Day 141 - Mill Pond Reservoir Trip - Miss Varrell - Pine Glen Grade 2

This post first appeared on Miss Varrell's Blog

We recently went on a field trip to the Mill Pond Reservoir to observe and experience three different habitats of our local area.  Different classrooms attended the field trip at different times so this video highlights Miss Varrell's group with some children from Mrs. Beaulieu's class. Here's a slideshow of our experience. Thank you to our two chaperones, Mrs. Wisniewski and Ms. Romero, for helping us on our trip (unfortunately they didn't make it into the video)! Get ready to pause on the slides because it runs really quickly. Enjoy the show!

Day 9 - A Few Observations and Photos After Our First Couple of Days - Mrs. Hoyt - Pine Glen Kindergarten

This post first appeared on Mrs. Hoyt's Blog

The start of the school year can be very busy, tiring and a bit overwhelming. Everyone is doing quite well.  That said, we would like to share a couple of observations and thoughts to help the positive energy continue.

1- Eat a big breakfast.  It may be difficult but we do encourage you to get a good meal into your children in the morning.Even after our morning snack, some students say they are hungry. PLEASE BE SURE TO PACK YOUR CHILD"S SNACK IN A SEPARATE BAG and PLEASE SEND IN A WATER BOTTLE.  
We eat lunch at 11:00 am.  They are all quite hungry again by the time we go to the cafeteria. Please be sure to send plenty to eat at lunch time!

2- Pack an extra water.  There is a water fountain down the hall from our classroom but it is not conveniently located for a quick drink.  At times we are quite thirsty.  If students had a water bottle from home in their back pack they could have a quick sip at the ready.

3- Rest, rest, rest - We are quite busy the entire time we are at school.  The children have done well thus far but we are noticing that many are tired (especially during the last hour).  Tuesday we had a couple friends ready to put their heads down for a little rest!  The second half of the week will be a little more challenging for all in terms of stamina and staying focused for a school day.  If possible, we recommend tucking everyone into bed a little earlier the next few nights.

Note:  All these recommendations apply to the teachers as well.  We are trying to eat a healthy breakfast to give us the energy to work through the morning.  We are packing lots of water bottles to have on hand and we are certainly trying to get to bed early!

Friends have to work together to make the friendship machine work!  Pine Glen's substitute teachers, Ms. Tully and Ms. DeMarzo are some of our new friends.  They joined us during morning meeting!

Faces lit up when the energy of their connections made the friendship machine light up!

We made connections while making connections!!

Friends were eager to get busy making puppets so we can recreate the story of the Three Little Pigs!

Many also enjoyed the flexible seating option of the standing table when they worked on illustrating the nursery rhyme about Peter, Peter.

Day 55 - Up in the Clouds with Mrs. Hoyt’s Kindergarteners - Mr. Musselman - Burlington Science Center

This post originally appeared on the Burlington Science Center Website

Kindergarteners offer answers as to why predicting the weather is so important.

On Tuesday Mr. Musselman visited Pine Glen Kindergarteners in Mrs Hoyt’s class to take part in her “Everybody Reads” series! He brought along one of his favorite books as a child, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” by Judy Barrett. Mr. Musselman tied in the imaginative story of wild weather in the land of Chewandswallow with students own “Weather Wednesday” investigations. The class discussed why it was so important for the people of Chewandswallow to predict (make a thoughtful guess in Kindergarten speak!) what the weather would be like and how they would prepare for the weather each day.

A cumulonimbus cloud can bring heavy rains, wind, and even lightning!

As a follow up, Mr. Musselman came in again on Weather Wednesday to share with students how clouds can be used to predict the weather. Students examined different kinds of clouds and shared what kinds of weather they would have to prepare if they saw these clouds outside their window. Mr. Musselman wrapped up the presentation by showing students how to make their own cloud, stopping at each ingredient to give students time to think about where on Earth they would find heat, water, and cold air to construct the much larger clouds in the sky!

Kindergarteners offer answers as to why predicting the weather is so important.

Kindergarteners offer answers as to why predicting the weather is so important.