Heidi's Classroom

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Dear Upper Unit Students and Parents,

I am sorry for the late notice about this field trip.  The kids have known for weeks, but I was slow at getting the word out to you.

As many of you already know, on Thursday, May 3, the Upper Unit will be traveling to the Flynn Theater to see “As You Like It”.  We have been learning about the play, Shakespeare, and iambic pentameter in class so the kids are going to the play prepared to see a great story of friendship and trickery and good’s triumph over evil.

This is what you need to know:

1. The ticket price is $12.00.  That money can be brought in at any time. If the ticket price is a problem for your family, please send a note to your child’s homeroom teacher so that we can take care of it.  There is scholarship money available for these types of special events.
2. The students need a cold lunch.  Please remember that there is no candy, gum, glass bottles, or soda allowed on a Warren School trip.
3. We will be leaving school around 8:30 Thursday morning and will be traveling by bus.
4. We will be back to school in time for the busses.

Here is the link to the Flynn Theater’s As You Like It  study guide.

http://www.flynncenter.org/education/student-matinees/details.html?perf_no=7555&prefix=SFD12A

It gives an overview of the show and descriptions of the staging.  We can’t wait!

Thank you and if you have any questions, please give me a call.

Thanks!  Heidi

Hello Everyone–

I hope everyone has a nice Passover or a Happy Easter.

This week in the Upper Unit we will be having a visit from some special Harwood students!  On Tuesday morning at 8:00 the Warren students who were finalists  in the Harwood Middle School Oratory contest, and there were many, will be coming to share their speeches with the UpperUnit. Feel free to come join us if you would like!

The kids are working hard on The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.  Initially this was an individual project, but a few days into the project we all decided that if the students wanted to work with up to four people in a group they could. Most of the kids have divided up into groups and broken down this epic poem, with each student responsible for individual parts.  There are, however, a few brave souls who have chosen to go it alone. At the start, this assignment was met with groans and moans, and a lot of “I can’t's”.  But the kids are discovering that in fact they can!  It is amazing to watch them walking around the room reciting stanzas with confidence!   Presentations will be April 19th and 20th.

This week the students will choose their literature circle books.  These books will focus on the Revolutionary War.  My Brother Sam is Dead, War Comes to Willy Freeman, and George Washington’s Socks  will be the books they will be choosing from.  We have extra copies if you would  like to read any of these books.

Have a great week!

Heidi

On Friday, March 30 our very own Rex Rubinstein was on the campus of Middlebury College along with 80 other Vermont students, grades 4 – 8,  for the 24th Annual National Geography Bee Vermont State Finals.

The Upper Unit held our school-level contest in January in which all of the Upper Unit students participated. and then as our school winner Rex took the written qualifying test.  That test was sent off to the National Geographic Society and in early March, Rex received word that he had qualified for the state bee.

Rex did an outstanding job answering very difficult questions.  He was joined in Middlebury by Colin Fennelly a previous Upper Unit winner.  Congratulations Rex!

Below I have included some of the National Geo Bee questions that Rex may have encountered.

• Before capturing Samarkand, Alexander the Great crossed the Oxus River, which flowed from the Pamirs to the Aral Sea. Today, the river is known by what other name? (Ama Darya)

• Which country in Central America is the only one that does not border the Pacific Ocean? (Costa Rica)

• The largest number of Azeris live in Azerbaijan and what other country? (Iran)

• The Main River, which is a source of hydroelectric power for Germany, is a tributary of what river? (Rhine River)

• Ethiopia became landlocked when it lost access to what body of water after the independence of Eritrea in 1993? (Red Sea)

Hi All,

I wanted to share with you some of the achievements of our awesome Upper Unit students.

On March 19 and 20,  I made frantic runs to the Warren Post Office to make sure that the Doodle’s 4 Google were post marked by March 20th  and sent to Google before the deadline of March 23rd.   This contest was open to kids from all over the United States ages kindergarten to 12th grade.

This year’s topic was “If I could travel in time, I’d visit…

I have included the link to the web site so that if you would like to find out more about this cool competition you can.    www.google.com/doodle4google/

Below you will find the entries from the Upper Unit.  They are wonderfully creative!

FOREST’S PREHISTORIC DOODLE:

SETH’S ROMAN DOODLE

SOPHIE’S UNDERWATER DOODLE

KATIE’S FUTURISTIC DOODLE

TYLER’S WILD WEST DOODLE

POPPY’S FIRST  DOODLE ON THE MOON

ABBY’S IT’S SPORTS TIME DOODLE

Just a quick thank you to everyone who turned out today for Town Meeting and voted ‘yes’ for the school budget.

To quote Hellen Keller, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

Thank you so much for supporting our children and our school!

Best,

Heidi

Welcome Back Everyone!

I hope that everyone’s vacations were filled with fun and a great deal of relaxing.  Whether you stayed home and spent time on the mountain or the skating rink or you went away and spent time in sand and surf I am looking forward to hearing all about your adventures.  For me, I stayed in beautiful Montpelier and spent time with Samantha just being home and relaxing.

As we arrive back to school we will be jumping right into the throes of student-led parent conferences and report cards.  The kids will be starting the process of collecting samples of work for their portfolios and planning what they want to tell you about this past trimester.  Report cards will be going home a week from tomorrow–Wednesday, March 14th and conferences will be held the afternoon and evening of Thursday, March 15th and the morning of March 16th.  Please keep a look-out for your conference time.  They will be sent home this week.  As always if you would like to have a private conference as well as a conference led by your child, please let me know and we can schedule one.

We have two field trips coming up that will be here before we know it!

On Monday, March 12, the Upper Unit will be heading to the Flynn Theater to see Golden Dragon Acrobats.  This show is sure to shock and astound the kids.  Monday, March 19, we are headed back to the Flynn to see Jason and the Argonauts. The sixth graders all know this myth from our study of ancient Greece last year, while the 5th graders will need to remember this adventure story for next year’s Greek Unit.  To look at the study guide for each of the shows please click on the show’s title.

The ticket price  for each show is $8.50.  That money can be brought in at any time, but no later than Friday, March 9th. If the ticket price is a problem for your family, please send a note to your child’s homeroom teacher so that we can take care of it.  There is scholarship money available for these types of special events.  If you are writing a check please write one check for both shows–$17.00.

Students will need a cold lunch for both shows.  Please remember that there is no candy, gum, glass bottles, or soda allowed on a Warren School trip.

Welcome back and as always thank you for your support!

Heidi

Hi Everyone!

Wow, it finally feels like winter.  It is a cold one tonight.

What a great couple of weeks we have had in the Upper Unit!

The kids have taken on a couple of new and exciting technological projects to help keep you informed about what we all do during the day.  We are trying to move the web site from being Heidi’s site, to truly being our whole class’s site.

Starting with Katie’s January 24^th Roving Reporter article bringing us up to today with Tyler’s article, the kids are each taking a day and recording what they do, turning their notes into an article and the publishing it the next day.  As I said, it is a great way for you to know what e are doing in school ad also it gives me a chance to see what stands out each day for the kids.  What I hope are the most memorable moments of our days are not always how the reporters see it.  So make sure you take a moment and catch up on what we’re doing here in the Upper Unit.

Last week we also starting blogging.  I posted a question about The Sign of the Beaver and the kids were asked to post their responses and then to comment on posts by their fellow classmates.  Despite a rather large hiccup, the kids were able to have a short discussion about the question on-line.  We have a ways to go, but we are starting with baby steps.

The students are working on all kinds of things during this coming week, but I want to give you a heads up about literacy.  We are finishing up The Sign of the Beaver this week.  The kids should be finished reading the novel by Tuesday or Wednesday, with plot outlines, two literacy questions, and activity all finished up by Thursday.  I have encouraged the kids to choose a small-ish activity for this week, because the kids have the culminating activity due Thursday, February 23.  This project is the “big” project.

Tuesday is Valentine’s Day and we will be having a little party in the afternoon.  Under the “How Things Work” heading you will find the class lists and the guidelines.

Have a wonderful week and may a Valentine Phantom strike near you!

Heidi

Good Morning, Everyone!

Things in the Upper Unit are sailing along beautifully.  The explorer projects are in their last weeks and, wow, are they terrific.  The ‘explorers’ and their crews are completing journals, creating trade route and voyage maps, and composing letters of persuasion to HRH, The Queen.  The kids are doing a great job! I love it when I see a group of kids huddled around the map discussing the different voyages of da Gama or Cabot.   There is homework connected to this project so continue to be on the look out for it. This, of course, is not news to most of you, but just in case you didn’t know I thought I would clue you in. Today I did  a little costume fashion show for the kids to give them ideas on how to pull together a costume for their presentations.  Keeping it simple is what it is all about.  All the work for the project is due Friday, 12/16 and the presentations will be the  next Tuesday, 12/20 and Wednesday, 12/21.

You should have seen two notices in the last few days.  One is for baking cookies with the our buddies on Thursday and the other is for the “Cool School Tools” exchange and the party on Thursday, 12/22.  I have attached these notices under “How Things Work”.  If you are available to help with the cookie baking Thursday afternoon from 2:15 – 3:00, we would love to have you join us.  The more hands the better!

Today the kids met their P3 buddies with whom they are singing a song at tomorrow night’s concert.  As you can see from the pictures they had a great time getting to know each other before the singing began.

Tomorrow night the students should report to their classroom at 6:30 while the band should be at school at 6:00.  I have not yet heard what the kids should wear.  I am assuming that because I haven’t heard anything from Carolyn that the kids should just wear “nice” clothes.  See you then!

Best–

Heidi