City/Country Skype Date

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As we were studying the regions of the United States we discovered that it is easy to go from an urban environment to a rural environment in just a matter of hours. This is especially true here in the Northeast. We are just a matter of hours from cities like Boston, Montreal, New York, and Philadelphia where life is very different from the quiet pace of Vermont.

Our class decided to take a closer look at what life is like in a city. We chose Philadelphia because Mrs. Eaton used to live and teach there before moving to Vermont. We read books, looked at pictures and watched a video about life in Philadelphia. Then we developed questions that we were wondering about Philly and sent them to a second grade teacher at the school where Mrs. Eaton used to teach. St. Peter's School is a small private school in the heart of downtown Philadelphia. The second graders at SPS also had questions for us to answer about what it is like to live in Vermont. All of the students spent time answering the questions and them we got to hear the answers live on Skype on Thursday morning!

We found out that there are many differences in our lives. The students at St. Peter's School wear uniforms and eat lunch in their classroom because they don't have a cafeteria. They play in parks because their yards are very small and they couldn't imagine having a snow day because it was too cold! We also had a lot of similarities like what we are learning about in school and especially the types of games that we like to play at recess.

As the students said, it was "awesome" to be able to see the students live in front of us with the help of Skype. What an amazing learning tool for the students and teachers too! We can't wait to chat with more people near and far in the months to come!

Team Explorations and Events

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This week was the start of a new Synergy Tradition-The Morning Mixer. As the winter months begin to set in we have set aside two mornings a week for students to explore in the four different classrooms of our team. These mornings are an opportunity for the students to engage in different activities with not just our classmates, but our teammates as well. As you can see from the photo collage it was a great way to start off the morning.

With this same idea in mind, we are also designating the third Thursday of each month as a Synergy Spirit Day. Each month will have a different theme. We have added each spirit day to the Synergy Calendar on the webpage. Next Thursday will be our first one and the theme is Hat Day!

On Tuesday we got down and dirty as we investigated animals that live in the dirt in our Four Winds Nature Workshop. The students got to learn about worms and other dirt dwellers and even got the chance to handled some of them up close. It was amazing to see just how many of these critters are right in our garden at school.

On Friday we had a once in a lifetime celebration for one minute when it was 11:11 am on 11/11/11! Check out the photo in the collage. We had to pose very quickly before the moment was gone and it was on to 11:12. :)

Crafty Kids

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We began the week with a bang by celebrating the end of our October Unit of Study in Writing with Miss Kate's class. We told them all about the components of a Small Moment story and shared our writing pieces with them. Then we enjoyed a fun afternoon of crafts brought to us by our awesome parent volunteers. It was a great way to start the week off!

With the new month comes new units of study in literacy. In Reading this month we have all chosen a character in a series to study. We will be looking at character traits and developing theories about characters that help us to understand our books more deeply. In Writers Workshop we are learning about the art of revision and how we can add to our writing pieces to make them even stronger through the use of powerful words, dialogue and peer editing.

We ended the week with our first Friday Workshops in Synergy House. We gathered together to hear students recognize each other for being safe, kind and responsible and then headed off to create art, build with blocks, explore with IPads and get our bodies moving outside. A great end to a busy week!