Greetings Wizard Families,
As you may have already read, we are very fortunate to have a Winter Sports program at Sugarbush. Over the course of eight Fridays, students will spend a half day downhill skiing, snowboarding, or snowshoeing. This program is open to all students regardless of their ability to pay. The program includes rentals and lessons for students who are new to a sport. As a skier myself, I encourage our students to sign up to ski or ride if they have never done it before and take advantage of this amazing opportunity to learn from Sugarbush-trained instructors for NO ADDITIONAL COST.
At this point, all you need to do is to make sure that you have completed the Winter Sports Sign Up.
To read more about the program click here.
Open House
CBMS's Open House is next week! On October 16th from 4:30-6 come to see the classrooms, they look much different now compared to the week before school! There is evidence of learning that students can show you from their notebooks & folders AND they can walk you through their day. We'll be here to answer questions and say hi but the students will be your tour guides that evening.:) This is an evening to see how much they've settled in and accomplished during the first 6 weeks of school.
PS-Parent-teacher conferences are in November. If you have a pressing concern or feel the need to meet sooner. Please just email us.
Wizard Constitution
As part of our work to ensure we have a great two years of learning together, the Wizard students completed a variety of activities and discussions that got us to the creation of a document that is a reminder of our values and how we will work together over the coming months and years. We finally arrived at some statements of our values. Then we created documents to hang in our classroom and all Wizard students signed the documents showing their agreement to uphold our team values.
Math
Students wrapped their first math unit by completing a unit assessment. In order to be proficient in this unit, students were expected to find the volume of a rectangular prism by relating volume to the operations of multiplication and addition to solve real-world and mathematical problems.
Students began the unit by considering the number of cubes in a layer and the number of layers in a prism in a rectangular prism showing the cubic units.
Next, students applied their learning to more abstract situations.
Finally, students came to the understanding that they could use the dimensions of a figure to find the area of the base and the height and apply their learning to composite figures like the one below.
Field Trip to the Audubon
Our Wizard students continued to spread their magic when we traveled to the Audubon Center in Huntington. It was a beautiful fall day full of great teamwork, laughs, and a few too many yellow jackets.
One of the Audubon instructors approached me during the shelter building and shared that she was so impressed with the encouraging, positive, and respectful words she heard. She said that she doesn't typically hear this kind of teamwork so early in the year. Students wrote "Yelp" reviews to rate their experience at the Audubon. You'll be able to see these hanging in the hallway during Open House on October 16th.
Your students were heard saying...
" Would you guys mind if I ..."
"I haven't had one of my ideas used yet so can we do mine?"
"That was a great idea."
"Could I please get some help moving this?"
Language Arts
We started our first official unit, a class read aloud of Restart. This unit lays the foundation for the reading strategies we will practice throughout our two years together. It has included a review of Signposts, figurative language devices, vocabulary work, and plot elements just to name a few. The students have been given unofficial homework to try to use their vocabulary words in conversations at home and school. Be sure to ask them what words they have learned and encourage them to use them. You should also ask them about the plot of the book and gauge their interest in it. It's a book most kids end up loving. At our open house, you'll be able to see evidence of all the learning that's happened in such a short amount of time!
The students were given a bunch of figurative language examples and definitions. They had to work in groups to try to sort them. This is a great way for me to informally assess their background knowledge of figurative language. They've got a lot to learn. Ask them about the figurative language challenge that I put in the morning message each day.
Now that the students have had time to settle into our routines, we implemented a self-direction checklist for their Core classes. (Math, Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science) They have a single-point rubric that lists the indicators for proficiency. At the end of each class, they assess themselves. We, the teachers, then initial it and jot a note if there was something that needed to be addressed or warranted anything less than a 3. They will be bringing these sheets home to you for the first time today. Please take a moment to talk with them about their progress this week and read their reflection. Our motto is Progress, not Perfection. Sometimes the end of class is hurried and we don't always get to initial every paper. However, if there was a real concern, you would see a note. Please sign off that you have seen the sheet. Students are expected to take them home each Friday and return them each Monday. They now have take-home folders for their homework and anything else that needs to come home so things don't get lost in their backpacks. :)
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