Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, we reviewed what the word “respect” means and how we can show respect in our classroom and at our school.  We discovered that we can show respect to each other by listening and by paying attention to each other’s ideas and thoughts.  We also discovered that we can show respect in many different small ways.  Please consider doing your child’s “Second Step Home Link” assignment inside this week’s Home Folder.  This is not required but if your child wants to return it to school on Monday that would be great.  

• Our ABS therapy dog, Bea, visited our classroom this week for a quick reintroduction.  We got a chance to learn from Ms. Akey, Bea’s handler, and ask her questions about Bea’s days at school.  Thank you for visiting us!

• Ms. Nicole, our school SEL Coach, joined our class too for a restorative circle. A restorative circle provides a framework for the students, with the help of adults, to proactively solve problems and build stronger relationships together.  This week, we learned about the importance of including everyone and respectfully listen to each other’s ideas. We will continue to build our sense of community and belonging with Ms. Nicole this semester.  She will join us weekly for these wonderful opportunities.  Thank you Ms. Nicole. 

• The students filled our classroom buzzy jar again for being safe, kind and responsible.  We celebrated with a stuffed animal day.  It was so fun to learn and play along with our favorite stuffed animals.

Reading:

• We continued to practice our routines and norms in the reader's workshop.  The students rotate beautifully between independent reading and Lexia already!  Thank you for supporting this online reading program at home too.

• We started reading groups this week too!  It is wonderful to meet in small reading groups and enjoy books together.  As you may recall from last year, the students participate in guided reading groups with a teacher/adult in a reader's workshop model.  During these times, instruction is differentiated to meet each student’s learning needs and instruction addresses reading accuracy, decoding/phonics activities, fluency and comprehension.  The students read a variety of books together and share their understanding.

• We continued immersing ourselves in chapter books and different series.  I am delighted to hear from many students that they have borrowed the books we read at school from the local libraries to read at home!  Thank you for supporting their passion and enthusiasm for books at home!  This week we completed our “Key Hunters” book (Eric Luper) and started a new series called “The Alien Next Door” by A. I. Newton and Anjan Sarkar.

Writing:

• Fundations groups started this week.  The students of Harmony will participate in small spelling groups led by different teachers on Harmony. The students are grouped by their individual spelling needs and they might not have their home/core teacher for this class.  This year, all of our Harmony classroom teachers will teach groups along with Mr. Roth, our new Special Educator and Ms. Casey, our para educator.  Students will have Fundations classes every day except for Wednesdays.

Second Grade Math:

• This week, second grade mathematicians continued using their strategies to solve various story problems and looking at partners to 20, using both addition and subtraction.

• This week, they also started working on building a deeper understanding of our number sequence, ordering numbers in consecutive and non-consecutive ways.  They did a great job.  They primarily worked with numbers up to 200.

• We also explored place value definitions as we counted forward and backwards.  The students are encouraged to look at three digit numbers as having components of groups of hundreds, tens and ones, for example.  We built some of these numbers using our counting sticks, bundling up 10 groups of ten to show hundreds and bundled smaller groups of ten sticks to show the tens place, etc.  The students realized that a number in the 500s is much larger than a number in the 100s.

• We also continued writing our numbers to make sure the digits are not reversed, but correctly represented in print to reflect proper place value and direction.

News and Reminders:

• ABS Picture Day is 10/7/22.  More information will follow.

• ABS has an “Open House” on Thursday, September 29th between 6-7pm.  Parents and children are invited to visit our entire school and participate in a school-wide scavenger hunt. The School Bell has more information about this school-wide event.  Hope to see you then!

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

We had another learning-filled and busy week together.  Ms. Filion visited our class this week with a special read aloud about belonging and inclusion.  It fit beautifully into the themes that we have in our classroom this year.  Thank you Ms. Filion for reading to us.

Social-Emotional Learning:

• We continued discussing what the word “belonging” means and how our class can promote a sense of respect, compassion and kindness in our classroom.  The students shared their ideas with each other as we developed our classroom contract.  Our puppets Snail and Puppy also showed us how we can show respect and kindness to each other.  Ask your child to explain.

• This week, the students participated in a “Hopes and Dreams” project as well.  Traditionally, my class will do this project with Ms. Fisher’s class.  Our finished projects will later be on display on the wall over the students’ lockers as a visual reminder of the wonderful things we’re hoping to learn and do together this year.  This year, some students from Ms. Fisher’s class visited our room and shared their own writing/drawings before we started.  They answered questions from our class and provided inspiration.  Thank you for helping us get inspired!

• This week, the students also wrote/drew pictures about their feelings about coming back to school.  

• We continued to learn new games this week.  Ask your child to explain the game “Buzz”, “Boo-ga-loo”, and “Perdoodle”.  We also played an old favorite, “Keep it up” with balloons.  Enjoy these pictures:

Reading:

• The students practiced independent reading expectations and strategies this week.  They continued to practice our “5+1 Rule”.  This rule encourages the students to keep 5 “just right books” (books they can independently read for a long period of time) and 1 “choice book” (a book that might be too easy/ difficult to read but interests the student in another way) inside their book box.  The students are encouraged to exchange their books as soon as they have finished them rather than keeping already read books inside their book boxes.  The students are also practicing “classroom stewardship” as they carefully and respectfully handle these books so many children can enjoy them in the future.

• The students are also encouraged to immerse themselves in various chapter/series books.  This week, we added more books authored by Kate DiCamillo and the Key Hunters series (Eric Luper) to our collections. 

• 

• The students are eager to try these books and love to read many books about the same characters.  The predictability and familiarity leads to a deeper understanding of the plot and  leads to greater engagement and active reading in class as well.  I am so proud of these second grade readers.  If you have any old chapter/series books at home that are not being used/read anymore and would be willing to donate them to our classroom, I know our students would love to read them.  Thank you for considering.

Writing:

• This week, the students on Harmony continued our beginning of the year spelling assessments.  These assessments will help us create efficient and differentiated spelling groups in our Fundations classes.

• The students decorated their writing folders to reflect various aspects of their own unique talents, interests and hobbies.  These folders will store most of their writing pieces this school year.

Second Grade Math:

• Second grade mathematicians continued to build their understanding of odd and even numbers.  They are encouraged to understand these numbers as “partners”, ie a 2s pattern rather than a sequenced pattern reflecting odd, even, odd, even and so on as they count.  They showed their understanding using tiles, drawings and equations.  We also partnered students up in our classroom to build a deeper understanding.

• The students also participated in a unit assessment, which reviewed first grade math content and will help guide small group work in the weeks to come.  We will focus on counting forwards and backwards to 200, understand place value (ie 14 is not the same as 41), and anchoring to the next decuple to solve math problems using larger numbers.

Technology:

• The students signed into their new chromebooks this week and used Lexia.  They received new QR codes/clever badges to sign in and did a great job.  This year, all students have access to Lexia.  Lexia is a research-based reading program that allows students to practice phonological awareness skills and strategies in engaging ways.  Your child can also use this program at home.  Lexia differentiates to your child’s unique reading needs.  We strongly encourage parents to find as little as 10-15 minutes/day to allow your child to use this program.  Since Lexia responds to your child’s unique reading needs, it is important that your child solves the problems/questions independently.  If a question is frustrating to your child, ask your child to click on the icons for clues/help instead of giving them the answer.  This can be tricky as we want to help, but Lexia gathers information constantly and new questions/tasks are created based on the previous answers.  In class, we talked about trying your best and that it is okay to make mistakes.  The important thing when using Lexia is trying your best and not giving up.  Log in information containing passwords and usernames is inside your child’s Home Folder.  Please keep this at home for future use.  Thank you for considering using Lexia at home to support your child’s reading development..

• Please read and sign the Computer Contract which is inside your child’s Home Folder this week.  As soon as we get these contracts back at school, your child will be able to use our chromebooks during the day as part of our stations.  Thank you. 

News and Reminders:

• ABS Picture Day is October 7th.  More information will follow.

• While meals are free for students this year, your school still needs you to complete a school meal application. (On the left side at that link, you'll find a form that can be printed and filled out and an online form.)

 

When you return your school meal application, you are helping your student, your school, and our entire community. When more students turn in school meal applications, that means more money for education in the cafeteria and in the classroom. Even if you do not think you qualify for this, please take the time to fill out the form. Every response helps!

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

We had our two wonderful interns visit us this week.  Mr. Matt will join us once a week and he is currently a student at St. Michael’s College.  Ms. Bassett will be with us twice a week and she is currently a student at UVM.  Please take the time to read their brief letters of introduction below.  We are so grateful and happy to have them join our classroom this semester.  Welcome both!

Hi! My name is Matt KillKelley. I grew up in Shelburne, Vermont and graduated with an undergraduate degree in English and Film from NYU in 2019. Since then, I have worked as a literacy interventionist for an online school and have done substitute teaching, both in a K-4 setting. I found both to be extremely rewarding and have discovered a newfound love of teaching. I am now pursuing an MAT for Elementary Ed at St. Michael's College. In my free time I love to hike with my dog, swim, and read books/watch movies. I am very excited to be interning/student teaching with Maria McCormack and I'm sure I'll learn a lot. I am also excited to be working with the kids at Allen Brook School!

Hi. My name is Sarah Bassett.  I am from Newton, MA (10 minutes outside of Boston) and I am a big Red Sox fan! I have been working with kids since I was 13, I started babysitting and assistant teaching at my dance studio and worked my way up from there. I have been teaching preschoolers since 2018 and I am currently a 2-3-year-old teacher at the Burlington Y. I was a camp counselor for four summers at an all-girls overnight camp working with 2nd-4th graders and I loved it, so I am thrilled to be back with this age group this semester. Outside of class, I am on a dance company at UVM and I am a co-president of an organization that fundraises for the Children's Hospital.

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week we continued our work on creating a community based on friendship and a sense of belonging.  The students participated in a variety of read alouds and learning activities to practice ways in which we can strengthen our friendships and learning community.  We also practiced collaboration and sharing by participating in yet another engineering task.  This time, the students used pool noodle pieces and shaving cream to build tall and sturdy towers.  They had terrific problem solving skills and worked very well together with new partners.  Enjoy these pictures:

• We are also learning about how we can work together to take care of our classroom space and materials.  We are focusing on what the word “stewardship” means and how we can work together to care for our space.  After all, our classroom  is like another “home”, a space that should reflect calmness, peace, care and belonging.  This year, for example, every student has a job in our classroom.  These jobs rotate every week so each person eventually gets a chance to try out many different tasks/chores around our learning space.  This year, we have a “sound engineer”, a “line leader”, a “directions director,”paper passer and a “substitute”, just to name a few.  Ask your child to explain more about these jobs.

• We also practice mindfulness every day.  The students are encouraged to find different ways in which they can calm themselves to be ready for learning.  The students are encouraged to use a variety of tools and strategies throughout the day; not just in our daily mindfulness blocks when we, as a class, participate in read alouds and/or calming activities.

• The teachers on Harmony rotated between the different classrooms this week to build a wider learning community of learners as well.  It was wonderful for everyone to meet new students and friends for some games and songs, which we performed together in our kiva space.

Reading:

• This week, we started browsing our classroom shelves for new and interesting books.  The students were encouraged to try a variety of books and places to read in our classroom.  I also started reading the Mercy Watson series out loud to the class.  While I will not read the whole series to the class, you will notice that I will introduce the students to a variety of chapter books/series in the next few weeks to encourage risk-taking when it comes to selecting books.

• I hope you had a chance to read your child’s library books this week.  We have library exchange on Tuesdays.  Please help your child pack these books for next Tuesday so new books can come home.  Thank you.

Writing:

• We started working on our collective classroom contract this week.  We will continue to add to our classroom norms and expectations in the next few days until we all agree on our class norms together.  The students have so many great ideas for how we can work together to create a positive learning environment.

• To go along with our classroom norms, the students also wrote about their own “super powers” and, specifically, how they used them this summer.  We learned that we all have special super powers that we can use every day.  Some students have “kindness super powers” and they helped family members or friends this summer, while others have the super powers of being brave, which they used when they learned to swim.  

• The students on Harmony also participated in some beginning of the year spelling assessments, which will eventually guide our Fundations classes.  Stay tuned for more information in the next few weeks.

Second Grade Math:

• Second grade math classes started this week.  While the second grade curriculum is different from the first grade curriculum, many structures will remain the same.  For example, we will have a Number Corner component, focus upon building basic number sense, participate in math story problem solving and rotate through work stations, games and small groups.  

• I will teach our home room class of second graders in math.  Ms. Crowley will teach another second grade math class, while Ms. Fisher will teach a class of first graders in math.

• This week in math, we worked on building a community of hard-working, efficient, and focused mathematicians who readily embrace risk-taking and show a growth mindset.  All students are mathematicians.  All students can all show a growth mindset and persevere.  This week, they did just that! What a fabulous, enthusiastic group of mathematicians I have in class!

• Second grade mathematicians learned about odd and even numbers this week.  Ask your child to explain how we show our understanding and what we know already about these numbers.

• Second grade mathematicians also reviewed their math facts and partners to 10 and 20, using both addition and subtraction.  They used number writing, equations and rekenreks to show their thinking.

Science:

• This week, the students participated in an engineering task after listening to the book “How to make a friend” by Stephen Martin.  While we normally spend time with peers and include others to play to make friends, this book encouraged the students to make/build a friend out of materials.  We used legos.  The students were encouraged to think about what special characteristics their friend should have and how they would play together.  They did a great job.  Enjoy these pictures:

News and Reminders:

• ABS Picture day is 10/7

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

It was wonderful to see all the students again after our summer vacation.  They had fun stories to share with me and each other about their activities over the last few weeks.  All the students are settling in nicely to our classroom routines and expectations. Since many of these routines and expectations are the same as last year, the students are adjusting beautifully.

Thank you so much for your generous donations to the classroom and Harmony Team.  We truly appreciate your gifts.  

If you did not get a chance to send in your child’s student form/questionnaire, please do so. It is linked here for your convenience.   Thank you. 

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, we reviewed familiar expectations and our school motto “be safe, be kind and be responsible”.  We discussed what it means to be a second grader and the oldest students at our school.  While it comes with a sense of familiarity and a sense of belonging, it also comes with some responsibilities.  Younger students will look to our second graders as role models and they will look to them to set a good example.  Our second graders are ready for this challenge!

• We played many partner/team games this week to reconnect with our classmates from last school year.  The students settled into our classroom routines nicely, often choosing games, greetings and songs that we used last year.  Here are some pictures:

• The students also participated in a science/engineering challenge this week.  They were partnered up and used different materials to build the tallest tower they could.  Here are some pictures:

Literacy:

• We read many books this week together.  We read about being back at school, summer vacation and how it can be stressful to leave mom and dad for the first day of school.  We created a list of goodbye greetings for the end of the day so we can create a sense of community and belonging even as we’re saying goodbye.  The students came up with elbow bumps, high 5s, waves, hugs, smiles and friendly goodbye greetings to name a few.  We hope our list will grow as the weeks go by(e).  We might even come up with some special class handshakes for us all!

• A new favorite book we read this week is “Chicken in School” by Adam Lehrhaupt.  This book taught us the importance of creating a classroom community based upon trust, belonging and friendship.  It also showed us how we can use our imagination together to create more profound learning outcomes.  A favorite quote from the book is “Books are for building imagination.  Crayons are for creating adventures.”  We hope to do both this year!

Second Grade Math:

• We will start math instruction next week.  I will teach our class of second graders this year in math (just like I taught them the first grade math curriculum last year).  The entire class will remain with me, in our own classroom. We do not need to transition to another space or learn a new system for all the materials needed.  We are so lucky! I am very excited to have the opportunity to follow these mathematicians for yet another year.

• We will not send home any math homework.  Periodically, you will see games/worksheets that your child might take home for extra practice or just for fun.  Many students want to take these home to play with family members.  Periodically, you will also see incomplete/unfinished pages/parts of pages in your child’s Home Folder.  Feel free to finish this work at home.  It is not required at all and there is no need to send it back to me, unless your child wants to show me the completed pages and work!  Thank you.

News and Reminders:

• Please remember to send your child to school every day with weather appropriate clothing, snack (and lunch if your child does not get school lunch) and a water bottle.  Thank you.

• If you did not send in your child’s labeled headphones, please send them in as well.  Your child will need these for online learning at school.  Thank you.

• There is no school on Monday, September 5th (Labor Day)

• We have our first library exchange on Tuesday, September 6th.  I encourage you to read these books together with your child and talk about the stories.  I also encourage you to talk to your child about why he/she chose these particular books.  Having an open dialogue about books early on fosters more intentional and purposeful learning.  Thank you. 

Have a great weekend,

Maria