Ms. Hartshorn’s Classroom News
January 28, 2010
Where did the month of January go? I cannot believe we are almost at the 100th day of school (Feb. 2 if no more snow days). We have been quite busy with learning to read, figuring out how to ask survey questions during math times, AND then how to record and represent the data, and also how to determine if a science experiments is actually a fair test or not.
We’ve begun to learn about Chinese New, which will begin on Feb. 14th. A friend of mine, Steve Sun from Waitsfield is willing to come to school on Feb. 4th and talk to us about growing up in Hong Kong and celebrating Chinese New Year. Mr. Sun will arrive at 9:00 a.m. We are preparing questions for him, which we will send along to him before his visit.
We will celebrate Chinese New Year in school the week of Feb. 15th, but Steve’s visit will happen earlier since he and his wife will be visiting Chinese relatives in California for the big CNY celebration. We will use some of what we learn about CNY and the animals of the zodiac to present to the entire school with our 5th/6th grade Assembly buddies in Mrs. Puffer’s class on Feb. 10th at the 2:00 school-wide assembly.
We will celebrate Valentines’ Day on Friday, Feb. 12th with our class. Below you will see a list of names for all of your child’s classmates. We will be exchanging Valentine cards with each other on that day, so please help your child complete a Valentine for each of his/her classmates. They can be store bought at a reasonable price or handmade at home with paper, scraps, and materials found around the house. You may send in the Valentines with your child any time during the week of Feb. 8th, and please no later than Feb. 11th so that we will have time to organize and distribute for the following day.
Classmates:
Alanya Amelia Anja Hunter Jack Levi Liam Logan Matthew
Michael Peter Shannon Zuzu Mrs. W. Ms. H.
We’ve been sewing again! Our very own red felt hearts to use as our pocket for all of the Valentine cards we are expecting to receive from our classmates. I was so impressed by their patience at this project, AND the compliments I heard them giving each other with no prompting from me or any other adult. “Hey, that’s a nice color of thread you chose!” “Thank you! I like the stitches you’re making. They are nice and close together.” “You are doing a great job! Your heart looks nice.” “Thank you, ____. I think you’re doing a great job, too.”
Two Fridays ago we had the good fortune of having three delightful Harwood high school students join us in the afternoon to read us stories about discrimination and exclusion based on skin color or ethinicity. These young women had prepared very well for their young audience and knew how to lead very thoughtful and candid, yet sensitive conversations about discrimination—first based on race and then branched out into any type of differences that are noticed or perceived by others, such as clothing styles, eye color, speech accent, etc.
We will begin practicing our Strega Nona play next week. We’re quite excited to be putting this on for the preschoolers and kindergarteners beginning at 8:30 on the morning of Monday, Feb. 8th—on the STAGE in the gym!
Dara Torre and Sharon Evans joined us on Monday afternoon of this week for a Four Winds lesson. Normally, we cross-country ski on Monday afternoons, but the heavy rains kept us inside this week so it was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about ecosystems and the animals that go dormant or hibernate, and those that remain active, during our Vermont winters. We learned about several animals and their winter habits—hibernation, migration, dormancy, and brumate (frogs and toads do this). I learned something totally new myself. Did you know that a January thaw is very important for the survival of our honeybee population in Vermont? It appears that during the warm temperatures in January, such as we experienced on Monday in the 50’s, the honeybees leave their hives to dispose of their waste (yes, they go to the bathroom ONLY outside their hive). If there is not a January thaw, then the honeybees actually die. I had no idea. Ask your child what Vermont animal he or she should like to be if given the chance to be one for a day.
Thank you, Sharon and Dara, for your time and expertise with us this week.
Dates to remember:
February 2nd: 100th day of school(if no more snow days between now and then)
February 4th Parents of girls meeting with Jill Skovron 6:00 pm at school
Februrary 8th: Strega Nona/Nonno play for preschoolers and kindergarteners beginning at 8:30 am—
please help your child remember to come to school with costume as assigned in an
earlier note home; call me or email me ASAP if you have any questions
February 9th: Parent Math Night with Ms. Hartshorn 6:30 at school (snow date Feb. 11th)
February 10th: Whole School Assembly, 2:00—WEAR RED
February 12th: Valentine’s Day celebration in the classroom. More information and class list will arrive home shortly.
Week of February 15th: Chinese New Year activities—WEAR RED AGAIN
February 22nd: Vacation begins
March 3rd: School Resumes
March 9th Read Across America—more about this will travel home at a future date
