Field Day

 As many of you know, Field Day is tomorrow!  There are some recommended items that your child should have to help make this more comfortable for them. 

1. We will be outside for half the day and there is no real shade. Please apply sunscreen /bug spray at home.
2. Darker t-shirt, (we're playing in the water and dark shirts tend to not be as see-through).
3. Towel
4. Socks and sneakers- or water sandals. No flip-flops or shoes that shouldn't get wet. These should be shoes that won't fall off.
5. Change of clothes and /or shoes
6. Water Bottle
7. We will still have snack and lunch will be 30 min earlier. It will be a picnic BBQ-type lunch. If your child would still like to bring in their own lunch that is fine. 

A lot to Talk About

 There is a lot that has been happening in our classroom that I want to share with everyone. First, we had a winner for the Iditarod. Brent Sass won this year's race and one of our students was following him. 

For the past 2 Fridays, we've been doing a sort of enrichment project with one of our Paras. She is originally from South Africa and the children showed a real interest in learning more about it. Every Friday (we hope) She will spend some time talking to the children about the culture, animals, schools, and facts about South Africa. Last week, she taught the children where South Africa is and they learned about the different languages. She brought in a custard pie for the children. This week she spoke o them about the schools, dances, and we got a special surprise. Her Aunt-in-law is the principal at one of the schools. They got the 4th graders there to say hello, just to us!  We will be recording a message to send back to them this week. We got to try some fried dough drenched in syrup and chilled. These are true South African dishes and it's been wonderful that we've been able to have this experience. Below is the message from the other 4th grade students. 

                    

Your child brought home some flour Friday. There was a paper in there explaining the premise of "baking for good" and how to help the community. I hope some of you were able to bake bread with your child and if you were able to make extras for the food pantry, they are collecting it tomorrow. 

We are collecting pennies (or other monetary donations) for the Miles of Pennies Challenge. The goal is to collect 84,480 pennies to equal 1 mile ($884.80). The donations received will be shared between 4 charities; Dana Farber Cancer Institute, SPCA Animal Rescue League, and St. Josephs's Indian School. This runs until April Break- 4/22.

The Weare Fun Run 5K is coming up Friday May 13th @ 4pm. I hear this is a lot of fun! Registration forms were sent home with children who were interested. If you would like one, you can find it online, in the main office, or please let me know and I can send one home. 

"The Help Desk" is a play performed by our middle school students. It is Friday, April 15 @7pm, or Sat 4/16 @2pm. Tickets are $8 each or 4 for $28. Tickets are not sold at the door. Please order online at wearemiddleschool.net

We will be visiting the Weare Public Library every other Monday. If children have books to return or ones they want to check out this would be the time to do it. We will be going tomorrow. 

And lastly, there have been some changes in the way students have been speaking to others and their overall tolerance of classroom procedures. I did speak with them last week and told them that I would be pointing out the times they called out. I wanted to show them how often they caused some type of distraction. This worried many children and they were afraid that they'd get in trouble or not be allowed to do some of the things we'd been able to do before. Many seemed worried of failure. This discussion prompted many emotions that had been bubbling below the surface for many children. Although we had a very emotional day on Thursday, it was, I think, a much-needed conversation. Children got to express their feelings, talk to others about things that bothered them and we tried to come up with ideas and solutions. We started to work together. We began Friday with Munchkins to sweeten our day (Thanks to one of our moms). We got the surprise message from the Children in South Africa, and we ended our day with the King Arthur Flour Bread demonstration. Friday was much more relaxed and peaceful and I hope that feeling continues. 

The Race is On!

The Iditarod is called The Last Great Race. It is a 1,050-mile sled dog race across Alaska. It is something that we have been focused on for the last 2 weeks. The children have been learning the history behind it, researching their veteran mushers, tracking the distances their mushers go each day, and they graph that distance every day. We've been working on writing letters to the dog K-( journalist team. There are several dogs who report out about what's happening on the trail and the kids are typing these letters so we can email it to the dogs. This has been very interesting to follow as many of the mushers the kids are following have been in the top 10. We will probably end it next week as I expect the race to have its winner Monday or Tuesday. We'll keep tracking the mushers until the race is finally finished when the last musher has crossed the finish line.

Monday starts our book fair. It lasts until Friday. I will send home order forms tomorrow so you can look through them and see if there is anything you might like your child to purchase. My hope is to go down on Wednesday afternoon. You can either send your child in with money, or they can write a wish list. If you would like them to get a book from their list, you can send them in with the exact change Thursday or Friday. You are also welcome to come shopping with your child after school. 

 Trimester 2 is ending in 2 weeks. I will be sending home report cards Monday, March 28. 

Your children have been working this triester on researching people and creating a biography report. They have been reading different fractured fairy tales and are about to create their own. We've been learning different parts of speech and grammar skills. In math, more in-depth multiplication has been our main focus. We are spending this month learning long division. In science, we learned about sound and light energy. We got to do some fun experiments. 

Remember that there is an early release Tuesday 3/29. Dismissal is at 11:30. 

Popcorn Days are every Thursday and are 50 cents each.

Remote learning day after vacation

 Voting Day takes place the Tuesday we return from vacation, March 8th. Because voting takes place at the middle school, grades 4-8 will be having a remote learning day. Center woods and John Stark will not have a remote day. They will be at school. We were scheduled to have an early release day on the 7th, however, that has been rescheduled to Tuesday, March 29th @ 11:30. 

It's Almost Vacation Time!

 What a week this will turn out to be! Tu-tu Twosday, Invention Convention, Presidents Day, and vacation.

Tuesday as you know is 2/22/22 and it's on a Tuesday. To celebrate, kids are invited to wear Tu-Tu's to school.

Friday is the Invention Convention. Children will bring their inventions and posters to the Common Room when they get to school. Please have your child bring in the permission slip stating that they can participate in the Convention. If you need another one, just ask. If there is a snow day, they will bring it in on the Monday we come back from vacation. 

Today we talked a little about President's Day and we read a story about Abe Lincoln.

The children have been learning about the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska. So far we have learned the history as to why the Iditarod was started. They picked their veteran mushers today and will be researching that person and making a poster about them. Then we will pick a rookie musher to follow as well.  The children will be tracking their mushers as they travel throughout the race, they will be writing to the K-9 Journalists- Dogs who post information about the race, and they will be putting on a play to learn more about the rules of the race. So far the kids really seem to like this unit. It encompasses research, history, graphing and map skills, elapsed time and distance traveled, writing, reading, and math. We learn more about the Alaskan terrain and weather. The race begins while we are on vacation- Saturday, March 5th. You can follow along at iditarod.com

In reading, we are learning about fractured fairy tales- Specifically Cinderella. We are looking at what makes a fractured fairy tale (Change the characters, setting, point of view the story is written in, etc...) The children are reading about troll, bigfoot, and dinosaur cinderellas, they are looking at it from the stepmother's point of view. They are reading stories from different cultures that are similar to Cinderella. Then the children will be doing a readers theatre play on another version and hopefully can create their own fractured fairy tale. 

In math, we are continuing to learn about multiplication. Our focus though is shifting to converting units of measurement like time and weight.

Valentine Class List

 To help you with your valentines- here is a class list. 

Liam, Eva, Collin, Dylan, Ryder, Teagan, Jeremiah, Tyler, Greyson, Serenity, Gavin, Shaelan, Kiersten, Arabella

Valentine's Day Party

 This Friday, the 11th we will have our Valentine's Day Party. (snow date Monday 2/14) We will exchange cards and have some light snacks. Your child is welcome to make or purchase cards to give to everyone in the class. There are 14 students (and 2 adults. But often 3). If you would like to contribute anything to our party, please let me know. 

The invention convention has started. The children who chose to participate have until 2/28 to work on their projects, inventions, and displays. Not every child chose to make an invention. This is not a classroom activity. These projects are to be worked on at home. Your child went home last week with an instruction journal. Some will bring home a trifold poster board if they asked for one. Please note that this is an extracurricular activity and is not an assignment for class. if you have questions you can contact me, or Wil Crabtree who is in charge of the invention convention. wil.crabtree@sau24.org. I hope your child has fun making their creations. I am excited to see what their imaginations come up with.

We have finished our mid-year assessments. I was so glad to see the progress many of these kids are making. Because of that, we were able to open up enrichment sessions to more students. Those who made it in start this week. I'm so proud of how far they have come and continue to grow.