Solo Flight

Our St. Michael's student interns have been working hard this semester and the time is almost near for them to test their new knowledge as they lead the classroom for one week of solo teaching. They will both be "in charge" of the classrooms the week of April 6-10. Liz and Jess will be near by, but they are going to be taking over the day to day management and instruction. During this week please direct any email correspondence regarding schedules and pick-ups to their school email addresses. Sara in Mrs. Eaton's room can be reached at smonahan@cssu.org and Kristyn in Liz's room can be reached at kgalligan@cssu.org.


You have most likely all heard that Vermont (and much of the country)is in the process of transitioning to a new computerized assessment system for students in grades 3-12. This assessment is called the SBAC and we will begin to roll it out to our students to practice over the next week before administering the actual tests beginning on April 8th. There are still many questions around this test and we encourage you to ask your own. We understand that tests are a part of life and we want  students to persevere and do their best so that we can determine if this assessment is a valuable tool. With that being said, most importantly we want to engage and assess students in authentic, engaging learning activities that are developmentally appropriate and challenging. Rebecca Holcomb, Secretary of Education, writes candidly about this in her latest memorandum and I encourage you to take a look.

As we get closer to testing dates we will be asking for parents to help provide us with snacking options to keep our brains sharp and focused and our bellies full during the testing days. Stay tuned for more information on how you can support us with that in the weeks to come. If you could also please let us know if you have any travel plans the week before or after the April break please let us know as soon as possible as that will help us with scheduling and planning.

Think Spring! 

Fact Fluency

Thank you for coming and supporting the Mosaic students as they presented their Passion Projects on Thursday. They were so excited to see the positive feedback that filled up on their comment pages and they learned so much from each other. Choice is extremely motivating for students and it certainly showed with this project.

Customize your own picture collage

This week we also wrapped up Unit Four in math and are moving from thinking about fractions and measurement to diving more deeply into concepts around multiplication and division. Click here to read more about the specific goals and content of this unit. Your child is expected to be practicing their math facts at home to improve his/her fact fluency. One option is for them to be doing the exercises on the XtraMath website, but they can also practice using different apps, flashcards, or dice games. If you find something that works particularly well we would love to hear about it. We have finished our magnetism unit and went out with a shock as we learned about how magnetism and electricity combine to create electromagnets. The scientists read closely about how these magnets are created and then used their understanding and engineering skills to design their own plan for a small electromagnet. In small groups we tested out their designs and reviewed our understanding of closed circuits. The teachers had very hot hands, but it was worth it for the look on their faces when they created a magnetic field from just a few materials! Now we will be heading into a unit that is focused on writing fairy tale adaptations. Led by our student teachers the students will learn about the story elements of this genre by reading traditional tales. Then they will compare and contrast these with adaptations by other authors before they adapt a tale on their own. Our big basket raffle is coming up next weekend and the baskets are not quite full yet. Please consider donating to this wonderful fundraising event. It looks like mud season has arrived, at least for the time being. The fields at recess are prone to get extremely wet and muddy and we suggest that you send your child with a spare pair of socks in his/her backpack. Please be sure that they also have shoes that they can change into as their boots are quite wet after their fun outside. We look forward to chatting with you many of you next week at our conferences on Monday, March 23rd.

Metric Measurement Math

This week we have been hard at work looking at options and brainstorming how we want to  present our research findings for our passion projects. The students looked back at the work that we did during our Steve Jenkins unit and decided on the nonfiction text features that they wanted to include in their own posters/slideshows. Then they got a lesson from Ms. Birdsall on how to find photos in a way that is safe and digitally respectful by giving credit to the original photographer. Now they are hard at work combining the photos, facts, and features. They are so excited to share what they have learned with their families on Thursday morning at our Passion Project Breakfast. Information should have come home in the Friday folder. The breakfast will be from 8:00-8:45. We hope that you can make it and we would love if you could help to contribute to our feast by bringing a healthy breakfast snack or beverage. Coffee and paper products will be provided by Mosaic. Hope to see you there!

In math we have shifted our focus from fractions to measurement using the metric system. The students rotated through three different workstations where they learned concepts an vocabulary around mass, liquid volume, and solving story problems that involve these types of measurement. We have taken a hands on approach to this by having the students come up with benchmarks to refer to. For example, our benchmark for a gram is a paperclip and our benchmark for a kilogram is a big Harry Potter novel! These types of benchmarks help students to be more accurate in their estimations of how big, heavy, or long something is as they use these types of measurements in the future in math and especially in science.

Liquid Volume Investigation

Solving Problems using Models

Finding Mass

Using a balance to investigate mass

 If you would like to sign up for a spring conference time please click on the link under the important dates heading on the sidebar of the blog. For Mrs. Parker's sign-up you can click on her name at the top of this page. These will be offered on Monday, March 23rd.