Weekly Update

Dear Families,
I apologize that I did not write an update last week, but since we had Reading Restaurant, I got to see you all here in our classroom!  What a terrific night we had!  I am so proud of all of the students and their hard work this year.  Thank you all for coming and thank you all for writing such thoughtful comments to our authors!  I realized that I never took any pictures.  I got so into experiencing the moment that I completely forgot, so if you have any pictures from Reading Restaurant that you would like to share, please send them my way.  I was hoping to post them on our blog so we can all enjoy them.  Thank you!

As the school year is coming to an end, we are in the midst of various assessments in reading, writing and math.  Report cards will go out on the last day of school (June 13th).  We will not have parent-teacher conferences before summer, but if you and your family wish to sit down and discuss learning activities for the summer, I am happy to accommodate those requests.  Please let me know.  Thank you.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to list all of our specials and upcoming events in the weeks to come:

• Tuesday June 3rd, 2nd grade Step-Up Day.  2nd graders will visit WCS to meet their new classroom teacher and class-mates.  1st graders will stay on Harmony.  Families should be receiving their child's placement today or tomorrow.
• Wednesday June 4th.  We are scheduled to visit the Library Bookmobile.  This is a great opportunity for you and your child to read over the summer!
• Wednesday June 4th.  We are scheduled to go to the 3-4 Chorus at WCS.  The concert starts at 2pm so we will dismiss from WCS.  If you are picking up your child on that day, please come to WCS.  A bus will bring a;; Part 2 students back.  Other children will board their regular buses.
• Thursday June 5th, Kindergarten Step-Up Day.  First graders will meet their new classmates and we will do a small activity together to get to know each other before summer.
• Monday June 9th, Fun Day at WCS.  We will take the bus to WCS and participate in various outdoor activities between 9-11am.  The bus will take us back to ABS and we will have regular lunch and recess here.
• Wednesday June 11th, Field-trip to Catamount.  We will leave ABS at 10am and return around 1pm.  Your child will need a packed nut-free snack and lunch.  We will also go on a short hike (about 1.5 miles) so please make sure your child is dressed according to the weather.  Sneakers and layers work best!  Extra water would be great as well. Thank you!  I hope you all saw the permission slip and the informational paperwork regarding this trip in yesterday's Thursday folder.  Some children already returned the permission slips.  Thank you!  If you did not read/see this, please look again.  Your child brought it home yesterday and it is important that we get your signature before next Friday so your child can go.  If your child's Thursday folder was not in the classroom yesterday, he/she brought home the information about this field-trip as a loose sheet of paper.  
• Last day of school is June 13th.  It is a half-day with dismissal at 11:30am.  If you want your child to have a school lunch that day, please let me know so I can order it for your child.  (The choices are ham or turkey sandwishes)
• Thank you!  Have a great weekend

Google Site

Click here to gt to our A is for Allen Brook google site.

Weekly Update

Dear Families,
We had a busy and learning-filled week together.  It was great to see everyone again after Spring vacation and hear about all the fun activities the children had done.  It does not feel like Spring, though, with all this rain and cold weather.  Hopefully, it will warm up soon!

We are getting ready for our Reading Rstaurant.  It is scheduled for May 22nd.  Seating assignments went home last week.  Thank you for returning the slips to us.  Your family has been assigned a time slot to visit our restaurant.  We have 2 seatings; one from 6-6:40pm, and another between 6:50-7:30pm.  If the time slot does not work for your family, please let me know as soon as possible.  We divide the class into two sections so we have enough room to accommodate all family members.  Your child will also "work" during the time you visit.  We have a "kitchen" staff (who will be in charge of getting our writing pieces together), and we have a waiters who will assist our guests and "serve" our stories.  A host, or hostess, will greet the guests when they arrive.  In other words, guests will be seated in our reading restaurant.  Please return the seating slips and indicate how many people will attend in your party as soon as possible.  We have to make sure we have enough chairs and comfortable tables to accommodate everyone. The children are very excited to perform and share their stories.  This year, we also hope to provide laptops and ipads so our guests can read our recently published story "A is for Allen Brook" online.  The book is truly amazing!  I am so proud of all the children.  They worked very hard on their topics and the research involved was rigorous.  We also have a google site to go along with this project and we hope you will take the time to explore these digital books as well. Please know that you can also order this book online if you wish.  I will share the link with you at a later date; we wish to unveil the story at our Reading restaurant!

As a last step in this online book publication process, Denise and I would like to video-tape the children reading their own writing pieces.  We would like to link these videos to our web-site.  The video would provide another celebratory way to share the students' writing and hard work and it would also allow more children to access all the research that was done throughout this project.  The web-site will be public when it is done and it will be shared in various ways (such as linked on my blog, shared at the technology conference that we're attending etc).  The children's names will not be shared.  In fact, there will be no names and identifying traits connecting to the videos and the writing pieces. If you and your family wish to opt out from this video-taping, please respond and let me know via email as soon as possible ).  We already had May 2nd as a deadline, but I wanted to double-check to make sure so if you can let me know by May 9th, I would appreciate it.  If you give permission to have your child be video-taped reading his/her writing and posted on our web-site, there is no need to tell me.  If I do not hear from you, I assume you have given me permission to link and share this video.

 Reminders:

• May 8th, Field-trip to the Flynn Theater to see "Stewart Little".  Bus leaves in the morning, show starts at 9:30am.
• May 9th, Visit WCS to see "Beauty and the Beast".  Show starts at 12:00 so we will have lunch in the classroom (nut free lunch for all please.  If your child has hot lunch, he/she will get a bag lunch that day).  If your child nee3ds a bag lunch, please let me know as soon as possible because I need to let the kitchen staff know.  Thank you! As the show is rather long, we will also dismiss from WCS.  Children will board their normal bus from WCS.  If your child attends Part 2, a bus will take them back to ABS and I will also ride this bus.  If you are picking up your child on that day, please pick up in the office at WCS.  Thank you!
• Let's have a great week!