Monday Message

Hello families and friends!

Thank you again to chaperones for your wonderful support on our field trip!  Here are a few pictures that you all might enjoy:

We learned a lot about how the Observatory tracks the weather, made kites and hiked down the hill with a guide, who told us a lot about vegetation in the area.  

Upcoming events:

Tomorrow is Harvest Day! Erin Mueller, Andrew Wineman, Beth Rothschild and Katya Fonkych have volunteered to help chop and serve veggies to the whole school, from our own Happy Hollow gardens!  Thank you! The fun part is… kids LOVE it!  I will try to post pictures in my next blog post. Our class will be able to plant seeds and watch them grow next spring!

Thank you so much to those who participated, and to families for helping your child raise money in this fun event.  It was a beautiful day to walk to school.  I'm so glad Mr. Hernandez's community in Puerto Rico will benefit from this.  It is such an important lesson to teach children- to help those in need.

Conferences

I have truly enjoyed sharing thoughts and setting goals for your fantastic children!  Please let me know if you have any particular questions, since we only have 20 minutes and it goes by fast!  Also, please make sure you bring your secret cornucopia project, or let me know if you need another copy.

Finally, thank you so much for your support of your child’s education.  I would greatly appreciate everyone checking the Notices on the back of the Reading Log for specific information about homework, as it is a useful practice and also builds good study habits for lifelong learning! We will try to keep them brief!

Deborah Niles & Julie Pond

Tuesday News

Hello families-

First, I hope you all had a good weekend and a happy Indigenous People’s Day. Have you heard about this concept?  If you’d like to hear more check this out:

https://teachheart.org/2015/10/07/celebrate-indigenous-peoples-day-in-the-classroom-with-these-resources/.

Last week was busy!  Here are the highlights:

We were delighted to have Todd Winner teach the second grade about fire safety.  In addition to being a fire fighter, Todd Winner is a distinguished Happy Hollow alum.  We are very proud!

Then, the Acton Discovery Museum came to our school with a traveling weather workshop, thanks to our PTO!  Our letters to you about it we’re short, only because we didn’t have much time left in the day.  Feel free to write back to your child in those purple folders.  Their unedited notes are a way for them to enjoy the art of letter writing!  I will post a slideshow from the workshop within the next few days, so watch our website!

Conferences have begun!  I look forward to meeting with each of you over the next few weeks to set goals for our work together this year. If you have any particular questions, please shoot me an email. There is a lot to cover!

Some children are coming in without snacks in the morning, and they do get hungry before lunch. If you could send a healthy snack each day that would be great.

Finally…. Raz Kids is ready! Just click on the link on our HH webpage: http://whh.wayland.k12.ma.us/ under “For Students”.  The Teacher Username is “dnilesb” and the password is your child’s lunchcode.  Please have your child use this at least ONCE PER WEEK, as part of their Reading time, and answer the questions at the end.  It is a great comprehension building tool!

Yours in partnership,

Deborah Niles and Julie Pond

Monday News in Room 6

First, for some important news:  Sometimes Mr. Lee decides to make changes in where our helping teachers work. He has asked that Julie Pond join us as a Teaching Assistant in Room 6, and Maddie Keyes will now join Ms. Dowd’s class. As we all work together, the students will see Ms. Keyes around the school. Now we will be working with Ms. Pond! I have known Julie for at least 12 years, and have had the good fortune to have worked in the classroom with her before.  I know the students will love her and will flourish with her support!

Friday Letters

I hope you enjoyed your child’s first Friday Letter from Second Grade!  You probably noticed that the mechanics were not checked yet (ie spelling, capitals and punctuation, etc.)  This is one of the only writing activities where “First draft is final draft”... the purpose is to have students communicate with you about their school activities, and begin seeing the joy in writing letters.  They will become more polished as the school year continues, and we learn all of the facets of letter writing.  These will go home approximately every 2 weeks.  Let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Handbook

Thank you to the nine families who have sent in the signed handbook pages!  Everyone please ask children to read their handbook, under “For Students” on the HH webpage.  The last page needs to be signed by every student in our school.  This can be part of their Reading Homework!  Parents please take a look at the Family Handbook (under For Families), and sign the last page of that and send it in.  I so appreciate this!

Conferences

Please click this link to the schedule. Check your time, and contact me if you have not signed up yet- we have 3 families who have not.  Please remember to bring in your secret Cornucopia Thankful Project!  I look forward to talking about your child’s goals for this year!

Field Trip

I am sure you saw the Permission Form that went home last week for our Field Trip to the Blue Hill Weather Observatory- please sign and return this week, with your check, and let us know if you can chaperone.  I will choose the first parents to respond… please remember that you will need to drive to Blue Hill, and check your CORI status with our office staff. Thank you!

Weather

We are enjoying our science experiments that help us understand the weather. On Friday we went to our “outside classroom” with our Buddies, to see what would happen to bubbles in the wind!  Unfortunately there was very little wind, so we will probably do this again soon.  (However, the students are enjoying their buddies immensely!) Here are some pictures from that activity:

We will be hosting the Acton Discovery Museum this Friday for an in-house presentation on the weather, thanks to our PTO. We can hardly wait!

Deborah Niles and Julie Pond!