Waterville and Belvidere Map

Students learned how to write their address and built small model houses to place on our map. Students also learned the locations of businesses from the past. This activity really helped kids to make connections with long ago and today, and really emphasized how our little towns have changed. Our map is located right outside our classroom...be sure to check it out if you can! 

The Week of November 18

Upcoming Events

Old Fashioned School Day/ Movie Day- Nov. 26
Students will role play a old fashioned school day including lessons, recess and chores!

Please do your best at home to help your child dress like students did in the past. Traditionally, girls wore long dresses, pinafores and/or aprons, along with a bonnet. Girls typically did their hair in braids. For the young gentlemen it was a long sleeve button up shirt (flannel or dress), and boots. 

Report Cards go Home- Nov. 26

Students will have a yellow manila envelope that contains their first trimester report card. Please read over your child's report card together with your child. If you have any questions or comments regarding your child's report card, please contact me here at school. The report card is yours to keep. 
Please sign and return the first trimester comment form and envelope to school. 

Thanksgiving Break- Nov. 27-Dec. 2

Look Ahead 
Old Fashioned School Day 

Our school day will be modeled after that of a school house in the 1800s. Here are some of the activities we look forward to:

    Our classroom will be set up to look like an old fashioned classroom. Our tables will be in rows, younger students up front near the blackboard and older students in the back.

   

Our blackboard will be the main center of attention. Students will solve addition sums and record their spelling words written on the board. 

  We will stand and read aloud from our books.

         Children will also experience various old fashioned forms of classroom discipline- standing in the corner and even wearing the dunce cap.

       Students will help do chores around the classroom. We will need to bring in wood for the wood stove, feed the fire throughout the day, fill the water bucket, clean the blackboards and sweep the floors. 

We will have recess together and play 3 legged races, kick the can and red rover!




Readers' Workshop
In reading we met with our new reading partners and reviewed activities and discussion ideas to do together. We learned important strategies for solving unknown words. Each child received a book mark with the strategies listed and set goals for themselves. Strategies support visual, meaning and syntactical cross-checking. We also read aloud the Guruffalo.  Students practiced retelling the book, and identifying setting, characters, problem and solution. We added this book to our animal fiction collection. 

               

Long Ago and Today 

This week we wrapped up our work researching what life was like long ago and how it was similar or different from today. Students watched a short presentation on the businesses and homesteads that Waterville and Belvidere had long ago. Students learned about using sources as ways to get reliable information. Children were sorted into groups based on their top 3 interests. We worked together to read and used internet sources to gather information. We learned how to take notes and organize our information. 

Later in the week, students worked together to write a short informational "movie script".  We will be creating a short movie using Google Slides to narrate and display our final projects! 

A Visit from Ivy
Ivy is a therapy dog owned by Ms. Paulette a Waterville resident and former teacher. Ivy visited our room on Wednesday and the kiddos LOVED her! She is so cute, very calm and sweet. Ivy and Ms. Paulette will be visiting our room on Wednesdays. We will have a rotating schedule where all children will see her throughout the month!

Writers' Workshop

The first and second graders visited the  Publisher's Desk this week as we put the final touches on our favorite small moments books! Students worked on decorating a fancy cover, dedication page and spent time editing and revising their books. We will continue to work on this after Thanksgiving break, and we will have a special writing celebration to share all of our work! 


First Grade Math 
In first grade we continue to work on addition and subtraction strategies to 10 with a focus on doubles, doubles plus one and part/part/whole.  Each day we use our number racks to figure out missing number equations i.e. 7+__=10 or 17+___=20 and students are making great progress in reading missing number equations on their own.  Each day we practice counting forwards and backwards from 60.  

Long Ago and Today Research Links

Learning Target

Research to Build and Present

With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

School House

School House Pictures

Blacksmith Shop

Blacksmith Pictures

General Store

General Store Pictures

Country Doctor

Country Doctor Pictures

Grist Mill Video

Grist Mill

Homestead
Homestead Video

Livery Stable

Livery Stable Pictures

As You Like It Inn Pictures
Vermont Inns Today



Knife Making Basics
Knife Factory Pictures



Sawmill
Sawmill Pictures




Soap Making Today 

Soap Factory Pictures

Covered Bridges
Covered Bridges Pictures

Shelburne Museum Bridge

Post Office History 

Postmasters in the Mid-19th Century

In 1860, postmasters took the following oath: “I, ________, do swear/affirm that I will faithfully perform all the duties required of me, and abstain from everything forbidden by the laws in relation to the establishment of the Post Office and post roads within the United States. I do solemnly swear/affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States.”

Postmasters had to post a bond and reside in the community where the Post Office was located. The postmaster was exempt from militia duty but could be called upon to work on the roads.

The job of postmaster was an important one — candidates for the job were proposed by the outgoing postmaster, the local community, or local congressmen. Beginning in 1836, postmasters at the largest Post Offices were appointed by the President and usually received the job as a political plum. The Postmaster General continued to appoint postmasters at smaller Post Offices. The Post Office often was kept as a sideline to the postmaster’s primary occupation, such as storekeeper.

The postmaster had to keep the Post Office open during normal business hours and, if mail was delivered on a Sunday, for one hour after the delivery of mail. If a church service was going on, the postmaster had to wait until it concluded and then open the office for an hour. This decision dated back to the 19th-century controversies over the drivers of mail wagons blowing on a horn or a trumpet as the wagon came into town. 

Some ministers complained that the men would rise up, leave the church, and head for the Post Office, where they would visit with each other and even play cards.

The decision to keep the Post Office closed during services was a compromise. However, the Postmaster General refused to stop mail wagons from running on Sundays, since this would delay the mail too much.

The Week of Nov. 4

GO NOODLING 

Upcoming Events...

So many things happening over the next few weeks :)

Trimester I Ends- Nov. 15

November Book Orders Due- Nov. 15
***Please send a check if you are using the Scholastic flier***

WES Thanksgiving Luncheon
Nov. 19 @ 11:00

Old Fashioned School Day/ Movie Day- Nov. 26
Students will role play a old fashioned school day including lessons, recess and chores!
Costumes are welcome. More information to come! 


Report Cards go Home- Nov. 26

Students will have a yellow manila envelope that contains their first trimester report card. Please read over your child's report card together with your child. If you have any questions or comments regarding your child's report card, please contact me here at school. The report card is yours to keep. 

Please sign and return the first trimester comment form and envelope to school. 

Thanksgiving Break
Nov. 27-Dec. 1

Cold Weather Clothing

It looks like the weather will be turning colder and the snow is on its way! Please make sure your child is ready to play outdoors. Send snow pants, boots, hats and mittens to school each day. It is helpful to label your child's winter clothing...we have many of the same hats, snow pants etc. and it is really stressful for the kids when they lose something. Also, please be sure to send a change of clothes their backpack. 

Readers' Workshop
This week students worked on a review of fictional story elements and shared their knowledge by creating a poster about our last read aloud My Father's Dragon. Students continued to read independently and with their partners, and shopped for new books. Students will have new reading partners after Thanksgiving break. 

Writers' Workshop

In writing, we finished up our small moments unit of study by writing powerful endings! We reviewed our favorite mentor texts and noticed how they ended... NOT one said, "the end..." or "then we went home!"

We noticed and named our favorite endings and tried them out. On Thursday, we picked our favorite small moment books to edit and create a FANCY copy. Next week, we will visit the Publishers Office and fix up our favorite pieces. Students will spend time publishing their piece. We will have a writing celebration when we finish... I will keep you posted. 

Spelling
Students began a new unit of study in spelling. Students were mixed into different groupings and began their inquiry into blends and final k endings. 

Long Ago and Today
On Thursday and Friday we really had fun learning more about how things were different long ago. We unpacked the School Days Kit from the Vermont Historical Society and explored the different tools in the kit. Students tried writing on slates, using feather pens, wearing a dunce cap, and looked at McGuffey Readers! On Friday we made our own butter, tried finger knitting and used our homemade beet ink and turkey feathers to write and draw! Thank you, Dustin Tilton for helping out! It was a fun day! 

First Grade Math

We are learning many new games to help us with our math facts. This week we played double it, make the sum and drop the beans. Students have been learning about analog and digital clocks in number corner, and have also been doing lots of counting forwards and backwards! 

The Week of Oct. 28th

Upcoming Events

No School- Nov. 11

Teacher Professional Development

Trimester I ends- Nov. 15

Birthday Celebration

The kiddos and I celebrated my birthday on Wednesday! Ms. Shelia brought cupcakes for us all and gave me a special card the students created! 

 Tilitson's Store Role Play

We began by reading The Ox Cart Man. We noticed how the items  in the story were made from natural resources.  Then we imagined going back in time...

 Students LOVED  shopping at the Tilitson's store... but they noticed an important pattern: most items were hand made from natural resources. Students could not find the items they had on their shopping list, only the resources needed to make those items. We also noticed some items were not invented yet! We used many items from our Historical Studies kit which we borrowed from the VT. Historical Society in Montpelier. 

Readers' Workshop

In reading this week, we learned different ways we can write about our reading. The first and second graders have their own reading response journal and we practiced different ways to respond through pictures and writing. We will take 10-15 minutes 2-3 times per week to write about what we read.  Prompts are differentiated in the classroom and are connected to the level book your child is reading. Here are some of the prompts we learned about.

-Write about what happened first in the story.

-How is the character in the story feeling? How do you know?

-How does the author or illustrator make the book funny, scary, or interesting?

-     Retell the story from beginning, middle to end.

(Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then)

-     What author’s craft moves do you notice?

      

-     What is the author trying to teach you? What is the lesson of the story?

First Grade Math
In math we finished up our Number Corner calendar activities by creating composite shapes! We also learned some fun new addition games that we will play throughout unit 3. 

Writers Workshop

In writing, we worked on adding DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS! We read the beginning of the chapter The Escape from Charlotte's Web, a short expert from Here Comes Darell, and drew pictures of what we visualized in our heads. Later in the week, we brainstormed detail ideas we could add into our small moment stories, and went back and added them into our books! 

Spelling/Fundations
On Thursday, we did one last trick word practice before our assessment... We made our trickiest words out of bones to make skeleton words!!! 

SCHOOL WIDE P.A.W.S. CELEBRATION
We celebrated on Thursday with a fancy luncheon and a special cookie treat! Great job to all W.E.S. students! 







WESPO Fundraiser Fun
Students who met  the target for fundraiser sales earned a ride in The Principal's Taxi!