Baker’s Dozen Plus 3

I thought I would pass this information along as some of you may be interested in spending Valentines Day loving the birds.

(Now scheduled for February 14 – previously scheduled for February 7)

Family Backyard Birding Basics
Date: Saturday, February 14, 2009
Time: 10 am to noon
Meeting Place: Green Mountain Audubon Center Education Barn
Ages: Families with children ages 4 and up
Fee: Member: $10 parent and child, $4 each additional child. Nonmember: $12/$5

Do you know what kinds of birds you have in your backyard? Want to know how to attract certain species? Join us for Family Backyard Birding Basics! We’ll cover bird feeding, identification, and finish up with a walk around the Audubon Center to test our birding skills. We’ll give you the tools and the know-how so your family can become citizen scientists and participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count! Free backyard bird poster included!

Please contact Audubon Vermont (802) 434-3068 for more information or to registrer for a program.  A full Calendar of Event is online at: http://vt.audubon.org/eventsCalendar.html

We had an exciting beginning to our week kicking off the day with an 1 1/2 hour assembly starring the ringmaster of Circus Minimus.  He was entertaining, having everyone on the edge of their seats wondering what was going to happen next.  Our class along with Mrs. K’s had our first lesson with the ringmaster at 10:15 – 11:00.  We practiced standing and kneeling balancing tricks with partners.  We are scheduled to have a lesson each day at that time leading up to our evening performance next Thursday.  Feel free to stop in and watch.

River’s Grammy Bonnie was visiting us today.  We enjoyed have the extra hands and thank her for giving us our spelling lessons.

Just a reminder that there is a stomach bug going around.  Please have your child get lots of rest, wash hands frequently, and keep him/her home if he/she complains of a headache or stomachache.  One student was absent today and another got sick in the classroom.  I thank you in advance for your cooperation.  The goal is to keep as many people healthy as possible.

Lastly, homework assignments will be sporadic during the next couple of weeks.  It is difficult to assign too much when schedules are disrupted.  I assume everyone is reading at least 30 minutes a day.  Everyone could and should be practicing multiplication tables and review addition/subtraction facts too.

Many times I post more than one article at a time. I like to write them by subject matter and have each under its own title. Friday, I entered 4 posts on the home page (look below) and 1 on the science page. Have a terrific weekend. Thank you for your patience.

This week was an exciting and monumental time for our country with the inauguration of our 44th president, Barack Obama.  We are learning a bit about his early life, family and career.  More importantly we are discussing qualities a person possesses who chooses to run for the office of President of the United States of America.  Some might say, one such qualitiy is bravery.  To illustrate the meaning of brave we are working with William Steig’s, Brave Irene and Jane O’Connor’s, Molly the Brave and Me.  Both stories demonstrate the bravery, determination, and creative thinking of two girls.  In the coming days, we will use the characters to make comparisons to Obama and what we think might be traits that will make him a good leader for our country.

Ms. Peterson provided the link to Reading Rainbow’s annual writing contest (See the blogroll). The students and I looked at some of the past winners this week and began getting very excited about participating in the contest. I told the children that it would be very difficult for me to oversee 16 individual projects as a part of the class work. So, we began thinking about a class project, but unfortunately this particular contest specifically states “only one entry per child” and “only single author stories”. I encourage each family to check this site out and embark on a project at home with your child if you so choose. I would be happy to consult or even edit any work one of the student’s might write/illustrate at home. Even if you are not going to participate, it is fun to read the stories on the site.

We will be entering a contest called, Young Poets Collection.  Students will select from poetry we will be writing using Haiku and Cinquain formats.  The deadline for entries is April 20th so look for more information in future weeks.

Over the holiday weekend, Mark Haberle and River, volunteered in the classroom. They erected our bird sanctuary and re-hung bulletin boards that were removed from the wall in order to install the SMARTBOARD. I sincerely want to thank both people for providing this act of kindness and community service. I have already begun creating displays upon their work.

A dear elderly friend of mine gave us her bird feeders as she is unable to physically perform the task of filling them on her own anymore. Mallie and I prepared them for hanging last Friday. We have two suets and four seed feeders. One of the seed feeders was given to the class by Jon Jameison as Christmas present for our birds and us. Today, a group of children and Beth Libby, added more sticks and greenery allowing us to hang feeders from branches and providing areas for perching. It looks fantastic. The class is anxious for the birds to hear there is another buffet in town. We have had a few siskins and chick-a-dees, but no sign of mourning doves, woodpeckers, or goldfinches which Mrs. Kingsbury’s group has had visiting.

Before Christmas Izzy’s and Eli’s Grandmother posted a comment from Utah.  Here is what it said.  Hello, and Happy Holidays to Mrs. Baker’s class. I have been reading your blog, sounds like a very busy month.  Did Izzy tell you that we saw a bald eagle when we were in southern Utah?  It was perched in a huge tree, near a small stream.  Grumpy, and I liver near an eagle nesting area; sometimes in the late winter we see as many as 15-20 eagles.  They are very large and easy to spot because of their white heads.  Golden eagles live here too.  Last summer I spotted an eagle family nested near the Sandbar on Lake Champlain.  Keep your eyes open.  Have a great vacation and I will see you in February.  CeCe

We are preparing a slide show/bird guide of 16 birds we identified before Christmas. Each child is responsible for a bird. The individual slide shows will be combined to make one in the end. All the work is being created digitally. So far, each person has worked on a cover slide and an anatomy slide. I am shocked at the students’ ability to draw with a mouse birds that actually look like the one under study. Our bird journals are also being written in on a weekly basis. (Check out our Science page for examples of the students writing. Also, please note the link under blogroll.)

Happy Belated New Year one and all!  This comes to you late because the past few times I have tried to get on the blog, it was unavailable and then life just got too busy.  It has been a rocky beginning given the snow day last week, a delay, absences last week (including mine), the holiday this past Monday, and ski day on Wednesday.  However, we are pushing forward trying to get back into our routines.

I need your help.  Many of the students are forgetting to put their names on their papers.  At first thought, this doesn’t seem to be that big a deal.  However, just imagine, 16 papers and 10 have no name.  By the end of a day, there could be as many as 74 papers with 30 or more not having a name placed on them.  I think you are beginning to get the point.  In the past, we play the game, “Whose paper is this?” where I stand in front of the class holding identical papers up and have 16 children yelling at me, “that one is Joe’s, no it’s Sarah’s, no it’s mine… “.  It takes far too much time out of a given learning session to be a productive activity.  I posed the problem to the class asking them for suggestions to rectify the problem.  The first and only suggestion for improvement was, put your name on your paper.

To make a point, last week I said for every paper without a name, a “0” was placed in my grade book because I am was unable to quickly identify the owner.  We talked a lot about how “0’s” can take away from a person’s grade.  Last week I offered extra credit work to replace the “0’s” that are currently in my grade book.

This is not an exercise in inflexibility, but hopefully one in taking responsibility for one’s very important work.  I am pleased to announce that most all of the students asked about grades when each came to me for his/her spelling test last Friday.  Yeah!  They understand why!

Everyone took advantage of doing extra credit homework to replace a “0″ with a “3″.  Also, this week I offered Obama extra credit.  Some individuals took me up on the offer and brought in pictures and articles about Mr. Obama’s inauguration.  Nice job.