Link for website for next year

Hey there, I just want to let people know that I will be moving my classroom e-home to a website for the upcoming school year.

Just click this sentence to be directed there!

Thanks,

Dave

A note about tech night, and field trip reminder.

Hey gang, this is a quick note to pass some information about tech night, as well as serve as a reminder.

First the reminder.  We are going on our final field trip on Monday.  We will be going to Boulder Beach with our Kindergarten Buddies for some fun and splashing.  Please make sure your student is prepared to spend a day outside. 

Information about Tech Night:

Dear EMES Community,

Join us on Tuesday June 12th from 5:30-7:15 for EMES Tech Night.

Schedule of events:

5:30-6:15 Presentation of Student Projects

5th & 6th Grade - Green Screen videos & Mindstorm Robotics

4th Grade - Book Trailers & Racecar Robots

3rd Grade - Traditional Tales, East Montpelier Interview Project, and Pullbot Robots

2nd Grade - Character Trading Cards, Flooding the model, & Dancing Bird Robots

1st & 2nd - Character Trading Cards & Dancing Birds Robots

1st Grade - KIBO Robot design engineering challenge & Book Buzzes

K - Book Buzzes

6:15- 7:00 Learn How to ….use a Green Screen, Program a Robot and more from the Tech Club (learning stations designed and run by Tech Club)

6:45-7:00 cake in the cafeteria

7:00-7:15 Prizes in the Gym

Tech Night is celebration of student work and a time to explore technology tools.  

We hope to see you next Tuesday

• EMES Tech Club

P.E. Lab was a total success!

Yesterday we had our second P.E. Lab of the year.  We spent the morning at Wrightsville Reservoir canoeing and playing disc golf.  This was such a wonderful opportunity to build transferable skills, build some physical skills, and have a wonderful time outside!  There are a few photos in the photos tab to check out.

Also, we have started investigating the world of decimals!  Our bridge to this world is money, we have been working to add together different coins in our monetary system.  Today a student observed "Hey!  When you add these together it is just like adding regular numbers, but instead of 100, it is just 1!"  What a wonderful observation.  We also started work multiplying some decimals, again based on money.  We were working on things like: Jack has 17 quarters in his pocket (man that must be heavy!), and he found 5 more on the street.  How much money does he have now?

After our trip to the State House last Friday we have been investigating things that we saw there that stuck with us.  A few students are interested in learning about the statue of Ceres, some have focussed on the catamount, others are looking into George Dewey, while still others are investigating the Vermont timeline mural that we saw! 

As we get ready for summer, families sometimes want some summer practice to help their students skills stay sharp.  If you, or your student, are interested in this, please let me know and I will get things organized.

-Dave

Published final drafts!

Hey there, we have been working hard on writing some fractured fairy tales!  We have used traditional fairy tales as the inspiration for these, and the adaptations we are making is to the characters.  Our characters are the Vermont state fish, the brook trout!  The stories and characters that the students have come up with are wonderful.  We have also taken this opportunity to fully publish these stories, you will see them coming home as bound, hand illustrated volumes!

We have also been working a lot with fractions of like denominators.  We are multiplying them by a whole number, as well as counting by them in a large group.  We came to a consensus that we could simply use some of our multiplication knowledge when dealing with fractions, and that the reason the numerator changes and the denominator stays the same (when multiplying fractions by a whole number) is "the denominator is how many parts it takes to make a whole, and the numerator is how many parts you have."

Tomorrow we will be travelling to the State House and Vermont History Museum.  We are looking forward to seeing the inner workings of our Capitol building, as well as the wonderful exhibits at the museum. 

Next week is P.E. Lab and we will be going to the Wrightsville Reservoir for some canoeing and disc golf, and the following Monday we will be going to Boulder Beach with our buddies! 

Rube Goldberg machines....

...Boston information and more!  This has been a busy week for us here in 4th grade.  We have done a lot of work with fractions, designed Rube Goldberg machines, done some SBAC assessments, and greened up!  Our fraction work has taken to the place of adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators (3/4 + 4/4 = 7/4).  We have worked to build the understanding that the denominator notes how many pieces a whole is split into, and the numerator denotes how many of these pieces you have.  It was a bit of a mind-bender to see the concept of a numerator greater than a denominator, but we are starting to see the light, as well as understand how to translate these improper fractions into mixed numbers.  As we gear up for our trip to Boston we are heavy into scientific inquiry.  We are working on understanding different simple machines (lever, pulley, inclined plane, and the like) and incorporating these into some Rube Goldberg machines!  The beauty of work like this is the design and test process, this refinement is where students really sharpen their skills of problem solving, collaboration, and application of knowledge.  This was also our first week of SBAC assessments.  I must say that students took this work very seriously and put their all into these assessments.  We have two days left next week which will focus on math.  We also spent a little time greening up around our school, this was a nice time for all as we spiffed up some of the road frontage, and spent some wonderful time outside.

Finally, please keep your eyes open for some materials coming home this week about our upcoming trip to Boston!  All students will bring home a letter outlining what to bring.  This letter will also give a general schedule that will be solidified more when we get to the museum.  Also, if you are one of our chaperones there will be an additional letter, with contact information for me and Robin, as well as some other odds and ends.  Also, if your student still needs to bring in a permission form you will receive an email from me this afternoon (Friday), please try to get those in by Monday! 

Thanks and have a great weekend,

Dave

Boston Information Coming Home...

...as well as some classroom updates. 

First off, I will apologize for the lack of posts in the past month. Throughout this month we have seen a bunch of strong work here in our classroom.  We have worked on adding fractions with like denominators, designing and testing bridges that can span a 24 inch gap, reading intensely in books of our choice, and identifying different topics that we can write about to express our opinions and hope to convince our readers of something. 

We practiced adding fractions with a common denominator by changing our unit.  For instance often times the unit we use is one, therefore we count by one.  However if we change the unit to five, we can quickly see that what used to be "one," is now 1/5.  We used this idea to practice using different denominators, and different numerators, and add them together.  In the forthcoming week we will be working on what to do with the improper fractions that we get as a result of this addition.

Our bridge work led to lots of reflection and refinement in design.  We had bridges that held pounds of added weight, while others simply held their own weight, all of these met the learning intentions for this project, as the goal was to span a gap of 24 inches.

Also, please keep your eyes open this afternoon for some paperwork coming home about our Boston Trip.  Two forms will be coming home, one is a general permission form with emergency contact information and things like this, everyone should fill this out.  The other form is for prescription and/or over the counter medication.  If this one applies to your student please fill this form out as well (this latter form needs to be filled out even if you will be chaperoning with your child).  We also will be making some distinctive t-shirts to wear on our trip so we can easily spot each other.  For this we ask that everyone bring in a white t-shirt that is 100% cotton, and has been pre-washed.  We will collect these shirts throughout next week, and will be decorating them on the week of May 7th.  Also if any of you who are chaperoning need access to a plug in the night for a CPAP machine, please let me know so we can plan accordingly.

I hope you have a great weekend,

-Dave

A quick note from the library:

From the library;

The wet and mud of Spring often results in wet and muddy library books.  We will encourage students to wrap library books in plastic bags during wet Spring days and will help out with this as much as we can. If you have some plastic bags that you would like to donate to this effort, please send them in with your student. 

Thank you!

 - Arlyn and Mrs. Badger

Happy Spring!

We are cruising into spring!  We are working on division during math, reading a beautiful book and learning about characters and theme in reader's workshop, writing our opinions, and so much more.  We have also begun to do some serious reflective work.  We are thinking about some of the standards that need to be met in fourth grade, and thinking about our progress toward them.  Students use evidence, exemplars and each other in this reflective work.  This reflection will serve as the basis for our student-led conferences that are coming up in a few weeks.  Speaking of those, there is a link to a live sign up document on the top of this blog, and I will be sending a paper copy home this afternoon.  These conferences are a little different and we can accommodate up to four students and families in each time slot.  Please sign up for the time that fits your schedule best!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and see you all April 6 for our conferences.

Dave

Sign up for Student-led conferences

Spring Student-Led Conferences

Below you will find the link to a sign up for  parent-teacher conferences this spring. You can also find this link on the conferences page of my (this) blog. Please note, you should be able to just add your name write to the document, please do so.   I look forward to meeting with all of you. Our Spring conferences are a bit different than our fall ones as they are led by students. If you would like a little private time to chat with me, that can easily be arranged, please just let me know.  Otherwise sign up for the slot that fits your schedule best!

Please note: There can be up to four conferences happening in the room at one time.

Thanks,

Dave

Link to Student-Led Conference sign-up

Information coming home...

I will be sending some information home tonight regarding our Boston trip that is scheduled for later this spring.  On the pink piece of paper you will find information about being a chaperone, the amount your student raised through our sock sale, as well as the remaining balance for the trip.  There are also a few individual fundraising ideas outlined on this communique.  If you have any questions about this trip, please feel  free to contact me so I can clear them up for you. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Dave

Another busy week! And an apology...

...let's start with that.  I would like to apologize for the lack of new photos.  I am not a natural photographer, and have set a goal to take and post more photos but have fallen short on this goal as of late.  I will work to take and post more recent photos as I know how interesting and valuable they can be.

As for busy-ness, we have been.  During math we have been focused on noticing and extending patterns.  We are looking at different patterns, how they progress, and how these patterns can be used to deconstruct large numbers.  We are also working on the relative size of numbers.  That is to say that if on the tenth step of a pattern you have 41, that on the 20th step you would have 82, and on the 100th step you would have 410.  We are using group discussion to uncover some of these patterns, as well as to build communication within our ranks.

Students are also working on biographies of people of interest.  We will hope to wrap these up by next week, and have full color published copies out for inspection at our celebration of learning!  There will also be a black and white copy coming home as soon as they are finished. 

The City of Ember is the dystopian novel that we are in the middle of.  We are working on the nuance of reading a book like this, as well as trying to understand the ways the author helps us readers to feel the dystopia.  This book is super-engaging, and if you are looking for a read for yourself, you might check it out. 

I hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing weekend!

Dave

Fractions, facts, and dystopia...

We have starting reading a dystopian novel entitled The City of Ember, this book can be a wonderful introduction to the genre of dystopia without being too heavy.  Throughout our reading of this book we will focus on some of the "moves" that the author uses to really make us feel that Ember is a not-good place.  Dystopian novels are great for this because students really need to reflect to find out what the author is doing to project the feeling of foreboding that accompanies reading a book like this.

We have also been working on researching people for biographic writing.  This short foray into reading and research is always interesting for students as they work on the art of identifying what facts are relevant to the stories that they want to tell about people.  We also use this opportunity to practice writing in a factual way that is more engaging than simply a list of facts.  To do this we are using mentor biographies to see how other author's craft this sort of writing. 

We also have been working with fractions.  We are cultivating the notion that fractions are a piece of a whole, and and equal piece at that.  We have been exploring these through discussion, with strips of paper, and drawings.  We are using all of these tools to understand the aforementioned idea, as well as to build the notion of equivalent fractions.

We are also looking forward to Winter Wellness which starts next week!  Students will bring home information about which group they are in with them today, and if there are any questions please let me know.  Please also keep in mind that Wednesday February 21 is our P.E. lab at Morse farm, and Thursday February 22 is our celebration of learning. 

I hope you all have a restful and rejuvenating weekend!

Dave

Quick update about P.E. Lab

Hey gang, I just wanted to let you know that we have had a date change for our latest round of P.E. Lab.  Last week I indicated one date, however, our lab is being switched to Wednesday February 21.  We will be cross country skiing either at U-32 or at Morse Farm.  Hopefully some of you can join us.  If you would like to join us, and/or could transport students please let me know!

Thanks,

Dave

A few small updates and documents coming home.

Hey there everyone, I just wanted to check in with a few quick updates and electronic copies of documents that are coming home! 

Today we not only finalized the research we have been doing on Native Vermont fish, but we also took delivery of some brook trout eggs.  We have a shared tank in Mrs. Gannon's room, and we will be investigating, rearing, and learning about brook trout along with the other class.

I will also be sending home some copies of the books students have created about these fish so you can check out our first foray into research and writing.  We also are currently working on biographies and will send home some copies of these when they are complete!

As for documents, two will be coming home today.  One from our school counselor Mrs. Langevin outlining some of the curriculum she will be teaching in the coming weeks.  The other is our sign-up for Winter Wellness this year!  We will be looking for these Winter Wellness sign-up sheets to be returned by next Friday (1-19-2018), please fill them out as soon as you can and send them back with your student.

-Dave

Updates and another round of P.E. Lab!

Let's start with some updates.  we have been working furiously since we returned from the December break!  In math we have created our own dynamic (and fun to play) math games.  Students were challenged to create a math game that hinged on a math concept that they feel they have mastered and the concepts they picked have been wonderful!  we have games that use cards as factors and players need to add the products to try and get a sum of 301, we have games that a player must use knowledge of factors of different numbers in order to move, games that focus on using the difference between two values rolled on dice to move, and so much more.  This not only allowed students to show their math knowledge, but also allowed them to craft something they could be proud of and have fun playing!

We also have finished up some of our fish-work.  We did some mini-research into different native fish species in Vermont.  Through this work students explored some of the structures and functions of different parts of fish, as well as the different habitats and characteristics that each fish has. Our next move in writing is to research someone to create our own small biographies, we have people looking into such a range of persons!  We have Misty Copeland to Johnny Cash!

We also are looking forward to another round of P.E. Lab, below is some copy that I got from Mr. Blanchard talking about what we are planning to do, and go.  IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN US, AND CAN VOLUNTEER TO DRIVE PLEASE LET ME KNOW! 

From Mr. Blanchard:
 I'm hoping to bring the kids over to the East Montpelier Forest behind the old fire station and do some cross country skiing, winter picnic and bonfire and possibly a structure building competition. I'm going to double check if there are bathroom facilities, I thought there was a port-a-potty but I'm not sure. If there isn't, then I'll check in with the folks up at U32 to see if we can use their trails and wilderness space.

I hope all is well!

Dave

Update on classroom happenings

Lots has been happening over the past few weeks!  We were lucky enough to be able to see the movie Wonder at the Capitol Theater in a morning matinee just for students.  This was a wonderful follow up to our exploration of the book.  The message in this book and movie is so powerful, and if you haven't had the chance to either read the book, or watch the movie, I really suggest you check one (or both!) of them out.

We have also begun a new writing unit, and our focus for this unit will be writing informational text (this is one of my favorite units because it really blurs the line between reading and writing and illuminates to students that literacy is really a multi-faceted skill!), and for this unit we are working on researching Vermont History.  Students are choosing topics they are interested in, and we have people looking into industry (Ben and Jerry's), the Revolution (Ethan Allen), notable animals (the Morgan Horse), Snowflake Bentley, and more!  During this work we are working on crafting interesting pieces of writing, as well as reading to gain information and take notes. 

Interestingly enough, we have taken a small break from this Vermont History work, and are doing a mini-unit on fish in Vermont.  We are making notes, creating diagrams, and "hooking" our readers with interesting writing.  Some of the drawings students are making are just wonderful.

During our math time we have been working on the two ideas simultaneously.  We have been investigating the relationship between factors and multiples, and the operation of division.  We are working on building the understanding that division is the notion that a certain quantity of a single factor (divisor) can make up a multiple (dividend).  We are also working hard on understanding the thoughts that students are using to help the solve different division questions.  Students are making good progress and are either counting up by the factor, until they get to the multiple, counting down from the multiple by the factor until they get to zero, or using their knowledge of multiplication to find the quotient. 

I hope this post finds you well, and that you have a lovely weekend.

Dave

Wonder the Movie!

Hey there!  We have had a wonderful week!  We are also trying to go to see the movie version of Wonder!  Below is a copy of the permission form that is coming home today!  If it is easier for you to email your permission, that would be fine, just please answer the questions outlined on the form!  We are planning on leaving at 9:00 to return by 11:30. 

Permission form to attend Wonder at the Capitol Theater in Montpelier

We  have the opportunity to go see the movie Wonder on December 7, 2017!  

We have recently finished reading the book and are looking forward to seeing the movie and comparing the two.  

The cost for this movie is $10.50 per student (this includes ticket, popcorn, and soda).  If this cost is a stretch for you, please let us know.

We are also looking for parent-driver volunteers!  If you could drive, please let us know by Tuesday December 5, 2017.

Robin Gannon and Dave Willard

--------------------------------------------------------------

My child _______________ has permission to attend the movie.  Please enclose cash for admission. No checks please.

__ I have a level II background check completed with the school.

I, ___________________, am willing to drive to the

movie, and my car can hold _______________ kids with seat belts.

What a wonderful week!

This week we have had so much going on.  The grandest of which may have been last night's circus performance.   Although I wasn't able to attend, I know how much hard work went into making that show ready for presentation, and I know how wonderful all of the students in our school did. 

In our classroom this week we have been working ALOT on the ideas that lead to understanding division.  We been working with factors and multiples, equal groups and Math-Libs.  This is a blank copy of  the Math-Lib we were working on, try it out with your student to see what comes out:

I have _____________________(composite number), __________________s (noun).  I will give

______________________(factor of composite number), ________________s (same noun) away

each day.  How many days can I do this for?

We have also been working on finishing up some first drafts.  During the last week in writer's workshop we have been focused on adding a suffix to a word, and we are putting this work to use in new drafts that we are writing.  We are planning to work next week, and perhaps the week after Thanksgiving on turning these into final drafts. 

We have also pushed forward in our book Wonder.  This really is a beautiful story with lots of twists and turns, as well as different points of view.  The discussion that we have had around this book have been nothing short of spectacular.  Students are sharing their thoughts, integrating the thoughts of others, and participating in discussion directly with one another, rather than using me as an intermediary!

I hope you all have a wonderful and restful weekend!

-Dave

Come one, come all to the EMES Circus!

We are having a Circus Performance Thursday evening at 6:00!   This event will take place in the Gym at U-32!  Please arrive at about 5:50 so everyone can get prepped.  If you get there before 5:50 the doors might not be open, as there is some set up that needs to take place. 

We are so excited to share our circus with you, and look forward to seeing you on Thursday!

-Dave

P.E Lab was totally RAD!...and other news...

Earlier this week we had the opportunity to participate in P.E Lab.  This is a new venture that Mr. Blanchard is spearheading to develop lifelong movement practices with kids, as well as develop transferable skills.  This week we went rock climbing on a "stacked wall" in the Millstone Trail Association lands.  This experience was wonderful for so many of us, even "Blanch" and I got the chance to climb!  Make sure to check out our photo page for lots and lots of photos about this.  Students worked hard setting goals and working to achieve them.

We also have been working on the notion of mixed numbers and whole numbers in math, and just today came to the understanding that whole numbers are called as such because they are made up solely of "one-wholes."  We also have returned to our practice with multi-digit multiplication and thinking about when it makes sense to make a model to solve problems, and when it makes sense to use partial products.

In writing we are working to finish up our unit on the narrative style, and are looking forward to moving into a short unit on handwriting and spelling.  We will be working with adding suffixes to words, and will build this skill in a few ways, one of which is making sure we know how to spell the root-word, and a wonderful way to do this is through the poetry form Haiku.  I offer this haiku from William Shatner:

Haikus are simple

But sometimes they don't make sense

Refrigerator

Also, today I will be sending home the most up to date version of the conference schedule.  If you want to check it out, it is linked on the conference page.  If you still need to sign up, please either send me an email, give me a call at x308, or pencil your name in on the hard copy and send it back to school.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

-Dave