Wow, the end of the year has finally come. The kids have worked so hard and learned so much this year. I will miss every single one of them and hope that they all come back to visit at one time or another! We finished up the month of june with many fun activities. The kids ran their own book clubs and did an "escape room" in the library. They did a little camping and made smore ovens. We went on a great field trip to Powder Mills Park and learned about healthy streams and ecosystems. The kids got to take part in wee deliver and had a blast during field days. We connected with other classes by going to the high school to see some chemistry demonstrations and also invited the K/1 kids to come to our carnival. My class worked so hard on this carnival and it was really a showcase of what our amazing classroom family was able to accomplish when we work together. It has been a great year and I am so glad I got to spend it with them!
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May begins the busy season, with school already nearing the end. We spent a lot of time wrapping things up as well as diving into some new projects to keep us learning until the last days of school. During our persuasive writing unit the class decided we needed a new playground so we wrote a letter to Mrs. Check detailing our issues and also suggesting a solution. We were pretty convincing and our carnival project was then born. We even got Mrs. Ricci's class involved! We got to watch multiple entertaining shows this month, one being The Magic Paintbrush and another being the K/1 circus. We practiced measurement in math. We learned about the global water crisis and experimented with water filters in science. We cheered on friends for the special olympics, participated in JA in a Day, and have worked really hard to earn multiplication sundaes. So much great stuff going on! We packed April full of great learning! In science we focused on animal adaptations to their geography and environment including polar bears, caribou, and penguins. Students experienced state testing for the first time and spring began to show up a little. We completed an Unlock Spring Challenge that was competitive and fun to practice some math skills. We also focused on area and perimeter during math lessons and main idea in reading. Author Jane Gafell came to visit and Earth Day was in April too (we read about the Lorax). The students also finished up their amazing biographies and displayed them in the hallway for all to enjoy! What a great month!
March continued right on from what we were learning in February. We got in lots of fraction practice using different manipulatives. We read and talked about leaders and started researching our own leader in order to write a biography. There was a studio learning day school wide and we went to the library around St.Patricks day to learn how to do an Irish Jig. One of the kids favorite things is doing science so we snuck in some learning about penguins and fossils, including some experiments. And because it was getting close to NYS test time, but also spent time learning and practicing for them on the computer. We have really become such a great classroom family and everyone works so hard every day. Can't believe there is only 3 months left! February was cold, as usual, but it didn't stop us from enjoying what was going on inside the classroom. We had a few treats this month like a valentines party and a visit from author Jerry Polatta. Some of our students even got to join him on stage! We spent our math time exploring fractions and how to put them on a number line. In reading we read a class story called Chocolate Fever and followed it through the entire story arc, making predictions along the way. February always seems to fly by with the week off in the middle, but we still managed to pack some good learning in!
VPS is Proud to Present Studio Day Experiences for our Children….And We Need You
Each year, children at the Primary School engage in learning in many different ways. One way children learn is from participating in unique learning opportunities shared by those in our community. Parents and community members come in to lead “studios” or sessions to teach children about a particular topic connected to our curriculum and building council goals. This year, we have three studio day opportunities for different groups of children within the school:
During each studio day, children attend three sessions, or ‘studios’ (10:05 – 10:35, 10:40 – 11:10, 11:15 – 11:45). Each guest will be “hosted” by a classroom teacher and will work with 10-15 children during each session. Sessions are encouraged to be interactive. The three sessions each day can be identical, as each one will have a different group of children in attendance. Information about each studio day can be found below. If you are interested and willing to be part of one or more of these opportunities, please contact Carolyn Strahs at (585) 924-3252, ext. 2411 or at [email protected] by Friday, February 8th. Thank you for any consideration you can give to joining in this effort and sharing your knowledge and/or experiences! Exploring the Arts ~ “Put Your Hearts in the Arts” Learning About and Celebrating Creativity and Expression Thursday, March 7th “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” ~ Pablo Picasso “The true purpose of arts education is not necessarily to create more professional dancers or artists. It’s to create more complete human beings who are critical thinkers, who have curious minds, who can lead productive lives.” ~ Kelly Pollock The purpose of this studio day is to provide children with various creative experiences in an effort to cultivate an appreciation for all artistic pursuits. Sessions will serve to create greater understanding and appreciation for many forms of expression. Examples of sessions that could be offered include (but are not limited to): ● Instrumental Experience ● Dance Experience ● Interior Design ● Candle Making ● Soap Making ● Balloon Artistry ● Cake Decorating ● Music ● Theater ● Photography ● Culinary Arts ● Sewing ● Crafts ● Jewelry Making ● Writing and Lettering ● Quilting ● Knitting ● Floral Arrangement ● Visual Art (Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Etc.) ● Other Creative Disciplines Harambee ~ “Let’s All Pull Together” Learning About and Celebrating Cultures and People Around the World Friday, June 14th “Be the change you want to see in the world.” ~Mahatma Gandhi The purpose of this studio day is to provide children with a multi-cultural experience in an effort to broaden their perspective, appreciation, and understanding about the various culture and people of the world. This experience serves to create greater understanding, wisdom, respect, and acceptance of others…attitudes that will have an impact on building peace in our world as they grow into adulthood. Thank you for any consideration you can give to joining in this effort and sharing your heritage and/or experiences! After being off for two weeks, we get back to the grind in January. We jumped back into multiplication and division focusing on strategies for bigger numbers like 3, 4, and 6. We are focusing on character traits in the books they we are reading. This month brings a celebration of MLK as we dig deeper into leaders and their character traits as well. Mrs. Buckley joined us to talk about feelings and we escaped Oz while practicing our inferencing skills. In science we are talking about the water cycle. We calculated how much fresh water is actually available for us to drink and followed the life cyxle of a snowman. And even though it was cold many of the days we got outside to play as much as we could. That social/play time is just as important to their growth as the topics we cover in class!
December is always a whirlwind of learning and excitement for the upcoming holiday season. We spent much of December learning about holidays around the world with Globe Trot Scott, which was fun and informative. Thanks so much for all the volunteers and donations that made that unit possible. It is always one of the students favorites! We finished up our unit on multi-digit addition and subtraction, working hard to apply new strategies and use math tools to solve problems. The kids performed in their first chorus concert and challenged themselves to find dollar words based on our current read aloud. They were also challenged to share random acts of kindness by studying the character traits of the grinch and with our first student led community morning meeting. We also finished up our unit on precise language so we can start fresh in the new year! November is nearing the end of the first trimester and brought the beginning of the snow. We spent many days playing outside which creates a big mess inside too. We worked on creating a google slides presentation that covered all the subjects outside of math, reading, and writing. Many students were able to share these with parents during our student led conferences which were very successful! A fun stem opportunity that they had was to disguise a turkey at home and then build a boat with a partner to help the turkey escape the flood waters. Some boats floated and others sank, but everyone enjoyed the task! We also finished up measurement and graphing and then moved into adding/subtracting multi-digit numbers with Mrs. Knox as a guest teacher in our classroom. We also had a great health/science lesson on germs. Students learned about the importance of good hand washing using a blacklight and then created their own germs. We also did an experiment with mold on bread to show how hand washing affects the bread. Ours didn't work because we used white bread... which lead to a whole new question. Why would wheat bread mold and not white bread?! We got to be very inquisitive this month, it was great! October was full of great learning and a bunch of fun too! We planned and ran the Community morning meeting for the whole school. It was hard work but it turned out amazing. We studied geography to learn about how maps work and where the 7 continents are, to prepare us for learning about the world all year. The kids practice skills during WIN time using win bins and share their learning using FlipGrid. We celebrated Halloween with costumes and parades. We visited the library to have a book tasting with Ms. Lindse. The kids got to pick out many new series to try. We learned about the brain with Mrs. Riccis class and had the oppourtunity to hear from a real brain surgeon Mr. Bhalla. We even got to touch a 3d printed brain! Mrs. Kapinski also came in to teach us about the zones of regulation, which ties in nicely with the brain. The dictionary was also something we learned how to use. The kids are becoming independant learners that will carry them all year long!
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