December 23, 2009

Dear Families,

Well! What a week and a half it’s been! Fun, fun, fun! And quite a bit of learning, I must say. You will notice that I have titled my newsletter with my maiden name, since we had Old School Day this week, and I wouldn’t have been able to teach and be married at the same time.

Ring, ring, ring—the old school bell rings. OLD SCHOOL DAYS! Monday, was quite a day. It all began with a school-wide assembly with a GIVING theme. We gave from our hearts a song we enjoy singing and acting, "Tony Chestnut," to the school body, along with Mrs. Puffer’s 5^th and 6^th graders. Of course, it was wonderful to see all of your children dressed up like children from days gone by. The older children all knew when they saw them that this was the primary unit’s OLD SCHOOL DAY re-enactment, and had fond memories they shared with the younger children about their own experiences with Old School Day.

For Old School Day we had the stage set up with benches and desks in rows, the teachers desk at the front of the class, "blackboards" all around with work for each grade level to do on their slates with chalk: penmanship, athrimetic, and spelling. Children recited proverbs, participated in a spelling bee and presented local history facts about Moretown in front of the class. Of course, there was also a pretend incident of a tack in the teacher’s chair, and a stool with a dunce cap in the corner of the one-room schoolhouse we created. We even had a pretend wood stove. Each of us had a family name of someone who has lived in Moretown in the past, and each child was assigned a particular grade to be in, from grade 1 to grade 8. First graders at up front on benches, second and third graders behind them, and so forth. Thank you to all of you for helping your children come to school in such lovely attire from the past, and their lunchbox socials. What a time we had!

Last Thursday, we had a very special visitor in our classroom. Mrs. Jean Eisele. I introduced her to the children as "the person who taught me how to be a teacher." She was my cooperating teacher, and I was her student teacher—at Moretown School, and in the very classroom I now teacher. This was over 25 years ago. Jean taught a combined first, second and third grade classroom, and allowed me to watch her—a master educator. In November of that same year, I had completed my student teaching and Jean was asked to take over as principal of Moretown School, and she said she’d agree only if I could be hired as her teaching/principal aide. Of course, I jumped at the chance, and have been allowed to remain a Moretown teacher ever since. To this day, I carry many of Jean’s "ways" with me in the classroom. You can only imagine my joy as Jean told Winnie the Pooh stories from memory with all of her character VOICES, and I was able to watch the delight and anticipation on your children’s faces as she did so. Jean even watched me teach a science lesson that actually turned into quite and unplanned inquiry about molasses and water as being liquids and if the molasses would turn into a solid or not, and how we might be able to get that to happen—using what we knew about water becoming a solid. We all tasted a tiny bit of molasses and one boy said, "So where does it come from?" Hmmmmm~ Jean gave them all an assignment—see if you can go home and find out where molasses comes from. If you have time to do this over vacation with your child, I’d love to hear what you and your child discovered, so we can share it in group.

In science we’ve begun a study of the States of Matter. We are focusing on mostly two states of matter—liquids and solids, although we’ve dabbled with gas a bit. We are learning to use and read a thermometer, make predictions, making observations of what we actually see and know for sure, coming up with new questions to investigate, and learning how to set up a fair test. I will type up a separate science newsletter over vacation and send it along to you. If you wish to ask your child about the science we’ve been exploring, you could ask about the three different balloons each group opened up, what the word viscosity means, how to read a thermometer, and how we tried to indentify different liquids (viscoscity, transparency, color, and order—we waifed, not smelled).

On another note, once in a while, just before the bus arrives at the end of the day, and we will play a game called Junior Trivia. Last Friday, we were playing at the end of the day, waiting for the buses, and the question was, "What do they do on the lawn of the White House the day after Easter?" One child shouted, "Mow it!" You can only imagine the smiles that came across the adult faces in the room. Of course, we did come to the conclusion that there is an Easter egg hunt that day, so perhaps, mowing does need to happen prior to that event.

Your children enjoyed making and wrapping gifts for you this holiday season. They were eager wrappers, and helped each other with the bow tying and ribbon curling. I hope that you enjoy this season of peace with joy and good health. Here’s to a wonderful being to 2010! See you "next year."

Photos of our hole punch lanterns with "candles"