How Should I Help My Kid Over The Summer?

A common question around this time of year is, "what should I do over the summer to help my child?"
I would like to share some options that you may like to use.

• Parent Resource: Please take a moment to read this resource How To Help Your Child Love Reading Over The Summer. It was shared with me from Beth Moore who has been a literacy coach for our school for a number of years. It offers suggestions for how to help your child to enjoy reading over the summer!
• Classroom Blog: Our classroom blog can be used as a way to navigate various websites that relate to math, reading, etc. What is nice about this, is that the students are very familiar with our blog and how to access various programs and games.

Wednesdays at Summit Street School:

• Summit Street Learning Center will be open this summer on Wednesday mornings from 7:30 a.m. until 9:00 a.m. Students and adults are invited to exchange their summer reading books.

• Please visit the library on Wednesdays, starting June 26th  and ending August 21st.

Writing Ideas: Writing can be tricky to think of ideas for. This blog is co-written by Beth Moore. It offers writing suggestions that may spark your interest. Please see suggestions below:

• Create a toolkit (notebook, pens, sticky notes).

• Design a space (special corner in their room with pillows and a clipboard or a beach towel and water bottle for outdoor writing).

• Write cards, letters, and lists.

• Take field trips (walk the neighborhood, visit the library, local museums, or parks). Reflect on those outings by drawing and/or writing.

• Tell stories to your child and with your child. You can record their stories by writing them down, using a voice recording, or by saving them on SoundCloud.

• As your child tells stories, help structure the stories with a beginning, middle and end format. Telling stories is an important precursor to writing stories. Your interest will encourage your child to add details!

• Does your child thrive on a challenge? Color in the squares of the WRITE BINGO board for additional prompts and writing inspiration. (Younger children might like this version (also found at https://goo.gl/MP7J9K )and older children could enjoy this one (also found at https://goo.gl/nT3Gvl ).

• Check out Sharing Our Notebooks, a site by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, for many ideas on summer notebook writing.

• Encourage your child to write a review for all the great reading being done this summer! Sites like The Spaghetti Book Club allow students to submit book reviews!

• Get appy! Try some apps that allow your child to draw with his/her finger or a stylus, record audio and draw. Some favorites include Pixie, Explain Everything, and Notability.

• Tell and retell stories of favorite summer moments with your child. Make a scrapbook of special photographs and memorabilia from the summer. Encourage your child to write about favorite moments and add them to the scrapbook.

More ideas on how to help your child grow as a writer can be found here.

Summit Street School Field Day Volunteers

Summit Street School Field Day 2019

• Wednesday June 12th
• 8:30 - 11:30 am  AND / OR 12:15 pm - 2:15 pm
• Click here to sign up 

Volunteers are needed to assist with our fabulous field day festivities.  We are looking for 25 volunteers for morning and afternoon sessions.  This will be an all-day school-wide celebration.  Volunteers are needed to run field day stations or assist teachers with assigned group of students.  We guarantee a fabulous day!!  Please join us.  We also invite you to stay late or come early for the school lunch BBQ. 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080448a8aa22abf58-field

Pollinating Pollinators

Today, we got together with Mrs. Filipek's and Ms. Novotny's second graders. We created pollinators out of various art materials. The next step will be to act out pollination with flowers. 

This Week's Reminders

Our end of the year Musical is on Thursday at 1:00 at Fleming.  The children should wear combinations of black, brown, red and/orange solid colors.  

****Children will be dismissed from the back or from Village Kids after the performance.  No one may be dismissed from Fleming or at the classroom.  

Friday is our 2nd grade class picnic at Maple Street Park. We will be leaving about 10:00 for our walk and plan to return to Summit about 2:30.  

Please be sure your child has the following:

• Sneakers or some sort of Velcro sandals
• Lunch and drinks (unbreakable containers)
• Sunscreen and/or bug spray
• Items that they choose to bring to play with should be labeled with their name.  NO hard baseballs are allowed.
• Pack a light jacket in their backpack in case we have a light rain shower on our return walk.

We plan to eat lunch about 11:30 if you would like to eat with your child.  End of the day dismissal plans will be followed unless we have a written note on Friday morning.  

Our Audubon Field Trip

We had a fabulous field trip yesterday at the Audubon in Huntington! The students had the chance to spend time in the different habitats at the Audubon, learn how to identify birds and their nests and explore the beaver pond! 

Seed Dispersal

In learning about plant survival, we explored various ways that seeds are dispersed. We learned that seeds can be dispersed by:

• Water
• Wind
• Animals
• Itself (on its own)

Next, we learn more about pollination!

June 6th Concert

Please plan to join us at Fleming on Friday, June 6th at 1 pm, when our Summit Street students will be presenting songs and dances in a performance called A Million Dreams, featuring some of our favorite music.  The performance will take about an hour and will involve all classes in a school-wide showcase.

We are suggesting that students wear the following colors, but please do not purchase anything.  This is just a suggestion with a lot of flexibility!  

•  Kindergarten - any combination of yellow, brown, white, and black (solid colors)
•  Grade One - solid color shirt - any rainbow color - dark pants, shorts, or skirts
•  Grade Two - any combination of red, orange, and black (solid colors)
• Grade Three - any combination of black, blue, and green  

Upcoming Events

Thursday, May 30th - Audubon 9:15-1:30

Friday, May 31st - Brownell Library Visit 1:00-1:45

Friday, June 7th - Maple Street Park 10:00-2:00 

Becoming Poets

In Writing Workshop, we are becoming our own poets. Our lessons have taught us how to use our "poets' eyes" and observe things with our hearts and minds. We have practiced writing poems by looking at objects and choosing words that show what they resemble rather than exactly what is in front of us. For example, with "normal eyes" clouds can be described as white, puffy, floating across the sky, etc. 

However, with "poets' eyes" clouds can become cotton candy, pillows, animals in the sky, etc.

We worked together and listened for where line breaks should go. Line breaks help writers to break up their poems into specific lines so that when a poem is read aloud it sounds just right and read in a way the poet intended.

I was so impressed with how students reread poems that they have written, underlined certain words that should go together, in different colors, and then rewrote their poems with line breaks. It was amazing to hear the difference in their two different versions!

Pansy Flower Survival

For the next few weeks we will observe pansies in different conditions:

• With sunlight and water
• With water but no sunlight
• With sunlight but no water
• With no water or no sunlight

Ask your child about our experiment and what they think the results will be. Ask them what they think is the best condition for plant survival.

Plant Growth and Survival

We began our new science unit and started off with an investigation to determine if plants need water and sunlight in order to survive. We planted two morning glory seeds (one brown and one tan). In one week, some students' seeds have sprouted up to 2 centimeters tall! Our next step will be to change the amount of sunlight and water certain plants receive in order to determine what plants need to survive.

May Field Trips

On Friday, May 10th, your child along with other classmates will have the opportunity to attend a Flynn Theater live performance of Diary of a Worm.  We will leave Summit Street School at 8:45am by bus and return to school by 11:30am.  Since we will be returning by our regularly scheduled lunch, the children will not need to have a bag lunch. You do not need to sign a permission slip for this event since you have already filled out a permission slip to all school field trips.

Our field trip for the Audubon Center is on Thursday, May 30th. The second grade team will be traveling by bus to the Audubon in Huntington. We will leave Summit at 9:15 for an arrival time of 10:00. We will be leaving the Audubon at 1:00 and returning to Summit around 1:30.

Fairy Tales and Folktales

We launched into our "Folktales and Fairy Tales" unit for both reading and writing. The students began with a discussion in reading about different elements that fairy tales have such as, magic, happy endings, good and bad characters, faraway places, etc. They then compared a variety of fairy tales from around the world to see what was similar and different.Taking what they had learned so far, the students began planning a fairy tale or folktale that they wanted to make a new version of in writing.

Erupting Volcanoes

As part of our science unit, we learned about fast and slow processes that shape the earth. Some slow processes are: wind and water erosion. Examples of fast processes are volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis. We did an experiment to see how our volcanoes would change the environments that we created. 

T-Shirt Days Reminder

We will have some upcoming Summit Street School t-shirt days.  All students have been given a Summit Street School t-shirt at the beginning of the year.  Please wear your Summit Street School shirt on Friday April 12th and Friday April 19th. If you need to purchase another shirt, we have some sizes left for $5 a shirt, payable in cash or check in the main office to the Summit Street PTO.  

Lake Monsters Tickets

Take me out to the ball game. Summit Street PTO is now selling tickets to the Lake Monsters games for the upcoming season. Click on the link and pass along to ANYONE you know!
Buy tickets DURING THE MONTH OF APRIL using the link and a portion of the ticket price comes back to Summit Street School (so buy all your tickets for the season here!!!) You can exchange dates once you purchase tickets so you aren't locked in to the date you purchase.
Summit Street School will officially be recognized at the game on Friday July 26 - but you can switch tickets for any of the games!
Please contact Karen at khergesh@hotmail.com if you have any questions. See you at the ball field and thanks for your support!

https://www.ticketreturn.com/prod2/Buy.asp?EventID=271538&promocode=summit#.XK0ydOtKjBI 

How Wind and Water Can Change The Shape Of The Land

Last week, we began discussing what erosion means. The students started with an experiment that demonstrated how wind can change the shape of the land by blowing onto a sand hill.

Today, the students did an experiment that demonstrated how water can change the shape of the land. The students used a dropper and sprinkled water droplets over their sand mountain. Then they quickly squeezed out water from their dropper onto their mountain. The results were very different. Ask your child about what happened and ask them which trial was supposed to act like rain sprinkles and which trial was supposed to be like a rainstorm. 

Reading Biographies

We have been learning about biographies. We have compared them to both fiction and other non-fiction texts to learn about the similarities and differences that biographies have with these types of texts. We have learned about many people and the accomplishments that they had during their lifetime. We noticed that most biographies include: important dates, places and significant events.

Reminder: We will be skating on March 28th

This is just a reminder that we will be skating again on Thursday. All classes will walk to and from the high school on the day they have health class.  Parents are invited to walk with their child’s class and help tie laces at the rink.  Please make sure you have registered as a volunteer.
For the safety reasons, all children are required to wear helmets, snow pants and gloves when on the ice. We will leave Summit at 12:40, skate from 1:00 - 2:00 and depart EHS 2:15.

A parent captured the fun that the kids had, last week, so perfectly!

A Note From the PTO About The Pancake Breakfast and Auction

Join us Saturday March 30th from 8:30-10:30am for pancakes and a silent auction!! Please sign up to donate if you are able. Contact Karen if you have any questions - khergesh@hotmail.com Non-perishable items can be delivered to the front office on March 29th. Please bring all other items the morning of March 30th.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0e45acad2ba7fb6-pancake1

On Thursday, March 28th the second graders will be sharing at assembly. It starts at 8:00. They will be presenting information on biomes. For their presentation, we are asking that students try to wear a color that represents their biome. Please do not go out and buy anything :) See below:

• Aquatic = Blue
• Forest = Green
• Rainforest = Red
• Savannah/Grassland = Orange
• Desert = Yellow

  

It's Skating Time!

All PE classes will be going ice skating at EHS.  Each class will get to go to the rink twice. Please see the schedule below so you know which day your child will be skating. All classes will walk to and from the high school on the day they have health class.  Parents are invited to walk with their child’s class and help tie laces at the rink.  Please make sure you have registered as a volunteer.
For the safety reasons, all children are required to wear helmets, snowpants and gloves when on the ice.   We have a limited number of helmets available for those who do not own one, please let Mrs. Hutton know you need to borrow one.  There are skates for students and adults at the rink, however if you have your own skates you are encouraged to bring those.  If you need further information contact Mrs. Hutton at 857-7667 or rhutton@ewsd.org.  

Our class will be skating on 3/21 and 3/28. We will leave Summit at 12:40, skate from 1:00 - 2:00 and depart EHS 2:15.

Writing About Reading

We have started a new writing unit in Writing Workshop. It is called, "Writing About Reading." Throughout this unit, the students will focus on writing letters about the books they have read, listened to and remember. They will learn how to state various opinions that they have and use support from the stories to defend their statements. I have been thrilled to see them working so hard and staying very focused!

Our Beautiful Iceberg Artwork Is On Display

The students created such beautiful iceberg artwork. Their work demonstrates how only about 10% of icebergs are above the water. 

Reminder That We Visit The Food Pantry on Wednesday

This is just a reminder that we are going to the Food Pantry with Mrs. Hamilton's class on Wednesday, March 13th.  You are welcome to donate a food item. Items your child might want to bring in may include cereal, boxed macaroni and cheese, soup, rice, pasta, tomato sauce (no glass), and canned vegetables. We will walk these items over to the food shelf and have a tour of the facility.  We will leave school at 8:45 and return by 9:45.

Frozen Forms of Water

We have been learning about frozen forms of water. In doing so we compared icebergs and glaciers. We learned that:

Icebergs

• Are large pieces of ice that break off from glaciers

• Float in water

• Normally only show 10% above water

• Can eventually melt away

Glaciers

• Are frozen rivers of ice that move slowly

• Are formed by lots of snow

• Located near mountains, valleys and polar regions

We then took this information to make iceberg art!

March 13th - Visit to the Food Pantry

We will be doing a very special activity with our reading buddies on the morning of Wednesday, March 13th.   Mrs. Hamilton's class and Mrs. Fyrberg’s class will be walking together to the Food Shelf at the First Congregational Church of Essex Junction.  We are suggesting that each student bring in one non-perishable food item by Monday, March 11th. Items your child might want to bring in may include cereal, boxed macaroni and cheese, soup, rice, pasta, tomato sauce (no glass), and canned vegetables. We will walk these items over to the food shelf and have a tour of the facility.  Ginny Coe, who volunteers there and at Summit Street School will meet us to explain to the children how a food shelf functions and why it is so important. You do not need to sign a permission slip as this is a community walking field trip, but we wanted to make you aware of our plans. We will leave school at 8:45 and return by 9:45.

EWSD Flannel Friday

All students and staff are invited to take part in Flannel Friday this Friday (March 8)! This fun, unity-building activity will be a District-wide event. Feel free to wear flannel or plaid!

Big Change Round Up

This year, Summit is helping raise money for the UVM Children’s hospital by participating in The Big Change Roundup and we need your help.  Together we can help kids and families get the care they need at the hospital when they need it most.  Last year 2.35 tons of change valued at $330,000 was donated, proving that EVERY DIME makes a difference!
So check those couch cushions, pockets, and piggy banks for any loose change and drop it in one of the collection cups outside of Room 4.  The last day for the coin collection will be Monday, March 11th. Thank you!

The Important Thing About...

We have spent a lot of time learning about characters and their traits. We thought about ourselves and the traits that we have. In doing so, we wrote poems about what we think is important about who we are. We used the book, The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown as inspiration.

Creating Animal Habitats

The students have learned a lot about their animals, as they have conducted their research and written their reports. In addition to their writing, today they worked on making dioramas of their animal's habitat. It was extra special because we joined Mrs. Filipek's class to do so!

We ended our day by making our animals out of clay!

Assembly: A Note From Mrs. Cate

At tomorrow’s assembly, some second graders will be performing a short skit about Kelso’s choices.  The assembly starts at 8 am. We hope you can join us.

Exploring Bodies of Water

Over the last couple of weeks, we have learned about liquid forms of water that can be found on earth such as:

• Brooks

• Streams

• Rivers

• Ponds

• Lakes

• Oceans

We have discovered specific characteristics that make up those types of bodies of water. Ask your child what the difference between a brook and river is.
Next week, we learn about frozen forms of water. 

Learning More About Animal Adaptations

Today we had the opportunity to participate in a videoconference, on bird adaptations, with the Virginia Zoo. We learned about physical and behavioral adaptations that a variety of birds have in order to survive in their habitats. Here are some facts we learned! 

 The toucan can see colors that humans cannot. This allows them to tell if a fruit is ripe or not. Their beaks also help them to easily get food in the trees.  

Macaws are smart and learn to mimic. They also have two toes that face forward and two that face backward. This helps them to hold onto branches more easily. 

The Harris Hawk's talons help it to take down prey. They also hunt in packs and are known as the "wolves of the sky."

Lastly, the eagle owl can turn its head 270 degrees. Because of this, they can see prey without having to move its body. They also have feathered feet to stay warm.

Ask your child what else they learned!

Learning About Characters

We are into our  character unit in Reading Workshop. In doing so, we learned how characters display a variety of traits such as clever, creative, imaginative, bossy, etc. We used evidence from the stories to make these inferences by what the characters said, did, thought and felt. Some of the characters that we read about were:

• Flossie from Flossie and the Fox by Patricia McKissack
• Pinky, Rex and Amanda from Pinky and Rex by James Howe
• Sassy from Dancing in the Wings by Debbie Allen
• Max from Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• Lily from Lily's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes

Earth’s Systems - Processes That Shape The Earth

We began a discussion about a new science unit we will be studying. It is about processes that shape the earth. During this unit Students will:

• Understand that some events happen very quickly, others occur very slowly, over a time period much longer than one can observe.
• Understand that wind and water can change the shape of the land.
• Understand where things are located on a map.
• Understand that one can map the shapes and kinds of land and water in any area.

However, we will first start with: 

• Understanding that water is found in the ocean, rivers, lakes and ponds and that water exists as solid ice and liquid form. 

Beginning Animal Research

The students took the first step in their research this week. They all chose an animal to study. We went to the Learning Center and Mrs. Duggan taught us how to find good primary sources that would help us gather the information that we will need to complete our animal research. We also began to explore online resources that they can access from the classroom blog: PebbleGo and World Book Online. Ask your child what animal they will be studying.

Reversible and Irreversible Changes

In Science, we began talking about reversible and irreversible changes in relation to liquids and solids. In doing so, we used lemonade. We observed that it was a liquid in the beginning. When it was placed in the freezer, it became a solid. After sitting in our warm classroom it became a liquid again. We concluded that this was a reversible change because the lemonade could go back and forth from a liquid to solid. 

Reminder: There is no school for students on Monday

Reminder: There is no school for students on Monday, January 21st. 

New Year - New Word Study Routines

We are starting off this new year learning new routines for word study. The students had the options of using iPads, the SMART Board, shaving cream or playing spelling basketball. Ask your child how they practiced spelling their words.