Classroom News

Ms. Hartshorn’s Classroom News

May 6, 2010

Dear Families,

Only 26 days left! I cannot believe we are almost finished with this school year. Your children have been working very hard and I have enjoyed every minute of watching them grow and become members of a learning community.

As the days to the end of the school year draw near, I would like to remind you that the classroom schedule often gets a bit jumbled up with special events, visitors and experiences that we value as much as readin’, writin’, and ‘rithematic.

This week we had the good fortune to have Jeremy Seeger of the Vermont Council on the Arts join us for kite-making thanks to the fundraising efforts and generosity of the Moretown PTN. Every child made a kite. We had 90 minutes scheduled, and your children listened and followed directions so well, that we actually were finished 40 minutes ahead of time. We will paint our kites tomorrow (Friday) and then actually fly them with Jeremy on Monday!

Next week we have an Arbor Day celebration planned for Friday, May 14 at 8:15. Weather permitting it will be outside (location yet to be determined—we need to decide where the magnolia tree will be planted). John Hoogenboom, a Moretown resident, former parent of three Moretown graduates, and a member of the Waterbury Rotary, has once again, generously offered to present a tree ( a magnolia this year!) to our school, along with sunflower seed packets for each student. This school-wide assembly will be a short one, and you are welcome to join us if you are so able. National Arbor Day is always the last Friday of April (April 30^th this year), but Vermont is different. Vermont’s Arbor Day is always the first Friday of May (May 7^th this year), but we will celebrate this day at Moretown School on May 14^th this year.

Megan Allison, our school librarian, has been able to schedule a visit to our school by a Vermont author, Tanya Stone. She has written several books responding to a wide range of ages and interests. She wrote Sandy’s Circus, a Red Clover nominee book for 09/10, Almost Astronauts, Elizabeth Leads the Way, and biographies of Amelia Earhart and Laura Ingalls Wilder. She has written several other books for early teens and young adults in addition to her picture books for young children. Ms. Stone will be visiting us on Tuesday, May 11^th.

Once again, thank you for sending your child to school prepared for our Four Winds lesson about streams this past Monday. Unfortunately this lesson had to be rescheduled. We now have a new date. On Tuesday, May 11^th in the afternoon we plan to explore the stream close by the school. Your child will need mud boots and appropriate outerwear for the weather that day. We have our last Four Winds lesson planned for Monday, May 24^th (Birds will be the theme), and we will be outside again that day for part of the lesson. We have a “raindate” scheduled for Tuesday, May 25, if we need to make up either of these lessons due to inclement weather or volunteers not being able to make it. Please mark these dates on your calendar and take notice of the weather for each of these dates.

Thanks to the efforts of the PTN, several parent volunteers, and especially Sarah Zschau, our school grounds have been spruced and greened up this past weekend. The raised beds on the primary playground have been readied for planting with new compost. After lots of “breaking up” of the soil, turning the soil over, chopping the big clumps, smoothing out the bed of soil, we planted radishes, spinach and a spicy mesclun mix (greens for a salad) in one of the frames. We’re hoping that these greens and radishes will be ready in time for us to enjoy at our school picnic lunch on field days, June 8^th. Special thanks to Mrs. W. for bringing her tools and watering cans to school for us to use and make the work a bit easier. We plan to plant carrots also so that we will be able to harvest something in the fall when we return to school. There will also be another raised bed used for planting sunflowers by the incoming kindergartners this spring for them to enjoy in the fall.

You may be wondering who won the Red Clover Book Award this year. Out of ten books nominated, the book titled Pale Male won for Moretown School and the book Owney, and the Mail Pouch Pooch won for the state of Vermont. Every April there is a vote taken by all K-4 graders in the state of Vermont to determine the state winner for the Red Clover Book Award—quite an honor determined by Vermont schoolchildren.

Our class decided they’d like to put on another play using one of the Red Clover book nominees for this year, Wangari and the Trees of Peace, a story from Kenya. We are in the process of turning this story into a play script, planning the props, characters/actors, etc. We are tentatively scheduling this performance at school in the morning of June 3^rd, and possibly and evening performance as the main event of a “family sharing” night. I know this time of year can get crazy for families –baseball, t-ball, soccer, etc. Would you please let me know by tomorrow if your child could make an early evening performance on June 3^rd at school. It will make a difference in my planning for this event. The play will be no longer than 30 minutes and we could begin at 6:00, ending at 6:30, with a possible potluck dinner if you’d like. Please let me know by tomorrow if you and your child could make this date and time on June 3^rd.

The photos attached or embedded are of our kite-making, working on Mothers’ Day project, planting greens in the school raised beds, green-upping the school yard, and first graders counting backwards using footprint strips.

From Mrs. Orr in writing: “Wow! This salt is cool”, said many children as they created a paint paper at the salt station for their upcoming collage story. They have thoroughly enjoyed creating textures with salt, plastic wrap, sponges, straws, and Plexiglas. Remember to send those home-school journals back. We usually write in them on Thursdays.

Dates to Remember:

May 10^th: PTN meeting, 7:00.

May 11^th: Author Tanya Lee Stone visits Moretown School at 10:15.

May 12^th, Early Release Day

May 13^th: Art Show, 6:00-8:00

May 16^th: Bike Safety Fair, 1:00 at the school.

May 17^th: Fieldtrip to ECHO Museum. Your child will need a cold lunch for this trip. I will notify you if you indicated that you would chaperone this trip.