Conference and Homework Info And Canned Food Drive Kick-Off

Parent-teacher conferences are this week. If you haven't signed up for a slot yet, please do so. If no conference is needed, please fill in the Thursday slots. I will be sending out zoom links this weekend if you signed up for one. If I am not on at the start of our time, please be patient. I will be with you as soon as I am able. If you signed up for a phone conference I will call you at the number you provided. Please be aware that the school phone # is listed as private and some homes do not accept calls from private callers. If I can not get through I will send you an email notification letting you know I was unable to reach you. 

Sign up at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0A4AAAA829A2FC1-parent

As for the in-person conferences. You are invited to park in the bus loop along 114. Our wing is the 1st one to the left of the courtyard. We will have signs posted for the 4th gr. wing. Please come in and wait in the hall outside my classroom. If I am running late, please knock to let me know you are there. 

Since we had a 3-day week last week, our normal schedule was not followed. Instead, we worked on science research projects and we learned about habitats and the different adaptations animals have to survive. The kids got to create their own made-up animal and research a real one. Because of the change, we did not have spelling tests this week, so if your child did their homework last week, they will not have any due this week. We will have the spelling test this Friday and there will be no homework over Thanksgiving break. If your child did not complete their homework, they have another week to work on it. 

Many of you have already returned the field trip permission slips. Thank you. If you haven't done so yet, you still have some time, but I just don't want anyone to forget. This is our first field trip in years so we are very excited to have this again. 

A form went home about a free eye screening for your child. If you are interested, please return that form this week. If you need a new form or field trip permission slip please let me know. 

Thursday we had a Veterans Day assembly. The children did a wonderful job listening to the presenters and the kids that performed. We learned many things about the day and about the different branches of the military. 

Last week began the annual canned food drive to help collect non-perishable food items for the local food pantry.  You can bring in non-perishable food items until Dec. 9th. Prizes will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place classrooms. Help us help the community!

And coming up next week the 4th grade will be having NH Day! We will team up with all the 4th grade to rotate through different stations and learn about NH. 

The kids also earned 20 compliments from other teachers and earned another class reward day. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we will be celebrating. the kids will choose what the reward is this week. They'll let you know what they decided. 

Halloween and Other Upates

Our costume event for Halloween will take place this Friday. Remember, no weapons, masks, full face paint, or inflatable costumes. This is, of course, optional.

Our Halloween Party will take place on Monday. Please let me know if you are able to bring in some treats or party supplies. We really appreciate your help with this. 

We are having a pumpkin decorating contest and we ask that small pumpkin and decorating supplies be brought in by Tuesday. I can't wait to see what they come up with!

Picture Retake Day is this Thursday, If your child was absent, they would get their picture taken. If you want a retake, please bring in the proof and package (if you got one) and they will send you a new picture package /proof.

Parent-teacher conferences will take place 11/14-11/16.  Conferences are in person, however, you can indicate if you'd prefer zoom, phone call, or none needed at this time. Sign up for a slot on   signupgenius.com

WMS and CWES and their PTO's are partnering together for a fall festival of fun! This Saturday from 2-6 there will be a variety of things for families. There will be a trunk or treat, craft fair, chili cook-off, silent auction and much more. This event is $8 for a wristband with access to everything(including the movie) or you can come and watch Hocus Pocus from 6:30-8:30 for $2. Proceeds go to help fund the 8th Gr. D.C. Trip. We hope to see you there! 

Reminders that we now have popcorn every Friday available for $.50 and every Thursday, a snack cart comes by with some snacks and drinks available to purchase. Items are between $.25 and 1.50.

Open House

 This Thursday is our open house. Families are invited to come in and learn about what goes on during your child's day. The open house begins at 5:30 in the gym where there will be a welcome from the administrative team. After that, you will go to our classroom and I will have a small presentation about what goes on from day to day, the curriculum, grading, and homework. That takes place from 5:45-6:15. After that, you are welcome to visit the Unified Arts classrooms and the book fair. Everything ends promptly at 7, so if you intend on visiting the book fair, please make sure to do that sooner rather than later. You do not need to stay till 7

If you have children in other grades, the 5:45-6:15 slots are in common rooms where the whole grade level team will be doing a presentation. Then the 6:15-7 slot is for visiting their homeroom, UA teachers, and book fair. 

I understand that not everyone can be in 2 or 3 places at once, so I will find time to go over the presentation again if you need to do another child's grade level meeting first. 

I do hope that you are able to attend and see what your child gets to do for most of their day. I look forward to meeting you!

Loving the start to the year!

What an amazing group of kids in this class! I have seen so many helpful and kind behaviors, as well as some very well-mannered kiddos. So far we have been working on community building and learning about respect in our Character Counts lessons, and these children do a great job reflecting that!

This past week we began working on our core subjects. In math, we reviewed place values and adding 3-digit numbers. The children discussed various strategies they solved these problems, and now we are preparing for our beginning of the year assessments. If your child has a pair of headphones/earbuds that they have yet to bring in, please do so soon. They use them for the computers when we take our assessments. Thank you.

In language arts, we are reviewing parts of speech and we have begun reading a chapter book. We discuss strategies that the author uses in the book and how good readers identify these strategies to help them read and understand as they go. 

New Hampshire is the main focus of the social studies curriculum. The children have learned about the physical features of the land and how glaciers and our weather helped form our landscape.

The children helped me make a story for writing. We wrote about ice cream. We identified paragraphs, where to indent and how many sentences a paragraph may have. We discussed run-on sentences and how to edit some writing to change it up. This is a precursor to them writing their own paper about themselves. 

Some things to know: 

*We have no school this Tuesday.
* Picture Day is 9/20- To order prints online go to geskusprints.com and use the code B8N7DXYG
* We'll also be taking our first visit to the Weare Public Library. If your child is in need of a library card and you didn't receive a little yellow form to fill out for one, please let me know. If your child already has a card, they will be able to look them up in the system and the kids will be able to check out some books that day. 
* Open House will take place Thursday 9/29. Families are welcome to come see our classroom and take a tour of the school. There will also be a book fair taking place in the library. It is open to everyone. If you can't make it, we will be visiting the fair and the kids will have the chance to create a wish list for you to look at. Forms should be going home soon with additional information about e-wallet and dates. It runs through 10/6.
*Lastly (for now) Please, Please, Please send in a water bottle with your child. I have some cups that they have been using, but they are small, they spill, and I don't have many left. I'd rather see them reuse a water bottle than waste a cup. It also saves time with children having to leave the classroom. I truly appreciate your support with this. 

It's Happening!!

 Hello Families, 

A new school year is upon us! It's almost here. I am very much looking forward to working with you and your child this year. I love this time of year because I get to meet so many new people and get back to doing what I love. 

As you read through the blog, you will notice on the left side are titles of different things that will answer many of the questions you have about the school, classroom, and generic procedures. On the right is a list of upcoming events. You can check here to see if there is anything coming up or if things are due.

I will send out an email when I update the blog so that you can check in from time to time. I do my newsletters electronically, but if you do not have access, please let me know and I will get you a printout of the latest post. 

Please reach out at any time by phone or email. I understand what uncertainties can come with the start of a new year, so please don't hesitate to get in touch with me. 

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.