A Letter from the PPS School Clinician

Hello PPS families,

Happy Fall!

I hope you all are settling in to the new school year.

My name is Courtney Foley (Ms. Foley to the kids) and I am the new “school services clinician” at Porter’s Point School. People also sometimes refer to me as the “school social worker.” I work with kids and families with varying needs and challenges. I am very happy to be joining this community and I look forward to getting to know students and families.

I often meet with kids in my office during breakfast or lunch and sometimes I allow kids to invite a friend or two to join us while we practice social skills and work on building positive friendships. These meetings are informal and occur sporadically for kids who are not on my caseload. As such, your child might get asked, “Would you like to eat lunch with me and Ms. Foley today?” and your child would then get to respond “yes” or “no” for that day. If you are not comfortable with your child being invited to join us for a lunch or breakfast, please contact me directly via email at courtney.foley@colchestersd.org or by phone at (802) 264-5918.

You may hear from me throughout the year about various opportunities for giving and if you are ever interested in donating to the PPS community, please let me know and I can give you more information about how to do so.

Thank you for your time!

Sincerely,

Courtney Foley, MS

Porters Point School

School Services Clinician

Four Winds Volunteers

Looking for a great way to get involved in your child’s classroom, and learn about nature at the same time?  The Four Winds program is looking for volunteers!

The Four Winds Nature Institute is a non-profit organization advancing the understanding, appreciation and protection of the environment through community-based natural science education and research.

This year’s Four Winds theme is “Structure and Function”, and the topic discussed will include Spiders, Beavers and Muskrats, Predators and Prey, Skull Sleuthing, Owls, and “the Buzz on Bees”!

You don’t have to be a nature expert to get involved!  Volunteers can either attend a 2 hour training session at the Colchester meeting house on 6 Mondays over the year, or can view a training video online.

We have an amazing team of experienced volunteers to help anyone who is interested, but may be unsure as to how to proceed. All inquiries are welcome!

For more information, please visit the four winds link on the school website, or contact Stephanie Stahl, our district coordinator at fourwinds.colchester@gmail.com

We will be holding a volunteer information session Tuesday, September 26th from 6:30-7:30PM in the Malletts Bay School library.   Please plan to attend to learn more about this enriching program!

Volunteers are welcome in all classrooms, but the following classes are in need of a Four Winds volunteer to ensure that the children will receive this program:

Ms. Nuttall’s Kindergarten class

Ms. Warren’s Grade 2 class

Our Week in Review Sept. 18 - 22

Hot Shot All-Stars

Created using Pic Collage. http://pic-collage.com

Thursday, September 21st

 Today in math we practiced skip counting by 5s.  In Writing Workshop we practiced planning out a story using post-it notes.  After lunch and recess we went to get our pictures taken.  For Reading Workshop we continued to focus on Dog Breath and talked about the solution (resolution) in the story.  We ended our day by working on our All About Me Tees. 

Sent from my iPad

Wednesday, September 20th

Today in math we reviewed the difference between odd and even numbers.  Students built out odd and even numbers using the ten frames.  In writing students learned that they can plan out their stories across their hand.  Students practiced orally rehearsing their stories using their hands (see anchor chart below).  We finished our day by reading Dog Breath, during the mini-lesson we discussed the characters, setting and problem in the story.  Have a great night! 

Sent from my iPad

Tuesday, September 19th

Today in math we learned about the value of a quarter.  We practiced counted by 25s and continued to play the game Fishing for 10. In Reading Workshop we learned that the setting is the time and the place a story takes place. Below is an anchor chart that we created during our mini-lesson with all of the settings that we have noticed in our reading.  We finished our day celebrating a birthday!

Monday, September 18th

Today in Writing Workshop we talked about how author's add feelings into their writing. We read another mentor text Knuffle Bunny and talked about how the writer showed Trixie's feelings throughout the book. In Math we learned a new game, Fishing for 10. Over the course of this game we practiced our combinations of 10. In Reading Workshop we read Knuffle Bunny again and discussed the different characters in the book. We learned that characters can come in different forms, they can be animals, creatures and/or people.

Our Week in Review Sept. 11 - 15

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Today in Writing Workshop we read aloud The Paperboy, one of our mentor texts. After reading we discussed what makes a good story.  Student generated ideas were then collected on our class anchor chart: “What Makes a Good Story?”.  Below is the beginning of our anchor chart, we will continue to add ideas as the unit progresses. In Math we finished our Open Response.  Students posted their ideas on Seesaw.  Be sure to check out your students Seesaw account to view their wonderful thinking.  In Reading Workshop we learned about reading past the tricky word, reading to the end of the sentence and then going back to solve the word.

Monday, September 11, 2017

We had another excellent day in 2nd grade. We started our first Writing Workshop, we have excellent writers on our hands. During the mini-lesson students learned how mentor texts help us generate stories to write about. As a class we generated a “Collecting Story Ideas” anchor chart. . Students then went out and started collecting their very own story ideas. On Wednesday we will continue collecting story ideas while also focusing on a second anchor chart “What Makes a Good Story?” 

During math we worked together to created a class number grid from 0 - 1,000. In Reading Workshop we learned about using the check the picture / sound it out strategies to help us solve tricky words. We ended our day with Word Study. This week our Word Study skill focuses on consonants and vowels. During Word Study we learned about the different types of vowels (short and long). Students also explored the various activities they can complete this week during Work with Words.

Created using Pic Collage. http://pic-collage.com

Our Week in Review Sept. 5 - 8

Friday, September 8

This week in 2nd grade we continued to practice our daily routines.  In addition, we added some new 2nd grade skills to our day.  In math we reviewed the different values of coins and we practiced adding coins together.  Students were introduced to a new app that I highly recommend during math explore.  The app Making Change (click here) allows student to select their "just right" level for practicing counting coins.  We also Worked with Teacher and did DreamBox during Math Explore.

During Reading Workshop we have been practicing Work on Writing, Listening to Reading and Reading to Self.  For Work on Writing students have been practicing logging into their Seesaw accounts and creating a story to narrate or dictate.  Please follow the instructions below to sign up to follow your child's blog.  For Reading to Self students have learned how to make smooth and quiet transitions, along with when to book shop and where different books are found in our classroom.  Lastly, for Listening to Reading students have been practicing how to log into Raz-Kids. Next week our mini-lessons will focus on the different strategies we can use as readers when we come to a tricky word! 

Wednesday, September 6th

Today in math we learned about working with a partner. After learning about working with a partner we practiced filling in numbers on the number line. Taking our thinking to the next level we worked on addition and subtraction word problems using the number line. Below are photographs from our math lesson today.

In Reading Workshop we have been learning about the different rotations that we can complete each day. Yesterday we learned about Listen to Reading. Today we learned about Working on Writing. Be sure to check out your child's seesaw account to view what they worked on in writing today.

Math Day 1

Today we had our very first math lesson.  Ms. Brady came in and co-taught the math lesson with Ms. LaRose.  In math today we discussed how a number line counts by 1s, 5s, 10s, etc.  Each student then practiced filling in their own number lines in their math journals.  We practiced two different rotations: work with teacher and game.  For the game students played garbage. Below are photographs of students working hard in their math journals. 

Wonderful First Week

What a wonderful 1st week of school we have had.  We began our day at the All-School Morning Meeting where we met new kindergarten friends and saw old friends from last year.  After music we came back and completed a quick math assessment.  After the assessment it was time to let some energy out and play at recess.

After mindfulness we completed our “Favorite Books / Favorite Nooks” writing.  These writings will be on display during Open House.  Students did an excellent job writing about when they squeeze reading into their busy lives and where they enjoy reading a great book.  We ended our day by having extra recess with our buddies in Ms. Warren’s class. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.