Heidi's Classroom

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

Good Evening,

It is Sunday night and I wanted to let you know that UUWR’s will be coming home tomorrow afternoon.  Because I attended two conferences on last Thursday and Friday, Elizabeth and I decided to postpone UUWR’s until I returned.

I had the privilege of attending two very exciting conference/workshops.  The first, Thursday’s, was all about the Common Core State Standards Initiative in the English Language Arts.  A lot of the day was spent looking at the complexity of text.  It was very informative and it provides another lens for me to look at the texts we are using in our classroom.

Friday I attended the Joy of Writing conference at UVM and had the pleasure of hearing Taylor Mali, a poet, present both the keynote address as well as an hour of poetry in the afternoon. I also participated in a workshop on using blogging in the writing classroom.  It is always wonderful to learn new things that will enhance what we will do in our classroom.

This week the students will start preparing for parent conferences.  You should know that like years past, the conferences in my room will be student led.  What that means is that when you come to the conference, your child will talk about his or her progress and his or her work to date.  This requires your son or daughter to reflect upon his or her learning.  The sixth graders have mixed feelings about these conferences.  They both love them and hate them. The fifth graders are a little baffled and most are very nervous. Many of the kids would much rather hear, through you, how I think they are doing; instead of showing you how they have done themselves. Please, try not to be swayed by your child’s begging to have a regular no child conference.

I want to be sure, however, that you feel your needs are being met through the conference process.

The student run conferences generally run about 15 minutes.  If there is time, and you wish to meet privately, we can meet privately for the remainder of that time.  I think it would be about 5 minutes, which isn’t a lot of time.

If you would also like an additional private conference please let me know and we can schedule a separate conference for another time.

So, here are what I think are the two options:

A student-led parent conference with the remaining time spent meeting privately with Heidi.

A student-led parent conference plus an additional private parent conference to be scheduled for another time.

Please let me know what you would prefer so that I can start scheduling the additional conferences if necessary. If there is another option that I haven’t thought of please let me know and I can try to work that in.

For those of you who will be away we will reschedule when you get back.

I think that is it for tonight.  Give a shout if you have questions about the conferences or anything else for that matter!

Here’s to a great week!–

Heidi

It is truly autumn outside.  The leaves, what are left on the trees, are beautiful. Inside the smell of apples still permeates our classroom.  Thank you to everyone who came to help make the Upper Unit’s Famous Apple Crisp. Thank you to everyone who donated apples.  We couldn’t have done it without you. As always the apple crisp was delicious as was everything else that was made for this wonderful evening of community sharing.  The Harvest Dinner is by far one of my most favorite events here at the Warren School. It was wonderful to see so many of you enjoying dinner with your family and friends.

This week is the Upper Unit’s NECAP week.  The tests will start on Tuesday morning and go through Friday.

The schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, October 18               5th & 6th         10:00 – 11:30 & 12:40 – 2:10

Wednesday, October 19           5th & 6th         10:00 – 11:30 & 12:40 – 2:10

Thursday, October 20              5th & 6th         10:00  – 11:30 & 12:40 – 2:10

Friday:   Octber 21                  5th only           10:00 – 11:30

Monday, October 24               5th only           10:15 – 11:30

Tuesday, October 25                Make up day

We are asking the kids to bring their own healthy snacks to eat during the testing.  We also encourage the kids to get a good night’s sleep and to eat a good breakfast.   There is just a little homework this week from me.  The kids should work NO MORE than 20 minutes on either their book reports or their calendar cards.  The calendar cards are on their final drafts and the book reports are almost complete.

Tonight is the Community Forum to discuss what you would like to see in a principal.  I hope to see you there!

Enjoy your week!

Heidi

Wow!  The Upper Unit fundraiser for flood relief was a huge success.  Your children worked hard making posters to advertise Hats for Hurricane Irene Relief, writing press releases for the Tuesday Bulletin and the web site, and coordinating schedules for selling baked goods and collecting money in classrooms throughout the school.  The kids did a great job working together and with students throughout the school to make this fund raiser such a terrific success. Tomorrow morning we will be doing the final count of the money and will know how much we raised all together. Stay tuned.

The Purple Ninja Penguins

This past week we also had a fantastic time at Northern Lights Rock and Ice!  Thank you Elizabeth for planning such an exciting day.  It was amazing to watch your children challenge themselves, take risks, and encourage their classmates.  All agreed that there were times throughout the day when we were terrified and thought we couldn’t possible take another step and moments when we looked back over our shoulders and were proud to see what we had just accomplished.

The people at NLRI took pictures throughout the day and offer them to us, free of charge.  Our photos can be located by clicking here:  http://gallery.me.com/nlri#gallery

A group of very proud climbers!

This week we are looking forward to the Spelling Bee.  The Spelling Bee will be held on Friday, October 7, starting at 9:00 am here at The Warren School.  There will be teams of 5th and 6th grade spellers coming from all over the school district.

For the past two weeks about 12 students have been spending their lunch times, recess times and some afternoons studying and practicing words from the official spelling list published by The Vermont Principals’ Association.  Monday we will be holding a “spell down” to select our 4 team members and 2 alternates.

That’s it for now.

Heidi

Elizabeth writes…

On Thursday this week we will be heading to Northern Lights Rock and Ice for our amazing field trip.  A notice went home with students last Thursday or in their UUWR’s to help you and your child be prepared.  Things to be aware of:  We will be out doors all day long so dress appropriately for comfort as this will insure greater fun.  Pack a cold lunch, snacks and a water bottle as we will be very active.  We leave at 8AM so please do not be late.  We will return to school around 5PM so please make plans to pick up your child at school.  If you have not turned in the waiver and health form please do so immediately as NLRI will not allow anyone without these forms to be on the course even to watch.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Please check out their website at  http://www.northernlightsvt.com/nlri/

The Upper Unit is organizing a bake sale and Hats for Hurricane Irene.

What this is is that you pay $2.00 to wear your hat all day long.  This is happening on Tuesday, September 27, 2011. The bake sale is when you can buy bake goods for $1.00 for each item.

All the donations go to help the people in the Mad River Valley.

We need all the students in the Upper Unit to bring in baked goods so we can raise a lot of money.

There is also a coin drive happening as well.  The Primary Unit students will be collecting coins from now until Harvest Dinner.  We are trying to fill up a huge water bottle.

So here is the important information:

Who: The Upper Unit Students

What: Bringing baked goods for the bake sale and buying baked goods. No nuts please!

When: Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

Where:  Please bring your baked goods to Heidi’s room in the morning.

Why: To raise money for Mad River Valley Flood Relief

Thank you for your Support!

Brandon and Katie

For the Whole Upper Unit

Good Morning!

Thank you all who came to the Parent’s Night last night.  It was great meeting some of you for the first time and catching up with old friends of the Upper Unit again.   I hope we were able to allay fears and answer nagging questions about life in the Upper Unit.  As questions do arise, please give me a call or send an e-mail.

Just a reminder that we are going on a field trip tomorrow, Wednesday, September 21.  We are seeing a new musical called Bully Be Gone.  All the kids will need to bring a cold lunch.

As requested last night, I have created a drop down menu for assignments that the kids are working on.  The directions and rubric for the scrapbook project are included.  It is a group project with each student responsible for certain elements of the book.  I am posting this for your information.  I still hope that the kids will have their own directions and rubrics.

Thank you again for coming out last night.  If you were not able to, I look forward to seeing you on Thursday night at the whole school Open House and BBQ.

Happy Tuesday~

Heidi

Dear Parents,

We learned last year that our Upper Unit parents appreciated our special Parent’s Night.  It dispelled some of the worry about the Upper Unit as a place of mystery.  Between assignment books, UUWR’s, and homework there are sometimes a lot of questions.

Anne, Elizabeth, and I would like to change all that.  We cordially invite all of the parents to an Upper Unit Parent’s Night where we will try to take the mystery out of what we do all day and how we can work together to make your son or daughter’s Upper Unit experience fantabulous!

We would love to see you on Monday, September 19 at 5:30 upstairs.

There we will go over the whys and hows of the Upper Unit.

See you then!

Heidi