The Buswell Blog

We’re moving to a new address!  Please follow us to:  

http://blogs.csdvt.org/buswelld/

I’ll keep this site up until February, but please join us at the new Colchester School District campus site!

Hopefully your kiddos shared with you that we’re about to embark on a new adventure together! Student blogs! Although a few of us have already blogged, it’s new territory for me to use this format for student publishing! This will be a year long learning experience – both for your child, and myself! I’m very, very exciting about the entire idea, and I’ll be seeing help from parents, our technology guru, Mrs. Sebo, and all of our ‘net’ friends!

This is a little bit of what we did on Friday! We prepared for our own blogs by taking foliage photos, and spent some time visiting others’ blogs! The best way to get ideas for our own blogs is to see what we like from others! This is going to be SO exciting!

Vermont in October on PhotoPeach

NECAP Bubbles! on PhotoPeach

NECAPs are stressful on everyone, so I try to include a bit of ‘lightness’ into your kiddo’s day!  We begin each morning blowing bubbles!  Why?  Well, the intent is to allow kiddos to blow out their stress and worries.  Then, they are supposed to send their wishes to the sky, each wish carried upwards by their bubbles.  Lastly, and more scientifically, deep breathing has been shown to help reduce stress and increase brain activity.  So, we have a bit of fun while oxygenating our brain cells!  It’s a win-win situation!  I hope you enjoy the video!

I know a couple of folks tried to schedule conferences last night and had some technical difficulties.  This was my error, and I’ve corrected it.  You should be good to go!

In addition, you will be receiving a phone notification or letter from Mrs. Benay stating you’ll need to schedule your conference with Jeanne Racicot at the front office.  You do NOT need to do this, I’ve been given permission to have my class continue its  current scheduling process.  Please use Volunteer Spot to select your own time slot.

Both the Fall and Spring Parent Conference schedules are set up on Volunteer Spot!  This is an online scheduling tool that allows you to select your own time, schedule it, and it will even send you an email reminder a few days before the event!  It’s wonderful and I’ve had great success with it during the past two years!  It eliminates the back and forth, “choose 3 times” scheduling drama! 

The calendar has been set for Monday, November 21 from 12:00 noon to 8:00 p.m.  The spring date is identically set for March 6th.  Please use the link to the right to schedule your conference.  It will ask you for an email address.  This is so a reminder can be sent to you a few days before the event.  If you have difficulty, please let me know!  Thus far, the site has been amazing!

Good afternoon everyone!  I just wanted to post our NECAP schedule so you’ll know how your kiddo’s day is transpiring.  It’s such a tense time of year for everyone.  You can help during this time by doing a few things:  please make sure your child has a great, protein filled breakfast, gets LOTS of sleep, and make every effort to ensure your kiddo is in school during the testing blocks!  I’ll allow mints and mint gum in the classroom during this time.  If you’d like your child to use these, feel free to send them in.  I am not able to supply them for the class.

Monday, October 10     9:00 – 10:30  Reading Session 1

Tuesday, October 11    9:00 – 10:30  Reading Session 2   1:00 – 2:30 Reading Session 3

Wednesday, October 12  9:00 – 10:30 Math Session 1     1:00 – 2:30 Reading Make Up

Thursday, October 13    9:00 – 10:30  Math Session 2     1:00 – 2:30 Math Session 3

Friday, October 14   9:00 – 10:30  Math Make Up

Monday October 17  9:00 – 10:30  Make Up Sessions

Tuesday, October 18 9:00 – 10:30  Writing Session 1

Wednesday, October 19 9:00 – 10:30 Writing Session 2    1:00 – 2:20  Writing Make Up

Thursday, October 20  9:00 – 10:30  Writing Make Up

Thanks for all your help during our testing window!

My apologies families, I had a sick little boy yesterday and was unable to post home practice for the evening. Unfortunately, I believe he’s shared his virus and now I’m heading home before I spread it to your kiddos. Mrs. Merola will be finishing the afternoon with your little ones and I hope I’ll be in tomorrow, as it didn’t take Liam long to shake it. If I am not, please look in your child’s assignment book for homework assignments. Thanks!

Well, let’s tackle spelling first! 

Thank you, grownups, for supporting your kiddos on Spelling City.  Last year I used the site for my spelling groups to practice their words, but that was the extent of it.  This year, I am using it to track spelling assignment practice, as well as spelling tests.  Your kiddos have been very patient with this – despite a number of small glitches.  I admire their patience!  I believe we’ve worked out a few of the glitches and can now progress smoothly! 

The major change this week is that I have broken kiddos up into groups, and given each group specific assignments on the web site.  It allows me to more closely follow their progress.  I am also awarding prizes for the students who complete the most practice items.  Kiddos may complete my assignment and then practice at will.  I am also creating Friday morning assignments for the ‘real’ spelling test.  Many students like to practice their tests during the week.  I’m okay with this, although I may mix up the order of the words from practice to the actual test in the weeks to come.

Math this week began a review of partial sums, trade first subtraction, and using variables to create open sentences.  The first two items are reviews of fourth grade work, and the open sentences continue first exposure in fifth grade math.  Kiddos seem to enjoy using ‘letters’ in math!  We’ve also been able to have a few kiddos visit Ms. Clark and Ms. Jacobson for some math enrichment.  If your kiddo isn’t currently visiting these teachers, don’t fret, all kiddos will have the opportunity to spend time with them before the year is complete.  Lastly, please be on the lookout for the Unit 2 home link.  This includes the answers to home practice for the unit!  If you aren’t sure what EDM is asking for, this is the place to find the answer!  They are in home school envelopes tonight.  

Science this week continued our cells, and we celebrated by creating Shrinky Dink models of plant and animal cells.  I’m afraid to say we’ll be taking a break from science to allow more time for NECAP practice.

Our reading continued working on our first 20 days of literacy, as well as character analysis and NECAP preparation.  So far, kiddos are doing remarkably well!  We’ve also been doing individual fluency reading so I have a more current baseline than last year’s ‘end of year’ information.  During skill practice, a group of students has been working on fluency and ….WOW!… they’ve done awesome!  If your kiddo has been a part of this small group, ask them how their graphs from today look!   We will be doing work with fluency as a whole class, but right now a few of us are getting an early start.

Please be on the lookout for today’s home school envelope, which also includes the permission slip for our first field trip.  Remember, if you’d like to chaperone, you must complete the volunteer form, submit it to the front office, and be approved prior to joining us.  This takes about two weeks!  We’d love to have you come along!

Just a reminder that our class uses on line Scholastic book ordering!  If you are interested in ordering books, you may order them directly from the company.  Just click the directions listed on the right of this page (Placing Book Orders).  It’s super simple and your order automatically earns our class a free book!  There’s no filling out slips, or sending in checks!

Speaking of which, if you are ordering Scholastic books through the classroom, please be sure to use a check written to Scholastic Books – please do not send cash!  We adore having book orders, but it delays the entire order if I have to wait and bring my personal checkbook to school to cover the cash.  Thanks in advance for this!

This morning we watched a video on the Living Bridge.  It’s an incredible link which documents how man and nature have cooperated to create a sustainable solution to a natural problem.   Given the flooding and damage Vermont has endured this summer, it seemed a natural connection.  Add the fact we’re studying cells, and that all life forms are created from a single cell, which over time can grow to immense sizes ……  it provided a great writing prompt!  “What does this video make you think about the power of nature?”

The Living Bridge