Dear Families,

We are busy learners in our classroom! Students are publishing their Vermont animal writing by ensuring they have long and strong sentences teaching their audience about their animal using non-fiction text features. They are so proud of their work. We look forward to celebrating and sharing their writing in class soon! As each student completes their writing, I am working with each student to compile a digital class book about all of our Vermont animals using the app BookCreator on our iPads. This book will include one page from each students' book.  This will be available to share and read on any tablet, iPad or electronic reading device!

Our team, along with team Synergy, received a grant to have author and illustrator Tracey Pearson Campbell come to ABS and spend a day with us! Tracey will be at ABS on Thursday. We have been reading her book and are getting very excited for her to join us. We look forward to the opportunity to learn from her and illustrate with her. Learn more about Tracey here!

Friendly reminder to sign up for parent/teacher conferences. Click here to sign-up on our conference wiki. Let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to seeing you!

Lastly, students are busy reading, reading and reading some more to complete their Iditarod "checkpoints."  I love reading everyone's summaries. To help your child complete these at home, encourage them to write complete sentences by restating "This book was about...." or "My favorite part was when......" and check for capital letters when appropriate and punctuation. Here is a link for some fun Iditarod information to look at together! Enjoy. :)

Best,
Katie

Classroom Update

Dear Families,

I hope everyone had a relaxing break! We had a wonderful week back from break. All your children returned to school eager to start our Iditarod/Iditaread unit.  Each student was assigned a musher that is currently racing in the Last Great Race on Earth. Each morning after arrival, your children check their status and track their musher's progress.  We've read many wonderful books and stories learning about the race, it's history and training as a musher. Ask your children about the bravest dog ever, Balto.  Please be sure your child reads and completes their Iditaread Checkpoint sheets. Each checkpoint they complete gets them one checkpoint closer to Nome! We will be using the Iditaread Checkpoint sheets in lieu of their Reading Log for the month of March. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you to Kelley Anderson for another fantastic Four Winds lesson. Everyone loved learning about Trees in Winter! We learned all the different parts of a twig, made scientific observations and notes while we dissected twigs. Please see photos below.

Then, we had a school-wide celebration to reward all students for all their positive behaviors! Our class works so hard to Be Kind, Be Safe and Be Responsible! This was a well-deserved treat and all students LOVED it.  The Rigby Snowboarding Park came to ABS for the day! Each classes received an introduction to snowboarding. Everyone had a blast rotating through all the different stations. Ask your child to show you their medal they received! Enjoy all the pictures. :)

Students are working hard on their Vermont animal report writing. We have transitioned from the research and note taking process to now turning our notes into long and strong sentences. Writers are using non-fiction text features that we have learned to enhance their writing. Once we complete our writing we will edit and revise our pieces to publish our best work!

Just before break students completed a five week rotation of workshops all about Vermont. Here are a few photos from my workshop about Lake Champlain. Below students are "fishing in the lake" and learning about different fish that live in Lake Champlain!

Cheers to another wonderful week together! 

Best,

Katie