Weekly Newsletter

Preschool and kindergarten vision and hearing screenings will begin the week of October 26th and first grade screenings will begin the week of November 2nd. Caregivers will be notified directly if the screenings indicate a need for further testing. If you have any questions or want to opt out of the screenings, please contact Nurse Mikaela at mwhitaker@mtrsd.org.

Our preschool classroom has been full of wonder as we explore descriptive and comparative language! Lately, we have been learning how to talk about things that are exactly the same, similar, and different by describing the autumn leaves and objects all around us. After reading the story Leaf Man, we went on a mindful walk with Ms. Sue to collect their own leaves and natural treasures. In our book we were introduced to the word "rustled" so one our walk we stopped quietly to listen to the beautiful crunching sounds of nature. Afterward, the children used their collected items to design their very own leaf creations!

The children have been enjoying learning all about the seasonal changes that autumn brings! We listened to the delightful oral story How the Apple Got Its Star and learned about all the parts of an apple, including the stem, skin, blossom end, flesh, core, and seeds. We also enjoyed tasting delicious apple cake! The children participated in a fun voting activity called “How Do You Like to Eat Apples?” They learned how to vote by choosing just one option: plain apples, applesauce, apple pie, or apple cider donuts. Each child used their picture as a voting card and placed it next to the picture representing their choice. After everyone voted, we compared our results and discovered that plain apples and apple cider donuts tied for the most votes, while applesauce received the fewest. This was a wonderful opportunity to practice making choices, counting, comparing results, and exploring early math concepts!

We have also started making our very own Apple Fairy Dolls! Each day, we dip the dolls in lemon juice to help with the drying process. The children are excited to see their creations take shape, and our next steps will be to dress the dolls and add their beautiful fairy wings. We have also begun talking about pumpkins and created glittery Fairy Pumpkins to attract fairies and add a little extra magic. The autumn season has so much to offer, and we are having a wonderful time exploring, learning, and creating together!

A heartfelt thank-you to all the families who donated apples and pumpkins for our classroom activities. We are so grateful for your generosity.

New in our play centers: The playdough center has fall themed cutters and toys, and the art center has fall themed stickers and stampers. The drama area is now set up like a fire station and our block area has community helper figurines and vehicles.

This week, we had our annual fire safety presentation with Firefighter Mike! Students practiced procedures like the low crawl to get under smoke and stop-drop-and-roll if you get fire on your clothes. We also learned about how to call 911 for emergencies and got to see Firefighter Mike with his big suit on so it’s not so scary if we see a firefighter in real life.

Wow! What a busy month of October we’ve had so far! We kicked off the long weekend with our school-wide mountain day hike. It was a beautiful fall day to spend on the trail! We hiked with our six grade buddies who were so kind and supportive to their first grade buddies. Each student pushed themselves to keep going and after lunch twelve first graders were up for the challenge of hiking all the way to the overlook! Somewhere between eight and nine miles round trip! All first graders should be proud of their determination and perseverance! What a great day full of so many fun memories!

In EL we have started unit two where we are focusing on habits of character: initiative, collaboration and perseverance. We are reading the story The Most Magnificent Thing to guide us in thinking about these three habits of character. In addition to reading, talking and writing about these habits of character, first graders are engaged in a variety of group challenges to see what helped them successfully complete each one. Kids often say “when others listen to my ideas” and “share the materials” as ways to make the challenge more successful.

Third grade had a wonderful day with our buddies at Mountain Day. Instead of spending the whole day walking, third graders did a gentle, shorter walk to a special spot in the woods. They gloried in spending a few hours in one natural spot, eating, listening to a story, doing leaf rubbings, drawing, building, creating fairy worlds, and enjoying each other’s company. They stretched their imaginations and used their cooperation skills to make sure everyone had a fun time. We had perfect weather for this special day, and we are grateful to our buddies for spending it with us.

Last week we harvested our squashes and apples. Both crops were abundant this year, so we have a lot of cooking to do. The day after we brought in the apples, we stewed half of them to make a delicious, natural applesauce. With just a bit of cinnamon added, most students had two or three servings. We will use the rest of the apples soon to make some apple cake. The squashes we will store for a bit in the cold space near our exit door, using the same techniques our ancestors used for hundreds of years before refrigeration.

In math we have been focusing on analyzing word problems, writing equations for them, solving them, and labeling the answers. Students practice stopping at each period in a word problem and checking to make sure they understood that sentence. Understanding a word problem is essential for solving it, so this first step is very helpful to habitually employ. We are continuing to hone multi-digit addition and subtraction solving skills using techniques that reflect an understanding of place value.

This Friday we are off to explore and learn about The Quabbin Reservoir. We have been studying about the history and sacrifices of its construction, and the class is excited to see this beautiful and unusual spot in our state. So far it looks like the weather will cooperate as well.

In math, we have started Unit Two. In this unit, your child will:

• multiply by 10, 100, and 1,000,

• multiply 2-digit numbers,

• represent multiplication with arrays and ratio tables,

• divide with and without remainders, and

• solve multiplication and division story problems

Your child will learn and practice these skills by solving problems like those shown below.

You may be wondering why students use arrays and ratio tables to solve multiplication problems. Using arrays and ratio tables helps students see why different strategies, including the standard algorithm, work. The array also shows why multiplying two 2-digit numbers yields an answer that is so much bigger than the two original numbers. This understanding, along with mastery of basic facts and a good sense of place value, ensures that students carry out the calculations accurately, efficiently, and with understanding. Students will learn and practice the standard algorithm for multiplication in grade 5. The standard algorithm is a reliable, efficient, and elegant way to multiply multi-digit numbers. It also works every time, no matter what pair of numbers you’re multiplying, as long as it is performed correctly. Problems arise when students attempt to use the algorithm without having mastered the basic multiplication facts, when they don’t understand why the algorithm works, when they forget the steps, and when they can carry out the steps yet are unable to use their estimation skills to judge whether their final answer is reasonable. The work students do in grade 4 will help them avoid these potential pitfalls.

Sixth graders are currently in the middle of our close read of The Lightning Thief, and they are learning how to participate in Socratic seminars as our way of discussing the novel. In Socratic seminars, the teacher steps back and plays the role of the moderator while a small group of students question each other and build upon each others’ ideas in order to come to a consensus about an open-ended topic. While three or four students are holding this discussion, the rest of the class is responsible for taking notes and developing thoughtful questions about the discussion group’s thought process. At the end of the Socratic seminar, the class shares their feedback and asks their questions, and the discussion group then has a chance to defend their ideas to the class. This is a great opportunity for students to build independence in their class discussions, and each discussion group has done an amazing job with living up to the responsibilities that come along with that! Students are also working on their geometry skills, and we are now on the final topic of our unit – finding the volume of prisms and pyramids! Our sixth graders did amazing on the midunit assessments that went home last week. I was so impressed with the class’s ability to think all the way through multi-step problems. Looking forward to many more great weeks of learning!

Our Socratic seminar in action! Sixth graders in the middle circle are practicing how they can explain their evidence with reasoning, while ensuring that everyone in the group has an equal chance to make their voice heard. Students on the outer circle are taking notes so that they can ask questions and provide feedback (“glows” and “grows”) to the middle circle at the end of the Socratic seminar.

Our amazing Sanderson mathematicians are hard at work studying patterns, applying strategies to develop their fact fluency, and using so many other skills during math. Check out an example pattern below. What do you notice? What do you wonder? What might the three next buses look like? Enjoy! :) aprew@mtrsd.org

Perspective taking is the recent theme for our 6th grade Mediation training sessions. A story was read titled, The Maligned Wolf giving the wolf’s perspective of Little Red Ridinghood. We then looked at a variety of pictures depicting two or more embedded images. Students were fascinated by this lesson and were encouraged to show the adults in their home these images as a great conversation starter.

The weather sure has been AMAZING!! We have started to focus on the word Cooperation in class time. As a whole school we are coming up with our definition…classes have done an amazing job with this. We also played a game using yoga poses: one person was the leader and the other was the mirror. By using all the qualities of the word Cooperation they were able to 1. Decide on who would be the leader, 2. Create poses the other person could achieve and 3. Be able to work as a team. We will continue to dive into this word in depth and have our best understanding of it over the next couple of lessons.

Our Mountain Day Hike was a wonderful adventure, with great weather and LOTS of students going all the way to the Overlook turnaround point! WAY to go! Ms. Sue was able to collect all of the mile information for students involved in the club. At this point, we are still OUTSIDE on the basketball court unless it is raining (then we are in the gym). So DRESS WARMLY!! Our next school-wide event is our Sugar Rush Race on Friday, October 30th, at 10:45, you can choose to run or walk through the wooded trails behind the school; they will be mapped out and have volunteers stationed throughout. Parents are welcome to join us.