materials did they use to create their tile. What is peaceful to them?