Above, students from Weybridge, Ripton, Cornwall and Salisbury rehearsed for a band concert on February 6th at Salisbury School! Band members will perform at 1:15 for fellow students, family and friends and again at 7:00pm for family and friends. Band members are expected to wear black pants and white shirts and arrive at 6:30 that evening. Ms. Metcalf sends all information hoe in student binders, so be sure to look there for any information you may be wondering about. At the All School Meeting this week, Ms. Foster was recognized for her hard work in becoming a National Board Certified teacher! Way to go, Ms. Foster! 3rd Grade Math: Students have just finished working on mass, volume and length using the metric system. We are now working on unit fractions. We will be exploring fractions in a variety of ways over the next two weeks. In addition, we continue to work on addition and subtraction using the standard algorithm. Several third grades have completed the work of learning their multiplication facts through 12. They are now using the Xtra math computer program to help them develop fluency. It is a grade level standard that students will be fluent in their math facts by the end of third grade. I encourage your third grader to practice his/her facts nightly at home. 4th Grade Math-Students are working hard to master the subtraction algorithm with larger numbers. It can get tricky with those zeroes! Students were also introduced to decimals beyond the hundredths place. We began exploring the thousandths place and made observations about how it compares to the hundredths place and so on. We will continue working with decimals and multi-digit subtraction for two more weeks. 5th Grade Math-Students took a mid-year assessment this week and we discovered areas of strength and concepts that need review. They are just about to finish Unit 3 and will begin the geometry unit this week. News from Ms. Clapp: 3/4 Science--In our Cause and Effect unit, students practiced obtaining information to describe that energy and fuels come from natural resources and getting them affect the environment. They then collected data from several stations to see how speed and energy are related. They took their data to construct a science claim to describe this relationship. Now, students are designing inventions to reduce the impact of natural Earth processes on humans. Through this lesson, they have been learning how important brainstorming is in the engineering process. They will be doing some inquiring into a natural hazard of their choice and the cause of the natural hazard and what effects it has on humans. 5/6 Science--Students are finishing up the three explorations they had in Cause and Effect relationships. One exploration was to use print and media resources, complete simulations on the computer, and do an investigation to determine the effect of resource availability on populations of organisms. The other was doing a science experiment, and reading and using media and computer simulations, to learn about the relationship between different air masses and weather events. The third station was about the cause and effect relationship between humans' per capita consumption of resources and the effect on Earth's systems. As a class, we focused on the relationship between increase carbon dioxide's effect on the atmosphere system. Moving forward, students will take one of these cause and effect relationships and engineer an invention to help either: keep an ecosystem balanced, reduce the effects of weather hazards, or reduce humans' effect on Earth systems. MOVING TO 1:1 CHROME BOOKS, OH MY! Salisbury has new Chromebooks and all students in grades 3-6 were assigned one that they would specifically work with during the school day. This will help us to meet Digital Age Learning as outlined in the ISTE Standards for students which were (adopted by Vermont in 2017). Students and teachers are very excited about the Chrome Books! Student Teacher, Stephen B (AKA-Mr. B) visited Mrs. Morrissey's class on Tuesday. He stopped by during lunch to meet new students and reintroduce himself to students he worked with two years ago in Ms. Foster's room. He will begin observing in Mrs. Morrissey's room the week of January 29th, then heads out to teach at an orphanage in Haiti for a week. When he returns from that incredible experience he will rejoin the class for the remainder of his semester. Students were excited to meet or see him again! So, if hear your learner talking about Mr. B in the coming weeks, this is who they are speaking of! Class Books-When students worked with author Natalie Kinsey-Warnoc in the fall they researched and wrote stories, most were family stories. Students worked hard on these pieces and we are sending one from each student out to a publishing company in order for them to help create a hardcover book for us. One story and illustration from each student will be in the book. Order forms are being sent home. If you would like one, please fill out the form completely and return it. If you do not want one, please check the gray box at the bottom of the page "No" and just sign your name. If we get all the forms back per grade, we will receive a free book for the classroom to keep. We can then rotate the book to homes for a few weeks and then put it in circulation at the school library! Valentines Day-Students are invited to distribute Valentine's to their peers on Valentine's Day. If they would like to create a mailbox for the Valentine's they should bring in a cereal box this week. Class lists will be sent home the following week. Literacy: Third and Fourth Graders are working on their first IB unit. This unit is an integrated literacy/science unit. All students have chosen a natural hazard to study and make a google slide presentation on. Fifth graders are beginning to look at why people choose to live where they do. They will explore these ideas in science and social studies and will read and write about their learning during literacy. Upcoming Dates:
Monday, January 22nd-No School, Inservice Day Wednesday, January 24th- -(Grades 5/6) 7:15 EarlyAct Officers to Rotary Club of Middlebury Meeting @ Rosie's, -(Grades 3/4) Middlebury College students will be visiting Forest Classroom, dress appropriately Thursday: Pinball Wizard Club, JUNK NEEDED! Friday, January 26th- Band, bring instruments Come Alive Outside presentation Friday, February 2nd-Movie Night, Cool Runnings to celebrate the beginning of the Winter Olympics
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