Monday News

Dear Families,

Monday will be the Kids Only Shopping Extravaganza. The students will have 30 minutes to shop for gifts.

The Holiday Sing Along will be Tuesday from 1:30-2:00. The students will also be fitted for cross-country skis and boots during P.E. on Tuesday.

We will be discussing the winter solstice on Wednesday and Thursday will be our holiday celebration.

On Tuesday, January 3^rd, the third and fourth graders will go to the Flynn to see Cirque Mother Africa. We leave at 11 am for the noon performance and return by 2 pm. Lunch will be at 10:30, so you may want to pack an afternoon snack for your child.

Have a wonderful holiday and New Year’s!

Anna

Monday News

Dear Families,

The permission slips for Nordic Skiing went home last week. Please sign the papers and return to school. We will need parent volunteers to help with cross-country skiing. Please let me know if you're interested.

The students enjoyed the big map of Vermont and Hour of Code last week. They also learned about the company, Vermont Peanut Butter from Chris Kaiser.

Wednesday is a delayed start day and Thursday we will have prebuddies. The students will make bird feeders with their prebuddies.

Pictures from Thrilling Thursday and VT Peanut Butter's Chris Kaiser.

wasp nest

rabbit track

Monday News

Dear Families,

The students have been working on persuasive essays in writing. In social studies, the students will work on their opinion writing by choosing a new law (made-up) or selecting an existing law. They will explain reasons why the House, Senate or Governor might support or oppose the law (pros and cons) and explain how it will have an economic impact to a particular group. The students will also be creating physio-graphic maps of the regions of Vermont using salt dough on Monday.

In reading, we are continuing to learn about character development throughout a story. This week we are learning that the main character in all stories travels along a story mountain. Readers expect that a character will face a problem that gets bigger and bigger, reaching a turning point, and then is resolved. We are using our mentor text, Because of Winn Dixie to practice reading strategies together.

Enjoy your week,
Anna

The Winter Sing Along will be Tuesday, December 20th from 1:30-2:00 pm. 

Monday News

Dear Families,

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This week, we will continue our opinion writing and focus on laws. We are continuing to read Because of Winn Dixie and using it as our mentor text to study character development.

The students will be doing Nordic Skiing 6 times this year during P.E.  Equipment will be provided for all students. The dates will be Jan. 12, Jan. 17, Jan. 26, Jan. 31, Feb. 9 and Feb. 14. It will be at BPMS with the exception of Feb. 14. That will be at Sleepy Hollow.

Mark your calendar. The Boston field trip will be May 4^th. 

Ask you child about life cycle distributions. The students played a game called Oh Deer, to simulate disruptions to a deer's life cycle. 

Here is a photo of our data from the game. 

Enjoy your week,
Anna

Monday News

Dear Families,

The book fair is this week. Students may purchase books before and after school. Money raised will go towards the artist in residence in February.

I will have a math meeting on Tuesday and Ms. Donovan will be the guest teacher. I will be in the school, but meeting with the other 3/4 teachers all day.

The third and fourth graders will be doing 6 sessions of Nordic Skiing during P.E. in January and February.  More information will be going home as the dates approach. Fingers crossed for lots of snow!

Please let me know if you need another copy of the directions for the November book project. 

Enjoy your week,

Anna

Monday News

Dear Families,

This week started with Halloween! We had yoga (see pictures below), spooky writing, looked at a cow heart (see pictures below), had cupcakes with "dead flies", made an array city in third grade math and ended the day with a publishing party. 

Many units came to an end this week. In writing, we finished our realistic fiction stories and had an assessment to show everything we learned in this unit. Our next unit will be persuasive writing with a focus on laws. In reading, we finished the book, Stone Fox. This reading unit was all about creating reading lives. We worked on predicting, stopping and jotting and retelling. These comprehension strategies help us to better understand our stories. Our next reading unit is called Character Studies. We will look deep into our books to see how characters in the stories grow and change. We have started reading Because of Winn Dixie. 

The third graders finished the first multiplication unit. All students should be practicing their multiplication facts at home. This does not need to be with flash cards. It could be with games or even focusing on a few facts at a time and posting them around the house. Both third and fourth graders are now working on place value units. A letter explaining the new unit went home to third grade parents. Check your child's backpack. 

The book projects are due on Monday. We will share them with our classmates and then they will be up in the display case outside the office. 

On Tuesday this week, the students will get to use the real voting booths and "vote" for a president and governor. The students had the opportunity to create a design for the sit-upons that we are purchasing for the school's outdoor classroom. The teachers chose the top 3 designs and the students will vote which design will be printed on the sit-upons. 

All the 3/4 teachers will be out on Friday for a science meeting.

Enjoy your week,

Anna

Here are some pictures of yoga with Maggie Mae! We are going to try to do this once a month. 

Thank you, Maggie Mae for volunteering your time to teach the students yoga. It was a calming way to start a busy Halloween day. 

Alison came in with a cow heart to teach the students to about the heart. It was also on the lunch menu on Tuesday. Ask your child if they tried it!

Monday News

Dear Families,

Happy Halloween! We will do some spooky writing and have a publishing party at 1:45. Parents are welcome. Our next unit in writing will be opinion writing.

The book projects (book jackets) are due Monday, November 7th. A new book project and the November optional homework calendar will go home on Monday. The book jackets will be displayed for the month of November in the hallway display case. Stop in and have a look at the creativity of all the students.

Save the date! The Boston trip will be May 4th and 5th. More detailed information will come during December. Chaperones are chosen by a lottery system. The ratio is 3 students to 1 adult so that means there will be 5-6 parents needed per classroom.

Maggie Mae, Juniper's stepmom will teach the class yoga on Monday! We're hoping to do it once a month this school year.

I will be out Tuesday for a Math Committee meeting.

Enjoy the following pictures from our Outdoor Classroom. The students are focusing on winter survival for living things. We created shelters and planned and experimented with different materials and places to build our shelters.

Enjoy your week,
Anna

Monday News

Dear Families,

Ms. Johnson, our new librarian could use a few volunteers to help with re-shelving books and Alison can always use an extra hand in the kitchen. If you have time available and would like to volunteer at school, please let me know.

The students will "finish-up" their realistic fiction stories on October 31st. Parents are invited to come to the publishing party at 1:45 on Halloween. The students will read their stories in small groups to students in the other third and fourth grade classrooms.

Fire safety day is Friday. Make sure to change your smoke alarm and carbon monoxide batteries when you set the clocks back.

Our class is leading all school morning meeting Friday.

Book projects are due Monday, November 7th.

Lastly, Tuesday is zero-waste day. We will try to recycle or reuse everything on Tuesday. Let's see if we can do it!

The book fair will be the week of 11/14, so I have decided not to send home scholastic orders this month. The next order form will go home in January.

Enjoy your week,
Anna

Monday News

Dear Families,

On Wednesday, we will see The Incredible Speediness of Jamie Cavanaugh at the Flynn. Here's the synopsis:

This remarkably moving and funny play from Roseneath Theatre reveals true-to-life struggles: Max’s parents are getting a divorce and wired Jamie just can’t seem to slow down or pay attention! Her journey toward understanding and accepting her ADHD puts Jamie’s courage to the test. But with humor and compassion, she moves past the hurt and confusion of being “different” and learns to use her strengths—becoming a good friend to Max, an inspiration to the school bully, and a positive role model for the millions of students who share her struggle.

Homework

Homework is going to be a little different from this point forward. We at Brewster Pierce are changing the way homework looks. Ms. Hayes sent home some information in a past Backpack News and the three-four teachers sat down to review what we were doing and have come up with the following changes.

First and foremost, we do expect every child to read every day for at least 20 to 30 minutes. It is an essential habit to form now which will benefit your child forever. We will continue with our monthly book projects. These projects give children a creative way to share the books they have been reading at home with their friends at school. It's a great way to get kids interested in and talking about books and helps keep them accountable for reading at home.

It would also be a good idea to study math facts every day, addition for third graders and multiplication for fourth. Try to incorporate math skills around telling time, baking, measuring and any problem solving that needs to be done from day to day. I will on occasion send home a math page when a student needs some extra practice with a skill and students can choose to bring workbook pages home for practice. Parents can read the information I send home at the start of each unit to keep up with what we are doing in math class.

We will also send home a calendar each month with educational activities to do each day. These are just fun, optional activities to do as a family if you so choose.

By changing what homework looks like, I would like to make it easier for a child's afternoon to be an educational, fun, worry-free time to spend with family and friends participating in activities that help all of us grow and learn. I want students to have time to play, create, invent, exercise and imagine.

Thank you, Ms. Hayes and I welcome your feedback on this change.

Enjoy your week,

Anna

Monday News

Dear Families,

This week we will have Hike Day on Tuesday. Please remember to have your child dress for a day outside. Wednesday will be a late start day.

We are continuing to work on our realistic fictions stories. Last week, we worked on writing scenes, instead on summaries. We will have a publishing party with the other 3/4 classes on Monday, October 31st from 1:45-2:10. Parents are welcome to come and listen to the stories. We will not have food at this publishing party. It will be a time to share our stories, listen to classmates and celebrate all the hard work. 

Thursday we had Prebuddies with the afternoon preschool class. Please enjoy the following pictures. 

Enjoy your week,

Anna

Field Trip to Burnt Rock Farm and the alpaca farm