News from Room 5! Mrs. Bissonnette's Classroom Blog! 

Hello Friends!

It was so great to see so many of you at dinosaur breakfast! Now that our dinosaur unit is over we are beginning to learn about important Americans. This week we will be learning about Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Truman, Louis and Clark, and Jackie Robinson. We  will begin learning about the Iditerod just before vacation begins. The race begins the second Sunday of vacation so the race will be in full swing by the time students come back to school on Wednesday, March 7th.

In math children are working hard on learning about fractions. We are using shapes and money to show what fractions look and sound like. In writing students are learning about nonfiction writing conventions. Last week children found labels, captions, and table of contents in various nonfiction texts.

Report cards will be going home on February 24th. Conference day is scheduled for Tuesday, March 6th between 11am and 6:30pm. Please return the conference preference sheet as soon as possible. We will try our hardest to accomodate your requested time.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone at the conferences!

Mrs. Bissonnette and Ms. Dyer

Dinosaur Song!

This is a clip of the class singing “The Dinosaur Song” They will be singing this at an upcoming assembly!

Hello Again!
The 100th day of school is approaching! Right now it looks like it will be on February 7th. We would like to celebrate this day in a special way that will help our community.
Our goal is for our classroom to collect 100 items for the Colchester Food Shelf by the 100th day of school. Please help us meet this challenge. Below are some suggestions for needed items.
You will notice many of them are non-food items but they are essential for many families.

These are some of the items that many Colchester families need:

•Soup
•Spaghetti Sauce
•Peanut Butter
•Jelly
•Toilet Paper
•Paper Towels
•Cleaning Products
•Laundry Detergent
•Dish Detergent
•Kleenex

If you are able to donate any of these items it would be greatly appreciated! Just send them in with your child!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Bissonnette and Ms. Dyer

Hello Everyone!
We hope this finds you all happy and healthy and enjoying the New Year. With the New Year also came a new addition to our classroom. Eliza Dyer is a senior at the University of Vermont and will be our classroom’s student teacher. She is in the classroom Monday through Friday for the entire day, with the exception of Tuesday where she only stays until 12. She is majoring in Elementary Education, minoring in Special Education, and has a major concentration in English. She has already taken on some responsibilities in the classroom, such as morning meeting, a reading group, and read aloud. As the year progresses she will take on more in the classroom. This is all leading up to her solo weeks. These two weeks will occur in April and will be a time when she is teaching the class while Mrs. Bissonnette is not present in the classrom. Mrs. Bissonnette will still be in the school building, and will be in constant communication with Ms. Dyer. Ms. Dyer is already enjoying being a member of room 5. The students have quickly adapted to her presence and are learning a lot about the expectations that both Mrs. Bissonnette and Ms. Dyer share. If you ever have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to e-mail Mrs. Bissonnette or Ms. Dyer (edyer@uvm.edu).

The students are in the midst of working on their dinosaur unit. This is a really fun and interesting unit for our second graders to be working on. They are currently learning about the Triassic period and the dinosaurs that lived during this time. Next we will be working on short reports about dinosaurs that the students were able choose themselves. In the following weeks we will be focusing on the Jurassic period and then the Cretaceous period. Ask your student about what dinosaur they chose and some facts that have learned in their research.

Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day so this week in class we have been spending a lot of time thinking and talking about ways that Martin Luther King showed peace and how we can keep his dream alive.

In math we are beginning an introduction to multipication. Keeping this mind it is still very important to know our addition and subtraction facts! If you are interested there is a great website to practice these on that you and your child can work on together (http://www.abcya.com/).

Reminder!! Now that the weather has (finally) changed to winter it is very important to dress your child appropriately. Mittens, hat, gloves, scarves, jackets, snow pants, and boots are all enouraged. It is also a good idea to bring in extra winter clothes in case of things getting wet during recess. Another idea that makes things more convenient is to leave a pair of shoes at school so that the child doesn’t have to bring a pair back and forth from school to home.

Here are some important dates:
January 19th-Project Inside Out Pasta Supper and Raffle
February 7th-100th Day of School
February 9th-PTO Meeting at 6:30pm
February 10th-Family BINGO night
February 27th-Report Cards Distributed
February 27th-March 5th-Mid-Winter Recess
March 6th-Parent-Teacher Conference Day (No school for students)

Have a wonderful January!
Mrs. Bissonnette and Ms. Dyer

Hello all!

I think I am getting much better at this “blog” thing!  What a great place to update you on a few things that have been happening and to give you some reminders!

During the month of October, we have had a wonderful time exploring Balance and Motion.  We balanced objects, used spinners, twirlers, and rollers to see how force and gravity work in the movement of objects.  We will be beginning a study of Nutrition very soon!  Did you know the Pyramid is now a Plate?  We will be looking at ways to keep us healthy and what it means to eat balanced meals.  Try this website  www.myplate.gov  There are so many great resources on the web!  I’ll try to include more later.  If you know of some good ones, send them our way!

November will bring us a very busy month!  We are assessing children right now as we are getting ready for report cards and conferences.  Conference day has been set as Monday, November 21.  I am trying to set up alternate times for conferences the week before as I realize many of you would not be able to make a conference on the 21st.  I will be sending home a note very soon.

We have started learning about Balance and Motion!  We have learned how weight and center of gravity impacts balance.  We had a great time exploring with our paper crayfish to make them balance on our fingers.  We even made a pencil balance on a tiny popcicle stick! 

We have started looking about how motion can effect balance.  We used tops to explore how force makes things move and can cause other things to balance!

Welcome new Classmates!  We are so excited to begin a new school year together!  We have so many things to learn and explore.  We will begin the year learning about our new school expectations!  We will talk a lot about 1. Be Safe 2. Be Respectful 3. Be ready to learn. 

We have many wonderful Science and Social Studies units including, Balance and Motion, Colonial America, Nutrition, Holidays, Celebrations, and Customs Around the World, Dinosaurs, Iditarod, Plants, Rocks and Minerals, and Lake Champlain.  It will be a very busy year!

There is homework!  Students are expected to read a minimum of 15 minutes each day!  Each week a SWR skills list with examples will be sent home.  It is expected that children will practice the skill and find the skill in their reading they do at home.  We will also be sending home Math Homelinks once or twice a week depending on the unit we are working on.  Parents are invited to please help your child with any Homelink that comes home.  Homelinks are a great way for you to see what we are  doing in Math. 

Our schedule is: Mon: Library (Don’t forget your books) Tues: Art Wed: P.E. (Sneakers please) Thurs: Music Fri: P.E.

Please remember that our first bell rings at 8:15.  We will be eating lunch at 12:00, and our dismissal bell is at 2:45.  For your child’s safety, please remember to always sign your child out in the office. 

If you are a visitor at any time of the day, please remember to sign into the office and get a visitors pass before you proceed down the hall.