December 13, 2024. Happy Holidays to each of you.

December 16-December 20 is going to be a very busy week here in school.

Monday – All kids in the school are invited to wear white tops if they would like. We are all going to make white snowflakes to decorate our classrooms for the winter season.

IMPORTANT- We will be having our Holiday Concert on Monday Evening. It will take place in our school gym. The kids will be singing 3 songs. Please arrive in our classroom that evening at 5:35. We will head down to the gym about 5:55 and the show begins at 6. When the show is over about 6:45 ish, the kids will line up with me and we will return to our classroom. You can pick up your kids from my class.

Tuesday- We will be learning about the African American Celebration of Kwanza. We will be given red bracelets from the Student Council and will be making construction paper mats, using a weaving technique, that can be used at the holidays under a festive food being served.

Wednesday- We will be learning about Hanukkah. We will read about the origin of Hanukkah and will play the Dreidel Game.

Thursday- We will be allowed to wear holiday pajamas and will be watching the Polar Express with our 3rd grade peers.

Friday- There will be a fun run at 8:30, followed by a community meeting in the gym. We will be making Christmas cards for family and friends and we will be dismissed for our Christmas Holiday break at 12noon.

November 21, 2024

Hello Families,

I hope all is well with each of you. It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week.

We went to the Martha’s Vineyard Museum and learned all about life of the Wampanoags of Massachusetts and Pilgrims when they first arrived here. The kids were able to touch artifacts, look at photographs and diagrams, and hear a presentation about what life was like. We have been discussing what a day would be like for a man, a woman, and a child in both cultures. We are completing our unit by creating shadow boxes of that time period. These will be hung up on our hallway bulletin board. We will send them home just before Christmas.

In Math – We have worked our way up to multiplying by 6 and by 7. We have learned that quickest way to solve a multiplication problem is to use a “count by” method. If I am multiplying 6 x 5 I can solve it by counting, 5-10-15-20-25-30 (which is 6 groups of 5.)

In Gardening- We had a great time going to the Island Grown Farm property to pick carrots from their large pasture of carrots. The kids were so fast at their jobs. They took great joy trying to figure out who found the largest carrot. It was determined we picked about 200 pounds if I remember accurately. When we came back to school that day, Maggie our garden teacher taught us how to make hummus with our carrots.

In Writing- We have been working on all of the components of a good writing piece. Our focus has been on enhancing our lead in a story, transitions, word choice, dialogue, spelling, and punctuation. It has been fun to see the kids change a line in their stories from something like “It was a good day” to “It was a great day, the sun was shining, and I felt great.”

Please hold this date- Our holiday concert will be at 5:00 pm on Monday Dec. 16th. The kids have been practicing some really cute songs for you.

I hope you enjoy Thanksgiving with your families.

Pam

October 31, 2024

Hello Families. Happy Halloween to those of you who celebrate this holiday. There will be no homework tonight due to the fact that many children will be out trick or treating. Have fun and be safe.

Important Information- The kid’s have a permission slip in their backpack. We are scheduled to visit the Martha’s Vineyard Museum on Tuesday November 5th. We will be learning about Wampanoag Life and Early English Settlers in the 1600’s.

Math- We have begun working on multiplication. The kids are so excited. We have learned about multiplying by the numbers 0, 1, and 2. We are also working on counting by 1 (easy) and 2’s (2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24)

Writing- We are continuing our personal narrative writing pieces. This week we talked about being specific about small moments in a story. A trip to a Zoo could be a major topic, seeing the animals is a bit more specific and feeding the goats is a very specific part of my trip to the zoo. I then would write all about how I feed the goats.

Reading- The kids are devouring books. They are all slowly starting to expand the types of books that they enjoy reading. I find it so sweet to see them curled up in a corner of the room reading their books.

Upcoming Events- I will send a permission slip home next week for an upcoming trip we have for going to a local farm to pick excess potatoes or carrots. This trip will occur on Wednesday November 15. Please wear boots on that day.

I hope you all get out this weekend and enjoy this beautiful weather.

Thanks, Pam

October 3, 2024

Hello Families,

Reminders- There will be no school on Friday October 11th due to a teacher’s professional development day. Please enjoy your long weekend.

Upcoming Events We will be going to Felix Neck on October 21st. We will be learning about pond life. Winter boots or rubber boots will be great clothing items to wear on that day.

What we are learning- In Math we have been working on finding the difference (subtracting 2 digit and 3 digit numbers). We have been using a total- part/part strategy to determine the answer.

What we are learning – In Language Arts we are on Week 2 of our Solving Problems Unit. We have been focusing on how we can learn from others.

What we are learning- In Writing we are working on personal narratives, which are true stories about ourself. We are trying to be very detailed in our writing, which gives our reader a clear picture of our story.

We have been asked to have the kids names put on their lunch boxes, coats and water bottles. Once an item is lost it goes to our lost and found. Without names we have no way or returning the item to the owner.

Have a great weekend. Pam

September 26, 2024

Hello Families,

We have had a wonderful first few weeks of school. I have really enjoyed seeing some of my old kindergarten friends from a few years ago as well as my new 3rd grade friends. Our focus over the past few weeks has been going over classroom procedures, usage of materials, learning our schedule and meeting new staff members. We also have been assessing your children’s skills in the area of math, reading and writing. We will use this information to direct our teaching. All lessons are designed to meet each child where they are at.

We have introduced our Magnetic Reading Program our Tang Math Program and our Lucy Caulkins’ UP The Ladder Writing Program to the kids. The kids seem really excited to work on each of these programs. All of the programs involve small group, large group and individual practice components. During parent conferences in a few weeks I will walk you through these programs so that you have sense of what are lessons look like each day. Our conferences will last about 20 minutes each.

I will be scheduling field trips to the Martha’s Vineyard Museum as well as in class speakers from the Museum, over the next few weeks. We will be learning about Native Americans and the Pilgrims passage to Plymouth and the Puritan’s visit to the area 10 Years later.

I will be updating this website each Thursday afternoon. I will include what we have learned, what we are about to learn, new things that our happening in our class, projects that we are working on and in general the fun and cool stuff that Mrs. Hurley’s class does each day.

Please know that you can contact me by email at phurley@mvyps.org. I check my email multiple times a day. My last check of my email is around 2:20 each afternoon.

I look forward to working with you and your child this year. Pam Hurley


August 2024

I can’t wait to meet each of you. I want to learn about things that you are interested in and things you want to learn more about. We will be a class team. We will begin the year with lots of fun activities that will help us get to know each other.

Here is a little information about me. I have 11 brothers and sisters. I grew up in Cambridge MA, which is a city right next to Boston. I live in Edgartown with my husband Mike and my two children Colin and Rita. We have 2 pet guinea pigs named Lilly and Smores.

Ms. Linda Wanamaker will be my assistant this year. This will be our fourth year working together. She loves to read stories and she is passionate about horses.

I want to say welcome to the second floor of our school. I know you are going to love it.

The supplies you will need this year will be 1 pencil box (you’re welcome to use ones from previous years), 1 package of black dry erase markers thick ones called chisel tip I believe and 2 packages of 12 colored pencils. I have everything else you need. You do not need to have these supplies by the first day of school, any time during September works.

The best way to reach me is through my email at phurley@mvyps.org. I check my email often and I also check it at 2:00 p.m. each day to see if there’s any changes to the kid’s dismissal plans.

Can you please email me to let me know what your child’s plans are for coming and going to school each day. You can reach me at phurley@mvyps.org

Can you also let me know if I have your permission to include your email address in a full class email list. This will allow me to contact you all with updates about our class.

Our specialist schedule is as follows

Monday- Health Tuesday-Music and Technology Wednesday- Gardening and Gym (sneakers needs for both of these lessons) Thursday- Art and Gym

Friday- Library

Snack- Please send a snack and water bottle with your child each day. Fruit is always available if you would prefer your child to have that from the cafeteria each day. It is helpful when the kids water bottles are not super large.

Over the next few weeks, I will be sending you more information about this school year. For now, continue to enjoy the rest of your summer. Mrs. Hurley and Ms. Wanamaker

phurley@mvyps.org