Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
We had a fantastic week at school with many special events and projects.  Ms. Jess finished her solo week last week and she did a terrific job.  The kids love her and we will all miss her very much when she graduates from St Michael's College and pursues her career as a teacher outside of Vermont.  Her last day with us will be on April 20th.  Since Ms. Jess was a big part of our Vermont animal writing unit, we decided to invite parents to join our classroom for an Open House on Thursday, April 19th for a celebration of all the work that went into this unit.  The students will display their animal habitat structures and animal books.  We will also show our google slideshow about these animals. Parents are invited to come between 1:45-2:30pm.  We understand that it is difficult for parents to come in the middle of the day during the work week, so we will also share these books during our Reading Restaurant (which is scheduled for May 17th, more information below).  The children will also take home their habitat structures on the 19th and we will post our google slideshow so you can view it online.  If you are interested in coming, please let me know in an email.  Thank you!
We already shared our animal habitats with the students in Mr. Deyo's Kindergarten class.  They visited our class last week.  Thank you for coming and celebrating our hard work.

Reading:
The students did an amazing job reading for our Iditarod Reading race!  Thank you to those who participated in this fun reading game.  Please make sure that your child reads at home every night.  Your child should be bringing home "just right" books, or books of interest every week in his/her book bag.  Your child can read other books too, of course.  The books brought home from the classroom library are simply suggestions for additional reading and hopefully engaging because your child picked them out.  Ask your child why he/she picked those books?  What makes them interesting?  Read them together and discuss the characters.  How are they the same, or different, from other characters in other books?  Did they change in the story?  Why do you think?  Ask your child to make connections to his/her own experiences.  If your child brings home non-fiction books, talk about the new vocabulary introduced.  What new information did your child learn?  What was particularly interesting?
 The Iditarod Reading Race ended on March 30th so your child should have packed a regular reading log inside his/her Friday folder for next week. To end our unit on the Iditarod, Harmony House invited "Peace Pups", a Vermont-based musher and sled-dog team.  The children learned about dog-sledding, the equipment and they even had the opportunity to pet the dogs.

Writing:
As discussed during our conferences, the children are learning how to write opinion pieces now.  They are doing a great job organizing their writing into clear arguments.  Last week, we started our persuasive letters.  The students each chose a person to write to.  They are asking this person for something that is very special to them.  Some students are writing to mom and dad asking for a trampoline or a tree house.  Some students are asking me for a class pet or longer explore time.  We will share these letters at our Reading Restaurant.

Science:
The students have been busy learning about fast land-form changes in the last few weeks.  First, we learned about volcanoes. We went outside to see a "volcanic eruption" using diet coke and mentos.  Your child should have brought his/her own volcano  home for yet another trial.

Then, we learned about earthquakes.  First, we used hard-boiled eggs to see how the tectonic plates create cracks in the earth's crust.

After that, we started a series of investigations in an attempt to simulate what happens during an earthquake and why it is so dangerous.  Last week, the students build cities out of blocks, which they carefully shook to see what happened.  Next week, we will continue these investigations, but instead of using wooden blocks, we will use legos and styrofoam.

Jump Rope for Hearts:
Our traditional Jump Rope for Hearts was a huge success this year. A few weeks ago, Ms. Porter challenged the students to raise more that $20,000.  If they did, she promised that another teacher could pour a 5 gallon bucket of slime over her.  Well, the students responded to this challenge.  They met the goal, so on Friday, Ms. Porter was "slimed" by Mrs. Benoit!!

Upcoming Events & Reminders:

• Harmony House will host our traditional Reading Restaurant on May 17th.  All the classes on Harmony invite parents and other family members to join our respective classrooms to celebrate the students' writing pieces throughout the year.  There will be two different sessions; one between 6-6:40pm, the other between 6:50-7:30pm.  Your family will be assigned a slot and we will send home a sign-up sheet for you to let us know if you can come, or not, and how many people will come in your party.  We try to balance each session between first and second grade families.    Your child will "work" during the time you are invited.  Your child will perhaps "work" in our kitchen, or as a "waiter".  We do not serve food.  We serve stories.  More information will follow.  For now, please save the date for our Harmony Reading Restaurant!  Thank you!
• Harmony House will go on a field-trip soon!  On May 1st, Ms. Gravelin's class and mine will join together to visit Shelburne Farms to study ponds.  This will be an outdoor activity day so we have to watch the weather as we get closer to dress accordingly.  (Hopefully there will be no snow at least!)
• ABS will celebrate Arbor Day in the afternoon of April 20th on the field behind the playground.
• We have 4 Winds on May 3rd.  Please make sure your child comes to school ready for outdoor explorations.