This will be a short newsletter. Please also read the other attached note reminding you of the pencil exchange and food collection for the local food shelf.

Mathematics:

First graders with Mrs. Orr have just finished work on a math problem about geometry. The problem read as follows: Steve has 19 toothpicks. He wants to make 5 squares. He will use one toothpick for each side. Does Steve have enough toothpicks? You might ask your child to show you how he/she solved this problem? You could ask the following questions:

What do you need to find out? (Does he have enough toothpicks?)

What will you make to find your answer? (key and diagram)

Can you make the key and diagram to find out your answer?

What is your answer?

What is a connection you could make? (One possible connection might be that he would need one more toothpick to make the fifth square.)

Yesterday and today they are learning some new math games to practice some addition and other number skills. Some of the games they will play are: Odd or Even, Take the Difference, Teen Number Concentration, Fill up Tens, and Lulu. Ask your child to tell you about these games. Maybe he/she could teach you play the game called Take the Difference. This game uses 15 pennies. Here are the directions:

Decide who will collect heads and who will collect tails.

Start with 15 pennies. Take turns. Toss the pennies and sort them by heads and tails. Line them up in two rows, one-to-one, to see which row has more.

If you have more pennies, tell the difference between the two rows for example 5 heads compared to two tails is three more. Then take that number (the 3 more) of pennies to keep in your own pile. Write the number sentence(5-2=3).

Toss only the remaining pennies each time.

Continue to play until all pennies have been taken. The player who has more pennies wins. Be sure to shake hands and say "Good Game" at the end of the game.

HAVE FUN!

Second graders with Ms. Hartshorn have been introduced to multiplication! We’ve worked on multiplying groups, how to write multiplication stories and equations with the symbol ‘x’ for "times" or "by." We’re seeing that multiplication is really adding the same number over and over again, and we’re finding that knowing our doubles addition facts is helping us come up with the "products," (answer) for multiplication problems. We have been building arrays or rectangles that show multiplication problems. We’ve also talked about special rectangles called "square rectangles," or "squares," for short, which we can build with 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, etc.

We will be traveling to the Town Clerk’s office in the village on Tuesday afternoon to learn about the job of the Town Clerk and Treasurer—thanks to a special invitation by Jamie Wimble.

We will also be walking next door some afternoon next week to deliver the food we collect for the local food shelf. Mrs. Ella Maynard has told us that she will make sure the food gets taken to the food shelf after we deliver it to the church next door.

Later today members of the Green Mountain Youth Orchestra will visit our classroom to demonstrate some of their instruments. I wonder which of the little innocent faces watching will end up playing an instrument one day? After the demonstration, we will attend a performance by the full orchestra. Since this letter will arrive to you before the performance, I will send photos separately.

Dates to Remember:

Friday, Dec. 14- Popcorn Sale

Wednesday, Dec. 19- Last day to bring in non-perishable food for local food shelf AND two

fancy pencils wrapped for our pencil gift exchange

Friday, Dec. 21 Last day of school before vacation and the day of our afternoon party

Wednesday, Jan. 2-First day back to school after vacation

Monday, Jan. 7-Moretown P.T.N. meeting at 6:30 p.m.

Matthew, Zac, Anthony, Seth and Cyrus proud of their creation they built together!

On a personal note: My son, Ty, is finishing his student teaching in a 4^th grade classroom in Rhode Island this week. He called me two nights ago, and exclaimed, "Mom! I don’t know how you did this and raised two children!" He was referring to teaching full time and being a mom. I just smiled, and told him that I often didn’t get to bed before midnight when he was still in school, AND if he’s exhausted at the end of the teaching day, then he’s probably doing it right. Caity hopped on a bus last night and has been traveling all night. She’s now in Montreal, and about to board the bus to Burlington, so should be arriving by mid-morning TODAY! I can’t wait to have her home for a little while.

I hope you are finding some time to enjoy the season, stress-free!

Peace~

Brenda