Cochran's and UVM Trips

 

                                                ⛷⛷⛷⛷⛷⛷⛷⛷🏂🏂🏂🏂🏂🏂🏂

Greetings,

This week was a busy one filled with field trips!  Cochran's ski program is off to a great start.  Students who needed guidance received excellent instruction on how to be safe and strengthen their skills on the hill.  Each week we will watch the transformation of confidence and abilities grow!

Our trip to UVM was an adventure!  It may have been a bit too long for the kindergarten attention span and was a little overstimulating with the noise level.  Overall it was a great experience to travel as a school, see some great basketball played, and cheer on our VT team!  Students asked at the end of the game "Who won?" We won!! :) 

In Writing, we began our new writing unit on How To.... These are informational books that teach others how to do something.  Students were very excited to read some How-to books and create things in step-by-step order.  I am continuously impressed with how creative and crafty this crew is. 

In Math, we have entered another chapter where they are exploring numbers that come before and after other numbers.  Also, students played a racing bear game where they worked with a partner and earned chips by rolling dice to see how quickly they could get to 10.

Reminders:

Book orders have been placed.  Thank you!

Snowmotion on Tuesday! 

 

Hopefully, you all are staying warm on this frigid weekend.  On Friday, our class found that if we kept moving while outside, the weather seemed fine.  These tough VT kids took a long walk, through the snow up to the field. When we were back at school one student said, "This was a great adventure, Mrs. Poor!" I recognize all of these special moments we are having but it becomes twice as nice when my students do too!

We began our Force & Motion science unit this week. We explored the concepts of movement and how forces are a push or a pull.  We had sledding races where we were pulling others, and played Red Light, Green Light, and  What Time is It Mr. Fox?  All of these games incorporated movement and helped us stay warm on Wednesday.

Reminders:

• Book orders were sent out this week.  I will place an order on Friday! 
• 1/23 Kindergarten Snow Motion
• 1/25:  All School Field Trip to UVM Women's Basketball Game… more information coming soon
• 1/25:  Fun Friday - Flannel/Plaid Day

SnowMotion Details from Mrs. Cowan

We are very excited to be starting our Snowmotion program at Cochran’s! Kindergarten students will begin on Tuesday (1/23).  If your child is using their own equipment, please bring it to school Tuesday morning.  There will be a large container near the drop-off for you to put skis/snowboards into.  Please note:  skis and snowboards are not allowed on the bus, they must be dropped off.  Kindergarten students will not use poles this year.  Ski boots and helmets will go to your child’s classroom.  If your child is borrowing equipment, but has their own helmet, please send them with it!!  We will have some helmets for students to use if they don’t have their own.  

Please label your child’s equipment and helmet.

If you are volunteering at Cochran's, please arrive 15 min early.  Thank you so much to all of you who have volunteered your time to help our students.  We couldn’t do this program without you!!  Please email Mrs. Cowan at Amanda.Cowan@mmuusd.org if you have any questions.

 

A. A. Milne

Greetings!

What a week of unfriendly wind! I hope this email finds you with power and not too much devasting damage to your house and land.  Our gas grill was thrown which was very surprising and we lost power. It has now just been restored after 48 hours. Let's hope two of these storms in one week will be enough for a while!

This past week, students measured feet, different lengths of tape, and classroom objects with cubes and popsicle sticks.  They noticed that it takes many more blocks than it does sticks to measure different-length objects.  Students are enjoying making progress on the program, Happy Numbers.  They are thrilled when they unlock a planet and gain more skill practice!

Kindergarteners enjoyed learning about the Eastern Coyote from the VT Fish & Game.  These coyotes are a hybrid mix of wolf and western coyote. They are omnivores, meaning they eat anything, meat and plants. Students made their next entry in their animal journal. The next day we went into the woods searching for coyote tracks but found fox and squirrel tracks.  A large group of students worked very hard collecting fallen pine branches to create a pine fort.  These moments of collaboration, creativity, and gross motor are beautiful moments to witness. 

This week's High-Frequency words:  to, do

Hello 2024!

 

Tea of the week: Pine (Red & White Pine) 

Happy New Year!

We have bounded into 2024 with a full week of learning!  We started a new math unit.  The first part of our unit will focus on ideas about measurable attributes, techniques, and tools used to measure each of them. We began measuring and comparing the size of our shoes. Please send in a traced & labeled shoe print for students to add to our collection, if you would like!

Kindergartners continue to practice writing pattern books.  Everyone has completed their "I like...." book and chosen to create another or move on to another pattern.  The new high-frequency words we are learning are helping us with our writing and reading! Current high-frequency words: a, I, like, and, is, the, this. 

This week we had a surprise package from a mysterious "Super Reader."  They left us a note about using the power of gliding our fingers under words, sliding through all the sounds, and blending them together while reading. This began our Super Powers unit where we will practice phonics and sight word power!

During ECO, we continued to explore owls and their unique characteristics that help them survive.  We also began our animal study through the VT Department of Fish & Wildlife. This will be my 4th year participating in this wonderful program.  It is a great way to learn about the unique traits of our animals in VT.  This week we explored the Virgina Opossum. Ask your child to share a fun fact!