It’s never too late to begin:
Nelson Mandela Became president at age 75
Katherine Hepburn won an Oscar at age 74
John Glenn was 77 when he flew his last space mission.
Julia Child learned to cook when she was 38.
Leonardo da Vinci got his big break at 46.
Youth has No Age – Pablo Picasso
Dear Tinmouth School Community,
Fall has arrived! Halloween is just around the corner. This year we’ll be celebrating on Friday, October 28th. Children will bring costumes to school and change into them after lunch for the parade to town hall. The parent’s club will coordinate snacks and activities after the parade. Parents are welcome to join us for the parade and activities. Let’s hope the weather is as beautiful on the 28th as it is today!
The monthly early release day is October 24th. Please pick up students at 12:00 PM.
The final day of the Starbase Program is Tuesday, October 4th. During the past 5 sessions, students had an opportunity to work in CAD programs, launch rockets, and participate in robotics activities. The students’ work will be shared during the October board meeting.
The Mill River Schools Board meeting will be held n October 19th at 7:00 PM in the Tinmouth Community Center. Our students in grades 3 through 6 will be presenting projects they have been working on since September. Please come to this meeting to support our young scholars!
Finally, I would like to remind you that Parent-Teacher conferences are scheduled for October 21st. There will be no school on the 21st. Teachers will send out Conference Scheduling slips the week before in Friday folders. If you have questions about the new proficiency based report cards or PBL graduation requirements, please stop by my office during conferences!
Warm regards,
Maureen Fitzgerald-Riker
Calendar of Events:
Oct 1: Parents Club bulb fundraiser due
Oct 3: Picture Day
Oct 4: Grades 5-6 Starbase
Oct 7: Parents Club meeting 7:00pm in the community center
Oct 19: Board meeting at Tinmouth School 7:00PM
Oct 21: Parent Conferences * No school for students*
Oct 24: Early Release – NOON RELEASE
Oct 24: Deadline for Yankee Candle orders
Oct 28: Halloween parade (after noon)
Oct 28: No After School Program
Message from the Parent’s Club
FirstParents Clubmeeting of the 2016-2017 school year is going to beFriday, Oct 7th. If it works for everyone interested we are going to try to keep the first Friday of every month as our standard meeting time. We will meet at the community center at7:00on the 7th. Main topic of discussion will be planning for Trunk or Treat-- tentatively planned forOct 29th. Hope to see you there!! Please contact Ilona, Ingrid, or Alison if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. Thank you!!
October 28th – AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM
The after school program staff will be attending training on October 28th so we will not have a program that day. Please arrange to send your child home on the bus or pickup at 3:15.
Parents Club Bulb Fundraiser ends Oct 1st
Order forms along with payment can be sent to the school for processing or you may order online. Contact Ingrid Lepley if you have any additional questions at 802-446-2900
Smile for the Camera
Student pictures are Monday Oct 3rd. Prek students will go 1st at 8:30am and the rest of the classes will follow. Please bring the completed order form along with payment.
Wee Folk News:
ASK ME ABOUT:
Focus Questions:
What do we know about trees?
What do we want to find out?
MEETING TIME
Second Step Social Curriculum-focusing attention using your eyes, ears, and brain
Songs/finger plays-Green Grass Grown All Around, We’re Raking the Leaves, One Two Buckle My Shoe, Gray Squirrel, Way Up High in the Apple Tree, This is the Way (Fall movements)
CENTERS
Discovery-tree parts
Toys and Games-different sized pegs
Art-watercolors
Building-tree blocks
Library-alphabet stencils and stamps, Fall Books
BOOKS
(These books are connected to our focus questions)
Our Tree Named Steve, Abiyoyo, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
SMALL GROUP
Games/activities included the following areas:
Comparing (more/fewer), comparing and measuring using non standard units, alphabet
OTHER THOUGHTS
What a great field trip. Thanks for all of your help!
We will miss our friend Keegan. Good luck to you and your family!!
Kindergarten News:
We have a nice group of thirteen students in kindergarten this year. The start of the year is all about understanding how we become good learners, how we treat each other and how the class works with both positive and logical consequences for the choices we make. Week five has us pretty close to normal routines with students understanding expectations.
We are starting with our first theme – a mini-unit on names. We are reading poetry and stories about names, clapping the syllables in our names, making rhymes with our names and graphing the letters in our names. We will continue with other activities over the next few weeks including creating our second class book.
In math we are counting, counting, counting! We have also been working on writing the numerals from 0 to 7 (so far) and have even dabbled with a little addition. Math games help us practice new skills and ideas in a fun way.
We had our first field trip to Hathaway Farms on Wednesday. We made our way through the corn maze, played lots of fun games and activities, visited with farm animals, had a hay ride and picked pumpkins! Thanks to those parents who
Photo op! In the corn… Visiting the chickens
Message from Mrs. Coupe:
Welcome to a brand new year! Our year is off to a roaring start.
· We have learned a lot of new routines that allow our classroom to run smoothly.
· The students are doing great with unpacking their backpacks and turning in their lunch and breakfast count on Mondays.
o Just a reminder that the lunch and breakfast order goes home on Fridays and needs to come back on Mondays.
· A homework update:
o The math homework pencil boxes and book bags should come home every Monday and be returned every Friday.
o Please practice them multiple times during the week.
· The beginning of the year Head Over Heels activity was a great success! I heard many good things about it. Thank you Parent’s Club for an exciting first day activity.
· We had great fun at Hathaway’s Farm. It was wonderful that so many adults were able to join us. I will be going with my son next week.
· Don’t forget that picture day is Oct. 3rd. Please send in your picture envelope if you are planning on buying a package.
· We have been learning a lot about frogs. Have them tell you about our comparison of our frog jump and a real frog jump.
3/4 News:
Unbelievably we have already been in school for 5 weeks! The third and fourth graders have been settling in to a new classroom and new routines. We have just begun a unit about trees and the balance in nature. We will be reading, discussing and writing about how humans and nature interact. For this unit they will read a variety of fiction and non-fiction books.
In math the third graders are working on multiplication and division and the connection between these two operations. This is an important strand in third grade math. Third graders will be learning their multiplication facts throughout the year. Building a strong knowledge of math facts will lay the foundation for higher math in upper grades.
In math the fourth graders have been studying place value and they are now working with numbers up to a million. We are reviewing the standard algorithms for addition and subtraction, rounding and estimation. For the rest of this unit students will be working with multistep word problems.
In writing, the fourth graders have been working with Mrs. Wetzler on using details to make their writing more interesting. They examined different styles of writing by various authors and discussed how descriptions add to the reader’s understanding. They practiced improving their own narrative writing by adding more details to make their characters and settings more interesting.
Third graders are working hard with Mrs. Coupe to identify, classify, and use nouns. This is a first step towards understanding more complex sentences. Over the next month we will also conquer verbs, adjectives and conjunctions. We will connect all of these things together to identify subjects and predicates and how we can make our own sentences more interesting.
This past week we began our spelling program. Students are working in small groups with words at their developmental level. We do spelling activities each day in the classroom. On Friday they will have an assessment of a selection of the words they have been working on that week. Each Monday they will bring home a list of their spelling words for the week to study.
A couple of housekeeping notes:
· For homework students will have a summary to write on their silent reading chapter Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Thursday they should study their spelling words. On Friday just have a great weekend!
· The math homework Monday to Thursday almost always follows their problem set from the lesson.
· Thank you for filling out the menu for the week on Thursday and returning it on Friday. This really helps us get ready for Monday morning.
· Always feel free to call me at school or home if you have questions or concerns. Home phone: 235-2115. My email is . I also check student planners and homework folders for any notes each day.
· Don’t forget picture day is Monday, Oct. 3!
· Parent/student/teacher conferences are coming up in October. I am looking forward to talking with you and your child about your child’s progress.
Enjoy the beautiful fall weather!
Message from Mrs. Wetzler:
September has been a really busy month for the fifth and sixth graders. All of them returned to school ready to learn. Many have made it their own personal goal to push themselves academically this year. As their teacher, I can vouch that they are off to a great start.
While visiting the Tinmouth Town Library, Mrs. Ruth Drachman presented each student with his/her own copy of Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance, written by Jennifer Armstrong. The students have been reading and discussing the amazing story of survival that Ernest Shackleton and his crew experienced while stranded on their ship, Endurance, one hundred miles from land. After the ship was no longer inhabitable, the men continued to endure hardships while camping on ice floes and later as they made perilous voyages in small lifeboats. The students and I would like to thank Mrs. Ruth for obtaining the books for us through Vermont READS sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council Statewide One-Book Community Reading Program. Thank you, Mrs. Drachman. This book is one that the students will always remember.
The fifth and sixth graders have also been participating in STARBASE, a STEM activity-based program that is funded by the Department of Defense. Students have been participating in activities that focus on teamwork and reinforce the Next Generation Science Standards. The topics of study include robotics, physics, chemistry, and computer aided design (CAD). The students have had the opportunity to program a robot to complete a mission, launch rockets to demonstrate Newton's laws of motion, measure rates of chemical reactions, and use CAD software to design a life support module for a rover.
The class has been learning about how our government came to be formed as they read Shh! We're Writing the Constitution, by Jean Fritz. Her "humorous touch chronicles the hot summer of 1787 where fifty-five delegates from thirteen states huddled together in the strictest secrecy in Philadelphia to draw up the constitution of the United States." While questioning why some agreements were made to satisfy the different states, the students are developing an understanding that even back then compromises had to be made at times.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to return to Tinmouth Elementary School for my second year. Seeing the students again and hearing about their summer adventures was very pleasant. If you have any questions concerning your child's education, please call or email me.
Mrs. Gayle Wetzler