Williston Village Field Trip

Our trip to Williston Village was a huge success! The children had many questions for our presenters and were quite attentive. One would have thought we took them to a far away land full of mystery and intrigue. Here are some of their responces when we arrived back at ABS and were enjoying well deserved apples from Adams Farm.

Eve - There is a lot of old fashion stuff upstairs in the library that I didn't know about.

Beckett - I saw the old bell that Mr. Allen was talking about.

Camille - We got to go inside the old church. I wish we could have gone into the bell tower.

Lily B. - Mr. Allen told us about how the church caught on fire by lightening. Most of the damage was done by smoke and water.

Riley - I liked the big light in the church.

Sophie - We got to vote for the real president when we were at the town hall.

Adele - When we voted we got to get a sticker.

Ben - At the town hall we found out the things that Williston does like ambulance, police, and road construction.

The FUN RUN is scheduled for October 4th and we hope that everyone will be able to participate. In the past the FUN RUN was a Vista House team building event that brought everyone together for an afternoon of family, health, and fun. It turned out to be a great way to raise funds to help support the extra curricular needs in the house as well. All fundraising efforts in the lower houses will now be combined to benefit the greater good of the school. We would like to make this years FUN RUN the most successful fundraising event of the year as well as kick off the school wide initiative. Make sure to check out the FUN RUN flyer in your childs Monday Folder and send in your registration early. We will also be holding an informational meeting this Monday after school in our kiva at 3:15. If you are able to help with the last minute details or work the day of the event please attend this meeting or send me an email letting me know you would like to help and we'll plug you in somewhere. Children are welcome at this meeting. They can play in their classroom while we meet.

We have been reading Barbara Cooney books and learning little tidbits about her life. The book Miss Rumphius inspired us to think about what we could do to make our school a more beautiful place. Each of the children came up with their own idea and turned it into a personal quote, wrote it on large drawing paper, and surrounded it with fingerpainted lupines. That wasn't enough for them so we also started a wall size mural with lots and lots of lupines and everyones quote woven throughout. It was a wonderful way to bring a busy week to a close.

Guided reading groups begin this week. The two classrooms have been mixed together creating 8 groups. Caitlin, Jessica, and I will split the load and spend twice as much time with each group as we would be able to if we each ran groups for our individual classrooms. The beginning readers will be bringing books home in ziplock bags that we hope will be read at home, several times if possible. Please make sure the books are sent back to school the very next day as we begin the next days lesson by rereading the previous days book. More advanced readers will also bring books home, just not as frequently as they will have assignments in class pertaining to their books that require more than one day for completion.

Our first writers workshop unit of study is off and running. The children are mass producing stories with illustrations, covers, and title pages. Our lessons have been based on writing stories with a beginning, middle, and end, sentence completion, punctuation and capital letters, and most recently determining the most important part of the story in order to add more details. My favorite part of each lesson is the daily sharing. The children are expected to give feedback to each child who shares. They are brutally honest, ask great probing questions, and say the nicest things to each other about the stories they are hearing. Most of the time the child sharing walks away with a plan for how to make their story better by making a very simple change or addition.

I would really like to hear from you as to what changes or additions you would like to see in this blog. I am very open to any and all ideas and want the time and effort I put into informing you best meet your needs.

Happy Reading,
Julie

Parent Information Night

Hello Everyone,

A reminder that this Wednesday evening the Vista teachers will be sharing a typical day in the life of a Vista student at our annual Parent Information Night. We will be discussing curriculum, homework, communication, team events, FAP, and much more. We begin at 6:30 in the Kiva and then move into the classrooms for 1st/2nd and 3rd/4th grade discussions. I look forward to seeing many parents and sharing our plan for the year and beyond!

We began a study entitled Then and Now in the classroom today. The children are taking a close look at everyday items that are between 50 -100 years old and comparing them to the same items from today. We have a broom, medicine bottles, candles, toys, milk bottles, jars, and skis. If you happen to have something old hanging around the house send it in for a quick comparison.

Wednesday morning we'll be traveling to Williston Village for a guided tour of the Town Hall, Library, and hopefully the old school house. I'm not sure which part of the field trip the children are more excited about; the guided tour or seeing their Esprit friends again.

We finally got around to the final stage of our mask making project, adding the embellishments. The children were given a wide assortment of materials and had to make a plan as to what they wanted their mask to represent and then justify the use of the materials they requested. They were incredibly thoughtful about the entire process. The attached video has the thoughts of a few of the children as to how or why they made their mask the way they did. Some of the interviews were achieved in one take while others met with unforeseen challenges and required a second or third take!

Happy Reading,

Julie

Upcoming Events

We have several upcoming events that you may want to mark on your calendars. More information either has been sent or will follow, but I wanted to give you the dates and times:

September 17 - Williston Village Field Trip for Esprit and Vista 1st and 2nd Graders - 8:20 - 10:20 am. We will be sending home the permission slip soon. Please sign and return it as soon as possible. There is no cost to students for this trip and we will be providing apples for snack that day. Do let me know if your child cannot eat apples.

September 17 - Vista Parent Information Night from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. Parents are invited to join us to learn more about curriculum and other important information.

October 4 - Fun Run

November 3 - Vista 1st/2nd grade Flynn Theater Field Trip to see the Velveteen Rabbit. I believe the 2nd half of this permission slip was inadvertently left on the copier. We'll back track and get that out to you in the next folder!

Ms. Rogers Class

The first 2 weeks of school have simply flown by and we are off to a great start! We are hard at working making new friends, learning new routines, and adjusting to a full day of activity. Sam helped me make our first class video. Now everyone wants to learn how. Here are a few of the highlights from the children:

Evey - I liked going to Esprit and making new friends. It was fun.

Trevor - I am reading the book Stone Fox and it is really exciting.

Camille – I liked painting my mask because I like making projects. I had fun in music class too.
Zach – I liked learning new facts about Williston with Mr. Allen.
Adele – I liked writing a story with Mrs. B.
Sam – I liked making the gingerbread mini-me’s.
Beckett – I liked reading with Mrs. Barfield.

Hello Cupcake!

August always brings the sweetness of corn on the cob. It's a tradition out at camp to have fresh from the farm corn at just about every meal. But wait a minute, is this really farm fresh corn on the cob? It sure was sweet but it's actually cupcakes! Everything about this corn on the cob is candy sitting on top of cupcakes. Alita and I went to a demonstration at the Flying Pig bookstore in Shelburne by the co-authors of the amazing cookbook entitled Hello Cupcake. That evening we witnessed the food stylists at work and then created our own cupcakes that looked like sunflowers, centipedes, and 2 sleeping beauties all snug in their beds. We learned several tricks that make cupcake decorating easy and super fun. Click on the Hello Cupcake book title above to visit the website. Of course we had to create the corn on the cob cupcakes for a day out at camp.

Fowl Play

While water skiing yesterday a huge bald eagle swooped down and attempted to catch a fish in the lake. It wasn't any luckier than Bill as far as the fishing went and came up with empty talons. We watched it soar through the sky and land on the branch of a very tall white pine tree. We zoomed back to our camp and picked up a pair of binoculars so that we could check out the eagle a little more closely. We were able to watch it take flight one more time. Quite a sight to see. As it left the lake the resident loons became a bit angry and sounded off with a new intensity. Shortly after that we came upon a new beaver lodge. No beavers in sight however. Back at camp while roasting marshmallows over the fire mama duck and her babies, who are getting bigger every day, stopped by for a visit. The babies are quite brave now and waddle right up on shore. Mama duck was squawking at them nonstop. Not sure what she said but they never got out of the water. What a great day out at camp.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone Wednesday morning at the Open House. I've found a really cute book and have a yummy treat to share.

Summers End

Hello Everyone,

Every day I notice something else that tells me summer is wrapping up and autumn is fast approaching. I've seen several maple trees with a few golden and orange leaves. It's dark outside when I get up in the morning and I am back to wearing my reflector vest when I run so that cars can see me better. A couple of crickets have moved into the house and boy is their chirping loud! Our barn swallows have moved out and the orb weaver spiders have moved in. The spiders build the most amazing webs and then hang around waiting for unsuspecting bugs who quickly become trapped and then become dinner. We run into the webs ourselves quite frequently. It doesn't seem to bother the spiders as they make repairs and move on to the business of bug catching. I'm off to the back field in search of milkweed and hopefully a monarch caterpillar or two for the classroom. I haven't had any luck so far. Perhaps it's a bit too early for the little stripped fellows.