Starting the Day by Morgan

Explore Time

In first grade, we don’t have any toys. How do we play? Well, let me tell you. We have lots of books and lots of other things like gems, rods and dice. We also have toy clocks and scales.    Explore time lasts thirty minutes while the kids are coming in for the day.

Sign-in

Every day we sign-in by answering a question. On Monday, we answer, “How are you feeling?” We have black, green, blue and red markers. We write our answers on the white board. I might write happy or sometimes, and this is very rare, someone might write confused. I once made up a question. It was, “What is your favorite flower?”

Daily Math

We have math packets every morning. Every day, it is different math like 28 + 31 = ? or Matt has two dogs. One ran away. How many are left? I like word problems. Sometimes we have animal problems. We might have a chart to fill out.

This is what we do in the morning.

District History

District History

by Emma Anderson, Alexa Butler and Amy Garrison

Ms. Schoolcraft’s class – Equinox

Here’s a bit of history…

by Emma and Alexa

The Old Williston Schools

Up until 1940 there were a dozen one-room school houses. Albert D. Lawton said in 1935, “We need one school with more than one room.” Why did he say that? Transportation and maintenance at the old school houses cost too much. In 1949 the old village school house burned and collapsed.

The First Addition

By early October 1950 WCS was ready. But it only had 8 classrooms. The school’s population was growing rapidly. The addition was under construction from 1954–1955. The addition had an  assembly room used for Physical Education, it involved a Cafeteria and a stage and 2 new classrooms. Now, those 2 classrooms are combined to make the Mansfield art room.

The Second Addition

At the end of the 1950s the school needed EVEN MORE space. They needed more space for two classrooms and then six classrooms. Mr. Hazen Wood said two additional teachers would be needed right away. He thought there should be more classrooms now instead of waiting until the next year. The theory came from the town saving money for the following years.

The Third Addition

Soon, they needed EVEN MORE classrooms and a new gym and and a cafeteria. There was The Williston School Planning Group. They prepared for the next addition. The sewer system was bad and needed to be bigger. And they needed more classrooms for foreign language.

The Fourth Addition

In 1968-1990 there was a construction break, a BIG break! Soon, that came to an end. The town demanded an addition. The school had to handle 250 students in the new space. The town said every 4 classrooms should have a kiva, a teacher space and a project room and outside should have a greenhouse. What was surprising was the school board wanted a pool but that’s where the town put their foot down.

Life As A Teacher  

By Amy

The life of a teacher was hard. S/he would live close to the school and would earn $900 a year.

All kids walked to school and helped clean the school house. The first student to school would build a fire for warmth and to bake lunch. All students brought a potato to bake for lunch. The little kids went to recess @ 2:00 to 3:00 because big kids go out at exactly 3:00. All anybody would say is life as a teacher was hard, very hard.

And. now for the big news…

My Interview with Mr. Robert Mitchell (Former Administrator)

by Emma

In my interview with Mr. Mitchell I learned about two very interesting things, the canopy and the pool. There was a pool included in the fourth addition plans. Mr. Mitchell didn’t think that the town would approve it. When he told me about the pool, I was mad at first because it would have been awesome to have a pool. But I finally agreed with his reasons for not wanting to include it in the addition.

He told me a story about a canopy over the old entrance where all the kids entered and exited the school. One day, there was a noise. “It was so loud!” Robert Mitchell said. Part of the canopy had collapsed. There was no spot to let the kids out. “It was a very challenging day for everybody in the school.”

As Mr. Mitchell looks back he realized that he really enjoyed being a classroom teacher and he would have been happy being in the classroom his whole life. He had been a teacher in Burlington where he taught science and health and then was assistant and co-principal in Williston.

All I really want to say is thank you Mr. Mitchell and thank you for your time and the history of Williston Central School.

 

About The Authors

EMMA- I am a third grader in Equinox House and I have Sarah Schoolcraft as a teacher.  She is very supportive about my group’s writing.

AMY- I am a student also in Sarah Schoolcraft’s class and I joined the group late but still participated by writing the section about the teachers.

ALEXA- I love to write as well and am glad to have participated in this article.

 

Source: The History of Williston Central School, 1950 to 2000 by Richard H. Allen

 

Let’s Celebrate

Brianna

We had a police dog come to Allen Brook School. It was outstanding.

We had filled our whole school ‘buzzy jar.’ Each time it’s filled we come together for a celebration. We have filled it six times. Every time, Mr. Terko and Mrs. Tatlock come around in bee costumes. We’ve had lots of celebrations. We have watched the preschoolers doing a dance, wearing monkey costumes. It was really cute. We’ve had Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Most of us had mint chocolate chip! Once, Mr. Terko played the drums and Mr. Bolger played the guitar and sang. They were really good.

One time we all did the ‘honey bee.’ This is a fun dance that we learned from a video. It’s easy to catch on to this dance. All of the celebrations were in the gym.

Last month was when we had the police dog and police men come to school. They explained what police dogs do. They save the police men and women when they are in trouble and when a child is lost they sniff them down. They follow robbers’ footprints to where they are hiding.

Just April vacation we had filled the buzzy jar again! For our seventh celebration, we had teachers from Thailand come for a special presentation. They danced, showed us some Thailand fighting and yoga. They also had an instrument from Thailand. It like a flute but it’s wooden and it only has one open hole for your finger.  The sound was very pretty. The Thailand performance was amazing.

I hope our next buzzy celebration is as exciting as the others have been.

Mosaic Passion Projects

By Taylor  and Jada

    Have you ever had something that you loved and wanted to learn more about it? Then you should do passion projects.

Every single student in Mosaic house does Passion projects.

    Passion means something you adore, like your dog, your favorite

singer, your favorite football team, or even pancakes. For our projects,  we usually have three, one hour and a half sessions to do all of the research.

   Then you have a week to start typing all of your notes, but it has to be complete sentences. After you’ve written up your notes you can design anything you want such as a cake, a Power Point if you like the computers, or a tri-fold if you like to be crafty. Also, you can make a board game, and you can even have some of your friends act in a play.  But the project has to be relevant to your passion.

    Once all projects were completed, we invited all of the parents and students from Mosaic to see all of the wonderful projects.

 

Jada’s Passion is Women’s Soccer

I made a tri-fold and put black hexagons on it to make  a huge soccer ball. I put facts on the black hexagons about the history of soccer. I love soccer!  If you like kicking around objects into goals then you will LOVE  soccer, too!  I would  love to be on a soccer team with my favorite player, Abby Wambach.

    Taylor’s Passion is Gymnastics            Taylor demonstrates a back bend to bridge pose.

The reason I choose gymnastics this year is because I love to be active and do flips, cartwheels and more. I just started lessons but I’ve been practicing at home and at an open gym where people can come and do gymnastics. I love to have lots of experiences with different types of equipment.

    My favorite gymnast is Gabby Douglas.

In Conclusion

If you are a student, maybe you can ask your teacher if you can do passion projects in your class.   TAKE LOTS OF PHOTOS and show lots of people!  You can even do it with friends at your house.

Continental Mathematics League Winners – Grades 3 and 4

The Grade Four First Place winner is Julia! Aidan and Rylee are two of the three winners tied for second place. Shown above with Mrs. Poirot.

Sunny also won a second place medal for Grade four.

Shown left to right: CML Coordinator Mrs. Poirot, second place medal winner Erik Schneider and first place winner Matteo.

Congratulations to all of our medal winners and to over eighty other third and fourth graders who participated in the Continental Mathematics League this year.

Math Enrichment

by Rory Anderson and Peyton Jones

     Do you know that there is something called Math Enrichment?

     Math Enrichment is extra math for kids who need an extended challenge. The Enrichment room is located in between Ms.Kennedy’s music room and the tech lab.  Its always serious topics that we have conversations about and you only have one chance to bring your folder and homework in or you have to talk with your teacher. Then, next time you forget it, you have to talk with  your parents.

     In the Enrichment room, when you are working on an exit task or homework that you are just getting started on, it is very silent.   There  are different  sessions. At the beginning of each session if you’re new in the group you can pick a folder that is red, clear, black or blue. There are eight weeks in every session.

     A lot of the problems we do are exciting and challenging.   Some of the problems involve fractions.   Fractions are when you divide a  certain amount of space into smaller sections.  Betty Poirot runs math Enrichment for grades K-4.

     One part of  Math Enrichment is the Continental Mathematics League Program. The Enrichment teachers purchase materials from the company and then provide a training for interested volunteers. Volunteers teach small groups of kids who want an extra math challenge. This year about one hundred kids participated.

     Lastly, we have an  example of  a problem for you to solve, have fun doing it. Good luck!

          Find two consecutive  counting #’s that add to each of the following  sums. ( Consecutive counting  #’s  are those that you say in order  when you are counting. The smallest counting # is 1.)

  15=___+ ___        18=___ + ___

             57=___+ ___             58=___+___

           229=___ + ___        228=___+ ___

    What did you notice about all of the sums above?  Were all of them possible to solve?  Why or why not?

     Now try the same thing for three consecutive counting numbers.

    15=__ +  __ + __        18=__ + __ + __

    57=__ +__+ __            58=__+ __

    229=__  + __ + __        228=__ + __ + __

(This problem is from Extending the Challenge in Mathematics.)

Caine’s Arcade at ABS

   Adarsh is shown by the prizes.

 

 

 

 

 

Mrs. Powers’ Class Takes On The Caines’ Arcade Cardboard Challenge

by Addison Urch, Olivia Paquette, Ava Medici and Grant Schroeder

    Have you ever heard of Caine’s Arcade? Well, let us tell you all about it. Caine is a nine year old boy. He made an arcade out of cardboard. Our class was inspired by him. We made our own arcade  that is mostly made out of cardboard and duct tape. Mrs. Powers’ class created a Caine’s Arcade at Allen Brook School. This was a fundraiser for the charity Imagination Foundation.

    We put together pieces of cardboard to make some of our favorite arcade games. We duct-taped spoons to clips so you could chuck a ball into a cup. We made a Desert Ramp Rabbit game. We made a rabbit out of a lego car and used clay to make it a rabbit. You tried to roll the rabbit down the ramp and into the hole.

    We also made ‘The Claw.’ We used a hook, tied it to string and used pipe cleaners with a number attached. You had to pick up the pipe cleaner. You’d pull it out and you could trade  in the numbers for prizes.

    We invited other classes in Horizon and asked them to play our games. Each game cost twenty-five cents. They loved it because it was really fun and they could earn prizes.

We raised over $200. We kept ten percent for our class and will donate $180.00! We will give it to Caine’s Scholarship fund for his college. It will matched and that money goes to The Imagination Foundation. This foundation supports children and encourages them to be young entrepreneurs.  We were proud that we could give money to the charity.