December 1, 2009 Issue 1

Notes from the Principal www.bvsvt.org

Mrs. Cherrington
Dates to
I would like to begin by wishing everyone a happy Remember
holiday season. We are looking forward to the
Winter Concert on December 10th at 6:30. The • Dec. 7: H1N1 Flu Clinic
backdrop this year will be filled with art projects that • Dec. 10: Winter Concert
the children have completed with Mrs. Trimpi. The 6:30
following week on December 17th the children will • Dec. 17: K-6 to WUHS
enjoy an African Music and Dance Ensemble at the for Drumming Program
Middle School. The program begins at 8:45. The • Dec. 23-Jan. 1: Holiday
performance will last 30 minutes and then there will Recess/No Classes
be a 15 minutes audience participation segment. The • Jan. 8: Ski/Skate
Winter School break begins on December 23 and Runners Begins
runs until our return on January 4, 2010. • Jan. 18: Martin Luther
Bridgewater Village King Day/No Classes
School Bear • Feb. 8: Grades 3-6 to
Illustrations Provided Pentangle
by the Sixth Grade Mrs. Grinold’s class is
• Feb. 15-19: Winter
collecting children’s
Recess/No Classes
socks, hats, and mittens
• Mar. 19: Grades 1-5 to
for women and children.
Pentangle
The donations will go to a
local Women’s Shelter.

The Bridgewater Village School’s staff is enjoying its

tradition of making wreaths for purchase. Proceeds will
go to area families who are in need. Decorated wreaths
are $15 and undecorated wreaths are $10.

HOLIDAY CONCERT!
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10TH 6:30
Students should be in their
classrooms by 6:15
 The Classes

Kindergarten Corner
The Kindergarten class has been making connections to
numbers in math. We have been using a daily question
we call “ Today’s Question “ to have conversations
about numbers and how we use numbers in the world.
Our most recent discovery was about the number 65.
This number connected us to the Pilgrim’s voyage on
the Mayflower. The voyage took 65 days. If you count
the letters in Alixx, Emilee, Lara, Hailey, Mackenzie,
Kelly, Diane, Mrs. Fitzpatrick, Sophia and use the
word,” count”, it totals 65!

First and Second Grade Update

We have been working on an exciting writing and technology
project over the past couple of months! We have discovered a
new way to use Pixie...to help us write literature responses. We
learned that a literature response is something you write about a
book you read and it answers a question about the book.
Our first response was to the book, Ghost Wings by Barbara
Joose. This is a beautiful book about a girl’s relationship with her
grandmother. We answered these questions: “What special
things do the girl and her grandmother enjoy doing together?
Who is a special person in your life and what do you enjoy doing with that person?”
Our next response was to the book, Franklin’s Halloween by Paulette Bourgeois. This delightful book is about a
turtle named Franklin and his Halloween adventures. For this response, we answered the questions, “What
Halloween traditions do Franklin and his friends celebrate? What is a holiday you celebrate and what traditions do
you enjoy on that holiday?”
At Friday Morning Meeting, we also presented a literature response to the Magic Tree House book, Thanksgiving on
Thursday by Mary Pope Osborne. Look for first and second grade Pixie slides in this newsletter!
 The Classes
Where in the World is What BVS is
Bridgewater, Vermont? collecting
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Mrs. Grinold’s Third and Fourth Grade /0*!1$!/&''$/,$2!0,!
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The third and fourth grade class have been 54.6!7&1)*.&*!)*!,#$!
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studying physical geography. The third grade !
students have created brochures that show the • Campbell’s Soup
physical geography, natural resources, and Labels
• Box Tops for
climate of a community in the United States.
Education
Then they wrote a paragraph to persuade a person • Silver Tabs from
to visit the community. This culminated with a aluminum cans
short presentation to the class. Next, the children !
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created relief maps out of homemade “play do” 24&<!&%%!=&>4!?@!
to show the physical geography of Bridgewater. 4$/=/'01'$!!"#$%&#$'
“Mrs. Grinold, I’m not finished yet!”
The fourth grade group has been (!&)'0*2'*"!))'+,--".)!
investigating two geographic landforms )*!%4&*,!&%!,#$!./#&&'6!
and water bodies in the U.S. and another
part of the world. They have !
been gathering facts about each
place and will construct a relief
map to show the geographic
features of the landform or body
of water. The landforms include:
the coastline of Oregon and
Iceland (Ethan), The Mississippi
and Nile Rivers (Jacob), The
Jed, Matt, and Zac consider the physical Rocky and Himalayan
features of Bridgewater. Mountains (Daniel), the Great
Lakes and Lake Victoria Emma contemplates Lake Victoria in Africa.
(Emma). The students will write
a short report about their two locations to display with the maps in the
hallway. It has been interesting to compare two very diverse regions of
the world!

Fifth Grade
Starbase Experiences
The fifth grade class has recently finished their five days at Starbase. It was a
special opportunity for the students to explore science in a different
environment. Hear is what they had to say:
“Starbase was a fun, exciting and heart pounding adventure for me.” Chicken
Farmer (Ezra Astbury)
“Fun and exciting!” Autumn Leaf (McKayla Potwin)
“Teamwork, excitement and control.” Flame (Dune Mayberger)

(Continued on next page)

 The Classes

Fifth Grade (continued)

“Whoosh the rocket shoots off into the air. How exciting!”
Dolphin Rider (Heather Blanchard)
“Starbase is a fun, exciting, wonderful and educational.” Dragon
Lover (Aidan Mayberger)
“Starbase is the most fun I have ever had. I loved the
Hovercraft.” Rose (Stephanie Hendricks)
“I am still flabbergasted! Amazing!” Ace (Andrew Buchan-
Groff)
“I liked the Hovercraft the most. It was one of the best times I’ve
had in school.” Little Buck (Jacob Sawyer)
“My favorite part was launching the rockets. Mine went 200 feet one way, then 300 feet the other way and I
had to run while chasing to catch it.” Sporty (Jordan Allard)
“Starbase was an awesome place. I learned about all types of sciences. I
loved when we rode the Hovercraft.” Autumn (Teresa Ennis)
“I liked when we launched the rockets.” Dark Hawk (Jarrett
Hoisington)
“Starbase is amazing and building rockets is so much fun!” Fire rocket
(Daniel Robinson)
“I liked when we had to build our aircraft for Eggbert’s Crash landing.
It was really hard to do with one hand.” Firecracker (Mariah Luce)

Sixth Grade
Horton Comes Alive
by Paitra Martin and Natausha Smallwood

The 6th graders read the book Horton Hears A Who! by Dr.Seuss.
Even though it is a picture book, there are many themes and messages
for kids and adults. First we analyzed the book for ideas that are important in our own lives. For example a
person is a person no matter how small. This means everybody should be treated the same, no matter how
small they are, their ages, or appearance. Teamwork is another theme. An example of this is working
cooperatively with a partner on a project or activity. Some other themes were friendship and do not take from
others. We then connected the themes to our own lives and to the school by using the words responsible,
respectful, and safe. Next we had to proof read our writing pieces. Finally we illustrated our themes. We had
to draw a picture of Horton and a picture of ourselves interacting with our themes. Come to the Bridgewater
school to see our writing pieces! Hope you like them!
Math BVS will sponsor our 7th St. Jude's Math-a-thon on Friday, January 15 through
Corner Friday, January 29. Students will receive math booklets to complete and get pledges
with or donations; the money may be handed in by February 10 or sooner. St. Jude's
appreciates all the time and effort that we have put into this event. There will be more
Mrs. information coming to you in January 2010. If you have any question please contact
Redington Mercy Grinold or Theresa Redington. Thanks for your time and cooperation.
!
The Essential

Music
Mrs. Bender
We are excited about our upcoming concert on Thursday,
December 10th at 6:30pm. Please have your children at the
school by 6:15pm, dressed in their best clothes. The sixth
graders may have some dance outfits to bring along as well.
We will be performing the musical "Willy Wonka and the
Chocolate Factory" this spring. I'm very excited about putting together another musical, and would love
to have volunteers to help. Let me know if you are interested! We will begin rehearsals in January, and
the performances will be Thursday, April 9th, and Friday, April 10th, both at 6:30pm.
We will participate in the District Music Festival again this year. The festival will be held on Thursday,
April 2nd. All students, grades 4-6, are invited to sing or play an instrument in the festival. I will send
home a form to fill out if your student is interested in participating.
I am involved with a Kid's Revels Chorus called World of Song. This chorus meets on Mondays after
school at the Pomfret School for 8 weeks beginning at the end of January. We will be learning
Appalachian music and dance, and performing at the end of March with three other Kid's Revels choruses
in the Upper Valley. This opportunity is open to everyone. We'd love to have your children sing with us!

Spanish
Mrs. Leibly
Spanish classes have gotten off to a quick start this year. Classes
in all grade levels begin with a brief question and answer period
in Spanish, with questions such as how are you? What is your
name? How old are you? What is your favorite color? These
questions help measure how much spoken Spanish the students understand, and most students are able to
answer in Spanish. Beginning this trimester, students in the fifth and sixth grades will focus on answering
in complete sentences, in Spanish.
In addition to the oral questions, fifth and sixth grade classes begin with a short reading, also in
Spanish, of no more than five sentences, which they must translate into English. Students then share the
strategies used to arrive at their translation.
Kindergarteners have learned some Spanish greetings, numbers up to ten, colors, and parts of the body.
First and second graders have reviewed/ learned numbers 1-20, colors, parts of the body, and family
members.
Third and fourth graders have reviewed/ learned numbers 1-20, begun numbers 20-100, colors, and parts
of the body.
Fifth and sixth graders have reviewed/ learned numbers 1-20, learned numbers 20-100, colors, parts of
the body, clothing, some question words, and calendar words.
 The Essentials
Art
Ms. Trimpi
We have been very busy in the Art room. Sixth graders decorated bowls at the beginning of the year for an
Empty Bowl event that was held at the Pomfret Town Hall on November 8th. Many people attended to listen to
Bridgewater students singing while enjoying their soup in support of hunger prevention. It was great to see the
students so involved and proud of their work!
Some money was given to support the arts across the district, and I decided to spend it on knitting and weaving
supplies. I was able to purchase needles, kitting hoops, corking, and needle felting supplies. However, money
ran out before I could purchase yarn. If you have any yarn or would like to donate newly purchased yarn to the
art room, we would greatly appreciate anything you could give. My hope is to begin a knitting/textile club for
the students to be held on Wednesdays during their lunch recess time to start after the Holiday recess.
The Holidays are fast upon us and we will be working like elves to create small sculptural pieces at all grade
levels. We look forward to displaying our work for the upcoming Holiday show. See you all there, and all the
best in the Holiday Season.
It is a pleasure working with your kids!

Library News
With Mrs. Vaughn
Our fifth and sixth grade students are very eager to read from the latest Dorothy
Canfield Fisher award list. The books are so popular most of these new acquisitions
can’t be kept on the shelf. The list contains fantasy, suspense and mystery as well as
nonfiction.
The upper grades have had practice on using the encyclopedia and the atlas the first part
of the year. They have done research on famous places in the world. Sixth graders are
now finishing a brief study of ancient alphabets to compliment their classroom unit on
ancient civilizations.
The younger students have been introduced to some
of the 2009-2010 Red Clover picture books. One book, Sandy’s Circus by
Tanya Lee Stone, is an interesting biography of the sculptor, Alexander Calder.
Calder created miniature movable circus characters before he became a world
famous artist known for his huge mobiles and stabiles. There is a video of
Calder working his circus creations on youtube, which I showed to the
students.
Parents - Thank you for helping your young children to remember their library
books each Monday.
! Thank you to Nelson Lee for the donation of National Geographic’s The World
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& All That Is In It.