Dear Moms and Dads,

Welcome back to true spring weather this week. Actually it was quite nice to have a rainy day the first day back from such incredible weather during vacation. The children were very focused and settled.

This week has brought many new discussion topics and learning activities. We received a letter from planet "TRID" (dirt spelled backwards) asking for our help to save their planet. I’ll attach it to this message so you can enjoy the letter as well. The Tridians are running out of soil on their planet. They sent us a tape recording asking for us to find out things about soil and to create advertisements, songs, or posters to promote the manufacturing of soil on planet Trid. We also received a box of supplies from Trid.

We have created a recipe for soil. We found out that soil needs the following ingredients:

Old leaves, grass clippings, twigs, or logs

Water

Sun

Nutrients

Bacteria

Worms

Time

"Worms, worms, and more worms", I said to myself as I walked across the parking lot into school Tuesday morning. Since they were so abundant and can be found in the soil we are studying, we put on hour coats and hats and collected some. Many of the kids loved this. We learned that they don’t have lungs like we do, so their skin in moist to help them take in air. We will let them go shortly back into their normal habitat. We sand a song about worms to the tune of "The Ants Go Marching". We also sang a song called "I Love Mud". It has a catchy little chorus that really sticks in our heads. I bet your child would sing it for you:

Mud, mud, I love mud.

I’m absolutely, positively wild about mud.

You can’t go around it, you got to go through it,

Beautiful, fabulous, super-duper mud.

The chicken eggs have arrived! I set them in the incubator on Wednesday morning. The children will turn the eggs four times a day. I will be the mother hen and take them home each weekend to turn them. The hatch is expected around May 21^st. Along with the eggs, a chicken center has been set up. It is full of activities such as math problems, writing poems, a mini research paper, retelling a story about a chicken, listening to a story about Horton Hatches the Egg on tape, taking a survey about chickens and many other explorations.

We completed our duel for spring words with Ms. Hartshorn’s class. We will have all of these words up on our word wall soon so kids can refer to them when writing. Our current challenge is to think of "Blue Words". As I e-mailed you earlier, these can be color words for blue or things that are the color blue. Another meaning of the word blue can also be explored.

On Wednesday, we were treated to a performance of Alice In Wonderland by the Harwood Union Middle School Music Club directed by Ruth Ann Patte. Some of our Moretown alumni were in the play. It was touching to see them again. We saw a few parts of the play. The entire play will be performed this weekend at Harwood.

Friday is Arbor Day in Vermont. The Valley Rotary Club has donated a flowering crab tree to us. They will present it to us on Friday at 12:30.

I’ll be sending photos of our trip to Shelburne Farms shortly as we haven’t been there as I write this letter!

Here are some questions to ask your child this week:

Why are there Xs and Os on the eggs? (so we can tell when we have turned them completely over)

Which chicken center activity have you worked on so far?

What ingredients do we need for soil?

How did the story about Babe the Gallant Pig end? I asked the kids to bring in this movie if they have it and I will show it to the children. We’ll compare the book to the movie to see if there are differences.

What did you think of Alice In Wonderland?

What is Arbor Day about?

What is Green Up Day in Vermont all about?

Dates to Remember:

May 6^th: I will be giving all my second graders the Vermont Developmental Reading Assessment. You’ll receive more information about this assessment in the future.

May 7^th: Four Winds lesson about animal defenses

May 15^th: Spring concert with Mr. Close, 6:30

May 27^th-June 2^nd: Herpetologist Residency with Jim Andrews. We’ll be introduced to reptiles and amphibians and examine snakeskins, eggs, turtle shells and more!

June 2^nd: Art Show

June 12^th: Second graders visit Mrs. Orr’s house after school. This is a farewell from me to the children I have had two years. The first graders will get to come next year. Later in the evening on this day, you are invited to come to our collage book and memory book night. Children will share their published books with you along with their memory books. More details will follow as we get closer to the date, but I wanted you to mark this important evening on your calendar now as things begin to get busy this time of year.

June 13^th: Field Days with Mr. Drake

June 19^th: Last Day of School

As we continue our journey toward the end of the school year, I am sure there will be more events. I’ll keep you posted in each newsletter.

Have a great weekend.

Kathi