Dear Parents,

It is time to congratulate your child!  We have finished our cursive program and your child should know all of the capital and lowercase letters in cursive.  From this point on ALL work will be completed in cursive EXCEPT spelling tests.  This does include homework and long term projects.  (excluding the Massachusetts Map that was already assigned)

Thank you,

Mrs. Buck

The Conant PTO was kind enough to schedule us an assembly this past Friday.  I was so impressed with this man and his message.  Please ask your kids to share with you what they thought of "Hero Art".  Please check out his website http://www.amazingheroart.com/ he was inspiring and so talented.  Enjoy!

We have been really busy in room 10!  We did a beautiful job cleaning out the gardens with our first grade book buddies last Thursday.  They were very overgrown and in need of a fall clean-out.  Thank you parents who came in the cold weather to help out with this project, Conant School thanks you!

Yesterday we were in action after lunch.  We have been reading many Folktales and today was the day for The Gingerbread Man.   The kids love this story and with the help of five generous parent helpers and our art teacher Ms. Hayes we turned the entrance to room 10 into a gigantic gingerbread house!  If you have a chance to swing by and see it in person I encourage you to do so.  The kids are so excited I am sure they would love to show each and every one of you.  Stop by!  I hope to post photos soon!

With the light snow and drizzle coming down outside today I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about the weather.  The students are outdoors for recess whenever possible and with the cold weather upon us now it is important that they are dressed appropriately.  All students should have a warm jacket, hats and gloves/mittens for outdoor play.  When the real snow arrives boots and snow pants will be necessary as well.  Please help your third grader remember their outdoor gear in the morning.  Also, the temperature inside the classroom varies as well.  Thank you!

The cold season is here!  The nurse has come in to remind the students how to deal with germs.  We reviewed hand washing, covering when they cough and using tissues.  If your child is not feeling well please do not send them to school.  Thank you, I hope we all have a safe and healthy winter!

Today I shared some Thanksgiving jokes and riddles with the students.  Many of them wanted to have a copy of the jokes and I told them I would post them here.  Enjoy your long weekend and for all that celebrate Happy Thanksgiving!

What is a scarecrow's favorite fruit?
Straw-berries

If April showers bring May flowers what do May flowers bring?
Pilgrims

What smells the bast at a Thanksgiving dinner?
your nose

What key won't open any door?
a turkey

What should you wear to a Thanksgiving dinner?
a har-vest

If the Pilgrims were alive today, what would they be most famous for?
Their age

What always comes at the end of Thanksgiving?
the letter g

Which side of a turkey has the most feathers?
the outside

What is the most musical part of the turkey?
the drumstick

Where do you find a turkey with no legs?
exactly where you left it

Today in room 10 it's CRANBERRY DAY!!!  This is a fun day to work with this beautiful seasonal fruit.  The kids will be reading about cranberries, watching videos and slide shows about cranberries and how they are harvested, completing cranberry estimation, cranberry cursive, cranberry observations with a microscope, creating a cranberry wreath, cranberry taste testing, cranberry math problems and a cranberry science lesson on sinking and floating!  It will be a busy day!!

Here are some cranberry ideas for you to share with your child at home!



Cranberry Garland

Who says garlands aren’t a Thanksgiving decoration? Try stringing them on doorways or around windows. After you’re finished, decorate a bush outside. Birds and squirrels will eat them up!

• Fresh cranberries
• Air popped popcorn, or microwave popcorn with no butter or salt on it
• Raisins
• Toothpick and thread (use a needle instead of a toothpick if it's OK with your parents)

Attach the string to the toothpick. Cut the thread at the other end and tie two knots on top of each other as close to the end as possible. Put the toothpick through a cranberry and push the berry all the way to the bottom of the thread. The knot you made should keep it from falling off. Next, do the same thing with a piece of popcorn. It might take you a few tries to keep the popcorn from breaking apart. You can put the cranberries, popcorn, and raisins into whatever order you like, or you can do a garland of all cranberries. When you’re finished, cut the string by the toothpick and tie two knots to keep the berries from falling off.

Cranberry Smoothie
This is a delicious drink that’s easy to make. Try it for breakfast. The recipe makes two cups.

• 1 very ripe banana
• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1 cup milk
• 3 ice cubes

Put in a blender and mix until smooth.

Berry-licious Trail Mix
You can try making this mix with different kinds of nuts or dried fruit. It’s an easy snack to take to school or on a car trip.

• 2 cups toasted wheat cereal squares
• 2 cups raisins1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup yogurt covered pretzels
• ½ cup peanuts

Mix all the ingredients together and put in an airtight container. Makes about 14 servings.

Frozen Cranberry Banana Salad

• 1 20-ounce can of pineapple tidbits, with juice drained out
• 4 or 5 firm bananas, halved and sliced
• 1 16-ounce can of whole berry cranberry sauce
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 12-ounce container of frozen whipped topping, thawed
• ¼ cup walnuts, chopped (you can leave these out if you want)

In a large bowl, combine the cranberry sauce and sugar. Add the bananas, pineapples, whipped topping, and walnuts. Pour the mixture into a 13 by 9 inch pan and freeze until solid. When ready to eat, take the salad out and let it sit for 15 minutes. Cut the salad into squares. You should have 12-16 squares, depending on the size you cut them.


Enjoy!!!

Just a reminder that picture re-take day will be Tuesday, November 13th.  If you would like your child to have a re-take, please send back the pictures or send me a note so that I know you would like to have a re-take done.

We will be starting our next literature unit on Tuesday.  Our new focus will be fairy tales, fables, legends and folktales.  This is a great unit which will run up until our winter break in December.  Many of the kids have seen the gingerbread house that I make out of my classroom door and are excited for that project, it goes great with our reading of The Gingerbread Man.  This year we will have the help of our wonderful art teacher, Ms. Hayes, so it should be really fantastic!

I hope you all get outside with your children and enjoy this upcoming beautiful long weekend!

Parents,

Thank you all who have contacted me about re-scheduling a conference.  I am in the process of arranging a new schedule with child care for my children.  When I have that arranged I will be able to schedule new times for each of you.  I appreciate your patience with this as I was out of power for days, sick kiddo at home etc.  I know you have all been there too.  Thank you and have a wonderful weekend!

-Mrs. Buck

I hope you have all recovered from the storm!  I finally have power back at my house as of 2:00 AM.  Due to the weather many of our scheduled parent conferences will need to be rescheduled, I will be in touch with each of you about arranging a new date and time.  Upcoming scheduled conferences will take place as planned.

I would like to encourage all of you to visit the Conant School book fair.  There is a family night taking place on Wednesday, November 7th.  Some of our student council members have volunteered to read at the Book Reading!  Our class will be taking a visit to the book fair during the school day on Monday, November 5th at 1:30  The book fair evening hours are as follows:

5:30-7:00 pm Monday 11/5
5:30-8:00 pm Wednesday 11/7

Please visit the book fair and encourage your child to continue reading!

The beginning of our first homework project was sent home yesterday.  Each student chose a mystery book here at school and had it approved by me.  This week their job is to read the book and fill in the mystery organizer (also sent home yesterday).  I will collect these organizers on Monday and then starting Monday I will send home a new section of the project to be completed each night.  The project covers will be done in class as well as putting together the project.  The final products will be displayed on our bulletin board outside of the classroom.

If there are any questions on this report as the pages are sent home, please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail, I would be happy to help!

What a wonderful trip we had to Plimoth.  I would like to give a special thanks to the four brave chaperones who attended the trip with us, I know it is a long bus ride!  We would not be able to run trips like this without you.

Since our field trip was our final activity for our study of the Pilgrims and Native Americans we have moved on to our next topics, Mystery and Electricity.

Mysteries are always a favorite with the students.  We will be reading numerous mysteries as a whole class, in reading groups and your child will be reading mysteries at home as well.  Our first book report will be on a mystery story, it will be coming home in the next few weeks.  I encourage you check in with your child to check on their reports together, a parent's eye is always important on projects :)

Electricity is our other new unit of study.  We will begin working with scientist notebooks for the first time this year to explore complete and incomplete circuits and eventually be building our own flashlights.

Thanks for checkin in on the blog, it is a great way to know what is happening in room 10, please continue to check the site!

Plimoth Plantation

IMPORTANT REMINDER:

Our Plimoth Plantation field trip is this Tuesday, October 2nd!  There is an EARLY DROP OFF time of 8:15, we have a prompt departure at 8:30.  There will also be a LATE PICK-UP time of 4:30.

Your child should have with them:
-disposable lunch and drink labeled with name in a paper bag, no glass please.
-disposable snack and drink labeled with name in a paper bag, no glass please.
-suitable clothing for the outdoors, check the weather!
-suitable footwear for a lot of walking.

We are excited for a great trip to see how the pilgrims lived, visit the wampanoag homesite and tour the Mayflower as well!

Sneak peak...our Plimoth unit of study is coming to an end, we will begin two new units very soon.....mysteries and electricity!

Welcome to room 10!

Thank you so much for checking in!  As I mentioned at open house I will try to keep the blog updated 1-2 times a week to keep you current about what is going on in room 10.  I do not send home paper newsletters, this is my main form of communication with parents so please check frequently.

I enjoyed meeting some of you at open house Wednesday, and I will be in touch with those who were not able to attend.  I appreciate you volunteering to help this year, I really could not run a classroom without the help of the parents, and the kids LOVE to have their family volunteer for different activities.