gilbride

May 26, 2006

Dear Families,

Finally, we were able to enjoy the weather to have our Hike Through History. What an eventful day! Year after year, the hike just seems to get better and better. Thank you to those of you who could get out there and join us! Even the hot dogs were great! Ann and I are very proud of our multigraders for their wonderful choices while hiking and listening to presenters. We learned alot because of our active participation.

This week we spent a little time talking about friendship. We shared one of Kevin Henkes books, Chester's Way. This is a great story about "two peas in a pod" and how they make room for a third friend...what a great lesson for all of us! The children picked three people and three activities or events that they enjoyed with someone special. The illustrations were made on peas in a pod. We will be sending these home for you to enjoy.

We also reread Patrick's Dinosaur this week. We had to answer questions about the dinosaur that were specific to the story. This was an excellent comprehension guide. We also shared The return of Patrick's Dinosaur and discussed why this was a fiction book.

After our wonderful hike on Wednesday, we brainstormed (chronologically) the events of our day and wrote a collaborative big book on Central Schools 12th Annual Hike Through History. It is fascinating to see what great partners the children have become no matter what the pairing!

The end of the week brought a mini-lesson on Memorial Day. Our classes shared the story, America the Beautiful, a Scholastic version of the song with gorgeous photography of our wonderful United States. We covered the history and significance of the day.

We have begun to share the dinosaur projects. The children are asked to present their writing and share their project with the class. We invite questions and comments from their classmates at the end of the presentation. We will continue to share them into next week. Thank you for your support in the work you did in helping your child to learn more about dinosaurs.

First grade has just the family letter for unit 9, as well as spelling homework. Second grade has math homework and spelling words to study.

Thank you to all you wonderful volunteers for your helping hands this year. We are so very grateful to each and everyone of you for all you have done. We are better because of you! We will not be scheduling volunteers for the month of June. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Have a wonderful long weekend, Ann and Jill

April 13, 2006

Dear Families,

Spring has found our multi-age classrooms busy at work. We have continued with weather. Here is a recap of what they have learned. The children have observed changing weather patterns this spring! They have learned the ingredients that mix together to form our weather. They know that weather changes with seasons and why. They also know that while we have summer, the other side of the world is experiencing winter.

The children have learned what causes wind and how wind can be a friend or foe. They've discovered how clouds are formed and learned about the different kinds of clouds. They know why we have rain, snow, and other forms of precipitation and the conditions necessary for them to occur. They have learned about wild weather such as hurricanes, tornadoes and cyclones and the differences between them.

We have been reading many trade books, fiction, nonfiction and poetry to accompany our study of weather. The children have been keeping their own daily weather bar graph. They have written weather Haiku's and painted a water color to accompany their Haiku.

There will be NO HOMEWORK over spring vacation except to enjoy your time together. I am off to sunny Saint Martin with Mr. Gebbia for sun and fun and Mrs. DeLuca is off with her family to the Samoset. We will both have an enjoyable and relaxing vacation .

Our Annual Hike Through History will be May 12th. You might want to put this on your calendar.

Enjoy your vacation.

Ann and Jill

March 31, 2006

Dear Families,

What a wonderful job the children did taking their standardized tests this week. They were all very hard workers and so cooperative. We are so proud of them. Thank you for sending them with a good breakfast in their stomachs and a snack for later. Your support helps make the children feel good about themselves and testing.

It was a pleasure to conference with the rest of you this week. This talking and working together really supports your child's learning.

We continued with our weather unit this week. We learned about the water cycle and did different activities relating to this topic. The children wrote and illustrated how water was important to us and did a water cycle sequencing activity. They also completed a water cycle wheel. We then began learning about clouds and we will continue that next week. We shared several weather books at morning meeting dealing with the water cycle and clouds.

In math the second graders are still working on measurement. We have worked on linear measurement, measures of weight and measures of volume and capacity. Both volume and capacity are measures of the amount of space something occupies. Volume is measured for three dimensional objects; capacity is a measure for items that take the shape of their containers, such as liquids, sand and rice. They have learned about the perimeter and area of shapes. Next week we will continue with capacity and being able to identify equivalent measures of capacity such as gallons, quarts , pints and liters. Perhaps you can have them measure water in various sized containers. We will have our unit 9 assessment the end of next week.

First year multigraders have been working hard on measuring using the centimeter as a tool for measurement. We practiced with the function machine, defining the rule and applying our basic fact power. We explored geoboards, basic fact power games and pattern block design during an explorations activity. A great game that we played was with an egg carton and two coins. Write the numbers from 1-12 on the inside bottom of an egg carton. Close the lid, shake the coins around inside, open the lid and share the fact that the coins landed on. Great idea for building fact power! We were introduced to the quarter and practiced counting with our other coins on the overhead. We learned about digital clocks and practiced timing, introducing the concept of a minute, a second, an hour. We will be wrapping up unit 6 by the end of the week.

Just a reminder that our book fair and Young Authors Night is Monday evening from 5:30 to 7:30. There will be no reordering of books this year. What is on the shelves is what will be sold so you might want to arrive early.

Story snack this week was Kim Clementi and next week will be Deb Springfield. The children look forward to this celebrity reading. Thank you for supporting us in our reading.

Enjoy your weekend. Let's hope it stays warm!!!!!

Ann and Jill

March 17, 2006

Dear Families,

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What an eventful week we have had here at Central. We started the week off with a delightful field trip to the Portsmouth Music Hall to see Amelia Bedelia and three other mini plays. The children had front row seats and had a wonderful time. We even had a question and answer session upon the conclusion of the program. This was a great kick off to our Fine Arts Week.

Tuesday, the children went to the gym for a schooled presentation of a jazz group. You should have seen the children up and dancing to the music. They also enjoyed Mardi Gras literature in the library with Mrs. Policronopolis.

Tuesday evening was the district wide celebration of our community read

"The End Of The Beginning". What an evening it was from the play, to songs, musical interpretations of the marching song from the book, to a reading of the winning essay from Marshwood Middle School. The hall was alive with music as we strolled amongst the many displays from the different schools. Our writings and art work were on display.

Wednesday the children continued with a Cajun Presentation and a special art activity. Thursday we had the parade followed by the eating of the King Cakes. Thanks to Kim Clementi for baking these for our multigraders. Our lucky finders were Abby Corriveau from Mrs. Gebbia's room and Jared Stofanak from Mrs. DeLuca's room. Each of them found the hidden baby inside their cake and are destined for good luck for the next year!

Friday, we graphed green things and also graphed Lucky Charms in small groups. We completed work on our adjective posters. We worked in cooperative groups drawing portraits of one another and then coming up with describing words about our partners.

Even with all this activity the children were busy learning about the various parts of speech. We introduced each part of speech with poems, songs and books written by Ruth Heller. The children learned about nouns both proper and common, singular and plural and even Collective nouns. Collective Nouns are collections of things such as a batch of bread, a gam of whales and a parcel of penguins to name a few. They learned about action verbs in the present, past and future tenses. They then went onto adjectives and adverbs.

Homework this week includes math for the second grade and a spelling list to study. Second grade has no other spelling than to study the words. First grade has no math other than to practice their basic facts with the fact triangles in last weeks homework and they do have spelling homework ( a new list to study, words to write, sentences and abc order.

I am off to Boston this weekend to see a play and enjoy time with our daughter. Mrs. DeLuca is getting ready to have her kitchen floor redone.

Fun times for both of us.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Ann and Jill

March 3, 2006

Dear Families,

It felt good to be back at school with the children this week. They sure do have a way to brighten our days. Their hugs, smiles and bubbly personalities are so rewarding. Everyone seemed refreshed and ready to learn!

It is hard to believe March has arrived. We have been discussing how it comes in like a lion or a lamb and what that phrase means.

We continued our study of the presidents this week. During morning meeting time, we celebrated the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. We shared stories about each of them and learned many facts. The students wrote about these facts in booklets you will see at Young Author's Night. Thank you for helping with the Project Homework on George Washington's breakfast. The children loved sharing their predictions and anxiously awaited finding out his real breakfast. Ask them to share it with you. ( It was Indian Hoe cakes and tea )

A copy of a recipe is attached if you feel brave! The children were engaged in a math and social studies project of building Lincoln's Log Cabin. Ask them to tell you how they made it. We also compared the two famous men, sharing their similarities and differences. Finally, a quiz was given to assess what was learned during the mini-unit.

We have also been working on assessing the children on their basic sight words and their reading levels.

The school did their first school wide DEAR TIME (Drop Everything and Read) Everyone was reading silently or orally at the same time. We are going to try this more often. We all have our own classes doing this but it is nice to see everyone doing it at the same time.

In mathematics the second graders continued to work on fractions. They are gaining a good understanding of the basic concepts. I am please with how hard they are working.

First graders completed their assessment of unit 5. I always work with them on small group slate assessments and then give them a written portion. They did very well on both of these. I was very pleased with their ability to share their strategies and have a better understanding of how they are thinking about math. There is a reason our program is called, "Everyday Math."

Spelling and math homework resumes this weekend. Please remember they are due on Wednesday. It is important that the children complete these activities as they are both practice and reinforcement . Handwriting should be stressed as well.

Both classes could use more tissues, glue sticks, paper towels and zipper sandwich bags . Thanks in advance for your help.

Upcoming dates: The month ahead is going to be very busy with lots of events going on here at Central School and within the community.

March 13- March 17 Fine Arts Week

March 13th - Multigrade and second grade will go see the play Amelia Bedelia. Permission slip attached.

March 14- Community reads 6 PM at Marshwood High School (The End of the Beginning)

March 15- Mrs.Gebbia will at the superintendent's office all day working on our support system manual.

March 17 Progress Reports go home

March 22 and March 30 Parent Conferences. Times are attached.

March 24 - Teacher Workshop Day- No school for the children

March 27-March 30 Stanford Achievement testing for reading and math for grades one and two.

Enjoy your weekend.

Ann and Jill

February 10, 2006

Dear Families,

What a week for me to have to write the newsletter. I am as sad as all of you that my partner has decided to retire. I am happy for her but very, very sad to see her go. Ann is as wonderful a person as she is an educator! All I can say is, let's make it a fabulous four months!!

What a wonderful winter concert the children put on Wednesday night! A big thank you to the children, parents and Mrs. Smith. It was magnificent!! Mrs. Smith has asked us to mention that if you are interested in making didgeridoos, all you need is a 2 feet of 3/4" PVC pipe to create. Good luck!

On that note, we began a unit on sound this week. Our classes were introduced to vibration, pitch, and tones. Ask your child what they liked and disliked about our unit. During our morning meetings we shared excerpts and stories from: All About Sound by David Night, Helen and the Great Quiet by Rick Fitzgerald, and Ben's Trumpet by Rachel Isabora. Thank you to our volunteers who took groups to explore the scientific process with a tuning fork, eggs full of sound, and an indoor listening walk. We even looked at a model of the ear (inside). Ask your child what makes sound.

Friday we read, A Book of Hugs by Dave Ross. After, we wrote about special hugs that we like and how they make us feel. You will see these displayed outside our classrooms. We are a budding group of writers!

We had a visit from Mrs. Emery from Eliot and Patty Flynn from South Berwick. They are two dedicated bus drivers that work for our district. They showed a short video on bus safety and then led a discussion on ways we keep ourselves and others safe on and near the bus. In your child's folder, you will find an opportunity for your child to make a bus safety poster. The details and paper are attached as well. Have fun!

Both grades have homework for math and spelling this week. We also have added a project homework activity about your child's jacket. The directions for this are included as is the final writing paper. You may want to have your child do a first draft on separate writing paper and then use the enclosed paper for their final draft. They may need help editing their work. Enjoy working with your child.

A reminder that next Tuesday, February 14th, we will be having our ice cream Valentine's Party. It will be in the afternoon, after lunch. If you would like to contribute an item for the party, please contact Mrs. Welch at 384- 5706 in Mrs. Gebbia's room or Mrs. Towle at 384-5451 in Mrs. DeLuca's room. Thank you in advance for your participation. We are looking forward to eating ice cream and exchanging valentine's.

On March 13th, all second and multiage will be traveling to the Portsmouth Music Hall to see the play, Amelia Bedelia. We are allowed 1 chaperone to join us. If you are interested, please drop a note to Ann or me.

A BIG thank you for your carrot and green bean contributions!! We met our goals and will be delivering these to the food pantry next week after our 100th day celebration on Wednesday.

We hope you all enjoy your weekend with your families. Maybe snow??????

Ann and Jill

February 3, 2006

Another week has flown by and we are all busy here in Multigrade. The children were busy working on Chinese New Year and Groundhog activities during our Language Arts/ Reading block. We are so proud of how hard they are working. We are trying to have them expand their sentences with more descriptive sentences and to use more action words.

This is true for spelling sentences as well.

Monday we enjoyed The Lion Dancer, Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year, written by Kate Waters and Madeline Slovenz-Low . Following the reading we talked about the Chinese Horoscope and the children discovered this is the year of the dog. We then took their birth year to see which animal their year was named after. They wrote about how they were like that animal. A Chinese Horoscope is with this newsletter for you to enjoy.

Tuesday we continued reading about the Chinese New Year. We talked about how the color red is associated with joy and happiness in the Chinese culture. The children made their own red envelope and put a star for good luck inside. They wrote why they were giving someone this star. Some of these will be coming home and others the children gave to a classmate. A dragon was also made and these will be in our hallway along with their writing from Monday. A dragon represents long life and prosperity.

Wednesday we enjoyed Abby Levine's book Gretchen Groundhog, It's Your Day! We chatted about what it meant if the groundhog saw his shadow. They all made their prediction!!!Then the children made their own groundhog coming out of his burrow and worked on a packet of reading and math activities.

Thursday , Groundhog Day, we discovered that the groundhog did indeed see his shadow. We reviewed what this meant. We then read Steven Kroll's book It's Groundhog Day. We read mini books and sang a groundhog song. Perhaps you can sing it with your child. After they were busy making a paper bag puppet.

Friday we finally began our sound unit. We will continue with this next week.

Both groups have been working hard in both math and spelling. Thanks for helping them return their homework on time.

Thank you for sending in the green beans and carrots for our 100th day celebration. Our class is at 97 and Mrs. DeLuca's class is at 84. I am sure we will both make the 100 mark!1

The children have enjoyed tallying and filling in our charts each morning. Again we thanks you for your support.

We all miss Mrs. DeLuca and hope that her back is improving so she will be able to join us again next week.

As some of you may have heard I have turned in my letter of intent to retire. After 32 wonderful years of teaching in MSAD35 I intend to retire at the end of this school year. I have taught approximately thirty-four and one-half years, thirty in South Berwick , two in Eliot and the other two and one -half out of state in Virgina and New Jersey.

This was a hard decision to make as I still love coming to school each day and seeing those warm smiles that greet me. Teaching has been a major part of my life and I am grateful that I will leave with a heart full of memories of my many years here. I feel lucky to have worked in such a supportive environment.

I know this is the time to move on to another chapter in my life. I plan on spending more time traveling with my husband and doing volunteer work. I may even help my husband out in our real estate agency.

I know I will miss the children and everyone I have worked with.

Dates to remember:

February 8th: Winter Concert- Please be at school and in their classroom by 5:45. Mrs. Gebbia's class dress for concert attire. Mrs. DeLuca's class the kids know what to do.( It's a secret to us) You will pick them up back in the classroom after the concert.

February 14 Valentine's Day Party -Class lists are included to help with writing valentines. We will be having an ice cream sundae party. Please call Lynn Welch , Mrs. Gebbia's room at 384-5076 and Trish Towle, Mrs. DeLuca's room at 384-5451 if you would like to help. At the end of this newsletter is a list of items we could use.

February 16 -100th day of school Each class will join in the gym to display their collection . Songs will be sung as well. What a fun and helpful way to celebrate the one hundredth day of school. The food will then be delivered to the food pantry.

February 20- February 24 winter vacation

March 13- March 17 Fine Arts Week

March 17 Progress Reports go home

March 22 and March 30 Parent Conferences. Times to come later.

March 24 - Teacher Workshop Day- No school for the children.

Have a relaxing and fun weekend.

Ann and Jill

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ice cream- 2 gallons per class

juice- 2 per class

hot fudge sauce- 2 per class

caramel or butterscotch sauce- 2 per class

whipped cream- 2 per class

sprinkles- 2 per class

paper cups

bowls

plastic spoons

napkins

January 20, 2006

Dear Families,

The week was short but none-the-less productive! Ann and Deb were wonderful about keeping the lid on while I was trying to heal up a back injury (wish I could say it was something eventful like skiing Pinkham Notch but I was just lifting my 32 pound daughter!)

Tuesday morning at meeting, we shared A Picture Book of Benjamin Franklin by David Adler. It happened to be his birthday on the 17th! We brainstormed facts from the book and then first graders wrote 3 facts while second grade wrote 5. Maybe they can share some of the amazing things that he did with you.

On Wednesday, we read the Jan Brett's version of The Mitten which compliments our book bag reading, The Hat. The children then made a little mini book about winter and then wrote about new mittens they would like to have and how if they lost a mitten, what would take place.

Thursday, our shared reading was another version of The Mitten by Rita Walsh. This version takes you yet, on another excursion with the mitten as a haven for wild animals. Following this the students worked on a sequencing activity trying to write the order of how the animals entered the mitten. They created their own mittens and then colored the animals for a retelling adventure at home.

Friday, we read Alvin Tressault's version of The Mitten. This is probably the first one written. We had a discussion about contrast and comparison and then worked on a packet with the story. We read the text and filled in the appropriate illustration, sequencing the story.

We have had a good time sharing our favorite hero. We will be making these into a class book to share with everyone. the children really rose to this task.

On Friday the children attended a SASS presentation . This program deals with sexual assault in a very child centered way.

First grade finished up unit 4 with assessments of money, including dollars and cents notation, numbers that come before and after, tally marks, even and odd numbers and number stories. Overall, they did fairly well. Keep practicing those skills with those game kits! We will begin unit 5 on Monday.

Second grade is finishing up Unit 6 working on introductions to multiplication using arrays and division stories that required equal groups of things. We read literature that involved both division and multiplication. We shared two book on multiplication, Each Orange Had Eight Slices, A Counting Book by Paul Giganti and Sea Squares by Joy Hulme. We then shared One Hundred Hungry Ants which deals with equal grouping for division. Next week we will be having both our unit 6 assessment and our mid year assessment. We will also enjoy more integrated literature

Remember our winter concert on Wednesday, February 8th at 6:00pm. Everyone is very excited and we are really looking forward to our performances!

We are progressing nicely with our food drive for the 100th day of school. Mrs. Gebbia's room has 39 cans of green beans (61 more to meet their goal) and Mrs. DeLuca's room has 25 cans of carrots (only 75 to go!!). Thank you for sending in these items as they will help to fill the food pantry shelves for those in need.

A big thank you to a parent for participating in our story snack today. We look forward to having another parent next Friday.

Enjoy the weekend, Ann and Jill

January 13, 2006

Dear Families,

Even though it didn't feel like winter this week with the warmer temperatures and no snow, we continued to read books with a "snowy theme". The children have enjoyed these in shared readings, small group situations, silent reading time and through various writing activities based on our readings. They have worked hard!!!

Monday we shared Happy New Year, Pooh by Kathleen Zoehfeld. We discussed what resolutions are and the children wrote their own. Ask them to share what they wrote and if they remember ours. We try and remind one another to discuss and share about our goals. Hopefully, this will help us to keep on track.

Tuesday, we shared one of my favorite winter books, Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. This was a true story and a Caldecott winner. Ask them to tell you about this book and how he helped make the world more beautiful. The children then worked on a creative writing piece. They had a choice to write about their life as a snowflake or how to make a snowman.

Wednesday, we read the story, Grandmother Winter, by Phyllis Root. Following, we completed sentences about our favorite things to do in the snow and how we feel when it snows. The children had to read the sentences clearly so that their ending made sense and fit into the context of the sentence. They worked on these, beautifully.

Thursday, we talked about Martin Luther King and his contributions and work. The students listened to a story, Martin's Big Words, The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This is a biography about his life. They then started writing what their wish or dream would be for a better world.

Friday we continued our discussion of Dr. King and the children completed their writing project. We enjoyed Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King by Jean Marzollo.

A project Homework "Our Hero" is included for homework. This is a follow up to our classroom discussions.

In math the second graders are working on the Trade- First Subtraction Algorithm. it is called a trade- first algorithm because the first step is to identify whether any trade is required. This was introduced with base ten blocks so the children would understand the concept of trading one long

( ten) for 10 cubes .(ones) We then moved onto paper and pencil practice.

We will work on this concept throughout the rest of the scholar. Their home links deal with this. Please praise them for they are working hard to grasp this concept.

First grade seems to be getting the hang of their spelling tests. It helps that the units focus on a particular vowel sound. This is something we reinforce through our reading groups and our writing. In math, we were introduced to time to the quarter-hour(not a secure goal), timelines and scrolling. We began our scroll with number 1 and will continue to work on these until we write the numbers to 210. They recognize patterns in their scroll and are accurate to make sure that their numbers are sequential. We have been spending more time writing in our math message journals and sharing our strategies. I forgot to mention we also measured ourselves in inches and discovered who is the tallest. shortest and the median height in our class as a whole.

Math and spelling are included for homework. For the second graders this is a review week so no written spelling work. Please just study the words.

Our Multigrade will be in the winter concert. It is scheduled for February 8th. Mrs. Smith has included information about the concert.

This is just a heads up so you can mark your calendar.

We have begun reading The End of The Beginning by Avi. This is the book we are all sharing for our Community Reads Project. The children all illustrated pictures for "On The same Page MSAD 35 Reads. These illustrations are hanging throughout all the school hallways in our district. In March there will be a community celebration for all at Marshwood High School. More information will be forthcoming.

One student's mom was our Story/ Snack reader this week and another mom will join us next week. Thank you again for sharing your time and wonderful literature.

We hope you have a wonderful long weekend!!!

Ann and Jill

December 2, 2005

Dear Families,

It is impossible to think that December is upon us, the first trimester has come to a close and the holidays are around the corner. How time flies!! Ann and I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday. We both enjoyed our families, friends and the feasting, of course!!

Our week was as busy as ever, assessing the students for those last final touches on the report cards, doing our writing prompts and samples, investigating owl pellets, and writing about our owl facts. We also enjoyed a visit from the Chewonki Foundation. Ask your child about the real, live owls!

We want to thank you for your time and talents for our Thanksgiving Feast on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We had so much food and such a marvelous time!! Thank you! The children enjoyed the food, the friendships and the celebration. We are grateful for the wonderful support of our high school volunteers who helped to make it possible.

We began our week with the second grade writing prompt and a first grade writing sample. The second year multigraders drew a picture of themselves doing something they enjoy on Monday and then, Tuesday, they wrote about it. We encouraged them to think about our writing rubric, using creative, detailed writing, correct punctuation, and capital letters.

First grade completed a Pilgrim writing prompt and then told about their Thanksgiving. We encouraged them as well to think about spelling, punctuation, and complete sentences. Handwriting is also an important aspect.

Both of these writing activities are a portion of their writing grade on their report cards.

The second graders are finishing unit 4 and will be assessed next week. We have been working on two different addition algorithms( step by step procedures for solving a problem). They have learned about ball - park estimates and partial sums addition. These are included in their homelinks. They are beginning skills and will be revisited throughout the school year. Please keep this in mind while they are doing these at home as they can be tricky. Examples of both are shown on the homelink page.

First grade worked on frames and arrows this week, dimes were introduced and we have been practicing dollars and cents notation. Please continue to practice counting change with your child. The most difficult challenge for them is showing same amounts using fewer coins. Next week, I will be assessing unit 3.

Looking ahead, we will be having our Christmas party on Wednesday, December 21st in the afternoon. Again, we will be doing a book swap. Books should not be more than $5.00 and should be something that either a boy or a girl would enjoy. We will keep you informed closer to the date.

A few dates to put on your calendars: Tonight: Polar Express Movie Night in the Gym, Tuesday, December 6th at 6:00pm: Nutcracker Performance, Wednesday, December 7th from 6:00 - 7:00pm: First Grade Family Math Night, December 9th and 10th: Little Shoppers. Check your Central Selections for times and other dates.

A reminder that the snow will be flying sooner than later! Please have your child prepared with boots, snow pants, warm coats that zip or snap, hats and mittens. They enjoy their recess so much more when dressed appropriately for the weather.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ann and Jill

November 17, 2005

Dear Parents,

Our newsletter is a day early this week due to families going away and we wanted to to read about our upcoming feast.

I really don't know how these weeks go so quickly. We had another week of enjoyable learning. The highlight was the sharing of their "Adopt A Bone " project. The children did a wonderful job sharing their information and they all followed the rubric well. Everyone learned about various bones and their function from this jig saw approach. Thank you for the help and support you gave.

Our trip to Laudholm Farm last week was a wonderful learning experience for all. Having docents from Laudholm really added to the learning curve. We want to thank the chaperones for all of their help.

We did start our study of Native Americans. The children are traveling to other classrooms to learn about various Indian Regions and the Native American Tribes that lived in these regions. They are learning about the Northeast, Northwest, Southwest,and the Plains. They are also learning more about Squanto. They will be making Totem Poles from the Northwest, Indian Skins from the Northeast, Pottery from the Southwest,

Teepees from the Plains and headbands for Squanto. This traveling is taking place during our regular morning meeting time. As a cumulating activity to this we would like to have a feast Tuesday during our lunch time. If you could send in a favorite Thanksgiving food of your family that would be great. It needs to be cooked and ready to serve. Our whole lunch team will be sharing this feast together.

The turkeys that came in are wonderful. What a great array we have hanging in our hallway. We know we have kept you busy with this project and the Adopt A Bone Project. We really do appreciate all the help you give us and your children. We really are a community of learners!!

In math the second graders worked mostly on temperature, reading both the Fahrenheit and Celsius scale. They can tell you why Fahrenheit thought the body temperature was 100 degrees. Ask what he used to get that reading. They also learned about attributes using attribute blocks and learned to play an addition game called number spin. We continued to work with Name That Rule using frames and arrows. Ask them the purpose of the frame and the arrow. (The frame holds the number and the arrows shows some kind of change.)

The first year multigraders also were working on frames and arrows. They use one arrow to solve the problem and the second graders use two different arrows with different functions. So you can see how the program spirals but the difficulty increases. They have also been working on telling time to the nearest half hour.

Both first and second year multigraders have no homework this weekend. and there will be no homework over the Thanksgiving Holiday!!!!! We want you to enjoy your family time. We do hope you will continue to have your child read daily. Also please continue working on the basic sight words that you received at parent conferences. These words are vital to your child's reading. First graders should be able to read the first hundred by the end of first grade and the second graders the second hundred by the end of second grade.

We look forward to having Mrs. Calvery join us for story/snack tomorrow. The children look forward to having parents join us on Friday afternoon.

After Thanksgiving Vacation we will talk about nocturnal animals. Our focus will be on owls. The children will even dissect owl pellets. Then we will move on to bats.

Since next week is a short week we won't be sending home a newsletter. Have an enjoyable and relaxing Thanksgiving. I will be off to New Jersey with Mr. Gebbia and our daughter, Heather, to celebrate the holiday with Mr. Gebbia's family. Mrs. DeLuca will be headed to Unity , Maine to celebrate with her family.

Sincerely,

Ann and Jill

November 7, 2003

Dear Parents,

November is upon us and the holiday season will quickly be approaching.

It is hard to believe that we have been in school for two months. Time really does seem to fly, as the saying goes. The children all seemed to enjoy their Halloween and quickly got back into the groove.

On Monday we took a leaf walk after sharing the book Look What I Did With The Leaves by Morteza Sohi. The children then made their own picture using the leaves they collected. They also began writing about their picture. These are in their folders to share with you.

Tuesday, we shared Dem Bones by Rob Barner. The children then completed a bone booklet. They have enjoyed singing Dem Bones in music with Mrs. Smith. The children then completed their leaf writing piece they started yesterday.

Wednesday , the children enjoyed listening to The Rough Face Girl written by Rafe Martin. The first year multigraders illustrated the beginning, middle and the end of the story and they wrote a sentence or two explaining their illustrations. The second graders wrote about the main idea and three supporting details. We are working on sentence structure with both groups. Please keep them writing sentences at home.

Thursday the children did an interactive predicting activity while hearing the story Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White. They have a pumpkin wheel in their folder which they used for their predictions. Ask them to explain this to you. They then completed a pumpkin packet which included selecting facts from the story, understanding cause and effect and a comprehension piece. All skills we work on during reading group lessons.

Friday we had Story Snack with a classmate's mom. We thank her for joining us. The children really look forward to having family members and friends come to share stories they enjoy. You can see how much they enjoy it by how attentive they are.

In math the second graders completed unit 3 taking their assessment on Thursday and by having a game day on Friday. We are now moving onto

Unit 4 beginning with addition and subtraction number stories. We will also review reading a thermometer. It will only be a three day week for math due to our field trip and Veteran's Day.

First grade math this week included an assessment on unit 2. Overall, the students did very well. Please keep them practicing counting nickels and pennies at home! We had a great time extending visual patterns for our partners and playing Before and After with our Everyday Math deck of cards. Toward the end of the week, we explored even and odd numbers. We read the story Even Steven and Odd Todd. We are working on reminders for working cooperatively in our many partnership activities!!

Homework is included for both the first and second graders. The children have been doing an awesome job on this work each week. I am so pleased that the second graders are expanding their sentences more and more as time goes on.

Just a reminder that our field trip to Lauldholm Farm is Thursday, November 10th. We have included our reminder sheet today rather than Wednesday as so many of you look for our notes on Fridays. Please have your child to school on time as we will leave as close to 8:45 as possible.

The Adopt -A- Bone Project is due the 10th but may come in anytime now. Thanks for helping out at home with this. We are excited to listen to their presentations!

The children have been sharing the Author's Book Bag on Kevin Henkes at the end of the day. We are enjoying listening to their writing.

Also there is no school next Friday due to Veteran's Day.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Ann and Jill

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October 28, 2005

Dear Families,

We managed to complete our study of the human skeletal system this week. What fun we had looking at bones (cow bones, chicken bones, and x-rays). We hope the students are enjoying gathering facts about their bone. We are looking forward to hearing their presentations. Thank you for your support in helping your child with this project. A reminder that your child's Adopt-a Bone project is due on November 10th.

Field trip permission slips and money have been coming in for our outing to Laudholm Farm. Thank you to those of you who offered to chaperone. We will be getting in touch with our volunteers.

Monday, we focused on the name of the bones in the skeletal system. Using a skeletal model, we talked about each bone and where is was located in the body. We also shared, The Skeleton Inside You by Philip Balestrino. The students then completed activities about the skeletal system inside their body booklets.

Tuesday, we had the opportunity to view chicken bones. We discussed ligaments, tendons and joints and each group was invited to view and write about observations from the chicken bone. We then placed a bone in white vinegar and red vinegar and one just left on a paper towel. (We will leave these to view up until Friday) Our study should lead us to a discussion on calcium and its importance to our bodies as well as our bones.

Wednesday, we learned about joints and how they allow us to move. We had a visit from "Mr. Phalanges" (thank you to the Corriveu's ) and he helped us to understand how our skeletal system fits together and works. Ask your child about the two types of joints and where you can find them.

(hinge/ball and joint)

Thursday we did our post test of the human body. We discussed what the correct responses should have been. The children then put together their own skeleton using Q Tips after reading the story Skeleton Hiccups.

We ended our week on Friday with a fun activity around the upcoming Halloween holiday. Making a layered model of candy corn, we wrote and drew about last years costume, this year's costume and next year's costume. We sent these home for you to enjoy. The children are always up for an activity around Halloween. We also wrote sentences using quotation marks to "colorfully" imagine what a group of jack-o-lantern's were saying by looking at the expression on their faces. You can find this hanging outside our classrooms. When in reading groups, many of the children are becoming aware of expression when they encounter these punctuation marks.

We are sending home the Author of the Month book bag today. Each night we will send home a backpack with Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes with a different child. Inside is the story, a notebook and illustrating materials. This is something you will need to do with your child. They are to share the story with you and then choose one of the two activities at the bottom of the biography on Kevin Henkes to write about. Please include an illustration. They write directly in the notebook and include their name and the date and the assignment, all on the same page. This will travel home with each student, nightly. When each child has had an opportunity to share the activity, we will select another author to highlight as well as a story. Have fun!

Thank you for sending in your permission slips and money for the Laudholm Farm field trip. We are excited to go. A reminder that there will be no school on Friday, November 11th, the day after our field trip, in observance of Veteran's Day.

Second grade has math and spelling homework and first grade has math homework. Thank you again for getting in the homework on time (Wednesdays).

A very special thank you to a student and his mom. They shared story snack with us last Friday.

We hope you have a fun, and relaxing weekend. Enjoy trick or treat with your child. Let's hope the rain will stay away for a bit! If not, we will all be mowing our lawns until Christmas!

Ann and Jill

October 21, 2005

Dear Families,

I really don't know how these weeks go so quickly. We have had a fantastic week.

Earlier in the week, we began pumpkin week. We talked about the life cycle of a pumpkin and enjoyed It's Pumpkin Time by Zoe Hall. The children can explain this life cycle to you by sharing the packet and wheel they completed. We then shared The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll. Look for the packet with the pumpkin on it that came home today. Your child can share with you their estimate of the number of seeds it had, its weight, its size(diameter) , and what the actual figures were. They also wrote their own follow up story to The Biggest Pumpkin Ever.

We also started our unit on the skeletal system. We began with a pretest to see what the children know about this system. We then listened to part of the nonfiction book The Children's Book of The Body. This gave a great overview into what we will be studying. The children have a bound booklet we put together for this unit. It will come home at the completion of this study. The children examined a bone from a butcher. Ask them about this. They also made a model to show what a bone looks like on the inside. Have them explain this to you also.

We have assigned a project Homework to go along with this unit. It is called Adopt-A-Bone. Each child is assigned a bone to research. An explanation sheet as well as a rubric is included with this newsletter. It is due Thursday, November 10th. Your child will be giving an oral presentation accompanied by any visuals they choose. We will be assessing them on their project/presentation according to a rubric we use on oral presentations.

Our field trip to Laudholm Farm is scheduled for November 10th . We will be leaving by 8:45 and returning by 2:00. A reminder that the students should bring a lunch with a juice box type drink (no glass please). Also dress according to the weather(layers are suggested) and wear appropriate walking footwear. We go rain or shine! This should be a great learning adventure for us all. We will be reading books by previous classes about Laudholm Farm and will share a CD taken two years ago and share books on animal habitats, tracks and scat. A permission slip is included. Please let us know if you would like to chaperone as we have space for 2 parents. If more ask we will have to draw names.

Both first and second graders have worked on their penmanship and spelling. Remember Mrs. DeLuca is working with the first graders in math, spelling and handwriting and I am working with the second graders.

If you ever miss our newsletter it is on Central School's Web Site along with the second grade spelling words of the week. You can find a multitude of items on this web site, even the lunch menu and literature to accompany our Everyday Math Program. If you haven't checked it out you may want to. The web address is http://www.msad35.net/central/ A couple other web sites you may find useful on reading are: http://www.leveledbooks.com (this is a site put out by Barnes and Noble and is a place to find books on the appropriate level for you child) and http://www.bobbybucket.com ( great pod cast for students, parents and teachers )

Book orders are in their folders and due October 27th.

Second graders have math and spelling homework and first graders math homework. Thank you again for returning them in a timely manner.

Enjoy your weekend.

Ann and Jill

October 14, 2005

Dear Families,

It was a short week but as always busy and productive! We hope you all enjoyed your extended weekend with your families. There was a great article in the Maine Sunday Telegram about time with family and time for children to play. We are so busy every day but it is good to stop and remember to play, that includes all family members!!

It was wonderful having the opportunity to speak with many of you at conferences on Wednesday. We value your input and your support is integral in building a community of learners! We look forward to meeting with the rest of you next Thursday.

We followed up on Columbus Day with a shared reading ( A Book About Christopher Columbus by Ruth Below Gross) and a short activity on Christopher Columbus. The first year multigraders practiced being champion explorers during our "Explorations" in math. Both grades were asked to complete an activity on being an explorer by imagining they were Christopher Columbus. They had to write about where they would go, what they would discover, and draw a map of their "place."

Wednesday we had a discussion about our fabulous field trip to the South Berwick Fire Station. We enjoyed a wonderful presentation last week and spent time on Friday afternoon making thank you notes for the community helpers there. After sharing the story, Community Helpers from A to Z by Bobbie Kalman, our multigrade classes joined together to create an ABC book on the field trip to the fire station. Our students brainstormed the events of our trip, wrote them down on a list and then partnered up to illustrate and write the sentences to go along with their work. After, we put the book in ABC order similar to our Summer Memory book. The group actually voted on whether or not to create one book for each class or two. They opted to work as one whole group to make one for our multigrade community! This work of art should be displayed by next week's conference date. Enjoy!

On Thursday, we continued working on the Fire station ABC book and then shared the story When the Woods Hum by Joanne Ryder. Ask the children what these hummers are called. They may need a reminder.(cicadas) The children used their visual memory to illustrate a favorite part of this story.

In math, First year multigraders learned about parts of a phone number. I was thrilled to see that the children knew their phone numbers! We learned about complements of 10 (1+9, 2+8, 5+5) by using 10 pennies and playing Two-Fisted Penny Addition. They pick up a handful of pennies in their left hand and the rest with their right hand. This helps them to build fact power. Try it at home. We talked about analog clocks and the significance of the hour hand. This week we were introduced to the math box routine as well. This activity gives us the opportunity to practice four different math skills that we have covered. We will practice this daily.

The second graders have been working with fact triangles. They have a Fact Triangle sheet in their Homelinks they can use to practice the basic facts at home. They can tell the fact family with these triangles. We also explored weights using a pan balance and a spring scale. We predicted and then weighed several items. So far we have talked about ounces and pounds. We have continued to work on Name Collection. This is a concept that a number can be named in many ways. Some are even using Roman Numerals to name a number. At parent conferences you all received or will receive a listing of the secure goals for grade two by units. When we do math boxes in math class the children put a star in the boxes that are secure skills. This helps them know which goals are the most important. I always let them know when a skill is taught , reviewed or practiced if it is a beginning, developing or especially a secure goal. Our report card shades in secure skills. These are the skills we want them secure in by the end of the school year. If it isn't secure at the end of the trimester it is taught, in we go back and review the skill.

First grade has math homework and there is both math and spelling homework for second graders.

A special thank you to Tracey LaPointe and her high school students for coming in today to share their story-snack. We enjoyed having you!

They are predicting lots of rain so read, read, read!!! Enjoy time with your families!

Ann and Jill

September 30, 2005

Dear Parents,

What a eventful evening on Wednesday! How wonderful to see all of you at Open House. Your children are working very hard and are becoming a collaborative community of learners! We appreciate all of you who signed up for conferences, "story snack" time and those of you who helped yourselves donating goodies to our classroom. If you missed out on sign-up for conferences, Ann and I will be in touch. If you missed out on story snack or our goodie basket, we will have another opportunity at conference time.

This week, our study of butterflies began with the release of our monarch. He was very energetic and lively. We formed a circle outside and serenaded him with our "Pretty Butterflies" song. I think he really enjoyed it! This week our shared readings included, Butterflies by Darlene Freeman, Where Butterflies Grow by Joanne Ryder, Butterflies and Moths by Larry Dane Brimner, From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman and Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert.

Our Language Arts activities that followed our shared readings included learning the 3 main body parts of a butterfly. Invite your child to share this with you. They know how many legs they have and what part of their body they taste with as well. We also learned about similarities and differences between butterflies and moths. The students worked in cooperative groups to write their discoveries on a Venn Diagram. They have a good understanding of these insects. We completed our study of butterflies with a pairing activity creating a class book on butterfly pairs and and an Eric Carle caterpillar activity. We will be studying the human body beginning the week of Columbus Day.

Homework will be going home today. Thank you for your support at home. The children are eager to complete their work and are getting it in by Wednesday! Second grade has both spelling and math and first grade has just the math.

A reminder that next Friday, October 7th, we have no school. Ann and I will be with our colleagues at the High School working on goals from our summer reading on reading comprehension. Monday, the 10th is Columbus Day, so enjoy the long weekend.

On Tuesday, October 4th, our multigrade classes will be walking to the fire station for a field trip on fire safety. We have included permission slips for the year regarding walking field trips as well as other permission slips. Please make sure you sign them and return them on Monday so that we may all go on the walking field trip. Thank You!

Fall is upon us and we never seem to know what the weather will hold, please remember to send in a light coat or sweatshirt for your child as some days our recess temps can get chilly.

The weekend looks as if it will be warm. Enjoy! Ann and Jill

September 22, 2005

Dear Parents,

Our second full week of school flew by so quickly! The children have all adjusted nicely to our classroom and the school routine. They all seem right at home which is wonderful. We are lucky to have such an eager group of learners.

We have been reading many nonfiction and fictionbooks on butterflies. This is our first science unit which we have integrated into our morning meeting and reading group times. The children love learning this topic! To introduce this unit we shared Butterfly, See How They Grow by Mary Ling and photographed by Kim Taylor. We then worked on a KWLS activity. This is what we know and what we want to learn. Later we will share what we learned and would still like to learn.

We have used the story apron, pocket chart and flannel board to retell and sequence some of these books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons, A Butterfly is Born by Melvin Berger and Melody's Mystery written and photographed by Diane Kelsay and Bob Harvey. The children should now be able to explain the life cycle of a butterfly to you as well as migration and metamorphosis. They have a retelling paper in their folder that they can use to tell you all about the Life Cycle of the Butterfly.

Our caterpillar is now in the chrysalis stage and the children are enjoying observing this stage. They made their own butterfly booklet of the stages . We worked on symmetry and the children painted butterflies that are symmetrical. They learned a song they can sing to you that we will sing while we release our butterfly. The copy is in their folder as well. They can also show you the sign language for butterfly.

We started editing our morning message by working on punctuation, uppercase letters and the suffixes. The children are using various editing skills while working on these messages. See if they can tell you any of these.

Bob Sprankle, Zoe's dad, sent in an activity he does with his 3/4 Multigrade in Wells. It was called "The Bobby Bucket Show" and it contained different reading strategies. The children loved hearing his different voices and we shared the different strategies,(text to text and text to self) when sharing literature. If you have ever heard of Pod Casting, he is utilizing this approach and it is awesome!!! Thanks Bob for sharing your ideas with us.

We have started having Celebrity Readers in our room. Lynn Welch, Sophie's mom came in and shared a favorite book of theirs, Make way For Ducklings. She brought a snack that the children enjoyed while she was reading. We will have a sign up sheet at Open House if you would like to come in and read and bring a favorite snack to share with the class. We are hoping to do this on Friday afternoons around 2:00.

"As much as we try to protect our children from frightening news reports, there is likely no child in America who escaped the horror of seeing or hearing about Hurricane Katrina. Let's hope Hurricane Rita is kinder and gentler. We did have a limited discussion in our room on how it made us feel. There is a container for coins if you or your child would like to contribute funds up by the office. We are fortunate to live in the region we do.

Open House will be September 30th from 5:30- 7:00. We look forward to seeing you then. We will also have a sign up sheet for parent conferences, classroom volunteers and a wish list basket.

Book orders are in the take home folders. They are due September 28th.

If you haven't returned your parent survey or the emergency information sheet for our classroom please do so as soon as possible. All of our emergency forms are in!!! Thank you again for your help and support !

When sending in lunch or milk money there is a new form going home today. If you run out we would be glad to provide more. It is important that the children's name is with the money. Please fill these out when you send in your child's lunch or milk money as it helps us keep organized!

Sincerely,

Ann and Jill

Spelling Homework for Multi-grade

Each week your child will get a new list of words to study and work with both at home and at school. These are the words from our spelling book along with three additional words from the Frye List of most commonly used words. These are the same words that the children need to read at the end of each year. The first 100 for grade 1 and the second 100 for grade 2.

Beginning readers store and retrieve words in memory by letter-sound association. Spelling is a key component to reading. Thus we feel that children need to be immersed in both reading and writing from the very beginning.

We would like the children to complete these tasks each week.

1. Study the words- Practice tests are Monday and Wednesday with a final test if needed on Friday.

2. Write each word 3 times (emphasis is on handwriting)

3. Pick 6 spelling words and use them to write 6 different sentences.

4. Put the words in alphabetical order.

Multigrade Spelling Words-Grade 2

June 5-June 9

This weeks words are sh words

shine rush shoe cash short

dash bush shore wash shout

The extra words from the Frye List are review from the first 100 sight words :

who down come made part over

Here are the challenge words you may want to try:

brush marsh shift shiny

*Remember no written homework this week but please practice your words.