Happy Holidays!

Wishing you and your family a very happy holiday season,
and a Happy New Year! 

I hope that winter break is filled with family, friends, fun, and laughter. 

See you in 2016. 

Here are some highlights from today: 

Who doesn't love fuzzy socks?! 

School is more fun in PJs and fuzzy socks.
We even had some special guests, including LinLin the Panda and Teddy the dog. 

We filled a star with STARbucks. We watched Frosty and enjoyed a Popsicle to celebrate.  

Everyone is ready for the (used) book swap! 

Anjum reading her note from Dakota. 

Dakota reading his homemade card from Julia. 

Anjum giving the book she chose for Angelina 

Wow! Everyone did a great job choosing a book for their secret pal! 

That's a Wrap!

• Winter break begins next Thursday. Wednesday is a full day of school.
• The holiday book swap is on Wednesday, December 23rd. Please see previous post for more info.
• Today was Benjamin Landry's last day at Memorial. We wish him the best of luck! 
• Congratulations to Angelina, Lukesh, Amber, and Paul for being nominated for the Wall of Fame. Each of these students demonstrated tremendous bravery this week. 
• Great job to fourth and fifth graders at the winter concert!

Math: We are working on Topic 6, which is all about multiplying decimals. We've been using money to talk about this concept. You can ask your child questions like, "If this loaf of bread costs $3.49, how much would 3 cost?"

Social Studies: Our explorer projects are finished! The students did a great job presenting them. 

Jessica did a great job presenting her project. 

Student took notes on their "explorer cards" as their classmates presented.

Arshiyah taught us a lot about Christopher Columbus! 

Science: We began our classification unit this week. Ask your child to sing the Five Traits song. We also did an activity demonstrating the complexity of a food web. Ask your child the difference between a food chain and a food web. 

Ava acted as the sun- the center of the food web. 

I got caught in the middle! 

Our wetland ecosystem- who consumes whom?! 

Reading: We are in the middle of Hatchet right now. We are identifying figurative language, themes, problems and solutions while reading this intense book. Ask your child what happened to Brian when he ate the "gut cherries." 

Writing: We are working on setting personal goals, as well as others around school, family and friends. The students are putting these goals into a piece of writing about the new year. 

Enjoy the weekend! 

                                               

Book Fair

Please see Ms. Small's blog post about the upcoming book fair 

    Dear parent(s)/guardian(s),

The whole school is excited about our upcoming Book Fair. An amazing selection of books will be in our library December 14th-18th! The latest and finest titles for kids can be found at the Book Fair, as well as books of interest to parents. The Book Fair is a great way to get everyone excited about reading. And, you can contribute books to your child's classroom library.

Your child will preview the books on: Tuesday, December 15th

Your child will have the opportunity to purchase books on:  Thursday, December 17th

You may come into the library from 8:00 a.m. until 2:45 p.m. during the entire week to purchase books. A limited supply of gift wrapping will be available as well.

If you would like to purchase books online, you may do so here:

http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/memoriallearningcommons

Attached is a flyer to get a glimpse of some of the great books we have.

See you at the Book Fair,

Rachel

Rachel V. Small

Teacher Librarian, Memorial Elementary School

rsmall@bpsk12.org

(781) 273-7656

MemorialLearningCommons.blogspot.com

#BPSMemorial

P.S. If you would like to volunteer at the Book Fair, please fill out this form: http://goo.gl/forms/suuFWcfRMu

Holiday (used) book swap

Holiday used Book Swap

To celebrate the spirit of giving, our class will be having a book swap on Wednesday, December 23rd. Each child has randomly chosen another student to receive their book.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Take a look at the books you have at home that you are done reading (please do not purchase a book!).
• Think about which book you think your person would enjoy.
• Choose a book that you’ve read and that is in pretty good shape.
• Wrap your gift or put it in a gift bag (let me know if you need help with this! I have plenty of wrapping paper)
• Write them a thoughtful note on the inside cover, including a compliment to your friend. Remember that it needs to be an inside compliment! Also, explain why you chose this book for your friend. If you’d prefer to make a homemade card, that works too!
• Bring in the gift on Wednesday, December 23rd.

I've shared a Google Doc with the students where they can fill in the type of book/topics they enjoy. 

Be sure to check that out when thinking about a book for your secret person! 

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Burlington Food Pantry

Help Make a Difference and Donate to the Food Pantry

Memorial School is partnering with the Burlington Food Pantry this year to help support Burlington residents in need during the holiday season. We are looking for people to donate unexpired, non-perishable food. The Food Pantry is also looking for the following items for the Christmas/holiday bonus:

Frosting

cake mix

cookie mix

sprinkles

holiday cookies

holiday candies

and…

toothpaste

shampoo

bars of soap

dish soap

Memorial 5th Grade Student Council will be collecting the items to donate to the Food Pantry. You can send items to school with your child to be put in a donation box in their classroom. Items will be collected through the month of December and brought to the Food Pantry on Monday December 21st.

Letter from Travis Roy

We wrote a letter to Travis Roy to follow up with the lesson that my father did with us. We are thankful that Travis took so much time answering our questions. Check out his reply!

Dear Neil, Cole, Fabiola, Julia, Paul, Tyler, Dakota, Amber, Jessica K., Lukesh, Barack, Angelina, Ava, Matthew, Jessica W., Samantha, Sujvalita, Benjamin, Arshiyah, and Ms. Conceison,

My apologies for not getting back to you sooner. I just got back from visiting my parents in Florida. I want to thank you for your letter. It's always fun to hear from students that learn about my story. Let me answer a few of your questions.

-How did it feel being on the ice when my accident happened?

It was the most surreal, awkward, weird moment of my life. It was strange lying on the ice, but not being able to feel the cold beneath me. It was also strange laying face down against the ice and not being able to lift my head up, not to mention move my arms or legs. It was like somebody was holding my head down and I couldn't do anything about it. Right away I knew I was paralyzed, which made me very sad, but I never cried or freaked out at all. In fact I was quite calm throughout the entire process of the medical staff getting me off the ice and into the ambulance.

-Do I still keep in touch with some of my friends from BU?

When I went back to BU after my accident, it was a very difficult time for me. Truthfully I didn't make many friends. I had some good acquaintances that I spent some time with, but I didn't have any close friends. Dan Ronan, one of my teammates and roommate before my injury, definitely tried to help me out and was there when I needed him. Chris Drury, who was one of my linemates the night of my injury and later went on to play in the NHL and the Olympics, was also pretty good to me. The truth was I wasn't very comfortable in my own skin and being paralyzed. It took me over five years to find my confidence and understand my life as a quadriplegic.

-How did this accident change my life mentally?

It made me realize that I'm a much stronger person than I thought I was. Every aspect of my day, and every interaction I have with the people around me, is very different from what it was before my accident. I'm proud of what I've accomplished and I am incredibly grateful for the support I've received from my family, friends, and strangers alike. At the same time I'm not as excited about life as I used to be. It was a lot more fun being a star athlete and working towards my goals. I like to say for the first 20 years of my life I had a "passion" to be the best that I could as hockey player, now I have a "purpose" to be the best as I can as a person and advocate for people with paralysis.

-How much of an effect did this accident have on me in a good way?

Since my accident, I've met amazing people and traveled to great places around the country. In some ways it has strengthened my relationship with my family and friends. As complicated as my day-to-day life is as far as getting bathed and dressed and other accessibility issues, what is important to me has become very clear. In fact even though I'm paralyzed, I often look around at my peers and realize I'm living a more satisfying life than many of them, even though they are able-bodied. A lot of this goes back to my 10 rules of life. My rules regarding friends, family, pride, love, respect, and not taking things for granted, are still incredibly important to me. In fact my life is saturated with these values and how they touched my life. I have so much love for the people that are important to me, and I feel that love reciprocated back to me. My work with the TRF is very fulfilling, and I'm proud of the people we've helped and look forward to the research we have been funding paying off, so that we can end paralysis as we know it.

-Did I consider myself a positive person before my accident?

Absolutely, I have always been an optimist. It has become clear to me that next to my family and friends, that my optimism is probably my most valuable assets. Life is so much easier, and karma flows more positively, when you have that optimistic attitude. I feel bad for people that struggle to find the positives in life, and actually enjoy being pessimists.

Thanks for your questions, they were great.

Warmest wishes,

Travis

Thank you, Memorial!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. My father and I spent some of our Thanksgiving Day at the St. Francis House in Boston serving food to those who needed it. I asked my homeroom students to make cards for me to bring. I also reached out to the other teachers and many Memorial students participated. I brought close to 200 cards with me! I set them at each place setting and everyone who read them had a smile on his/her face. I promised one man that I would share his message. He told me to make sure the children knew that they touched the hearts of many homeless people. He went on to say that reading the cards was better than the meal. 

Many of the people we served took the cards with them. Thanks to everyone who participated in this! Your small act of creating something with construction paper and a simple "Happy Thanksgiving" 

made a very big impact.

St. Francis House tweeted "thank you" to all of you! 

The tables were all set with your lovely cards! 

                                       

Gratitude

I wish you and your families a wonderful holiday filled with family, friends, gratitude, and laughter! 

Yesterday was a very special day in Room 235. Many family members of the students in our classroom joined us to hear each student give a speech about what they are thankful for. The students have been working diligently to write and rehearse their speeches. I think anyone who was witnessed this yesterday would agree that their public speaking skills were nothing short of amazing. All too often, we are rushing around in our lives. The students reminded us yesterday that it's important to take a moment to be reflective and feel thankful for all of the good in our lives. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this special event yesterday. I certainly have a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving!


Our special day continued after the speeches. Our class filled up the compliment jar, so their prize was to have a special guest come teach a lesson. I invited my favorite teacher in to teach the class. My father, who taught in Burlington for many years, taught a lesson about setting goals, overcoming obstacles, and appreciating the things we have in life.  He did this by using Travis Roy's book Eleven Seconds. If you're not familiar with the story, here's more info. Mr. C asked the students to close their eyes and think about a goal they want to achieve 20 years from now. He timed them for eleven seconds and then we talked about how short that time felt. When Travis graduated from Tabor Academy in 1995, he gave a speech on his 10 Rules of Life. Students broke into groups, read the rules, and we talked about what each rule meant. We were blown away by their insight and maturity when discussing each of these rules. When asked what their biggest take-away was from this lesson, one student replied, "It doesn't matter if you change on the outside, you will always be the same on the inside." Big thanks to Mr. Conceison for spending time with us yesterday!

Scholastic Reading Club

Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub

One-Time Class Activation Code: LPJXW

Dear Families,

Encouraging reading is one of the most important things we can do to help your child succeed. It can be tough finding the right books to keep them interested, which is why I am so excited that our class will be participating in Scholastic Reading Club this school year.

With Scholastic Reading Club: 

- Every book you buy earns FREE Books for our classroom library 

- You can choose from handpicked, grade- and reading-level-specific books for your child

- You'll find the best values on a variety of formats

Each month, your child will bring home Reading Club flyers. Together you can choose from books hand-selected by teachers and experts, and then order online or send your order form and payment to me. 

I'd also love some help growing our classroom Reading Club. If you'd like to help out, please let me know! I'm excited to get our class reading! 

Thank you for your support, 

Ms. Conceison

If This Is Your First Time Ordering Online:

- VISIT scholastic.com/readingclub

- ENTER the one-time Class Activation Code (top of this letter)

- SHOP from a carefully curated selection of the best books and value packs

- SUBMIT your order and earn FREE Books for our classroom

- All book orders will be shipped to school! 

That's a Wrap Edition VII

Here are some things to talk about this weekend...

• We had the Veteran's Day assembly on Monday. It was a great way to honor the day. 
• We have a new student starting on Monday. Over the weekend, each student needs to make a welcome card for Ben. Please see the homework tab for details. 
• Ask your child to show you "Double, Double, This, This." It was a tricky energizer we did a morning meeting. 

Math: We finished up our unit on dividing by 1 digit divisors. As your child to tell you the sentence we use to remember that steps to division. We will have one more review day on Monday and then the topic 4 test will be on Tuesday. 

Social Studies: We did an activity with latitude and longitude and then began research for explorer projects. Students are using online sources as well as books to take notes and to track their sources. They are doing a wonderful job so far! 

Science: Ms. P from the science center just sent us some materials for our next unit on food webs. We will begin that when we finish explorers. 

Reading: We worked on tracking our thinking while reading Fish in a Tree. Students were asked to describe any "mind movies" that happened as the events in the book unfolded. This is a great strategy to promote visualization. 

Writing: We're wrapping up our Thanksgiving speeches and starting to practice  reading them. We also talked about nouns: common, proper, plural, irregular plural, OH MY!

                                               

Important Info: 

• Please consider paying your PTO dues to help support all of the wonderful work that our PTO does! There are many events, especially in fifth grade, that are subsidized by the PTO. 
• Erin Moulton, the author of Keepers of Labyrinth series, will be at the public library TODAY at 3:30 for an afternoon of craffts, contests, trivia, and prizes! 
• Thanksgiving Speeches will take place on November 24th at 9:30
• I have e-mailed parents to set up or confirm conferences. Please e-mail me if anything changes. 
• I'll be using the Remind app to send out quick reminders to parents. Be sure to sign up if you haven't yet!  Text @mconcei to 81010. You'll receive quick reminders from me right to your phone. No need to download the app. 

Enjoy the weekend! 

That's a Wrap! Edition VI

Here are some things to talk about this weekend...

• We had our first Class Meeting this week. Ask your child what went on! I was so proud of them.
• Student Council has been working on some great things to improve our school.

Math: We are continuing to work on dividing by 1-digit divisors. One of the most challenging lessons this week was interpreting remainders.  

Social Studies: We had our quiz on the seven reasons to explore today. Everyone did a great job! Ask your child if they can sing the Latitude and Longitude song to you. 

Science: We had the Star Lab this week. Ask your child about what they saw inside. 

Reading: We worked on tracking our thinking while reading Fish in a Tree. Students were asked to describe any "mind movies" that happened as the events in the book unfolded. This is a great strategy to promote visualization. 

Writing: We continued working on Thanksgiving speeches and simile poems. We've talked a lot about revising and editing. I've been encouraging the students to vary their sentence types. We did a sentence sort activity that was frustrating at first, but everyone persevered through it! We also had the test on sentences today. 

  

                                                

Important Info: 

• Please consider paying your PTO dues to help support all of the wonderful work that our PTO does! There are many events, especially in fifth grade, that are subsidized by the PTO. 
• Erin Moulton, the author of Keepers of Labyrinth series, will be at the public library on Friday, Nov. 13th at 3:30 for an afternoon of craffts, contests, trivia, and prizes! 
• Pictures went home today- I'm sorry they didn't get in their mailboxes yesterday! 
• Thanksgiving Speeches will take place on November 24th at 9:30
• Sign up for conferences at the following link OR e-mail me to schedule an appointment for December 3rd.  http://bit.ly/1VRHYfk 
• I'll be using the Remind app to send out quick reminders to parents. Be sure to sign up if you haven't yet!  Text @mconcei to 81010. You'll receive quick reminders from me right to your phone. No need to download the app. 

Enjoy the weekend! 

That's a Wrap! Edition V

Here are some things to talk about this weekend...

• We had our first Class Meeting this week. Ask your child what went on! I was so proud of them.
• Congratulations to Paul and Cole for being recognized at Wall of Fame! 
• Student Council has been working on some great things to improve our school.
• We had the pumpkin vocabulary parade on Monday. The 5th graders represented science and social studies words. 

Math: My math class had their test on Topic 3 yesterday and we began topic 4 today. Topic 4 is all about dividing by 1-digit divisors. I gave out an optional math challenge to students. This is due by November 5th. 

Social Studies: We have been learning about the Vikings this week, and we will start our explorers project next week. There will be a quiz on the Seven Reasons to Explore next Friday. 

Science: Mr. Musselman is coming in next week to do a star lab activity with us. Looking forward to it! 

Reading: We finished Morning Girl this week and took a short assessment on it. Students had to compare and contrast the two characters, Star Boy and Morning Girl. We had a very interesting discussion after reading chapter 5. There is quite a bit of figurative language in this book. Students were on the hunt to find examples in the text and they did a great job. One group even found a cliche, without even going over what that meant! 

Writing: We continued working on Thanksgiving speeches in ELA. The students are also creating simile poems based on a section of Morning Girl, where she uses similes to describe her appearance. I will post some examples on the blog when they're finished. 

Important Info: 

• Please consider paying your PTO dues to help support all of the wonderful work that our PTO does! 
• There is an important PTO meeting next Thursday. We will be talking about Title 1 math support. It will be a good conversation to join. Please consider coming! 
• Erin Moulton, the author of Keepers of Labyrinth series, will be at the public library next Friday, Nov. 13th at 3:30 for an afternoon of craffts, contests, trivia, and prizes! 
• Order forms went home today for Memorial Pride clothing. 
• Thanksgiving Speeches will take place on November 24th
• Sign up for conferences at the following link OR e-mail me to schedule an appointment for December 3rd.  http://bit.ly/1VRHYfk 
• I'll be using the Remind app to send out quick reminders to parents. Be sure to sign up if you haven't yet!  Text @mconcei to 81010. You'll receive quick reminders from me right to your phone. No need to download the app. 

Enjoy the weekend! 

That's a Wrap! Edition IV

Here are some things to talk about this weekend....

• Take a look at the videos Mrs. Dressler posted of our dance party here: Memorial School: Whole School Dance Party
• Congratulations to Dakota for being recognized on the Wall of Fame this week. Every time I look around in the morning or at dismissal, he is helping out around the classroom without being asked. 
• Ms. Martin came in to discuss ways to name our feelings through the Zones of Regulation. This is good language to use at home, as well.

Math: My math class is finishing up Topic 3. Ask your child to describe the Distributive Property to you. It was the most challenging lesson in this topic!  

Social Studies: We have been discussing the Seven Reasons to Explore this week. We began our unit on Explorers with a Jigsaw activity.  One of the discussion questions was: What fears do you think explorers faced? Ask your child about the fears we discussed. 

Science: The Solar System quizzes went home on Wednesday. I always allow students to do test corrections on social studies and science quizzes. They have the chance to earn back half of the points they lost if they correct their mistakes. Assessments are learning tools, too! 

Reading: We have continued reading Morning Girl this week. Students are comparing and contrasting the two characters, Star Boy and Morning Girl. We had a very interesting discussion after reading chapter 5. Morning Girl was curious to find out what she looks like because they didn't have mirrors in the 1400's. I asked the class to respond to the question "How would life be different if you couldn't see your reflection? Would you like this? Why or why not?" Ask your child how they'd feel about that! 

Writing: We continued working on Thanksgiving speeches in ELA. I challenged the students to come up with inviting leads and creative conclusions. Wait until you hear their speeches! We have also been learning about different types of sentences, how to correct fragments, and subjects and predicates. 

Check out our whole school dance party! 

Important Info: 

• Please consider paying your PTO dues to help support all of the wonderful work that our PTO does! 
• Order forms went home today for Memorial Pride clothing. 
• Vocab parade is Monday, October 26th
• Thanksgiving Speeches will take place on November 
• Sign up for conferences at the following link OR e-mail me to schedule an appointment for December 3rd.  http://bit.ly/1VRHYfk 
• I'll be using the Remind app to send out quick reminders to parents. Be sure to sign up if you haven't yet!  Text @mconcei to 81010. You'll receive quick reminders from me right to your phone. No need to download the app. 

Enjoy the weekend! 

That's a Wrap! Edition III

Here are some things to talk about this weekend....

• We had Wall of Fame today. Be sure to ask who was recognized & what they did to get put on the "wall!" 
• Mrs. Dressler met with fifth graders about our whole school reward for filling up the Responsibility rocket. We are going to do a fun dance on Tuesday as school! 

Math: My math class is in the middle of Topic 3, which is on whole number multiplication. We've been rounding numbers and estimating products. We've been working on the properties of multiplication. As your child to explain them and to share the difference between a factor and multiple.  Multiplication facts are very important during this topic! Your child should be doing Reflex math three times per week. 

Social Studies: We will begin our unit on explorers next week.

Science: We wrapped up our unit on the moon and the solar system today. There will be a quiz on Monday. Please see the homework tab on my blog for study information. 

Reading: We started the book Morning Girl by Michael Dorris. Ask your child to describe Morning Girl and Star Boy to you. They're siblings who are very different! The students will be using Google Classroom to answer questions about the book for homework. Some students are saying that they're having hard time logging on. Here are directions: 

Writing: All homeroom classes began brainstorming and organizing for Thanksgiving speeches. We talked about having an "attitude of gratitude" and that Thanksgiving is the perfect time to express that. Notices about the event went home today. In ELA, the students published their moment in time writing on Book Creator and shared those with their classmate. They had a "critic" in the audience whose job was to give the author feedback on his/her writing. 

Important Info: 

• Please consider paying your PTO dues to help support all of the wonderful work that our PTO does! 
• Sign up for conferences at the following link OR e-mail me to schedule an appointment for December 3rd.  http://bit.ly/1VRHYfk 
• I'll be using the Remind app to send out quick reminders to parents. Be sure to sign up if you haven't yet!  Text @mconcei to 81010. You'll receive quick reminders from me right to your phone. No need to download the app. 

Enjoy the weekend!