Adventurers Team
Team teachers Pam Wise/Joplin James
Welcome to Adventurer’s Parentlink message for the week of Friday, November 9th.
We began the week with our second Parent Group Potluck Meeting. We had a great turnout and, as always, great food (though short on deserts)! We discussed possible theme activities and ways to engage our senior citizen population. We talked more about our Family Math Night scheduled for Friday, November 30th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. If anyone else would like to help with that evening, please give Mark Jaffe a call as he is chairing this committee. Please mark this date on your calendar. We guarantee lots of fun for the whole family.
Wednesday began with a wonderful visit from our E.L.F. volunteers. We saw a puppet show about seeds, examined and dissected seeds, matched seeds to plants, and tasted many different varieties of seed from sunflower to pomegranate. It was a great morning. Thanks so much to our elves: Nancy Jaffe, Doris Ogden, Sarah Milham, Kerry Putre.
After eating our lunch in the classroom, we went to Shelburne Museum to see the Grandma Moses exhibit. We got to see many of her original paintings and embroidery, learned about FolkArt and discussed why her artwork became so popular. Since much of her work was done from memory, we tried to make our own paintings from memory and realized how difficult it was. We also got to meet Grandma Moses and ask her questions about her life. We learned so much about her. Ask your student to tell you the question s/he asked Grandma Moses and all the interesting information s/he learned. We also used acrylic paints to create a picture of something special to us from our memory the way she did. We visited the gallery to look at and discuss her paintings. We also saw her painting with glitter, one that she stitched, and an old sap bucket she decorated. It was a wonderful visit. How fortunate we are to have such a wonderful resource so close to school.
We have continued to work on sorting and counting the UNICEF coins that were collected school wide. We’ve also found coins from 15 other countries, including: Sweden, Aruba, Italy, Hong Kong, Fiji, Mexico, Bermuda, not to mention some interesting buttons and tokens. The students are getting very good at carefully counting quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies and double checking their results. We’ll let the bank give us the official total and report it next week, but we are very impressed with the participation this year and glad to see students eager to help others.
Thursday was a lot of fun with “Hat and Sunglasses” day, and we had a pretty “cool” looking group.
The reason you have not seen a class picture yet, when other teams have already sent them home, is because we have not received them yet. Hopefully next week.
Our song for the week was called “The Web.” Please ask your child to sing it for you.
The Art Project for the week was to make our own “Scratch Art” paper from “scratch.” Ask your child to tell you and show you how to make it at home. (Just remember to put a piece of scrap paper or a paper towel under the paper being colored.) The results were lovely. Many students chose to make a second one to bring home.
The Challenge for the week was for each child to suggest some names for our computers. We have an animal for each computer and the name needed to begin with the same sound as the name of the animal. We voted on the suggestions and chose: Geoffrey the Giraffe, Cassie the Cardinal, Mandy the Monarch, Tim the Turtle, Beezus the Beaver, Goldie the Gorilla, Freddy the Frog, and Crawford the Cricket.
This week Alicia filled the Estimating Jar with pasta shells, which turned out to be quite a challenge and for the first time no one came even close, so were still not sure how we will fill the estimate jar for next week.
Last Friday morning, librarian Ellen Matthews came and read us “Halloween Hotel.” That afternoon, Principal Nardelli came and read “Thunder Cake” to us. That is why 1st and 2nd grade families may have received the recipe for this cake. We have heard that the cake is quite delicious. If you did not receive the recipe and would like one, just let us know. Some of the other books we read together this week were “My Friend Bear,” and “It Wasn’t Me”. We also began reading “Ramona the Pest” aloud with the 1st and 2nd graders after recess.
Parent conferences begin next week. Please check the schedule on our homepage to confirm your time and we look forward to seeing you and your child to discuss the year so far.
The ParentLink homework this week is for your child to prepare for the conference coming up by having a conversation with you about the year so far:
What are some things I have learned?
What are some things I have gotten better at?
What are some things that have been or are difficult for me?
What were some of my favorite activities this year so far?
What are some things I would like to learn to be better at?
What are some things that I would like to learn about?
Please write these thoughts down and send them in or bring them to the conference.
Congratulations to Paul and Susan for recognizing the adage “You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” See if you recognize this one:
“The state of not being in attendance at a particular location gives rise to an incremental expansion of internal affection.”
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maintained by Joplin James & Pam Wise
jjames@shelburne.k12.vt.us
Last updated: November 09, 2001