There was a buzz of activity inside and outside the classroom this week. Many students shared their endangered animal research on circle and with only a few left to share, our goal is to select the class mascot by next week. Sharing work on circle is almost a daily occurrence in the Upper Elementary. After a student shares, the rest of the students and teachers have an opportunity to ask questions or make comments. This is one way students build up their oral presentation skills in a safe setting.

Each morning the students enjoy the opportunity to actively engage in outdoor activities such as running, playing team games or searching for animals. This week a few students located a frog and a newt on the soccer field! After many students got a chance to observe the animals they were carefully released back to the wild.

Now that we have gotten a solid full school week under our belts the students and teachers are beginning to get into a rhythm in the classroom. That rhythm includes recording work in planners, doing class jobs, maintaining an orderly environment and developing a work flow. One of the benefits of a multi age classroom is that the teachers can rely on the returning students to help get this rhythm in sync early on in the school year.

This week we enjoyed some culture lessons about the Timeline of Life and stories of cultures. Students decorated their writer’s notebooks and completed their first writing assessment. Math lessons focused on whole number concepts and prime factorization.

We incorporated the Writing Workshop program in the classroom last year and the students enjoyed the new approach to writing. This year, we included the Reading Workshop program at the Upper Elementary level. Mrs. Faust was excited to take on the Reader’s Workshop instruction, while I am able to present the writing lessons. The small group instruction has gone very well so far and the student participation has been enthusiastic and positive. We look forward to seeing their growth and development in both areas of literacy as the year progresses.

~Parent & Teacher Conferences are coming up!

Parent & Teacher Conferences are on Thursday, October 25^th. 

This is to a wonderful time to learn about your child’s progress; it is strongly encouraged that parents attend.  The online Parent & Teacher sign-up will be live on Monday, October 8^th – please look for more information in Monday’s School News about scheduling your Parent & Teacher Conference online.  If you are unavailable to meet with your child’s teacher on October 25^th, please email your child’s teacher directly about scheduling another day or time that week for a conference.

On Monday we enjoyed our first going out experience together to the White Memorial Conservation Center in Litchfield, CT. The program started indoors as we learned about food webs, specifically producers, consumers and decomposers. Students got a chance to meet some of these live consumers up close. Next, we went on a hike to search for fungi, mosses, lichens and other plants of the weed world. After our snack break we returned indoors to study seeds and different seed dispersal methods of plants and trees. This was a positive first field trip experience for our class and we look forward to our next trip in October to New Pond Farm to learn about the Woodland Indians. Thanks again to Max’ mother, Jayne who helped chaperone the trip!

 

The start of a new school year is always exciting. So many possibilities lying before teachers and students alike. It is natural for students and adults to feel varying emotions as a new year begins. Fraser Woods provides a nurturing environment that naturally eases this transition for many.

During our first week we spent time community building, setting up routines, having fun using charades to show how to properly clean the classroom and building up to a regular work cycle. Mrs. Faust and I are enjoying the start to this new school year and look forward to getting to know everyone better as the year progresses!

 

As this school year comes to a close we recall many great memories shared with families, friends, teachers and students. Spirit week was a thrill as we enjoyed the themes of the day and participated in Field Day!

We wrapped up some final lessons, shared stories and many celebrations. This included our moving up ceremonies for the 5th Year students and the incoming 3rd Year students.

We ended last week with our last sandwich making event on Thursday. Thank you once again for the overall coordination by Michele Nieminen and the generous donations of food and supplies by parents to make this successful!

On this same day after school the students joined together for a large sport’s celebration with snacks, refreshments and playing games together. Thank you Liz Bashawaty for coordinating the donations and another thank you to those that contributed! We look forward to another fun-filled sports season beginning next fall.

Our final birthday breakfast of the year was a celebration of both June and July birthdays. This was a celebration for Ayden, Nadia, Logan and James. Thank you, Mary Knox for the additional breakfast snack!

Finally, we wish all of you a wonderful summer! As I told the fifth year class on their moving up day they are a very special group. They are like brothers and sisters to one another and we are going to miss their camaraderie in the Upper Elementary! This class is going to do great things!

With much love from your teachers, Mr. Comstock & Miss Hope