The Haiku Decks Are Finally on Our Kid Blogs!

After much trial and error I finally have the Haiku Deck presentations the kids made at the end of our unit on Mexico posted on their Kid Blogs! Haiku Deck is a free app that allows people to easily create beautiful slideshow presentations. The kids in our class worked on iPads using the app to create presentations showing some of their learning related to the essential question from our country study unit, which was, "How is our country alike and different from another country?" The presentations came out very well and the kids are really proud of them so please visit your child's blog, look at their presentation, and leave a comment! They check their blogs regularly at school and are always very excited to have new comments. The kids asked me to upload the Haiku Decks to my blog as well so that they will be archived so I am adding them here too (but please check them out additionally on the kid's blogs so you can leave comments for them).


Mexico Torren - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Mustafa - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Hannah - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Laila - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Mackenzie - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Damian - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Garrett - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Jaylee - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Trevor - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Sydney - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Melanie - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Vito - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Zoe - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Dylan - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Longshore - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Lily - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Grant - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Parker Mexico - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Nabeeha - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Mexico Maura - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Rishon Mexico - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Budget Vote Information

The Colchester School District budget vote is June 3, 2014, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

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Is your total household income less than $90,000? If so, the tax increase associated with this proposed school budget would be $2.38 or less; learn more in the flyer.

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Please click here for a two-page informational flyer with information about the proposed budget, or please click the image below to access the complete document. It includes information about your schools as well as important tax-related information.

For questions about the budget or for any additional information, please call our administrative offices at (802) 264-5999 or visit www.csdvt.org/budget.

Please vote on June 3!

What do I do if I can’t get to the polling station during those hours?

• Absentee ballots are available by request; simply call the Town Clerk’s Office at (802) 264-5520 to request a ballot.
• Voting can also be done at the Town Clerk’s Office from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.

Where are the polling stations?

District 9-1 (comprised of the area east of I-89, the west side of I-89 north of the Malletts Creek inlet, and excluding the south side of Blakely Road) is at the Colchester Meeting House on 830 Main Street in Colchester Village.

District 9-2 (comprised of the area west of I-89 south of the Malletts Creek inlet, including the south side of Blakely Road) is at Colchester High School on 131 Laker Lane (off Blakely Road).

Farewell chicks!

We had so much fun hatching chicks in class but now they are headed back to the farm at UVM! Here is a photo of all of the first grade chicks together on their way home. This afternoon they will get to experience life on the farm. Farewell chicks!

Chick Quadrammas

Here are some photos of the kids working on their chick life cycle Quadrammas today. The white parts are made with Crayola Model Magic and the kids will color their hen and chick on Tuesday once the Model Magic has dried.

Chick Celebration

This afternoon first grade classrooms had chick celebrations before sending the chicks back to the UVM farm. We worked on a quadramma project, making a 4-part display showing the stages of the chick's life cycle. We also had lots of family members join us in class to see the work we were doing and to meet our chicks. Each student posed with a chick for a photo and I am including those photos below. Please let me know if you have trouble getting saving the photo of your child from the slideshow and would like me to email you a copy! On Tuesday we will be able to finish our quadrammas (we had to let them dry today) and bring them home along with the "All About Chicks" books that students made. Students will bring their lapbooks full of learning from the unit home next week after we wrap everything up next week.

Free picture slideshow personalized with Smilebox

Chick Pics

I have compiled all of our chick photos taken thus far using the great app pic collage and here are the chick pics! The first one shows photos from when the chicks first moved from the incubator to the tank and are still a bit wet. The others were taken throughout the week. We have had so much fun watching the chicks and hope you enjoy our photos too! 

The Hatch!

I am finally ready to post our chick photos (I took all the photos with my iPad and have had to find a way to post such a large number of photos efficiently because it works differently on the iPad than the computer)! These two collages show photos of pipped eggs (eggs with the first hole poked through) and the process of one of our chicks hatching.

Budget Vote Message

Below I am copying a message from the Colchester School District Spotlight Blog. Please read it, pass on the information, and personally encourage all of the families and other Colchester residents you know to make sure they come out and vote on the school's upcoming budget proposal. Getting as many people as possible to vote is so important to the future of our schools! Stay tuned for information on when the next vote will take place.

In March, voters went to the polls and defeated a 4.29 percent school budget increase. The school board reduced the budget by $442,744 and put forth a 3.09 percent increase (that would increase property taxes by 3.692 percent). Last week, that budget proposal was defeated as well. Now, as we struggle to find more places to cut, I thought it would be helpful to point out some other numbers that matter.

Our budget represents the vision that our community and school created for our students. It is built around community engagement, innovative teaching and learning, and success for all students. Our vision states that our schools achieve success when they are in partnership with our community. But in our community of approximately 11,000 registered voters, barely 2,000 came out to vote. That number matters.

Many times we’re reminded that Colchester’s per-pupil spending ($12,043) is lower than the state average ($12,789); however, our achievement on standardized tests is higher(statewide: 53 percent proficient/Colchester: 72 percent proficient). Statewide, school enrollment is decreasing, but Colchester kindergarten enrollments are at a ten-year high. Our classroom student-to-teacher ratio pushes the top end of Vermont quality standards at around 22:1 in the lower grades and 24:1 in the upper grades. These numbers should matter as well.

Our educators are some of the best in the state and have been recognized regionallyand nationally for facilitating excellent learning. But more importantly, our students are achieving success both while in our schools and once they graduate and reach forcollege and career goals. For our students and educators to continue this success, we, as a community, must provide them the tools they need.

It’s easy to say no to numbers when every dollar increase puts more stress on our households and families. But we must remember that supporting our public education system is an investment in the future of our community. We each have a part to play to ensure that Colchester remains a great place to live and learn.

Field Day BBQ

Field Day 2014 is scheduled for June 9th at Airport Park and, as always, should be tons of fun for all! During field day we have a BBQ lunch at the park with times staggered so that two classes go up to get food at a time. Our class will eat at 11:20 and families are welcome to join us! Please make sure that you fill out and return the orange Field Day BBQ order form that went home last Friday so that we will have an accurate lunch count ahead of time and can order enough food for everyone. Hope to see you there!

Permission Slip Reminder

Please remember to send permission slips for the first grade bike field trip back to school tomorrow, Tuesday May 14!

One Week Until the Hatch!

Our chicken eggs have been in the incubator for 13 days now and a week from tomorrow we expect them to begin hatching! Today in class we candled the eggs again (shining a very bright light through the eggs to see what is happening inside) and at least 9 of our 12 eggs look promising. At this point in incubation we expect to see the majority of the egg looking quite dark when candled if the chick is growing well and getting bigger but if an egg is too clear we expect that it may not hatch. Only time will tell! We expect the chicks to hatch next Tuesday and they will be with us in the classroom for the rest of the week. On Friday afternoon between 2-3pm we will have a chick celebration where families are welcome to come to class to meet the chicks and see some of the work we have done learning about them. After school on Friday the chicks will head back to the farm at UVM! If you are free on Friday afternoon come pay us a visit in first grade!

Voting Today!

Have you—and all of the registered voters in your household—voted yet? Polls are open 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Pass it on, because every vote matters!

Vote Tomorrow!

Colchester residents, please remember to vote tomorrow between 7am to 7pm. The teachers and students all thank you!

Egg Turning

Today was day 6 on our egg hatch calendar in class! Fertilized chicken eggs take about 21 days to hatch and we in first grade are expecting our "due date" to be May 20. The day our eggs arrived Nurse Kelly helped us wash them then set them in the incubator. She also taught the class all about how to properly wash our hands before and after touching the eggs to keep both ourselves and the chick embryos safe from germs while we learn about them. Each day since, a pair of students has had the job of being our "official egg turners." A mother hen in a nest will turn her eggs several times each day to ensure that they embryo inside forms properly so, with the absence of a hen in our classroom, the students are taking turns rotating the eggs to help our chick embryos grow properly inside. The students have gotten very good at lifting the lid of the incubator just enough to turn the eggs carefully while still keeping most of the hot, moist air in (the incubator is 100 degrees inside). In photos below you will see the eggs being cleaned when we first got them as well as photos of the eggs in the incubator and some of our egg turners. The badges in the photos say "official egg turner," and "I turned and egg today, ask me how."

4 Winds

Last Thursday our two 4 Winds parent volunteers came to class and taught us a wonderful science lesson about squirrels! We learned about the different types of squirrels found where we live and were able to explore the foot prints, skulls, and pelts of squirrels and other animals we could compare and contrast them with. Lastly we had the chance to go outside and look for evidence of squirrels nesting, gathering food, or walking around the woods near our playground. Thank you to our two volunteers for taking the time to come in and teach us a great science lesson!

Haiku Deck

Our class is trying out a very cool app called Haiku Deck to create presentations showing some of our learning from our recent Mexico unit! First we reviewed our class' Venn diagram of similarities and differences between the United States and Mexico. Next the kids worked on story boards where they used a paper graphic organizer to write out what they want to put on each slide of their presentation. We also created a class example of a story board then used it to create a class example of a Haiku Deck Presentation so that kids would have an idea of what their final projects will look like. Tomorrow we plan to use the story boards to create individual Haiku Deck presentations showing  each student's work. We hope to embed these in each student's individual blog for everyone to see! Below are two photos of kids working on story boards as well as the Haiku Deck example we worked on together as a class.