Winter break reading log

One more thing!  I forgot to mention that the reading log is optional.  The hot chocolate and marshmallows is one way you might find some fun ways to read together.

Here is another copy of Reading Log in case you need it.

Happy New Year! :-)

last chance!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful winter break!  I'm spending my time in Aruba with my family.  Here we are on Christmas morning.

 
Last chance.. take a picture of your child's origami butterfly (or print one and make it together!) and post it on the Arlington EATS website.  
http://www.arlington-eats.org/origami-butterflies/

We also are looking for people to visit our website and vote for their favorite picture! There are some great prizes for the winners!!  We have a class picture on there! :-)

Happy New Year to you and your family.  See you all soon!

Thursday 12/18

I appreciate everyone taking the time out to meet with me during conferences.  I know all of the early releases can be tricky to manage!

The first graders have been working very hard to finish their how-to books.  They are excited to share them with you next week!

Vine on comparing counting boards

Arlington EATS thanks you for your support!

We are spicing up the food bags this week!  We would like to send home spices for the holidays for Arlington families.  If you would like to contribute, please sign up here!

Check out The Take Your Butterfly To Launch project!  The kids will be folding their origami butterflies at school this week. We hope you will snap a picture and upload to our website or on social media with a chance to a win a great prize!

More information....

If you would like to participate, Arlington EATS will offer printable origami butterflies to show our gratitude with a suggested donation of $8. The printable form includes an origami template, instructions and a gift tag, should you make a gift donation in a friend or neighbor’s name. To participate in the contest,

• Download, print, and fold your origami butterfly.
• Snap a photo of it at your favorite place in Arlington, a cozy lunch spot, or in a funny place for your butterfly to be. Be sure to include the Arlington EATS logo in your photo.
• Upload your photo entries (see below), email it to contest@arlington-eats.org or tag @arlingtoneats via Instagram,Twitter or Facebook and we’ll upload it for you.
• Throughout December, visit our website to check-out the butterfly photos and “like” your favorites.
• A contest winner will be selected from our website and will receive a gift certificate to a local, kid-friendly business!

If  you cannot donate at this time, we’d still love for you to participate!

Monday 12/15

During Fundations, we learned about adding a suffix s to a word to make it mean more than one.  In the word dogs the s sounds like an s, but in the word bugs the s sounds like a z.  We first tap out the baseword and then add an s, otherwise we might not be able to hear the last sound in the word.  We thought of tricky words that don't follow the rule like mouse and mice! 

Share: We talked today about sharing time during Morning Meeting.  If you are bringing something in to share, it should be very special, unique or makes you proud.  It shouldn't be a toy that you just like to play with.  We are going to begin with these criteria tomorrow!  I shared with some pictures from my weekend away.  Here's one for you!

My Aunt's wedding in St. Thomas:

Reminder- Wednesday is an 11:15 dismissal for conferences.

December PTO Update

December PTO Update

Join us to help plan the Winter Party and/or the International Festival!  We will be discussing both of these events at the December PTO Meeting on Wednesday, December 17^th from7 to 9pm in the library.  Here are more details:

• Winter Party, Saturday, January 31 from 8 pm to midnight:  All parents, staff and friends are invited to the annual Thompson Winter Party at the Arlington Center for the Arts. This is a big fundraiser for the PTO but more importantly, big fun for us parents. The evening will include dancing (DJ), hors d’oeuvres & desserts, and an open bar (beer and wine). Cost is $25 per person, adults only. If you can’t come to the PTO meeting, but would like to join the committee, please contact Melissa MacDonald.
  
• International Festival, Saturday, March 14 from 11 am to 3pm:  Back by popular demand, we will be hosting an international festival again this year!  This fabulous event invites Thomspon community members to represent their heritage through displays, local food, arts, crafts, and a fashion show!  If you can’t come to the PTO meeting, but would like to join the committee, please contact Sarah Stockwell.

Firefly Moon Thompson Day, Wednesday, December 17 – 11 am to 7pm

Get all your holiday shopping done and keep your dollars in Arlington!  Shop at Firefly Moon in the heights from the end of school (early release) to 7pm, and 15% will kick back to our PTO. If anyone else comes in off the street, we still get 15%!  Be sure to mention Thompson at the register and get an additional certificate that can be used this holiday season.   

The Thompson Play is coming!

Did you know that one of Thompson's most beloved traditions is a school play held every spring? All Thompson students are invited to participate, free of charge. Grades 3-5 will have speaking parts and grades K-2 singing and dancing ensemble roles. Auditions will be held for grades 3-5 the week of January 12, and performances are scheduled for April 15 and 16. Keep an eye out for audition sign-ups soon.

Community Card Sales Challenge

Welcome to the Year End Community Card Challenge! The family to sell the most per grade gets a prize! The one class to sell the most gets a prize! Pick up your cards at pick up/drop off on Pineapple Side with Gaggi and sign the Community Card Notebook with your child grade specifications. Start with 10 cards or less, and pick up more as you sell. Winners announced after winter break.  

Don’t know Gaggi?  She'll have a table, or bright umbrella, or blue wig, or something odd to find her. Can't find her or get to pick up/drop off? Call her at 617-909-1865, or Gaggi@rcn.com for any special pick ups. You wanna sell 'em, she'll find you. 

But wait, I just sold a bunch of cards in October.  Great, thanks! Your support counts towards the January count. Any cards sold in the fall, not counting Town Day, count towards the contest. Just make sure you're in the Notebook and update your child's grade. 

I have several children, which grade counts.  All your children and grades count. Each family to sell the cards with multiple grades will have one point per grade. Twins get 2 points and triplets get 3 points.  

Ahhh, I don’t know what to get for a gift!  Looking for that perfect festivus gift? Or, a great Hanukkah gift? Xmas, stocking stuffers, Yankee swaps... We got you covered! The Card's a great present! Give the gift that keeps giving and keep your Arlington dollars in Arlington!

Remember, all the money raised with the Cards goes directly to the PTO. Think of all the activities, field trips, extra enrichment programs your child has already experienced so far! The Card has helped  with these events. Thank you so much for your continued support,

EATS Update

Arlington EATS invites you to "Take Your Butterfly to Lunch"!  For a suggested donation of $8 (enough to feed a student 2 meals a day for a weekend), donors will be able to download an origami butterfly with printed instructions.  Fold your butterfly and snap a photo of it at your favorite place in Arlington, a cozy lunch spot, or in a funny place for your butterfly to be. Upload your photo entries at http://www.arlington-eats.org/origami-butterflies/ or tag @ArlingtonEATS via Instagram, Twitter or Facebook throughout December and check the Arlington EATS website to vote. The contest winner will receive a gift certificate from a locally owned business such as Henry Bears' Park, Clay Dreams, Maxima, Book Rack, Arlington Centered and others!  A donation is not required for participation and we would love to see many smiling Thompson kids with their origami butterflies!

Event recaps:

• Fall Fundraiser - Our fall fundraiser was a huge success! We set a goal of having 100 families participate in the direct donation drive and we reached that goal in the eleventh hour of the drive! In fact, 105 families have contributed to date, and more than $7,000 was raised for the students of Thompson! Thank you so much for your generosity! Of course, we happily accept contributions all year long! Check out our website at thompsonschoolpto.org and click the Fundraising/Donate Now tab, or click the button below. 
  
  
  
  

  
  
• Scholastic Book Fair recap - Thank you Thompson! Between all the classroom visits and parent shoppers, last week’s book fair was our best ever, grossing more than $6,000! We took profits in the form of extra books ($1,200 worth for classroom libraries and our reading  and ELL specialists) and the rest as cash that goes straight to the PTO for future enrichment spending. Thank you to the many parents who volunteered their time during the fair and to the 2nd grade room parents for organizing a great Family Literacy Night. Last but not least, a special thank you to our amazing librarian Liza Halley who dedicated her week to helping children navigate the fair during class visits and for allowing us to take over the library space. The book fair committee would appreciate any feedback as they plan for future fairs. Please contact Tanya Serrao.
  
  
• Literacy Night Wednesday recap - Family Literacy Night was a great success! Thank you to all of the volunteers that helped make this night possible. We had a great turn out and saw lots of smiling faces as families moved through the activity stations in the gym, played book bingo in the cafeteria and shopped in the book fair. It was great to see so many children acting out books, hearing great stories and making book related crafts and book marks. Also, be sure to check out the lists of favorite books by grade created on this night that Ms. Liza will keep in the library. A fabulous time was had by all!
  
• Holiday Help Drive recap - Thank you for your help providing families in need with generous gifts this holiday season.  Through your support, we provided five Arlington families with gifts for this holiday season.  Thank you!

Request from Nurse Tami

Nurse Tami is looking for a baby monitor with one base and two monitors to use in the nurse’s office.  If you have one that you’re ready to part with, please let Nurse Tami know.

Save the date!

We have lots of fun events planned for the new year.  Mark your calendars now!

•  1/23 Movie Night, 6:00 pm pizza, 6:30 pm show time
• 1/31 Winter Parents’ Party, 8 pm to midnight
• 2/27 Family Game Night
• 3/14 International Festival, 11am–3pm
• 4/10 Ice skating party
• 4/15 and 4/16 School play

Stay up to date on Thompson news:

• Check out our newly designed PTO website for the latest news, volunteer opportunities, and our link to Amazon (we get 5-15% back on purchases).
• Join the Thompson Yahoo Group to receive all PTO-related emails.
• Like the Thompson Facebook page to get the latest updates.
• Do you have news for the Thompson community?  Submit them for the next PTO Update to Andrea Loeb.

Brought to you by the 2014/15 PTO Board

Andrea Loeb: President

Sarah Stockwell: Vice President

Kerry Austin-Smith: Second Vice President

Melissa MacDonald: Treasurer

Rebecca Younkin: Assistant Treasurer

Tanya Serrao: Secretary

Sheelah Ward: Assistant Secretary

Maf Terry: Enrichment Chair

Lea Walsh: Room-Parent Chair

Juliet Moir: Fundraising Chair

This week

This week we are celebrating hour of code!  Each day the kids spend some time working alone and collaborating together to figure out how to make amazing projects on Scratch Jr. 

https://vine.co/v/OrU1Lp0jA7F

I will be away Thursday and Friday and Gayle Coveno will be covering my class again.  I know the kids will have a fun and busy 2 days! 

Just a reminder: Literacy Night is on Wednesday.

Math activity: combinations to 12! 

Friday 12/5

Working hard on how-to books! 

Progress reports are in your child's folder. I had a one-on-one conversation with each child on Friday about how proud I am of them as well as their goal.  Look forward to sitting down with each of you in the next week or two. 

Have a nice weekend! 

Thursday 12/4

We had two special visitors from Swampscott Public Schools observing our class today to see Scratch Jr in action.  They were super impressed with the projects the first graders have created so far. Their task has been to make one character interact with another character, with obstacles in the way!

Here are some of the reasons why we love coding:

Working together to organize our classroom supplies!  

Tuesday 12/2

Word games- practicing am, an & all and sight words. 

Comparing containers- ask your child which held the greatest amount of water. 

Wednesday 12/3

In Math, our focus is on comparing.  Today our activities were focusing around comparing lengths with nonstandard measurement (cubes).  Check out our vine here

wish list

We are in need of Ziploc bags of all sizes... Snack, sandwich, quart or gallon!

Thank you for your donations :-)

Thanksgiving week

This week I posted my updates on Twitter. Here they are!  Follow me @MrsMelnik1 

I'm also one of adminstators on the Thompson School Facebook page, lots of likes on our pictures already!  

Follow our school's page: https://www.facebook.com/ThompsonSchoolArlington

Appsmashing! Using more than one app to create a project. Visit Kidblog.org/mrsmelnik to see them! 

https://twitter.com/mrsmelnik1/status/537757242276478976

Weather workshop 

https://twitter.com/mrsmelnik1/status/537752408945078272

Thanks to our speech and language teacher for leading a lesson on sentences.  Ask your child to tell you three naming and telling parts about a turkey! 

https://twitter.com/mrsmelnik1/status/537750250732417024

All school assembly https://twitter.com/mrsmelnik1/status/537749241821925376

Happy Thanksgiving!  I'm thankful for you, your children and coming to a place each day that makes me smile. 

https://twitter.com/mrsmelnik1/status/537753953237499906

Monday, 12/1

The focus during Fundations was on glued sounds (-am like ham, -an like fan, -all like ball).  I forgot to take a picture of the many words we thought of with these word families, oops!

The kids had some time to explore Scratch Jr. today.  See the Vine here.

2 new mentor texts for How-To Books.

Math Stations 

Slides and Ladders with doubles 

Compare Cards 

10 is 3 more than 7.

Popcorn

Happy December!  I hope everyone had a nice time with family during Thanksgiving break.  The morning question was to write on the board a yummy food you ate this weekend.  Pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, apple cake, candy!

Saturday I had my high school reunion! Here's a picture with some of my closest friends from Danbury.

Friday

Many of our math activities these next few weeks will focus on comparing numbers.

New game- Stacks! 

Is my tower more, less, or the same as your tower? What could I do to make both our towers equal? 

Thanks to Maya's Mom for sharing her expertise with weather as our Mystery Reader this afternoon! 

Thursday

Writing how-to books! 

Each child started to draw a map of their choice today.. Interesting to see such a wide range of maps!! 

Wednesday 11/19

New unit for writing- how to writing.  

Writing down 5 topics we might write about

Touch and tell- tell your partner what you are going to write. 

Read Aloud:

Visit this link to get a free pass to the discovery museum! 

Tuesday 11/18

What a fun trip to the Discovery Museum in Acton!  Thank you to the PTO for sponsoring this great learning experience for our first graders.

 A few sneak peak pictures... An IMovie will be coming out shortly! 

Monday 11/17

Word games- practicing first grade sight words and bonus letter words. 

A picture from the weekend at my best friends wedding! 

Thanksgiving Food Drive

Thanksgiving Food Drive

Thompson students are participating in a food drive along with the Board of Youth Services to help provide Thanksgiving dinner to Arlington families who need extra support. Gift cards to local grocery stores can be dropped off with Vicki; fresh produce should be dropped off on Tuesday/Wednesday, November 18 & 19; non-perishable items should be dropped off in the main lobby in the bins provided. All donations must be received by Wednesday, November 19. 

Thursday 11/13

I spent the day at the iPad Summit in Boston.

My favorite slide of the day from Meghan Zigmond:

It sounds like the kids had a great day at school!  Picking their own video clip to watch today during Social Studies about an American symbol, song or holiday was a big hit.  

Monday, 11/10

Thanks to everyone that came to our Author Celebration. The kids were really excited to share their small moment stories and America book. If you weren't able to make it, feel free to stop in at drop-off/pick-up and see your child's work.

Check out what some kids made at recess today! It took lots of teamwork.

One of our new bulletin boards in the hallway! 

What the first graders would do if they were president..

Ms. Magni will be spending the next month in Kindergarten (right next door in Ms. Marsh's classroom).  We are so thankful for Ms. Magni's hard work this fall!  At closing circle, the kids shared some of the reasons they will miss her!  She'll be back to visit us over the next few weeks :-) 

Have a wonderful Tuesday, Thanks to all of our Veterans! 

EATS request!

Arlington EATS is looking for donations of syrup and ketchup to complement meals we have planned for the coming weeks. Let us know here if you can help!  Thanks! :-)

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0549a9a62fa4ff2-food

If you ever have a few minutes to spare on a Friday after pick-up, join us in our classroom to see room 108 transform into a shopping center for Arlington EATS!  If you have more time to spare from 2:15-3, 3-5 or 5-5:45, sign up here http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0549a9a62fa4ff2-weekend

Thursday

Learning about another American symbol- the flag! 

Friday

Voting for the Thompson School motto! 

Friday

Voting for the Thompson School motto! 

Parent Forum

    PARENT  FORUM

“Sweet Dreams and Not-So-Sweet Snacks”

                  Thursday, November 20           7-8:30p.m.

              Ottoson Middle School                 for parents Gr. K-12

Join us for a dynamic, informative and interactive discussion on how nutrition and sleep affect children’s progress in school.  You will learn the latest science on nutrition and sleep. Dr. Witkowski and his wife will provide many resources, tips and strategies to help you and your children to discover nutrition and sleep habits that will support their academic progress.

PRESENTERS: 

Dr. Dan and Pam Witkowski are the founders of Wiwat Integrated Lifestyle Medicine (WILM), in Wakefield, Mass. They are dedicated to educating individuals, families, and medical practitioners on how to obtain optimal health and treat chronic disease through nutrition, fitness, stress management and lifestyle design.

Dan and Pam RE THE PARENTS OF SIX CHILDRENAGES 15 TO 29. They are also grandparents, and they have extensive experience working with families with children who experience diverse levels of ability.

Dr. Witkowski,MD is a Lifestyle Medicine physician, and is also board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology. He has a private OB/GYN practice in Melrose and he serves as the Chair of the OB/GYN Department of the Hallmark Health System, which includes Lawrence Memorial Hospital and Melrose-Wakefield Hospital.

Pamela is a retired attorney, entrepreneur and educational speaker.  As WILM’s Wellness Ambassador and Weight Management Program Coordinator, she is committed to educating others.

Wednesday 11/5

Tuesday was a busy day for teachers!  I attended a workshop in the morning for all APS first and second grade teachers that focused on math.  Then I led 2 workshops on integrating technology into the literacy block.  Everyone was super impressed with the iPad projects I shared from the fabulous first graders!

 

Thompson School‏@ThompsonSchool1

Thompson teachers and APS staff had a great day of PD! @MrsMelnik1 was fab - lots of great iPad ideas for Literacy!

• FAVORITES2
• 

5:26 PM - 4 Nov 2014

Math Centers: Focus on adding doubles (videos 1-5 and 6-10) and stations about America (non-standard measurement, fact families, and more!)
Watch this Vine to see math centers in action.