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The holiday season is a perfect time to reflect on our blessings and seek out ways to make life better for those around us. -Terri Marshall

December 1, 2016 Dear Tinmouth School Community, It is the end of November and our first snow has arrived! Although it is currently only fragmented patches on the lawn, the initial snowfall gave students the opportunity to go sledding at recess. We’re looking forward to a snow-filled winter for our downhill and cross-country ski programs. This year, I attempted to join another district school at Okemo for our downhill skiing program but was unsuccessful. Okemo has a moratorium on taking on any new schools and the program directors were not willing to change that policy. Students in kindergarten through sixth grade will be skiing at Pico with Middletown Springs on Friday afternoons after the start of the New Year. More detailed information will be sent home in the upcoming month. Health education is included in the physical education (P.E.) curriculum. The time allocated in the past for cross-country skiing during PE is no longer available. However, we’re working with the TAP, Tinmouth Afterschool Program, to provide afterschool cross-country skiing. We will need community volunteers to make this a success. If you are available and have a passion for cross- country skiing, please let me know. There will be a parent’s night in late January or early February to keep parents abreast of the health curriculum. The students are learning how to care for their whole being including their bodies as well as their mental health. Currently they are learning how to recognize and alleviate stress. I would like to extend my appreciation to the Tinmouth Community for supporting our students during the Best Foot Forward Night at Mill River on November 19th. Your presence lets children know that school matters. Thank you! Our annual Harvest Dinner was a huge success. The third and fourth graders made the pumpkin pies and cranberry sauce. Teachers peeled the potatoes and Ms. Ana (Lewis) donated the gourds that decorated the tables. Nelson Jaquay initiated our Thanksgiving celebration by leading us in song, Tis a Gift to be Simple. Report cards are going out this week. The grades are tied to proficiency in the standards. Grades will reflect how well a student understands the content taught. A separate grade (Habits of Work) is listed for how responsible a student is in submitting work and for putting forth their best effort. The report card format is computer generated and may take a bit of getting use to. Please don’t hesitate to ask for clarification on the report card. Don’t forget that the monthly early release day is December 19th. Please pick up students at 12:00 PM. Additionally, the holiday break begins December 22nd. Children are due back in school on January 3rd. Finally, the staff and I would like wish you a holiday season filled with gratitude and joy! Warm regards, Maureen Fitzgerald-Riker

Calendar of Events:

Dec 19: Teacher in Service – Noon release for students Dec 22 - Jan 2: Winter Break

Food Drive

The student council is organizing a food drive that will run from now until Dec 16th. All grades are participating and the students will be tracking which grade has the most items donated. Good luck!

LIBRARY NEWS:

You may have noticed school library books coming home! Students have the opportunity to check out books periodically (usually on Wednesdays). Kindergarteners will have their first opportunity to do so on November 16th. I hope the books are enjoyed and returned in a timely manner so new books can be checked out. Students shouldn't have more than 2 books out at one time unless there is special permission granted for a project or report. "Reading is a window into the world" . . . happy trails to you! ~Mrs. Carr Wee Folk News:

ASK ME ABOUT: Focus Question: What do you know about The Gingerbread Man?

MEETING TIME Second Step Social Curriculum: two people can have different feelings about the same thing Songs/finger plays-Bear Hunt, Robot Song, Tooty Ta CENTERS (to be introduced this coming week) Dramatic Play-Gingerbread Bakery Toys and Games-Gingerbread Man Dice Roll Art-Gingerbread Play dough Mats Library-Gingerbread Man books Sensory-water

BOOKS (These books are connected to our focus questions) The Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Man

SMALL GROUP Games/activities included the following areas: Gingerbread Matching, Roll a Number, Gingerbread Man story retell, letter hunt

OTHER THOUGHTS These next few weeks we will be reading different versions of the Gingerbread Man. The Gingerbread Man will probably run away and we will be incorporating activities to try to get him back. We will also be reading about other celebrations including Hannukah and Kwanzaa. Save the Date-we will be having our holiday family potluck on December 21st at 12:15. A note will be coming home with details. Also, if anyone would like to come into our room and lead a holiday craft/recipe/ activity please let us know!

Kindergarten News:

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends around the table. I am grateful for a hardworking class. They are making such progress in all areas. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the new progress reports.

In math we are beginning a unit on measurement. We will be practicing both non-standard and standard measures for length, weight and capacity.

Our budding readers continue to work on rhyming, segmenting and blending skills. We add several new sight words each month and are using comprehension strategies to enhance our reading of more difficult or unknown words. We constantly ask, “Does that make sense?”

In science, our “Push and Pull” unit has us investigating forces. Scientists have been introduced to the scientific method, using the format to uncover their “wonderings” about the way pushes and pulls work.

1/2 News:

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. It was nice to be with my family. I hope everyone had some good time with friends and family.

I just wanted to send out a friendly reminder that students should be bringing all five pieces of winter gear every day. Those pieces are a hat, gloves, coat, snow pants, and boots (with socks). We go out to play many days. The students really need to get outside and get fresh air. This helps them to be ready for their academics in the afternoon. Also, label each piece they bring in, that way if it is misplaced we can return it to its rightful owner.

Report cards will be coming home with your child this week. They are a different format than last year. We have gone to a district wide report card and it is all computerized.

We have started a new unit about homes, habitats, and traditions. I hope that you enjoyed some family traditions over Thanksgiving Break.

First graders are working hard at their site words. I will start sending home reproducible books that have their site words in them. If you would read these books to and with them it would help them a great deal along the path to becoming a reader.

Both first and second grades continue to work on math strategies that help them understand why we add and subtract instead of just memorizing how to do the problems.

I hope that December treats you all well. Our half-day for December is Monday the 19th. Stay safe and warm and enjoy the coming holidays.

-Mrs. Coupe 

Grades 3 & 4:

Third and fourth grade students finished up their unit about trees just before the Thanksgiving break. They made a drawing of the life cycle of a tree and wrote about it. After reading The Lorax they also wrote a speech for the Lorax to give the Once-ler to convince the Once-ler not to chop down the trees. For this writing piece students worked on having an introduction, many reasons backed up by their reading, and a conclusion.

We have just begun a unit on Mexico in reading. Students will be reading novels about Mexican and Mexican-American children. We will also be learning about the geography, history and culture of Mexico and creating some Mexican crafts.

In math fourth graders have started working on long division. We will continue with division through the month of December. Third graders are rounding numbers to the nearest ten or hundred. They are also still working on measurements, adding with the standard algorithm and estimating by rounding. In addition they are solving one-step word problems with multi-digit addition using mental math strategies and discussing how they solved the problem.

Report cards will be coming home soon. They are in a new format. They include the English Language Arts and Math standards we worked on this marking period. There are separate pages for Comments and the MAP scores from the testing early this fall. If you have any questions about the report cards, please give me a call or stop in.

Message from Mrs. Wetzler:

Fifth and Sixth Grades News

Now that the fifth and sixth graders have finished reading and writing their essays focusing on Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton's remarkable journey of survival in Antarctica, they have started reading Sign of the Beaver, by Elizabeth George Speare. Again this story is full of suspense and adventure as Matt, a thirteen-year-old boy, is left behind to take care of the cabin his father and he built together while his father returns to Massachusetts to bring back the rest of the family. In addition to developing their ability to read and analysis text, they are building and creating their own model cabins that represent the type of structure Matt and his father would have built. I can't wait to see what they design and create.

The fifth and sixth graders held a bake sale to earn money for their next field trip at the voting booth on Election Day. We would like to thank all the parents who baked for this extremely successful fundraiser. We would also like to extend a special thank you to Lisa Barrett, Karen Eaton, Carrie Gynan, and Bob Wetzler for helping the students run the sale. The generosity and support of the community for the students at Tinmouth Elementary School is amazing. Thank you so much for your support.

As a class, we learned about Veteran's Day. In addition to learning about why this day was set aside as a day of remembrance and the reasons it is celebrated on November 11th, the students had the unique opportunity to read an article written by Grant Reynolds titled "~Veterans Day~ Why is it in the Middle of November?" I would like to thank all veterans who gave their time as a member of the armed forces to ensure that our country continues to enjoy our many freedoms.

We hope everyone was able to spend a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with family and friends. Besides all the delicious food and football games to watch on TV, Thanksgiving is a time for all of us to focus on and remember how much we truly have to be thankful for in our lives.

Personally, I would like to thank you for your continued support. Working with and watching your daughters and sons grow is inspiring. Thank you. -- Gayle Wetzler