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Newsletter 5/12/21

Thank You PTF

The staff were celebrated in style all week! On Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the PTF provided breakfast or lunch…homemade and delicious! On Tuesday, Holly Eaton  used the new outdoor classroom space to give staff members greatly needed and more greatly appreciated chair massages. On Friday,  a movie for the staff that included personalized statements and words of thanks from the students. Rarely are there opportunities for students to tell the staff how they really feel about school and the adults who guide, serve, and teach them. The comments for the most part were presented exactly as they were stated and the old adage is true: kids really can and do say the darnedest things and they love the adults in this school!

Updates 

Clean up day– Mulch and gravel have been delivered to the school for the annual school green-up day. Families and community members came together on Saturday to spruce things up: this includes mulching the orchard, leveling out the court yard for the outdoor classroom, planting flowers, and weeding gardens.

Roseanna’s Readers– Rosanna McFarland’s family visited to distribute birthday books in her honor for the months of February, March and April.  We also had a donation from the Sherman/McFarland family towards the Rosanna’s Readers books. This donation was from Mrs. Courtot.  Her birthday fundraiser on FB was to donate to Rosanna’s Reader’s.  The donation totaled $270!!!

Freethy Brook Hike– Mrs. Bebell and her 5th and 6th grade students  walked along the brook behind the school all the way to the ocean. Permission to walk on Brooklin residents’ property was approved and  they set off Friday morning.

GSA visit- The 8th grade students will finally get a chance to visit their future high school campus. On Wednesday, May 26 at 8:00 the six soon-to-be-graduates will visit GSA for the morning.

Spring Sports Update

Currently, we have 13 students in grades 3-8 who are on our spring sports team. Students practice after school Monday through Friday and are preparing for three friendly, non-competitive match-ups with Sedgwick. The teams will meet for a soccer match in Sedgwick at 2:00 this week; they will race against each other on Sedgwick cross-country course on May 21st at 2:00 and meet one final time for a round robin basketball tournament on May 28th at 2:00.

MEA/NWEA Testing Updates

This year, there is new pilot MEA science test for students in grade in 5 and 8. The test is three one-hour sessions and will be administered on May 18-20. The end of year math and ELA NWEAs will be given to all students in grades K-8 during the week of May 24. The growth data will be available for the June Board meeting.

8th Grade Graduation Proposal

8th grade graduation will be held on June 15th at 6:00. This will take place in gym and be by invitation only. After much discussion, and the inability to find a rentable tent in the state of Maine, we decided that the risk of rain, cold, ticks,  and mosquitos was not worth the trouble of planning an outdoor event.

Curriculum Updates

Kindergarten mathematicians continued to work towards mastery of counting the ten way,  showed and  answered how many? questions with up to 20 objects and enjoyed learning how to play an all class “high / low” card game together with the first graders.

Pre-K mathematicians were able to demonstrate mastery of 1:1 correspondence with objects and numerals from 0-10, and continue to love to play 1,2,3 POP UP! Pre-K students are working on numeral formation with playdough, pattern blocks, chalkboards and good old fashioned pencil and paper.
Pre-K and Kindergarten students have loved bringing books to the little courtyard for “Love A Book”. Our wonderful PTF funded “just the right sized” camp chairs that the students love setting up and using. We are planning to take a hike on the nature trail, and students are eager to carry their own little chairs with them!
We visited Mrs. Baird to learn about the eggs that she and her class will be hatching. We were interested to see eggs be “candled” and we will be learning more about the chicken’s life cycle. Pre-K and K students love learning about life cycles and the natural world around them, so many of our literacy lessons and classroom guided reading books are chosen based on student interests.
1st and 2nd
This week in first and second grade we started our egg unit! We began by watching some videos of the chicken life cycle and reading some nonfiction picture books about chicks and eggs. We also read a beautiful fictional story about a girl raising chicks, and she learns a bit about the circle of life in the process. Then, we turned on the incubator, candled our eggs and saw the yolk and the air cell, numbered them, and put them in the incubator! We will continue the fun for the next two and a half weeks until we have little fluffy chicks! Our writing has gone along with what we are learning about chicks as well.

This week in math the second graders worked on adding and subtracting three digit numbers and using the strategies they have learned and checking their work with the standard algorithm. They also explored a few new math games online. The first grade worked on identifying halves and quarters of circles and rectangles. They also explored telling time to the half an hour. They also explored a new math website.

ELA
3/4 ELA – We finished up our unit of study on the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Nation.  This was a unit that focused on reading and understanding nonfiction text, taking notes, and using those notes and graphic organizers to develop paragraphs in response to writing prompts.  Each day I witness 3rd graders becoming more like beginning 4th graders and 4th graders becoming more like beginning 5th graders.  They are all working so hare!

5/6 ELA – Students have nearly completed The Invention of Hugo Cabret.  They have also nearly completed their first drafts of their Ellen Writing stories, which has been a year-long endeavor.
7/8 ELA – Students have nearly completed reading and discussing To Kill a Mockingbird.  We have been impressed by Harper Lee’s ability to develop each character in a unique way.
Math
3rd grade math – We continue our work with fractions doing a lot of hands on work. We have fraction manipulatives and are working on understanding how they compare to each other.

4th grade math – We are also continuing our work with fractions.  We are looking at equivalent fractions and determining which fractions are bigger based on how close they are to 1/2.  We are doing a lot with our new fraction manipulatives.
5th grade We continue work with mixed numbers and fractions.
6th grade math – The students finished up the unit on expressions and started working on equations. This is the foundation for algebra and they’re doing a great job with it.
7th grade math- The students did a quick unit on finding the surface area of a variety of 3D shapes.
8th grade math –  Group A worked with scatterplots. Group B continued their work with the Pythagorean theorem.
Super Studies
3/4 Super Studies

This week, students continued studying the history and geography of Canada. They demonstrated their understanding by writing a story from the perspective of a fictional settler, Mountie, or indigenous person in history. During Forest Friday this week, we drew pictures of the flowers blooming around school and made soundscapes (drawings of the sounds we hear in nature).
5/6 Super Studies
This week we started learning about our mascot namesake – the Vikings! Students have been reading about the history of the Vikings and are intrigued by connections to them here on the coast of Maine. We also made time for some gardening this week and planted peas, with the help of Lisa DePasqual. We are testing two different types of row covers to see which one does a better job speeding up germination and early growth. The most exciting part of our week, though, was our Freethy Brook hike on Friday! After months of planning, we hiked the length of Freethy Brook from the school nature trail to Wells Cove. It was a perfect day for a hike.- gorgeous weather and no bugs! Thanks to Allison Watters and Josh Guyot for joining us on the hike.
7/8 Super Studies
The students continued working on their Samantha Smith Challenge project by learning more about substance abuse and addiction. They also hosted a Zoom visit from Rob Shetterly, artist who created the Americans Who Tell the Truth series, and Connie Carter, coordinator of the Samantha Smith Challenge. 8th graders are also busy with end of year preparations and worked on their presentation to the school board about their various activities and plans.
Music

Pk/K – This week in music classes we learned the last bit of our song One Small Voice and sang the song all the way through. We also sang through Dip and Sway. We are excited to make a recording for our families to see. We played some fun action songs for the end of class.

1/2 – This week in music class we finished learning our song One Small Voice and sang through the whole song. We sang through Dip and Sway as well. We are excited to make a recording for our families to see. We played some fun action songs on the ukulele to end class.

3/4 – This week in music we learned to play the Am chord on Ukulele. We played through our song Colors Over You and started learning to play the song Don’t Forget to Sing. We are excited to make a recording for our families to see.

5 – 8 – We worked on our Greatest Showman music and started breaking down some of the more difficult parts. We spoke through the whole song in rhythm to make sure that the faster more wordy parts of the song were completely understood by us. We are making great progress. We are excited to make a recording for our families to see.

5/15          9 AM                                  Town Meeting in school gym

5/20-5/11                                             Dutch Soccer

5/21         2 PM                                   Cross Country at Sedgwick

5/26     7:25-12:30 PM                      8th grade visit GSA

5/28         10AM                                 Volleyball game Students vs Staff

2 PM                                  Basketball Game at Sedgwick

5/31                                                     Holiday—No School

 

6/4           8 AM                                  Coffee Social

9:30 AM                            5K Fun Run

6/14                                                     Beach Day (rain date 16th)

6/15          6 PM                                   Graduation

6/17                                                     Field Day

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