First Day! 8.31.16

Notice: Our page will turn into a google doc with a link to the blog. You will just click on the big orange B to get here.

We had a very great start to the school year. Below you will see some photo evidence. We learned our CPR/Homeroom Groups. 

We all learned CARES and practice some CPR greet and game.

Mr. Meadows side had a circle talk with a name game and some summer activity share. Ms. Lamb's side finished our name tags both table-top and wearing (see Hunter's great example and Beck's below.)

We had a lot of space learning and protocols to go over. We will keep that going all week and next. We have two homeroom/CPR groups, Awesome and Brilliant. We travel in those groups to core classes and Music, World Language and PE. Here is a link to the schedule which we will not be following completely for about three weeks.  SCHEDULE

Tomorrow the Awesomes have PE and Friday the Brilliants have PE.  

We started homework today. Hurray! The main objectives were start a homework folder - put in your assignment sheet (books haven't arrived yet, maybe by Monday) and book orders. Note - all other office paperwork is sent home by email to parents by other people. Check emails for this important information.

The only other homework was to write down some hopes and dreams for this year. This is on page one of our homework journals. 

The biggest part for HOME part of homework, is to bring home the folder, share with parents, get a signature on the assignment sheet and bring it all back tomorrow (folder, assignment sheet and journal.)

We had a talk about snack. Kids all ate, so everyone wants a snack. Kids can purchase snack from the cafeteria. We ask that they do this before 8:00 so we don't have kids leaving during the day. Kids will eat snack during class - we will practice this. We ask that kids not have sugar during snack as much as possible. We won't be policing, but we may ask that some things be saved for lunch if they have something else to eat. We will continue to talk about this.

Homework:

LA - on the page one of your homework journal - What are your hopes and dreams for this school year?

(Note - we completed this in class. We wrote for 5 minutes. Students made lists or wrote in pros form)

Book orders: If you like to have your very own books, please consider ordering from our scholastic book orders. If you prefer to use a credit card and order online, our code is DVG7Z. This gives our class bonus points and deals which we use to build our classroom library.

Math - none

Science - none

Social Studies - share folder with parents. Show book orders, assignment sheet (in lieu of assignment book on order) and journal.

Parent/Teacher

get a signature from a parent that you showed this 

NOTE we also put names on homework folders and homework journals - tomorrow we will decorate these to personalize. You may want to bring in pictures, photos or stickers.

Great name tag examples above and below.

Marshmallow and spaghetti towers - Cooperation!

First Day tomorrow

It's almost time to start 5th grade. I hope you are excited like I am.

Here is an item I left off of the supply list that you might want to look for: ear buds and mouse. I would like each student to have their own headphones and mouse if they like to use a mouse. They would label these and keep them in their cubbies. We will not start with computers right away (except for a couple of assessments), but we will slowly start using them.

We will use our first journal tomorrow. If you don't have one yet, no worries, I have many extras. Bring what you have and we will store things in our cubbies.

We had a lovely time meeting those of you that were available last night for our very low stress open classroom. I did send out an invitation for parents to sign up for an introductory conference. We would like to meet with you all in September if we can.

So here's a little hitch in the opening meetings, but maybe it will work out for the best. Somehow in using the new free program I doubled up each entry....so now I have two of you at once. It will be fine. One person will start with Jay and one with me and then we will switch.

Get some sleep tonight and see you tomorrow.

August 29, 2016 Remember Open Classroom and Supplies

Hi folks,
Remember that tonight is our open classroom from 5:30 to 6:30. Come see the classroom space and meet the teachers.

Also, we are planning to use and store our supplies from the list sent out by email and this blog. If you forget we have extras, but please bring your supplies on the first day. (click on the link above to see it again)

See you soon.
Ms, Lamb and Mr. Meadows

Open Classroom Monday August 29, 5:30 to 6:30 pm

Hello parents,

It's almost time for school to start. We know some of you (students and parents) are anxious and maybe a visit before school starts could help you to feel more at home on your first day, August 31st.

We will host a quick and informal open classroom on Monday August 29th from 5:30 to 6:30 pm in our classroom space. We will have no agenda so feel free to drop in any time to meet us and see the space. All are welcome.

We invite all parents to sign up for an introductory conference during the first few weeks of school. These are about 10 minute conferences where you can really meet us and share any insights you have about your child. We will have signups at the open classroom and up online on Tuesday the 30th.

We are really looking forward to meeting all of you parents and getting to know all of the students.

Cheers and enjoy the last days of vacation.

Cate Lamb and Jay Meadows

Temporary Website Blog

Hi everyone.
Until our website gets up, we will use just this blog to communicate on the school's webpage. This blog will remain part of our webpage and will always have a brief summary of the day, maybe a picture, and the night's homework.

Here is our welcome letter if you missed it.

August 1, 2016

Dear Parents and 5th Graders,

Welcome to our team and welcome to Browns River Middle School. For those of you wondering about our team name, the class will work together at the beginning of the school year to choose our team name. For now we are listed as Team Energy on our future website. We hope that this letter finds everyone having a wonderful summer!  We look forward to working with all of you and know that we will learn a lot together.

In order to be prepared, Ms. Lamb and Mr. Meadows ask you to start collecting the following items* for the first day of school:

• Two to three 1-inch three-ring binders; one for math and science, and one for social studies and language arts, we recommend that you get good quality as many students have had their binders fall apart before the end of the year. Please DO NOT get the big 3” kind as they don’t fit into the cubbies and are difficult to tote around in backpacks.
• Three total journals, two for LA writing in class and homework (hard marble type please) and one journal (marble or spiral) for science
• A calculator for math and science (does not need to be fancy)

• A ruler with both inches and centimeters (clear ones work better)
• Pencils, pencils, pencils! (100 is not too few, but use your judgment)
• Pens
• Pencil Pouch
• Set of colored markers and colored pencils
• 4-8 pocket folders (we use often for project organizing)
• Lined notebook paper
• 2 sets of subject dividers

*We will have a few extra and there will be a reuse zone of gently used items from last year

All students will be given a red assignment book at the beginning of the school year, which will be kept in their binders all year long. Students are required to use the assignment book.

Please be in touch with Mr. Meadows (jay.meadows@cesuvt.org) or Ms. Lamb (cate.lamb@cesuvt.org) if you have any questions as you prepare for school.  We will be having an informal meet and greet before the start of the school year where parents and students can visit the classroom and meet the teachers.  We will send out another email invitation to that when we better know the beginning of the year schedule. The school website is currently under construction, but check in periodically to see if the site is finished.  We will try to post helpful information in the coming weeks.  

Sincerely,

Ms. Cate Lamb and Mr. Jay Meadows