Sturbridge Village

Barn at Sturbridge Village

Yesterday we had our field trip to Sturbridge Village! We were lucky that the rain held out until we were on the bus driving home. We had a great day exploring a typical New England village from the 1800s. During our trip we worked on completing a scavenger hunt. We were looking for examples of goods, services, shelter, and transportation. Today in school we used that information to create Sturbridge Village brochures.

We were very surprised at how different life was in this area in the 1800s! The students got the chance to help some farmers pick potatoes. We also worked on projects in small groups. Some groups made small wooden houses, another group made cookies, and another group used feather pens to create some artwork. We loved exploring the houses from that time period. The different trade shops were also a favorite. We saw the cooper making barrels, the sawmill cutting boards, the gristmill, the shoemaker making leather shoes (Did you know they didn't have left and right shoes back then? Shoes were made straight and you could put them on either foot!), and the carding mill where sheep's wool was made into fabric.

Here's a little peek into our day...

Making Cookies with a Whisk Made from a Bundle of Sticks

Creating Wooden Houses

Picking Potatoes!

Picking Potatoes with the Farmers

These potatoes will be used to feed the livestock during the winter.

Trying out the Stilts in the Schoolyard

All ready for school!

Thank you to all of the parents who helped us with our trip! We had a wonderful time and learned a lot!

Coming soon to a field trip near you!

Map of Old Sturbridge Village

     This Wednesday, October 24th, our class will have our long-awaited field trip to Sturbridge Village! We are leaving school promptly at 9am, so please be sure to be on time for school that day! We will return to school by 2:45, so students will be in time for the afternoon busses.

     An email went home to parents last week outlining the "must knows" for this trip and a hard copy of that same email will be sent home in Monday's communication folder. Please be sure that your child dresses appropriately for the weather on Wednesday. This trip is rain or shine and we will be spending a lot of time outdoors. Lunches should be entirely disposable (i.e. no lunch boxes or plastic containers) and please do not send any glass bottles with your child. Electronic devices are not allowed on this trip.

     While we are at Sturbridge Village, we hope to see how a community functioned long ago and compare it to how our community functions today. We also hope to see goods and services in action! Talk to your child about what they hope to see on the trip! We have looked at maps of Sturbridge Village in social studies, so the children have some ideas of what we will see there. You can also check out their website at www.osv.org to see pictures of the village, a calendar of events, and take a virtual tour.

   Be on the lookout next week for a post containing picture of our trip! We are excited to learn about how a community works together!

Listen to Reading

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”

~~ Emilie Buchwald

    That above quote is SO true. Our children's first experience with books often comes from sitting on a parent's or grandparent's lap, listening to our favorite stories being read to us. It is through this experience that we learn what fluent reading should sound like. It exposes us to new vocabulary, ideas, and genres. Being read to can often help start a life-long love of reading. One of my favorite memories is of my mom reading me a chapter from Stuart Little every night at bedtime when I was about five. To this day I still love that book, and more importantly, I love to read.

   Because of the power of being read to, this past week we introduced the fourth of our daily literacy activities-"Listen to Reading." Listen to reading involves using books on tape or CD and following along with the text while hearing the story read through our headphones.  We have 2 listening centers and each week there are two books at each to listen to. One is a "must read" book, so that we can all experience and discuss the same text, and the other is a choice book. Some weeks there are comprehension activities to go long with the stories and some weeks we listen just for the pure joy of being read to. We spent time as a class discussing the purpose for Listen to Reading  and we came up with the following ideas:

• We can learn new words.
• We can hear good fluency.
• We can practice our comprehension.
• We can hear stories that aren't "just right" books for us to read alone.
• Hearing lots of stories can help us with our writing. (by being exposed to new vocabulary and writing styles)
• It's fun!

  This year we will also be using parent volunteers during our literacy block to read aloud to students one on one, as we work to create literacy-rich environments for all of our students. We can definitely use your help! If you are interested in coming in to read to individual students during our literacy blocks, reading out loud to the entire class as a "guest reader," or if you have children's books on tape or CD that you'd be willing to let us borrow for a week or two-we'd really appreciate the help!

   Keep reading aloud to your children! It is such a powerful tool!

Meet our Pen Pal, Danielle!

Danielle and 3 of her students

Our class has a pen pal this year! Her name is Danielle and she is a Peace Corps volunteer in Cambodia. Danielle is originally from Massachusetts and has been teaching in Cambodia and working in an orphanage. We've been sending letters and pictures back and forth and so far we've learned about the weather in Cambodia, transportation in Cambodia, schools in Cambodia, what houses are like in Cambodia, and we even saw a picture of an elephant that walked through Danielle's village!

Last week our class worked together in groups of two or three students to write a paragraph in a letter to Danielle and create an illustration to go with that paragraph. We wrote about our specials, recess, our classroom, our teachers, and what lunch is like in our school.  Here are a couple of the pictures we sent Danielle:

The blacktop and playground at Floral Street School.

Media time with Mrs. Andreano.

We will share some other pictures that we drew with you later!