Baker’s Dozen Plus 3

This Wednesday, the NECAP testing will begin.  There will be long days of testing for all third – sixth graders over the next couple of weeks.  Please be sure your child is getting plenty of rest, has breakfast, and a good snack.  These are all ways you can support him or her in this endeavor at school.  I have sent sample problems home this week with your child.  Feel free to provide him or her with other problems like the ones on the sheet for practice.  Thank you.  New Pictures posted on the Science Page.

During Friday’s assembly, Skylar was recognized for his community service efforts in the lunch room where he helps Arthur with the trays at the end of lunch.  Skylar provided this service without being asked and has taken great pride in helping others.  Arthur has on a number of occassions mentioned how greatful he is to Skylar for all the work he is doing.  When you see Skylar, please join us in congratulating him for “A JOB WELL DONE”.

We had a fantastic day last Friday.  We began by singing at assembly and then jumped right into the activities of the morning.  Thanks to Bear and Chatham the morning’s events went smoothly.  Check out the Social Studies page to hear all about the experiences.

I am sending a permission slip home with your child tomorrow.  It is self-explanatory.  It is meant to notify parents of the opportunity the children will have to try freshly pressed apple cider.  The apples were most picked from the trees and Bear informed me that she will be washing the apples with a soap bath and rinse afterwards.  Please send it back on Friday indicating your preference.

Also, we will be performing a couple of songs with Mr. Hill on Friday at the all school assembly.   I gave Mr. Hill the songs last week in hopes he would be willing to teach them to the children in an effort to integrate their learning beyond our classroom door.  So, if you can, please join us.

Early release days are difficult for all of us. It is hard to get the children to realize that we are not taking vacation for a week, but simply not having afternoon classes. They get really excited and rambunctious in class. However, that was not the case today. I was really proud of every one’s behavior, attentiveness, and self-control during our entire morning particularly during our evacuation drill (This is done once a year.). We began right off the bat with Mrs. Kurzman’s writing lesson. Today she wrote a report on ants with the students. (See our Writing page for more details.) They worked with her for 90 minutes with a brief break in the middle. Wow! Then we had health class with Mrs. Dillon while eating our snack. Again, everyone was attentive and participated in Mrs. Dillon’s lesson on the food pyramid. We ended our morning in the library with Mrs. Romanoff. Again, from what I saw passing by occasionally, each person was engaged and was on his/her best behavior. Terrific Job ! All the apples are delivered and there were none left. A few were sold to passersby including Mrs. Kurzman.

A bushel is 4 pecks.  4 pecks is 8 1/2 pecks.  A 1/2 bushel is 4 1/2 pecks, but 2 pecks.  Well I think you get the ideal.  There is only one way to describe how much 16 bushels is,

E N O R M O U S! 

I was saying to Amy J. that I could never teach your children the size of a 1/2 peck or a bushel better than this experience did.  The entire experience was just perfect.  The day could not have been better.  The apples were delicious (sorry for any stomachaches).  The hosts were informative, well-organized, and pleasant.  We had a wonderful day.  My personal thank you to everyone who placed orders, took orders, drove apples, chaperoned, sorted and re-bagged apples back at school, and finally delivered apples to all our customers.  The final sales totalled $556.00!  Wow, I was both shocked and ecstatic particularly because every child participated in the entire process.  CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE! 

The breakdown of expenditures looks like this:  $556 - $142.40 (cost of apples and bags), – $210 (still outstanding from the memory book project of last year) for a total net of $333.60.  This week and next the class and I will be discussing what the money will be used for (possible ways include service learning projects and a percentage donated to the local food shelf).  We ended up with a surplus of apples.  Izzy suggested more applesauce, but I told her no more applesauce.  I think we’ll move on to apple crisp or maybe even apple pies!  Also, I thought we would have a healthy apple snack sale on Friday.  $.25 for an apple would give us a little more revenue and or a donation to the food shelf.  I am brainstorming ideas as they come, with the final decision to be done as an entire group.

Check out the writing page and please note Wednesday is an early release day. 

By now I am sure everyone has had an opportunity to sell a few apples.  Tomorrrow, in school, we will be figuring out how many 1/2 pecks are in a bushel and thus how many bushels we will need to purchase to fulfill our obligations of sales.  We will also calculate how much profit will be realized by this fundraiser. 

Our schedule for the day is as follows:

• leave school at 9:30 a.m.
• arrive at Thatcher Brook Primary School around 9:50 a.m. to investigate their new playground
• leave Thatcher Brook Primary School around 10:20 a.m. heading to Adam’s Apple
• Stop enroute at the Williston rest area for a bathroom break
• arrive Adam’s Apple by 11:00 a.m. 
• lunch when we get there
• tour and picking apples beginning at 11:30 a.m.
• leave the orchard no later than 1:30 p.m. to get back to school by bus time

Parents who have contacted me about volunteering are:  Suzie Lowe, Elizabeth Cadwell, Heather Bombard, Melinda (Mallie’s grandy), Amy Rochford, and Beth Libby.  Heather has offered to drive her truck for transporting the apples.  She also has room for another couple of parents to drive with her.  I will leave it up to all of you to connect with one another.  As you can see by the above schedule, parents do not have to leave with the bus, but meet us at the orchard by 11:00. 

Thanks to the sellers of apples and the volunteer pickers and sorters.  The children are really excited! 

Hope all of you had a great weekend.  My family and I did, complete with a 13th birthday sleepover party for my daughter on Camel’s Hump last night.  Today was suppose to be about my garden.  Now that I know townspeople are watching I need to have my garden up and running the minute the last snow melts.  I have hundreds of bulbs to plant, but today was just too cold, that means two hours everyday after school this week.

This Friday is assembly morning.  I don’t think if will be as long as the first one.  I would like to have a harvest celebration following the assembly.  I made a cornhusk doll today.  So cute, but I forgot how challenging it is for me let alone my little ones at school.  So we are going to need lots of help.  I was thinking this Friday could work for us and hoped it would for some volunteers as well.  I am proposing that we do the following:

• cornhusk dolls – Georgeanne and one other if possible
• cider pressing (this will be used at open house) – Bear and one other if possible
• sukkah construction – Elizabeth and one other if possible
• language arts table work – Mrs. Haynes, Mrs. McGeorge, and Mrs. Wilcox

All of the above assignments have been made here on my couch Sunday night without consultation with the individuals involved.  I will be talking with each person Monday.  If everything falls in place, it should be a great Friday morning. 

Parents will need to pick up apples on Wednesday at school.  People can make pick-ups from 7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. in the classroom.  Anyone who would like to help sort apples to fill orders, please join me in the classroom Tuesday after-school.  More hands will make the work lighter.  I thought this might also be a time we could discuss other possibilities for fundraisers for the class.  Please join us for some fun and excitement as we look forward finding ways to support the class’ endeavors.

There is so much going on these days.  Please review the following items.

• We need volunteers to help out on our APPLE TRIP to the Adam’s Apple Orchard.  Please either send me an email at gbaker@waitsfield.k12.vt.us or send in a note letting me know you can help.  If you can, please note that you would need to drive or carpool with another parent.  We will leave at 9:30 allowing us to stop the TBPS’s new playground.  The orchard expects us to arrive at 11:00 at which time we will picnic until 11:30 and then we will begin our tour.  Please, we need help with the apples.
• Chattham is putting together an order form for the children to use this weekend.  If every child got at least 3 orders for apples, we could have our first successful fundraiser.  Please look for the form in your child’s bag either Thursday or Friday evening.
• Kristin and I would like the students to make a market cart to use in a variety of ways in the garden, at open house, and in conjuction with our work using the Ox Cart Man.  Can you help?  Please contact me through email or phone to arrange time for the project. 
• Also, I would like to construct a Sukkah that will be placed in the front of the school.  A sukkah is a booth.  “Sukkot is the Festival of Booths, or Tabernacles.  It is a joyous festival that commemorates the final gathering of the harvest.  At Sukkot a temporary hut (or booth) is built.  In it a family eats, drinks, and sleeps during the holiday, and is reminded of how the Israelites lived in the wilderness.  The hut may have three sides or four, with walls of bamboo poles or canvas, and a loose roof of tree branches of evergreens or palms.  The covering of branches should be heavy enough for there to be shade during the day, but open enough for the stars to be seen at night…In 1620, when the Pilgrims came to America, they held a harvest festival.  They based their first Thanksgiving on the ancient holiday of Sukkot.”  I thought we could use the booth from last year’s May Day celebration.  We need help with this too.  I made one of these a number of years ago with another group and it is great fun and very powerful.  We will need a lot of cornstalks and evergreen branches to make the walls.  Please call or write to let me know if you are able to bring cornstalks and/or branches to us.  We will also be using the corn leaves and silk etc. to make cornhusk dolls.  Our first of many to be made this year.