News From Our Classroom

    Hello.  It's Friday afternoon, and I am heading to Boston this weekend to help my daughter put in her air conditioner.   She's been complaining that it's gotten to 80s a few times recently, and since she has a third floor apartment, she' s been a little on the warm side.  Putting her air conditioner in each spring is just one of those things that her Dad and I do for her.  Since I won't be back until late on Sunday, I'm trying to write this newsletter up tonight after school.
   This week has gone fairly quickly, especially minus those "extended hours", but we have gotten a lot done.  We have been hard at work for the second week of our geometry unit, learning about 3D shapes and their attributes.  We have also be composing new shapes by putting 2D shapes together in new and strange ways.  It's quite fun! So, this past week, we've experimented with tangrams, too.  In fact, one of the second grade teachers, Mrs. LaVoie, spent a math class on Thursday, as we were introduced to tangrams, and she was very impressed with all of the math discourse she was hearing from the children as they manipulated shapes with a partner or two. We took our Geometry test this afternoon, and everybody did really well!  While we were in a "testing frame of mind",  we redid our missing addends test, too, (for those who did not pass the first time around).  And, finally, we took our timed tests to see if anyone could pass one of these tests today.  Two people did!! 
      Speaking of Second Grade. . . we went up there this morning to see the US Monuments projects that the second graders have been doing for their Social Studies work.  We had the opportunity to visit all three classrooms for about 20 minutes each.  It was amazing to think that Mrs. DeCarolis will be bringing up another first grade to see OUR projects next year!  It was pretty cool to spend time with the ladies who will be our teachers next year!  Mrs. Wight, Mrs. LaVoie, and Mrs. Lee were all pleased with how well these first graders acted in their classrooms.
        When we returned to our own classroom, it was snack time,  and then Mrs. Stephen to small groups to work on composing shapes while Mrs. DeCarolis gave us our sight words, fluency, and spelling tests.  We didn't finish up until the afternoon, but we did get them all done.  Then Mrs. D. read another chapter in our  Little House On the Prairie book .  Today's chapter was about the Indian Jamboree, and we watched a few minutes of several videos having to do with Native American singing and dancing.   We understood why Laura and her sister Mary were scared when they heard such unfamiliar sounds!  It's been an exciting week on Little House, as two "bad" Indians tried to take Pa's "skins" (furs from hunting), and then a black panther was screaming in the night!  We're not done with our adventure yet, because the next chapter is called "Prairie Fire".  Unfortunately, we will probably finish the book in this next week.  ;(  Oh, well, The Chalkbox Kid is the book "on deck", and that's a good one, too, though much shorter.
       Ms. Nadeau, the head of our cafeteria, asked me to let you know about a menu change in the third week of May.  On Tuesday, May 16th, the cafeteria will be serving the roast pork meal, and Thursday, May 18th, will be serving the cheeseburgers.  Please be advised.
       Next Saturday, May 13, the PTA May Fair and Bike Rodeo will be happening from 10:30 am to 1:30pm.  The PTA is looking for volunteers who would be willing and able to help with this event.  If you know of anyone who would be willing to help, please contact the school and/ or Haley Tripp with the good news.  This event is open to our community, so please come "check it out" next Saturday!
       On a sad note, I want to inform you that it does not look as though "summer school" will be available at Crescent Park this year.  Julie Hart applied for grants to cover the cost, but they were not awarded to Crescent Park School.  She approached Dr. Murphy for assistance, and he said funding was not available.  If you are concerned that this service (which many of you expected to be available for your child) will not be offered this year, your "recourse" is to contact your school board members and let them know how important you feel this program is for your child.  The names of the various board members can be found on the district's website at sad44.org. THEY won't know that we are all upset by the unavailability of "summer school" for our Title 1 kids UNLESS we call and complain to them.
     That's all for this weekend.  Try to find and enjoy some sunshine somewhere.