Inspire, Create and Grow a Community of Lifelong Learners

Happy Friday SRES Families!

February is Black History Month and SRES students are learning about the outstanding contributions and achievements of Black scientists, inventors, authors, artists, athletes, musicians, and more. Please read the teacher sections below for specific examples!

• Did you know the reason why Black History month is celebrated in February is that two noteworthy abolitionists, President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, both share a February birthday?
• During announcements today, we learned that George Washington Carver, a scientist, discovered more than 300 uses for peanuts, including making peanut butter!

Winter Sports: February 14th

• Skiers/Snowboarders: leave at 11, eat on bus, return by 3pm; BRING: labeled gear, warm outerwear, helmet
• Swimmers: eat at 11 at SRES, leave at 11:30, return by 2:15pm; BRING: swimsuit, towel, plastic bag
• Skaters: eat at 11 at SRES, leave for VA at 11:30, return to SRES for outdoor play; BRING: warm outerwear
• THANK YOU to our volunteers for helping and to our PTO for the hot cocoa and snacks!!

Data meetings at SRES

• Today, Deb Kardane (Director of Innovation and Instruction) and Shelley Wilson (MTSS Coordinator) came to SRES to meet with each grade-level team to discuss data and instructional groupings. We thank them for their work with us!

ILT (Instructional Leadership Team)

• SRES' ILT has been working with staff to review the research around evidence-based practices.
• Our goal is to select 1-3 evidence-based practices to implement school-wide so as to improve comprehension.
• This work is super exciting as we know it will make a difference in student learning!

NEXT WEEK: COIN CHALLENGE!!!

• This was SO fun last year and thanks to Nurse Jenn and our Girls on the Run students, IT'S BACK!
• See below for the details and send in your coins!!!

T-shirts for ALL students!!!

• Thanks to the incredible generosity of Vincenzo Ruggiero Memorial Fund, ALL SRES students will be receiving a new SRES t-shirt!
• Please complete the order form that was sent home so we know what size to order. Forms are due back Monday, February 13th.

Looking ahead:

• Friday, February 17th: Dress Your Best Day!
• February 20-25: February Recess
• February 27th: School resumes
• February 28th: Last Day of Winter Sports

Your partner in education,

Laura Hazard

laura.hazard@wnesu.com

Do any of these items belong to your student? Contact Ms. Sara and she will make sure they make it home to their owner!

Our Spring Concert is scheduled for Thursday March 30, 6:30 at Bellows Falls Union High School Auditorium. We are very excited for this special night. Please mark your calendars and invite your friends and family. This event is free and open to the public.

The Vincenzo Ruggiero Memorial Fund has generously purchased a school t-shirt for every SRES student. Please indicate your child's size on the order form that was sent home this week. Forms are due back on February 13th - MONDAY. Items ordered and the free T-shirts will be back by mid-March.

During SEL we are finishing up our Zones of Regulation unit! Second graders finished their Zones books this week and Kindergarten and First will be finishing their books next week! Please have your child share their completed book with you because they worked hard on them. Here are a few of the Red Zone pages that our first graders completed.

3rd and 4th graders have been learning about coping skills to help them with strong emotions! Students identified the top 5 strategies from a list of 100 and made a "coping skills cupcake" (made of paper) to show their favorites. Students should have brought home a list of 100 coping strategies and I encouraged them to hang them up at home where they can easily be reminded of them.

Girls on the Run is back for another season. Participant registration opens February 22, 2023. Please be on the lookout for info on how to register your 3rd or 4th grade girl. Please email Jennifer.vaughan@wnesu.com with any questions.

We have received a generous donation for our GOTR team here at SRES! This donation will allow the girls to join GOTR for FREE!!!

A HUGE thank you to Chroma Technology

Over the past couple weeks I have been to each classroom to talk to students about the importance of colorful fruits and vegetables and what part of the body each is good for. Ask your child what part of the body a strawberry is good for, they should tell you that red fruits and vegetables are good for your heart

Need Health Insurance?

Visit www.vermonthealthconnect.gov or call 1-855-899-9600

Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns regarding your child's health.

Phone: 802-869-2637 or Email: jennifer.vaughan@wnesu.com

These Kindergarteners are amazing! They have been working so hard. For Groundhog Day we made predictions of whether or not Punxsutawney Phil would see his shadow. Ask your kindergartener what a predication means.

For Black History month we have been listening to stories about African Americans and the amazing contributions they have made. We have also been talking about being equal.

In Math we are working on adding two groups of numbers within 10, the concept of 10 and some more, and of course practicing subitizing.

In our ELA time we have been busy practicing letter formation. We have started tapping out CVC words and identifying beginning sounds. Our sight word pile is growing more each week.

☆ Reading: During Reader’s Workshop time we have continued our nonfiction deep dive. We started to learn about nonfiction text features that can help us to learn important information from the text. Some nonfiction text features we have learned so far include: headings, keywords, captions, and photographs/illustrations. We have read about different African Americans in history who were influential for Black History Month in our Scholastic News magazines. Ask your first grader about who Jackie Robinson, Garrett Morgan, Lyda Newman, or Philip Downing was and what they did to change history!

☆ Fundations: In Fundations time, we have been learning about suffix -s. We learned that we add suffix -s to the end of a baseword when a word becomes plural (e.g. pancakes) or when an action is happening now (e.g. runs). We also learned that suffix -s can sometimes make a /z/ sound (e.g. bugs). We learned the new trick words: are, were. Ask your first grader to write them and mark the heart parts!

☆ Math: The first grade mathematicians have been learning about equality. We have been talking about what the equal sign means, and have been working on solving number sentences to see if they are true or false (e.g. 6 + 2 = 4 + 4). We have been building number sentences with concrete math tools such as counting bears and cubes, and putting them on our balance to see if they are true or false.

☆ Writing: Students have been finishing up their how-to writing pieces! We have been working on adding more details to our small steps in order to teach others about our topic. Topics have included: how to solve a rubix cube, how to make a bracelet, how to make a lego house, and more! We look forward to sharing our how-to writing pieces with you soon as we finish our final drafts!

☆ Science: During our science time, we have been continuing to learn about sound. Last week, we made kazoos using popsicle sticks, straws, and rubber bands! We talked about how using our mouths to make the rubber bands vibrate made the kazoo make a sound! We will be switching to learning about light starting next week.

☆ Friendly Reminders:

• We have a busy, fun-filled week coming up next week! Tuesday, February 14th, is Valentine’s Day! Please look over the Valentine’s Day sheet that was sent home in take home folders earlier this week.
• Our 100th Day of School will also be next Friday! We will be celebrating with the 100th Day Collections. Please look over the 100th Day Collections sheet that was sent home!

Reading

• Second Grade Readers are taking a deeper look at characters of their choosing in fiction stories. They are learning about using text evidence to prove their findings on character traits.

Writing

• These writers are working on brainstorming ideas for their expert writing books. They chose a topic that they feel they know a lot about and are now organizing their knowledge into subtopics.

Phonics

• Second graders continued their learning on different suffixes and can now identify vowel suffixes and consonant suffixes. They even learned the meanings of some prefixes.

• Students are also practicing being able to read and spell the following trick words: always, often, once.

Math

• Second Grade Mathematicians are sharing their strategies they use to solve 2 digit addition problems and challenged to see if they can use those strategies for 3 digit addition as well.

Theme

• Next Friday Second Grade will be facilitating the All School Meeting. We decided that for Black History Month we will choose a person that was influential with Black History and will share what they did along with a quote from them to share with the school.

REMINDERS

• PLEASE REMEMBER WATER BOTTLES!

Math: The third graders have been studying the area and perimeter of squares and rectangles. When calculating the area of a shape, students have learned that both multiplication and repeated addition are strong strategies. For calculating the perimeter, students have added the lengths of each side.

Reading: The third graders have started a unit on poetry. They have learned and applied the vocabulary words, “Stanza, couplet, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhyme scheme. In honor of Black History Month, students have studied poems by Langston Hughes and will continue to learn about other important African American poets.

Writing: As the students have begun to study different poetry literary devices, they have also begun to write their own poems. They have studied Haiku and acrostic poems.

Social Studies: The third graders have studied important African American leaders during the time of slavery. They studied Harriet Tubman and how she risked her life to free several enslaved Africans. They will continue to learn about other important figures.

Hello From Fourth Grade!

• In math, we have started a unit on geometry. We have created a vocabulary book to review lines, line segments, points/vertices, rays, parallel, perpendicular, and polygon. We have sorted, classified, and compared/contrasted polygons. We are beginning to look at angles in reference to right angles. Soon we will learn to use protractors to measure angles.

• In our reader’s workshop, we have created vocabulary projects such as oversized word searches and crossword puzzles, as well as board games using vocabulary from our buddy books. We are currently completing writing activities such as: diary entries from a main character’s point of view, poetry, letters to the author, and alternate endings. Our final activity will be an art project and then we will present to the class in a whole group book talk.

• February is Black History Month! We have been reading about a different famous African American each day and then summarizing and inserting images into individual Google slides. This has been an excellent way to tie in reading skills with historical study and technology. So far we have learned about Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, and Hank Aaron.

• In science, we are using our knowledge of how energy is transferred through chain reactions. Monday we will take our foam coasters, tilt machines, and added items (dominoes, pattern blocks, etc) to the multi-purpose room where we will set up large scale chain reactions.

Tuesday 2/14: Winter Sports & Valentine’s Day
Monday 2/20 - 2/24: Winter Break

Assessments!

Each year we ask our students to participate in assessments to better understand where all of our students’ strengths and weaknesses lie in the areas of reading, writing and math. We administer ‘screening’ assessments at the beginning/middle/end of the year to track student progress and to inform teachers of those students who may need additional support in these subject areas. Our SRES screening assessments are the Math and Reading MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) assessments and Reading DIBELS assessment.

To further gather more explicit knowledge from those students who would benefit from reading and math support, interventionists also administer ‘diagnostic’ assessments. These assessments tend to evaluate more specific skill sets. Some of the diagnostic assessments we utilize at SRES are:

Reading:

• Running Records (An exact record of a student’s reading on a particular text)

• QPS: Quick Phonics Screener (Assesses student’s knowledge of phonics rules through decoding real and make believe words)

• Phonological Awareness Assessments (Assesses a student’s ability to hear sounds in words and rhyme, blend, segment, delete and manipulate the sounds in words)

• Letter Identification and Letter Sound Identification (Assesses a student’s ability to recognize letters and corresponding sounds)

Math:

• PNOA (Primary Numbers and Operations)

• ENOA (Numr and Operations)

The data we gain from diagnostic assessments provides teachers with more information about the skills students have mastered and the skills students need more teaching, experience and practice with. This information helps teachers plan the most effective instruction to support each child they teach! Our goal as interventionists is to remediate any areas of weakness as effectively and efficiently as possible to move our students to grade level reading and math.

We recently completed our “Middle Of Year” screening assessments and the interventionists at SRES have formed or reformed their groups. You may hear from one of them if your child is considered a student that would benefit from more support in a subject area. Remember we (the interventionists) are always here to answer questions if you have any for us. Emails or notes through the student backpacks are often the most effective way to contact us here at SRES!

Have a wonderful winter!

We are celebrating Black History Month in the library by reading and highlighting many wonderful books by Black writers and artists, as well as books about Black leaders. This week we read The Invisible Princess by Faith Ringgold. Ms. Ringgold is a famous artist who has artwork in many museums, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. She is the creator of numerous picture books and is a Caldecott Award winner, the highest picture book award in the USA.

The Invisible Princess is a fairy tale. Ms Ringgold writes that as a child she loved fairy tales but was confused and upset that there were no Black princesses in those stories. So when she grew up, she wrote one. Her fairy tale The Invisible Princess weaves in facts about slavery, freedom and love. It was a pleasure to read it today, and reading it sparked much thought and conversation among the students.

Students learned about Garrett Morgan as a part of Black History Month. Garrett Morgan was a famous inventor, businessman, and community leader. Among his many inventions was the traffic light. You can see third grade students playing "Red Light, Green Light", which helps develop body control and listening skills."

Kindergarten, First and Second Grades are all on Week 8 of our Second Term of First Steps In Music. Our students are improving their singing, beat keeping and movement. I am so very proud of their accomplishments!

Kindergarten: Ask your student to perform "Chip Chop" for you, or show you how they keep the beat, say the words and jump to "A Penny A Lump".

First Grade: Ask your student to perform "My Name Is Joe" for you (and you can do the movements with them) or sing "Grizzly Bear" for you. They can teach you how to growl at the end of the song!

Second Grade: Ask your student to show you how to join hands with them and say "How Do You Do Ti" or have them sing you "Little Snowflake".

Third and Fourth Grades have just begun learning contra dance figures. COVID restrictions have really put a damper on our folk dancing over the past few years, so we are thrilled to be dancing again! We all love the "Bo Diddley" dance which is teaching us longways set, sashay, and two hands round. We will continue to further this knowledge with new dances soon!

We continue to sing and learn new songs. We have begun "Yonder Come Day" (a song we can sing in three parts that fit together in harmony). We love singing "Benji Met A Bear" (a round). Ask your student to sing it for you. See if you can figure out what happens to Benji! We are also singing old favorites "Red, Red Robin" and "Inch By Inch". These classics are always favorites with our students.

We also continue our rhythm study nearly every class. Fourth Grade is finishing up their 6/8 rhythm writing and creating, Third Grade is flying on their 2/4 reading.

Thanks to all of our students for the energy and enthusiasm they bring to Music every class! It makes our class a really fun place to be!

Mrs. Daigneault, Music Educator

Pictures below are of Fourth Grade dancing "Bo Diddley". Thanks to Mrs. Harmon for taking these great pictures for us!

3rd Grade

Third Grade has been working on finishing projects focusing on their Monet Lillies inspired by Claude Monet's oil paintings! We explored mixing colors using oil pastels!

2nd Grade

Second Grade has been working on printmaking inspired by Katsushika Hokusai's work of The Great Wave. We started by sketching our ideas, making artistic choices to choose a final version, which we etched into a styrofoam plate and practiced printing these plates! The second grade artists have been showing great effort and enthusiasm, keep it up!

1st Grade

Artists in First Grade began their Mosaic works by creating a drawing of a sunflower. We discussed what a Mosaic is and how artists can use a wide variety of materials to create them. These artists have been hard at work, keep it up!

Kindergarten

These artists in Kindergarten have been hard at working exploring Oil Pastels! We discussed how to properly use these pastels and then got the chance to explore what oil pastels can create! We will be using our oil pastels to create a work of art inspired by Paul Klee next!

Email: laura.hazard@wnesu.com
Website: https://sres.wnesu.org/
Location: 15 School Street, Saxtons River, VT, USA
Phone: (802) 869-2637
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sresvt