Dear President McCartney,
We’re very happy to have you visit our school.
We’re new at Smith College Campus School, just like
you’re new at Smith College! If you look into our
rooms, you will see that they are very orange. That’s
because we went to the Great Pumpkin Patch and
picked our own pumpkins. Now we’re learning all about
them. Did you know that the stem of a pumpkin is
called a peduncle?
Please come visit us again!
Love,
Group J and Group N Kindergarteners
Dear President McCartney: Welcome to our school! We are so glad you are visiting our school. We have been studying trees, leaves, fungi, and ants. In math, we have been learning about geometry. Ms. Cowing, our student teacher, is our VIP. See you outside on campus. Sincerely, Group H Dear President McCartney, Welcome to the Campus School! We are so glad that you have come to visit. We have been very busy learning about the forest and insects in Science, developing strategies to solve story problems and exploring geometric shapes in Math, and becoming poets in Writing Workshop! Do you like poetry too? Our mentor poet this week is Langston Hughes and our pocket poem is ‘The Dream Keeper”. Here is a copy just for you, because everyone should always have a poem close to their heart. We hope to see you again soon! Love, Group D Dear President McCartney, Welcome to our community! We are second graders in Group R. We do lots of math, reading and writing. We have studied different kinds of naturalists. Some naturalists are scientists. Some naturalists change the way people think by coming up with new ideas from their observations. Some naturalists are artists. Some naturalists are musicians. We are the school recyclers, and we think it is important to take care of the Earth by recycling. Did you know that Smith students help us go around and collect recycling? Some Smith students are our teachers. They also help us with our reading. They take us out to recess and read to us during lunch. Right now, we are reading James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. Enjoy visiting our school! Group R Dear President McCartney, Hello! Welcome to Smith College and S.C.C.S.! We are glad to have you as our new president, and we are excited you are here! In our class, we are studying rivers and how they flow. We took a walk to Paradise Pond and the path along the Mill River to take photographs. Then, we used our photographs to help us study the river when we got back in our classroom. We’re glad to be so close to the Smith College campus to be able to get there easily. If you visit our classroom, you might be able to see some of our photographs and read what we wrote about them. We would also like to tell you about some other things we are doing in Group C like: learning about different kinds of numbers, learning to write cursive, reading The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, being thoughtful, active readers, and learning about learning. We’d be happy to answer any questions you might have about these things and anything else you might see in our classroom. Thank you for visiting our school, Group C-­‐3 Dear President McCartney,
Welcome to the Campus School! Congratulations on
becoming the new president of Smith College! We are
happy you are here to visit us.
In Group M, we are studying rivers. We went on a walking
trip along the Mill River on campus grounds to learn more
about rivers. We are growing theories about how rivers flow.
We just finished Unit 1 in math, learning about 10 facts,
making $1.00 and facts that are close to 100. We are
reading, writing and learning cursive. We started homework
this week, too!
We work with lots of students from Smith in our classroom.
We love the Smith College Campus School! We hope
you enjoy working in the Smith College community.
Sincerely,
Group M
Dear President McCartney,
Group W is excited to give you a “Campus School Hello.”
Welcome to our school, and welcome to Smith College. In
fourth grade we are learning about the continent of South
America. We feel fortunate to have access the Palm Room at
the Lyman Conservatory to aid in our research of the
rainforest. Every student in our class has selected a South
American country to study closely. During our Writers'
Workshop we have been crafting reports to share our
knowledge. Our student teacher, Ms. Kimata, and another
Smith student help us with getting our ideas down. Enjoy
your visit!
Sincerely, W4
Dear President McCartney,
Welcome to Smith and to the Smith College Campus School! We feel so fortunate to
have an expert in early childhood education at the helm.
If you come into our room, you will see that we are in the middle of a rain forest project
(the Smith Botanical Garden has been extremely helpful), a South America study, and a
data unit. In order to learn we think, read, question, draw, write, practice, observe, and
imagine.
You are welcome here any time. Thank you for visiting our corner of the Smith world.
Sincerely,
Group G
Dear President McCartney,
We’re glad to welcome you to our school and we hope you
get a chance to come into our classroom. If you do, we’ll be
studying how authors develop the plot of their books. (Your
visit would be part of the Exposition of our relationship!) If you
don’t have time for that, look for our heraldic shields in the hall.
We’ve been studying Medieval Europe.
Group L5
Dear President McCartney,
We wish we could be here to welcome you in person and we hope you enjoy your time at
SCCS. We are presently in the wilds of New Hampshire at Nature's Classroom with our
Group O classmates (class of 2014!) N.C. is an environmental education program with
many community building activities and we are here for a week.
Before leaving we completed 5 weeks of our Simple Machines unit, which had us
building elaborate models of simple and compound machines with lego kits. We also
recently completed a study of a complex system - a straw launcher with 6 different
variables. We're on the final drafts of our own short stories, which were assigned to
complement our study of short stories and literary elements including characterization,
point of view and theme. Our math work linked up with our Straw Launcher unit since it
is all about graphing, analyzing and interpreting data.
Even though we're not in the classroom we hope you can get at least a small sense of
what our school experience is like from the room environment. We look forward to
meeting you when you visit again.
Warmly,
Group T
Dear President McCartney,
Welcome to the Music Room. In this room, the Chorus
learned the song that they sang for your Inauguration.
Students in Grades K-6 come here to sing, dance, listen, and
play instruments. Many of our songs relate to things we are
studying in our classrooms as well as songs for Seasons and
special Holidays. We use these songs to help us learn about
how music works as we examine such things as Melody,
Rhythm, Form, Harmony, and Timbre. The orchestra
rehearses in this room, and practices are held for the Plays,
Assemblies, Concerts, and Talent Show. We wish you a life
filled with music and the joy that making music can bring.
Sincerely,
Cindy Naughton
and her students in Grades K-6
Dear President McCartney,
Congratulations on your inauguration as president
of Smith College! We are so inspired by you
looking at the world through the eyes of a child,
because every day in the art studio we do that very
thing. This is a place for exploration and
inventing! Today one first grade class is going to
be constructing a giant tree out of clay so that
they can transform a very inorganic space outside
their window. The other first grade class is
beginning to build a gigantic scale nest of ants, so
that they can imagine and act out the daily lives of
ants in an ant colony.
Dear President McCartney,
Welcome to our physical education program and welcome to Smith College! We are so
happy you are our new president, especially because you really “get what it’s like to be a
kid!”
Students in Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade have begun learning how to perform skills in our
circus arts unit. We are busy learning how to juggle, spin plates, balance feathers, use
juggling sticks and spin diablos! Developing these skills require courage, perseverance and
lots and lots of practice! We can see our progress even though it is slow at times and we
know that we’ll get better if we keep practicing because practice makes you better at
whatever you do!”
Students in grades 3 through 6 have been developing skills used football. These include
throwing and catching, punting and place kicking. In addition, students have learned some
basic rules of football and participated in small group games. Sometimes learning these
skills can be challenging and students struggle with understanding the concepts associated
with a more complex game. We often share our experiences in groups and talk about
what’s “hard” and how we as a group can support each other and persevere.
We hope you enjoy your visit and welcome you to stop by our gym anytime!
Best,
Betsy Ducharme
Scott Messinger
¡Bienvenida Presidente McCartney! Welcome President McCartney! ¡Felicitaciones¡ Congratulations! Estamos emocionados para su visita a nuestra escuela. En la clase de español, We are excited for your visit to our school. In Spanish class estudiamos la cultura hispana y la lengua español. Cantamos, jugamos y we study Hispanic culture and the Spanish language. We sing, play and practicamos sostener unas conversaciones. También nos gusta leer libros en español. practice having conversations. We also like to read books in Spanish. President McCartney, Welcome to the Campus School!
In Technology classes we use technology as a tool to enhance
our learning: communicating ideas, gathering information and
programming. Some of us are currently designing and
programming robots, practicing keyboarding, using word
processors, or developing their own computer games.
If you stop in today, you will see second grade students
documenting what they saw on their field trip to the Recycling
Center in Springfield. They will be creating illustrations using a
paint program and adding informational text to share what they
learned.