The Halloween book collection has arrived! We have been reading and learning new digital sites to expand our reading. In Outdoor Ed, Becky has started our unit on pollinators, and we are beginning our science unit on the same topic. Students have been enjoying watercolor painting in their art journals, and are using art as a way to generate ideas for writing. We are learning addition and subtraction strategies together, including thinking about multiplication as repeated addition. Honestly, we are so busy learning and working together and I am impressed with how quickly they have adapted to the shared expectations of Wolf Den; they have created their rules, which will help them meet their hopes.

 On October 26th, we will have our first Kindergarten reading buddies time. It is also picture day. Our first Hood trip will be onOctober 27th. I have one chaperone ready to go with us. 

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions about how school is going for your child. Our Open House is coming up as well as our Hike for Hunger so you will have opportunities to come visit us.

The 4th graders have been busy lately working on writing pieces, typing, spelling, U.S geography, studying the health of the river, and other outdoor activities. We have also applied some math concepts by building cornhole games. This past week all the students constructed their own game. This connected perfectly to this year's math program because each student had to figure out the area of the board (using factors of 8), diameters, and angles. They also used fractions when measuring certain boards to be cut.

In the 7th and 8th grade, we're starting to wrap up the Progressive Era - the kids are working on some inquiry questions investigating Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the 1913 Women's March on Washington, and the formation of the National Parks System. In the 5th and 6th grades, we're finishing up looking at the topography of Europe. Soon we'll start looking into cultural connections between the people and their environment in the West European Uplands - this is going to mean bog mummies, turf houses, viking ships, and super surfing.

At Forest Days children are developing observation skills, how to describe what they observe, and vocabulary at morning meeting. We have been using “owl eyes” and learning about owls. This week we looked at life-size cut-outs of local owls. These helped fill in information from a story that included two very different size owls. It also gave children a chance to compare the sizes and looks of the owls. Becky brought in real parts of owls and other animals. They explored owl and hawk wings, listening for which has silent flight. They looked at several bird feet and saw the owl’s talons they heard about earlier in books. They were good at noticing, asking questions, and giving ideas why some looked a certain way, like an owl foot that looked furry. Back in the classroom, they drew three things they saw in the forest that day.

This week we have learned about habits

of character. The habits of character

that we have been working with are

initiative, perseverance, and

collaboration.

We went to the Riverview farm to pick

apples and made apple sauce from the

apples we picked.

In World Languages & Cultures, 5th graders spent some time exploring, comparing and sharing about several words from different languages. Then we examined one of the language trees and talked about how languages could be interconnected and what could influence languages and changes within them. We are also tying what we are doing in class to what students are learning in Mr. Breen's class.

Students began to learn about Germany, its culture, and some basic phrases in German as a part of our year-long language exploration. We learned about the first day of school traditions in Germany and even had a "show & tell" with a special gift bag (Schultüte, shown above) and a special elementary school backpack (Schulranzen).

Sixth graders are continuing their language exploration. They are focused on Spanish at the moment. As part of their culture study students are researching education systems in several Spanish-speaking countries.

Seventh and 8th grade students are studying German I this year. They have been working hard on learning new phrases and words. In addition, they are also studying culture. Their project for the next several weeks is researching and putting together a cookbook with several recipes from German-speaking countries. The next step would be to try and cook at least one dish from the cookbook.

We continue to have fun with music and movement in the Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades. With the use of props and instruments, the students are able to explore rhythm in playful, experiential ways. 

We have stumbled upon (literally and figuratively) miming in grades 3-6 and the students are practicing the art of conveying a story through expression and body language. We have built upon this by watching clips of silent films and by practicing silent storytelling, either individually or in small groups. 

The 7/8 has something up their sleeves for Halloween night, which they are imagining and creating during class time. More to come on that! 

Library/Media

Ms. Simone

Sixth grade continues to explore early life in Vermont through primary sources. Through a history kit provided by the Vermont History Museum, students were able to look closely at artifacts from village life, and use those artifacts along with other primary sources (ledgers and images) to understand bartering between farmers and merchants in the 19th century.