Lost and Found

Inevitably items get lost at school.  If your child has lost something, they can check the large lost and found bin in the cafeteria.  If it's a small item (jewelry, electronics, etc.) they can check in with Mrs. Herman in the office.  It's always challenging when things get lost so a rule of thumb is, especially with expensive items, don't bring it to school or if you need to, leave it with your teacher or even in the office.

Camouflage

Students in Mrs. Clark's Science class spent time looking at the needs for some animals in our environment to be protected through camouflage. They learned about camouflage as one of the most widespread adaptations which increases an animal's ability to his itself from predators.





 As a culminating activity, small groups of students hid fish around the school.  There's one in each photo here.  Can you find all three?









Around 35 fish were hidden and if found by Mrs Clark, she placed a small sticker on the fish, to inform the students that she had located it.  She found almost 25 of the fish, but 10 eluded her!

Global Communication

Last week 10 excited 6th grade students attended a conference at UVM to learn about being a facilitator.  There were students from all around state as well as many adults. In addition, we had a virtual connection with a school in Nova Scotia, Senegal, and 2 schools in Puerto Rico.  This made for an exciting day for everyone.  Here are some snippets from the students after they returned, as well as a photo collage that one student created.

"I learned that working with people you have never met can be really awkward at some points, but it can also be really fun what's you get to know them a bit better."

"When you talk with your friends that you've know for 5-6 years, you learn nothing new. But when you talk with people you just met, you learn new opinions."

"In the student facilitator meeting we learned about what it takes to be a facilitator, and what is a facilitator.

In the meeting we did a chalk wall and everything that was written on the chalk walls was "How can I/We make this world better?  The second chalk wall was about "What do you think a facilitator does? "

"What is a facilitator?

A facilitator is someone that helps you along the way kind of like drawing way but not really telling you what to do.

How can you be a facilitator?

Share the stage

Confidence in others 

Inspire others 

Share the spot light."

PAML Goes to the Polls!

On Tuesday, November 4th the whole school walked to the town offices to vote in the state-wide and congressional mid-elections.  There were about 12 students from 6th grade that stayed through the entire process, and were in charge of helping guide the school through the polls.  They also worked with the town officials to count the ballots.  


A 6th grader's perspective of VOTING:
     
      I think that the voting process was a lot of work. In this process there was a lot math and numbers. We counted up all the votes when doing that you had to be really cautious when you are counting. You have to be cautious because if you mis-count one vote you most likely have to restart. I had to restart a few times because I mis-counted votes. There were lots of different steps when you were counting for example we had to transfer the votes onto two different packets of paper. 

     I thought it was cool how we got to do our mock election when the real election was going on. I think it was a good experience for PAML. I think that this was good to do because when kids talked to their parents to get information about the candidates it convinced some parents to vote, which is good.  
     The jobs of the 6th graders that helped were greeters which would guide people inside the building then take them out of the building when they were done voting, the check in people would sign people in with their last names and give them the ballets, and the runners would bring people to where they would vote. Then my job was to make sure every kid put their votes into the right place, give everyone a sticker that said they voted, then show them where they would go to get out of the voting room and meet the greeters to take them out of the building.

Abby - 6th grader

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A 6th grader's letter to me about the experience:

Dear Ms. Weeks,

          The voting experience was fun, but crowded. At points it was hard because we only had 4 voting booths and every grade was on top of each other. It was fun to learn about voting and the town office. I feel it's a good experience for students to learn about voting and their rights. We would take four to six people in at a time to vote, and we also had to tell them about the the voting.

          When a class got there we tell the teachers that they would take a certain amount of students in at a time. Next we take the students and tell them to be quite because other people were voting and working and to be respectful of the other people in the building. We would also tell them that once their done they would go to their home teams or TA's. It was mainly the 

8th graders and 5th graders who were noisy, but we always told them to quite down in a nice way. At points it got a little ruff when we had two grades and that meant taking more kids to the sign up an voting booths.

        Again it was a good experience to teach kids to vote. I think and hope that most students had a good time learning to vote. After the everybody voted be had to count the ballets and but them in piles of 25. Then we got a partner and a tally sheet for votes. We counted and kept track of each vote. We had about 220 ballets to count each vote. After we put all of the votes together and finished counting.

Sincerely,

Grace (6th grader)

Here are the PAML VOTING RESULTS - grade 5 - 8

Representative to Congress:  Peter Welch

Governor:  Peter Shumlin

Lieutenant Governor:  Phil Scott

State Treasurer:  Beth Pearce

Secretary of State:  Jim Condos

Auditor of Accounts:  Doug Hoffer

Attorney General:  William H. Sorrell

Regional Spelling Bee!

On Saturday, Nov. 1st, Lena, Lily, Edward and Tanner represented PAML in a regional team spelling competition held at F.H. Tuttle Middle School in South Burlington.  The PAML team competed against St. Albans City School and F.H. Tuttle.  What a nail-biter!  PAML took an early lead, dropped to a close second for most of the competition, and then came back to tie F.H. Tuttle as they headed into the last round, 104-104!  Our standing overall was a very close second place.  Our students remained composed, positive, and determined throughout the competition. A big congratulations to our super spellers!   

Exciting Events!

We had a wonderful Community Gathering on Friday afternoon, celebrating students and our school community for being Safe, Respectful, and Responsible.  Ms. Bachelor's Dance Expert performed at the gathering as well.  We celebrated fall sports athletes and students who taught Unbound courses this term.

On Thursday, three 8th graders attended the 4th Annual Rowland Conference at the Davis Center on the UVM campus.  These students listened to an inspiring Keynote speaker, Angela Duckworth, and in the afternoon they presented their digital portfolios to teachers from all around the state.  They made us proud with their poise and confidence!  Each of them had to present their portfolio 4 times!

Aiden, Wesley, and Lily at UVM

On Saturday, our top spellers attended the Regional Spelling Bee in South Burlington, Lily, Tanner, Lena, and Edward did stellar and came in a VERY close second to Tuttle Middle School.  This was an exciting day for these hardworking students.  Congratulations!

We had a shout-out to Maliah and Jade for volunteering to listen to kindergarten students read.  This was noted in the "CAPTIONS FROM KINDERGARTEN weekly letter.  Thanks girls, for helping our young students!

Today marks the beginning of the 2nd quarter.  We have a new receptionist in the office, please be sure to welcome Ms. Megan Herman when you call or stop in.