Let's Recap

During our most recent literacy unit we are exploring nonfiction texts as readers. Steve Jenkins, creator of books like Actual Size, The Beetle Book, and Never Smile at a Monkey has been our mentor author during this unit of study  and his books have provided us with opportunities to explore access features like headings, contents, index, and glossaries. We have also used his books to explore different structures of informational text. Some are organized by Q&A, Compare/Contrast, Enumerative, and Narrative. Students have learned to use the features and structures to access information efficiently in nonfiction books. Next up, students will share their understanding of informational text access features and structure by nominating one of Steve's books for a fictional award.

During the second part of this unit we will use what we have learned about reading nonfiction to research a topic and write our own informational pieces that will teach others about a topic that students feel passionate about. This will culminate in a Passion Project Breakfast in March where they will share their writing and projects with you. Stay tuned for more information.

This week we also tried out a cool new tool called Let's Recap. Students can respond to a variety of questions using a video commentary. The application then turns their responses into a slideshow to share beyond the walls of the classroom. Here is our first recap video

Just a reminder that students should have all winter gear with them at school as we go outside each day for fresh air and time with friends. We also ask that students have shoes (preferably sneakers) to change into after they arrive at school.

Learning Goals

We hope that everyone had a restful and relaxing holiday and that your new year is off to a wonderful start. We began our new year together welcoming our two new student interns and setting mid year goals for ourselves. We also had the opportunity to share our weather projects that we hadn't gotten a chance to share before the break due to a power outage!

Meet our new interns, Naomi and Katie....


My name is Katie Johnson and I am so thrilled to be student teaching in Mrs.Parker’s 3rd grade class. I am a graduate student at Saint Michael’s College working on an Elementary Education Licensure with a concentration in Literacy. I graduated from Smith College in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology.

When I am not doing homework or wrangling socks from my very cute but very mischievous dog, Dahlia, I like to ski, run, bake, spend time with friends and family, and drink coffee.  I am looking forward to this tremendous opportunity to work with Mrs. Parker’s Class and Mosaic Team.

Greetings! My name is Naomi Risch and I am the new student intern for Mrs. Eaton’s class this Spring! I grew up in the Fryeburg, Maine area which is in Western Maine, right near the border of Conway, NH near Mount Washington. I moved to Vermont 9 years ago and worked in adult mental health for 6 years. I’ve wanted to be a teacher for years but could never make the leap to go back to school and in 2015 decided I couldn’t wait any longer! I started the Graduate Degree and Licensure Program at Saint Michael’s College that Fall, which has lead me here, to Williston Central School for my student teaching internship. In my spare time I am passionate about being outdoors; rock climbing, skiing and hiking. I also really love cooking and trying new recipes. One of my personal goals for 2017 is to learn how to make ravioli from scratch! I am really looking forward to my time at WCS and getting to know all of your children. I’ve only spent a quick four days with them so far, but I can already tell they’re an incredible group of students!

Here are a few photos from our presentations to Kaleidoscope. The Mosaic students were articulate and prepared and the collaboration they showed was commendable. The Kaleidoscope students were attentive, curious, and asked wonderful questions that got everyone thinking. It is so gratifying to see students engaged in project-based learning!

Next week we will continue working on efficient, reasonable ways to solve three digit addition and subtraction problems in math. We will also be launching into a unit on reading informational/nonfiction texts and crafting informative writing pieces. This will lead us to a favorite Mosaic tradition of creating Passion Projects based on a topic of students' choosing. The culminating event will be a showcase breakfast in early March. Stay tuned for more on this!