Winchester

Happy Spring!  With somewhere around 40 days left of school in this school year, I would like to take the time to remind parents/students about upcoming events and update you all on what’s been happening in the classroom.

• April 6th brings Star Wars to CHS, doors open at 6:00
• April 13th is a workday in our garden at school from 10-12. Feel free to bring the family, work gloves and tools.
• Believe it or not, April break is 3 weeks away, 4/22-4/26
• May 22 and 23 are TWO field trips for our class (back to back)!  On May 22, we venture to the Winooski Park District/Ethan Allen Homestead for Science (8:30-1:00) and on May 23, our big trip to Fort Ticonderoga (all day) for Social Studies.  We have VERY limited room (if any) for chaperones for the Ethan Allen Homestead, but Fort Ti is open to anyone wanting to chaperone.  As was the case last year, we will ask the chaperones to drive their own cars or carpool as we do not have room on the bus for everyone. ***Important Note*** If you are interested in chaperoning this year for any event, you must have the proper forms filed with the Superintendent’s Office. Because you will be working with children, background checks must be done and you must be approved and listed with the Superintendent’s Office.  If this is not done, you will not be able to accompany us on any field trip. If yoiu have any questions, you can let me know and I can tell you if you’ve filed these forms already. If you have not, please get a form from the office, complete it and return it to MBS or the Superintendent’s Office ASAP.
• Currently, our last day of school is scheduled for June 13th with a half day. Let’s hope we don’t have any more emergency/snow days!!
• The fifth grade talent show will be happening also this year, your student has received information on this. They should be completing the “registration” and turning it in so we may approve songs, etc.

Updates:

We are in Unit 9 in Everyday Mathematics, studying area, perimeter and volume of rectangles and triangles. **Please remember** all Evervyday Mathematics lessons and parental hints/answers to worksheets can be found on the EDM math site, see our “links” page.  When your student comes home and would like you to check his/her work, this is the place to go. Another good website to brush up on mathematics skills is kahnacademy.com.  Fifth graders are currently being taught math “our way or the old, traditional way” and not the “new way” as in grades K-4.  They are multiplying, dividing and problem solving the same way we did in school, so don’t be nervous about helping them out!…and thank you for your help at home if they need it!

Mr. Winchester has been back in the classroom in the afternoons for Social Studies. He is tutoring and providing some one on one help to some students in Lighthouse and then coming back to our class to teach S.S.  It’s wonderful to see him back at MBS!

D.A.R.E. has ending with wonderful presentations from the students. Most put in an incredible amount of work and it shows! Projects will be on display during the D.A.R.E. graduation.

In literacy, we have been studying poetry, mysteries and we will be starting a new historical fiction reading book this week that will tie into our Social Studies unit on the Revolutionary War.

We are busy, busy, busy here at school! As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know – scanlonc@csdvt.org

Again, Happy Spring,

Cathy Scanlon

Hello all,

I wanted to catch you up on the Winchester/Scanlon classroom. Yesterday we celebrated Valentine’s Day with a “get together” in the afternoon. We had some wonderful healthy munchies as we watched an episode of Liberty’s Kids.

The Unit 7 math test was also given yesterday and I was able to correct it and send it home the same day!  As a class we read directions and highlighted important key phrases on the assessment.  I was very pleased with the grades as a whole!

In science, the kiddos are continuing their “mysterious powders” unit.  They have a vocabulary quiz today. I hope they all do well! They are all so engaged in class when I get to peek in.  They are also using the scientific method throughout their experiments.

In writing, we have been working on some “free writing” on computers and in journals as well as revisiting grammar lessons.  We’ve been studying types of sentences, subjects, predicates, nouns and verbs.  A good majority of our class is having trouble carrying this information over to our everyday writing.

Vacation is in a week!  During all of next week we are collecting cans and boxes for the foodshelf. Our mission is called “CAN-struction”. On Friday, we are going to make a structure out of our cans/boxes, taking a picture of it for our CAN-struction bulletin board in the hallway.  Thank you to all have donated already – we’ve gotten a great head start! Please send in a can or two with your student next week as we try to break the record for the school!

Have a restful weekend and as always, please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Cathy Scanlon

The class “high-fiving” Oscar and Mrs. Benay.

We’ve reached our goal of every member of our class returning their homework when it is due – for 10 days!  Yes, we’ve been working on this goal for a while, but the class has been very encouraging of each other and we finally made it today!  Oscar paid us a visit and hung the banner on our door and congratulated us for our perseverance!

Our new goal is to decrease some of our distracting behavior. We are keeping track of our progress daily using clear cups on our tables with 10 green cubes in them at the beginning of the day. When there is a distracting behavior, the student is asked to give me one of their green cubes.  If I see the behavior we are trying to accomplish such as raising our hand and being called on before we speak, I will give the student a yellow cube.  So at the end of the day, we are counting both our green cubes (to see how many distracting behaviors we had) and our yellow cubes (to see how many times we are showing our positive behavior). This is our first day and we are working out the kinks and thinking about the rewards we would like to earn.

The banner hangs proudly on our door!

Mr. Winchester’s/Mrs. Scanlon’s class is finished with our science unit on cells. We had our final test last week and looked at some cells under the microscopes! We loved this science unit because it was so hands-on and we got to use the ipads a lot to discover the parts of a cell and their job.

In Social Studies, we just started the Colonial America unit. We’ll be learning about the 13 colonies and the first settlements, why the colonies were formed and family life and customs.  We’ll even be making projects like horn-books and candles!

Fractions, fractions, fractions! We’re learning about parts of a whole. Unit 5 in Everyday Math is on fractions; reducing them, adding them and understanding what they represent.

Mrs. Scanlon has introduced us to the Daily 5 and Cafe menu.  These are two programs that engage every student in literacy assessment and instruction.  We are learning independence in literacy by self-monitoring, reflecting on our learning and making thoughtful choices.  Our literacy block is approximately 2 hours long.  In that time, we have to do our “Daily 5″.  We read to self, read with a partner, listen to reading, do word work and work on writing.  Some days we have to complete the “Daily 5″ in a certain order, but most days, we decide independently what to work first, second, third,etc.  While we are working, Mrs. Scanlon meets with reading groups, meets with students independently, has word study groups and she is able to assess our work more regularly. We even have intervention time if we need it.  The Cafe menu goes along with the Daily 5. C stands for comprehension, A stands for accuracy, F stands for fluency and E stands for expanded vocabulary.  Every day we learn a new strategy for reading.  Mrs. Scanlon models the strategy while reading aloud and then we use the strategies as we read in our “Daily 5″.  Soon we’ll all be working independently on a specific strategy that we need to work on.  If we read slowly, we’ll be working on fluency.  If we read and decode well, but have trouble understanding the story, our focus will be on comprehension, etc. It may sound confusing, but we’re working hard on our independence and we’re reading a lot!  If you’d like more information on the Daily 5 and Cafe, please visit www.thedailycafe.com.

Please feel free to email Mrs. Scanlon if you have any questions or comments: scanlonc@csdvt.org

NECAPs - Testing begins 10/8.  We have been using test preparation materials from the state of Vermont during math, reading and writing.

Writing – Students have been writing procedures for making salt dough maps.  Having just recently made salt dough maps, students have an experience upon which to base their procedure.  Procedures include an introductory paragraph, materials list, steps, illustrations and a conclusion paragraph. 

Word Study- Word study (Spelling) routines are well established at this time.  Your child has word study homework Monday to Thursday, but there will be no word study the week of 10/8 due to testing.

Reading- Students are working on assigned books at their reading level.  Mrs. Scanlon and I each have two groups and we are currently working on summarizing.  This week I have also been teaching a series of whole class mini lessons on questioning utilizing the book Letting Swift River Go by Jane Yolen.  Additionally, each week students have one or more assignments in their Daybooks.  During conferences we will share evidence of your child’s work and progress through a student portfolio.  As a reminder home reading slips are due on Thursdays.

Social Studies- The United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the three branches of government are the areas that we have been exploring during social studies.  Students are currently planning shields that will reflect their understanding of each of the first ten amendments.  We are also fortunate to receive Weekly Reader magazines most Fridays.  These current event magazines help our children make connections to the world.  The Weekly Reader website is also great! 

Math – Mrs. Scanlon is nearing the end of unit two and there will be a test next Wednesday or Thursday.  Place value, rounding and multiplication are all part of unit 2.

Goal-The students chose a goal for the class which is to have ten days of 100% homework completion  followed by a celebration.  (The ten days do not have to be consecutive.)

As of yesterday,  Cathy Scanlon, an experienced elementary school teacher, began working to support our classroom.  During the next few weeks while I receive treatment for a non life threatening illness,  Cathy will be in the room to help teach.  She is also in the room to maintain our program during the days that I am unable to be in school.  Please feel free to contact Cathy, Julie Benay or myself with any questions or concerns.  Thank you.

-Mrs. Buswell’s class and Mr. Winchester’s class are going to Shelburne Farm on Wednesday.  Students need their lunch, clothing for all weather conditions and a great attitude!

-Word study/spelling homework will be completed at home this week.  Please watch for it to come home each night.

-Home reading slips are due Thursday.

-I look forward to seeing  many families for MBS Open House this Thursday (6:30-7:30).  This is nice opportunity to tour the school and meet the staff. 

-If you have any specific questions or concerns about your child please call, email or schedule a time to conference.  

Have a great week.

Language:  Students worked on their first literature circle book Out of Darkness and began working in small groups during intervention time.  We also began skill work (setting and character) .  Word study/spelling will begin next week.

Writing:  Students decorated their writing journals, responded to writing prompts and began skill work.  Look for student communication journals this weekend.  Please read your child’s letter and respond if you can.  Students love to have you write to them!

Math: Students have been learning about arrays, rows, columns, factors, prime and composite numbers.  I expect our unit one math test to be at the end of next week.

Social Studies:  Students began making topographical  salt dough maps of the United States in order to develop an understanding of our countries geography.  Our first unit will help students to develop an understanding of how our government works.  This is especially interesting during a presidential election year!  One resource we use is the Scholastic Weekly Reader which has a wonderful online edition.  www.scholastic.com/sn56

Have a great weekend!