January 4th Husky News

Christmas Time

We had such a busy month making gifts for family and friends. Our Christmas party was magical and we all enjoyed our day relaxing in our pajamas. We hope you enjoy our short movie of our final day before vacation.

Perfect Attendance Award

Today Mr. Hoyt came in and awarded some students with a perfect attendance award.  This means they were never absent or tardy to school. I have been very pleased with the attendance for my class this term.  Most days I have perfect attendance. 

Sorting Day

After taking a sorting quiz and learning about the four houses at Hogwarts we have all been sorted into a house.  We have our Gryffindor House, Hufflepuff House, Slytherin House, and the Ravenclaw House.  The children's first task is to color their house crest.

Quidditch game in December

With this wonderful weather we have been having we were able to enjoy a few great games of quidditch. The children have learned the rules and are able to use strategies for scoring goals and getting the great Golden Snitch. I know all too soon our fields will be covered in snow. So while we are able to get out and play the game we will.

The Pink Ladies played great games!!

Our minions

A little Christmas cheer while playing quidditch

Even a couple cute puppy dogs played a great game!

Our New Visitor

We have a special visitor in our room. He gave us five rules.
1. Do not touch or he will lose his magical power.
2. Be kind since he reports to Santa each night.
3. Believe or he might have to find a new home.
4. Look for us every morning
5. Name Me- He chose Pickle for his name from a long list of suggestions.  He told us he chose Pickle for the German tradition of finding the hidden pickle.

Pickle hanging on Ni'cko

Thanksgiving fun with our friends

We enjoyed learning about the first Thanksgiving the Pilgrims and Native Americans had so many years ago.  We read about this feast, learned about the first few years, and built our own village with the class next door.  During our school's Thanksgiving feast we wore our Pilgrim hats while our friends in Mrs. Beaudet's class wore their Native American head bands.  We enjoyed eating together and discussing our family's traditions.

                                                Our Native Americans and Pilgrims

Parent conferences in January

For Parent-Teacher Conferences I am using VolunteerSpot (the leading online Sign-up and reminder tool) to organize signing up for the conference appointments on January 21st and January 22nd. I look forward to meeting with you to discuss your child's progress.  I have 20 minute time slots available on these two days.  Reminder the children do not have school on the 22nd since most of the day is set aside for conferences.

Here's how it works in 3 easy steps:

1) Click this link to see our Sign-Up on VolunteerSpot: http://vols.pt/SGVQMc
2) Review the options listed and choose the spot(s) you like.
3) Sign up! It's Easy - you will NOT need to register an account or keep a password on VolunteerSpot.

Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me and I can sign you up manually.

Preparing for Laconia's pumpkin festival

Paul Smith School was given pumpkins to carve for the pumpkin festival. We chose our Husky theme and each pumpkin was carved to represent our class. The children enjoyed gutting the pumpkins, separating the seeds, and learning how to use special carving tools. Later we enjoyed eating the seeds. 

More fun fall activities

Ni'cko came to award the children for following the "Husky" rules!!

Steve Guerney, illustrator for the A-Z mysteries came to our school.  He talked to them about the process of illustrating and his process of writing a book of his own. 

Busy Fall

We worked as a class to peel, chop, mix, and bake apple crisp. We learned about apples, orchards, and Johnny Appleseed. This was a great way to celebrate the arrival of fall.

Yummy homemade apple crisp. 

The children enjoyed eating what they made. Great afternoon treat. Thank you to all the parents who sent in items to make the apple crisp.

Husky Newsletter

This weeks Husky News

STEAM Friday

STEAM Friday is a time when we explore science, technology, engineer, arts,and math in a project,  our first STEAM project was building the tallest tower from connect blocks.  The students worked in groups first to decide how many of each shape they wanted to work with.  They could only get 30 blocks.  After a while I offered 20 more blocks and they had to again decide how many of each shape they wanted to get.  Close to the end of building I offered 20 more circle blocks.  The children found building a secure base to hold the weight of the structure difficult.  Once they had an excellent base many were able to build the tower up and add height to their structure.  In the end the tallest structure was 17 inches while the smallest was 5 inches.  Some found building to be difficult.  I would love to purchase a few LEGO kits for my children to use to help with reading directions and building a structure.  This may be my first Donors Choose project.

shopping list was approved to they are gathering their shapes

counting out their shapes with their shopping list 

early stages of building

Building their tower

Our weekly newsletter on the Blog

First Day of Second Grade

Today was our first day back at school.  We spent the day getting to know eachother and learning routines. It always amazes me how little the children are in September. By November your children will mature and grow so much. Cherish these moments since before you know it they will be bigger than you.  I am posting our cairn we built today and the math game we enjoyed playing with our friends. Now off to get a good night's sleep so I can do it all over again tomorrow. However tomorrow is special being the second day of second grade!!

Go Math game

Our class cairn

Welcome Back

As so many of my students are preparing to return to school, I have been busy these last couple days getting our room ready.  I hope you all received my letter and you are researching what a cairn is.  Here is a picture of Ni'cko on Acadia Mountain.  He was leading us from cairn to cairn so we stayed on the trail.  Hope this helps your research.